No items found.
Well, we're in a short message series called The Journey. And this is a series that focuses on closing the chasm between what is true about God, what is true about us, our identity, And what we believe about ourselves, what we're experiencing daily. Because what is true about God is one thing, but the way we interpret it, how we actually live it out, what we experience is another thing. And we want to be able to close that gap. And that's the key to overcoming what's impossible and living, as you've never imagined, the abundant life that God has for us. And if you weren't here last week, I heard it was a really powerful week. You can go back and look at our livestream. We had Pastor Carl and Greg here just talking about, it was almost a Socratic-style discussion that was going on on just our identity and things pertaining to this. And we did, and if you weren't there, I'm going to do a short recap, but we did give out a workbook for us to just spend some time on, you know, just going a little bit deeper on what do we believe about ourselves. So if you didn't get that workbook and if you want it, we still have a few more copies. If you just want to raise your hands right now, we've got the ushers that can give it to you. Again, it's a great workbook, great resource. We've got a few people. Even here, guys, there's a few people on this side of the aisle as well. It's great. So Pastor Carl and Greg, they're going to be here next Sunday. So if you want to take a little bit of time just looking through that workbook, just working at it, that would be great. But the plan for today... I just want to give a short recap of what we did last week and then jump into the topic of identity today. So it's not going to be the traditional sermon. It's almost like I feel like it's almost like a seminar. There's a lot of slides that I got to get through. So I'll try to be as fast as possible. So if you can stay along with me, that would be awesome. So here's what we did last week. No one is born with a fully formed mind, right? Our thinking and perceptions are shaped over time, primarily through emotionally rich experiences, especially in our earliest years. When those early experiences go uninterpreted or misinterpreted, they can lead to distorted beliefs, disrupted emotional patterns, and dysfunctional behaviors. Left unchallenged, these distortions can grow into a faulty worldview. Again, what we think about God, what we think about ourselves, what we think about the world around us, reinforced by deeply rooted habits that can hinder our growth and freedom. I love this quote by Stephen Covey. He says, "'We are not as objective as we'd like to believe,' We don't see the world as it is. We see the world as we are. There are so many defining voices that have gone into what we think about ourselves. And I just want to list out a few of these voices that have gone into our worldview as to how we view God, how we view ourselves. And the foremost of this is the voices of our parents, the scripts we heard growing up, words of praise or words of criticism. they often become the loudest internal voice that we carry. And then you have siblings and family dynamics, the role that we were assigned even as siblings. We might have been the strong one, the quiet one, the responsible one, or the black sheep in the family. All of that matters into who we think we are. Our teachers and coaches, their praise or criticism can form powerful labels. capable, you're slow, you're a leader, or you're a failure. It goes on, peers and friend groups, acceptance or rejection in our formative years deeply shapes our sense of belonging. Our culture and society messages about success, appearance, achievement, and identity create unrealistic standards. Church and spiritual influences as well. Healthy church environments anchor us in Christ. Unhealthy ones can create shame-based or performance-driven identities. Trauma and painful moments and other screaming voice, wounds, abandonment, betrayal, false narratives about our value and safety. And then media and technology, social media comparisons, filtered lives and online approvals, they become... Our identity voices, I came across this startling stat this week, and I wasn't even prepping for this sermon, and I was blown away by this. Listen to this. 90% of Christians watched TV or movies weekly, while only 29% read Scripture at least weekly. So 90% watched TV shows or movies weekly, while only 29% of Christians read their scriptures. So you can see the voices that we're being exposed to that actually frame our identity might not necessarily be God and His scripture. Might be the scripts around us. And there's a significant time disparity as well. On average, Americans spend 63 times More time on TV than on religious activities. 63 times more time is spent on TV than on religious activities. So a huge form of our identity formation is from TV and what influenced us. And then finally, a big voice is our own self-talk. The collection of all of the voices above, often inaccurate, becomes the daily interpreter of who we think we are. It's funny, I was at a It's funny how things come together. I was at a birthday party yesterday, close friend's son, he was turning nine and I was talking with the dad while the kids were playing and he said, hey, you know, I just wanted to share something that's been in my heart. And he goes, I've actually started to do a series with my son And, you know, he's nine years old. I want to really, like, be strengthened in his identity as who he is in God. And he said, so I started this series. It's focused on the family. I think it's called Launching Into Your Teen Years. And so just this past week, I did the first section on who we are. And I was really broken by what I heard. And he goes, one of the assignments in that series was my son, my nine-year-old son, had to list out what other people think of him or what other people have said about him and what God thinks about him and what he thinks about himself. And you know the adjectives that he used to describe what other people have said about him? Nine years old. He said, I'm dumb, I'm stupid, I'm an idiot. And he goes, Dad, I invited a few of my friends to my birthday party, and they said, we would never come to your birthday party. And you could see a nine-year-old boy's identity being affected by what his peers his friends have said and the dad was was almost in tears because i just couldn't believe it and so when they walked through a little bit of you know who he is in god there's something you know although this is you know i'm sure he's not gotten it fully he goes dad this is so helpful is this how god actually sees me for who i am could see, you know, already nine years old, there's that healing process going on because of these outside voices that define who we are. And a lot of us, we've had those experiences. If we go through a lot of these voices in our hearts and our heads that have framed who we are, we've got all of those unwholesome, unfiltered thoughts that have defined who we are. Self- loathing thoughts. But they could also be, you know, the flip side of all of this, they could also be some self-elevating thoughts where we think too much of ourselves than what we actually are. Maybe our pride of success, our achievements, just, you know, even just growing up, you know, is when you're in your teens, when you're in your 20s, you think you're invisible, invincible in terms of your body and then you enter into your 30s and it's all downhill, right? Just And then it gets worse progressively from there. A lot of things that go into who we are. And our goal with this series is to be able to examine that and just bring it to God and have Him define who we are, our identity. So by examining and understanding, if we can go to the next slide. We can move into the future unencumbered by it. We become free to express ourselves rather than endlessly trying to prove ourselves. And God cannot do that work unless we're transparent with him. I love this. It's becoming my favorite quote. God cannot heal the person you pretend to be. In every sphere of life, it feels as though we have to pretend. We call it the imposter syndrome. At work, even if we have... A sense of, you know, I don't know if I can do this. I don't know if I match up. You know, you can't say that openly. So we have to have a facade that we know what we're doing, right? So we're never honest. At home, we might be like that with our spouses, with our friends. Oh, if only they knew who I am, they might not love me. And we do that with church as well, right? A lot of times when people, you know, when you greet people, hey, how are you doing today? Oh, doing great. No, right? But God wants us to come as we are and give it to Him. He heals us. So God cannot heal the person you pretend to be. Therefore, a critical step in our transformation process is to prayerfully explore what has shaped and influenced the formation of our minds. And here's the defining premise of this sermon series. God is committed to setting us free from a life defined, controlled, and distracted by our past, by others' approval, and by our own need to perform. God is committed to this. He wants us to lean into the abundant life that God has for us. And sometimes... This notion of abundant life can be a little fuzzy, right? What does that mean? Does that mean material success, material prosperity, living the American dream? No, it's not. But a couple of months ago, we had our small group leaders training, and so we were talking about having a heart that is balanced, and we had one of our own, Marcia, just articulate something that really... really left an impact in terms of my own heart and what abundant life is. So I actually like noted down and then I lost it. So I emailed her this week and I said, Marcia, could you explain what you said about your definition of abundant life? So I hope it's okay if I share that with you. And this is what she said. She goes, long ago, I could not understand what Jesus meant by abundant life. He goes, as I get older and grow in understanding of the word and fellowship with God, I've come to learn that abundant life is to live in freedom from many things that oppress our souls, such as fear, anxiety, bitterness, unhappiness, fatalism, hopelessness, discontentment. etc. Walking with God, I've experienced a lot of peace despite unfavorable circumstances, joyful contentment, and satisfaction as life unfolds for me in this age. She goes, sadly, many people, we live with anxiety, worry, and many other mental disturbances that rob us of the joy of life despite the worldly successes and achievements that we might have. So I learned that abundant life is not a life of abundance, of material things and success. It's a life of satisfaction and contentment in Christ, which keeps our souls and hearts in peace, joy, and hope. How awesome is that? How awesome is that? This is what we want for every person here at 180. As people have referenced to earlier in this service, our creed. We want everyone to come as you are and experience God here. But it doesn't stop there. We want you to overcome what seems impossible in your life. And more importantly, live as you never could have imagined. The abundant life that God has for you. So the operative question today is what... has shaped your mind. What do you think about yourself? What do you think about God? And how do you live that how? J.I. Packer, considered to be one of the most influential theologians, one of his most famous books is called Knowing God, and I strongly recommend you guys to read it if you haven't. And this is what he has to say. He says, if you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, Find out how much he makes of the thought of being God's child and having God as his father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all. For everything that Christ taught, everything that makes the New Testament new and better than the old, everything that is distinctively Christian as opposed to merely Jewish, is summed up in the knowledge of the fatherhood of God. Father is the Christian name for God. A lot to unpack in this statement, and we don't have time to do that, but the crux of it is that if you want to know how much a person understands Christ, Christianity, meaning a relationship with God, and how we're living it out, you can see it in terms of how they understand their own identity and what they think about God. And so if you've been around Christian circles at any point of time, we're just so used to Christian jargon. We say, God is our Father. I am a child of God. But do we really mean what we say? Do we really embrace what that means? Yes. And do we live that out? Is it the thought that prompts and controls our worship and prayers and our whole outlook on life? What has shaped our mind? That's what we're trying to do with this series, right? For the rest of the time here, I want to kind of introduce you guys to two concepts that which are a result of where we base our identity. Two concepts, the results of where we base our identity. The first one is the concept of identity insecurity. And here's my definition of that. Identity's insecurity is the natural byproduct of attempting to find emotional stability in things that by nature are not stable. So we're trying to find emotional stability in our own lives. We're trying to define our identity and put our trust in things that by nature are not stable. So here's the, if you were to come up with an equation of the underlying belief behind it, it's this, right? Performance, if I perform well, if I do good at my job, at school, at work, if I'm a good mom, if I'm a good dad, going to be approved. So performance plus approval, praise of people determines my value. Performance, approval determines my value. And so what we do is we adopt a lot of faulty identity systems. And I know you could name a lot more than I have, but I've identified five faulty identity systems that we can put our trust in. The first one is identity through achievement. So you are, I am what I accomplish. My belief is straight to my productivity, my talent, my success. And if that's you, here are some symptoms of this. You're overworked. You're burnt out. You're about perfectionism. You want everything to be right because that determines your value. You want everything to be perfect. And you're driven by fear of falling behind. So that's identity through achievement. I am what I accomplish. Next up, identity through approval. I am what others think of me. I must be liked to be secure and some symptoms of that include people pleasing, fear of rejection, no boundaries because you got to always say yes to people or else they might think bad of you and then you're emotionally exhausted. If you're deriving your identity, the next one is through appearance. You say, I am how I look. My body determines my value. So symptoms, image obsession, insecurity, comparison with others, and then you feel shame. Number four, identity through relationships. I am who I am. am connected to so your root belief is that your value is determined by whether you are loved by someone else could be your spouse could be your kids could be your friends and some of those symptoms include clinging in this jealousy codependence and then fear of abandonment another one is identity through possessions I am what I own. So status, money, your lifestyle, what you wear, the car you drive determines your self-worth. So some of the symptoms include materialism, envy, financial pressure, and false confidence. So as much as we think Performance leads to approval, to my value. These are fundamentally unstable. So the actual equation, if you were to put it, is this. The truth about identity insecurity is you're now bound to approval. You're enslaved to performance. And so you always have a crisis of value. And these worldly identities, the things that we talked about, they're faulty because of a few things. One is they're all externally constructed. They're not intrinsic to ourselves. So they require constant performance. They require constant maintenance. Your identity rises and falls with your performance or the opinions of others. And they're all comparison-braced, and they require endless proof. You got to keep at it. You might be great this week at work, and people approve you. Next week, you don't do well, and now your identity is in question. You're wondering, oh, am I even good enough? Who am I? But more importantly, they are fundamentally unstable. They're fragile. They're fragile. Jobs can be lost. Money can dry up. People can disappoint. Health can fail. Talent can decline. Beauty fades. Achievement is never enough. So the performance equation, as though, you know, it looks good, promises us independence, but it's a lie and an illusion. But we're socialized into deriving our identities from these sources, right? Achievement, approval, acceptance, our relationship with others. That's how the world is socialized to derive our identity. But that's not how it was meant to be. Our foundational identity was meant to be in relation to our Creator. We derive our intrinsic value from that, and we live out through that. But the reality is the world has foisted on us all of these faulty systems that have come to determine our own identity, and that's too heavy of a burden to bear. And this affects everyone. It doesn't matter. You can be rich or poor, educated, uneducated. It doesn't matter. It affects everyone. I remember a few years ago, it was actually 2019 before COVID, when we went to India, I was visiting our missions organization. We were going around a few parts of India where we have our church plans. And so I went to this church. This village in the outskirts, really you got to drive about two hours from the nearest city. There was this group of people that I met for the first time. You can bring that picture up on screen. So they're called the Sentali tribe. So they're called the Sentals. The classification according to the government of India is that they're called the Adivasis, which means they're the first people. So they're like technically the indigenous people that were in the land of India when they were invaded. But they don't actually fit into the caste system that the Indian society is constructed on. So you have the caste system. You all have their roles. But these guys are so outcast that they don't even figure in the caste system. And so they've been pushed out from the cities into remote forests, jungles. That's where they live. They have their own tribes that they're part of. But you can imagine multiple layers of oppression. So they're not part of the caste system. And one of their foremost identities is that they're fundamentally unclean. So if anyone comes in contact with them, they are unclean as well. So they live in isolated areas. They have lack of education. There's literally no health care. There's no political representation or legal protections. And multiple layers of oppression. And so they're forced into... Low-paying jobs where they just fend for ourselves. Some of the men in that community work for literally 18, 19 hours a day and earn half a dollar. That's their life. And if you see the next slide, you can see this is their entire community. So that out there, that's the one community toilet that they have. That's their home. So you have their living room, their bedroom, their guest room, kitchen, whatever is all just that one room. And the entire family just has to live there. So you see a couple of kids even playing there. And you can see the community that's right there. But you know what? Even they have internalized their identity based on what the world has foisted on them. And so when we went there, one of the first things that they wanted to do was to wash our feet. And so if you can look at the next slide, you see a picture of Pastor Sheridan there. He was here a couple of months ago, and there you see me. And so I go, what are they doing? They're washing my feet. I go, I don't want them to wash my feet. And Sheridan goes, hey, dude. Don't say it out loud. This is how you're accepted into their community. So just shut up and have them wash your feet, okay? That's how they accept you. They go, okay, right? So, you know, here what you don't see is my cringy expression on my face because I'm like, oh, this is just so awkward. Why, you know, I got to remove my shoes and now they're washing. Here's why they're doing that. Because they know how worthless they are or what the world has foisted on them. They know that they're unclean. And so it's their sign of saying, you know, we want to make you clean so that your association with us doesn't make you unclean. That was their identity that they had internalized. And a few months later, we had a team from New Zealand, YWAM. So these are 17, 18-year-olds who are trying to live out the gospel. They're all fired up. So they visited the same thing. And these people did the same thing to them. And you know what these kids did? They go, why are they the only ones washing our feet? We want to wash their feet. And they couldn't, they were like, what's going on? So they said, no, we want to wash your feet because that's the gospel. With God, it doesn't matter who you are. We're all the same. So here you have all of these women, these men sitting on chairs, and you had these folks from New Zealand washing their feet. And I kid you not, revival broke out. That literally changed the trajectory of ministry in that community. just the power of the gospel to break down barriers, break down false identities, and reconstruct identities based on how God sees us. And I'm hoping for all of that for us in this journey as well, in this process. I don't know where you are in your identity formation journey. Maybe you are rocking it with Jesus. Maybe you know you're secure in Christ. Your identity is... You derive it from God. If that's you, that's great. Keep at it every day. Or maybe you're not. Maybe your identity is dependent on how you do at school or how much you earn, what you accomplish, the home that you have, the car that you drive, what people say about you. God wants to do a work in our hearts. So you have insecure identity, instability. The other side of it is our true identity. If we can go to the next slide. True identity brings security in Christ. Christ's life and our true identity should be our only source for determining our value and interpreting life. Our value is a gift to us and can't be earned. Therefore, our identity is stable and we're liberated from the need to prove ourselves or gain any more than what we already have been given by God. So the underlying belief is that we are given value and approval by God and out of a secure identity, We live out our lives. We do good works and bear fruit. So we don't derive our significance. We don't derive our identity from what the world tells us. But we have intrinsic ability being created in the image of God. And that determines our identity. And we're secure in Christ. I'm just amazed, you know, this season of life, I've shared this with you guys a lot, but this is my day-to-day journey. I just learn a lot, so much about my relationship with God, with my relationship with my kids, you know, from what they teach me. One of the things that they have no doubt about, they literally have no doubt about the fact that they know who their parents are, right? The favorite thing for me to do is to go and pick up my daughter from school. I don't get to do it much because she's got half day, she's out at 11.30 and I'm at work, but Fridays are my day off, so I love to go and drop her off and then pick her up from school. And it's just so incredible to see all these parents, there's literally 25, 30 of us just waiting outside those doors, waiting for our kids to come out, and the door opens and the kids make a beeline For their parent, right? They've got this grin on their face. They've got their hands open. And they go literally, you know, the way they go and like hug their parents, the parents have got to have their footing right or else they're going to fall back. That's the kind of force that these kids have. And you could see that with my daughter as well. The moment she sees me, she's like looking around. You could see her like being serious. And the moment she spots me, there's this huge smile on her face. And then she comes running, Daddy. Hugs me every day. And then even when things go wrong, you know, when Roshni is in school, my wife is at work on Fridays. So I take care of even my son. So he's not in school anymore. So I put him in a play place and I'm like, you know, we just go to this cafe and I'm reading something while he's playing. But do you know if anything goes wrong, let's say he's got a disagreement with some other kid who doesn't want to share his toy or took his toy or whatever, and he's crying, you know it loud and clear. He starts crying and then the next thing he's running to me because he knows that there's security, right? They have no doubt in terms of who they are in relation to us. And I think to myself, is that how I feel about God? God our Father. In fact, Jesus says about God the Father. He says, if you being evil know the good gifts that you want to give to your children. How much more your Father in heaven? Jesus makes a comparison. He says, you guys are all evil, but you still do good to your kids and you want the best for your kids. How much more your Father in heaven? That's our identity. We're given value and approval by God. And if we get this squared away or if we are on the path of healing, God can do great things in our own hearts. So I want to give us just a few things. What are some realities of this true identity? I'm going to just go as fast as I possibly can. The first one is true identity is designed and gifted by God. Look at this passage. In Judges 6, the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor. This is to Gideon. And Gideon said to him, Please, my Lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all these happened to them? So they're under oppression by the Midianites, the children of Israel. So they're... The Midianites have been a nuisance, plundering them. And so Gideon's asking, if you are with me, God, why is this happening to me? And he goes, and where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian. And the Lord turned to him and said, go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian. Do I not send you? And he said to him, please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh and I'm the least in my father's house. And the Lord said to him, but I will be with you and you shall strike the Midianites as one man. Look at that. Just if you were to look at the lens of their identity, right? Gideon says, who am I, God? I am the weakest in Manasseh. I am the least in my father's house. I am nothing. But God addresses him and he goes, you mighty man of valor. The Lord is with you, you mighty warrior. That's what God says. So true identity is not based on our history, our performance, our approval, but God's designation. The only thing that matters, he goes, I love this, but I will be with you and you shall strike the Midianites. I love this entire exchange because this is how honest we can be with God, right? God literally says, you are a mighty man of valor. And Gideon goes, well, if that's the case, if you're with us, why is all of this happening to me? There's nothing, you know, we saw our fathers, you did all of these great things, but nothing is happening. So how can you say the Lord is with me? He's asking God that. Right? We can have those honest moments with God ourselves. We don't have to be sanitized when we approach God. Just give Him all you, who you are. Your doubts, frustrations, anger, but take it to God. Don't deal with it yourself. Right? True identity is designed and gifted by God. Secondly, true identity sets us free from all need to perform. It's what Psalm 8 says, O Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. You have set your glory above the heavens, out of the mouths of babies and infants. You have established strength because of our foes to still the enemy and the avenger. When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? Psalmist looks at all of creation, just looks at the glory, the splendor, the magnificence of God, and he goes, who am I, God, that you even care about me? The answer to that is out of the 8.1 million species living on earth, only one bears God's image. You and I, we bear the image of God, so there's no need for us to perform. When we lean into our identity, we have nothing to prove, we have nothing to gain, nothing to lose. It's all about God. And Paul recognized that. In Philippians 3, this is what he says. He's going against the false teachers of his day who are claiming their superiority. And Paul says, hey, if you want me to boast about human identity and the things that's going from a worldly perspective, I can boast too. So this is what he says. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more. Circumcised on the eighth day are the people of Israel. of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, as to the law, a Pharisee, which in this context is a good thing, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law, blameless. He said, these are my spiritual credentials. I've got it going. But he goes, but whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. He goes, He says, He says, I have experienced the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith. True faith. Identity sets us free from our need to perform. Thirdly, true identity is experienced identity. Andrew Murray says the whole Christian life depends on the clear consciousness of our position. In Christ. This is our discipleship journey. This is the sanctification process. You know, the second rung in our creed. Overcome what seems impossible. This is what we do. Just growing in our knowledge of God. Learning what God has to say about us. About who we are. And that's the whole discipleship process. Paul says this in Ephesians 3. I love this prayer that he prays for the church. For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father for whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. that according to the riches of His glory, He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, here's the important part, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have the strength to comprehend with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. This is what he's saying, at least the portion that's highlighted. He's saying, you know, I'm praying that you will have the strength to understand, to comprehend how big, how wide, how deep God's love is for you. See, you need to have strength to do that because it's just so big. And he goes, know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. So even if you do your absolute best, you wouldn't be able to exhaust how much God loves you. So true identity, experiential identity, where we're all on that path of learning who you are in God. Lastly, I'm going to have Rachel come up on stage. True identity unlocks our true capacity. When we lean in, when we understand, when we internalize and live out this truth, that helps us to live as you never could have imagined. The abundant life that we talk about in 2 Corinthians 3, Paul again says, such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we're sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God. Our sufficiency is from God. And here's what God's word says about you in Romans 8, 35. It says, Whose shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it's written, for your sake, we are being killed all day long. We're regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. Again, he's writing to a community that's being persecuted, right? So this is all a reality for them. Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, sword. That's their everyday reality. And he's saying, what shall separate you from the love of God? And then verse 37, he goes, no, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him alone. who loved us. That's your identity. If you're wondering who you are, it says you are more than a conqueror. He goes, for I'm sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in creation." will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Isn't that awesome? We can give it up. We can give it up for God. I want to end this morning with A couple of images that come to my mind when I struggle with who I am in Christ. Because it's a daily temptation. The need to perform, the need to be a good husband, a good father, a good pastor. It's there for all of us. And there's two images that kind of come to my mind that help me ground into the reality that my identity is secure in Christ. And I'm hoping that that's helpful for you. The first one is, again, my kids got a five-year-old and an almost three-year-old. And both of them had a quirkiness to their crawl. So when they started crawling, it was really weird to see Roshni. She would almost crawl. My daughter, she'll crawl on one knee. It didn't look good, but she got it done. She was fast. And then she started to walk. She runs. It's fine. But my son, it broke my heart every time we saw him crawl. So he had this army crawl. Well, all he did was had his hands like this, and he was trying to push up his body, right? So it almost felt as though he was paralyzed from his waist down, and he was trying to pull his weight just with his upper body. And here you see his sisters running around from room to room. And you have this nine-month-old child trying to follow her so hard. It was hard. And we go, buddy, all you got to do is to just use your knee. Just get on your knees and you'll be good. He never got it. So it was painful to see him do that. You know, as funny as it might be, a lot of times you and I are like that. Right? His Word says that He's given us all things pertaining to life and godliness. God has given us everything that we need. But you know what we do? We're striving. That's us. We're burdened. We're stressed. We're exhausted. We're trying to get value and significance from those faulty identity systems when God is asking you, saying, just get on your knees. You'd be great. You're secure in who I am. The second image that comes to my mind, and again, shared this with you in one of my other sermons, so forgive me if you're hearing this again. One of the things that I used to look forward to growing up in my big city in India, we were about 8 million people, but we didn't have a lot of things to do. So I was always excited. This was in the mid-90s, excited when the traveling circus comes into town. So we as a family or friends, we would go and watch this traveling circus. And the most exciting part of it was to see those majestic wild animals, right? This was before all of these wildlife laws were passed. So if you go to the circus, you could actually see a tiger. You could see a lion or an elephant. Majestic beasts, right? Being controlled and led by a puny human. The guy says, do this, and you see the lion obeying. He'll say, sit down, and then the elephant sits down. Think about what the animal might even think. These are majestic animals in the wild. An elephant could cause so much rampage because it has such, it's the largest land animal, right? These lions are so fast, ferocious. They're the king of the jungle. They could do whatever they want. That is their true capacity. But they have been socialized, trained to listen to the voice of a puny human. That could be you and me. A lot of times Satan wants us to be so tied into our false identity, so taken aback in bondage to our former sins, our past, our failures, those voices that have defined us, that tells you you're no good or you're never going to be great or whatever. And you know what? We listen to We're of those animals that just sit down, just obey, just go through instead of being all that God has created us to be. So as we end today, I have a challenge for you. I know you've got to do your workbooks, but here's what I'd love for you guys to do because it's important that we just don't hear God's words, but we actually do it. We call it turning point here, and I have a challenge for you. I want you to read Ephesians chapter 1, verses 3 to 8, not now, like in your devotions, whenever you have time. I want us to be able to exercise this muscle and practice this. Ephesians chapter 1, verses 3 to 8, and then 11 to 14. I want us to write down every true identity statement in this passage. So you're reading Ephesians 1.3. It says, Praise be to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. So you say, here's an identity statement. God has blessed me in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. So I want you to write all of that down. And then circle all the identity statements that are difficult for you to believe It's hard to understand or difficult to apply. And I want you to talk to God. Ask Him what's hindering you from believing in. You can internalize it as well. Make it your own. This is the process of retraining, reframing our minds so we derive our identity with Christ. As the worship team comes to lead us in our final song, I do want to give you guys one more resource. If you can go to the next slide. So 180chicago.church slash identity. So this is a blog written by Pastor Carl that just has a bunch of verses, a bunch of statements on the truth of who you are in Christ. So if that's something that you struggle with, I'd love for you to just read through that. Read through this and see And listen to what God says about you. Let me pray for us. God, thank you for your word. Thank you that we have you. Our identity is from you, God. And God, I just pray that even as we put all of this into practice, we take that one small step that you want us to take in obedience to your word today. This would be the beginning of a transformation process where we see ourselves for who we really are. Redeemed and chosen and loved by you, God. Pray that our real identity, our true identity would become so integral. to who we are, Father. I pray for everyone who takes the step of obedience, who does the workbook, who's doing this. God, I pray that you would help us to do that in your strength because at the end of the day, it's not about us. It's not about our performance, God. Pray that you would honor that step of obedience that they take and help them to see the fruit of it. Thank you, God. We thank you for who you are. We just want to thank you for the privilege of being your children. We give you all glory. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
