Who Am I

All about YOU!

Tell me something about yourself?

What is your favorite food?

What is your favorite sport to play?

What is your favorite hobby?

What is your favorite thing about yourself?

How do you measure the worth in another person that you meet?

How do you measure your personal worth?

How do you make yourself feel good about yourself? Where do you turn for security, comfort, or your identity What is your crutch?

All about ME

For me, there is a real struggle with my identity.

I really struggle with not being good enough. That really effects the idea of who I am, letting down someone else.

If we are not careful, our identity can be found in the wrong place if it’s not Jesus.

CRUTCHES

We all have different internal “crutches” that we lean on for SECURITY and for our own IDENTITY.

What’s your personal “GO TO” spot for your identity and security?

Anything short of building your identity around CHRIST will eventually end up as a disappointing mess.

Colossians 2:10, “…You are COMPLETE IN HIM.”

Ephesians 1:6, “I am ACCEPTED in the Beloved.”

21st Century America has four main “measuring sticks” for feeling good about yourself, and they all fall super short:

Appearance

80% of all American youth in a recent survey shared that they did NOT like the way they looked.

Not one single chapter in the whole Bible talks about Christ’s PHYSICAL APPEARANCE. It just describes Him briefly as “comely” and “plain.” Maybe that’s because God wanted to make sure we knew that true GREATNESS had nothing to do with how we look.

Intelligence

Christ wants to give us something far greater than I.Q. He wants to give us all true WISDOM (the ability to properly USE facts and knowledge).

1 Corinthians 2:16, “For we all have THE MIND OF CHRIST.”

James 1:5, “If any man lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives wisdom LIBERALLY.”

Special Abilities and/or Assets

Athletic ability, music, money…or even “how spiritual we can make ourselves look.”

What we THINK others THINK ABOUT US.

So, WHAT DO WE NEED TO DO to build our true identity around Christ?

Stop whining and start quoting “Ammunition Scriptures” often to yourself and in your mind.

Psalm 56:11, “In God I have put my trust. I will not be afraid of what men can do to me.”

Joel 3:10, “Let the weak say, ‘I AM STRONG!’”

Ephesians 1:6, “I am ACCEPTED in the Beloved.”

Philippians 4:13, “I can do ALL THINGS through Christ who strengthens me.”

Psalm 139:13-16 (portions), “I am fearfully and wonderfully made…God my Father knew me even before my limbs were formed in my mother’s womb.”

Remember that when you’re intimate WITH HIM, you won’t be easily intimidated BY THEM.

Proverbs 14:26, “In the fear of the Lord, there is STRONG CONFIDENCE.”

BUT Proverbs 29:25, “The fear of man causes a SNARE.”

Learn to recognize all your “LIMITATIONS” as just GOD’S MARKS OF SPECIAL OWNERSHIP.

The analogy is told of a painter who spent over two years creating an original painting. When he was finished, he showed it to one of his artist friends. But the only comment that the other guys made was. “There’s something not right with the frame.”

The painter was CRUSHED. Discouraged, he said back to his friend, “I spent years creating this WORK OF ART…but all you noticed was the FRAME!”

I bet God our Father feels that way towards us many times when we get so focused on our “frame” (all the superficial stuff) rather than our heart.

TONIGHT’S CLOSING: SUPPOSE THE PRESIDENT WALKED IN OUR BACK DOORS TONIGHT…

Just suppose that as you showed up for our youth church tonight, that you saw a helicopter land on our parking lot! As you got closer to the crowd of people, you saw that the helicopter was surrounded by Secret Service agents. You could hardly believe what you saw next. THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES climbed out of that helicopter and started to walk towards our sanctuary front doors!

Hard to imagine, I know…but just work with me. Suppose the President, flanked by FBI guys, came in our sanctuary doors and started to walk right up here to the platform. Obviously, everybody would be trying to figure out if it was an imposter or what was going on. Applause would start to break out and all of us would quickly go nuts! I mean, it’s no little deal when the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES SHOWS UP for a youth church service!

The President walks right up here to where I’m standing on the platform. He silences the whole crowd and then quietly asks me if he can use the microphone. I’m so blown away that I can barely answer. I finally mutter something like, “Of course, Mr. President…” Then I nervously hand him the mic. He begins to speak.

“I know this is highly unusual, but I’ve flown in tonight for only one purpose. There is someone in this crowd that I want to give special honor and recognition to this evening.”

“You see,” the President would continue, “I think so highly for this person that I wanted to do something TANGIBLE to show him my honor and respect. So I came here tonight to publicly pay him tribute in all honesty. Words fail me when I try to tell you how much I think of this individual. If giving up the office of the Presidency would somehow benefit this person I’ve come to honor tonight, I can honestly say that I would be willing to do it. In fact, I can honestly say that I would gladly LAY DOWN MY LIFE for this person if it were necessary. This individual means just that much to me.”

“So right now, I’d like to call this person forward for all of you to celebrate and honor right along with me. I’ve made sure that the national news cameras are present to ensure that what we’re about to do will be seen around the globe.”

Everyone in our whole youth church would be holding their breath, trying listen and to see who the President was about to honor. Then suppose…impossible as it is to imagine…that the President of the United States CALLS YOUR NAME!

At first, you’re so blown away that it doesn’t fully register with you. It’s just too impossible. But then the President says your name for a SECOND TIME, and you realize that the President of our entire nation is asking you to come forward. Friends around you start grabbing ahold of you and saying, “Get up there! He’s calling you!”

You can’t believe what you’re hearing! You start walking forward in a daze, being pushed by your friends towards the platform. You feel like you’re living some crazy dream that you can’t wake up from.

You reached the platform. The President smiles when he sees you, puts his arm around your shoulder, and then speaks to the crowd.

I’ve been pretty busy in Washington trying to handle national debt and wars everywhere. But I just felt it a priority to leave the White House this evening to publicly honor this individual that I hold in such high esteem. For some reason than I have time to begin listing tonight, this individual is one of America’s greatest citizens. And so in the months and years ahead, I ask that all of you treat him with honor and respect that he so richly deserves.

WHAT WOULD THAT MOMENT FELL LIKE IF YOUR NAME WAS THE ONE BEING CALLED BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES?

I’m sure you’re thinking, “That’s a stupid question.” “I don’t even like the president.”

You’re right. It is. We all know that at a moment like this we would feel fantastic beyond words. It would totally change our whole sense of security and self-esteem. And truthfully, for a while anyway, it wouldn’t matter very much what other people thought of us.

WHY?

Because if you are held in HIGH ESTEEM by someone who is really, really important…then we all know that YOU YOURSELF must be someone who is REALLY IMPORTANT, too.

And so, let me close by giving you some great news tonight. The Bible teaches us from cover to cover that YOU mean the WHOLE WORLD to Someone who is much more important than the President of the United States. You mean the universe to the very God who CREATED the entire universe! AND IF YOU ANCHOR YOUR WHOLE IDENTITY IN THAT ONE TRUTH…your whole world will be a STABLE one in a pretty UNSTABLE and crazy world.

My point? We all instinctively know that IF SOMEONE IS HELD IN HIGH HONOR BY SOMEONE ELSE WHO IS REALLY IMPORTANT, then that person himself MUST BE REALLY IMPORTANT.

So, the great news is that the Bible teaches us from cover to cover that YOU mean the WHOLE WORLD to Someone much more important than the President of the United States. You mean the universe to the very God who CREATED the universe!

Discussion

Tonight, we are talking about sometimes finding our security in something other than Christ. The truth is, people find security in a bunch of different things. What are some things that you think people find security in? Give me a couple of examples.

What are some of the reasons people find it so easy to put their security in some of the other things we listed?

Let’s flip the question…What are some of the reason people find it hard to put security in Christ?

Society really does create measuring sticks of success in appearance, popularity, intelligence and special talents. First, have you ever felt these pressures? Tell me about them. Second, How do we avoid looking at these in our security?

Let’s be honest, what would you consider your personal “Go To” for your own security?