Person of Christ: Identity

I love living in the country...do y'all?

I grew up on our families farm.  It was us and 2 uncles and their families and my grandparents all lived on the same farm.  My grandmother was a short little grandmother.  Who here is 14? She got married when she was 14 and started having babies.  Crazy right.  When she wanted to talk to you, especially when she was mad cause you made a mess, she would say something like.  "you better get back in here and clean up your mess Francis  i mean jimmy, no Greg  oh you Francis  you know who you are Randy, i mean...oh you, get back in here."  I know she knew who I was, but she could never to call people by the right name.  She would just resort to calling everyone "you".  It was funny back then, but sometimes I wanted to be called by name.  I didn't want to get a birthday card, happy birthday you.  There were times when we want to be known right.  

Even when we are trying to figure out who we are we want to be known.  You probably know what it's like to not know who we are, who we want to be, On our farm we had all sorts of animals.  Chickens, ducks, peacocks, guineas, turkeys, animals all over the place.  We ate them though, they weren't pets, except to us kids.  My favorite was a duck we called funny duck, we named him that because he was, funny.  He was funny because he thought he was a rooster...but he was a duck.  He hung out with chickens, scratched around like chickens, his crowing sounded weird for sure because he was a duck.  The other ducks really didn't like him, cause no matter what he looked like, he was not duck.  But then again he wasn't a rooster either.  Funny was pretty frustrated, no one seemed to get him.

We understand what Funny was dealing with don't we?  We want someone to get us, to understand us.  We may not understand ourselves, but we want to be understood.  But we all want someone to know us.

I want to talk about somebody who understands everybody.  Jesus experienced life as a teenager.  All of life.

He was homeless ()

His family thought he was crazy (; ; )

His best friends turned their back on him ()

He was sold out for pocket change ()

He was tempted by the devil. ()

He dealt with death ()

He had people lie and gossip about him (; )

He was punished when he did the right thing ()

He was shamed publicly ()

He was hungry ()

He was criticized (; )

He was mocked ()

He was rejected by many ()

His friends didn't "get him" ()

Jesus knew what it was like to be misunderstood.  

Part of who Jesus is - is a the one person who can know us completely. He has gone through everything we have. He’s been there. HE knows your situation, and knows you.

There is a story of Jesus that was written by John that tells what happened one time when Jesus was confronted by some of these Jewish leaders.

24 The Jews, circling him, said, “How long are you going to keep us guessing? If you’re the Messiah, tell us straight out.”

25 Jesus answered, “I told you, but you don’t believe. Everything I have done has been authorized by my Father, actions that speak louder than words.

26 You don’t believe because you’re not my sheep.

27 My sheep recognize my voice. I know them, and they follow me.

28 I give them real and eternal life. They are protected from the Destroyer for good. No one can steal them from out of my hand.

29 The Father who put them under my care is so much greater than the Destroyer and Thief. No one could ever get them away from him. 

(The Message)

You see Jesus knew who he was and he lived it out, he didn’t try to be someone he wasn’t. he was glad to be just who God his father had created him to be and even when he was pressured to be someone different, he knew that being who God knew he was was going to work out better than trying to be anything different.

Part of who Jesus is - is a the one person who can know us completely. He has gone through everything we have. He’s been there. HE knows your situation, and knows you.

John records a story Jesus tells his followers that he is the good shepherd and he knows his sheep. I found a list of some of the things that Jesus knows about you:

Age

Body

Complaints

Dreams

Emotions

Family

Goals

Hunger

inspires you

Joys

Knowledge

Loves

Motives

Name

Oddities

Passions

Questions

Reasons

Secrets

Tears

Ups

Downs

Victories

Worries

Youth

Youth

Energy

wild - lifie - ess

He knows you and get this… he loves you.

Think about that for a minute. Jesus, God’s one and only son, knows you. He wants you to know him, he wants you to follow him. So he can help you become all you can be.

Y’all know what a shepherd and sheep right. Sheep aren’t so bright, but they know they are sheep. The shepherd knows where the food is, where the water is, where safety is. The sheep just go where they are led and the shepherd just keeps it easy.

Y’all know what a shepherd and sheep right. Sheep aren’t so bright, but they know they are sheep. The shepherd knows where the food is, where the water is, where safety is. The sheep just go where they are led and the shepherd just keeps it easy.

But do you know what a shepherd does when his sheep get into trouble? He sacrifices for them, he rescues them.

Age

Body

Complaints

Dreams

Emotions

Family

Goals

Hunger

Inspiration

Joys

Knowledge

Loves

Motives

Name

Oddities

Passions

Questions

Reasons

Secrets

Tears

Ups

Downs

Victories

Worries

X-Rays!

Youth

Energy

wild-iness

He knows you and get this… he loves you.

He knows you and he loves you.

Do you know what a shepherd does when his sheep get into trouble? He sacrifices for them, he rescues them.

Jesus said

I put the sheep before myself, sacrificing myself if necessary

Peterson, Eugene H. The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language. Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2005. Print.

Peterson, Eugene H. The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language. Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2005. Print.

I am the Good Shepherd. I know my own sheep and my own sheep know me. In the same way, the Father knows me and I know the Father. I put the sheep before myself, sacrificing myself if necessary. You need to know that I have other sheep in addition to those in this pen. I need to gather and bring them, too. They’ll also recognize my voice. Then it will be one flock, one Shepherd.

The world is working against good. And Jesus came to rescue the world, to enable us to live above and beyond the circumstances of this world. This is his pasture.

Peterson, Eugene H. The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language. Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2005. Print.

That’s what he does because that’s who he is. That’s how Jesus is our shepherd too.

Now we think of a pasture as a cage, but the sheep don’t think of it that way. They think of it as a place where they get to be free and be who they are without fear of danger.

The world is working against good. And Jesus came to rescue the world, to enable us to live above and beyond the circumstances of this world. Kelly mentioned a while back about this wonderful life that Jesus invites us to. This is his pasture. Now we think of a pasture as a cage, but the sheep don’t think of it that way. They think of it as a place where they get to be free and be who they are without fear of danger.

Funny hung out with some who helped him learn to crow…even if it was different from all the other roosters it was his.

Let us help some other caterpillars come to understand that God knows them inside and out, and that he loves them just as they are, but he has a better way for them to live. A life in his pasture. Let us help these caterpillars learn to fly as God created them to fly. Let us make this weekend a time of being set free.