Identity Crisis | Week 1 | Bill Bush

You know, back when I was in fourth grade, I was in PE class, we got a new PE teacher, and it was interesting I was a very sickly kid. If you've been in this church or not, yeah, I've told you that. Born with asthma, allergies, allergic to everything, you know, even myself I think. And so

when I would go to school and we'd have PE, there'd be lots of times that I have to sit out or not do something because I I was was sick and not capable, and as that started to happen though, I started to lead into that a little bit. So there was times that that I'd pull out the asthma card even when I probably could have done something because I just didn't want to. So it became like, well, I can't do that because

I'm an asthmatic. You know, so I just I wouldn't do it. And I'd always get out of stuff.

And sometimes I would go to the nurse, I'm wheezing, you know, and try to make myself wheeze so they would send me home, stuff like that. But I was sickly, but I was starting to lean into it, and we had this new PE teacher walking out. We're supposed to do this running, it's almost like a quarter mile run test. We're just gonna run it, and he's gonna time us just as a challenge.

And I really wasn't wanting to do it, so I was like, and I felt a little, you know, and I'm like, so I was playing up the asthma thing. He goes, well coach, I'm not gonna run this. He goes, well you're in class, yes you are. Go, no, no, no, no. Did they not tell you? And it's like, pull out my car, I'm an asthmatic.

I don't have to do anything I don't wanna do. And you know, I was basically telling him I don't have to do this. And he goes, yeah, you do. Are you wheezing right now? No. Do you feel like lightheaded that you can't breathe? No. Then you're gonna run. And I'm like, but but I was getting frustrated.

This guy was making me mad. He was frustrating me. I'm a fourth grader. I'm feeling a little intimidated by his boldness to tell me that that I have to do this when that's not I can't do this. And and and I was fine. Was like, well, what if happens if I start wheezing while I'm running? He goes, then you walk. What

if I feel bad? Then you go to the nurse. But you're gonna try.

And I was like, well who are you to tell me that I have to do what I'm supposed to do in this class when I don't want to? You know, I'm an asthmatic, and I was kind of, you know, giving him a hard time arguing with me. He's like, and and and and basically said, so,

that's how you're gonna play this? I'm like, buddy, goes, that's who you're gonna be. You're gonna be the little asthma kid that leans into this setback that you have

to not do stuff that you should do. And I'm like, well, yeah, if it gets me out of running kind of a deal. But it made me angry. So I said, fine, I'll go run and when I die that's on you. And in my anger, I won. I had the fastest time. Turned out little asthma kid was fast. I didn't even know it.

Afterward, he says, good job. He goes, by the way, I'm an asthmatic. And that's why he's leaning into me and I thought about it. As a fourth grader, I was already starting to form an idea of who I was around something.

And it seems to be the issue we all grow up with. We all have, and many of it doesn't change. You could be older. You could it's like it seems like we're always trying to say, who am I? Who am I? That seems to be this pursuit of everybody. We're always trying to find an identity,

and we always seem to be in identity crisis because we're not sure, and then we try on this identity. We're looking. We're on this quest to discover our identity. And so we're going to talk about that for the next few weeks. We're going to look at what it means.

And here's the problem. This is going be a little bit different than what you're expecting. Over the next few weeks, we're going to talk about some different things we look for for identity that are not the right thing.

But most of us think, okay, well, okay, you're gonna show us the right way to go discover identity. And you're gonna say avoid the wrong things, but go after the right things.

I just want to to to put out a question there and then talk about it today, and if you disagree with me, fine, but I'd say just keep coming back and listening to what we see in God's word, because I have a different theory. It's not there's the right way to try to discover who you are and the wrong way.

I think the whole idea of having to discover your identity is wrong. I don't think it's something you spend your life trying to figure out. I don't think you discover it, and that's what we're gonna talk about today. It's this idea that identity is recovered, not discovered. Identity is recovered, not discovered.

And I think so when we talk about things, the the problem in the Christian world is when we talk about identity, you're like, oh, you're gonna talk about all those people out of there that find their identity in the sinful things and and and in the wrong things. We're gonna talk about this idea, especially this morning of, you know what, it's yeah, there are people we find our identity in things that God says, that's not how I intended life to be. But some of us in this room are doing the same thing. We're trying to discover identity in good things,

but we're not supposed to find it in those things at all. We're doing the same thing. And we need to understand that, that what if what if this whole quest for identity is wrong in the first place? That's the problem. That's the issue we have.

So what am I supposed to do? I need to understand that it's something that is recovered, not discovered.

What do I mean by that? Well, each week we're going to look at some bible characters, and today when we talk about identity, what was who we were made to be, what we're supposed to be as human beings, we're going to go back to the first two, Adam and Eve. And we're gonna look at what God said about when he made man and woman, what did he mean, and we're gonna discover what our identity really is.

And we're gonna understand that it's something you recover, You don't have to spend your life trying to figure it out and discover it. So here we go. In in in Genesis chapter one verse 26 or 10, God's finished creating everything else. He saves humanity for last, and here's what he says.

Then God said, let us make human beings in our image to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground. So God created human beings in his own image.

In the image of God he created them. That's three times already said that. Male and female he created them. Well, this wouldn't fly in a textbook, science textbook in California.

Sorry, I'm not being political, I'm just saying something biblical.

That does create attention.

We'll get to that in a few weeks by the way. Then God blessed them and said be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Rain over the fish of the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground. So basically he gave them a mission, but he also defined our identity.

This is what our identity is supposed to be. And he says it three times, in his image. In his image. In his image. And that's why we are to reign over creation because we're different than the rest of the creation. We're not just we're not God, but we're not also some evolved animal.

We are a special creation of God that he gave us a specific identity.

He called us to it and even said he blessed us with that. He blessed us. You don't have to manipulate God into blessing you. You don't have to manipulate God or say, God, who am I? You don't have to do that. He's already declared who we're supposed to be. And that is our identity

is found in the fact that we are in the image of God. We're we're image bearers. We're not image brokers. We don't to go broker an image. We don't have to go find an identity. We were given an identity.

We were created for a very specific purpose, and that is to be in the image of God. Here's the problem. What does that mean?

What does it mean to be in the image of God? Well, here, I'm gonna put up. There's, like, three things I think it kinda means in Foley without going we super theological on you, is image of God means we remain made to look like God. The image is is a 're made to be a mirror.

We are to reflect God in what ways. Because not God like powers, not not know everything, not have omniscience, omnipresence, but mentally, morally, and relationally

is how we're in the image of God. Mentally means we can have rational thought. We can think in ways that was like, we can think in the abstract. We can think in all of these ways. We can think hypotheticals. We can think we can think in so many different ways, and God thinks like that. We don't have his thinking capacity,

but we do think in the ways that he thinks. We were made to be in that image. In the same token, morally,

we can reflect some attributes of God, not the almighty powers, but the moral attributes, the character attributes of God. We were created to mirror that. We're created to reflect that. Why do you think where do you think you get a sense of right and wrong and justice from?

That's a great thing. If you're if you're skeptic of there's a God, you gotta answer that. Because if there's only evolution, and the way we teach our survival of the fittest, that's how in evolution, that's how everything evolved was it had to survive. That means instinctually, the way we came about accidentally and then created is everything in the way you would make it to survive to evolve to something else would be you survive at all cost and pass on your genes at all cost. If that's true, why do have war heroes?

We are different. We have a sense of justice. We're closer to home. You don't need a war hero. Why do you think your kids, if there's one Twinkie left, get they get out an electron microscope as you cut it in half? That piece is one third of a micro nanocron bigger. That's not fair. Where do you think they got that from?

Honestly, as frustrating as is, that's the image of God showing up in a distorted broken way. It's the image of God in a very selfish way. So we can morally reflect God, and then relationally, we are built for relationships just like God is relational. In other words, what this is saying is we are a mirror.

That's your identity. That's what we are originally built for, is to be a mirror.

And that sounds like, so we all have the same identity? Yes. Yes. We're a mirror. But now God is so loving, we all have very unique frames. We all have very different frames. Some of them are very ornate. Some of them are, you know, a little bit extra. Some are a little bit simple. You know, you

know, some unfortunately are Seahawks fans. You know, you have all these different, you know, some like cats, some are Christians.

A lot of the stuff that makes us unique is not our identity, it's just the frame. The identity is we are mirrors. So what happened? The mirror got broke. Jump over to chapter three.

You have this serpent comes along, it's Satan. Who is he? We know from scripture he was a fallen angel. They think if you read a lot of scriptures, a lot of people think he was most likely a worship leader and that's why we keep close tabs on the band at all times.

We know that's not true. It's always the youth pastor you gotta keep an eye on.

But his fall was he knew who God was, but he decided he wanted God's job. He decided I wanna be more and became less. So he goes, I want God. So then he comes down and now his plan is to try to thwart and he's really trying to be God.

And so he comes to Adam and Eve and he tries to trick them to trust him and he actually tries to get them to fall for the same lie that he believed.

You need something more than God. You need to go around God. You can be more if you just do this. You can be more of who you're supposed to be. You'll discover who you really can be if you do this. It's almost like an identity question. You can discover and be something more, just ignore what God says.

And that's really what he comes to do. So let's read it and see what happens.

It says here in verse one, the serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, did God really say you must not eat

the fruit from any of the trees in the garden? There's two things he does right off the bat here. And it's I see it all the time and today, it's why there's a lot of arguments even within churches and Christians is the first thing the lies from the pit of hell always does is doubt what God's word says.

Any way you get off center is when you start to say, well, did God really say that? And we try to get we try to fancy it up and say, well, we understand from a historical context and in this point, and that would have said this and they wouldn't have meant this. And we jump through a million hoops to say God's word doesn't say what God's word says.

Well, you're falling for the same, and then you get and we like to hear that. We like to hear we're smarter than everyone else. So if that's you, that's a kind of a pompous arrogance that's just buying into what you wanna believe in the first place without evidence. We talked about that last week on Easter.

There's more evidence to trust the word of God and believe Jesus who is who he is than not. But you wouldn't know that unless you look at it. But if you already want to believe something, then there you go. And then the second thing he did is when he did quote God's word, he changed it. He said any of the trees.

He exaggerated it. So he said, you know what God told you to do? That's kind of unfair. So did he really tell you to not eat from any of them? And it also makes her feel like Eve goes, oh, you know what? No. That's not true.

So he says, the woman replied, it's only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden we're not allowed to eat. God said you must not eat it. But now here she becomes the first ever legalist or even touch it. God didn't say that either. She added to the rule. If you do, you will die. And then he says, you won't die.

He's kind of telling a half truth, half lie. Going on what she probably imagined dying would be is keel over and stop existing, don't exist anymore. It'll be the end of you. He knew what death meant is the process of physical death would start,

but there'd also be a spiritual death, a relational death, not just between her and God. It's gonna cause a problem in your marriage. It's gonna cause a distraction. It's gonna cause an issue.

And he says, you won't die, the serpent replied. And listen to where the lie goes. God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you'll be like God knowing both good and evil. There's a part of the truth. God does know that if you eat that, your eyes will be open and you'll know good from evil. But what he's saying is you need to know that. You'll be God knows. He's holding out on you. There's something more for you if you go around. You could be more than you are now. You could be like God, basically.

And you'll know good from evil. You'll know more than God. You'll know something you didn't know. You'll be something basically he says you'll be like God. Here's the problem with that lie. What did Genesis one say he created us to already be like? He's promising them something they already had.

He's saying you can have something that God already made you to have.

What you're about to do is to change it. The only way you're gonna be like God in this moment is he created us free of sin, free of death, free of problems in that way. And God knows, devil, he knows what evil is. He knows what's. So yeah, you'll be like God as you're gonna experience what evil is. And guess how you're gonna experience it? You're gonna be the evil.

In order to be more, he tricked him into being less. But here's where it gets crazy. The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious and she wanted wisdom it would give her. That's the problem. We chase after things and we talk ourselves into things.

We just exaggerate how good it looks and what it's gonna mean. And then she gave some to her husband. Here's the crazy part. Who was with her?

And he ate it too. Everyone always imagines the story that she was off by herself. He isolated her, tricked her, and then she went and basically her husband was like staring at a tree thinking there was this sports there because sports didn't exist yet. And she goes, here, eat this. Alright, I'll eat it.

That moment right there what it described is why this is called the sin of Adam.

Not Eve. Even though Eve sinned too. Why is it sin of Adam? Because he was right there. He watched the whole thing. And here's the problem. God created them both to be mirrors. Reflect who I am. And what he did is he says, and Adam, I created you first.

As the man, you need to be the leader. In the Bible, it calls males towards leadership in their home. And if you say that, our culture now says, oh, you're a chauvinist jerk, aren't you? But no. If you define leadership the way the world defines leadership, then yeah, that was a very chauvinist thing to say.

But if you understand what God means when he says leader, it means you go first. You lead the way. That's all it meant.

His first mistake was he let her go first. He listened to a conversation where Satan distorted God's word, his wife distorted God's word, and said nothing.

And you know in the scripture, we don't know if there was another conversation between Adam and Eve, but the conversation where it says, here's what you can eat and not eat was said to Adam before he created Eve. So we're assuming Adam's the one that told Eve what it was.

So either he didn't stop to correct her or he told her wrong.

So he eats it. And you know what's even the worst part about what a man should be as a leader? It's not boss. It's not jerk. You're not better than. You're co equal. All this stuff. What made it worse is he not only didn't go first, he let her try the experiment first.

Wives or even single men, do you want to be with a guy that's going to just leave you out and, like, throw you under the bus, just let you They're like, I'll let you go first to see if it works.

This is actually what they thought was die, the lie they're living. They literally thought keel over and die. And he he watches her go first.

It's because he believed it. He goes, I want to know if that's real. And I'll let her find out. I think he saw that she didn't keel over. Satan's right. We didn't die. Didn't understand what it was. So she said, I'll go next. What was he thinking?

Maybe he's thinking, Well, if it doesn't work, she dies, God will give me a new one. Make it a redhead this time, God.

I mean, Eve fell for this lie. Adam was doing all kinds of snuckleheaded things right now. Neither one of them in this moment were being the mirror. They weren't reflecting their identity to reflect God's attributes.

You know what? The lie basically was saying is just like, you know what you need to do? Is you don't need to be the mirror. You need to be the one standing in front of the mirror. You need to be the one in front of the mirror. In other words, there's this quote

that I don't know where I got it, so I don't have the name for the person. So let's just pretend I made it up so I'm smarter than I am. It says, we're not the objects of worship. We're the mirror of the character and attributes of God so that others would worship him. The goal is not for the world to know us,

but the goal is for the world to know him. Identity is received. It's not achieved.

And we've received it. The problem is in this mistake, in this error, this is what the fall of man is. This is why we're all born sinners. It's not about the sins we do. It's about we are born with a bent towards wanting to find our identity. We are born with a natural bent to not be the mirror, but to be the one in front of the mirror.

And seeking an identity in anything other than what God created it for, even good things, isn't idolatry. You're stepping in front of the mirror. You're making your very identity about you. And God's like, your very identity is about me.

That's the whole point why I created like I said, I created uniquely. I created you to enjoy it. I created with a great frame. But you're still supposed to be a mirror. And they fell for this.

But here's what happened. Verse seven. At that moment, their eyes were opened. So Satan was right. You now got your open eyes. You can think like God in this moment. And they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves to cover their themselves. So they're ashamed that they're naked.

It's not like they're sitting in Walmart. Who else is there? It's just them. See how this immediately didn't just create death and destruction in their relationship with God. It immediately drove a wedge between them. They were ashamed to see each other naked because of this guilt and the shame. It became awkward.

It became weird. So you can thank Adam and you can thank Eve for that because God originally created it where guys you could walk around naked with your wife and it wasn't awkward. God's cool.

We all are ones that messed it up.

They're immediately exactly what the lie said. They're not finding what they thought they would find down that path.

It's making them be feel shame, guilt, frustration. And you know when you feel that way and you feel failure, it kinda turns you to another direction too. Look because what happens. It says, when the cool of the evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord among the trees. Now they're hiding from God.

Then the Lord God called to the man, where are you? He replied, I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked. Who told you you were naked? The Lord God asked.

Have you eaten from the tree of whose fruit I commanded you not to eat? You're like, God already knew the answer to this, but this is like when you watch your kid keep touching that lamp or something. You're like, stop that. You're gonna break it. And then they do it right in front of you. Hey. Did you touch the lamp again and break it?

You what you're asking is you're hoping that they'll be honest with you. You hope, like, they'll at least own their actions. And so he's given Adam a chance to say, hey. I'm sorry. Here's what happened. But here's what he says. The man replied, it was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit and I ate it.

Wait. Wait. I mean, this is the first example of blame shifting ever because of the first guilt. And Adam checks in at legendary status in the first sentence he says. He threw God and his wife under the bus with one phrase. It was her, but really

you made her and you gave her to me, so if anyone's at fault here God, it's you gave me her.

And then he asks the woman, he asks Eve, he's like, alright, well what did you do? What happened here? What happened? And she says, the serpent deceived me. That's why I ate it. The devil made me do it. It was really I was tricked by that person. The man's like, she did it to me, and you're the one that gave her to me.

See, that's the problem. When we seek our identity in other things, we run after other things, and then when we're when it doesn't work or it's failing, we start to blame. We'll blame our sometimes we start to blame ourselves inwardly, turns in that shame and the guilt and can turn into anger. But a lot of times, we start to blame everything else. And the most common person to blame, especially Christians,

This is why I wanted to think about identity different. Because some of you are really going after what I call the Adam identity.

Is go look after all these other things for your identity, and what you think makes it Christian is you're not running after those so called bad ones in the Bible, but you're running after things that are acceptedly that are good. The things that are actually part of our mission is what God called us to be.

It may be our mission, but it's never meant to be our definition.

And you think you're doing it fine, but when you run after those things, you still fail. It doesn't work. But when you make that who you are, you get frustrated. You blame other people or you get really, really, really depressed. Like, I guess I just am totally a nothing. I have no good identity. I keep failing. Or you blame or ultimately, you start to blame God.

Well, God, you made me this way. It's not even about what he made to other person. It's like, you made me this way, so why would this be a problem? Why do you say this is wrong? Why can't I live this way?

Or why don't you give me this? Or why didn't you give me that? And then most of those longings are because you think that's who you are, and you need to be this way. You need this stuff. You need this to happen. Otherwise, you can't be who you're supposed to be. That's really the lie that that the devil said. It's like, hey, you need to be something else, and this is who you are.

And if you don't live this out, then you can never have a life with peace and contentment and fulfillment unless you live out this is who you are. My whole point of this whole series is what if none of that stuff is actually who you are?

And the and the and the quest to discover identity is the problem. Because the quest to discover my identity and anything else than what God already created me to be is idolatry. It's me stepping in front of the mirror. I wanna be the one in front of the mirror. I don't wanna be the mirror.

That's the lie. And I believe we still live it. And the thing that's most sad is the bible in Romans. We went through Romans, there was a whole section, I said, it sound kinda confusing, where he talks about the first Adam, the last Adam. He said the first Adam did this. The last Adam, Jesus came and made it right. He recovered the original identity. And so the idea is this, your identity is either in Adam or in Christ. That's it. That's your two choices for identity.

And in Adam means running after anything other than being the mirror. Anything other than what God created you to be. Any identity found in those other stuff is idolatry. Whether it's a sinful action or not. Whether we try to make our identity about we try to make our call our identity or our fall our identity.

It could be a good thing or it could be a fallen thing. Like, well, God, I'm I'm just born this way. I'm made this way. I do these things and I I gotta be this way. Well, what if it's not it doesn't jive with God's word?

Anything you think God made you like that does not jive with God's word is not from God. That's from the fall, the mere breaking, from the distortion. We live in a distorted the world and the universe is not how it's supposed to be right now. It's not how God had meant originally intended to be.

So when you say, well, God didn't make no junk and I'm like this and that makes me right, and I can't believe how many Christians fall for that. If you understand theology, this is why theology matters, folks. We're in a broken universe. So everything that comes out of us or we feel or comes from us is not

from that original identity creative story of how God made us. That is a result of brokenness. And we have a lot of politically charged versions of that, but I'll just say, do you think God says I'm gonna sprinkle asthma in on him? Disease, sickness that it was from, you will die. It's a result of the fall.

And there are a lot of things we feel. So in other words, what do I mean? What is this result? What are some things that we look at? Identity issues are actually idolatry issues. And here's a list of the most common things that we try to find our identity in. And some of them, they're not bad things. It's just idolatry is when you take anything, even a good thing, and make it the God thing. So it's anything that says, I'm gonna be the one in front of the mirror.

It's now idolatry. And and so the first one is, I am what I have. Now a lot of people say, that's not my problem. I I don't deal with that. Really? If you're in a room full of people at someone's house that's way nicer than yours and everyone in that room is way more successful than you, don't you feel awkward?

And when you're a room for people where you're the most successful person, don't you feel a little bit like, oh, I just work harder than you. Don't you feel like you're above them? I am what I have. I am what I do. That's a really common one. This is this is probably the worst one for people in ministry.

This is the one I gotta make sure I deal with because it's so easy to combine my calling with my identity because I'm called to serve God in a in a full time sense. So doesn't that feel like it's the most spiritual thing to do? I'm called to work for God. We are built to to serve God. Therefore,

my identity is my job. It's so easy to do that. And that's the worst, especially for me because one of my identities is found in wanting to be the good one. See, my sister was a little bit wild. I wasn't. I got rewarded for that.

And I thought, I'll always be the good one. So I see myself. So then I get into ministry, I'm the good one that likes to be liked? You know how easy it is to fall into this trap of what other people say and and and and and what I do, being who I am and loving the accolades, loving that when that's not really who I am?

I mean it is so easy to get arrogant in ministry or completely demoralized because you're not having success in what you do. And when you make what you do who you are, when what you do doesn't work, that means who you are doesn't work.

So imagine how much freeing it is when you can disconnect who you are from all this stuff.

Imagine when you lose that job or your business fails that you put all that work into. Yeah. That's that's sad. It's a it's a dream that was lost. It was this. But you know what? You don't need to have months and months and months of of soul searching to find yourself and dealing with the fact that it's not that this failed, but I am a failure. You're not that. You just had a job not work out.

When And you know that's not who you are, you go, I wonder what the next exciting opportunity is. But we end up so messed up by it, not because we lost that, it's because the significance we gave that.

Here's where Christians fall into this idolatry because it seems like a biblical thing. I'm a husband. I'm a wife. I'm a parent.

I'm a person who puts pictures of food on Instagram. Now all the big ones.

Your identity is not in being a mom. That's not who God made you to be. That's not your identity. That's a calling. That's a mission. That's a high mission. That's a gifted very that's wonderful mission that we like. It's something we do. We're drawn to. God wants us to enjoy it. But it's not who you are.

So moms out there that you're struggling to try to be the super parent. When your kid does something knuckleheaded, you take it so personal, like somehow your identity has been shot down. No. It's not who you are. You're not a grandparent. Guys, you're not just a husband. Not just a a dad. You're not those things.

And when you raise that to your identity, if you're single and you believe this Christian ideology that that's really who you need to be somebody, you really wrestle with feeling like less than if you're single right now. It's just a mission. It's just a calling.

The identity is to be the mirror, so you know what you're supposed to do. In my marriage, I'm supposed to reflect the attributes of God. And as as a father, as a mother, I need to reflect Christ in my home. At my job, at my career, the thing I do to make money, to live on, that's noble and worthy,

I reflect Christ as I do that. That's what I'm supposed to be. I'm not those things. I'm the mirror that as I go about those missional things, I reflect Christ. And that's why we avoid finding our identity in things that are also sinful. It's not about finding our identity in any of these things good is is wrong.

But when you go after somebody, you think, how can I actually go after that if that does not reflect God's word? Then I know that that's not God's plan for me. So I'm not what I have, what I do. I'm not what other people say. And here's another one, but I'm gonna say this quick. I'm not what I feel.

This is a hard one in our culture. We have a lot of longings and desires and cravings, and we're born with them. And we say and say, well, I was born that way, God made me that way. That's who I need to be. And then if I as a pastor say, no. God says that road is wrong and that's bad. You're saying so you're saying that God says I'm wrong. That I'm a mistake and I'm a no. Those longings and desires come from a brokenness,

and and and they feel very real. But what God is saying is you're not gonna find what you're looking for down that road, and you can have happy fulfilled life by not going with your feeling. But we live in a culture that even Christians say, we gotta go with our hearts. So many Christians say, I just gotta go with my heart. No. Do you read the Bible?

The Bible says our heart is deceitful. It lies to us all the time. Our heart is the echo chambers of the original lie. We need to go with God's word and the identity of recovering our identity.

So I'm not what I feel. And then lastly, I'm not what has happened to me. That's a sad one. We think that I am just the sum total of the experiences I've had. The problem with that is what if you've had great experiences? Life has been good. You'll get smug.

You'll get arrogant. And then you look at people that don't have as good a life and you'll say, well, you didn't work as hard as me.

But if life has been hard on you, lots of tragedy, lots of pain, lots of hurt people hurting you, you can fall into this victim mentality, and you define yourself by victimhood. That is no good for you because especially as a Christian, a Christian playing the victim doesn't understand the victory you've been given

through Christ.

And that's what I think we get mad at God at. Because if I think that I'm these other things, I pray to God to give me success in all of these other things.

And then when God doesn't, you think, well, God doesn't care about me because this is who I am. And God's like, this isn't who you are. It wasn't what I made you to be. And in the end, here's what makes it so hard,

is Proverbs fourteen twelve is a proverb that's repeated six times in Proverbs. And you know when God repeats something over and over and over again, it's the same thing when you're a parent and you repeat something over and over again. It's important and your kids aren't listening to you. Same thing right here.

He says this in Proverbs fourteen twelve. There is a path before each person that seems right,

but in the end of but it ends in death. Now a lot of people misunderstand this. What he's saying is it's very loving. God understands

that a lot of the things that we see in this broken world, because the mirror's broken, you know, when you look at a reflection in a broken mirror, it's gonna look different. What's reflecting? So there are things that just seems logical. Why would God do this? Why did God let this happen? Why did God not make this happen? If why did if if if God doesn't want me to do this, why did he make me this way? We have all these questions, and there's a lot of ways that it's actually doesn't make sense to us. So our way of thinking, there's a lot of things that trying to find your identity in these things, and most of us, that list I just gave,

it's not even any one of them. One's stronger to the other. But most of us, what your identity is, what you've perceived and ran after as an identity, is the sum total of that list. That's who you are. It's all of that, and it's your personality.

Don't get me started on that. That's another one Christians go. I'm a seven wing three. And you know, you have these personality tests, and then you live. It's like cultic. Like, that's who I oh, you know, you're a seven. Oh, it's obvious you're a seven. We're defining everybody by that. You know what? Personality tests are great when you're hiring someone and you're in counseling. You know what? Because what they do is they help describe you. That's all they are.

They don't define you. So we get the sum total of the list, and we struggle. And it seems to make sense that if God made me and I have all these things in my life, that's who I am. No, that seems right. But what God is saying is it'll end in death. He's not threatening you. He's saying I have a specific set of skills and I will track you down and end you. He's not the Godfather. I gave you an offer

and you refused. I'm going to deal with it after the baptism. No. He's saying, you don't understand. I get that these things seem like it should be this way, but you don't understand. All those things are a dead end road.

And they may feel like a wide open, faster way to get somewhere at the front, but down the road, there's a bridge out ahead. And you will either just drive right off of it or you'll finally stop and realize and turn around, and then you've to go all the way back.

There's a way this seems right, but at the end it leads to death. So really, if identity seeking is idolatry, what does that mean? It means stop asking who am I? And start asking whose am I? That's the answer. Am I an Adam? Do I not even know Christ?

Or am I someone who knows Christ but I'm trying to find my identity the Adam way?

Or am I gonna find it only in Christ, What he did, what Jesus did last week, celebrated by dying on the cross coming back, he recovered our identity for us.

It's recovered. We can be back in the right relationship. The mirror can be put back together. We can start to live that way. Matter of fact, Ephesians four twenty two through 24 says this, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception.

Instead, let the spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to what? To be like God. Imago Dei, image of God. Genesis one, truly righteous and holy. And you know what? God knew he was going do that from the beginning. He wasn't surprised by our sin because back in

chapter three, he goes on to say, hey, you know what this cost you now. Life's going get harder. Marriage is going be harder. Having kids is going to be harder. Working is going be harder.

And then you know what he did then? He killed some animals, sacrificed them, clothed them. He took care of them. He still loved them. And in covering them is symbolic. Innocent life died for you to live. He established a pattern of of what how to how to be saved.

And and that was where the the sacrificial system, so that was symbolic.

They were looking forward to the one who would come. God would come to ultimately make it right, and that's in Jesus. And he already had that plan. Because if you read chapter three verse 15, it says this, he's talking to Satan. And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head and you will strike his heel.

That's the first prophecy about a Messiah coming. The gospel is right there. What he's saying is you're gonna fight me because you always have because you wanna be God. And you're gonna try to stop me. And there's gonna be a man, a person that's gonna be born that's going to be the one that's the ultimate sacrifice, that's gonna die for the sins that could do it. It had to be God because he's the only one perfectly holy and righteous, and so Jesus came, became that man as the Bible predicted, and then it actually happened, and what he's saying is you're gonna strike him on the heel, beating you're gonna fight him, he's gonna end up dying, and you're gonna think you won. But it's just like if a snake bites you and you have those boots on, it struck you on the heel, I got you. And you just go.

And so Satan's like, I got Jesus. He's on the cross. I win. And then Easter Sunday, man, that escalated quickly and turned out horribly for me. God already knew he had a plan for us to recover our identity. What could happen in your life if you just got off that hamster wheel of discovering your identity?

And just believed you were who God said you are? How could that make your career go easier? How could that make your marriage work better if you stopped trying to get something out of your spouse that only God is supposed to be? How would that change your communication? How would that change your parenting?

If this is just an incredible mission I get to have and be blessed with, it's not a definition of who I am. Imagine the freedom of God's grace to just get out from in front of the mirror and reflect the love of Christ.

That's really what baptism is about. It's a choice. It's a symbolic thing to represent that. I remember my my baptism.

I'd become a Christian in high school, and I went to go get baptized for all the wrong reasons. You know, partially says, well, I better do it or god's mad at me. Why do you believe you gotta get baptized to be saved? It has nothing to do with that.

And then I thought, as I do this, God's gonna like me even more because look at how spiritual I am and I'm proving how much I love him. And in doing so, I started going to this church. There was a lot of really pretty girls in that youth group. And I thought if I show my great spirituality,

I will get a girlfriend in this youth group. I'll be able to get a girl, you know. It was very simple,

targeted minded at the time. I thought that was what I was gonna do, so I had all these reasons, so I went to do it. And then when we went, we had to go in there just like we do here, have a little meeting, pastor who was gonna be doing the baptisms, because back in that church the pastor baptized everybody. We don't do that that way here. But he was the guy, and I really looked up at this guy. He was old. He was dying of cancer,

and they built this building. This is their first weekend in it. This is their first time they have baptism. He willed himself to live long enough to preach once and baptize people in it. That's what he wanted to do before he went home to be with the Lord. So he sat us down. He says, you understand what this is? And a lot of you think this is to prove your way to love for God, to make him love you, to maybe even get him to love you enough to give you what you want? He's like, well, did he hear my thoughts? And he goes, it's none of that.

It's simply a reflection of who you are now. It's a reflection of your identity that's been given back. That you are to reflect that in Jesus died, buried, resurrected,

your old self died and what came out is the new self, the recovered self. You are now back with that image of God in you. You are now a mirror that's been put back together. And so he goes, what you're doing here is that first act of obedience. You've received his love, Now you need to reflect his love.

And so baptism isn't about you. It's about reflecting him. It's about worshiping him. It's about reflecting him to the world around you to say this is who Jesus is, and this is what he did for me, and this is who I am now. And that's why when you become a Christian, you should get baptized quickly, not later.

And I don't understand that most of you, a lot of you in this room still haven't been baptized and you know the Lord. And I think it's because you have the wrong understanding what baptism is like I did, and a lot of you, it's because you have the wrong understanding of what identity is. You think,

I'm the one in front of the mirror, so I got to clean up how I look. My hair's out of place. I'm spiritual you got to clean up your act before you get baptized. It's the exact opposite. It's not about you. It's about what Jesus did for you. And it gives you an opportunity to reflect again, to live your real identity.

Anything that stops you from doing that is because you're stuck in the wrong idea of identity. And now you feel like, well, I'm not holy enough. Well, if you were holy enough, Jesus wouldn't have had to die. That's the point. So just ask yourself, whose are you? And as we go through these weeks,

just be honest for God and go, hey, where in my life am I falling for the lies again? Where in my life is I attached all of this outside stuff?

And I'm talking about some of it could be sin. Some of it could be very good things. It's not like, well, I've attached my identity to being a husband, and since that's not who I am, I guess I should leave. No. That's a mission. Don't abandon the mission. Just stop making it your definition of you And see what happens

as you trust that. See what happens as you reflect. And after I pray, I'm gonna challenge some of y'all who haven't been baptized that you know the Lord.

Go out there right now. We've had a bunch of them after each service. Go out there. We have shirts. We have shorts for you. We have towels. We have everything. We even have people standing by there. Go get baptized. Let it be a symbolic gesture of I am accepting that this is my identity. This is who I am.

It's not about what you do. That's probably what's keeping you from going out there. Just go. Go declare whose you are and stop worrying so much about who you are because you're already whose you are is Jesus if you put your faith in him. Who you are meant built to be is to be a mirror. Celebrate

how wonderfully unique of a frame you are. But always remember, you're the mirror, not the one in front of it. Father God, I thank you, Lord. I thank you for how you love us. I thank you that you came to recover what you initially and originally built us to be.

So Lord, I pray that we would see that. I pray for me, everyone in this room, everyone online that we would understand that. And I pray for anyone who's struggling with their identity. They're struggling with all

those things on the list we talked about. They're trapped by some of them. They just can't seem to let go of some of them. Lord, I pray that today you would start to give a peace into their heart. You'd start to give them a hope that they can just let go of that and take a hold of you.

Lord, I pray for the next few weeks as we talk about some stuff that can get really tough for people, that you be glorified, that we reflect you and your word through all of this.

And Lord, I pray for those who right now are wrestling with the idea they're going to walk out there and get baptized right now. I pray that you give them the courage to simply trust you and go for it. I pray it in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Hey, guys. Love you guys. Thanks

for joining us online this weekend. Let us know if we can help you in any way. Make sure to follow us on social media and connect with us on rockpoint.io for prayer and everything happening here at Rock Point.