Our Identity – In Christ
I want to open with a fun story from my time here in Milford working with the students of DV. Early on when we were tying to get Young Life going here I didn’t know much of what that meant. What I did know was that I was supposed to at the high school and involved in the lives of the students there. So I was coaching soccer which was a fun fit for me and I remember being at a home football game to earn the right to be heard by going where the students are. So I boldly put on my coaches warm up, and walked boldly into the stands to sit where the students sit, not to simply hang around the fence like the rest if the adults. So I find a student I know from the team and sit down next to him. I don’t realize how this is perceived from his vantage point, here he is wanting to have some fun with his friends and one of his coaches sits down next to him. But in my mind I am the cool young coach who he definitely wants to hang out with After some awkward chit chat and some silence between us as he talks with his other friends…He turns to me and asks this question, “Don’t you have any friends your own age?” That hurt. And this was when I had just moved here all by myself. I thought about his questions and answered painfully and honestly, ‘ No I don’t.” This is fun to look back on now that I have friends but the point is that in that moment and many others I have to ask myself who am I, where does my identity lie, because in that moment I was exposed and If I didn’t know who I was or whose I was then I could have cried myself to sleep that night, and that was minor. Going back into the high school I am out there and can be knocked down quick.
God wants for us to be rooted in Him, to find our identity in Him, not just in the easy or the hard or the common place or the extraordinary, but at all times and in all circumstances.
Do you ever feel like you aren’t anchored to anything, that the slightest wave of life tosses you up and down? Or as if you don’t know who you are at times, as the world asks us to be many different things at many different times? God is calling all of us to Him, to find our rest in Him, to live each moment for Him. This morning we are going to look at having our identity in Jesus and why it is vital.
Sometimes we get caught up in placing our identity where we shouldn’t in things that God does not want for us. We let circumstances and all else dictate who we are rather than having our identity constantly in Jesus to dictate who we are in all situations, and not the other way around. God longs for us to come to him and place our whole self in His car.
This morning we are going to look at our identity in the Lord.
First and foremast we need to know who Jesus is so that we can know why it is vital to put our trust and all we are into him and a relationship with Him. We come up short many times because we get caught up in placing our identity in so many things that come up short, that lie to us, that can’t deliver. Clothes go out of style, money gets lost, friends and family let us down, jobs can be lost, everything in our lives can change, and nothing is constant, except Jesus. Jesus is the only constant and that is what we need for our identity a constant, and anchor.
This morning we are going to be looking at Joseph as an example in looking at identity in the Lord. We will be reading from Genesis chapter 37 and bouncing forward a bit. Here is a little background on Joseph.
-He was the youngest son of Jacob also called Israel.
-This angered his brothers so much so that they could not speak a kind word to him. (he needed to know where his identity was from an early age.
-He has some intense dreams which pointed towards his brother and even his mother and father bowing down to him. (not to pleasant at the diner table for Joseph)
-Jacob sends Joseph to check on his brother who were tending their flocks.
-We will pick it up at chapter 37: verse 18
We will start in Genesis 37
The First point this morning is that we need to have our identity in the Lord because trials will come.
1) Anyone ever had a bad day?
-The Lord does not promise easy sailing. I have had quite a few bad days, terrible moments, but this one is up there for Joseph. Here he is trying to just do what his dad has asked him and he ends up in a pit.
So this is Ruben being a big brother, saving Joseph from death and yet not fully going to bat for him, instead offering up the idea that they will sell him as a slave.
The Lord promises us that He will be with us, that he will work our sufferings and challenges into good. That is so easy to adhere to when it is smooth sailing, but so hard to own when the fight is raging, when the finances don’t add up, when we are in a cistern with our family not only in ear shot, but the ones that put us there. We must remember who is in charge when the lights go out and we find ourselves in a dark pit.
Remember back in 2010 the miners who were stuck in a cave collapse underground in Chile? They were there for 69 days thousands of feet below ground. These guys were in need. I had followed the story and I read that one miner said that they could hear the rescue drills searching for them, but the drills kept missing the open area where they were. Can you imagine? I do not like being in very confined spaces. I once was in the trunk of a car and although I got in willingly and it was only for a short time I started to freak out and was yelling to my friends to open the seat from the car.
These guys were in real need. This was a pretty hopeless situation, there was no light to see at then end of the tunnel. This was nearly impossible to imagine a way out.
These are the moments that we need to choose hope. That God wants us to choose Him when it doesn’t make sense, when we might not have an answer for why it is we are going through what we are going through. Maybe some of us are in a pit today, put there wrongly by others, or even by ourselves or maybe we believe we deserve it. The point is that no matter what the Lord wants you to choose hope and loves us in the pit, even thought it may not feel like it, the Lord is in the ditch with us when we are, and when it seems only a miracle can change things.
Jesus longs for us to take refuge in Him. The psalms talk about it because God knew there would be storms. You don’t seek refuge when things are easy or going well.
Genesis 39:1-6
We need to have our identity in Christ, in the Lord when things are going well, we need to know who we belong to and who is the Giver of anything good.
-Joseph was a hard working and trustworthy man because he kept his eyes on the Lord, it says it all came from the Lord. I would not do well in Joseph’s situation. First of all, it seems as thought he kept his eyes on Jesus and didn’t let his situation break him. No one would have judged him for struggling to find hope let alone work hard at what he was thrown into.
I would also struggle with having success at everything I put my hand to, the Lord humbles me by keeping this from being true. But Joseph knew it all came from the Lord, the Lord got the credit.
Success is hard; it is hard to remain humble and to not steal the light from the Lord.
Joseph’s identity was not in the success, it was not in the stuff, the status or anything else.
The world would have us believe the opposite, that when things are going well that it is because of how great we are or how hard we work, don’t get me wrong the Lord has gifted us all in different ways and we should work hard, that just shouldn’t be the end all. Often times we think, well if I just had a little bit more, or a lot more or some success in this area then I would be happy or feel complete because that would be my identity.
A couple of years ago Tom Brady was interviewed on 60 minutes by Steve Kroft. Tom Brady is the quarterback of the New England Patriots. Here are some facts about him:
-2x MVP
-8X pro Bowler
-3x super bowl champ
-2x super bowl mvp
-Married to a super model and get millions in football and endorsements. The world would say he has it all.
BRADY: Well, I put incredible amounts of pressure on me. When you feel like you’re ultimately responsible for everyone and everything, even though you have no control over it, and you still blame yourself if things don’t go right — I mean, there’s a lot of pressure. A lot of times I think I get very frustrated and introverted, and there’s times where I’m not the person that I want to be.
Why do I have three Super Bowl rings, and still think there’s something greater out there for me? I mean, maybe a lot of people would say, “Hey man, this is what is.” I reached my goal, my dream, my life. Me, I think: God, it’s gotta be more than this. I mean this can’t be what it’s all cracked up to be. I mean I’ve done it. I’m 27. And what else is there for me?
KROFT: What’s the answer?
BRADY: I wish I knew. I wish I knew. I mean I think that’s part of me trying to go out and experience other things. I love playing football, and I love being a quarterback for this team, but, at the same time, I think there’s a lot of other parts about me that I’m trying to find. I know what ultimately makes me happy are family and friends, and positive relationships with great people. I think I get more out of that than anything.
There is much more to life and to who we are, who we are in Christ than the success measurements of the world, that stuff, success and impressing others.
Identity in anything outside of the Lord leaves us empty and longing.
1 Samuel 16:7 – But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
Genesis 39:6-23
When we are wrongfully accused, we need to have our identity in Jesus when what others have the wrong idea and rest in the Lord to take care of us. We need to know what is True, what the Lord says about us and act with integrity – Jesus and many others are watching.
I was traveling home from college my freshman year for Thanksgiving break. I was driving my 1989 ford escort. In college I had a bug wooden bead necklace, and bi afro and large sideburns. I looked like a hippie. I was driving along on 84 and all of a sudden a state trooper followed behind me really closely and then another one rode in the lane next to me for a while. I remember making sure I was going the exact speed limit, having my hand in the correct places on the steering wheel and I even turned the radio off. The state trooper that was in the lane next to me sped on and out of sight. Then a couple of moments later I saw him up ahead waiting on the side of the road. The trooper behind me pulled me over. I remember feeling like I was in a movie as I asked the standard question when they came to my door, “Is there a problem officer?” They told me it was illegal to have anything hanging from the rear view mirror in the state of PA. I said I didn’t know sir, and immediately took it down. They then started asking me if I had any drugs or alcohol in the car, I did not. They made some funny remarks about my necklace and some of the sticker on my car. They were fishing for me, they profiled me because I looked like someone who would have drugs on me or in my car. They were wrong and after searching through my stuff for a while they let me go. The funny part is that when I would pack to go home in college I would just take the cleanest pile of clothes from the floor of my dorm room and throw it in the back seat of my car. They had the wrong idea of me. I was wrongfully accused. This pails in comparison as to what Joseph was accused of and what he was facing.
Have you ever been wrongly accused, or accused someone wrongly?
Now this pails in comparison to Joseph. I had nothing to hide. Joseph was a man who lived his life with integrity, he has nothing to hide. He ran from the situation. Maybe there are situations we need to run from in order to live with integrity, not simply well I will slowly walk away or work at taking a couple of steps each day, not we need to run from stuff that we know will wreck our identity being in Christ because we will place things there that aren’t meant to be there.
The rest of the Joseph story Joseph goes on to gain favor back with the Pharaoh and gets put in charge of Egypt. He then plans really well through being prompted by the Lord to store up food for the people because of a famine that is coming. The famine brings Joseph’s brother looking for food and Joseph is able to help that hands that hurt him. Talk about forgiveness – but that is a whole other sermon, one that Jesus exemplifies really well.
Joseph says in Gen 45:4-7.
It is scary having our identity in someone else, it means we have to let go of control. But if we draw close and know more fully who it is that we are giving control to, the only true Constant, it is freeing instead of scary and we don’t have to ultimately prove ourselves or care and worry about what others think and say.
Don’t let the word tell you your identity, go to Jesus for it, for all of it.
My Boss Rick one time challenged us at a staff time with Peter’s denial of Jesus. It has really stuck with me. Peter a bold disciple of Jesus gets de-railed by the questions of a couple of 15 year old girls. No this is nothing against 15 year old girls, but Peter should be more secure in his identity than as to let 15 year old girls derail him to the point off lying. And they weren’t even wrongfully accusing him, they were telling the truth when they said, weren’t you on of Jesus’ disciples. Rick asks us, what is that 15 year old girl in your life? What is it that we let derail us or take our identity of Jesus, stop giving in to it.
Peter lets his identity shift towards and be overrun with fear. And yet Jesus re-instates him as the Rock of the church.
Don’t let the world dictate your identity boldly go in what is true, that Jesus is our identity and nothing else matters.
Sometimes we don’t get to see right away or at all how God is working things together for good. Joseph probably didn’t see it all coming when he was sitting in that cistern or when he was locked up in jail. But God used him in powerful ways through his life and circled back with his family in it all. I believe that Joseph was so blessed by God and was used by Him in so many way because he lived his life with his Identity being rooted in the Lord.
This idea of identity for me has been a struggle going back as far as I can remember. I still struggle with it today. It isn’t all bad we try and put good things in our identity spot, working hard, being a good person etc. But no matter what non of it works, because only Jesus fits. You are not what you do. You are who you are because of your heritage, you are heirs of Jesus.
If I were to come up to you on the street and say, who are you? Or identify yourself, you would probably give your name, your name carries with it a heritage, a family, many different things about you are in your name. Mark Driscoll says that our identity is how we see ourselves. We need to see ourselves as Jesus does. We need to realize that before we are a Pearson or a Smith or an O’Neil, that we are God’s. We are first and foremost of the line of the Lord, as His sons and daughters. This point would work better of God has a last name. We are His kids, that is our identity.
We can all have our identity in The Lord by having a relationship with Jesus.
Closing Prayer
Lord, you are all that truly matters. Lord I pray that we would find our identity in you Lord, in a relationship with You. Lord I am in desperate need of you and of you telling me who I am in a world that is shouting in opposition of that. Please give us the strength to cling to you and walk boldly through life with the claim of knowing who we truly are in you.
Our identity should be based of off who we are in Jesus and so we need to check our hearts and let Jesus dwelling in our hearts dictate our decisions and our actions and our character.