Identity Week 1

Created By God

On your paper, write down your name, and 5 things about yourself.

These can be facts about your, descriptions of you, I AM statements, etc.

Write those down and then I will collect them.

What did you write down?

Why did you write down those things?

There are two questions in life every person must answer and while they have seemingly easy answers at the surface, it can have deep veins that connect to everything in life.

Who is God?

Who am I?

If you haven’t wrestled with those questions yet you will at some point.

Who is God is covered well by many as we study who the God of the universe is.

But I would argue that we struggle to wrestle with the question of who am I?

This block we are going to dive into who God says you are.

Identity describes who you are in totality.

“In language we use the word when to reference time, where to qualify space, and who to refer to a person’s identity. The word identity is not used in the Bible, but the word who is reference thousands of times…to indicate identity.

In relationships, it’s the interaction of our indentities that enables us to know and understand one another. From shaking hands and exchanging basic personal information to eventually sharing and knowing someone’s thoughts, feelings, and heart, the health and depth of relationships is greatest when who you are, and who they are, can freely open up, understand, and speak the truth in love.

In Scripture, anytime God created something, He always marked its identity by naming it. the first thing Adam did in the garden was to identity and name the animals under his care (Gen 2:19). And throughout the generations of history, people all over the world still attach a name to someone when they are born, making their identity.”

Do you genuinely like, respect, and care about the person you see?

What do you truly think about this person?

Are you grateful to be you, or do you honestly wish you were someone else?

Are you angry or grateful with what God has done in your life?

Who do you think influences your view of your own identity the most?

How loved and affirmed do you feel by your parents?

Do they make you feel valued and understood?

How loved do you feel today in your heart and current relationships?

What do you think God thinks about you?

Do you believe he really sees, cares, and knows your intimately?

Do you feel like He accepts you, just tolerates you, or rejects you?

Do you genuinely believe He loves you?

How deeply have you been hurt by others?

Are you still tender and hurting, or have you healed completely?

When was the last time your genuinely happy and at peace inside?

What do you believe is the purpose of your life?

Do you feel empty and hopeless inside, or do you have a hopeful future?

Do you believe you will go to heaven one day when you die?

Are you sure? If not, would you like to be sure?

What is the greatest hope from learning about your identity?

What outside things do we let define or influence what defines us?

We put our identity in our position, our awards, our status, our jobs, etc. And when those things get taken away we feel lost.

We don’t want changing things to determine our identity.

God knows who we are. He has known from before the world even existed:

Ephesians 1:4 “4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love”

Psalm 139:13–16 “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.”

On top of the that, God has the right to declare who we are:

God Created you.

Genesis 1:26–28 “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. 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.””

Isaiah 64:8 “8 But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.”

1 Corinthians 6:19–20 “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.”

The God of the universe created you.

2. God owns us

Psalm 24:1 “1 The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein,”

Whoever owns something gets to determine its identity.

When you buy a computer or phone you can define what it looks like and how it is setup. You get to set the wall paper and the font and the colors and the sounds.

3. God has authority

Your parents have the right to tell you when you have to be home, why? Because they have authority over you. Authority is a bad word in our culture but it is a good thing, it is God’s way of leading and protecting. A little child cannot just be set free in the store and be expected to go get all the things they need, pay for it, load up the car and then leave. Nor is it expected that they will have free reign, there are parameters set in place—why? To keep them safe. The authority there is to help them and to protect them.

God has authority.

4. God knows us better than anyone else.

Psalm 139:1–4 “1 O Lord, you have searched me and known me! 2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. 3 You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. 4 Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.”

Every single person on the earth is unique. There are no duplicates.

We are all made in the image of God.

Genesis 1:26 “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.””

Genesis 1:28 “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.””

We are made in his image and more like God than anything else.

Psalm 8:3–6 “3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? 5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. 6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet,”

Imago Dei

We are image bearers—image reflectors.

My life is supposed to be a reflection of the Maker.

So much more than that, we have been made in God’s image and some of the things that define him have been passed on to us.

What are somethings about God that are true about us? What are some traits of God that maybe we have? Love, mercy, patience, longsuffering, etc.

God created us this way and gave us a task.

Genesis 1:28 “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.””

We are to rule over the earth as the crown of God’s creation.

God expects mankind to work hard in ruling over creation

God expects men believe in and worship him.

NCC Question 4: How and why did God create us?

God created us male and female in His own image to know Him, love Him, live with Him, and glorify Him. And it is right that we who were created by God should live to His glory.

Why is murder wrong?

Genesis 9:6 “6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.”

Why is slander wrong?

James 3:9 “9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.”

“God lovingly, intentionally, and wisely designed and made each one of us in His image on purpose for His glory.”

Romans 9:20 “20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?””

He is never far and planned out our lives.

Acts 17:26–27 “26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,”

This idea of identity crisis is not anything new. Consider with me Moses.

He could say these things:

Born to Hebrew parents

Orphaned/Abanoned

Adopted

Murderer

Fugitive

Exile

Foreigner

Shepherd

Then God steps in and calls Him to be the beacon, the deliverer for Israel.

Exodus 3:11 “11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?””

Moses thought of himself as this:

No body

Exile

Fugitive

Poor speaker

Unqualified leader.

And God says no—you go

Exodus 3:6–15 “6 And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. 7 Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, 8 and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 9 And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. 10 Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” 11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” 12 He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.” 13 Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ” 15 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.”

Moses begins his defense as to why it can’t be him.

a. “Who am I?” v.11—inadequacy for such a serious mission

b. What is his name? v.13—inability to validate or confirm who sent him

c. They will not believe me or listen to my voice. v.1

d. I am not eloquent v.10

e. “Please send someone else” v.13

But what does God say?

Exodus 3:19–22 “19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. 20 So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it; after that he will let you go. 21 And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and when you go, you shall not go empty, 22 but each woman shall ask of her neighbor, and any woman who lives in her house, for silver and gold jewelry, and for clothing. You shall put them on your sons and on your daughters. So you shall plunder the Egyptians.””

I made you in my image and I can do amazing things through you. It wasn’t Moses doing the work—it was God.

On a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being trash, 10 being treasure), how valuable do you secretly believe you are? With what value do you treat other people around you?

What freedoms or benefits come from embracing God’s design for life?