September 7, 2025 • 15 mins
What do Jack Palance's one-armed push-ups and the wisdom of "City Slickers" have to do with our spiritual journey? As it turns out, everything.
Drawing an unexpected but powerful parallel between the classic film's message about finding your "one thing" and Paul's letter to the Ephesians, this message explores how we discover our true purpose within the body of Christ. Paul's metaphor of the church as a body reveals a profound truth: we are not isolated individuals competing for limited resources but interconnected parts of a greater whole, each with unique gifts and contributions to make.
Our modern world constantly reinforces feelings of isolation and independence, blinding us to the beautiful possibility of what we can accomplish together. But God envisions something far better—a community where each person flourishes by embracing their giftedness and playing their distinctive role. This understanding transforms our very concept of success from individual achievement to collective flourishing.
Through both scriptural wisdom and practical examples from community celebrations, we see how faith strengthens when people combine their talents toward shared goals. The body comes alive when each part functions as designed. Your "one thing"—those innate abilities and heart-driven passions—isn't just for personal fulfillment but provides your access point to experiencing the fullness of God's vision for your life and community.
Ready to stretch your piece of the body? What will you do to discover and live out your unique role in God's greater story? Your journey of spiritual maturity begins with this question.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Pastor Darren (00:00):
Do you guys remember Jack Palance?
Oh yeah, I figured this crewyou were going to know Jack
Palance, one of the guys thatlooked like we think cowboys are
supposed to look like, right,jack Palance?
Do you remember when he won theBest Supporting Actor and he
(00:20):
got up there and did one-handedpush-ups?
I think it was 70-something andhe's doing one-handed push-ups.
It was pretty cool, living upto the image City Slickers.
Remember that movie, citySlickers?
Right, he plays this cowboy andit's actually a movie with
Billy Crystal and Bruno Kirbyand they're middle-aged and
(00:40):
they're trying to figure outwhat it means to be a
middle-aged man and trying tofigure out what really drives
you and brings you passion andgets you excited.
And so they join this programwhere they're going to move
cattle across country.
They're going to pretend to becowboys, right, city slickers.
(01:01):
So, if you remember, as they'reon this journey to figure this
out, they're talking to Curly,played by Jack Palance, who
tells them amidst otherconversations that really the
secret to life is just one thing.
Notably, he doesn't give themthe one thing right.
(01:22):
And those of you who know BillyCrystal, you know he always
plays characters that would bedriven nuts by not knowing what
the one thing is what is the onething, right?
And, sure enough, curly passesaway in the movie before he's
able to say what the one thingis.
But the Billy Crystal characterI can't remember his
character's name.
He learns it at the end, afterthey're able to successfully
(01:47):
move this cattle.
He said oh, it's the one thing.
It's different for everybody.
Everybody's got their one thingand the secret is you got to
find that thing and start doingit Right, which was a pretty
cool message, I think, for thetime of that movie and hopefully
you know it meant something toyou or maybe it means something
(02:10):
to you today.
But it sets up this passage fromEphesians 4, right, this is a
letter from Paul, you know, inour New Testament, one of his
letters to the churches thatwe're getting started back in
the earliest times there, or theearliest times of our Christian
faith in any case, and it's aninteresting letter because he
(02:32):
spends a lot of time talkingabout God and what God is
expecting and how God envisionsthis world, and then he
transitions towards the end ofthe letter about how we're
supposed to respond.
This passage is right at thattransition.
So you're hearing thisconversation, these words about
(02:55):
who God is and what God did andwhat God expects and wants,
followed up by the expectationof response.
How are we supposed to behavewith that?
How are we supposed tounderstand that?
So what did Paul tell us abouthow he understands what God
wants?
First, he wanted us to knowthat our creator loves us and
(03:19):
wants us to flourish asindividuals.
Flourish as individuals, butalso as community as a whole.
We're supposed to all flourish.
We also get this understandingfrom paul that we will all come
to some understanding or someexperience of god, and he
(03:40):
equates that to spiritualmaturity.
When you have an experience ofGod, when you have an opening,
an epiphany of understandingabout God, you're maturing,
you're growing, you'restabilizing in your faith, and
the stabilizing is really goodbecause in our world there are a
lot of things that we don'tnecessarily want to listen to, a
(04:01):
lot of people we don'tnecessarily want to have
influence over our hearts andover our lives.
So the more stable we are inour understanding of God, the
better.
Amen, right, that's prettysimple.
I only do amens when it'ssimple and obvious, all right.
So God's ultimate goal, as weunderstand in this letter to the
(04:25):
Ephesians, is that we come tosome fullness, some fullness as
the body of Christ, the fullbody of Christ.
Right that we come to know thatall that God wants for us, not
only as individuals as part ofthat body, but also as a body
(04:47):
that we might fully understandwhat it means to have that
experience.
He uses this metaphor of a body,which is a good metaphor here,
and I imagine I'm not the firsttime you've heard a sermon here
about the body of Christ and theinterconnection, the
(05:09):
interreliance on each other.
Right, it's a good metaphor forus to understand, because
underlying all of that is thisidea that even though we're
independent to a certain extent,we're also part of a whole.
Our actions aren't necessarilyfully independent.
(05:32):
The things that the hand doesto a certain extent affect the
rest of the body.
So this image, this metaphor,it's pretty provocative really
when you think about it.
There's various parts of a body, each thing kind of having its
own purpose.
The hands have a purpose, thelegs have a purpose, the eyes,
(05:56):
the ears, the mouth, everythingin a body has its purpose.
And this is where theconnection to City Slickers
comes in.
You thought I was just talkingabout a movie I liked.
No, it related to the scripture.
I promise Curly's one thingreference comes into play here.
(06:19):
It's in this understanding oflife that there is this role
that we get to play, that we'reinvited to play, that God hopes
that we will play in the largerbody of life.
Right, it's a role that's basedin our giftedness, right?
(06:42):
The things that we are good at.
I think it's safe to understandPaul understands that as innate
gifts the things you were bornthat had gifts for, but also the
things we have a heart for,maybe something innate inside of
you that says this is somethingI want to work with.
(07:04):
This is a community of people Iwant to help, I want to share
my heart with.
This is our giftedness in thisworld.
We, understanding the body offaith, want to extend that
metaphor to help us tounderstand each of us has a
special role to play that wehave been gifted to be able to
(07:30):
play.
Right, that's the just onething relationship or or
coordination I'm talking abouthere with that movie that just
one thing is inside of us.
It is our access to being partof the fullness of the body of
(07:52):
Christ.
If we want to know fully whatGod wants for us as individuals,
fully what God wants for us asa body of Christ.
Our access to that comesthrough that giftedness comes
through living out our role inthe body.
Doesn't it make you think aboutthe world in kind of a different
(08:17):
way?
In our day-to-day, when we'relooking around, we spend a lot
of our time with this sense thatwe're kind of isolated.
Right, I'm a human being withmy human body and I am just this
human being.
I'm not any one of you andyou're not me, right?
That's sort of the obviousbiological reminder we get every
(08:42):
single day.
It leads to a sense ofisolation.
Right, it's just me.
You know, and some of us mighteven have a sense that the world
is even much more competitivethan others.
So you're not even just lookingat everybody else as an other,
but you're also thinking, ohokay, and you want what I want,
(09:06):
so I might need to work a littleharder to get my part of it.
I mean, it's so easy to fallinto that place, the way the
world works these days.
And so Paul shows up inEphesians and he says you know
what it doesn't have to be thatway.
And he says you know what itdoesn't have to be that way.
(09:29):
In fact, god has somethingbetter in mind for you and for
your community, this life.
If we see ourselves as sharingthe journey instead of living it
on ourselves or feeling likewe're the only ones we can
(09:51):
depend upon.
When we look at life assomething we share, well, then
the whole idea of success comesout a little different too,
doesn't it?
All of a sudden, we're lookingat ourselves as part of a team,
recognizing with this role weget to play, oh, shoot, okay.
Not only do I get to understanda purpose and a meaning in my
(10:17):
little piece of this whole thing, but then there's something
bigger too that's going on, andI'm able to tie into that bigger
thing only because I'm lookingat it in this way and
understanding it in this way.
If I think I'm isolated, if Ithink we're all independent, I'm
(10:38):
blind to the possibility ofwhat we can do together.
I have to say and I keeptalking about it, coming back to
it, because I reallyappreciated it I feel like we
got a good example of that lastnight over at First Neighborhood
Community Center.
(11:00):
There were a lot of people whoput a lot of time in on this
thing.
They put it in starting gosh,was it April?
I feel like it was right.
After Easter we had the firstmeeting, agnes, right after
Easter was it Somewhere in there?
Yeah, somewhere around therewhich I identify as the last
(11:21):
meeting I was able to make I'mteasing, I said it last night,
though.
I went to one, and then we wereaway for a little vacation or
this, that, and I came back andit was rolling.
The ball was rolling and I'mlike God bless you, let her roll
right.
And they did Tons of workleading all the way up
(11:42):
especially these last two weeksof getting everything organized
these two days leading up to itpeople driving around, moving
silverware and plates and this,that and the other thing, all
the way through the event itselfwhere we're all together.
I mean that takes a little bitof work too to make sure all the
things that were supposed tohappen happen as they're
(12:02):
supposed to happen.
And then all the way into theevening, as I said, some people
were there till 11 o'clock lastnight To me.
I think I'm seeing a little bitof what we're supposed to
understand as this fullness ofthe body.
Why did these people work sohard on this?
(12:23):
Because they love this church,because they love the people of
this church and what they'vemeant to you, to each of us.
People put all that time inbecause they love what this
church has offered to thiscommunity.
(12:43):
Lo, these 50, 55 years, whatare we up to?
I look at Boyd because hetracks that stuff.
How many years?
Where's Jeannie?
Jeannie, she told me on TuesdayI'm watching online.
Pastor, that party's going togo late.
This is what she says.
(13:04):
Anyway, lo, these many years,all the gifts that we've offered
to the community around us notjust for us, but for the
community around us and friends,they did it because they love
what God is doing here and whereGod is taking this community
here.
This, to me, this is what we'resupposed to be learning in
(13:26):
Ephesians.
The body came together andshowed the godly love that it's
been given to share.
We showed what this part of thebody can do when we come
together and live out our roles.
And on that journey, I'm hopingyou understand that our faith
has been strengthened anddeepened, even from something as
(13:53):
silly and fun as line dancingon a Saturday night.
Amen, agnes, we like our linedancing.
I know this is how it works.
So, coming back to it, just onething.
Just one thing Each of us is onthis journey individually, but
also as a body and I'm askingyou today, as I've been asking
(14:18):
for a little over a month nowwhat are you going to do to
stretch your little piece of thebody?
What are you going to do tobless yourself with your
capacity to understand thefullness that can come when we
all start working together?
We all start growing together,we all start sharing our
(14:42):
understanding of God togetherwith the world around us.
Are you on that journey?
Are you ready to strengthen,are you ready to mature your
part?
Because that's the question weask as we start this year and I
(15:03):
invite you to take it onseriously.
Amen.
Do you guys remember Jack Palance?
Oh yeah, I figured this crewyou were going to know Jack
Palance, one of the guys thatlooked like we think cowboys are
supposed to look like, right,jack Palance?
Do you remember when he won theBest Supporting Actor and he
(00:20):
got up there and did one-handedpush-ups?
I think it was 70-something andhe's doing one-handed push-ups.
It was pretty cool, living upto the image City Slickers.
Remember that movie, citySlickers?
Right, he plays this cowboy andit's actually a movie with
Billy Crystal and Bruno Kirbyand they're middle-aged and
(00:40):
they're trying to figure outwhat it means to be a
middle-aged man and trying tofigure out what really drives
you and brings you passion andgets you excited.
And so they join this programwhere they're going to move
cattle across country.
They're going to pretend to becowboys, right, city slickers.
(01:01):
So, if you remember, as they'reon this journey to figure this
out, they're talking to Curly,played by Jack Palance, who
tells them amidst otherconversations that really the
secret to life is just one thing.
Notably, he doesn't give themthe one thing right.
(01:22):
And those of you who know BillyCrystal, you know he always
plays characters that would bedriven nuts by not knowing what
the one thing is what is the onething, right?
And, sure enough, curly passesaway in the movie before he's
able to say what the one thingis.
But the Billy Crystal characterI can't remember his
character's name.
He learns it at the end, afterthey're able to successfully
(01:47):
move this cattle.
He said oh, it's the one thing.
It's different for everybody.
Everybody's got their one thingand the secret is you got to
find that thing and start doingit Right, which was a pretty
cool message, I think, for thetime of that movie and hopefully
you know it meant something toyou or maybe it means something
(02:10):
to you today.
But it sets up this passage fromEphesians 4, right, this is a
letter from Paul, you know, inour New Testament, one of his
letters to the churches thatwe're getting started back in
the earliest times there, or theearliest times of our Christian
faith in any case, and it's aninteresting letter because he
(02:32):
spends a lot of time talkingabout God and what God is
expecting and how God envisionsthis world, and then he
transitions towards the end ofthe letter about how we're
supposed to respond.
This passage is right at thattransition.
So you're hearing thisconversation, these words about
(02:55):
who God is and what God did andwhat God expects and wants,
followed up by the expectationof response.
How are we supposed to behavewith that?
How are we supposed tounderstand that?
So what did Paul tell us abouthow he understands what God
wants?
First, he wanted us to knowthat our creator loves us and
(03:19):
wants us to flourish asindividuals.
Flourish as individuals, butalso as community as a whole.
We're supposed to all flourish.
We also get this understandingfrom paul that we will all come
to some understanding or someexperience of god, and he
(03:40):
equates that to spiritualmaturity.
When you have an experience ofGod, when you have an opening,
an epiphany of understandingabout God, you're maturing,
you're growing, you'restabilizing in your faith, and
the stabilizing is really goodbecause in our world there are a
lot of things that we don'tnecessarily want to listen to, a
(04:01):
lot of people we don'tnecessarily want to have
influence over our hearts andover our lives.
So the more stable we are inour understanding of God, the
better.
Amen, right, that's prettysimple.
I only do amens when it'ssimple and obvious, all right.
So God's ultimate goal, as weunderstand in this letter to the
(04:25):
Ephesians, is that we come tosome fullness, some fullness as
the body of Christ, the fullbody of Christ.
Right that we come to know thatall that God wants for us, not
only as individuals as part ofthat body, but also as a body
(04:47):
that we might fully understandwhat it means to have that
experience.
He uses this metaphor of a body,which is a good metaphor here,
and I imagine I'm not the firsttime you've heard a sermon here
about the body of Christ and theinterconnection, the
(05:09):
interreliance on each other.
Right, it's a good metaphor forus to understand, because
underlying all of that is thisidea that even though we're
independent to a certain extent,we're also part of a whole.
Our actions aren't necessarilyfully independent.
(05:32):
The things that the hand doesto a certain extent affect the
rest of the body.
So this image, this metaphor,it's pretty provocative really
when you think about it.
There's various parts of a body, each thing kind of having its
own purpose.
The hands have a purpose, thelegs have a purpose, the eyes,
(05:56):
the ears, the mouth, everythingin a body has its purpose.
And this is where theconnection to City Slickers
comes in.
You thought I was just talkingabout a movie I liked.
No, it related to the scripture.
I promise Curly's one thingreference comes into play here.
(06:19):
It's in this understanding oflife that there is this role
that we get to play, that we'reinvited to play, that God hopes
that we will play in the largerbody of life.
Right, it's a role that's basedin our giftedness, right?
(06:42):
The things that we are good at.
I think it's safe to understandPaul understands that as innate
gifts the things you were bornthat had gifts for, but also the
things we have a heart for,maybe something innate inside of
you that says this is somethingI want to work with.
(07:04):
This is a community of people Iwant to help, I want to share
my heart with.
This is our giftedness in thisworld.
We, understanding the body offaith, want to extend that
metaphor to help us tounderstand each of us has a
special role to play that wehave been gifted to be able to
(07:30):
play.
Right, that's the just onething relationship or or
coordination I'm talking abouthere with that movie that just
one thing is inside of us.
It is our access to being partof the fullness of the body of
(07:52):
Christ.
If we want to know fully whatGod wants for us as individuals,
fully what God wants for us asa body of Christ.
Our access to that comesthrough that giftedness comes
through living out our role inthe body.
Doesn't it make you think aboutthe world in kind of a different
(08:17):
way?
In our day-to-day, when we'relooking around, we spend a lot
of our time with this sense thatwe're kind of isolated.
Right, I'm a human being withmy human body and I am just this
human being.
I'm not any one of you andyou're not me, right?
That's sort of the obviousbiological reminder we get every
(08:42):
single day.
It leads to a sense ofisolation.
Right, it's just me.
You know, and some of us mighteven have a sense that the world
is even much more competitivethan others.
So you're not even just lookingat everybody else as an other,
but you're also thinking, ohokay, and you want what I want,
(09:06):
so I might need to work a littleharder to get my part of it.
I mean, it's so easy to fallinto that place, the way the
world works these days.
And so Paul shows up inEphesians and he says you know
what it doesn't have to be thatway.
And he says you know what itdoesn't have to be that way.
(09:29):
In fact, god has somethingbetter in mind for you and for
your community, this life.
If we see ourselves as sharingthe journey instead of living it
on ourselves or feeling likewe're the only ones we can
(09:51):
depend upon.
When we look at life assomething we share, well, then
the whole idea of success comesout a little different too,
doesn't it?
All of a sudden, we're lookingat ourselves as part of a team,
recognizing with this role weget to play, oh, shoot, okay.
Not only do I get to understanda purpose and a meaning in my
(10:17):
little piece of this whole thing, but then there's something
bigger too that's going on, andI'm able to tie into that bigger
thing only because I'm lookingat it in this way and
understanding it in this way.
If I think I'm isolated, if Ithink we're all independent, I'm
(10:38):
blind to the possibility ofwhat we can do together.
I have to say and I keeptalking about it, coming back to
it, because I reallyappreciated it I feel like we
got a good example of that lastnight over at First Neighborhood
Community Center.
(11:00):
There were a lot of people whoput a lot of time in on this
thing.
They put it in starting gosh,was it April?
I feel like it was right.
After Easter we had the firstmeeting, agnes, right after
Easter was it Somewhere in there?
Yeah, somewhere around therewhich I identify as the last
(11:21):
meeting I was able to make I'mteasing, I said it last night,
though.
I went to one, and then we wereaway for a little vacation or
this, that, and I came back andit was rolling.
The ball was rolling and I'mlike God bless you, let her roll
right.
And they did Tons of workleading all the way up
(11:42):
especially these last two weeksof getting everything organized
these two days leading up to itpeople driving around, moving
silverware and plates and this,that and the other thing, all
the way through the event itselfwhere we're all together.
I mean that takes a little bitof work too to make sure all the
things that were supposed tohappen happen as they're
(12:02):
supposed to happen.
And then all the way into theevening, as I said, some people
were there till 11 o'clock lastnight To me.
I think I'm seeing a little bitof what we're supposed to
understand as this fullness ofthe body.
Why did these people work sohard on this?
(12:23):
Because they love this church,because they love the people of
this church and what they'vemeant to you, to each of us.
People put all that time inbecause they love what this
church has offered to thiscommunity.
(12:43):
Lo, these 50, 55 years, whatare we up to?
I look at Boyd because hetracks that stuff.
How many years?
Where's Jeannie?
Jeannie, she told me on TuesdayI'm watching online.
Pastor, that party's going togo late.
This is what she says.
(13:04):
Anyway, lo, these many years,all the gifts that we've offered
to the community around us notjust for us, but for the
community around us and friends,they did it because they love
what God is doing here and whereGod is taking this community
here.
This, to me, this is what we'resupposed to be learning in
(13:26):
Ephesians.
The body came together andshowed the godly love that it's
been given to share.
We showed what this part of thebody can do when we come
together and live out our roles.
And on that journey, I'm hopingyou understand that our faith
has been strengthened anddeepened, even from something as
(13:53):
silly and fun as line dancingon a Saturday night.
Amen, agnes, we like our linedancing.
I know this is how it works.
So, coming back to it, just onething.
Just one thing Each of us is onthis journey individually, but
also as a body and I'm askingyou today, as I've been asking
(14:18):
for a little over a month nowwhat are you going to do to
stretch your little piece of thebody?
What are you going to do tobless yourself with your
capacity to understand thefullness that can come when we
all start working together?
We all start growing together,we all start sharing our
(14:42):
understanding of God togetherwith the world around us.
Are you on that journey?
Are you ready to strengthen,are you ready to mature your
part?
Because that's the question weask as we start this year and I
(15:03):
invite you to take it onseriously.
Amen.
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