Identity

Wow. Can you believe that in two weeks October will be over? I mean in a 10 days we will have our Harvest Festival….sign up to help.  Kids will start wearing costumes and begging for candy, and it seems like Home Depot has already set up their Christmas displays…CRAZY

I love this time of year.  My girls are older now so we really don’t do the costume thing much anymore for Halloween or Harvest Festivals, but I loved when they were younger and played dress up.

We started early, Clara being an October baby, her first costume was a butterfly.  

When they each were six, we took them to Disney worlds Bibbity Boppity Boutique and let them dress as their favorite Disney princess…I mean Ellie really believed she was royalty as she walked around the park as ELSA

This was something that she did for a whole year.

I remember getting them these masks for Christmas that would talk…they wore those for a bit.

They loved playing make believe.  However, when it was time, we put away the costumes and the masks and they lived their lives as little girls living in Alabama or Texas.

But sadly, there are so many people in life who keep their masks on and live out their identity in a fantasy sort of way.  In short, they live a life however their emotions dictate.  

Philosophers have identified the modern self…this 21st century self as this:

The modern self is one where authenticity is achieved by acting outwardly in accordance with one’s inward feelings.

For example: our society is sensitized away from criticizing anyone for their personal lifestyle choice because it is a right for a person to live how they feel.

Now, you may be wondering why living according to your feelings is wrong…well, it is an entirely subjective standard.  It is why Jeremiah actually says:

BIBLE VERSE

Jeremiah 17:9

9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? 10 “I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.

This means God only holds the objective standard, and who he has made you to be is who you are to be.

Your identity is purposeful. 

Yet, the enemy always wants to destroy your identity.  He wants to rename and mar your identity.  He wants to get you far away from the image of God that you are meant to be. 

Here’s what I know in my 50 years of life experience and 25 years of church and ministry experience.  The enemies tactics are always the same.  

He will always try to change your identity into his own image.  How does he do it?  Simply, by trying to take your focus off your true identity.  He will tell you that the most important identity is the one you create.

For some people…sexual identity

For others its political identity

Or it could be a racial identity

For others its a (EMOTIONAL) narcissistic identity (the world revolves around me

And others its a “want to be accepted at all cost” identity which leads to you falling into temptation over and over again.

But identity does not begin with your intent, it begins with God’s intent. This is what our scripture reading is all about…GOD’S INTENT. 

Before we can begin a discussion on the issue of identity, we must understand where our identity comes from.

BIBLE VERSE

Genesis 1:26-27

Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness….’ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

The doctrine of the image of God is essential to understanding identity.

Now follow me here, if the enemy can divorce us from our original design “the imago dei,” then something must replace it.  After all, man’s great search is for meaning and significance, and you cannot find meaning and significance a part from your identity.

But the enemy wants to separate you from your identity and he deceives us in two ways:

So two things are at play:

Grant our inner feelings God - like status.

Remove all sense of moral standards 

Let me prove it to you…look:

BIBLE VERSE

Genesis 3:1-6

3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. 

He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 

So, notice how he appealed to an emotional response when it says: “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and a delight to her eyes.…”

The serpent is playing off her emotional response.

AND

He question the moral boundaries put in place (Did God really say)

These two things alone have a way of robbing you of your identity.

So identity is supposed to be played out with out the rigidness of an external moral code.  

But this idea is bankrupt, 

IDENTITY CANNOT BE FORMED IN SUBJECTIVENESS

So as the people of God, we have to understand original intent in the created order in order to have a true grasp of identity in our modern time.

So, let’s look at identity by looking at the moment God created man in Genesis 2 which was your scripture reading.  

As I was re-looking at this passage, I found that there are 5 things regarding identity in this passage.

I want you to look at it.

1: Identity is created by and birthed by God.

BIBLE VERSE

Genesis 2:7

7 then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature

This is the starting place. Without a fundamental understanding that we are not mistakes, a random occurrence, a primordial ooze being the originator of life, but a knowledgable, purposeful, sovereign in the universe with a divine order purposefully creating you, then you will never live out your true identity.

We are not mistakes.  We are not castoffs.  We are the supremacy of God’s creation.  Humanity is the pinnacle of creation.  This why I am decidedly pro-life…which is not just a birth thing but an all of life thing.  

Men and women are created in the image of God and therefore all of humanity have dignity and it shapes the way I speak to and with, treat, and love humanity.

And because God is the one that created,  it makes man’s identity static and unchangeable.  

*Without this worldview AUTHORITY is destroyed.

There becomes only the subjective.  And when life is subjective, then life can be discarded, thrown in gas chambers, and moved as pawns around a chess board by anyone who is in financial power, political power, or even racial power.

In Marxist theory, it removes God. And the reason this is so devastating is because it removes a God and places the power in the hands of the state…and therefore all objectivity is diminished because the state swings from various pendulums.

NO, GOD MADE YOU…

A couple of famous scriptures affirm this:

Speaking to Jeremiah:

BIBLE VERSE

Jeremiah 1:5

5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.

And the Psalmist says:

BIBLE VERSE

Psalm 139:14-16

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. 

So, God creates and birth our identity, but also…

2: Identity is shaped by purpose.

Bothe scriptures above prove this idea out.  But look at Genesis:

BIBLE VERSE

Genesis 2:15

15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.

Man has God-given purposes that shape who he is. 

Look at the Genesis 1 account:

BIBLE VERSE

Genesis 1:27-28

 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 

28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Notice, their creation is tied to a purpose, and without being to crash, the call to multiply meant that men and women would fulfill that purpose in a very specific way.

Men have a natural bent.

Women have a natural bent.

Even a sane secular world noticed this in the 90s…just look at these quotes from a popular book…Men are from Mars and Women from Venus…

Men are motivated when they feel needed while women are motivated when they feel cherished.

When men and women are able to respect and accept their differences then love has a chance to blossom.

Men need to remember that women talk about problems to get close and not necessarily to get solutions.

I just gave y’all some marriage counseling for free.  

Here is what I am trying to say.  Men have a purpose and women have a purpose and they are unique.  It does not mean that women must stay in the home or men are the only ones to provide…it means our original purpose of being male and female and all that that entails is what shapes our identity.  

And understand this…

Without purpose man becomes AIMLESS and bored…prone to sin.

But in our uniqueness we are able to discover our identity and….

3: Identity is strengthened through relationships.

BIBLE VERSE

Genesis 2:19-25

19 Now out of the ground the LORD God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. 21 So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said, 

      “This at last is bone of my bones 

      and flesh of my flesh; 

      she shall be called Woman, 

      because she was taken out of Man.” 

24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. 

God recognizes the need for man to be in relationships.

Man notices uniqueness of humanity.

Man notices the differences that each relationship may bring.

Weaknesses and strengths.

Man recognizes how his relationship with woman compliments them both.

And therefore they rely on one another.  

Rachel and I have similar approaches to life and wildly different approaches to life.  Our kids are uniquely different as well.  

Here me…complimenting never mean subservient.  Paul in writing his famous passage on marriage in Ephesians says:

BIBLE VERSE

Ephesians 5:22

22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.

People tend to forget or ignore the verse above:

BIBLE VERSE

Ephesians 5:21

21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. 

You see complimenting does not mean subservient…it means you have a different skill set and I have a different skill set and we can learn and help one another.

And when they work well, it provides a certain level of accountability.

Let me explain…I can be a bit of a bull in a china shop.  I can react at times without thinking…you know my preaching well enough to know I do that.

Rachel, has a calming reasonable presence.  So lets say I am being reactive…which is typical.  Let me give you a dumb for instance…

Rachel has a 10 year sabbatical coming up with her company and they will pay a trip for her.  She mentioned to me during that she wanted to do a moderately intense hike with me.  My instant emotional reaction is…YOU ARE CRAZY.  

With Rachel’s calm demeanor she lets me say my peace and usually comes back with a calm…think about it.

And so, we are doing a hike.

But the reason relationships strengthen your identity is because it brings accountability. 

If I wake up one day and believe I am an elephant marching in a circus…the relationship should not affirm my crazy notion but to tether me back to reality.  

The problem in the identity arena in our modern culture is that we do not want to speak truth in love, but our monachre has been “never offend at any cost.”

*Without relationships ACCOUNTABILITY dissolves.

And we have to have accountability because…

4: Identity is given boundaries.

BIBLE VERSE

Genesis 2:15-17

15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” 

God distinguished was was healthy and unhealthy for them.

Good and evil were both present to serves as a boundary.

Have you ever wondered why both trees were in the garden.  One was to show God blesses and the other one was a sign to not cross a boundary.

Boundaries are necessary for a good life.  AND FOR HUMAN FLOURISHING.

Humanity cannot flourish without boundaries, but we don’t like boundaries.

But in order for humanity to thrive, we must have good and healthy boundaries.

In any political season, people ask me if I will support so and so…or will I vote this way on a proposition.  

While you can probably surmise the way I vote, I typically keep it private. Here’s why…

The church should serve as a boundary within culture.

And, the church cannot serve as a boundary or a prophetic voice in culture when it is always lining up with one side.

So look, I am staunchly pro-life, but we also need to care for the immigrant which means for those desperate people coming across to have a better life let’s fix a system that is not wildly complicated and expensive.

I am wildly pro-life and will go to my grave that way, but that also means caring for the mom who has found herself in a desperate situation, we need to care and help her through the crisis while at the same time caring for the baby.

What am I saying?  The church should stand for righteousness and truth against any political party…right is right no matter if the left is right on some things.  Wrong is wrong no matter if the right is celebrating it.

You see, the church has to set boundaries according to righteousness.

AND THE PROBLEM IS WITH THE CHURCH…WE HAVE KEEP MOVING THE BOUNDARIES

Without boundaries ANARCHY arises.

Finally…

5: Man living out his God-given identity results in a shameless life.

BIBLE VERSE

Genesis 2:25

25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. 

Sin and shame are synonymous. 

The fall robbed them of their identity.  If you look at the judgement found in Genesis 3, you can see this clearly:

Curse of Sin Genesis 3:14-19

Separated them from their original creator.

Made purpose difficult

Strained relationships

Sent them into lawlessness

The enemy always attacks at two points:

God’s word (the boundaries)

Man’s identity 

Paul recognized this in the NT this his why he writes to a very sensual culture in Corinth:

BIBLE VERSE

I Corinthians 6:18-20

 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. 

You are not your own.  There are rules by the creator and sin does everything in its power to destroy that.

Now, in any talk in regards to identity, the question always arises…

How do we deal with identity crisis in our culture:

Compassion (compassion does not mean bending truth)

Respect (respect them as God originally designed them…in the imago day)

Holy conversations

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