I still want to land on my feet! Where are we going to land, in a world that’s upside down? That largely depends on if we’ve studied and practiced. I’m pretty sure it’s something that takes effort and a plan.
At birth, he was called Alphonso Joseph D’Abruzzo. Later, as an actor he became known to you as Alan Alda.
She was born Ilyena Lydia Vasilievna Mironov. I guess it’s less work to go by Helen Mirren.
Amos Muzyad Jahoob seemed to think that you would be able to remember him better if his name was Danny Thomas.
And I bet that you had more respect for Marion Robert Morrison as John Wayne!
The guy who really shortened up would have been called Rodolfo Alfonzo Raffaello Pierre Filibert Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguolla. Rudolph Valentino was a lot easier to say.
And, I have to agree that Natalie Wood is a lot easier to say than Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko
Now, besides going by a different name, each of these people have something in common. What is it? Actors. They often go by a name other than the one their parents gave them. Actors or performers are people who make a living being something they aren’t. As a whole, they are a group of people who are also often confused about who they really are. Have you noticed that?
Michael Jackson was a real study in this. As a young star, age 18, he seemed a pretty average looking young man. Over the years, as he struggled with his identity and appearance, he had it altered, until he barely resembled the young man he had been.
I mentioned Rachel Dolezal a few weeks ago – the woman who was born “Caucasian” but who says about herself, “I identify as black.”
That was a new phrase to me a few months ago: “I identify as…” What does that mean?
I want to try something this morning. This is a part of the message where you get to talk to people around you. So, look around, find someone that maybe you don’t know real well, and tell him or her who you are. By the way, it’s name tag Sunday, so you may already see a name. Go a bit deeper. Who are you? Tell someone who you are.
Now, as you tried to explain to someone else who you are, what did you turn to?
You probably started with your name: I am _______. From there, though, how do you explain who you are? Maybe you have a title, like Dr., or maybe you are president of something. Maybe you focused on your last name – you know, some Ancestry.com stuff. Maybe you spoke about where you work, or where you used to work. Maybe you talked about where you were born, or raised. Some of you may have identified yourself as parent or grandparent of someone. Did anyone say, “I’m a Democrat, or a Republican”? Sometimes, without a word, we say something about our identity just by what we’re wearing. You may have a team name on you, or a company pin, or something like that. You may have turned to your religious affiliation – “I’m ____ and I’ve been a member here at CCC for 15 years.”
I once met a neighbor who lived in an apartment complex in Joplin. She was introducing herself to me and said, “I’m Mrs. ____, and we’re Pentecostals. Of course, you probably were able to tell that by my hair.” (It was all up in one of those beehive hairstyles). She believed it to be an identifying mark of who she is.
Let me point out that how you try to identify yourself isn’t the same as who you are. What you do for a living or how you dress isn’t really your identity. It’s something you do. You’ll notice that we speak of ourselves as “human beings,” not “human doings.” You might try to express that you’re a Cubs fan by wearing the T-shirt, but the shirt doesn’t change who you are any more than wearing a certain hairstyle makes you a Christian.
People turn to a variety of sources to try to identify themselves. Some believe their identity is all tied up in their sexuality. That’s been in the news a lot lately. This is Bruce Jenner, winning the gold medal at the 1976 Olympics Decathlon. Once considered one of the world’s greatest athletes, he is now considered the world’s most noticed transgendered person, assuming a new identity as Caitlyn Jenner, and even with his own TV show, “I am Cait.”
From the blog of Matt Walsh: “Lila Perry is a teenage boy at Hillsboro High School in Missouri. Apparently, he was a gay male until about ninth grade, at which point he decided he was actually a straight female. This is the sort of “revelation” that, in saner times, would land the confused young man in rigorous psychological and spiritual counseling. But these are not sane times, so instead it landed him in the girls’ locker room.” The little community of Hillsboro is in an uproar over the whole thing.
I ran across an article about what’s happening in liberal arts colleges across the country. For instance, the University of CA system now has 6 choices for students to give their “gender identity” on admissions applications: “How do you describe yourself? (Mark one answer).”
The choices are: “male; female; trans male/trans man; trans female/trans woman; gender queer/gender non-conforming; and different identity.”
The application also asks “what sex were you assigned at birth, such as on an original birth certificate?” and the two choices are: male or female.
Your sex is assigned? I thought it was discovered at birth! (or in the ultrasound now)
What used to be simply called the “gay community” classification was expanded to LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender) and then to LGBTQIA. Amherst College even has an L.G.B.T.Q.Q.I.A.A. center, where every group gets its own letter. At the University of Pennsylvania fall of 2013, eight freshmen united in the frustration that no campus group represented them.” There is even a designation for “someone whose gender identity matches his or her biology” – “cisgender.”
More than 150 schools in the United States have now created gender-neutral bathrooms. Here’s the door between the men’s and women’s restrooms in the Meijer store on Perryville.
197 universities have gender-neutral housing policies, which let students share a dorm room with a member of the same gender, opposite gender, or with someone whose gender they may not be able to ascertain.
I once learned that there’s actually a line of work called “chicken sexing.” That’s where 1-day old chickens are sorted based on their gender. A person called a “Chicken sexer” actually takes each chick, checks its anatomy, and then puts it in the appropriate group. Hens here. Roosters here. All I can say is it’s a good thing for chicken sexers that gender confusion hasn’t hit the chicken farm! It would complicate a pretty straightforward vocation!
Facebook offers 50 pronoun options from which users can choose to specify their gender. Options include “pangender,” “bigender,” “androgynous,” “agender,” “cisgender,” “neutrois,” “gender questioning,” or even “custom”.
I read up on these things and I begin to see that’s going on isn’t just a sexuality issue anymore. It’s an identity crisis, on a huge scale. People are confused about who they are at the most basic of levels, including if you were born a boy or a girl. A whole generation of young people are wondering, “Who am I?” in a way that we never did before. And the way they’re being encouraged to answer that question is leaving them out in the cold and more confused than ever.
Who am I?
The point of this long introduction wasn’t to drum up your anger and outrage at those people who just seem so lost. It’s to make it clear that this subject is one that confuses a lot of people. If you want to be angry at someone, start by being angry at the devil who has spread so many lies that people are more and more lost. Be angry at the one who comes to steal and to kill and destroy. Be angry at the confusion and hurt and destruction he inflicts onto hurting people.
Who am I?
Your answer to this question will affect your life more than most any other question!
1. First of all, Church, believers need to be deliberate as we think and speak about these things.
While people’s ideas and living are all over the board, what God has said about it never has changed and never will. We must not bend. And as we don’t bend, we can anticipate that in the future that’s going to cost us – as a church family and personally. That’s not a reason to compromise the truth, but it’s something to keep in mind. The Scriptures warn us not to be surprised when being a believer is costly.
2 Timothy 3:12
Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
1 Peter 4:12
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you;
2. Secondly, we need to consider how we can reach out to people who are caught up in the lies. We’re not accurately reflecting the spirit of Jesus when we convince the homosexual community and gender-confused people that they’re horrible and we hate them. Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, KS has already got that covered for everyone. It seems to me that if there’s an area we need to step up it’s conveying a message that says, “We care about you and we want to help you know Jesus and to go to Heaven.” Now if you find that hard to do and it makes you uncomfortable, get in line. But get in line.
Jude 1:22-23
Be merciful to those who doubt; snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear--hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.
3. The third thing I want us to see this morning is that God’s word has so much to say about who you are! The question of identity has been dealt with so thoroughly in the Scriptures!
It starts in Genesis 1:1, where God is the Creator.
That means that you and I are created beings, not random mistakes, not accidents. We’re designed with purpose and value in God’s eyes – every person.
From there, it says that God made us in His image.
That means we’re distinct from the rest of creation. We’re the only part of creation that’s trying to answer this question of identity because we’re different from all the rest of it. We have a built-in sense of morals and we have an eternal soul. That makes you and me more important than the chicken you’re going to eat for lunch today.
It also says that God created mankind male and female. That’s another thing that came by design. There are 2 distinct genders, created to complement and complete one another. You don’t choose it. It’s given to you just as surely as your brain or your heart is given to you. You don’t wait until you reach a certain age and figure it out. It’s not forced upon you by an unjust society. And no, it’s not “assigned” to you. The doctor looks at your anatomy and says, “It’s a boy!” or “It’s a girl!” because that’s what you are, and your parents cheer, and hopefully help you grow up to fulfill what you are. I know that the medical world tells us that the father determines the sex of the baby, but I have yet to see a doctor asking the father to pick which one he wants. The fact is, God gives you your sexuality, just like He gave you life and His image. It’s a permanent condition, genetically, regardless of what is done to a person emotionally or physically.
God looked at this creation, with all He made and with the man and woman put into it, and He saw that it was very good. Man, woman, a perfect world, very good. God doesn’t make junk. That includes you, whoever you are. You are a unique soul, made by God to last forever. You were created for fellowship with Him. Paul says in 2nd Co 5:5 that God has made us for the very purpose of living with Him forever and in Ps 8:5 that He made us just a little lower than the heavenly beings.
That’s great news for people who are struggling with bad self-image! That’s great news for people who are trying to figure out where mankind fits in the food chain!
That’s in just the 1st two chapters of the Bible. The 3rd chapter tells us even more about who we are and how we got the way we are. Adam and Eve sinned, and we’ve all been following suit ever since. As a result, we’re also a part of a fallen race – the human race. Every one of us faces physical death because of Adam’s sin, and every one of us faces spiritual death because we’ve all sinned.
Now let’s take a breather right there. Every person, no matter who you are, as this as part of your identity. It’s your family heritage at the deepest level. It tells you about who you are spiritually, emotionally, intellectually, genetically, and socially.
Wouldn’t it be great if we could help thoroughly confused people understand who they are? We can! Evolutionary science has taken 2 centuries to reach a conclusion that’s completely empty! God’s word spells out in just the first 3 chapters who we are! But wait! It gets even better!
The rest of the whole Bible spells out who we can become! It tells the story of how God sent His Son Jesus to die for the world to invite every person back into a restored relationship with Him!
So we read how we used to be slaves to sin, dead, separated from Christ, without hope, without God in the world, living in the dark, far away from God. But we were set free from sin, we were brought near through the blood of Christ, we were reconciled with God.
Romans 6:17-18 (NIV)
17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
Ephesians 2:1 (NIV)
1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,
Ephesians 2:12-13 (NIV)
12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.
Ephesians 5:8 (NIV)
8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light
Colossians 1:21-22 (NIV)
21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. 22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation—
For every person who follows Jesus as Lord, there’s this changed identity! And it can be true for every person who has yet to make that decision!
I just studied through the NT and pulled out the most obvious identity markers – those things that are true of every person who is in Christ, and that can be true if you’ll accept Him. I don’t have time to share all of them, but it’s an impressive list! It includes that you are God’s child, an inheritor of His riches, with Jesus as your Brother, children of light, clothed with Christ, purchased with His blood, sealed with the Holy Spirit, a vessel of His gifts, a part of the body of Christ, a new creation, the temple of His Holy Spirit, God’s fellow workers, God’s field, God’s building, a living stone, a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, Christ’s Bride, with your name written in the Lamb’s book of Life, living as an alien here with Heaven as your real home!
Galatians 4:7
So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.
1 Thessalonians 5:5
You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness.
Galatians 3:26-27
You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
1 Corinthians 12:27
Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
1 Corinthians 6:19
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
1 Corinthians 3:9
For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building.
Ephesians 1:13 (NIV)
13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit,
Ephesians 4:30 (NIV)
30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
1 Peter 1:18-19 (NIV)
18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.
1 Peter 2:9-11 (NIV)
9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 11 Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11
Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Brothers and sisters, the point this morning is really simple: the world is confused about this, and we have the most incredible, wonderful message they could possibly want to hear!
Conclusion:
Remember in 1st grade, when you knew the answer? Remember raising your hand just as high as you could reach, and waving it around so that the teacher would see you and pick you? Remember going, “Oooh! Ooh! Pick me!” Why did you do that? It was because you knew you had the answer, and you wanted to share it. You wanted the teacher to know you understood, and you wanted the people around you to see that you had the right answer. Somehow it really mattered that the teacher pick you – the fate of the world rested on your answer!
It’s too bad, isn’t it, that we lose that eagerness to speak up? It’s too bad that we become content to just let someone else answer it, or we begin to doubt if we’re right. It’s too bad that we start to worry about what everyone will think if we say it. Somewhere along the way, we just stop thinking it matters. Not in 1st grade, but in our workplace, on the bus, in the store, at the bank, on the street, in the breakroom, over the backyard fence. All over the place, the question is being asked: Who am I? Does my life even matter? Am I supposed to even really add anything to the world?
We have the answer that can end the identity crisis! We can help people see who they really are, and who they can be in Jesus Christ!
We have the right answer. There are people all around us who don’t have it. We need to get excited once again about sharing it, don’t we?
Maybe this morning we’ve hit on something that really resonates with you. Maybe you’ve got questions…
