Identity Crisis 1
Identity Crisis • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Intro
Intro
Students!
Man I’m excited for tonight!
There’s a couple of you that I cannot WAIT! to hit with some color powder!
But before we get there, I’m excited about the message tonight!
See we are starting our new series called “Identity Crisis”
Because here’s the thing — every one of us is struggling with our identity
For some of us, we are struggling with how we see ourself
For some of us we are struggling with how others see us
And for others we are struggling with how Jesus sees us
So many of us are looking for validation in things that cannot fulfill the longing that we have
We are looking to our friends, our family, school and grades, sports, how big our snap score is
We look for anything that gives us value, that makes us feel important
Anything that will tell us who we are — and oh trust me when you are looking for something to tell you who you are the world will!
Well tonight I want to show you how all of our struggles with our identity can be summed up in our relationship with Christ
Imago Dei
Imago Dei
The first thing we need to understand about our identity comes from the very start of Humanity
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
In the beginning God created everything
When God created everything we are told that we are created in the Image of God
That our emotions, thoughts, everything is made in the image of God
Or another way to put it
Our identity comes from God
Our identity comes from God
He is the one that created us
He is the one that dictates where our identity comes from
God created us with a set purpose, and set identity
We were created to be His!
We were created to be with Him!
Who are we? — We are God’s creation!
What’s our identity? God’s creation!
Listen to how the Psalmist says it
13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.
God created us, knew us, and loved us before we ever existed!
He gave us our identity and purpose before the formation of anything else
In God’s books are written every single thing we will ever do! God knows us!
Our identity is linked to Him!
This means that we should start to look like, think like, and act like Him!
I think about Gideon and nothing proves this more than him
Man want to talk about someone that bears mine and Kase’s image, it’s him
He not only looks like us, I mean he has my ears and her beauty and charm HA
But he also acts like us
He gets hyped up over everything, he loves the people he’s around, he is a chatter box when he’s comfortable around you, he’s curious and wants to learn and know everything
He does facial expressions just like us
Why? Because Gideon is made in our image, and is becoming like us
The same is true for all of us in the room (including Gideon) when it comes to God
He created us, loves us, and we are called to look like Him
Our identity is meant to be connected with God
Sin destroyed our image
Sin destroyed our image
However, the big problem? Sin
Sin came in and destroyed our image
Let me walk us through what I mean
25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
When Adam and Eve were created they were in perfect harmony with God
There was no sin, no distractions, nothing to pull them away from their identity in Christ
Because of that they were “naked and not ashamed”
Yes quite literally they were naked, hehe, but the significance of this verse cannot be understated here
It just furthers our point from earlier —
Our identity comes from God
They were happy, satisfied, joyful, complete because of God
They were not worried about anything why? Because their identity was in lock step with God
Yet listen to what happens after the serpent comes for their identity
7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. 8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
Satan comes in and starts to get Eve to look at something other than God
He gets Adam and Eve to forget about who God is
Forget about what the Psalmist said, forget about how they had no need, no longer, no issues, no problems when they were connected with God
And because of that they ran from God
They made clothes for themselves
They started looking for validation and felt insecurity
Here’s the second thing for you guys tonight — and man I hope and pray you guys get this:
Sin destroys our identity
Sin destroys our identity
Sin destroys our relationship with God
Sin separates us from the love of God, our identity in Him, our necessity for Him
Sin causes us to be like Adam and Eve and distance our self from God, the one that can save, restore, and fulfill anything we need
I go back to Gideon and think about how he is trying to be just like me and Kase
He wants to walk like us
He makes faces like us
But one day he will look at us and want nothing to do with us — we joke about how one day he will tell us he hates us
But do you know why he will be embarrassed by us? Why he will stop wanting to walk like us, talk like us, be like us?
It’s simple — there is two reasons
Either A) he takes his eyes off us and focuses on something else
or B) we let him down and he decides I don’t want to be like that
And the reality is, both things will happen for Gideon
There will be people that he sees that are cooler than dad, as crazy as that sounds because lets be real I’m awesome
But there will be and he’ll start to imitate them
And at some point I will let him down
The sad thing is that for us and God there is only one reason we stop imitating and seeking Him
Sin — we take our eyes of God
We let Satan distract us, feed us lies, and pull us away
We believe that God cannot satisfy, we believe that God isn’t
“cool”, we believe that we don’t need a savior,
Or worst of all we believe that our sin and evil isn’t bad
All of this leads to us loosing our identity
All of this leads to us hurting, broken, and searching for validation
Searching for a savior
Christ came to restore it
Christ came to restore it
But here is the beautiful part of the story and the last thing for us today
God provides a way back
God provides a way back for us!
When our identity is broken and we are searching for something God always provides a way back
I mean look at what he did for Adam and Eve
21 And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.
God gave them a way back — a way to restore their identity!
He paid for their sin
Man I think about Gideon again
When that day comes, when he’s a teenager and he messes up, or he feels distant from me and Kase, what are we going to do?
Are we going to say, 'Well, you blew it, kid. You're on your own'?
No way!
We are going to pursue him.
We'll go to his room, we'll talk to him
We'll ground him if we have to
But we will do whatever it takes to restore that relationship, because he is our son.
His identity as our son doesn't change, even when his actions do.
The same thing is true of us and God
Me and Kase as parents to Gideon is a terrible, imperfect example of what God as the perfect Father does for us
When we failed, ran from God, and sought our identity in something other than Him He still sent Jesus!
Romans tells us this about our sin
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Paul makes sure we all understand that
We have all sinned
We deserve death without Christ
Paul makes sure we understand that we have all sinned — meaning we have all lost our identity
Sin causes us to be separated from God, and therefore lost
We cannot get to God because of our sin — He is perfect and we are not
But that’s where God steps in!
In our weakness he stepped in and offers salvation
He offered a way for us to come back and have our identity made right
For Adam and Eve he killed some animals so that they can have their identity restored
For us, and all of mankind — He sent Jesus to die on the cross!
See when we sin, sin has a consequence and its death
But Jesus came to pay that price for us and bring us back to God
9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
Jesus paid our debt and all we have to do is go to Him!
Confess with your mouth, and believe in Christ
Will you go to Christ?
Will you go to Christ?
So the question for us today
Will you go to Christ?
Every one of us has sinned — Paul made it clear
Adam and Eve prove that when we sin our identity gets broken
Paul tells us that we cannot get to God without Jesus so our search for fulfillment and identity is completely empty if we are not going to Jesus!
So will you go to Christ?
Man in a second I’m gonna pray for us and I want to encourage all of you to pray to the Lord
Because the reality is your identity is not:
The last grade you made on a quiz/test
Your snap score
The number of likes you got on a post
How many different group chats you are in
Your identity comes from God!
So pray asking Him to bring you back and show you where your identity truly lies
For some of you that looks like asking Jesus to save you for the first time because you realized that what you thought your identity was is wrong and that only Jesus saves
For the others of you its praying asking God to forgive you for seeking validation and identity somewhere else when you already knew that Jesus loves you and sent Jesus to save you!
