Who are you? Part II

Where are you finding your identity?
Do you love your family and friends more than you love God?
Friends: Proverbs 12:26-A righteous man is cautious in friendship
1 Corinthians 15:33-Do not be misled: "Bad company corrupts good character."
In our circles, we should "Be a thermostat and not a thermometer." Set the temperature, don't confirm it.
Galatians 1:10 question, who are we trying to please, God or man? We are responsible for ourselves now.
Family: The 10 Commandments were written in a certain order, first to obey God, and then to honor our parents. Amy brought up that there is a big difference in honoring (respecting, serving, loving, being there for) our parents and pleasing them.
Moral: Don't live your life to constantly please people, Jesus didn't. John 5:1-9 Jesus upset, likely, the same religious leaders who he had studied under.
Quote time: "Any dead thing can go with the stream, but it takes a living thing to go against it."
Do you love yourself more that you love God? Do you try to meet your own standards first or God's standards? 1 Corinthians 8:6 encourages us not to live for ourselves, but for Jesus.
Romans 12:3
Psalm 139:14 - We have been MADE, we were created. Be identified by the one who created you.
How to practically find your identity in Christ:
1. Look at your state before God. Do you know God as well as He knows you?
2. Understand how much God loves you.
3. Read the Bible-know what God says about you.
4. Believe what God says about you. It is first a choice, and then a reality. The Epistles encourage us to TAKE HOLD of the promises of God.

• Read into Scripture, don't just read over it.
  

Lastly, God spoke this over us, Psalm 144:12-
Then our sons in their youth
will be like well-nurtured plants,
and our daughters will be like pillars
carved to adorn a palace.
Amy broke down the original Hebrew for us.
Sons:
well-nurtured: This means that you are growing, developing, trained.
plants: This says that you are firmly established, fixed in a state of fellowship with God.
Daughters:
pillars: details and proportion depend on your Maker, you are supporters, you unite, you can be leaned on, you cannot stand alone. You are beautiful inside and out, you are made of something more than yourself. when attack comes at you, pillars, it will be in the form or isolation, because a pillar cannot stand alone. Demolishionists target pillars, because if the pillars fall, the whole building comes down. (think about that one for a moment) And pillars, lastly, become monuments, they are still standing long before the rest of the building collapses.
The word pillar, in the original Hebrew, can never be used alone, it must be used in a group, it is not singular.
Identity is so important brothers and sisters, because:
"How you view yourself directly affects who you are, what you will do, and how you will do it."

Who are you?

So, I am dedicating this post to the message taught last night at ENCM. The beautiful Amy Middleton spoke about Identity during our ongoing Love Revolution series. Open your eyes, ears and hearts, this message is one for the books.

• "How you view yourself directly affects who you are, what you will do, and how you will do it."

Usually people think this goes back to self-esteem. But, I must agree, as Amy pointed out, that self-esteem is a flawed thought process. Self-esteem is mostly feelings-based: depending on how you look, your social status, how you look, your accomplishments, etc. Also, feeling like you're constantly striving to get to the next season, or part, of your life may also be a 'self-esteem' centered problem.
Amy presented some catchy but true quotes.
"The way you leave one season is how you're going to enter the next."
"The grass is not greener on the other side, it's greener where you water it."
Our current society so often speaks of 'finding yourself' or 'defining who you are'. How can you identify something you know so little of? This quote sounds weird, but is simple:
"Trying to identify oneself is like trying to bite one's own teeth."

God identified Jesus before Jesus' ministry even began, right after Christ's water baptism. (Luke 3:21-23)
Jesus identified Simon, by calling him Peter, which means rock, and declaring it into Peter's future. (John 1:40-42)
In the same way, 2 Corinthians 5:17 says that we are a new creation in Christ, so we have to find out identity in Christ.

When identity is found in other things, it leads to insecurities.
Even leading into 'false humilities'. One example of false humility is saying that you are humble but thinking that you are worthless inside. Some characteristics of finding your identity and worth in things other than Christ are: being a people pleaser; having a performance mentality; always needing a boyfriend or girlfriend; being a perfectionist; overly concerned about your looks; fearful of man/unsocial, maybe because you've been hurt in a past relationship.

So that's insecurity, what does security look like?
Security- living according to the reality that God is my hope, security, and identity.
2 Corinthians 5:5-6 says that God gives us His Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
Here come more quotes: "Men are most endangered when they feel most secure."
"Tell me who you love and I will tell you who you are."
"Your identity changes how you perceive reality."

So, how do I find my identity in Christ? The message is finished in my next blog.