Sermon Tone Analysis

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

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