Created For The Work Of His Purpose/Identity Check Part 4 Series

We continue this morning with part four of Identity Check. What I want you to do with me… If you have a copy of the Scriptures, I want you to go with me to the book of Revelation, chapter 4, and I want you to go with me down to verse 11. It reads like this. It says, "Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created."

I want you to know something this morning. God did not need to create you; God chose to create you. I'll say it again, because I don't think you got it. God did not need to create you. God needs nothing. God is all-sufficient. The Bible proclaims he is all-sufficient. He needs nothing. He did not need to create you; he chose to create you.

The Bible plainly declares in the book of Psalms, chapter 139, it talks about how you and I were fearfully and wonderfully made. You are not an accident. You are by design. Do you hear me? God created you. He designed you. He made you. He knitted you in the womb of your mother. You have an identity that comes from God and from God alone. I want you to get it. I want you to understand it.

There is nothing more disjointed or disconcerting in a person's life than when they believe their life does not matter. When you literally speak to yourself, and you say, "My life doesn't matter. My life has no rhythm. My life has no rhyme. Nobody sees me," and you begin to hear the whispers and the echoes of your heart that scream, "I don't have a place. I don't matter. I don't care. I don't have a purpose. No one truly sees me where I am."

That scream that comes from your heart, even though at times you wear a smile, it's a voice that speaks, and it speaks loudly, but I don't want you to ever, ever forget that God created you by choice, and God called you to the work of his purpose. Boy, when those voices begin to speak, and they say, "You're not valuable. You don't matter. You can never contribute to anything in this world," it is disconcerting.

Again, it sets you apart, and it brings depression into your life. I can tell you this. It especially hurts when you have those feelings in your life, and someone validates those very feelings by saying something that brings them up to the surface. Can I get an, "Amen," or, "Oh, me"?

When I was in high school, it was the best of times, and it was the worst of times. It was only about three years ago… I'm just kidding; it was many years ago when I was in high school, the best of times, the worst of times. It was the best of times, because I had a lot of good friends that I hung out with. It was the best of times because I played in a band, and I enjoyed that. We got to tour on the weekends and had a lot of fun with that and a lot of great memories doing all that fun stuff.

It was the worst of times because my dad was diagnosed with a brain tumor. They gave him two years to live. Somewhere between those two worlds, my world began to crumble, caught up between just trying to have a high school career and have some good memories and play in a band, yet my dad on the side kind of dying, and trying to figure out where do I find my place. Deep inside, my voice was saying, "You're never going to have a place in this world."

Something deep inside of me, even when I was outside of Christ, I knew that God cared about me somehow, somewhere. I had a day. I had a moment. I was going into an assembly. You have to understand that because I was in this band, and because my dad's life was falling apart, and cancer was eating him up, I internalized a lot of that. I want you to understand that it began to manifest in a lot of things I'm not real proud of that I did way back then.

I did some pretty horrible things. I don't have time this morning to sit here and go down the list, but I can imagine those of you who were in high school years ago can probably look back and say, "There were times I did some bad things too." I kind of made some people really look at me and place an identity on my life that really wasn't the identity of who I was. It was just me trying to struggle to find my way.