Aaron Capito
This week's focus: who you are in Christ, not who the world says you are.
Students often define themselves by things that can change: friends, grades, interests, even how they feel about themselves. This week's message asked them to set those aside and ask a harder question: does who I think I am line up with who God says I am?
Passages: Ephesians 1:3-14
Paul opens Ephesians by blessing God for the blessings He has given us in Christ. Before he tells Christians what to do, he tells them who they are. Paul says God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, meaning before creation itself, God already had a purpose for His people.
To picture the size of that love, Aaron shared about his own dad, who worked full time in the military while his mom stayed home. Money was tight, but his dad quietly set some aside so the family could take vacations. His dad's sacrifice, made out of love, was a small picture of what God does for us on a far bigger scale. If we understand how much God has invested in us, we should give everything back to Him.
Paul says God predestined us for adoption, meaning He determined in advance, before the world began, that we would be brought into His family through Jesus. He didn't just think of us ahead of time. He saved us, and He did it for a reason: to be His hands and feet in the world. We weren't just saved to spend eternity with God. We were saved to serve Him now.
Aaron illustrated this with a line from Hulk in Avengers Endgame: "It's like I was made for this." Realizing we were made for more than just living, but for serving God, changes how we walk and talk day to day.
This adoption is possible only because of what Christ finished on the cross. Grace, meaning receiving something we don't deserve, is what makes all of it possible. God was willing to die for us. That is how much our identity matters to Him.
Through Christ's blood we have redemption, which means being bought back or set free at a cost, and forgiveness of our sins. Paul says God lavished, or generously poured out, His grace on us. Christ's death for us wasn't an obligation He grudgingly carried out. It came from love and compassion.
Paul also says God made known to us the mystery of His will: how everything will ultimately be united in Christ. That matters because we live in a broken world full of fear and anxiety about what's next. Christians can rest knowing Christ has already won the war, even while we're still fighting battles like sin, conflict, or fear day to day.
Paul says we have obtained an inheritance, and that the Holy Spirit is the guarantee, or down payment, of that inheritance until we fully receive it.
Aaron compared it to a grandfather telling his grandchild that $50,000 has already been set aside for them, to be received at 25. The grandchild doesn't wonder if the money is coming. The promise and the paperwork are already real, even though the money isn't in hand yet. In the same way, we don't have to wonder if God's promises are coming. The Holy Spirit living in us is the proof.
So who are we? We are people God chose before the world began. We are valued enough that God died for us. We don't have to fear the battle because the war is already won. And we are loved enough that God has given us a taste, through His Spirit, of what's still coming.
These are the questions the group discussed. They work well for a longer conversation:
A few easier openers if you want to start smaller: