The Problem of Identity

Main Idea

We have a desire to lead ourselves and be our own gods, but we will hinder our own flourishing until we accept that God is God and we are His workmanship.

Opening Section (2-3 Minutes)

Who are we, and how do we know?

We started our conversation on this last week. We are created beings, designed by God on purpose, for a purpose, and our value is given to us by Him because He breathed His life into us, making mankind in His image.

But while we are more than animals, we are less than gods. From the beginning, we belong to the One who gave us life. And yet our fallen nature pulls us toward autonomy—toward defining ourselves, setting our own boundaries, and living by our own rules.

This was the first temptation back in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve were living in a perfect relationship with God and with each other when the serpent started questioning the one rule God had set in place. He convinced Eve to take the place of God, deciding what should and shouldn’t be allowed.

Our sins often come from this same place.

For the Christian, our identity must be firmly rooted in being a created being submitted to the authority of God. We give ourselves far too much credit for the good we could accomplish apart from God’s lordship in our lives.

The reality is that without a moral being like God calling us to something higher, we revert to exactly what the enemy got us to believe at the very first—that we should be in control of ourselves and get whatever it is we want, and do whatever it takes to be happy, no matter the cost.

Let’s spend a few minutes talking about how we feel that pull to be our own authorities in our lives.

Screen Questions:

When someone is seeking an answer to the question, “Who am I?” where are they looking for the answer?

2. What do you observe people trying to gain by being their own authority?

3. What does the story of the Fall suggest about where our identity struggles begin?

Middle Section (3 Minutes)

I don’t know about you, but I’m a control freak. I like to make the plans, have the plans, and live by the plans. I have even found myself in prayer giving God suggestions for how He should work in my life.

There is supposed to be freedom and supernatural peace in the fact that God holds all things, knows all things, and has power over all things if He wants to intervene. But this Fall of mankind that brought sin into the world corrupted our trust of God. And from that day forward, we have had a submission problem.

Identity becomes exhausting when we’re the ones responsible for holding it together.

It doesn’t matter that we “know” God has the best and perfect things in mind when we “feel” differently about what we would like to do or see happen in our lives. And so we have a consistent tendency to usurp authority from God.

Paul writes to the church at Philippi, encouraging them to take on the mindset of Christ he writes, “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!”

In light of this the question becomes, If even Jesus did not live as if He was an equal to God, why are we trying to live with authority equal to God?

I would guess that for a lot of us, it’s not because we think we’re strong enough on our own. It’s because we’re afraid. We fear what God might ask of us because we trust ourselves.

I can hear my own thoughts. I can trace my own logic. So when I’m making a decision, I tend to trust what feels best to me. But that means that in my work and in my life I’m trying to manufacture my own identity instead of trusting God to lead me into the one He has set for me.

And we see this all around us. This world tries solving the identity problem with every available answer. The problem is, we end up enslaving ourselves to this chasing after identity. It’s exhausting because our identity is found in the One who made us. This is a given. If we were in fact the product of random chance, then it would make sense for everyone to spend their lives doing what they saw fit as the best or most beneficial option for themselves. But we’re designed, and our designer made us for a ruling role that stayed in submission to Him.

Mark Clark uses this image of having someone house sit for you while you’re on vacation. How absurd would it be to come back after a week and find that the house-sitter had repainted, moved in all of her stuff, and wouldn’t let you inside claiming, “This is my house!” Of course it’s not her house. It’s your house that she was taking care of under your instruction while you were gone.

The same is true for us. American culture has so individualized our lives that it promotes our right to make every decision we make in our own best interest, but God had created us for something and given us instructions on how we are to conduct our lives in the time we have on earth. And as the God who made us, He has a pretty solid idea of what will be best and most healthy for us. These instructions and parameters He gave us in the Bible is not so that we would find life limiting and unfair but so that we would take as good care of ourselves as He would take of us.

The designer knows best! This is a given. And over and over in this book, Mark Clark talks about the givenness of things. Here’s what he means:

I know that if I don’t “feel like” obeying the law of gravity today then I am capable of jumping out of an airplane without a parachute, but I will still fall to my death because of the givenness of the law of gravity.

He goes on, saying, “Sooner or later, you will realize that order can’t be rearranged around your desires.” And the God who decided on the order of things has made us to live under His authority.

To rightly understand ourselves, then, we need to rightly understand God. Let’s spend a minute talking about who God is.

Screen Questions:

What attribute of God have you seen most evidently in your life?

God, an all-knowing divine being, did not create us to know all things. How is our instant access to information around the world affecting us? What do you think will be the long-term implications?

Closing Section (2-3 Minutes)

So then, what is our identity? As followers of Jesus made in the image of God, who are we?

I simply want to say, We are more than:

We are more than the times we let people down. More than the moments where we drop the ball. More than the days we lose our temper. More than our failures.

We are more than our accomplishments. More than the things we buy. More than the job we have. More than the businesses we run.

We are more than bodies. More than the physical decisions we make. More than random products of chance over time.

We are more than our pain. More than the tragedies we experience. More than what has happened to us.

We are more than all the metrics we have been told to use. More than the value assigned to us by our parents.

But here’s the big one: We are more than just us. We are souls, living in this world on a mission to bring heaven to earth in as many pockets of this planet that we can reach. You are not your authority, and I am not mine. We are sons of daughters of God, designed on purpose, for a purpose with value given to us by our creator.

I’ll leave you with another thought from Mark Clark. He writes, “Most of us are not winners… Maybe life isn’t about being a winner but about giving a good account of ourselves even in the losses, in the difficulties of life.”

We are more than our circumstances, and we’re living for more than right now. And when your identity doesn’t have to be found in those things, you can find the freedom to flourish.

In your groups, answer this question:

“What difference does it make to live as someone who receives identity rather than creates it?”

Screen Questions:

“What difference does it make to live as someone who receives identity rather than creates it?”

What areas of responsibility or accomplishment are you most tempted to find your identity in?

Last Line

Spend some time praying together before you go. Encourage one another, and do the work of walking through life together. We’ll see you next week.