New Beginnings
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Exodus 3:7-11
Exodus 3:7-11
Matthew 3:13-17
Matthew 3:13-17
Identity determines what we will do. We are all driven by our identities.
SEAM: The same is true in our own lives. The identity we claim determine the way we will live.
Why is this important for us to know? Because most of us are trying to live a certain way in order to have an identity.
It is what we do every year at this time. We create new habits, routines. Or maybe we stop doing something, so we can be new. Healthy, humble, wise. Patient, content.
But a month in, two months in…if your me…already you have fallen short. Failed. Given up. You wish you could be those things. You wish you could have one of those identities.
Some majority of us end up living lives where we do not even know what our identities are. We live the identities that other people give us.
Our Parents give us.
Writer story
Our Friends.
Work:
Social Media: Influencer. Wealthy
Our Bosses… Hollywood…Social Media… The World…Satan himself...
I am what I do. (What contribution to you bring to the world? We try to earn love from others instead of accepting God’s free love through Christ
I am what I have. We believe that security is found in what I have…where Jesus models surrender to the love and security of the Father.
I am what others think. This is all about influence…and I think this is the false identity that is becoming the biggest deal especailly for millenials and Gen Z. They are influence driven. Their lives are lived online… where success is dfeined by how many people see me…how many likes do I get… how many shares do I have. I wish that I was immune to this, but this is the atmosphere of our culture.
When we do not know who we are it literally does “violence upon ourselves.” It causes violence upon our relationship wiht others and most importantly, we are unable to have an honest/intimate relationship with God.
And that leads us down a hole of wanting approaval, wanting comfort, wanting love from people…that are unable to give it…because we do not know our true identities. “The Truest thing about ourselves.
In order to break free…to be able to be at peace with ourselves and have true relationship with God… we must know our trueselves.
We must learn to love ourselves for all our strengths weaknesses and dificiencies as God does.
Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. But John tried to stop him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and yet you come to me?”
Jesus answered him, “Allow it for now, because this is the way for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John allowed him to be baptized.
When Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water. The heavens suddenly opened for him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming down on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased.”
Baptism unites us with Jesus.
We are children of God.
Romans 8:12-17 shows us this adoption.
So then, brothers and sisters, we are not obligated to the flesh to live according to the flesh, because if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all those led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. Instead, you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father!” The Spirit himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children, and if children, also heirs—heirs of God and coheirs with Christ—if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.
You and I do not have to live the identities we had before. We do not need to be enslaved to our flesh…a biblical symbol for the selfish, selfmotivated, broken parts of us. We are instead now adopted into God’s family. We have a heavenly Father.
We are no longer defined by the identiies others have given us… we are defined by God’s Love...
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
And as Children of God we can experience his forgiveness.... Matthew 6:9-13
“This, then, is how you should pray:
“ ‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.’
You are no longer a slave to sin. You do not have to make choices that hurt you and those around you. You don’t need to live in addiction to destructive habits or thoughts
But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.
One of the biggest things that I am working on right now is experiencing freedom from not needing the love of others.
When we fully know how loved we are…how much God really loves us…we are not starved for love…we are full of love… and the sign of being full of love, is that it pours out onto those around you...
Even as christians… you and I live the story of the Prodigal son…
Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
“Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
“When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ So he got up and went to his father.
“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
“The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
“But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.
While you and I may not run away physically. While we may not deconstruct…or drop your faith…We all have the experience of walking away spiritually. All of us have gone to the distant land of false selfs. Of trying to find love in influence…security…work… instead of being at home with the father...
And we become jealous of people that have what we dont. Or we become anxious about our safety… we feel guilty about the past…or fear about the future.
And the more and more we wander away…the more and more we make ourselves deaf to the voice of the father calling us back home...
But…whether you have walked away from faith…whether you are deconstructed or deconstructing… whether you are lost.... or find yourself living out of a false self...
The Father is always waiting for you to return. He is always calling you to return. His Love for you is always going to be greater than the distance you travel away from him. And when you admit that you are ready to come home… he will be there…celebrating.
If you are God’s son or daughter…you can never stop being his son or daughter. You are never more his son or daughter. He loves you…and there is nothing you can do to change that.
But how do you and I begin to live into our identities? How do we move it from something we know to something that we live.
The Journey begins with being honest with how you feel. Feelings are an essential part of what makes us men and women made in the image of God.
See God is an emotional being. Scripture is full of the ways that he feels emotion.
How can I give you up, Ephraim?
How can I surrender you, Israel?
How can I make you like Admah?
How can I treat you like Zeboiim?
I have had a change of heart;
my compassion is stirred!
Taking along Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. He said to them, “I am deeply grieved to the point of death. Remain here and stay awake with me.”
After looking around at them with anger, he was grieved at the hardness of their hearts and told the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out, and his hand was restored.
Apart of the way that we are in God’s image is we feel feelings like God does.
Seam: The issue then comes in when you and I do not know how to reflect or respond to our feelings.
God created our physical bodies to respond to the very world around us.
Sadness. Rage. Anger. Joy. Happiness. Fear. Depression
All of these are signs to something happening internally in reaction to something happening externally.
Many of us label these feelings then as good and bad feelings. We unintentionally create rules against feeling certain feelings, and we stuff them down…pretending they do not exist.
Feelings though do not go away…unless a feeling is felt… it will leak in places that can become destructive and toxic.
I see this in my own life in my marriage. There is something about work stress…or being angry about something at work, or sad about something that happens at work…that moves me to treating my wife badly. There were many times…and probably more times now than I would like to admit…that I will say something to Missy that I diddnt mean to, or treat her passive aggressivly… bvecause I have not dealt with a feeling at work....
But you know what the great thing is. Resilient, healthy couples can handle each others emotions. If I come to Missy and say “I am angry about this” and show honesty and vulnerablity about my feelings, she shows me compassion and mercy 99 out of 100 times.
Seam: The practice to learn is to instead of blindly letting our feelings lead us…to acknowledge them as part of the way God commuincates with us.
The way to do that is to learn the different between “Consolations” and “Desolations”.
Consolations are feelings that bring us closer to God and bring Joy, peace and fruit of the spirit.
Desolations are things that move us away from God. They are feelings that bring anxiety, chaos, disquiet. Like Spiritual Turbulance too our souls.
So as we go through the day…we constantly hold what we are feeling before ourselves and ask is this a “Consolation or Desolation?” Is this bringing me closer to God or away from God.
John shows us this wisdom in 1 John 4:1
Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
The Book Cry of the Soul summarizes why this is so important like this “Ignoring our emotions is turning our backs on reality. Listening to our emotions ushers us into reality. And reality is where you and I meet God.”
Seam: When we begin to meet God in the honesty of our emotions, we begin to be able to live in reality of who we are.
Then… begin with these 4 practices to begin to deconstruct the false identities that you claim and begin living into your identity as a son or daughter of God.
Pay attention to your interior life through silence and solitude. The world is going to tell you who to be, what to think or what you feel. Be intentional about setting aside time to pray with God and ask him to help you understand what you are feeling. What are you angry about? Sad about? Afraid of? Journaling can be a great practice to do this with. During your day, taking 5 minutes to just write out in a notebook what your feeling and why will help with your emotional awareness. Be kind to yourself… this will take you time to learn. Start small… you will get better at it.
Find a Friend you can Trust. Dietrich Bonhoeffer says in Life Together “Let the person who cannot be alone beware of community. Let the person who is not in community beware of being alone.” Find someone that you can be yourself with. That you don’t need to try to impress or be good with. That you can just be you with. And then that person should also be able to remind you about your idenitty. They should be able to remind you that you are a son or daugther or God and not what you do, what you have or the influence you have. This could be a friend, a mentor or a pastor. One of the best things for me is I have 2 guys that I meet with for a couple hours every couple weeks. To be able to be me is not only good and healthy and helps remind me who I really am… but it is healing to the wounds and false identities that I struggle to unitch my self from.
Move out of your Comfort Zone. If you want to begin to live a different life you have to begin to live differently. So do things that make you uncomfortable. Begin to sit in silence and stillness. Try journaling… try praying with someone… try serving at the food pantry. And then be honest with yourself about what God is calling you to do. Are you living a life that people expect you to? Are you doing things out of peoples expectation… or are you listening to what God has for you. Are you living in ways that God is inviting you into. This is where the consolations and desolations help… when you are doing the things that God is inviting you… you will feel consolations… if not… you will feel desolation. There is a great story about a Rabbi called Zusya…he woudl say “In the coming world…they will not ask me why were you not more like Moses, they will ask… why were you not Zusya.”
Finally, Pray for courage. Pray that you can be couragous to not need the approaval of others. When people are telling you that you are wrong for doing or thinking a certain way.... that they cant accept you… pray to have courage to live into your idenitity as a son or daughter of God.