What is Your Identity?

Ephesians 4:20–24 ESV

But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

World Identity

-Why does Paul mention he assumes that the church has heard about Christ?

A. Christ is not learned through engagement with the world.

B. Truth is in Christ.

-Our feelings can be deceitful

-Even our best desires can be warped

-ex. Saul Killing Christians

Acts 9:1 ESV

But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest

C. We are taught in Christ to get rid of our old identity

2. New Identity

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

A. Given, not earned

B. New Identity is in Christ’s likeness.

-We enjoy true righteousness and Holiness not because we deserve them, but Christ’s blood bestows them on us.

-Continued reliance on Christ.

C. Change should be evident in the life of a believer.

-Maybe not immediately, but definitely overtime.

3. Renewing Identity

A. Daily Renewal

Luke 9:23 ESV

And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

-We drift away from God without a daily renewal.

-We drift away from God without a daily renewal.

-Compass on a ship example.

Luke 9:23 ESV

And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

B. Through Christ, not Ourselves

-not meditation, yoga, self-help, vacation