Your Identity Is Essential Series

Your Identity is Essential

Genesis 1:26-31

Rev. Brian Bill

October 7-8, 2023

Parents, I want to give you a heads-up that parts of the sermon may not be appropriate for younger children. If your child is not ready to hear about sexuality and gender matters, feel free to step out while I’m praying.

Prayer

Let’s begin with a quote from Martin Luther…

“If I profess with loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except that little point which the world and the Devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved…and disgrace if he flinches at that point.”

We want to be faithful and not flinch as the battle rages around the idea of identity today. We will not avoid talking about those areas where the Devil is attacking in this moment. We are committed to be convictional when preaching about sin while being compassionate toward sinners, which includes me and you. We will be unshaken in our faith and unashamed of the gospel as we remain anchored to the truth, even as the waves of cultural change wash over us and the undercurrents and riptides of an untethered culture sweep myriads of people out to sea.

Many today seem obsessed with identity. From personality tests to Enneagram inventories, it seems like everyone is searching for something to tell them who they are and where they belong. This week, I did a Google search of the phrase, “What do you identify as?” I thought the number of results would be high, but I was shocked when it came back with 8.6 billion hits!

Identity is quite powerful because it relates to who we are and why we’re here. It is how we define ourselves, and it clarifies our purpose in life. Contrary to our culture’s confusion, identity is not self-declared or self-developed; it is given to us by our Maker and Redeemer.

The topic of identity is a huge issue in our culture today. Many suggest we can find our identity by looking inward. Others proclaim identity is wrapped up in what we do or with what we have. Still others equate identity with gender or sexuality. James Jeffery writes: “The great tragedy in such thinking is its reductionism. It shrinks a person from being an intelligently designed, unique, and beautiful image-bearer of God to the mere product of sexual instincts. Is there anything more animalistic than reducing a person to the sum of their sexual desires?”

Before I go further, let me be quick to say we are not out to clobber sinners. While we are not affirming of people in their sin, we are all about welcoming sinners. If you are struggling with gender or sexuality issues, we want to help. The Bible says we are all sinners and Jesus died for all sins. Can greedy people come to church? Of course. Can those who have committed adultery attend? Absolutely. Gossips? I’m sure we have our fair share.

If you struggle in any way, you are welcome here. And yet, we will not affirm anyone in their iniquity. We only affirm Jesus, not any other human, because none of us are without sin. We don’t celebrate sin, but we do welcome sinners. The glory of the gospel is that Jesus grants forgiveness and freedom, along with healing and hope, when we repent of our sins and receive Him as our Lord and Savior.

Recently, on The Briefing Podcast, Al Mohler highlighted the “The Oxford Safe Churches Project” published in The Times of London. The headline read, “LGBT Ratings for Churches.” The story goes like this: “Oxford students have rated local churches based on how safe they are for gay and transgender…the students awarded scores…after analyzing sermons and blog posts and speaking to worshippers.”

Using a traffic light system, churches like Edgewood would receive a “red” light because we hold to the biblical teaching that the practice of homosexuality is sinful. In this scale, even though we strive to be compassionate toward sinners, Edgewood would receive a red light because we contend for biblical Christianity, speaking truth about sin, and offering grace to sinners. According to their scale, churches that receive a “green” light have “internalized a queer identity and a large number of LGBTQ+ people…lead the church.”

Listen to what Mohler said, “People are going to be taking names and they’re going to be keeping score…and the entire criterion for being declared on the right side of history, so to speak, is full unequivocal support of the normalization of all LGBT behaviors, relationships, the entire agenda…it’s something like an alarm going off. It’s a siren that’s now being heard…it’s coming for your town…in one sense, it’s coming for your church…we’re going to know where every church stands in very short order.”