I am who you say I am

Who we believe are massively affects how we are in life

Since my early teens, I’ve been passionate about a few things; music, Computers, Computer games, Fantasy adventure films and Jesus. Everyday I spent an hour on the piano at 6am in the church which was next door. And music was the thing which made school bareable. My other hobbies came in handy when it came to learning new software packages, and helping others out when they couldn’t get the computer to work. Fantasy adventure games, films and books were my escape. And my faith in Jesus was core to my upbringing, my childhood and once I returned to the Lord at 14, He really was my everything.

In school, I was bullied a lot. It didn’t help I looked like Harry Potter, which wasn’t a great thing when the books and films first came out. Didn’t help that I had round glasses with unruly brown hair, my best friend was ginger and one of our other friends in the band, she had long brown frizzy hair. I was spotty, I wore glasses, and I was labled, Geek, Christian, Muso, Freak, four eyes, and other unkind phrases. And each one was used as an excuse to target me and my friends with more than just name calling.

It was hard not to live under those words. What I discovered was that I could turn some of these around. A Geek could be turned round to a positive, someone who’s passionate about neiche subjects - in my case Star Wars, Marvel, Lord of the Rings that sort of thing.

Muso was more used to identify us as the strange guys who hung out in the music block every break and played Jazz together.

But spotty, and four eyes hurt. I was taking my prescribed acne medicine, I was too young for contact lenses, and those labels hung over my head, and I allowed the labels, which other people had spoken over me, to impact my life, and even worse, to become part of my identity.

One day, I was having a chat with Dad about music, and I shared a few dreams about university

He chose us

You were chosen by God before the creation of the world!

Before this earth came into being, God held you in his mind. He already had your purpose in mind. Not as a puppet to be manouvered into his illaborate puppet show, but as his son or daughter, created to live freely with him. God’s heart was to love you, to get to know you, to disover you. Yes his creation, but more than that, his beloved child.

Genesis 1:1–5 NIV

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. 3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

Ephesians 1:4–6 NIV

4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.

Ephesians 1.

Adoption

But why did he need to adopt us? Because we are prodigals. We walked away when we didn’t know him. We missed his call, his song over our lives, which he has been singing before even this world was made.

He knew that humanity would reject him, and yet he still made us. You are so worth it, that before the creation of the world, He was willing to step down to be with us and to die for you.

Why? S that even though we left the Father’s kingdom, we could return. There is a way for us to be His children again. A way for us to holy (set apart) and blameless in his sight.

And that way? Through the death of his son. To lavish on us his glorious grace.

Do you feel like you live in this freedom of the lavish out pouring of his grace.

How do you feel about that word ‘lavish’, overwhelming, overflowing, adbundent and rich, full

This is the mystery, that God would die for us, that God the Son would become flesh and die.

What was it’s affect? Through his pure death, we are redeemed. We are set free from the clitches of evil.

So all those names

Redemption

This is the mystery, that God would die for us, that God the Son would become flesh and die.

What was it’s affect? Through his pure death, we are redeemed. We are set free from the clitches of evil.

So all those names spoken over us, all those lies and those destructive words spoken over our lives, we are redeemed from them. We once were prisoners to those things, and now we are free. Set free through the son. Through the death of our Lord, through the sacrifice of Jesus.

He did all of this … why?

Ephesians 1:10 NIV

10 to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.

Ephesians 1:11 NIV

11 In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will,

- to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ v 10

Predestination

God is not a puppet master, we are humans, made in his image, and, who is in and out of God’s kingdom is more mysterious than we often think. The bible is clear that he honours those who wish an eternity without him, that those who reject him won’t recieve eternal life with him. This is sometimes where people start to question God’s charachter or where people just say ‘I can’t believe in a God who would make these kinds of decisions’. They start from the basis that surely everyone is entitled to have eternal life unless they’re particularly bad. Of course, we know that in the eyes of God, every sin deserves the same punishment, death. And he has rescued us from that punishment through Jesus.

As Christians we know it is He who makes those judgements, and He is the only one who is truly worthy to make that call. We must never forget the charachter of God which He has revealed to us. So don’t let others draw you in with comments of a puppet master, or a capricious God , one who seems to randonly change his mind. Because neither are part of the charachter of the God who we see in the Bible, nor the God who has revealed himself to you and I.

In this verse, Paul is speaking as a Jew. We, the Jews were predestined according to the plan of God. Of course, the people of Israel were constantly rebelling against God as we have all done in our lives. And so in the coming of Jesus, we know that the doors to becoming God’s people were flung open to everyone. So Paul here is talking about the acceptance of the Gentiles, the non-Jews. Here we have it.

Ephesians 1:13 NIV

13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit,

So the good news is for all. God knew you before the creation of the world. But you were adopted and redeemed when you came to know Jesus.

Sealed by the Holy Spirit

The Jewsish people were marked out for God through a private marking, through male circumcision.

It was such an important sign in the Old testament, under the old covenant, that it becomes divisive in the early church, but Paul, in other places, uses it as a metaphor for the mark of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

When you heard the message of truth and believed the good news that Jesus came to save us, you were marked by the seal of the Holy Spirit. God came to live inside you. You can never be the same again.

Paul says the Holy Spirit is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance.

Ephesians 1:14 NIV

14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.

Our what?

Our what?

Didn’t we walk away from God, weren’t we dead in our sin. Surely being forgiven and made ready to serve God is enough? I mean, we’re much better of with the creator than without him.

But just like the parable of the lost sons, where the prodigal returns home to work as a servant, praying for a forgiving Father, he is met with a weeping embracing loving Father, who not only restores him as a son, but an equal share in the inheritance.

If you have heard the good news, and you believe that Jesus is Lord, you have recieved the gift of the Holy Spirit. You are marked, and sealed, and your inheritance is guarenteed. You were bought at a price, and you have been freed from the evil that holds us down. That inheritance is of grace, and love, and abudence in life.

So I wonder, who do you think you are?

When was the last time you asked yourself that question? Who am I?

What words come to mind?

Do those words relate you to other people?

Do those words describe your appearence?

Do they describe things you do?

But what about you?

We often ask the world around us:

Who am I?

Who do you want to be?

We often then get an image in our head, and strive for that, but when things don’t work out we brand ourselves ‘a failure’

The only help the world around us gives us is the suggestion of looking at our feelings. Our society makes massive decisions based on our feelings, so shouldn’t we apply that to our everyday lives?

Feelings

Action

Action

Identity

Identity

Let’s try it out.

I feel really, deeply angry

And so I lash out

Therefore I’m an angry person. Feel free to tell me I’m a hot head, because it must be true.

or

I used to be confident and excited, but after that incident, all I feel is fear and shame

So I hide and don’t trust

Therefore I’m a reclusive person and I’m consumed with anxiety

In both examples, our feelings lead to actions which we then take as our identity

We so quickly label ourselves

But God has a different way of identifying. He turns the worlds way upside down as he always does.

He starts with Identity. We don’t need to look at other indicators to tell us who we are, He just goes straight in

“You are my beloved child in whom I am well pleased” - held in his eyes, and called to live life in the inheritance of his love and grace

Because you are a beloved childe, known by him before the creation of this world, you’re actions are changed, they’re transformed. Because a child of God is created good, and sin has no place there.

A sinner by nature sins, and so their actions are singful.

But a child of God, is called to higher things. And as we journey with Jesus, as we walk the walk, out actions start to become fitting of a child of God.

So our Identity affects our Actions, and in turn, our actions transform our feelings.

Initially, we felt angry. But as a child of God, we work hard at responding better through our actions, and through time, love and hard work, we find a few weeks and months later that our feelings aren’t half as angry as they were.

As a child of God, instead of fearing life and those around us, we are released into a confidence as his children. Suddenly our fears and anxieties start to fade as we act differently, less fearfully and with our shame taken and pinned to the cross in Jesus.

Identity

Actions

Feelings

Who am I?

Well, I am who He says I am!

Action

I want us to spend some time with the Holy Spirit now, in a time of quiet, asking the Lord to reveal the lies which have been spoken over us, the lies he wants to destroy.

Break them in Jesus name

And now, let’s ask him to tell us who we are, what truths he is speaking over us today!