Are you a Chicken or are you an Eagle?

Good morning! For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Em Blattner and I am the youth pastor here at MPC. It is good to see you all this morning and I am excited to be here.

About 5-6 weeks ago I had a crisis. I was getting my things together to evacuate the house because of the fires we had and so I got all my important legal documents and sentimental items and left the house. After the fires were no longer a threat I was putting back my belongings in their designated places at home when I looked at all my identification documents.

I first looked at my Swiss passport, then my South African passport, then my South African I.D. book, then my Swiss drivers license, my German drivers license, my US drivers license, and then my US Social Security Card with the number: 552-42-…

Looking at these documents I started to ask myself, “Who am I?” In that moment I realized I was having an identity melt down. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that regardless of what these documents might say about me and about where I am from or who I am; it came to me that I am a child of God! I have an identity in Christ and belong to God’s family and am a citizen in His Kingdom.

The passage we are going to take a look at this morning really helped me through this time to realize that in Christ I have an identity, a future, and a purpose. It is not an identity based on documents rather it is an identity that is grounded in Christ and a relationship to God. If you have your Bible’s with you this morning please turn with me to        2 Corinthians 5:17-20.

2 Corinthians 5:17-20

This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!”

After reading this passage the first point I would like to make is:

1. In Christ you are a new creation (2Cor. 5:17)

What Paul is saying in this passage is that someone who is “in Christ” is a new person or creation. He is also clear that there is a transformation that occurs in order for someone to be a new creation, which is defined by a new life, or a new way of living. According to Paul “in Christ” is really a simple definition of someone who is a Christian. If a person is in a relationship with Christ and Christ lives in them, they are in essence “in Christ” and on the path to transformation.

The kind of transformation Paul refers to is one that makes you a new creation, you become someone totally different. Have you ever watched the show “Extreme Makeover”? I love how they go in and take a home of a family and completely transform it into something totally new. In some episodes they even demolish the house and build a completely new one. What you need to realize when you read this passage is that Paul is speaking about an Extreme Makeover of the heart where:

Love replaces hate --- Serving God replaces serving ourselves

Honesty replaces dishonesty --- Obedience replaces disobedience

Trust replaces distrust --- Acceptance replaces judgment

Thinking about the process of transformation and becoming a new creation one needs to consider that being in Christ also means living in a way that is worthy of your calling.

Paul puts this so clearly in Ephesians 4:1-3.

Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God. Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.

There is this amazing folk tale that will help me illustrate living out your calling. There once was a naturalist who was visiting a farmer one day and was surprised to see a beautiful eagle in the farmer’s chicken coop. "Why in the world, asked the naturalist, have you got this eagle living in with the chickens?"

"Well, answered the farmer, I found him when he was little and raised him in there with the chickens. He doesn’t know any better, he thinks he is a chicken." The naturalist was dumbfounded. The eagle was pecking the grain and drinking from the watering can. The eagle kept his eyes on the ground and strutted around in circles, looking every inch a big, over-sized chicken. "Doesn’t he ever try to spread his wings and fly out of there?" asked the naturalist. "No, said the farmer, and I doubt he ever will, he doesn’t know what it means to fly."

"Well, said the naturalist, "let me take him out and do a few experiments with him." The farmer agrees, but assured the naturalist that he was wasting his time. The naturalist lifted the bird to the top of the chicken coop fence and said "Fly!" He pushed the reluctant bird off the fence and it fell to the ground in a pile of dusty feathers. Next, the undaunted researcher took the ruffled chicken/eagle to the farmer’s hay loft and spread it’s wings before tossing it high in the air with the command "FLY!" The frightened bird shrieked and fell ungraciously to the barn-yard where it resumed pecking the ground in search of it’s dinner.

The naturalist again picked up the eagle and decided to give it one more chance in a more appropriate environment, away from the bad examples of chicken lifestyle. He set the docile bird on the front seat of his pickup truck next to him and headed for the highest butte in the country. After a lengthy and sweaty climb to the crest of the butte with the bird tucked under his arm, he spoke gently to the goldenbird. "Friend, he said, you were born to soar. It is better that you die here today on the rocks below than live the rest of your life being a chicken in a pen, gawked at and out of your element." Having said these final words, he lifted the eagle up and once more commanded it to "FLY!" He tossed it out in space and this time, much to his relief, it opened its seven-foot wingspan and flew gracefully into the sky. It slowly climbed in ever higher spirals, riding unseen thermals of hot air until it disappeared into the glare of the morning sun. The naturalist smiled and thought how happy he was with his days work. Like the eagle, he had for many years, let other people define his worth and direct his life for him. Like the eagle, it had taken a life and death situation for him to realize his self worth and real calling in life.

I think everyone can take something away from this story today. If we really think about it many of us might be living like chickens even though we are eagles. We might be running around in a coop even though God made us to soar.

This leads me to my second point:

2. In Christ you have been given a gift – reconciliation (2Cor. 5:18)

Concerning the folk tale I just told you, I would like for you to realize that through Christ we have been given this awesome gift and all we need to do is accept it. A lot of the time however we are running around in circles in the chicken coop and instead of spreading our wings and fulfilling our calling, we end up drinking from the watering can and pecking at the seed. Sometimes we just need to take some time to REALIZE what we have been given by God.

It is interesting that Paul says that our new lives in Christ and our restored relationships with God (reconciliation) are a gift from God. Do you notice in Extreme Makeover how no one does the project on their own? It is a gift, it is something given to a family which they would otherwise be unable to do themselves. We are unable to renovate our own hearts, only God can do this. What we can do ourselves is accept this gift and we can be “in Christ” and spend time growing in Him.

Fact is that everyone in this world has a relationship to God. Some people are closer to Him than others. There are those who are so distant from Him that they totally have shut God out of their lives and then there are those who have included God in all aspects of their lives. Everyone has a relationship to God though. And what we need to realize is that everyone needs to be reunited with God because sin separates us from God. Sin creates distance between us and God and alienates us from Him. And God has given us this awesome gift of reconciliation – bridging the gap. What we need to wrap our minds around today is that it is through Christ that God reconciled man to Him. This is what Paul is saying in this passage today.

Another thing Paul says in this passage is this:

3. In Christ you are an ambassador (2Cor. 5:20)

So looking back we have the first point for this morning: In Christ you are a new creation, God has renovated your heart and you are a new person, and the second point for today is: In Christ we have been given a gift of reconciliation – God has bridged the gap. Now my final point for this morning is: let’s be ambassador’s for Him.

An ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat or official who represents their country. Paul uses this word as a political word to explain our relationship to God and to the world. An ambassador is also someone who is given authority to act on behalf of the government and is often used to wield the power and authority of a county.

 Basically what Paul is saying here in this passage is 2 things:

1. We represent Christ and His kingdom here on this earth.

What we do and how we live matters because of this. The way people look at God and understand His kingdom is partly based on how well or how poorly we represent God.

2. Being a representative means we have a specific task.

If you look closely at the passage you will see that part of this job is to be used by God to bring people back to Him. But this becomes difficult if instead of being an eagle we continue being a chicken or instead of going out into the world we remain contained within a coop.

This morning I would like to ask you:

Who are you representing chickens or eagles? (SLIDE)

We were not meant to stay in the chicken coop. God wants us to go out and lead people back to Him. SO MPC, as you go out this morning go with the knowledge that God has bridged the gap between man and God, making it possible for us to be ambassador’s for Him – what an awesome gift and also an awesome responsibility.

AMEN.