Identity Crisis - Lesson 2 (Citizen of Heaven)

Bret Lalli

Sermon • Submitted 10 months ago • Presented 10 months ago

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Introduction

God has allowed me to travel to many different places.

I have been to 30 U.S. States

I have been to 12 MLB ballparks

I have been to 5 countries

And on every single trip, one of the most important things that I have packed is whatever I needed to be able to identify myself.

In the US, it was always my driver’s license.

It has my name, picture, etc.

But overseas, you HAVE to have your passport.

When you travel overseas, it’s the most important single thing that you travel with.

It’s the thing that you make sure you have every time you leave a train, hotel, restaurant, etc.

It’s important because it carries you legal identity, but it’s also important because it proves your citizenship in the United States and that is IMPORTANT when traveling.

It’s how you get on the plan, get through customs, etc.

But in case of an emergency, it’s also how you gain access to the U.S. Embassy which is like a “home base” for U.S. citizens.

If you don’t have your passport, then likely, if something crazy were to happen, you very well could be turned away without help.

Last week, we talked about the Identity of Sin and the Identity of Righteousness.

We determined that we are all born with the Identity of Sin.

But we also determined that we can all take on the Identity of Righteousness because of the grace of God.

Much like your passport when traveling internationally proves your identity and your citizenship, your Identity of Righteousness identifies you as a Christian and as a citizen of God’s Kingdom.

Pray

Where is our citizenship?

Read Ephesians 2:14-21

Ephesians 2:14–21 ESV

For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

This passage makes another clear distinction between the Identity of Sin and the Identity of Righteousness we talked about last week.

We were or are all citizens of the world at the beginning of our lives, but things don’t have to stay that way.

In the olympics, athletes are granted dual-citizenship if their parents were born in another country than they were born in.

For example, Kyrie Irving was born in Australia when his father Drederick Irving, a US citizen, was playing professional basketball in the South East Australian Basketball League.

Kyrie has the choice every time the Summer Olympics come round to play for Team United States or Team Australia.

There are perks to dual citizenship.

If you are a citizen of two countries, you can freely move between the two countries whenever you choose.

You can pay lower taxes.

Most other countries are cheaper to live in.

In other countries you might find more affordable healthcare and education.

Those perks come from being able to kinda “play the game” and benefit from the rules of both countries.

I mean after all, who wouldn’t want to have a house in Italy that they can freely travel to and from without issue?

But, with that also comes a bit of an issue.

When this get really tough, which country do you really belong to?

As Christians, we can’t really have dual citizenship.

Read Philippians 3:20

Philippians 3:20 ESV

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,

Once we become a Christians and we remove the Identity of Sin in our lives and take on the Identity of Righteousness, we are forever citizens of Heaven.

But a lot of the time, we try to act like we have dual citizenship don’t we?

We walk through life wanting to benefit from all the perks that we get from being a Christians AND all of the perks we get from the world.

Depending on where we are and who we are with, we want to be able to look like Jesus to fit in where we are and we want to be able to look like someone who the world accepts.

And because of that, we walk through everyday with a bit of an identity crisis.

We constantly find ourselves firmly in the middle of battle that is raging in our minds.

Do I try to be cool? Do I try to be accepted? Do I do that thing this one time because it will gain me favor amongst my friends or with that boy/girl?

Or, do I do what is right and pleasing to God and do my best to glorify Him?

And tonight, I want to be very clear, while everything in us wants us to seek validation and to seek our identity in the world, in people, in trends, Scripture is clear, we should do EVERYTHING we can to act in a way that is pleasing to God.

I am also not a huge fan of extrinsic motivation, meaning that you are motivated by things outside of yourself.

For example, intrinsic motivation is doing something because you want to be successful. Extrinsic motivation is working hard for a state championship. There is something outside of yourself that is motivating you.

There are some pretty significant extrinsic motivating factors for wanting to be a citizen of God’s Kingdom and to want to look like God’s Kingdom.

Motivating Factors for Being A Citizen of Heaven

Read Philippians 3:20

Philippians 3:20 ESV

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,

As a citizen of heaven, we have a Savior in Jesus.

That means that we have eternal victory over death, sin, disease, etc.

Cancer can’t kill us.

Addiction can’t kill us.

Murder can’t kill us.

There is nothing in this world that can kill us.

Of course your body may pass away, but you will forever live in heaven from that point on apart from the sickness, death, sadness, and hurt of this world.

Peace in the midst of the tough times comes because we know that no matter what may happen to us, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has made a way for us to defeat all of those things.

But that’s not the only one.

Read Ephesians 1:5

Ephesians 1:5 ESV

he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,

We are adopted by God Himself as one of His children through our relationship with Jesus.

That means in some ways, you are on the same level of Jesus, in that Jesus was the Son of God too.

I want to be careful here.

Jesus is fully God, and fully Man.

This is a hard concept to truly understand because there is nothing and no one else truly like Jesus.

But He is part of the trinity, which means that while He is the Son of God He is also God Himself.

So, we are like Jesus in that on the family tree we are on the same place as Jesus.

We are not like Jesus in that:

He was sinless

He was the savior of the world

He was resurrected

He was around at the beginning of time and will be around after the end of time

He is God

And we of course are none of those.

But we are sons and daughters of God and we are a part of God’s family.

But the good news doesn’t even stop there.

Read Galatians 4:4–7

Galatians 4:4–7 ESV

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

To understand what this verse is saying, you need to understand some historical context around the time the bible was written.

To be born as a son in the family usually meant that you would inherit some of the earthly possessions that your parents had built up when they passed away. This was your inheritance.

But to be the firstborn meant that you either got ALL of the inheritance or the largest part of the inheritance.

This passage in Galatians tells us that by God adopting us into His family, we became an heir of the inheritance from God or we became like the firstborn son.

Read Romans 8:17

Romans 8:17 ESV

and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

This inheritance is the changing of our identity.

This inheritance is eternity with Him

This inheritance is conquering death one day.

Read Ephesians 1:3

Ephesians 1:3 ESV

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,

This inheritance means we are blessed with every spiritual blessing that He blessed Christ with.

Read John 14:27

John 14:27 ESV

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

This inheritance means that we will be able to see and experience the glory of Jesus one day.

But we don’t have to wait until we physically die to gain the rewards of this inheritance.

Reread Galatians 4:4-7

Galatians 4:4–7 ESV

The moment that we get saved, the Holy Spirit come to live inside of us. And the Holy Spirit serves some important roles in our lives:

The Holy Spirit Exalts Christ

Read John 16:13-14

John 16:13–14 ESV

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

The Holy Spirit guides us through life at the direction of God.

He motivates us to serve God’s Kingdom.

The Holy Spirit Comforts Us

Read John 14:16-17

John 14:16–17 ESV

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

Helper here is also translated as comforter.

The Holy Spirit is our comforter in all of the hard situations in life that we might face.

The Holy Spirit Produces Righteousness

Read Galatians 5:16

Galatians 5:16 ESV

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

The Spirit guards us from the sins of our flesh.

The Holy Spirit is that voice in the back of our heads that tells us not to do something we know we shouldn’t do.

The Holy Spirit, nor God, will make you do the right thing in those situations, but will consistently remind you of what the right thing is and let you make the choice to be obedient or not.

The inheritance of the Holy Spirit, the guide of our lives, the one that keeps us grounded and focused, is one of the greatest things that anyone could every hope to inherit.

But, being a citizen of Heaven doesn’t come without it’s challenges.

The Challenges of Citizenship

Read John 15:19

John 15:19 ESV

If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

Very bluntly, the Gospel of John tells us that being a citizen of heaven will cause the world to hate you.

WHAT!!! I don’t want that!!!

Let me frame this for you in a little different way.

At the time of Jesus’ ministry, the world hated Him. Let’s take a look at the people who were the primary sources of hate:

Pharisees - These were a group of religious leaders focused on strict obedience of the Law.

They hated Jesus because He challenged the authority they thought they had and because He called them out as being hypocrites.

Jesus was correct about everything.

Sadducees - The group of men who controlled the Temple.

They hated Jesus because He also challenged their authority and was a threat to their political status with Rome.

Jesus was correct about everything.

Herodians - A political group that were supported by King Herod.

They hated Jesus because His popularity and His talk of a different Kingdom was a threat to their King Herod.

Jesus was correct about everything.

The point is that while the world hated Jesus, it was because of their own sin and not because of anything Jesus did.

And that truth applies to you too.

People who against Christianity do it from a place of hatred or a place of sin.

People who persecute Christians don’t understand who Jesus is and what God has done for everyone

People who persecute Christians to it because they are feeling convicted and their lifestyle is being threatened.

Any as long as you are walking in obedience and being faithful to God’s Word, you too will be on the correct side of things.

The biggest challenge of citizenship in God’s Kingdom is that you have to give up you citizenship in the world and when you do that, it may require some hard decisions.

You might have to give up some friends, a relationships, a sport/activity, etc.

You might have to forgive someone that you never wanted to forgive.

You might be asked to go and do some of the hardest things in your life.

But, citizenship in God’s Kingdom is worth every bit of that and I hope you truly believe that today.