Sermon Tone Analysis

Start by asking the audience

What is my Identity?

Your identity is how you are identified.

This could mean your physical characteristics, your personality, your background, your occupation, and many other ways

Identity centers around ones sense of self — All of us sooner or later ask ourselves, “Who am I?”

Our identity evolves over time as we discover new things about ourselves through the choices we make

It’s influenced by our parents, our peers, and the world around us

Some of the first things we discover about our identity is our name — then we discover our gender

But is that it?

1. Discovering my Identity

Today I want us to look at our true .. eternal identity that goes beyond our physical characteristics

>> The search begins on the inside, not the outside

The first thing God established when he created mankind was their identity

We are created in the likeness of God

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them (Genesis 1:27).

What does God look like?

— If we are made in his image, we want to know what that image is

God is Spirit

God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth (John 4:24 ).

To find the part of us that is made in God’s image we have to look on the inside — our spirit

When Adam first sees Eve, he identifies her with himself - He did not see her nakedness, but instead saw her oneness with him -

Genesis 2:23-25

The man said,“This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’for she was taken out of man

… 25 Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame

But something changed

After eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, something changed.

Genesis 3:7-11

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.

9 But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?” 10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” 11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked?

Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

God asked them, “Who told you?” Who is telling you about your identity.

The world we live in, is full of knowledge of good things and evil things , but it will never be able to tell us our true identity.

As long as we seek our identity in what this world has to say, we will be left afraid and ashamed … always!

We need someone who can look at the inside

We will never discover our true identity if we only focus on our physical characteristics

There is only one person who can look inside you and tell you who you really are — God

>> God looks at the heart

When it was time to choose a new king for Israel, God chose a young shepherd boy who was overlooked by his own family

Everyone else saw a shepherd boy — God saw a king

The Lord does not look at the things people look at.

People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart (1 Sam 16:7).

If God looks at our heart — that which is on the inside of us — it’s important for us to know more about our inner identity rather than our outer identity.

2. Knowing my Identity

>> Only God knows my true identity, because God made me

When David grew older, he recognized that only God truly knows him.

You have searched me, LORD, and you know me. 2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. 3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways… 13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb (Psalm 139:1-3, 13).

Do you ever find yourself asking God, “Why did you make me this way?.. Is it a complaint?

or are you seeking directions?

— This question could either lead to to true discovery of your identity or send you spiraling into living out a lie.

Our response to how God made us should never be one of shame or rebellion, but of praise.

>> I am fearfully and wonderfully made

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14 )

Fearfully - means we were made with reverence, with dignity, with honor.

God made you in his image — you deserve honor

Wonderfully - means we were made with extraordinary qualities, unique, special, beautiful.

God made you in his image — you are beautiful

In order for us to truly understand what it means to be made in the image of God - we have to look to Jesus

>> Jesus is the true example of what it means to be made in the image of God

On the outside Jesus looked like an average person, had a normal family, worked as a carpenter:

Isaiah 53:2-3 He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.3

He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.

Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem

Matthew 13:5 and coming to his hometown he taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works?

55 Is not this the carpenter’s son?

Is not his mother called Mary?

And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?

56 And are not all his sisters with us?

Where then did this man get all these things?”

57 And they took offense at him

There was more to Jesus than what met the eye - Jesus is the Son of God

Matthew 3:16-17 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water.

At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.

17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word (Hebrews 1:3 ).

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation (Colossians 1:15).

I don’t know what you see when you look in the mirror - But there is more to you than what meets the eye

3. Living my Identity

Upon discovering this new identity — it’s important for us to now live from this true identity of ours

>> We must be born again

That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’

8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.

So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:6-8).

God is Spirit - and when we are born again - we claim our original image of the likeness of God

>> We must live from our spiritual identity

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God (Romans 8:14).

Romans 8:15-17

15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.

And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”

16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.

17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

>> We must live like Jesus

In oneness with God our Father and our brothers and sisters:

John 17:20-23

My prayer is not for them alone.

I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.

May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity.

Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.