Fighting for Identity

Introduction

Beginning new Identity series

People oversimplify this in church - “Identity is in God” yeah but what does that even mean? Most of the time we don’t even know what that means.

If you ask the average Christian what having a Christian identity is - then you will most likely receive the same answer: it’s about being IN Christ, being Christlike - being saved. And none of these answers are wrong - but what does that MEAN?

Like have you ever seen a friend or family member backslide? But I thought that their identity was changed, that their identity is in Christ - how can you LOSE that identity? Is that even meant to be possible?

ILLUSTRATION: Backsliding

Friend who was Christian - but backslid. “Maybe I just was never a Christian. Maybe I just never knew God.”

I realise something now - that our identity is a very much a choice that we have to make - and if we don’t make it then it WILL be made for us more often than not.

Sometimes we can talk as if Christ is our identity when He’s actually not.

And that leads me to our passage for today - but before I get into that let’s pray.

Segment 1: Jacob’s Past Identity

Genesis 32:24–31 ESV

24 And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. 25 When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. 26 Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” 27 And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” 28 Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” 29 Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. 30 So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.” 31 The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.

This story is very much about Identity - but it goes layers deeper than what we first may see.

The fact that this story of Identity is a half-day wrestling match is no mistake either. God is literally wrestling with Jacob over Jacob’s identity - this situation is a physical manifestation of the inner conflict that is happening inside Jacob.

What you must know before entering this story is that Jacob is very much walking in his OLD identity. Jacob’s past is as a deceiver - in fact his name literally means “heel-grabber” or “supplanter”. Jacob was born a cheater.

In the bible names were incredibly important - a person’s name revealed their character. The fact that Jacob was named “Heel-grabber” meant that he would move through life by deceptive means. He would cheat, scheme, deceive his way to success.

And we saw this play out in 2 significant instances: 1) He cheated his brother Esau out of his inheritance by dressing up like him 2) He cheated his uncle Laban out of his livestock

Jacob had lived up to his name, he had found success by being a deceiver, a cheater.

Segment 2: Confronting the past

And although the naming system in our culture is different - like we don’t feel so defined by our name (even though I still think there’s something in that); we live in a society that likes to label things. And I find this operates very similarly to the naming system of the OT.

This is not just about Jacob - this is about us. We ALL have an old name. An Old label. An Old Identity. One which the world has given us, one that people have given us, one that maybe even we have given ourselves.

It is our identity OUTSIDE of God, it is who we are WITHOUT God.

You may not even have given it much thought but it is there.

ILLUSTRATION: Dog called “No”

I have a friend who owns a dog (ok I have many) the dog’s name was Macy. And this dog happens to be a little bit cheeky. So every time the dog would do something dog like they would scold the dog by saying “no!” and because they kept scolding the dog for random things that the dog would do - this dog actually stopped responding to the name Macy and started responding to the “name”: no. Which was quite hilarious, you’d just be asking a perfectly normal question, “hey you got plans tonight?” “nope” and the dog would like come waddling across and be like “sup?”

Sounds like a funny story - but weirdly enough this happens to some of us with the names that we have.

If you get called stupid enough - you begin to own the name stupid If you get called broken enough - you begin to own the name broken If you get called slutty enough - you begin to own the name slut If you get called useless enough - you begin to own the name useless If you get called worthless enough - you begin to own the name worthless If you get called pretty enough - you begin to own the name pretty

Just like Jacob we all have an old name - who we are without God, who we become without God, what we are like without being redeemed. And some of us own the name to the point that it is almost a self-fulfilling prophecy.

No matter what you do - you seem to play into the useless, the stupid, the broken, the worthless.

But take a look at the climax of this story wth Jacob. The climax occurs in v27 where after spending the entire night wrestling with God, God decides to bless him and asks him a question: “What is your name?”

This is God forcing Jacob to confront his identity. By speaking his name - Jacob is effectively presenting his old identity “Deceiver.” It is an admittance, a confession of sorts.

It is a crucial step toward the change of Identity that God has for us - are we even willing to let go of who we are? Are we willing to confront our current identity and realise that we are walking in something that God does NOT intend for us?

Are you willing to relinquish the labels that have been spoken over your life?

Are you willing to let go of the labels that you may have grown comfortable with but are not from God?

Here’s the thing: Jacob had previously survived as a deceiver. You could even say that it had got him to where he was. But it wasn’t the name that God had for him.

Just because it works, doesn’t mean it was of God. Just because your old identity seemed to be working does NOT mean it was of God.

Segment 3: Not your history - but His purpose

God has a name for each one of us - and it is not based on your history, but His purpose for you.

God doesn’t want you to live by a name that is defined by who you were before you met Him - He wants you to have a new name, that is intensely personal, a name that will reflect the purpose that He has for you here on Earth.

A name that is not defined by your past actions - but by the future purposes that He has for your life.

He wants you to let go of what man sees you as, and own the name that He KNOWS you as.

He wants you to let go of the names stupid, broken, bitter, pretty, worthless, smart - and He wants you to take on the names that He has written all over scripture for you: Son, Daughter, Beloved, Chosen, Friend, Redeemed, Overcomer - the list goes on and on. Read your bible!

But you know in my experience I find that as we spend time with God He calls us by specific names - names that are intensely personal to His relationship with us.

Sit with Him, speak with Him - allow Him to speak that name over you that it may bless you. That it may speak life into you. Let Him speak OVER the names that may have been spoken over your life - names that will sow death into your life.

You know what I mentioned before - like we all have names that mean different things. But in our day and age unfortunately we don’t have the culture of the names actually speaking meaning over our lives.

Like are there any Andrews here? Your name means ‘manly’ but you could be a complete wimp. Most of the Andrews I know are. You could have the name Daniel - which means “God is my judge” and live as if God doesn’t exist You could have the name Thomas - which means “innocence” in Hebrew and live like a complete turd You could have the name Jonathan which means “God’s gracious gift” and be anything but gracious let alone a gift.

But the name that God gives you - you WILL be - because that name will speak HIS purpose into your life. If God calls you courageous you WILL be courageous, if God calls you Beloved it is because you are, if God calls you gracious then it is His purpose for you to be gracious.

What name does God have for you? It may not be the same as the name that man has given you.

God knows you more intimately than you know yourself - only He knows the purposes that He has over your life, make time to allow Him to speak them into you.

ILLUSTRATION: Hart Island

Hart Island is found a little way off the coast of Long Island. Nobody lives on Hart Island. It is the home, though, of a million bodies—bodies that have been buried there. It’s a place that’s known as a potter’s field. It’s a place meant for the homeless, the stillborn, poor immigrants, poets, and artists who died penniless. It’s a wasteland for the forgotten dead.

But its newest additions are those who have died from the coronavirus. (During the Covid-19 crisis they dug) … a mass grave on Hart Island. All of these bodies are placed in cheap, crate-like coffins, set side-by-side, as backhoes and men in hazmat suits cover them over with dirt. People dying without dignity, dying with disease, being buried, and being buried safely so as to contain the disease that still resides in their decaying skin.

On Hart Island, in the very middle of the island, there is a large, white cross, with black letters inscribed on the horizontal beam. Those letters read out this way: HE KNOWS US ALL BY NAME. The Risen Christ never forgets a name. He remembers. The stainless white cross that stands in the middle of Hart Island stands as the definitive public witness: He knows us all by name.

God has a name for every one of us - he knows our identity intimately, He created us - He knows who you are.

Do we surrender to God telling us who we are - or adopt names that we have been given elsewhere?

Segment 4: The Injury

Do you know something that many people don’t pick up from this story? Jacob only realises that he’s wrestling with God about half way through - at the point of the injury.

It was only when God touched his hip - and the word for touched is literally just touched - and put it out of joint - THAT was when he knew he was dealing with someone far more powerful than just a mere man.

That touch of the hip was a revelation to Jacob - he was wrestling with God!

There’s something to be said here - in all of the struggles and the wrestles and the battles that we go through in life, we can very often fail to perceive God in the fight.

maybe it even feels like you’re fighting against God, it feels like maybe He’s against you. But just like Jacob - that’s because God is wrestling with you to remove something in your life that shouldn’t be there. God WILL wrestle with us to remove things that shouldn’t be in our lives.

God WILL wrestles with us when we adopt the wrong identity

It’s been my experience in life that we are such proud creatures - it may be sad, but I’ve noticed that nothing brings us closer to God than when our world is shaken up by trials and valleys. Maybe the valley you are walking through is God trying to lead you back to Him?

Here’s the thing about the injury - at this point it would have been very possible, maybe even NORMAL, for Jacob to have let go of God. *AHHH YOU BROKE MY HIP *@($!&** GET AWAY FROM ME! WHO THE HECK ARE YOU?

But pay close attention to what Jacob does - instead of letting God go, he clings on like his life depends on it. He goes from wrestling and RESISTING God, to wrestling and CLINGING to God.

He’s clinging on so tightly that even GOD says to Him in v26 “Let me go!” And Jacob responds with “I will NOT let you go until you bless me.”

Don’t miss this - God could only change Jacob’s identity when he changed from wrestling AGAINST God’s will, to wrestling FOR God’s blessing. There is a seismic shift in Jacob’s will - he is no longer resisting God in the struggle, he is no longer PUSHING God out, he is PULLING God in.

In that moment something else broke: his self-reliance. The reliance he had on his old identity, the connection he had with that identity - that was broken, surrendered.

This newfound desperation for God, this newfound openness - THIS was the door through which God could not only bless him, but renew his identity.

Segment 5: The Renaming

When Jacob could no longer wrestle out of his own strength all he could do was cling on to God with everything that he had.

He has a revelation of the sheer power of God, an up front view of the sheer awesomeness of God and immediately his self-reliance breaks. And he clings on to God and DEMANDS that God bless him.

This shift is so often overlooked but it is the crux of the story. It represents Jacob moving from someone who is self-reliant and resistant to God to someone who now desperately clings to God and desperately wants to rely on His power.

And then the climax of the story - God changes Jacob’s identity. v28 “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.”

The name Israel is a beautiful play on words, because it can be broadly translated to “One who struggles with God”, a reference to the fight that Jacob had with God, but it also means that Jacob would now face his struggles and fights WITH God on His side. “One who struggles WITH God.”

Jacob’s new identity Israel is marked not by self-sufficiency and self-dependence but by sheer surrender and dependence on God.

The old Jacob - the one that relied on deception and manipulation, the one that relied on his own strength and wisdom to make it through life - he was gone.

And in his place was a new person, a new identity: Israel, one who clings to God with everything he has. One who relies on God’s power and strength to make it through life, one who does not walk their own way but chooses to walk God’s path.

GOD CHANGES OUR NAME WHEN WE CALL ON HIS NAME

God wrestles us to remove our old name, the old name that comes with self-dependence, the old name that represents what the world thinks of us, the old name that represents the world’s way. He wrestles with us to remove this identity from us.

And when we have that revelation of God - when we see God in our struggles and instead of walking in our own strength we CHOOSE to cling to Him. He gives us a new name, a new identity - a new source of strength - all tied to Him.

ILLUSTRATION: Calling daughter a slut/prostitute

I was once called to intervene in a serious conflict between a mother and a daughter. So I went over to their house and sat in between these two as they absolutely went off at each other. It was my second year as a youth pastor so the daughter would only have been around year 8 at the time. The fight was about how this young girl used to dress - which is already uncomfortable for the only guy in the room to talk about. I’m like - dude I don’t know anything about female fashion.

The crux of the fight came when the mother commanded the daughter to go and show me what she was going to wear to her year 8 dinner dance/river cruise. And so the daughter unwilling went to get changed and came out wearing a dress which was, yeah sure like a little bit short and probably not something I’d want my daughter wearing but like look, at least it covered up the bits that counted if you know what I mean.

But what happened next alarmed me - the mother proceeded to name call and shame her in front of me. She said “Look at her pastor Jon - she looks like a WHORE, like a SLUT. She looks like a PROSTITUTE.” Oh man, guys my heart broke when I saw her standing there just ashamed, embarrassed - I knew at that point that those names had gone so deep into her spirit. I ended the meeting there and told the mum I would speak to her at youth privately.

Except she never came back to youth. I never saw her again. Her friends told me that she struggled through the rest of school - no prizes for guessing what she struggled with. I wish I had a chance to see her again and speak a whole bunch of different names into her life - to tell her she was so loved, she was so valuable, and to rebuke the names that were so carelessly spoken into her life by someone she trusted.

The names we receive into our life all shape our identity. God doesn’t want your identity to be built on the names that man has for you. On the labels that the world has given you - build on man’s thoughts and your history.

He wants to speak over you, He wants to name you with His purpose, He wants you to take the identity that HE created you for.

Altar Call

For those people who may be living under names that were not given by God - either you have given them to yourself, or someone else has spoken them over you. God wants to wrestle with you for your identity - to remove these names, and to put in you new names - that are given by Him.

He wants to wrestle away your self-sufficiency, it’s tiring. He wants you to do things by His strength and power.