Identity Crisis

We know the church is to behave as a hospital for sinners. Sometimes we look more like a nursing home, other times we look more like an emergency room.

Like any other medical facility - there are some things that just naturally come up more than others. This is cold/flu season, I am pretty congested myself. So most of the natural medical facilities in our region of the world are treating those conditions. They are testing - is it COVID? Is it flu? Strep? Now that you've spent $709 on tests, it's just a virus you'll be okay in a few days nothing we can do. Aren't you glad you went? But they have those frequent flyers. Stuff they get that is just routine. And as a church, we do too. We have things that it seems like we struggle with significantly more often than others. Today we are diving into one of those illnesses you might get, Identity Sick.

Who you believe you are determines what you do, how you act, the way that you respond to situations and the world around you.

So getting Identity SICK - becomes a significant problem. When we don’t see ourselves correctly - when our self perceived identity doesn’t line up with what it is supposed to be - everything else is affected.

What does healthy look like? Our understanding is that healthy is to be the way that we are created to be — or as close to the baseline of creation as we can be.

Our Identity is based in Jesus. The correct things to believe about ourselves

We are going to say today, that there are really three types of identity sick that we struggle with, there are probably more. Mistaken identity: When someone sees you, and they call you by the wrong name. They mistake you for someone you look like, maybe someone you used to be. Symptoms include: reverting to old behavior. Changing who we are to suit what we think the needs of the moment are. Experimenting with new behaviors. Doubting who we really are. Stolen identity: When who you are is used against you. Not a whole lot of information is necessary - just the stuff you typically keep hidden. The enemy is involved here. Destruction is the intent. STEAL KILL AND DESTROY. Sin that you already took to Jesus, and he already died for, thrown into your face. Symptoms include Shame. Salvation doubt. Now, this does not include the Holy spirit bringing to light sins that you haven’t repented of yet. Identity crisis: When you forget who you are. Confusion, anxiety. This is typically triggered by a larger event in our lives. Something that doesn't align with our plan, our understanding. Something that causes a monumental shift in who we believe we are.

This is when a big thing happens.

Jesus - no miracles in his hometown. Mistaken Identity.

Mark 6:1–6 CSB

1 He left there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. 2 When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished. “Where did this man get these things?” they said. “What is this wisdom that has been given to him, and how are these miracles performed by his hands? 3 Isn’t this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And aren’t his sisters here with us?” So they were offended by him. 4 Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown, among his relatives, and in his household.” 5 He was not able to do a miracle there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. 6 And he was amazed at their unbelief. He was going around the villages teaching.

Judas - sold out to the pharisees.

Luke 22:3–6 CSB

3 Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, who was numbered among the Twelve. 4 He went away and discussed with the chief priests and temple police how he could hand him over to them. 5 They were glad and agreed to give him silver. 6 So he accepted the offer and started looking for a good opportunity to betray him to them when the crowd was not present.

Peter - denied knowing Jesus. went fishing for fish.

Where do we get our identity: Natural, familial, spiritual. As Christians - our primary Identity is that of Christ. Treatment: Jesus, didn’t really need treatment. He is Jesus. Had it been anyone else, being paralyzed by the comments of others would have been devastating. He is Himself the great physician.

What He did do was kindof interesting to me - he left. He moved on. He did not waste time trying to impress the unimpressable. If they wouldn’t believe that he was messiah, that was on them. He created distance between them and went to other villages.

Judas refused treatment.

He was diagnosed. Jesus called him out.

Matthew 26:21–25 CSB

21 While they were eating, he said, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.” 22 Deeply distressed, each one began to say to him, “Surely not I, Lord?” 23 He replied, “The one who dipped his hand with me in the bowl—he will betray me. 24 The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for him if he had not been born.” 25 Judas, his betrayer, replied, “Surely not I, Rabbi?” “You have said it,” he told him.

And yet the response of Judas in that moment was disbelief that he had been called out, not repentance. We know that it had to work out with Jesus going to the cross to pay the price for our sins, but the

Peter received treatment. He went through the process.

The process was exactly what we have been talking about the last few weeks. Repentance, restoration. Know that God is working in it.

John 21 CSB

1 After this, Jesus revealed himself again to his disciples by the Sea of Tiberias. He revealed himself in this way: 2 Simon Peter, Thomas (called “Twin”), Nathanael from Cana of Galilee, Zebedee’s sons, and two others of his disciples were together. 3 “I’m going fishing,” Simon Peter said to them. “We’re coming with you,” they told him. They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. 4 When daybreak came, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not know it was Jesus. 5 “Friends,” Jesus called to them, “you don’t have any fish, do you?” “No,” they answered. 6 “Cast the net on the right side of the boat,” he told them, “and you’ll find some.” So they did, and they were unable to haul it in because of the large number of fish. 7 The disciple, the one Jesus loved, said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he tied his outer clothing around him (for he had taken it off) and plunged into the sea. 8 Since they were not far from land (about a hundred yards away), the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish. 9 When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish lying on it, and bread. 10 “Bring some of the fish you’ve just caught,” Jesus told them. 11 So Simon Peter climbed up and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish—153 of them. Even though there were so many, the net was not torn. 12 “Come and have breakfast,” Jesus told them. None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” because they knew it was the Lord. 13 Jesus came, took the bread, and gave it to them. He did the same with the fish. 14 This was now the third time Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead. 15 When they had eaten breakfast, Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” he said to him, “you know that I love you.” “Feed my lambs,” he told him. 16 A second time he asked him, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” “Yes, Lord,” he said to him, “you know that I love you.” “Shepherd my sheep,” he told him. 17 He asked him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved that he asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” “Feed my sheep,” Jesus said. 18 “Truly I tell you, when you were younger, you would tie your belt and walk wherever you wanted. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will tie you and carry you where you don’t want to go.” 19 He said this to indicate by what kind of death Peter would glorify God. After saying this, he told him, “Follow me.” 20 So Peter turned around and saw the disciple Jesus loved following them, the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and asked, “Lord, who is the one that’s going to betray you?” 21 When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about him?” 22 “If I want him to remain until I come,” Jesus answered, “what is that to you? As for you, follow me.” 23 So this rumor spread to the brothers and sisters that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not tell him that he would not die, but, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you?” 24 This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true. 25 And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which, if every one of them were written down, I suppose not even the world itself could contain the books that would be written.

When Jesus was revealed to him, he went plunging.

He ran to the Lord.

And then, they had some tough conversations.

Three times Jesus asked Peter if he really loved him.

Three times Peter had to face Jesus. There was a process.

And in that - no time off.

Peter was commissioned.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

As you grow in Jesus, in your understanding of the Bible, apply the things that the bible says about believers to yourself.

Reading through Ephesians, that would look like this… Eph 1:1-5

Ephesians 1:1–5 CSB

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will: To the faithful saints in Christ Jesus at Ephesus. 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in love before him. 5 He predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ for himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,

I AM IN CHRIST I AM A SAINT I AM BLESSED I AM SAVED I AM RECONCILED I AM ADOPTED I AM FATHERED

As we study scripture on our own, and together, we have to find these things that the Bible is telling us to believe about ourselves and believe them!

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