Gods Word Creates Your Identity
Getting to Know the Real You • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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We are in part 2 of a conversation all about getting to know the real you. If you missed last weeks message I want to give you a quick recap, so last time on Getting to Know the Real You, We began by stating that True Identity is Knowing, Receiving, Believing and Displaying who God says you are. Not what culture says you are, not who your parents say you are, not what your feelings say you are, not even who you believe you are. but who God says you are. But we also stated, what you think about when you think about God is the most important thing you think about. So the question must be asked, “Who is God?” God is the Creator and Sustainer of Everything. He is Eternal and unchanging in his goodness, truth, love, wisdom and power. God created all, including you. And when he created you he said you are very good, you are valuable, you are worthy, you are loved, even in your mess and sin, even in your confusion and dysfunction you are very good. This is what God says about you….now part two.
In the 6th grade I was attending a school Coyote Hills Elementary and my parents had just bought me my first pair of DC Court Graffik shoes. I wanted these shoes for so one and I finally got them I was beyond exited to wear them to school. The next day I remember vividly that it was recess, and this kid named Tyler came up to me and said, “What are those on your feet?” My new shoes! He said, “They look like clown shoes, hey everyone, Cam is wearing clown shoes.” Then he made a little jingle about it, “Walking in my clown shoes.” From that moment I didn’t want the shoes anymore. I was embarrassed, I felt like if I wore them I would be seen as a clown.
It is an interesting thing that happens in the human mind when words are spoken into you and over you. How many times have you heard the phrase, or say the phrase, Sticks and stones my break my bones but words…what? Word will never hurt me. I know that I have said that before but we all know that it isn’t true. The real phrase what we should be using is, Sticks and Stones my break my bones, but word can mortally wound me. Words can break me, words can destroy my sense of worth, or words can build up or tear down me, words can bring me joy, words can give me life. Words shape my view of my identity.
One thing that I know about you, because it is true for every person who is watching this, You like to talk. Come one every single person watching this right now likes to talk, through phone calls with your friends, on xbox, twich PS4, snapchat, Instagram, tik tok, group messages, leaving comments in the comment section. Or the worst one is the “we aren’t dating, were just talking.” You name it you love to talk, you love words. Do you know how God created? In the very beginning God said, “Let there be light.” And by his words, the world began to be created. He used words to create the trees, seas, birds, sky, God spoke it all into existence by His words. In the same way in our life, write this down, Our Words are Never Just for Talking, our words are Creating.
The people you allow to speak into your life, the people you allow to text you, call you, DM you, video chat with you, the infleuncers on tiktok that tell you their worldview and how you should live the same, think the same do the same, they begin to create a view of who you are. Words Create. They create war between tribes and nations, words create body image issues, words create pride, fellas and ladies too, the words you allow yourself to listen in your music shape the way you view women, how you view men. Words can be used to bully and can be used to push someone to suicided. But words also create love, they create joy, they create peace, they create friendship.
A few years back I was taking my daughter Lilly to a daddy daughter dance and as we were on our way to chick-fil-a the Taylor swift song, “Look what you made me do” came on. Now Lilly loves Taylor Swift. We were at a stop light and the lyrics “And I don’t like you uhh” came on and i was looking in the rearview mirror at her sang the song and the light turned green and 5 minutes later we were at chick fil a. As I’m getting her out of the car she looks up at me and says, “dad…you don’t like me?” Words Create. For 5 minutes my 3 year old little girl believed that I didn’t like her and she became really sad and started to think that dad doesn’t like me and you can see it in her eyes and face that without knowing it, she was beginning to question herself. Why doesn’t dad like me? Am I not like able? I must not be loved. So I affirmed her and cussed out Taylor swift. But has anyone ever spoken words like that over your life and mean it? Words like that break and twist your identity. And this isn’t just a new thing. In fact it is very old, so old that it happened first with Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden in Genesis 3. They began to have a conversation with the enemy and it created 4 things in them, and 4 things in us as well.
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
One of the things that you need to know about the enemy is that he has a small tool box. The same thing he begins to attack Adam and Eve with is the same thing he tried to attack Jesus with in Jesus’s 40 days in the wilderness, and it is the same thing he try’s to attack them and their identity is the same thing he attacks with today. Sometimes the enemy will use other people to speak lies and sin into you. So here are 4 things that conversation with the enemy creates.
1: Questions: You see the enemy begins to create Eve to question what God has said. “Did God really say…” One thing that I love about you students, is that we have the most inquisitive and questioning generation this world has ever seen. I love your questions and in fact, God loves your questions. Christianity is one of the only belief systems in the world where it is 100% ok and encouraged that you being your questions to God and Jesus or a Jesus follower. It is ok to have questions. But did you hear what I just said? When we have questions about God or how he wants us to live our life, or questions about your identity we need to bring it back to his word, not ask the world how we should live but ask God. Who you bring your questions to is almost at important as the question you are asking.
You have a questions about what God says about drinking, bring it back to his word and see what it says. You have a question about your sexual identity, seek God and seek what he says in his word, it’s very clear. Did God really say you are worthy? Did God really say you are loved? Yes, seek it out in his word. But the best part to is that God has given you Coaches who you can bring your questions too as well. Don’t allow the enemy to create questions in you that you bring to the wrong source and begin to live a false identity. Bring your questions to The Lord, seek him in his word. As you do, and as you begin to submit yourself to his word you see that a clear identity is formed, and a clear way of life can be lived through Jesus. Conversation with the enemy leads to questions, the second is bout.
2: Doubt: “You will not certainty die.” The enemy will try to make you doubt God’s word and most importantly, he will try to make you doubt God’s goodness. We said it last week, we believe that God is good. But look at what the enemy said, You will not certainty die, for he knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. This is feeding doubt about God’s goodness to Eve, the enemy is saying to Eve, hey God is holding out on you, he doesn’t want what’s best for you, he doesn’t want you to be like him, he must not be good. Once we begin to doubt God’s goodness, we doubt his rules that he has place in our lives to help us live a Jesus centered life. We begin to doubt the purpose he has given us, you begin to doubt the truth of Gods word, if God isn’t good then his word, the bible must not be true, what he says must not be true. If what he says isn’t true then what he says about me and my identity must not be true either. So in conversations with the enemy he creates questions, doubts thirdly he creates
3: Desire: V. 6 Says, when the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food, and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable to gain wisdom, she took some and ate it. Eve begins to desire the fruit. Satan ultimately isn’t after your actions, he after your heart, and what you long for and what you desire leads to your heart. This world is after your affections, what you love and what you desire. There is a verse in the bible that says, “if you delight in the Lord you will get the desires of your heart.” That word doesn’t mean as long as you follow the rules you God will give you what you want. What is means is as you delight in the Lord and his word becomes what you desire. His desires will be your desires. You will begin to want what he wants.
What I am talking about here is life transformation. And I want to confess and apologize to you. For too long pastors like myself have been focused on making sure students don’t cuss, kiss, drink, do drugs or have sex. That has been the focus, and yes those are things we want for you, we pray that you will make wise choices and those are some of the things that God wants for you, but those are behavior modification. For instance if you are like my family growing up, I couldn’t cuss around my parents. But did that stop me from cussing around my friends? NO. Thats not living a transformed life. Thats living a hypocritical one. Thats Looking the part without living the part.
Thats not living a transformed life. As we delight in the Lord and his word we end up not doing those things because we want to honor God, Love Jesus and others and not just pretend. When we are filled with the desires of the world we begin to search for acceptance approval and likes. So we will identify ourselves as something other than what God has called us to be. So we get to the end of it all and realize that i am never going to be fulfilled until you delight in the Lord. The enemy goes after our desires and twists them.
4: Sin, Separations and Confusion: Conversation with the enemy created sin, separation from God and confusion about our identity. And ever since this moment we have been asking the question, Who am I? For the first time Adam and Eve felt shameful, but shame was never meant to be apart of our identity. They felt fear, but fear was never supposed to be apart of our identity. They felt brokenness, but brokenness was never supposed to be a part of your identity. Because of their sin they did gain wisdom and knowledge of Good and evil but it wasn’t what they wanted or thought it would be. Because listen, conversations with the enemy never lead you to a place you thought you would be. You never fall into sin, you get there step by step. That’s why is is so important the cut the head off of the snake before he has a chance to move. When the enemy begins to make you question you hit him back with Gods word.
Did God really say you are worthy? Yes he did in Psalm 139 I was fearfully and wonderfully made, did God really say you are loved, yes he did John 3:16 for God so loved the world he gave his one and only son to die for me. Did God really say that you are made clean by Jesus…I am now a new creation the old has gone and the new has come. It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. Don’t even entertain a conversation with the enemy hit him over and over again and he will run from you.
Those 4 things are what are created when we have a conversation with the enemy, but what about when we have a conversation with God? We hit some of it last week but I want to look at this again Genesis 1:27-31a.
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.
How we defeat the voice of the enemy is to have conversations with God according to the word of God.
1: Clear Identity: We see that God gives Adam and Eve a clear and perfect Identity. Male and Female, made in the image of God. That when he looks at them they are good. Who’s are you? You are Gods. When you enter into a relationship with Jesus and submit to his Lordship he looks at you and says MINE. You have a clear and firm identity in Christ.
2: Blessed Purpose: He says to Adam and Eve to Work and Fill the earth. Jesus tell his disciples something similar he said to go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit. And I will be with you wherever you go. That might be as a teacher or police officer, hospital worker, entrepreneur what it is that God shows you to do, bring the gospel with you.
3: Great Provision: God has given Adam and Eve everything they needed. You can speak to God about your fears and your worries and your doubt. And every day as you sit down and read your bible and talk with God he will speak your true identity over you.
4: Good life: What’s God want to create in conversation with you? A good life. It won’t be an easy one, or a pain free one, or a life that you won’t have to ask for forgivesness or give it to someone else but at the end of your life, God wants you to be able to look back and say, Because of Jesus, I had a good life.
But as we close I want to hit on something that is big when it comes to your identity. Where are going to end right after Adam and Eve sinned and hid themselves from God because there is something very important that God wants you to hear: Starting in verse 8: 8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” Students listen, Who Told you That? You think you’re ugly? Who Told you that? Wasn’t God. Broken? Wasn’t God. Weak. Wasn’t God. Worthless. Wasn’t God. Unlovable. Wasn’t God.Not born in the right body? Wasn’t God. Won’t amount to anything in this world? Who told you that? Because it wasn’t God. God loves you, God cares deeply about you, God sent his son Jesus for you. Those words or ideas that you believe about yourself that go against anything God has said in his word, listen to me, they are not true and they didn’t come from God.
Listen students, Your Identity is shaped By Who you Listen to Most. We are never just talking we are creating. Your Identity is Shaped by who you listen to most. So Students, who are you listening to? My prayer is that you would listen to the words of God and Godly people around you. As you do, God will shape you into the real you.