Introduction
Video Ill.: Official Lyric Video — Chosen by Sidewalk Prophets
In our world today, our identities are in crisis. Everyone around us tries to tell us who we are, what we should do, and who we should be.
What do we believe? Who do we support? Where do we fall in the political spectrum? What is our sex? What religion, ethnicity, or race are we? Who are we? In what is our identity found?
This morning, as we continue our search for identity, we are chosen — our identity is found in Christ!
We started our study by discovering that the beginning of our true identity is found in the fact that we were made in God’s image. Mankind is the only part of creation that has been made with the qualities of God Himself! We were given a purpose. We build relationships. We love and are loved.
Last week, we found that must embrace the identity that God has given to us — we are uniquely, wonderfully, and fearfully made. That means that each one of us bears God’s fingerprints on our lives, because God formed us, made us, created us in His image for His good works, for His pleasure, for His plan. There’s meaning to our lives, not because of the measure of the world, but because God knew us, knit us, wove us, made us, even before the world ever knew us.
Masters Winner’s Identity Isn’t Golf but God
Source: Jon Ackerman, “Scottie Scheffler wins Masters, says 'reason I play golf is I'm trying to glorify God',” Sports Spectrum (4-10-22)
https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2022/september/masters-winners-identity-isnt-golf-but-god.html
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Back in May, Scottie Scheffler became a very familiar name, even outside of the sport of golf. He was the golfer who was arrested trying to drive around the scene of a fatal crash on his way to the PGA Championship in Louisville, Kentucky.
Fortunately for him, all of the charges were dismissed. It was one big misunderstanding.
Back in February of 2022, though, Scottie Scheffler was a 25-year-old beginning his third full season on the PGA Tour, ranked 15th in the world. He was still seeking his first victory on the game’s top circuit. And on Sunday April 10, 2022, Scheffler became a Masters champion as well.
In a press conference after his victory, sporting his new green jacket, Scheffler was asked how he balances his desire to compete—which is fierce—without letting it define who he is as a person. Scheffler then opened up about his faith. He said this:
The reason why I play golf is I’m trying to glorify God and all that He’s done in my life. So, for me, my identity isn’t a golf score. Like my wife, Meredith, told me this morning, “If you win this golf tournament today, if you lose this golf tournament by 10 shots, if you never win another golf tournament again, I’m still going to love you, you’re still going to be the same person. Jesus loves you and nothing changes.” All I’m trying to do is glorify God and that’s why I’m here and that’s why I’m in [this] position.
You see, no matter how successful we become, our identity is not tangled in our wins and losses, our successes and failures. Our identity comes through Christ and bringing Him glory.
The truth is, our identity is in Christ!
Paul writes in Galatians 2:
18 If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a lawbreaker. 19 Through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. (Galatians 2, NIV1984)
It is no longer I that live — it is Christ that lives in me!
My identity is now that of Jesus! Why? Because He paid the price that I could not pay.
Barclay, William. The Letters to the Galatians and Ephesians (The New Daily Study Bible) (pp. 26-27). Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition.
PAUL speaks [here] out of the depths of personal experience. For him to put back in place the whole fabric of the law would have been spiritual suicide. He says that through the law he died to the law that he might live to God. What he means is this: he had tried the way of law; he had tried with all the terrible intensity of his burning conviction to put himself right with God by a life that sought to obey every single item of that law. He had found that such an attempt produced nothing but a deeper and deeper sense that all he could do could never put him right with God. All the law had done was to show him his own helplessness. Thereupon, he had quite suddenly abandoned that way and had cast himself, sinner as he was, on the mercy of God. It was the law which had driven him to God. To go back to the law would simply have entangled him all over again in the sense of estrangement from God. So great was the change that the only way he could describe it was to say that he had been crucified with Christ so that the man he used to be was dead and the living power within him now was Christ himself.
Christ Disarmed the Law
Source: Adapted from "Who Will Deliver Us?" by Paul F.M. Zahl. Leadership, Vol. 4, no. 4.
https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/1996/june/172.html
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A duck hunter was with a friend in the wide-open land of southeastern Georgia. Far away on the horizon he noticed a cloud of smoke. Soon he could hear crackling as the wind shifted. He realized the terrible truth: a brushfire was advancing, so fast they couldn't outrun it.
Rifling through his pockets, he soon found what he was looking for: a book of matches. He lit a small fire around the two of them. Soon they were standing in a circle of blackened earth, waiting for the fire to come. They didn't have to wait long. They covered their mouths with handkerchiefs and braced themselves. The fire came near — and swept over them. But they were completely unhurt, untouched. Fire would not pass where fire had already passed.
The Old Testament law is like a brushfire. We cannot escape it. But if we stand in the burned over place, not a hair of our head will be singed. Christ's death is the burned-over place. There we huddle, hardly believing yet relieved. The law is powerful, yet powerless: Christ's death has disarmed it.
We no longer have to try to find our identity in the works that we do. No, instead, before God, our identity has to be that of Jesus Christ, who died in our place, who completely fulfilled the law in our place, who gave His life so that we might be restored to a relationship with God.
When we surrender to Him, when we allow our lives to be surrounded and filled with His righteousness, there’s going to be a change in our lives, just like Paul experienced. Our old selves, the part of us that is stained with sin, dies. We are then resurrected, not to our old lives, but to a life filled with Jesus.
Our identity then is not what wonderful people we think we are. Our identity is found in the blood of Jesus — in the grace and mercy He shows us, forgiving our sins, and coming to dwell in our hearts for eternity.
2. We have to accept the reality of sin and grace.
You see, sin is universal.
Paul wrote in Romans 3:
21 But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. (Romans 3, NIV1984)
Every single one of us have sinned. That is a universal truth, since the beginning of mankind!
John wrote in 1 John 1:
8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful, and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar, and His word has no place in our lives. (1 John 1, NIV1984)
We are sinners! Plain and simple!
COVID-19 and the Virus of Sin
Source: Adapted from Sam Storms, A Dozen Things God Did With Your Sin, (Crossway, 2022), pp. 73-74
https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2022/march/covid-19-and-virus-of-sin.html
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Beginning in 2019, the entire globe became immersed in the COVID-19 pandemic that so massively disrupted our daily routines. There became an understandable obsession with physical cleanliness, which is kept pace with the spread of the virus itself. Everywhere we looked, there were signs demanding that we regularly wash our hands and refrain from touching our faces. Personal hygiene became paramount.
In the early stages of the pandemic, we heard of certain individuals who were hoarding a wide variety of hand cleansers and then selling them at exorbitant prices. At offices, stores, and public places were numerous containers of disinfectant wipes that we, the general public, were expected to apply generously to all surfaces and objects. The disinfectant claims to kill cold and flu viruses and virtually all bacteria within fifteen seconds.
Needless to say, the concern in the wake of COVID-19 is physical health. External cleanliness to guard us against infection is the goal. It is common sense to take steps to protect ourselves from such outbreaks of disease. But to put this crisis in an eternal perspective, the worst that COVID-19 can do is take your physical life. Any form of physical infection from a lethal virus can do only so much.
But there is a worse virus circulating in our world, infecting every single soul, which is 100 percent fatal. It is the virus of sin, contracted from spiritual rebellion and its eternal consequences for people is far more severe.
Thankfully, though, John goes on to say something else:
1 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense — Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2, NIV1984)
We have one who atones for our sin. We all have sinned. We all have had our sins wiped away.
That is the power of grace! We did not deserve it. But God still wanted to show His love for us.
God’s grace, a free gift, has been offered, and those of us who have accepted that gift, can shout our true identity — we are sinners saved by a mighty grace!
‘Amazing grace’ is 250 years old. Here’s the story behind the song
https://www.premierchristianity.com/worship/amazing-grace-is-250-years-old-heres-the-story-behind-the-song/14620.article
Simon Barker
December 23, 2022
That’s exactly the sentiment that John Newton wanted to share in a hymn he wrote, way back in 1773.
It started, though, in the small market town of Olney, in rural Buckinghamshire, England. A former slave trader, John Newton told the personal, powerful tale of redemption and God’s grace. As a young man, his life was spent at sea. He became part of the slave trade, rising to the rank of captain and transporting slaves from Sierra Leone to the West Indies.
But in 1748, on board The Greyhound, a fierce storm arose off Ireland. Newton, fearing for his life, cried out to a God he barely knew. He promised that, if his life was spared, he would devote the remainder of it to God’s service. The ship survived – barely – and Newton miraculously made land.
In his gratitude, he never forgot his promise to God and committed his life to serving him. Due to his previous life experience and lack of education, it took more than seven years for him to be accepted into ministry in the Church of England.
His first post was as an assistant parish priest at St. Peter and St. Paul church, Olney - at that time a poor Buckinghamshire village consisting mainly of farm laborers and lace-makers.
As Newton preached and ministered to his flock, he developed the habit of writing hymns - many with his good friend and local poet William Cowper - to accompany his weekly sermons and help his listeners understand the message. And so it was that, ahead of his New Year’s Day service in 1773, Newton wrote ‘Amazing grace’ to accompany his teaching on 1 Chronicles 17:16-17.
Little did he and his congregation know that his hymn would go on to be so internationally renowned.
The words speak powerfully of Newton’s own personal experience of grace – how God had seen him through toils and dangers; how he had been spiritually lost but yet God had, both physically and spiritually, rescued him and led him home.
Sinners — saved by an amazing grace!
3. It is in that grace that we find our new identity.
You see, we were chosen! No matter what has gone on in our lives, God still chooses us! God still chooses to save us! God still sent Jesus to rescue us from the bondage of sin! God still chose you and me. God still wants us to be part of His family, to be His people, to be His own.
In 1 Peter 2, Peter says:
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. (1 Peter 2, NIV1984)
In the Old Testament, you had to be born into a certain family, in a certain part of the world in order to be God’s chosen people. That meant that most of us here today would have been excluded.
But God had something different in mind. While I believe Israel is still God’s chosen people of old, and have a special place in God’s heart, we too have become part of His holy nation, His people through the grace He gives us, through the mercy He extends to us.
Jesus often talked about other sheep. That’s us! The Gentiles. The ones who become part of God’s family through the blood of Jesus.
And that, friends, is our true identity — our true family. We are sinners, saved by a mighty grace. We are chosen by God. He knows every single one of us by name. We are God’s special creation and we are His special children.
4. Finally, friends, it’s time we began living that way. It’s time that we, as saved children of God, began embracing our true identity in Christ.
Think of how differently we would approach our lives if we lived like we truly believed we were chosen by God.
We are God’s children!
We are more important than anything else in this world.
God knows us, even down to the number of decreasing hairs on the top of my head, according to Luke 12:7.
God knows our thoughts, our desires, our hurts, our struggles. God loves us, each and every one.
When the world begins slinging mud at us, wipe it off and shout it out that we are chosen by God.
When the world begins to tear us down, let’s build each other up, reminding each other that we are a royal priesthood — sons and daughters of the King.
When the world shouts that we are useless, remind the world that God has a purpose for each of our lives.
When the world tries to destroy us, remember that we have a home awaiting us that puts this world to shame.
When the world doesn’t choose us for its games, its promotions, it’s ways, never forget that we are chosen by the maker of the universe: God Almighty!
This world can tell us any lie it wants, and we know the truth when we have rooted and grounded ourselves in Jesus, in whom our true identity is found.
Conclusion
This morning the world is trying to destroy and distort our identity. This world is trying to put our identity in crisis so that we do not know who we are — so that we will follow the ways of Satan.
He has filled this world with so many lines that the truth seems to keep being buried.
But this morning, our true identity is found in Christ. We are all sinners saved by an amazing grace. And, we have a new identity in this world as God’s chosen people. God chose you and God chose me!
Do you need a new identity today? Do you need a new approach to this world? A new way to see the world?
Surrender your life to Him today. Become part of His family. Find your new identity as a chosen child of the almighty God!
