Wednesday Night (2)

Identity

Who you are is greater than any success or failure you could have.

What is a successful life.

Get in groups of 4 for a moment and talk about this question.

Here’s how I want you to approach it.

Your 75 years old. You’ve lived a long life.

Your physical health is not terrible, but not great.

You are reflecting back on your life.

What are your successes and what are your failures?

GO.

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Sunday I know we all asked in our small groups these 3 statements.

A. Societies can’t be strong without strong families.

B. We can’t have strong families without strong marriages.

C. We can’t have strong marriages when individuals are set on living selfish lives.

What do you think about those 3 statements?

Here’s a better question:

What are you doing right now to:

Help you build a strong family in the future?

To ensure your 75 year old self will thank you?

Read Psalm 25:5 “5 Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.”

Psalm 25:7 “7 Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for the sake of your goodness, O Lord!”

Galatians 2:20 “20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

John 3:17 “17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

Psalm 33:21-22 “21 For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name. 22 Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you.”

Who are you?

Some of you may find great success in sports, some of you not so much.

Is that who you are?

Is that really your identity?

In the deepest core of your being, begin someone who is good at sports

or

being someone who is not as good at sports.

How much does that really matter in eternity?

I know it may feel like it matters a lot now.

I’m not saying you should quit sports if you are involved.

But I am saying, that’s not your identity.

Don’t base who you are on that feeling.

When I was 17, I was about to graduate high school.

I played varsity soccer for Southside Christian School in Greenville.

We were in the upper state playoffs.

We lost.

In literally one moment my entire soccer career went from being part of who I was, to now being over.

Literally at the blowing of a whistle it was all over.

For everyone in this room, one day school will be over forever, sports will be over forever, trying to achieve scholarships will be over… all good things, but they will be over.

Then you step into this world of being an adult.

You have bills.

You have suffering and hardships.

Who are you then?

Well… You’re the same person you are now.

Yet so many people look around at that 18-25 year old stage and all of a sudden they realize they were lost.

Why?

Because of Psalm 25:5 and 7.

Psalm 19:14 “14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.”

John 1:12-13 “12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

Going back to this too,

If you are a child, what does that assume?

It assumes you have a mom and a dad.

God is our Father.

Have you ever considered the depth of that?

That God willingly refers to himself in that way?

That we are His children and He is our Father.

That’s who we are.

That right there.

Being loved by the God of the universe, being His child.

Trusting Him in all time sin all situations.

Rejecting and rebelling against all that the world says is successful and instead running as hard as I can to what He calls a W and what HE calls successful.

Wew…

May that be the meditation of my heart always.