PERSPECTIVES
# 1 – IDENTITY
Hello and welcome to the 1st of a series of talks on ‘Perspectives.’
If you’re reading this message with someone, turn to them and say, “Hi Who are you?” (If you’re reading it alone, of course, just read). You know we never greet somebody with the words “Hi, Who are you right?” If it’s family members in the morning we just say ‘Good Morning’ perhaps ‘How are you?’ if it’s a friend we’d say, ‘How are you?’ but we’d never say, ‘Hi, Who are you?
Today we’re going to be looking at a very important question, a question that’s on the minds of millions of people. A question that mankind has been trying to answer for centuries. It’s the question of identity, ‘Who am I?’ You know, deep inside all of us lingers this question. We don’t wake up every morning with this question being the first one that we are trying to answer, but unconsciously we go through our day very often trying to answer this question, and we are going to see what are the different ways we seek, to try to answer this question.
Until we discover the answer to this question, we’re going to continue to search for the rest of our lives. Now take a look around the place you are right now. Identify any man-made thing and you will find that every single item has a name. Everything has a name, you call it a phone, you call it a Mic stand, you call it a laptop, you call it a window frame, whatever it is, it’s got a name right and it’s made by man.
Just like that, you and I have a name, an identity and we need to discover what that identity is. You know we have various ways we seek to answer this question of ‘Who am I?’ It is unconscious, but we employ various methods in our lives every day.
I am going to use ‘P’s’ to make it easy to remember. For some of us, we derive our identity from our Physical Appearance. Our looks matter. We think that if we are good looking in the eyes of the world we are somebody, and if in the eyes of the world we are not good looking we are nobody. For other people is it their Physical Abilities or their skills. Their skills define who they are. There are others for whom their proficiency defines them. Their knowledge, how much they know. For others it is their Position; their position in their families, their position in the school, college, work-spot, society, in the country. Their position matters so much. For others it could be their Possession, the wealth or their property. People want to have more and more, because they feel that defines them. The more I have the more I am, the less I have the less I am. Some other’s get their identity from the Power that they can wield over people, the power they have over people, the amount they can control people. For still other’s it’s their Past that matters so much, their background, the things they have achieved in the past, that defines them. You’ll find such people talking about all the things they have done over the years, trying to impress others so they get a sense of identity from their past. For some others their Parents give them a sense of identity, their parents or grand-parents. You will find such people talking about their Parents or Grand Parents a lot, because they sense that’s who I really am. The son of or the daughter of, or the grand-child of so and so. For others their Popularity defines them. It’s who they know that matters. It’s how many people they know that matters. If they have lots of friends, if they are known by lots of people, if they are famous well, then they are somebody and if they are not, they feel they are nobody. For some others it’s their Performance, their work, things they do define them. Others get their identity from the amount of Pleasure they can have. For them life is all about having lots and lots of fun, and if they can have fun that defines them.
All of the above things fall short of defining us for who we are because over time we can lose them. Our looks change, we are unable to perform the same skills we had, our knowledge fades we lose our positions eventually, we may lose our possessions, we may not be able to have the same authority or power we had over people, our past doesn’t matter suddenly, because people aren’t so concerned about our past as much as we are. Our parents go, our grand-parents go, we may even lose friends. We are not so popular suddenly. Maybe we are not able to perform as we used to earlier, we grow older, unable to work and do the things we used to. May be we are not able to have the kind of pleasure we had and so, if we derive our identity from all of these things, we are going to come to a point where we get back to square one, where we are asking the very same question, ‘Who am I?’
This COVID situation has really pulled the carpet from under our feet in more ways than one. For those of us who found our identity from our work, from our position or from our possessions, a lot of these things have been shaken. Many have lost jobs, many have lost incomes or they are working on half incomes. Many are not as popular as they were earlier, and many have lost loved ones. Lots of changes have happened, and that’s beginning to make people really question who they really are, because many people derived their identity from these things. Once again many are asking that question, ‘Who am I?’ It is not conscious, but is very unconscious.
You know the answer to this question is really found in God. It might sound simple, but that’s the truth. Just like every single man-made item was made by some company, which manufactured it so also every human being was created (not evolved), by God. So if I want to know what’s the purpose of a particular item, for example, I need to go and ask the person who manufactured it, ‘What is this?’ So also if I need to know who I am, I need to ask the one who created me, I need to ask God. He has the answer. He knows who I am. For those of us who know God through Christ, we know who we are in Christ. But sometimes even as believers, we haven’t fully understood who we are. It’s a constant process of discovering ourselves as we move along. The more we know God the more we can discover ourselves, because God continues to reveal Himself to us and He reveals to us who we are in Him.
You know the Bible gives us lots of terms that describes us as the church. Firstly, those of us who believe in Jesus are Children of God. You know in John 1:12 beautifully says it, “That to whoever believed in Him, to them He gave the power to become children of God.” What an amazing sense of identity. The God of the universe is our Father, we are family; we are God’s children. We are a new creation, 2 Corinthians 5:17 says that right. We are a new Creation. We are God’s workmanship, Ephesians 2:10. God has worked on us, has reworked in us. Has re-created the image of God that was destroyed in the Garden of Eden in us and He’s giving us a new life. We are The Salt of the earth. (Matthew 5:13) We are The Light of the world (Matthew 5:14-16). We are supposed to influence those around us. Wow. What an amazing identity God has given us! We are Ambassadors of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20). We as it were representing Christ in this world. We are Ministers of Reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:11-21), pleading with the world to get reconciled to God. is that not amazing. What a privilege!
We are a Chosen Generation (1 Peter 2:9), God chose us, we didn’t chose God, He chose us. We are a Royal Priesthood (1 Peter 2:9). We are priests of the King, King Jesus. We are a Holy Nation (1 Peter 2:9). We might be spread across 200 plus nations, but we are a chosen, holy, set apart nation in all of these nations, that’s who we are as a church. We are a people belonging to God (1 Peter 2:9), amazing! We belong to God. God Himself has not just created us but He has purchased us with the blood of His son. Jesus paid the price so we can belong to God all over again. He redeemed us from sin, we are not our own. We are bought with a price, the bible says. We are Friends of God. Jesus said, “I no longer call you servants, I call you friends.” We are Heirs of God (Romans 8:17). Imagine that. We are going to inherit heaven. We are going to have God with us forever. We are Co-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17. The things that Christ inherited in heaven we are going to inherit as well. We are the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12-27). Christ is the Head, we are like little cells in this amazing body, spread across the globe. We are the body of Christ. We are The Temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19). No longer does God dwell in buildings, we know that, He dwells in His people through His Holy Spirit who lives in each one of us. And we are Living Stones (1 Peter 2:5), In this temple we are like living stones in this amazing temple of God. We are The Righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21) and that’s the most amazing thing that God had made us righteous not by any works we have done but by putting our faith in the finished work of Jesus on the cross where he died, was buried was resurrected on our behalf so we did not need to face the penalty and He now calls us righteous or saints means set apart ones or holy or sanctified.
May I encourage those of you who know Christ to continue to live out this identity every day of your life. For those of you who still haven’t discovered who you are, may I encourage you to ask God. Say to Him, “Lord who am I?” For those of you who don’t know God may I encourage you ask Him God reveal to me who you are. The first thing He will do is reveal Himself to you through His son Jesus. When you believe in Jesus you will discover who you are. I am talking these things based on God’s Word and based on my own experience. I come from a background where my sense of identity was absolutely warped. But I began to understood who I was only when I came to know Christ. It’s a constant process. I am continually discovering who I am, and God will reveal to you who He is and who you are, as He reveals to you His Son Jesus. Jesus said this very clearly, you cannot come to the Father but by me. So in a nut shell we can discover who we are once we discover who God is because He will tell us who we are.
The next question we are going to be looking in our next message is, ‘Why am I?’ (Purpose). Discovering one’s Identity is very important, but discovering one’s purpose is equally important. Every single item you look at around you has a name and has a purpose. Much more you and I we have a name and we have an identity and we have a purpose.
