The Freedom of Identity

Introduction

Opening Illustration: Lifelock. Exists to make sure our identities are secure. Whenever suspicious activity happens I get a notification, and the essence of it can be boiled down to three words: “Is this you?” It’s the question of identity.

Point: The question of identity looms large for each of us. It is the soundtrack of our souls. Who Am I?

Application: The recently retired athlete asks this question. The parents whose kids have just left the nest asks this question. The laid off person asks this question. The successful businessman who just sold his company and has nothing but time and money on her hands, asks this question. Who Am I?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer poem on page 26 of The Call.

Answer this question correctly, you answer all of life.

The Answer- Verses 1-2

Explanation: Our passage is all about identity. But the question is why does Paul deal with the issue of identity. Purpose is seen in 1:10. Chloe’s house (thanks for putting me on blast bruh). There’s divisions, and those divisions are over the leaders in the church- Paul, Apollos, Peter or Christ! Quick application- when we settle for lesser identities we can expect division. If my identity is in money, divided from poor. In my ethnicity. In my political party.

The Tension: Putting your identity in your success. A group of people who were of Paul. Easy to understand. One of the top five leaders of all time. Paul could have played into this and built his brand around this. This is pride. An overinflated ego. But he refused to do this.

On the other hand there were groups of people who not only refused to follow Paul, but actually ridiculed him for his unimpressive speaking. Paul could have let this define him, and allowed this to become his identity.

Tension: Building our identity around our successes or weaknesses. Both devastating.

Darrin Patrick Illustration. Planted and pastored a large church. Said his identity was in that. Then failure came in a very public way. One of the last things he said is I hate that’s what comes up. Killed himself.

Application: You may not kill yourself, but it will kill your joy. It will kill your relationships.

Identity in Christ. Explanation. Servants and stewards. Quick. Dummy Illustration? And with this came an incredible freedom. Identity is freedom. Paul shows us that when our identity is in Christ, that allows us to put gospel distance between my successes and my weaknesses.

Illustration: Of a person who was locked up for years, and now they ran the DNA and they are let go. Identity is freedom. When our identity is in Christ, and we are living into this, there is an incredible freedom we are experiencing, like Paul. Applications- If money is not your identity...

So the question becomes, we all get this, but how do I practically break free of the lesser identities of this world?

Breaking Free- God Our Judge- 4b-5

Explanation: Word judge keeps popping up. Doesn’t so much mean verdict, as much as it emphasizes the process that leads you there- evaluation and scrutiny. Pair this with “human court” (3) and the picture is one finding themselves in a scenario where they are constantly being scrutinized and evaluated. Paul was always being evaluated. His whole ministry. He says by others. Judaizers in Galatians. Religious leaders upset with him. Had to literally go to court and be evaluated by Felix and others. Paul was the Lebron James of his day- constantly scrutinized.

Application. And to some degree that happens to all of us every day. People are evaluating and forming their own identity opinions of us based on where we go to school, live, what we drive, how we spend our money, etc. And the pressure to conform to this is huge.

Ourselves. But Paul also implies there’s the pressure to face judgment from ourselves (3b). We all have an inner lawyer. People pleasing. Did I say the right thing? Was I too harsh. Did they like the sermon. Spurgeon sitting by the fire place sulking. We need to learn to fire our inner lawyer.

How do we break free of this? One more source of judgment- evaluation. God. He’s the only real judge. Why? He’s the only one who really knows everything about us. We make judgements on appearances, the Lord on the heart. Analogy of Chicago study and the stats of wrong imprisonment. God will never get a verdict wrong.

Point: Play with the end in mind.

Saving for Myles College Illustration. Began with the end in mind. Because that day was coming, it impacted the choices we made in the present.

Application. People do not have the final say over your life, God does.

Breaking Free- People Small, God Big- Verse 3a

Explanation: What happens when I live like God is my only judge? Well, people become small and God becomes Big. Look at verse 3. There was a word for small in Greek, micros. This word is the superlative of that word. Very, VERY small. Tiny. Paul isn’t saying others judgments are invisible, or that he is immune to them, they’re just beyond microscopic.

Biblical Example: Galatians 1:10. Against the backdrop of the Judaizers and their identity attacks on him- not a real apostle.

Illustration. In sports we call this mental toughness. It’s especially needed when an athletes walks into an opposing teams arena. Everyone is booing them. Calling them everything but a child of God. Trying to distract them. Success is the ability to allow the mission of winning to become greater than the people.

Application. Christians, we are on the visiting team. The arena of this world is not our home.

Breaking Free- Performance Free.

Explanation: Paul’s identity is fixed in Christ and this brings an incredible freedom. This freedom happens when God is our final judge, people become small, while God becomes big and when this happens then we are performance free. Remember why he writes the Corinthians. They are saying he’s not eloquent. Look at how Paul answers in I Corinthians 2:1-5. He’s performance free.

Madonna: “My drive in life comes from a fear of being mediocre. That is always pushing me. I push past one spell of it and discover myself as a special human being but then I feel I am still mediocre and uninteresting unless I do something else. Because even though I have become somebody, I still have to prove that I am somebody. My struggle has never ended and I guess it never will”- Madonna, Vogue Magazine.

When your identity is not in Christ, but in the lesser identities you become a slave to performance. Work. Money. People pleasing. Always have to perform. Me and sermons.

But when it’s in Christ, we understand that he already stepped in court and took on our trial and judgment.

Double Jeopardy Illustration.

Gospel conclusion: We don’t have to, because Jesus already did. He stepped into a courtroom some 2k years ago. A kangaroo court. he took on the bad verdicts of others, and God, our final judge has rendered the verdict- RIGHTEOUS! So we don’t have to perform for his verdict, but FROM his verdict. We are FREE!