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[WW] Defined: Yourself · The Wesley Word

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Wesley World.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to Wesley Worship.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_02: We're glad y'all are here.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_02: It's been a week, y'all.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_02: And so I was going to claim that.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_02: Been a week for me.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_02: Been a day for me.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_02: And so I also want to say thank you for singing.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_02: My mind has sort of been elsewhere.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_02: I got a lot of family.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_02: I'm originally from New Orleans.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_02: And so most of my family decided to stay.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_02: My grandfather was like, I brought the patio furniture in.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_02: It's all good.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_02: Meanwhile, like Hurricane 4 is like, bam, here I am.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_02: And so I say it jokingly, but like I've been worried all day.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_02: And so my mind's kind of there.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_02: But the singing the last uh few songs really kind of lifted my spirit and reminded me of why I'm here and why we worship together, right?
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_02: There's some times when some of our minds are different places and different stuff.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_02: But um, as we mentioned last week, sort of as we defined who we were as a community, right?
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_02: That we're a place we're all welcome, we're treat each other like family.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_02: And sometimes that means when some of us can't sing or we're a little distracted or a little bit, you know, we got a lot going on, and the community sings for us and with us, it lifts us up.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_02: And so I thank you for living in to that community.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um, as we we look into week two of what it means to be defined.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_02: Again, last week we started by defining who we are, who is us, Clemson Wesley.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_02: And again, uh a place where all are welcome unequivocally, like you are welcome because you are created the image of God.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_02: Every single person on this earth has been breathed by God, has been given that life.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_02: And so we accept them as children of God for who they are.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_02: Treat them like family.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_02: We want you to grow in your faith, and so hope that you checked out some small groups this week, either with us or another campus ministry somewhere.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_02: Or if not, they're happening again this week.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_02: And so encourage you to grow in your faith and to get plugged into a small group.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_02: And then we've got some great service opportunities coming that we want you to serve and to reach out, find ways to love God and love neighbor.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, we're gonna continue our defined series tonight, and then we'll wrap up next week.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_02: But uh our scripture tonight comes from the Gospel of John, beginning in the ninth chapter.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not gonna read all like 40,000 verses of this ninth chapter, because it's a whole long story, but I'm gonna read 12 and then I'll fill you in.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, so here are these uh from John 9, verses 1 through 12.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_02: As he walked along, he being Jesus, right?
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_02: As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_02: His disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned?
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_02: This man or his parents?
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_02: That he was born blind?
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_02: And Jesus answered, Neither this man nor his parents sinned.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_02: He was born blind, so that God's work might be revealed in him.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_02: He must work the works of him who sent me while it is day, night is coming, when no one can work.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_02: As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_02: And when he had said this, he spat on the ground, made some mud with some saliva, this is pre-COVID, right?
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_02: And spread the mud on the man's eyes, saying to him, Go, wash in the pool of saloon, which means sent.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_02: And then he went and washed and came back able to see.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_02: The neighbors who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_02: Some were saying, It is he.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_02: Others were saying, No, but it's someone like him.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_02: He kept saying, I'm the man.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_02: But they kept asking him, Then, how are your eyes opened?
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_02: And he answered, The man called Jesus made mud, so spread it on my eyes, and said to me, Go to Saloom and wash.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_02: And then I went and washed and received my sight.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_02: And they said to him, Where is he?
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_02: And he said, I don't know.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_02: It's the word of God for the people of God.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks be to God.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_02: That's how I envision him answering, anyway, right?
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_02: So we think about what it means to define, and tonight we're looking at how we define you or how we define me, right?
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_02: How do we define ourselves?
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_02: A better word.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_02: That's what we're looking for, right?
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_02: Last week, how do we define us as an organization?
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_02: This week, how do you define you?
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_02: How do how are how are you defined?
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_02: How do we define ourselves?
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_02: And what I love about this passage is it reminds us that sometimes it's hard to define ourselves because the community around us isn't always super supportive.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_02: Here Jesus comes, spits in the mud, makes this um, you know, this nice little muddy concoction, rubs it on the on the dude's eyes.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_02: He can see, but the people around him just can't get past the fact that he is more than the blind beggar they've seen on the streets all their lives, right?
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_02: They're like, no, that you you're the blind, you're the begging dude, right?
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_02: And he's like, No, I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm me, right?
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_02: And they they don't accept that Jesus could heal him, they don't accept that he could be something more, they just label him with being the blind beggar on the street.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes our communities aren't as supportive as they should be in allowing us and helping us to define who we are.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_02: I remember several years ago uh we went to a mission trip on the Bahamas, I think it was like 2017, 2016, and um we got there and everyone got their assignments for what they were supposed to be doing for that week.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um some of our landscape architecture majors were put in charge of doing some landscaping.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, like they were giving them a shetty and said, hey, go cut cut weeds, right?
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um some of our education folks went into classrooms and did different things.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_02: Everyone got their job assignments except me.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, look, I mean it's great.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_02: Luther's an island in the Bahamas, by the way, if you don't know that.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, sweet, a week at the beach, this is great.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_02: Like spring break could be worse, right?
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_02: And I said, what am I supposed to do all week?
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_02: And they said, Steve, you're gonna be our motivational speaker.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_02: You're right, that's funny.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_02: No, you're our motivational speaker.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_02: We'll pick you up at nine tomorrow morning.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_02: Can't wait to see you then.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, what?
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, who am I talking to?
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_02: Like, well, you're gonna be talking to this group of people that are in this this program, you know, rehabbing and sort of getting their life back together, and we just want you to be a motivational speaker.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_02: You're a pastor, you're gonna be great at it.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_02: We'll see you tomorrow at 9 a.m.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, oh my goodness, what do I say, right?
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_02: This is an island that has over 80% unemployment, right?
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_02: And the the folks that I was going to talk to the next day were, I mean, most of them were trying to find a career.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_02: They've been out of work for a long, long time.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_02: And the ministry that we're working with has started this technical school to sort of give us some job skills and this sort of stuff.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_02: But I was thinking, what in the world do I say to these folks?
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_02: What do I, what, what, how can I be a motivational speaker?
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_02: But as I began to sit there and think and talk and listen to folks in the area, I remember telling them stories of myself growing up, right?
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_02: I I've mentioned before that um my parents divorced early on.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_02: This is part of my story, who who I am.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_02: And I remember growing up and hearing often in the schools and stuff that I was growing up in, right?
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_02: That that I came from a broken family.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_02: I came from a broken home.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_02: And even though my parents are both very much supportive of me, that word broken just kept coming out all the time.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_02: Broken, broken, broken.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_02: And it started to weigh on me, right?
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_02: And I remember sharing that to these mainly mothers who who ended up, you know, were single there and had their own children.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_02: And as I was motivational speaking, and I was reminding them, same thing, I had to be reminded by me, and someone taught me right as that you can't be defined by those labels, right?
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_02: And I hate using a terminology.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_02: I'm sorry I used it today, right?
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_02: If you're from a divorce home, you were not from a broken home.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_02: Parents had issues, you don't have issues, you're not broken, you were still solid and awesome in the eyes of God, right?
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_02: Took me a while to figure that out for myself.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_02: But I remember speaking with those with those folks, those men and those women, and reminding them that oftentimes outsiders try to put labels on us, right?
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_02: Whether it was me growing up, people trying to say that I was from a broken home or that you're not you're not good enough or you're not smart enough or you haven't had a job yet, and so you you're not good enough to be who you're called to be, right?
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_02: Remind them that we're not defined by what we've done in the past or who we've been in the past, but that we have new opportunities, right?
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_02: Reminded them that that's that's that morning at by about 9.30 after I rambled for a little while, right?
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_02: Reminded them of what we hear in the waters of baptism.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_02: Just as when Jesus was baptized and God claimed him and said, This is my son, the beloved, in whom I am well pleased, that through those same waters we hear those same things over and over again.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_02: Where God calls each and every one of us as you are my daughter, my beloved child in whom I am well pleased.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_02: You are my son, who, my beloved child, in whom I am well pleased.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_02: What I pick up from this passage, and as we define ourselves, I think it's important to remember and to start that you are defined as a beloved child of God.
• 7:50
  unknown: Right?
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_02: Who, me, even me?
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, you.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_02: Even when the community around you has said, nah, that you know, you you're still that old blind beggar.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_02: Jesus is trying to put mud, even sometimes in our own eyes, to clear up our own vision so that we might see ourselves for who we are as a beloved child of God.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_02: And if you get nothing else of how you will define yourself this year, I hope that you will take a big deep breath and just say, I'm a child of God.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a daughter of God, I'm a son of God.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a beloved child of God.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_02: And so that's how we define ourselves.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_02: That's how we are looked at each and every person.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_02: No matter what's been going on, where you're at, you are defined by that, not the label that people around you want to put on you, but you are defined by what God gives us through baptism and through those waters that you are beloved child of God in whom God is well pleased.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_02: God brings about a good new vision, and sometimes it requires us to sort of peel back the layers and to see again.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_02: We feel like we're sort of metaphorically blind and can't even see ourselves in the mirror sometimes.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_02: So we ask God to give our uh give us some grace and to put some mud in our own eyes that we can even see not just others, but sometimes we need to see ourselves first and be reminded of who we are.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_02: But this tonight, and I'm trying to keep it short because I do want um what Andrew was talking about.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_02: It's not a mandatory um meet some new friends night, but we thought this would be a cool thing, right?
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_02: Define you, what not a great night to like define you and some speed dating type thing.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_02: Not speed dating, you're not trying to find your partner here, okay?
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_02: Or just trying to make friends, all right?
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_02: If it happens, it happens, but that's not the intent there.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_02: I said it, all right?
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_02: But here's the question, I'll just kind of wrap up with this.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_02: How will you be defined this year?
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_02: How will you be defined this year?
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_02: Knowing that you are a beloved child of God, how will you be defined and how do you want to define yourself?
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_02: No matter what you define yourself or how you define yourself in the past, will you are you willing to claim and to accept, right?
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_02: There's nothing you can choose, whether you like it or not, you are a beloved child of God.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_02: But are you in the inside willing to accept that and to live into that as a beloved child?
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_02: And then will you live that out in the way that you act, in the way that you speak, in the way that you treat others?
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_02: You live into who you are.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_02: And then I also would be remiss if I didn't mention, and I know pastors always say I'm wrapping up and I wrap up like five different points, right?
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_02: But this is for real last thing.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_02: You also have an incredible opportunity as college students to redefine yourself if that's what's necessary, right?
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_02: Some of you came in as freshmen.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_02: We don't know who you are.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_02: You could be lying to us from where when we ask those those names, like what's your name, what's your major, where you're from, right?
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_02: You could be driving over from Athens because you hate Georgia and you just want to come to a cool Wesley and you're just here, and like you don't even go to Clemson or Southwestern.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_02: Anybody here?
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not calling by out, am I?
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but you know, what I'm saying is you are not who you were in high school.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_02: You get to be who you want to be today.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_02: You can reclaim that, right?
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_02: You had a bad freshman year, some stuff went down, you like got messed up and whatever, and you know, you had some broken relationships, different things.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_02: You get to redefine yourself and say, who do I want to be today?
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_02: God offers that grace, God offers that mud to sort of wipe our eyes clean, the wipe, wipe the slate clean over and over again and allow us to redefine ourselves.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_02: So who do you want to be?
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_02: Who are you gonna be?
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_02: You live into a beloved child, you're gonna allow yourself to experience stuff, and it could be something small, right?
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_02: Like there was this um awesome student, um, her name was Catherine for like three and a half years, and then the last semester, she's like, you know, when I started college, I wanted to be called Kat.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, why didn't you tell us four years ago, right?
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_02: We could have defined you as Kat instead of Catherine.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_02: That's small, right?
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_02: But if you've got a name you want to go by, let us know now, please.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_02: Like four years is hard to change, but we can change, right?
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_02: But how will you be defined?
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_02: How do you want to define yourself?
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_02: There's a question that I love asking people to respond to, and this is gonna be one of our questions for tonight.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um, if you haven't joined the group yet, do it.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_02: But the question I love is what is something about you that no one knows that you wish they knew, right?
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_02: And when you begin to define yourself and take charge and ownership of yourself, you can let those pieces out.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_02: You can let us know who you are because part of being family, part of being a welcoming community is allowing people to come as who they are and to belong and not having to try to fit in.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_02: So, friends of you nothing else tonight, know that you are beloved child, children of God.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_02: You can't get away from that.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_02: That is who you are, that is in your created being.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_02: But you also have an awesome opportunity at the beginning of this semester to define yourselves in the way that bring you life, that light you up and bring you joy.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_02: And I hope that this can be a place where we can let you find yourself and live into who you are as you are, into the beautiful thing that God has created you to be.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_02: Let us pray.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_02: Holy and gracious God, we give you thanks for this time uh to come and to worship.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_02: Some of us sing at the top of our lungs, and some of us needing others to sing for us, but you've put us here in this place and we're thankful.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes we are stubborn our own selves and we don't, we just find it hard that you would love us.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_02: But God, you do, and for that we're grateful.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_02: Lord, help us to find out who we are, help us to live into who we are, who you have created us to be, that we might flourish, that we might shine, that we might not just survive this time of college, but we might thrive in you.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_02: We love you, we praise you.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_02: We ask all this in Christ's holy name.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_02: Amen.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: The Wesley Word is a production of the Clemson Wesley Foundation.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: For more information about Clemson Wesley, check out our website or follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, get out there and love your neighbor.