Untitled Sermon

Who Am I? (1)

Discovering your true identity - the real you

Thank you for coming to our first official College and Career Bible Studies! Last week, we talked about the importance of gathering because it has been a while since the class has gathered together because of Covid.

Today, I want to introduce to a new study, “Who am I?” This study is to help you discover your identity, which is the real you. 

As our technology grows, identity theft is becoming a serious issue. Some people are facing an identity crisis, or you might hear the mid-life crisis. In our world today, we are also heard about gender identities and stuff like that.

Some people are confused about who they are as they search deep in their souls to answer these three questions. “Who am I?” “Why am I here?” and “What is my purpose?”

Everyone has asked this question about themselves at some point in their lives. Whether they ask them out loud, ask in their mind, or even ask other people. Some people even pursue a career that they may not like because they don’t know why they are here. They don’t understand why they were created and what their purpose is. Have you ever wonder what your purpose is?

These three questions are essential for each of us because the answer to these questions is what makes up our true identity or the real you. The pursue of our true identity is a lifelong process, but studies have shown that the struggle of finding true identity is peaked during college years at 18-29. As students move out of their parent’s authority, we can see that they struggle about who they are since they no longer live under the umbrella of household rules and authority. They will now have to find out for themselves what is next for them; they will try to find their true identity. For the next six weeks, we will try to answer these questions.

Today, we will go over the origin of man kind and this will help us understand the question, “Who am I?”

Who do you look like in your family? whether if you think so, or someone else telling you so.

When people see a baby or a children, they typically comment on how resemblance they look to their parents. You might hear comments like, “oh, she looks just like her mom. He have his dad’s nose. I can see mom in the eyes and the dad in the hair and head shape.” Those are fun things that we like to do when we see a kid.

Some people even says that their children act just like their parents in a certain aspects or behaviors. We may hear people comment, “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” It can be a compliment if you grow up in a good family, but it can be hurtful if you grow up in the not so good family.

According to Genesis 5:3, children tend to possess certain characteristics and traits that are passed on their genes.

As we answer the question, “Who am I”, we must begin with the following two foundational truths found in Genesis 1:26-27

Turn your Bible to Genesis 1:26-27

The first foundational truth that will help answer our question “who am i” is that “God creates you.”

I. You are created by God

As you read Genesis, you find yourself reading the account of creation and how God made everything just by the air of His lung. The powerful truth and a great application are that God creates us.

A. You are not a product of time and chance!

Rather, you are the product of a designer who created you unique with a distinct purpose. There is no one like you. It would be weird if there is two of me, who think like me, talk like me. I would drive myself crazy!

For years, science has people believe and still believe today. They want you to think that you are existed by chance through millions of years, evolving from micro spec with no significant purpose. The truth is that your origin was a creative and purposeful act of God. A master designer creates you. He has carefully made you.

B. Your life is not an accident!

Your life is of extreme value and prized above all of creation. Why is that? Your existence comes from careful consideration by God, the Creator.

Read Psalm 139:13-16

From your toenails to your head, God has knit you in your mother’s womb. God carefully and thoughtfully crafted every aspect of you. He knows you before you are even put together.

Illustration: Artists are great! They take a look at a blank canvas or a block of wood or rock; they drew or carved a masterpiece out of it.

Just like an artist, God already has an idea of what you are going to look like as an adult before you were even conceived in your mother’s womb.

You are fearfully and wonderfully made according to verse 14. We have learned that we are not here on accident, we are here because we have a master creative designer.

I don’t know much about you guys and your background, but I hope that I can get to know you better throughout the months a head.

It’s doesn’t matter if you were “an accident” or even if you were conceived in an event of family trauma, I want you to know that you are not an accident. Because you are the product of a creative designer. Your family and friends might think that, but they are wrong. Don’t let satan use others to tear you down and hold you back from the truth of God’s word!

C. Your life is not meaningless!

Rather, you are created to think, reason, understand, and love. Your life has a tremendous purpose given to you by your Creator. You belong to God. “Milard Erickson said, “the biblical picture of man’s origin is that an all-wise, all-powerful, and good God created the human race to love and serve Him, and to enjoy a relationship with Him.”

When you understand that you are created by the a creative designer, you will find that you are not created by chance of millions of year of evolution, you will find that your life is not an accident or meaningless. This should add some implication that you are more than what the world is telling you.

The second foundational truth of today lesson is that “You are created in God’s image.”

II. You are created in God’s image

turn back to Genesis 1:26-27 in your Bible with me

The phrase, “let us” “in our” “after our likeness” are talking about the trinity. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit is involve in the creation of man. We are created after God’s likeness. This set man above and higher than the rest of creation. We are not equal to animals, but we stand above them and have dominion over them.

The fact that we are created in God’s image will help us answer the question “who am i?” What exactly does this mean? What is the word “image” meant?

Image is a noun that means a representation. It’s normal refers to a statue of a social class, model, copy, or picture. We take pictures of ourselves all the time, or even food. Those pictures are consider images. As we think through about being created in the image of God, we reflect some of God qualities.

The word “likeness” in this context, meant the same as image, they can use interchangeably. The only different is that the word “likeness” is use to intensify the meaning of we are created in God’s likeness. Just as a child possesses specific qualities from parents, you possess specific characteristics from God the Creator.

Illustration: Sadie told me that when she was little, she watched her dad hated to eat fish, so now she doesn’t like to touch them, smell them or worst, eat them. She inherited some trait after her dad.

Why do you laugh, have the ability to love, cry, get your felling hurt, and get excited? How do you have the ability to learn, think, reason, and understand? How can you know god and have a relationship with him? these are all characteristics you possess because you were created in God’s image which can be seen in two aspects.

A. Your human design

I have two verse for you to look at. First Genesis 2:7 and second is 1 Thessalonians 5:23.

Here in Genesis 2:7 show us that there is three quality that made up man.

BodySpiritSoul

When we look in the mirror, we will see our physical body. That is the only one that we see, until we move on to the eternity. Our body has 5 senses : smell, touch, seeing, hearing, tasting. That is how we express ourselves in the physical world.

Soul is contain your psychological element containing your mind, heart and will. What I meant about heart is not a piece of muscle in your body, but the most inner being of you. In our soul, we have our personality, our conscience which telling us right from wrong, emotions, and ability to gain knowledge.

The Spirit is the eternal element of a human. The spirit part of us help us to have a connection with God, its allow us to worship, ability to praise and talk to him through prayer.

B. Ability to love

The second aspect of being created in God’s image is your ability to love. God is love and God created you to love others and with a desire to be loved. Because we are created by God, we possess some of God’s love traits. That make us desire love, or want to be love.

Turn your Bible to Mark 12:30-31

Human moral excellence is summed up in the word love. Where do we get that? from God.

Conclusion:

We will go further into the lesson as we learn more about our true identity as well as we answer the question “who am I” since we now gain a deeper understanding of your origin and the characteristics of being made in God’s image.

Let’s pray