Image of God

Holiness Identity

Does anyone remember the rise of skinny Jeans?

I do. These are jeans in the early 2000’s like 2006&7 that hugged your hips, through your knees and calfs down to your ankles

I absolutely remember like the day this trend started

It was a trend that was first recognized by Men

And the reason why I know that it came about in men was that the name of skinny Jeans, used to just be called Women’s Jeans.

I first started seeing this trend when I was running a skatepark…And you have to understand I have been a skateboarder for years…It is its own sub culture and tons of trends come from surfing and skating..If a skateboarder does it, its cool and you can sell it

But at the skate park all of these kids start coming skating with skinny jeans

And it starts with 1 then like 3 then its like 30 kids....this trend spread like wild fire so fast

and I remember asking them where are they even getting these jeans

And they were literally either taking them from their little sisters or they were going to thrift stores and buying women’s jeans so that they fit tighter

And there was a period of time where you would not see a skateboarder at my skatepark without skinny Jeans on...

So I get teenagers right, I have been working with them for years

So one night we did a special bible study just for the skaters

And I am teaching that night that they are made in the image of God

So I ask them why they all wear their sisters jeans (And you have to understand how odd this was when the trend started, now its normal but I have to tell you that this was just so strange to see men in women’s Jeans)

So they all reply that they just wanted a unique style and that no one else is doing this and that they are just all so unique...

I said to them, “I don’t think you know what the word unique means…Because you just look like every other skateboarder…Skinny jeans, long hair, t-shirt

I actually took a picture of them and printed it and showed it to them…I said…you guys don’t look unique…you all look the same

This is actually a bigger question of you and I in society though...

Why do we do the things we do? Why do we act the ways that we act?

It is because we are obedient to our identities

Those skater kids were skater kids through and through…and if it was a trend in skateboarding then they were going to do it....It didn’t matter if it looked silly or not…They were skaters...

But this isn’t just to pick on skater kids...

This is all of us.

Whatever identity we build for ourselves, we are ultimately obedient to it

Why does this matter?

Because Skinny Jeans just reveal the extent to which we are obedient to an identity and we build false identities all the time.

But what does it look like to build an identity on a Holy God?

So I want to go over some well trekked land in order to end up where we are going to end up today

Image of God

Genesis 1:27 NIV

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

Ultimately we probably all know this text. When humans were made, God fashioned us after himself…He put his stamp on us. He made all of the other creatures, birds, plants, animals,

Octopuses…which are arguably so much more cooler than humans

But it was only humanity that put his stamp on…His identity

So in order to grow in holiness…You need this simply truth and you need to get it at your core:

My identity comes from God.

Even though that is a very simple truth, it is one that we need to be reminded of from time to time

Not from your earthly father who abandoned or beat you

Not from your earthly father who was a great guy and very nice

Your heavenly father

Your identity doesn't come from your Job

It doesn't come from your race or nationality

It doesn't come from your gender

it doesn't come from your sexuality

It doesn't come from your wealth

It doesn't come from your social status

It doesn't come from your political party

It doesn’t come from your hobbies or even your talents

See ultimately your identity comes from God

And the second we begin building up an identity for ourselves that is not based on our father in heave is the second that we start building false Gods in our lies

Because we are all obedient to our identities

Because we are made in the image of God, we have a moral capacity, a relational capacity and a representative capacity.

Ultimately God is at the center of all morality: He is morally perfect and He has made you in his image

You have the ability to reflect a moral God

He made you for relationship, relationship with Himself and others. God loves Humanity, because we all bear his image

And lastly, God made you with a representative capacity: He designed you to represent him, you are His image that he made to reveal himself to the rest of the world

So many times when one of these three things fall apart in our lives we feel it and we know it.

We know when we have morally messed up, or when our relationship with God isn’t right

That is the spirit convicting us

They we are either morally not right

Relationally not right

or we are not representing God well...

And I really think the fact that we are made in God’s image is the first thing that Satan usurps in humanity

Deceived by sin

Genesis 3:1–5 (NIV)

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ”

“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

If you look at verse 5 what does the serpent tell eve?

When you eat of the fruit…You will be “like God”

But wait! The humans couldn’t be any more like God…We just read that God made the humans in his own image...

Satan’s first deception of humans was to make them call into question their identity

See, after Eve hearing this, she begins to think that maybe God is holding out on her....

I thought I was made in God’s image but this serpent seems to be telling me that I can be more like God!…So I am going to go after that

If you want to understand why this is so impotrant I have this fill-in the blank for you with these two arrows

Father —> Identity—> Obedience

If our relationship starts with our Father, we build our identity in Him and then we will just always be obedient to that

And here is the truth:

We can either be formed by the image of our father in heaven

Or we will be deformed by a false identities we build for ourselves

We will either live in obedience to God because we have our identities formed by him

Or we will always miss the mark because our identities are shaped by us

This is what happens to us when we take our self identity and base it on things like

our net worth

On our education level

On our position at work

On how your kids are acting

Building our identity on these things is a shifting sand that has no solid footing.

So after the sin of Adam and Eve....From this moment on…All humans are born with the sin condition

I want to show you one other thing: ‘

You being made in the image of God is SO POWERFUL

That it is the very thing that Satan wants to rip out of your life

Calling into question your identity is the way that Satan works

Its the way that Satan tried to throw Jesus off of his mission

Matthew 4:1–11 (NIV)

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:

“ ‘He will command his angels concerning you,

and they will lift you up in their hands,

so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”

Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

When you look at this story you see the The temptation of Jesus was Appetite, Approval and Ambition…

But the temptation that we just skip over all the time is “If you are the son of God” It was challenging directly the identity of Jesus

If you really are who you say you are...

Let’s see if God really loves you...

Satan’s trick from Creation to Jesus to now is to try and get all humanity to believe that they couldn't possibly:

Have the moral capacity of a Holy God

Have a relationship with a Holy God

or Represent a holy God

Satan’s greatest deception is to get you to build an identity on anything other than God

I don’t think Satan is picky, if you choose Moral Philosophy and not God to build your identity on then Satan is cool with that

And our world is perfectly constructed to tell you to build your identity on your job or on your style or on your hobby

So what do you do?

I think what Jesus says here is so relevant…It takes a death to self

Matthew 16:24 NIV

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

When Jesus said to take up your cross, they didn't understand that he would take the cross and bear their sin

When Jesus said to take up their cross it was meaning follow me radically

Build a new identity on me

It means to kill off the identity that you have built on everything else and build your whole life on who Jesus is

What Jesus is saying here is that No one follows Jesus by simply drifting into it.

Jesus was talking to the death of your old life…The death to selfishness…

For me that is a death to an identity…The death of the old Dave so that Jesus can make me brand new again

The person who does this needs to do it daily

And the Apostle Paul picks up on this in Romans 6 and helps us to understand what this all means so flip there with me and we are going to spend the rest of the time looking at this

Romans 6:1–11 NIV

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Paul is telling the church here, listen if you have come to follow Jesus then what has actually happened is that you have experienced death

A death to your old self

The death of your old self should have ended the reign of sin in your life

You should no longer be a slave to sin..

What is Paul dong here?

He is building a new identity within the church!

You are not slaves any more! you are free…Sin has no power over you

You are dead to sin..>Don’t give it a place in your life any longer

This may seem hard to believe now, but when you continually build your life on the resurrected God, His death and resurrection frees us from the bondage of sin.

I love in verse 11: Paul is breaking down for the church what the death and resurrection of Jesus is all about…and how he has broken the power of sin and how we can be united with him forever

And then he says in the next breath…IN THE SAME WAY…THIS IDO FOR YOU TOO! Be dead to sin and alive to God

And some of you are like…Yeah thats great I want that life but you leave here and end up a victory-less and powerless life in Jesus why???

Maybe its because your identity is still tied to sinful stuff

Romans 6:12–14 NIV

Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

Just like a skater wearing Skinny Jeans in 2007, you will be obedient to the identity that you have....

Paul says: Do not let sin Reign in your mortal Body!

See how do you let sin Reign?

You have built an identity on anything other that God

And when you do that it is so easy to allow sin to reign in your mortal body!

It’s Skinny jeans and skateboarding...

Don’t give yourself over to sin

It is no longer your master!

You have to kill off that old part of your identity, that you stay obedient to

It’s a death to self

If the old you is dead, quit resurrecting him

Quit being faithful to the sinful person you used to be!

And then jump down to verse 19

Romans 6:19–23 NIV

I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul says that you used to offer yourselves to impurity with this ever increasing wickedness

Why do people keep going back?

What you do on a regular basis is who you become

The activities you engage in, the behavior you find acceptable, the relationships you have…it is what you become…you build identity on it and you are always faithful to that identity

So Paul is saying look you were slaves to impurity but now offer you-selves as slaves to righteousness…Because this leads to holiness

Paul is adamant that when you build your life on Jesus

when you die to yourself

when you give yourself over to righteousness

then Holiness is what follows

You were created for a Holy life...

When God made you he used himself as the mold

You have the capacity for morality beyond what you have ever imagined

You have the capacity for relationships like you have never had before

And you have the ability to represent God to the world in powerful ways

But you have to let that old identity go!

So maybe your here today and you need to

Die to self

Become a slave to righteousness

Challenge

Examine your identity

Have you built your identity on the fact that Jesus is God and that your father in heaven loves you?

Die to self

Have you made the commitment to die to self week in and week out?

Commitment to righteousness

Paul says that we need to become slaves to righteousness.

You can do this by in every situation asking what does righteousness require

Building your identity and life on Jesus

You will ultimately be obedient to your identity