Identity & Confidence in Christ
Introduction:
•I have noticed that there seems to be a trend in the mindset of many Christians that I think is degenerating our effectiveness.
•This trend/tendency seems to be present in many Christians.
•I am talking the fact that there are so many Christians that have absolutely no confidence (or even knowledge—head or heart) of who in the world they are.
•Many of you in this room this morning have found Christ, but have not found out WHO YOU ARE IN HIM.
•You know all about him, and you believe it.
•You believe that he is who he says he is. Hey, you’re here preparing to give your life for it.
•But, you somehow seem to escape believing what he says you are.
•What are you talking about, Noah?
•I am talking about the fact that many of you in this room this morning think that you are losers, some think you are worthless, some think that you are unable to do this or accomplish that, some think that you are not good enough because someone told you that you were not, some think that you are not loveable…how could you be…if you were lovable, your Mom or Dad would not have left you or your parents would not have gotten a divorce.
•Whatever the reason may be, I know there are people in this room this morning that for whatever reason either do not know or do not believe WHO YOU ARE in Christ…What he thinks you are…who he thinks you are.
•Some of you guys try to act tough. Maybe you like to be the center of attention, flirt a lot, act smooth, whatever…you look and seem real chill, but really, you think that you are worthless and you do the things you do so that you can cover up the fact that you are worried about what everyone thinks of you.
•You act the way you do to compensate for your insecurities.
•Some of you ladies run around talking about the fact that you feel fat or you feel ugly, when really that is just a small portion of the problem…you really think that you are not worth too much and that is why you dress that way that you do…it makes you think that maybe you are worth something if people stop to look at you, so you will do whatever you need to do to get people to look.
•Whatever it is…we have a society full of people with very little confidence and a whole lot of insecurities!
•I want to tell you this morning, that there are so many areas of our lives that are affected by what we think about ourselves, our identity, and our confidence.
•I would suggest that the following things directly mirror our confidence/identity:
oBehavior
oAttitude
oInsecurities/securities
oAbility to do or accomplish this or that…
oSuccess level (future, career…)
oRelationships with others are seriously affected by our perception of ourselves.
oRelationship wit Christ
•Well, this morning I want to remind or inform you of a few things that God believes about YOU.
•Simply hearing what I am going to share with you is probably not going to make a difference in you.
•Mainly because you have probably heard it all before.
•My hope for us this morning is that you would work very intentionally at BELIEVING these truths (not just hearing them).
•You see I think that our belief about who we are in Christ needs to be a part of our core value system!
•We have to believe it way deep down.
•So, here we go…
Who Are You?
Our first point this morning is in the form of a question, WHO ARE YOU??
First of all, listen to these words of Colossians 1:16 in the message translation “For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible,…everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him.”
The first truth that I would offer toward answering the question “who are you” is:
1.You are created in the image of God – Gen. 1:26-27 & are a Child of God- I John 3: 1,3… Children created in His Image!!!
God himself said, I love Bob enough to create him in MY image.
We are his creation and made in his image.
I spoke with a guy 2 weeks ago that said to me “I have been saved 5 months I do not get this whole confidence in Christ—children of God thing. I really do not understand much of this Christianity thing…it seems so lofty”
I went on to try to explain to this guy that God is our father—our maker—and that we ALL have a connection to him as that.
So, we ALL have that connection to God and still many go through life searching and die having never found what they were looking for.
They thought it was money, position, sex, drugs, and family…when it was their heavenly father.
I think that the story in Philly regarding this little girl who was kidnapped 6 years ago during a fire is a good example.
I recently saw a report in which a child psychologist said that the little girl would likely not have too difficult a time because that NATURAL connection between the mother and her daughter would tie them together. (just with the 9 months in her belly and the 10 weeks of her life)
You see, there is a bond between that mother and daughter that would have existed forever.
How closely this kidnapping story relates to what I want to share with you this morning.
SOME OF YOU HAVE BEEN KIDNAPPED BY YOUR SIN (and it has separated you from your father).
SOME OF YOU HAVE BEEN KIDNAPPED BY WHAT YOU THINK OF YOURSELF.
What are you talking about Noah?
Well, just as this little girl was kidnapped (removed from her mother), so have many of us been kidnapped (removed from our father) by different things in our lives.
Your sad view of who you are has stripped you of any confidence at all (or knowledge of truth, for that matter) and has severed any real connection with your father.
Today, this is for you.
It is time to decide that you will embrace and believe about YOU what YOUR FATHER believes about you.
YOU are his child and created in his image.
What else? Who are you?
2.You are Fearfully and wonderfully made and formed in mama’s womb– Psalm 139 (look more)
In Psalm 139 David is speaking about the omniscience of God—and the fact that he knows everything about us, both inward and outward.
It is in this 139th Psalm, that David lays on the line the truth about how much of US is revealed to the Lord.
It kind of bugs me out, actually.
Not only did he form us and know everything about us, he assures that he has formed or covered us in our mother’s womb. (he made us- Job 10:11)
David cannot really even conceive the amazement of the workmanship of the Lord to have created him.
In 139:14 David says “I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made”
So, who are you…. You are fearfully and wonderfully made.
I understand why some of you are fearfully made, just interacting with you, I am scared of you…you create fear by the way you look or act .
But why did David choose to use the word “fearfully” to describe the rest of us?
I would suggest 2 possibilities:
Amazed/bugged out by what was done in the ordinary course of nature…birth.
Or just shocked by the complexity of the creation of a human. Matthew Henry says “We may be justly astonished at the admirable contrivance of these living temples, the composition of every part, and the harmony of it all together.”
The physical or temporal—the fact that we are such a complex creation - with all its parts and such—what a amazing creation
And the spiritual man that we are each created to be adds even more to the complexity of who we are…WOW. The depth of who we are created to be.
That’s YOU!!!
YOU are fearfully and wonderfully made by God himself.
So, you are created in the image of God, a child of God and you are fearfully and wonderfully made.
What else does God say or believe about you?
3.GOD loves you so much that he sent his son for YOU! – John 3:16
Some of you are saying, what in the world is this guy reminding us of John 3:16 for…we know this!
I believe that the very essence of the gospel message (quote John 3:16) screams confirmation of how much God loves us and what we are worth.
If we cannot see (in God’s willingness to send his son for us) a deep love, then what would it take to convince us?
We should derive from the gospel message, a sense or source of confidence that is greater than anything.
Nothing is better. Nothing should or can match the profoundness of what God has done for us. It has to do it for us.
God loved YOU that much, what are you worth and who are you??
4.Christ loves you so much that he followed through with the plan to give his life for you. I John 3:16
Then, not only did our heavenly father love us enough to send his son, Jesus, but Jesus loved us enough to follow through with the sacrifice of his life.
I have always thought that the connection between John 3:16 & I John 3:16 was an interesting one.
I John 3:16 says: 16This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.
JESUS followed through with the plan. He loved us so much that he laid his life down.
It was for YOU. He did it for you.
So who are you? You are worth not only God sending his son, but Christ choosing to lay his life down and endure what he did for you because of his love!
If you are worth that, then aren’t you worth something?
Who else are you?
5.A friend of Christ- John 15:15
I love John 15!
The words of Jesus in this exchange with his disciples are for us as well.
Here are the words of Jesus in John 15:12-15:
12My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command. 15I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you”
You and I are friends of God as well!
So, who are you?
YOU are:
oYou are Created in the image of God
oYou are A Child of God
oYou are fearfully & wonderfully made
oYou are loved so much by God that he sent his son to die for you
oYou are loved by Christ enough that he gave his life for you
oAnd now You are friend of Christ’s
That is just a few…I could go on to tell you that you are:
6.An Heir of God; A Joint Heir With Christ – Romans 8: 16-17
7.A Temple of God/HS – I Cor. 3: 16-17 & 6: 19
8.You are “More than a conqueror, sir!” – Romans 8: 33-38
9.Much More…
•Today is the day to start believing who you are!
•I recently preached a message on Love. Within the message I was talking about how we feel Christ’s love.
•One of points was “Can you feel the love tonight” and I had the congregation stand up and sing this Elton John tune :-)
•As I prepared that message it dawned on me, “You know what…I do not always feel Christ’s love. Let’s get real. I am not about to tell these people to put a lot of stock in feeling the Love of God.”
•It dawned on me that it is time that we start teaching people to truly believe in his love.
•That way, even when you do not feel it you cannot escape the reality of it, because you BELIEVE IT!
•It is time that we replace fact with feeling & believe these things that I have shared with you about WHO YOU ARE even when you do not feel them.
•When you feel like you do not add up…remember to BELIEVE that you are created in God’s image.
•When you feel alone or unwanted…remember to BELIEVE that you are a child of God.
•When you feel stupid or ugly or fat…remember to BELIEVE that you are fearfully and wonderfully made
-When you feel unappreciated or unloved …remember to BELIEVE that God loved you enough to send Jesus for YOU
•When you feel like you are not worth it…remember to BELIEVE that Jesus loved you enough to die for you.
•I want you to grab this quote, I only come up with a good one every now and then. This is original:
•Truly knowing our identity MUST begin with knowing who God is, proceeds to knowing who we are (which we just spent the last few minutes establishing) and ends with realizing that it is not about us, but Him.
•This idea leads me to the second and final point of our message this morning
•We established WHO WE ARE…Now I want to suggest that (point 2) it IS NOT ABOUT US!!
It’s Not About You!
The first phrase of the very first page of Rick Warren’s Book “The Purpose Driven Life” says theses words--- “It’s not about you!”
After spending the last 20 minutes laying the groundwork for this message and reminding you of who you are in Christ, I am going to move to my second and final point this morning and try to show you that it is NOT ABOUT YOU!
I hope there is a tension formed between these 2 ideas…that is my intent.
You see, I feel that it is super-important to understand who we are because of Christ.
Remember, True identity starts with knowing who He is and who we are in him and ends with knowing that it is not about us.
Noah, what is “IT?”
WHAT is not about us?
Your existence, your life, your call, your goals, and your purpose…they are not about you.
They are about Christ. You are about Christ.
Rick Warren’s book “Purpose Driven Life” speaks numerous times to this idea that our life is not about us.
Allow me to read you a quote to you from the first chapter of Purpose Driven Life:
o“The Purpose of your life is far greater than your own personal fulfillment, your peace of mind, or even your happiness. It’s far greater than your family, your career, or even your wildest dreams and ambitions. If you want to know why you were placed on this planet, you must begin with God. You were born by his purpose and for his purpose.”
We tend to be so self-centered sometimes.
What am I going to do with MY life? Etc.
It all starts with God.
Remember what we said earlier…even at the very beginning of knowing who we are, it started with understanding our creator and our connection to him.
We had to-- at the foundation of it all, understand that we had our very beginning from GOD, our father.
You and I exist because HE agreed to it.
Allow me to read to you Ephesians 1:11 in MSG:
11It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living,
I want to leave you with 2 ideas this morning in relation to this “It’s not about you concept.” Hopefully you will remember them. I will be brief and then we will close.
What is it about then, if it is not about me?
1.First of all, our lives are about someone much greater than us…
One of the reasons that we exist is to glorify God…to lift him up and put the focus on him
Look at Jesus.
Is it not Jesus who said “I am here not accomplish not my will, but the will of my father who sent me.” WHERE IS THIS?
If Christ understood that even his life on this earth was about SOMEONE much greater, how much more should we?
The same guy that I referenced earlier in the same conversation asked me the famous question…WHAT IF WE ARE WRONG?
The guy was grappling with this idea of living his life (which he had lived for 34 years without God) FOR someone else.
What if we are wrong, he said in a concerned way?
This is the famous question that most people think, but many are scared to say aloud.
What if this whole thing is whacked out? What if there is no God and I am committing to live my life for him, the guy asked?
I started by giving him a few reasons why I thought there was a God (assuring him that he is normal, I still ask those questions every now and then):
oGood and evil
oBeauty of creation
oExistence of mankind
oAccuracy of scripture
Then I told him this. You know what, look at it this way:
What if we are wrong?
It seems to me that many are afraid to answer this blasphemous question.
I answer the dude’s question…
If we are wrong:
oWe live a great life
oWe do right
oWe feel good
oWe love others and in turn are loved
oWe live our lives for someone (we think) is much greater than us
oWe spend a lot of our time focusing on loving (God & others)
oWe waste a little time, though (church & such)
oWe hopefully make a positive impact in the short time that we are here.
oWe die and go to…dust (I guess)
OK, so that sounds a LOT better than not doing this whole Christianity thing.
Now, on the other hand, if we are right; OH BOY!!
The glory that is ahead for us and the joy that we should have now…MAN!!
Well, I could go on, but for the sake of time, let’s remember that…
Our lives are about someone much greater than us
2.Second, our lives are about something much larger than us…
The plan, the intent, the purpose of your life is indeed much larger than you can comprehend.
God desires to use you and do things in and through you that you are not even meant to conceive (in my opinion)
Here is a good way to illustrate it.
Habakkuk 1:5, for me mean that this life is TRULY about something much larger than me!
So large that…well here it is:
Hab. 1:5 – 5 "Look at the nations and watch- and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.
Sitting here in the first chapter of Habakkuk, this verse is part of the Lord’s answer to Habakkuk’s first complaint (and is actually in reference to the Lord’s response to the nations & violence)
I am not attempting to take this passage out of context, so I want to make that clear. I recognize the purpose of this passage; however, when I think of it I am reminded of what I think the Lord thinks of our lives.
See, I BELIEVE that the Lord wants you and I to know that he desires to do things in your life that you would not believe even if you were told.
Embrace that. Dream big. Believe big.
My parents always told me “Noah, God has something really big in store for you.”
Whether he does or not, I believe that he does.
I believe that I am worth something to the Lord that words cannot express.
I BELIEVE that the Lord wants to do something in my day that I would not believe even if I were told.
So, your life is not about you, it is about someone much greater than you and it is about something much larger than you.
Conclusion:
In conclusion this morning, I want you to grab this.
Believe who you are. You are a precious creation of God himself and he is crazy about you!
You need to know that.
But, you also need to know that this life is not about you, BUT it IS about someone much greater and something much larger than you.
Guys, we need to strive to have prideless confidence.
If we do not have any, this world will run right over us and very few will want anything that we have!
I Love You!
Let’s Pray.
