Very Good

What is up Journey Students, I have been excited and in prayer for this day as we are starting what I am calling a 7 part conversation called “Getting to Know the Real You.” Over the next two months we are going to be looking at Identity, and what God has to say about it. Because Identity is important, who we are informs how we think, how we think determines what we do, what we do determines our habits and lifestyle and our habits and lifestyle impact the way that we live. And the foundation to all of this is your identity.

Growing up we are always asked the question, what do you want to do when you grow up. Let me ask you, what do you want to do? (Get answers) I wanted to be a police officer, that was my goal and my mission. We get asked all the time what do we want to do, but nobody ever asks us who do we want to be?

Every single year Merriam-Webster, the people who literally write the dictionary, choose a word of the year. They choose this word based of the cultural relevance of that particular year and the amount of searches it received on google and other search engines. In 2020 I’m sure you can guess that the word of the year was Pandemic. For obvious reasons as our world came to a grinding halt and we are still coming out of. However..

In 2019, Merriam-Webster announced that they have chosen a new word of the year. The word they chose was “they”. Maybe you know this, but “they” is a pronoun used to refer to a person who’s gender identity is non-binary. It is a word that was added to the dictionary in September of last year. And in 4 short months of being in the dictionary it defined the year. Why this word? Becuase in 2019 people for the first time in history began to self-identity who they think they are. They do not believe they fit the gender norms based on how they feel on the inside so they created new pronouns to refer to themselves. Why? Because we realize that Identity is important.

Asentry.com and 23 and me are multi-million dollar companies every year that focuses on and helps people understand where they came from, what are their genetics, who are their ancestors. Who am I? And I want to ask you, who are you? Not what you do, because what you do isn’t who you are. In fact it is quite the opposite, the reason why you do the things that you do is because you believe certain things about yourself. Who are you? Not who you want to be or the mask that you put on in front of your friends or your family. Who are you? Not what people have said about you, maybe what your mom or your dad say you are. Who are you? It is not your sexuality or questioning your gender.

What is your identity? More importantly what does God say your identity is? Because listen students, we have a real enemy his name is Satan and he wants nothing more than for you to live in a false identity. This world around us is telling you that you can be whoever you want to be, live in your feelings, that we can identify as whatever we want to Identify and if that doesn’t float your boat you can identify as something else and all of a sudden human beings, you and me are being tossed around like a boat in an ocean storm, doing all these things to try to find out who we are. And we wonder why we are left empty. And I would say, it is because we are not living in the Identity God has given us. We are not living in the Identity of Jesus Christ. So our goal and the reason we are going to do a deep dive into this topic for 2 months is because we want to help you understand and know your identity we want you to get to know the real you.

As we begin we have to define what true Identity is, and we are going to use this definition every single week, we are going to hit it hard, take out your notes write this down. True Identity is knowing, receiving, beleving and displaying who God says I am. Not what culture around us says we are but who God says we are, and on the surface this looks pretty simple, but in reality, it is a 4 step process that we have to break down. As Jesus Followers we believe that the word of God is God’s playbook for our lives. What it says, is how we are supposed to live. And God speaks in incredible depth about your identity and who he has created you to be. Don’t look to culture to tell you who you are, in fact I would say don’t even look to your own feelings about who you think you are. Turn to God and his word and he will reveal to you what your identity is. People will call it narrow minded, old school, irrelevant, but I am betting on God being right. I am betting that since God designed you, he knows you better than you know you. So as we open up this conversation I want to take us all back to Genesis 1, the very beginning as we see the foundation of our identity being built.

Let’s open it up to Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning God.” Stop right there. What do you think about when you think about God? One theologian put it this way “What you think about when you think about God is the most important thing you think about.” Who is God to you? Have you ever thought about it in depth? Is he for emergencies only? Do you actually know who God is? Or do you know about God based on what others have said about him? Are you a Jesus follower? Or was he just a good moral teacher who didn’t die for the sins of the world?

I want you to know that I love you, and I care for you and what I am about to say next may break your view about God. There is a very dangerous teaching out there that God is all Love, that God will accept you as you are, he will approve of what you do, and you can live however you want to live because God loves you. Let me be very clear, God is a God of love, of mercy and of grace. We don’t deserve his love, we don’t deserve his mercy and grace. But we understand how sweet that is because God above all else, is a God of Righteousness, Truth and Justice. If God was that God of love as we talked about, there would be no reason for Jesus to come to this earth to sacrifice his live for the forgiveness of sins. When Jesus walked this earth he called Sin Sin, and sinners who believed in him saved, and he held them to a higher standard of living one that is in alignment with God’s truth. You see God loves us enough to tell us that we are wrong and sinful. True love doesn’t let those they love continue down a path that is destructive, harmful and empty. Think of an intervention someone who is an alcoholic or drug user. We don’t say “well thats fine, I love you so I approve of what you do” no. You intercede on their behalf and call them to live a better life. Jesus does the same with our sin, and it is because he is a bringer of truth. And when we believe in him he doesn’t just come to give us a better life, he gives us a whole new life. We have to understand that this is who God is, a God to Truth, Justice, Rightousness, Grace, Mercy and Love. That God at the end of it all if summarized and overly simplified. God is Good.

God is Good. Jesus is good. The Holy Spirit is Good. If you want to broaden that, God is the Creator and Sustainer of Everything. He is Eternal and unchanging in his goodness, truth, love, wisdom and power. God knowns you, God loves you, God created you. Don’t miss this. God is good. A clear understanding of God gives us a clear understanding of our identiy.

So as Genesis 1 continues we see and read that God creates and has a specific design for the world. He creates the heavens and the earth, water, air, the suns, stars and galaxies, he creates trees to bear fruit. He created it on purpose for a purpose and by design including human beings. So lets look at it in Genesis 1 starting in verse 26. “Then God said let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky over the livestock and all wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”  Do you understand what God is saying here about you?  God creates everything, then he places human beings, you and me at the top of the chain to rule and care for the planet. That you are the crown jewel of his creation. You are valuable.

Moving on to verse 27, “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; Male and female.” In what say it out loud. Male and Female. Male and female he created them. This is incredibly important because we are going to talk about in a few weeks the differences between Men and Women. In culture today this is argued but we are going to look at what the bible says about men and women. What it looks like to be a Godly Woman, and what it looks like to be a Godly man. The face that when God created us he created us Equal in purpose and worth, but different by design and work. Don’t miss that in a few weeks.

This is where we are going to focus the rest of our time on tonight. Verse 31. “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning – the sixth day.”  At the end of God creating, he looked back at his creation, and he looked at mankind, male and female and what did he say? It is very good. He didn’t say awe man I messed up that one, I wish I didn’t create that bird, or the sky really should be orange instead of blue, I wiffed on her, or I should have made him different. none of that. He looked at it and said it was very good. And the truth about this and the truth about your identity in this passage is that when God created you. When he formed you in your mothers womb, he said you were a good idea. You in all of your doubts, anger, questions, issues and smelliness, In all the things that you do that you wish you wouldn’t have done, and all the influence you allow others to have in your life, all the teenage hormones, and the unwise decisions you’ve made he look at you and he says I made it and it is a good idea. .

The bible does not start in Genesis 3 where Adam and Eve the original human beings were in the garden and sinned against God and ever since then every single person is born into sin, and yes we will talk about how that affects our identity and how God through his goodness made a way for us. But we have to understand that in the very beginning of Genesis according to God plan, heart and desire for male and female and for you and me it was very good. But I wonder if you feel very good?

I wonder when you look in the mirror do you feel very good? That when you are out with your boyfriend and you two do things that you regret do you feel very good? When you don’t know your mom or dad and you were adopted by a loving family or your parents walked out and you look at yourself and ask the question, was I not good enough for them so does that not make me good? Or when you keep making unwise choices and decisions that lead you into places and situations that you never thought you’d be and so you jump to the conclusion that “I am just not good.”

With you who is struggling with gender identity and sexual identity, and why do I do the things that I do, why do I constantly have toxic friendships, or rebel against the authority that God has placed over me? Listen very closely, your identity is not what you do, what you do is an extension of your identity. The reason why you do what you do, or think what you think is because you do not know and you have not received what God has said about you. And when God created you he said that you were a good idea. When you begin to receive and display this truth about your identity, what you do and how you think, how you talk, what you watch, how you treat yourself, and how you treat other around you will begin to change, because you will begin to live in the real you.

When you start living in this truth, that you were a good idea, you understand that your body is not your own, and it does not belong to anyone you willingly give it to.  You begin to realize that it doesn’t matter what others have said about you. Someone right now needs to hear this, you were not a mistake, I don’t care if you had bad parents and they told you or tell you that you are a mistake. They didn’t think about you, they didn’t design you. God did for a specific purpose and he calls you a very good idea. I know that your dad walked out, but it’s not your fault, it’s doesn’t define you as bad, you are a good idea. I know that you struggle with mental illness and you wonder over and over again, why am I like this, but listen, you are a good. This is the foundation that we have to build everything on, that when God created you, it was a good thing.

So who are you? Write this down, I am a human being, created by God in the image of God and I am a living breathing masterpiece of God. I am called very good. I am a human being, created by God in the image of God and I am a living breathing masterpiece of God. I am called very good.

Students, my prayer is that you will know, receive and display this truth. As you do, you will begin to live in the identity of the real you. You are a good idea.

Pray.