Discipleship Series Sermon: Know Yourself

Know Yourself

Receive the Gospel

Connect in Community

Walk with God

Know Yourself

Serve your God

Commit to this Church

A part of being a disciple of Jesus is knowing yourself!

This aspect of being a disciple of Jesus may be the most helpful session in the class b/c I believe it’s the most neglected. Most discipleship paradigms don’t include something like this. I think in many ways...

“Knowing self” is the missing piece of discipleship.

I’ve been a Christian for about 25 years and throughout my journey I’ve experienced several break through moments that had to do with knowing myself. One of those was about 8 years ago. I started receiving counseling with a retired pastor who works with screwed up dudes like me… Jim Cofield… he wrote a book called Relational Soul…

Jim helped me to know myself. B/c what I was doing… is what many Christians do is…

(Note the WB: Pic)

I received the gospel… connected in community… learned how to walk with God… and then I got on to serving in ministry. I didn’t even know Knowing Myself mattered. I thought, “What’s in the past is past… and all that matters is serving Jesus.”

But then I began to experience struggles/problems in ministry. These were things that weren’t solved by just knowing more of the right doctrine or engaging spiritual disciplines. These were things that had to do with me/my story.

One of my personal issued had to do with a void in my life from growing up with a father who was a functional alcoholic. Now I love my father very much, I respect him, he’s a man of God now! But, there was hole in my soul as a young man and I was hungry for significance b/c I didn’t get that from Dad. I was totally unaware of this…

Remember I skipped this step… and so I went into ministry looking for significance. That led me to become a workaholic damaging my marriage and my ability to father my kids well at the time. I knew the right doctrines that I should be a good dad/husband… I practiced walking with God… but I was stuck b/c I didn’t realize the expression of my sin (working too much/false signIficance) were related to my story. See…

When we become disciples, we aren’t empty vessels that just get filled up with right doctrine and right practice.

No, we all have a story! We come with baggage. And our story has shaped our life to this point and continues to shape our life for good and bad! It plays a role in our discipleship. It’s something we need to think about and reflect on along the way.

So the big idea in this session is just to introduce us to this step of knowing yourself… That this is a part of following Jesus. It comes into play.

Some of you may struggle with this step b/c the idea of knowing self is over done in our “self-help” age. But, it’s important. In fact, Christians throughout history spoke about this… long before “self-help” was even a term. For example…

“Lord Jesus, Let me know myself and know you.” Augustine, 4th century

“Our wisdom, in so far as it ought to be deemed true and solid Wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves. But as these are connected together by many ties, it is not easy to determine which of the two precedes and gives birth to the other.” John Calvin, 16th century (Institutes of the Christian Religion—the very first sentence!)

So what about scripture… do we have any hints in the Bible that it’s important to know oneself? Well, there aren’t self-help guides in the Bible b/c the Bible isn’t about us it’s about God.

But we can see the writers of scripture engaging their hearts/doing some self reflection.

Have you noticed how often the first person singular (I) is used in scripture?

The Bible is filled with human story it isn’t just doctrinal statements and commands on how to live… there’s a lot human texture in the Bible. Stories of people who know themselves and share that in their writings.

Let’s just briefly look at Psalm 73… I included most of the Psalm in the NLT version with a few comments in parenthesis.

1 Truly God is good to Israel, to those whose hearts are pure. 2 But as for me, I almost lost my footing. My feet were slipping, and I was almost gone. (notice the 1st person)

3 For I envied the proud when I saw them prosper despite their wickedness. (this is his journal entry/his struggle) 4 They seem to live such painless lives; their bodies are so healthy and strong….

8 They scoff and speak only evil; in their pride they seek to crush others. 9 They boast against the very heavens, and their words strut throughout the earth. 10 And so the people are dismayed and confused, drinking in all their words. 11 “What does God know?” they ask. “Does the Most High even know what’s happening?”

12 Look at these wicked people (Asaph sharing his heart again)— enjoying a life of ease while their riches multiply. 13 Did I keep my heart pure for nothing? Did I keep myself innocent for no reason? (he’s questioning his own commitment to God/if it’s worth it)

14 I get nothing but trouble all day long; every morning brings me pain. 15 If I had really spoken this way to others, I would have been a traitor to your people (so this is what he was feeling/his journal entry).

16 So I tried to understand why the wicked prosper. But what a difficult task it is! 17 Then I went into your sanctuary, O God, and I finally understood the destiny of the wicked (he goes on speaking about how God will take care of the wicked/he closes with another confession)…

21 Then I realized that my heart was bitter, and I was all torn up inside. 22 I was so foolish and ignorant— I must have seemed like a senseless animal to you.

23 Yet I still belong to you; you hold my right hand. 24 You guide me with your counsel, leading me to a glorious destiny. 25 Whom have I in heaven but you? I desire you more than anything on earth. 26 My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; he is mine forever. (Psalm 73, NLT)

We get Asaph’s journal entry. He’s reflecting on where he was… he was struggling with seeing injustice in the world. He took time to know his own heart and worked it out. BTW, you see personal emotional expression all throughout the psalms.

A few more examples… Paul, an early church leader gave some instructions to the Elders/Leaders of the church in Ephesus as he was leaving them… he said,

Acts 20:28 ESV

28 Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.

It wasn’t enough for them to know their doctrine or pray more… they also needed to pay attention to themselves in addition to all the flock.

He said something similar to Timothy,

1 Timothy 4:16 ESV

16 Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.

Romans 12:3 ESV

3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

Thee’s instructions on how to think about yourself!

So there’s a few passages of scripture that help us just get a quick introduction to this idea… that a part of this walk with God is knowing self. Paul urges leaders to know themselves… Asaph had done enough reflection to express what he was feeling how he was reacting to things… some of us don’t know how to do that… I think I’m still learning.

Okay, let’s get practical—

How do we know ourselves? What does that look like?

3 area’s of knowledge you need to know yourself:

1 Know the story of humanity.

2 Know your story.

3 Know how the gospel reinterprets your story!

1 Know the story of humanity (See Genesis 1-3)

I’m not going to spend a lot of time here. I’ve done this in past, but just a reminder Genesis 1-3 tells us the key details of the beginning of humanity and what when wrong. There we learn that humans are made in the image of God after his likeness, they were made male and female and given a job to co-rule with God, multiply, and subdue creation. The beginning is beautiful. As much as we emphasize the brokenness and fallenness of humanity we need to remember that the first humans were not born into sin. They were to be images of God representing him/functioning as his agents of development in the world. Things were good. But humans decided to define what is good and right for themselves… and sin, chaos, evil spread. It was a mess.

So when we begin thinking about knowing ourselves we start with understanding:

The Image of God + The Fall into sin = Beautiful Mess

And we all know this tension… humans today do amazing things (examples) and horrific things (examples). If you are a human being and not an alien in the skin of a human or something like that. This is your legacy/your story. Knowing yourself involves this. You are meant to be an image bearer of God… but you are also a part of the human family of sinners.

2 Know your story

What about this? Cofield and Plass in their book, “Relational Soul” talk about how our story is composed of three things—events, emotions (surrounding the events we experienced) and interpretations (what we think we learned from the events and emotions of our lives). Our interpretation of what happened becomes like the script of our lives. It becomes our identity.

Event + Emotion = Interpretation (Identity)

Here’s the thing… these events/emotions make up parts of your story. And specifically they shape your identity based on how you interpret them!

False interpretations of your story won’t go away by simply getting busy serving God or having long Bible studies, etc.

As a part of your discipleship process you must look in the mirror.

If you don’t these things will come up in your relationships with others/ministries they will surface… wreak havoc.

Most broken marriages; moral failures; conflict; etc. don’t come from not believing the right doctrine but come from a lack of self understanding.

For me, I didn’t realize that I was trying to find significance by using ministry not primarily out of calling or love for God—though that was a part of it—but b/c of a deficit I had. I didn’t know myself. I didn’t know my story! And it affected my family. We need to give thought to our life… pause… how often do you go, sit, and refect/journal?

Proverbs 14:8 NIV

8 The wisdom of the prudent is to give thought to their ways, but the folly of fools is deception.

So let’s get to the good news… so you do this exercise (homework)… you walk through some things like this. And it’s good b/c this can bring self awareness but it doesn’t bring healing. How does healing happen? This has to do with the 3rd area of knowledge…

3 Know how the gospel reinterprets your story

This has to do with… Where does God fit into this? How does the gospel change/heal our interpretation of our life?

1. Honesty/Talking it out.

2. Confess/Surrender our false interpretations/identities

3. Affirm what God says about us!

This begins with honesty… often talking this out with a trusted friend, spouse, mentor, etc. We talk about the event and how we felt (we put it out there/it happened/we can’t change what’s happened in the past) there’s a freedom in just naming it.

Then we confess our interpretation… we repent of the false identities these interpretations have created for us (go through the list in the chart).

We can surrender all of these to Jesus. We can affirm that our identity is as a child of God; friends of God; forgiven/cleansed/renewed in Christ.

What God says about us is more powerful than the interpretations we have lived in of the events and emotions of our lives.

The gospel reinterprets the false identities we’ve taken on from past pain!

Consider the story of Joseph (Genesis 37-50)

If you’re familiar with the story of Joseph (Gen 37-50) you know that he was wronged over and over. His own brothers threw him into a pit and sold him to a slave trader. He was wrongly accused and put in jail for years in Egypt. But eventually he rose to power and was second to Pharaoh. God used him to preserve food in Egypt during a famine. This same food was used to save his brothers and father who came to Egypt looking for food. And Joseph, though he could’ve punished his brothers, he allowed his story of pain to be reinterpreted. He said, “What you meant for evil God has used for good.” (Gen. 50.20)

Genesis 50:20 ESV

20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.

Do you have a story of pain from which you’ve been living out a false identity—an interpretation that you need to bring under the light of the gospel? Into the truth? That is a part of growing as a disciple!

I’m not talking about seeking some inner enlightenment when I talk about knowing yourself… I’m talking about stuff like this! Listen to what Cofield says in his book…

“To experience true-self living we have to experience our personal Joseph journey. We must embrace our gains and especially our losses. We must be grateful, and we must grieve. We must find that God was always with us, even in the death of what we wanted most. But God gives us resurrected life. Our cross experiences still happen. Suffering continues in our world and in our lives. We are not exempt. Jesus is not the chaplain of the American dream. Our life in Christ is not a wand that magically changes what we lived; nor does it magically insulate us from pain in the future. We cannot change the events of our past any more than Christ can change the fact of his suffering. But by faith our cross experiences are reinterpreted. They are seen as a way for a new kind of life to be born.” Colfield and Plass, Relational Soul

After I realized the false identity of seeking significance through ministry which hurt my wife/kids and others. I had to mourn the loss of something I didn’t receive in childhood. Healing for me came when I heard the words of God the Father to Jesus at his baptism…

Matthew 3:17 ESV

17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

I realized that in Christ, the Father says the same thing to me. He gives me an identity. I belong to God now and he says, “I’m proud of you son!”

I began to heal from a wound that so shaped my life and then I was able to reinterpret my story. I realized God used this pain to make me into the man I am today. My drive for significance caused me to take risks, to want to lead and to want to succeed which isn’t always a bad thing. Now I use those same drives in ministry… but not out of a deficit… b/c I know I’m good with Jesus!

Knowing yourself is deep work!

It takes years… it takes journaling… it takes some silence/solitude… I want to recommend to you the book Relational Soul… he talks more about this process… much more than I can cover in a sermon.

A part of knowing ourselves is dealing with past pain and bringing the gospel to bear on that. The good news is the Lord takes the old… the false interpretations and reinterprets them… he makes us new. Here is the hope and promise for all of us and the past pain that has shaped us…

2 Corinthians 5:17 NLT

17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

Maybe I’m stretching this a little… but this verse applies to knowing self… in that it matters to know the old… what is gone/passing away… are you aware of what is being changed? What is being made new? It doesn’t just say, “you’re made new” there's this part that has to do with the old leaving!

2 Corinthians 5:18–21 NLT

18 And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. 19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. 20 So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” 21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

Communion