Personal Identity
Liz Hoyt · Tidal Church Moncton · January 28, 2024 · Who Am I? series
Liz Hoyt draws on Genesis 1, Psalm 139, Ephesians 2 and other passages to show that our identity is not found in jobs, losses, or past failures. We are made in God's image, loved, forgiven, and given purpose, and we know ourselves by knowing Him.
More from Liz Hoyt · The Who Am I? series
Topics: Grace, Identity, Purpose
Transcript
[1:05] So how would God answer you if you asked Him, "Who am I?" How would God answer if you said, "Who do you say that I am?" So what would you use to define who you are? Would you use your career, your possessions? Maybe your sexuality, your nationality, or maybe your social status. Who are you? So if someone came and tapped you on the shoulder on the street and said, "So how would you describe who you are?" What would you tell them? If you thought about it for a moment, would you first use father, mother, daughter, son, friend?
[1:53] What would be the first thing that comes to mind? Maybe it would be your career: beautician, laborer, engineer, barista, doctor, optometrist, whatever it happens to be. Maybe it's your pastimes. I heard someone earlier say hockey dad. But maybe it's the things outside of work that make you happy. That's who you say you are. You're a runner, you're an RC car enthusiast, you're an outdoors person. You're a woodworker, a decorator, a boat enthusiast, maybe a pet owner, right? But then there are the accomplishments that we think make up who we are, right? The things that make us feel valued and important.
[2:42] Maybe you've written a book, maybe it's the raise you got, the promotion you got at work. Maybe it's the kids you've raised or the house you've built. What do you use to say who you are? Is it the relationships you have? Is it your gender, your sexuality? Or is it your desires and your dreams that make up who you are? But then there's those other labels, the labels that maybe we didn't even want in the first place. Like widower, divorced, single mom, single dad, broken, lonely, lost and ashamed.
[3:28] What labels do you use for you? Because, I mean, the list can go on and on and on. And all of us are, they're all different for each one of us. All of our labels are different and unique. So Benjamin Kyle is the guy, we'll call him that because who he was, he had nothing to identify who he was, because Benjamin Kyle was the alias chosen by an American man who had severe amnesia. And on August 31st, 2004, at 5:00 AM he was found behind Burger King beside a dumpster with blunt force trauma to his head, covered in ant bites, and not a lick of identity to identify who he was.
[4:21] He had been stripped of everything and they called him Burger King Doe. And between 2004 and 2015, neither he nor the authorities could figure out through many means who he was. So he was a man with no clothes, no possessions, no identification. He had no past and he had no present, no connections, and no recollections, no accomplishments, no worldly wealth. This man had lost it all and he was stripped to nothing. Now how would you feel if that had happened to you?
[5:08] How would you feel if you were stripped and had nothing to identify who you are and all the things that made up who you were? No phone, home to call your own, no people who claim you, no recollection of where you've been or where you're going. But I would suggest that sometimes we actually feel like that. Maybe not to the extreme of Benjamin Kyle, but life has certainly thrown us curve balls that make us feel like everything has been stripped down and we don't know who we are anymore. So what are some of those curve balls?
[5:53] Well, your whole life, you've had a career path. You know what you were gonna do, who you're gonna be. And all of a sudden it was completely derailed and you had no job. Who are you? Your entire house burns to the ground. All your earthly possessions, all the things that you've cherished, all the things that you think make up who you are, are gone. What do you have left? If you've placed your identity in things, this would be a time when there'd be an identity crisis of "Who am I?" You've been the picture of health your whole life. You've had an accident and all of that is stripped away. You've lost your job 'cause you can't do it.
[6:39] You can barely do anything around the house or around the yard. Your life has changed. But who are you? Because what purpose do you have anymore? You feel? Maybe it isn't you that's gotten sick. Maybe it's somebody else in your family that has, and now you are the primary caregiver. You had plans and you had expectations of what life was going to be and that wasn't it. You were going to make plans of what you were going to do together. You were gonna grow old together. And now those experiences and expectations and reality has set in and it's changed your perspective on your purpose and who you are. Who are you? You haven't found love yet.
[7:28] You keep looking. Or maybe you have had love and you've lost it. The love of your life is now gone and who you were before them, I don't know who that is anymore. They were your anchor, your grounding, and now they're gone and you're left to figure it all out. Curve ball, teens, maybe you are still looking for the thing that makes you you. You know, when you're young, you're trying to search for that thing that makes you an individual, that makes you stand out. And we're trying to figure out our future, what career path, our school. And there's huge pressure. Who are you?
[8:14] And maybe you're new to this whole Jesus thing. You're new to the faith and you have found redemption and a loving God. But the life that you once had, who you were, the friends you hung out with, the places that you went, they've changed. And this is a good thing. You're headed in the right direction. But it is still a trouble. It is still a struggle to try to navigate who this new person is and this new life of faith, this new season in your life. And you're saying, "Who am I?" These are all major changes. And these are just a few. I know if all of you, if you stopped to think, there would all be major changes in curve balls you've had in your life that have made you question and think, "Who are you?"
[9:09] But what I would say from loss of job, loss of possessions, and what all these things seems to change, these things, there's some things that we can't change and that's our past. The things that will always be with us. And they have become part of our identity, whether we like it or not. And it is the past that haunts us, the past. We can't shake the mistakes we've made, the very public mess that we've made, or the hidden parts that no one even knows about, the hurts, the habits, the hangups that make us believe that we can be no one else. "The failure that I thought I was, who are you?"
[9:58] How do I shake my past to find a new identity on who I am in Christ? And it's what we all have in common. We all have a past, we all are broken, all of us. And we all have failures. None of us stand alone on that. We all sin, we all mess up, like it says in Romans 3:23, we all have sinned. We've all messed up and we all fall short of the glory of God. And without His saving grace, without His saving grace, we will never be enough. 'Cause it says in John 15:5, I am the vine.
[10:44] You are the branches. The one who remains in Me and I in him bears much fruit because apart from Him, apart from Christ, you can accomplish nothing. Now I'm gonna pop around a lot. You'll see I don't have one Scripture I wanna land on because all of this draws a whole story throughout all of Scripture, through the entire Bible, of who we are. 'Cause we are never gonna find meaning and purpose in our broken selves. And certainly nodded. The shifting, unreliable lies that culture and the enemy try to feed you. I mean, maybe you're even thinking of some of those lies that you know now, lies that something that is lies that are often so close to the truth that they sound too good to be true and yet twisted enough that we actually believe them.
[11:42] Some lies like, it's a free country. You can do whatever you want whenever you want 'cause there really are no boundaries and there really is no truth. Or the lie: It's all about you, individualism. It's all about you, nobody else. Good job. Money and status, that's gonna bring you happiness and help you discover who you are. I can do what I want when I want and no one's gonna get hurt. Or the lie: God doesn't really want you to be happy. It feels right, so it must be right or God wouldn't allow me to have these desires if it wasn't what He wanted. Do any of these lies ring true in your life?
[12:31] 'Cause you can see these lies in so many more that we are being daily bombarded with from our culture and to our kids. There is a battle going on for your identity. Did you know that? That there is a battle going on for your identity? There is a battle going on for who you are. It's a spiritual battle that is warring over who you are. Satan wants nothing more than you to believe the lies that you aren't good enough without the right job, you aren't good enough without a particular relationship, you aren't good enough with that new wardrobe, and you can insert whatever you want into that you aren't good enough without whatever.
[13:26] 'Cause Satan tempts us with dreams of popularity, power and fame and feeds us the lie that there are things that make up that they all, these are things that make up who you are, and it isn't. He wants nothing more for you to put your identity in something more. And he wants, Satan wants you to put your identity in something other than Christ. He wants you to put it in all of that other stuff. In Ephesians 6:12 it says, for our struggle, it's not against flesh and blood, but it's against the rulers, against the powers, against the world rulers of the darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens.
[14:13] There is a spiritual battle going on for your identity. And if it is a battle on for your identity, there is only one rock solid foundation to base your identity in. And it isn't yourself, 'cause you are always gonna let yourselves down, 'cause you're not perfect. I'm sorry to tell you, you're not perfect, and neither am I. I clearly know that. And it isn't in other people either because they also will let you down and you will always try to be measure up for those people. It isn't what the world says you are because it moves with the shifting sands.
[14:58] The shifting lies of culture, ourselves, people, culture, they're all gonna disappoint. The only way to know who you are is to know who God is. The only way for you to know who you are is to know who God is. Your Creator and your Heavenly Father knows you. He knows you more intimately than you even know yourself, or your husband or your wife or whoever else. He is the one who intimately knows you. So why not go directly to the source of your origins? Well, because God doesn't care. He does not care whether you have a job or not.
[15:48] He doesn't care that you have accomplished your fitness plan for the week or whether you've been abandoned by a loved one. 'Cause you will always, always be a child of the Almighty God. You are a child you've had to do nothing for. That you are a child of the Almighty, as it says in John 1:12-13, but to all who have received Him, those who believe in His name, He has given the right to become God's children. Children not born by human parents or by human desire or human choices, but by God. And whether you have finished your career in glory or you've finished with your bank account on empty, with Christ, you are not lacking.
[16:43] You are lacking nothing. As it says in Psalm 34:8, oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him. Oh, fear the Lord, you His saints, for those who fear Him have no lack. The young lions suffer want and hunger, but those who seek the Lord, those who seek the Lord, they lack no good thing. And so even when this world is falling apart and everything at the moment seems to be a disappointment, I know that as a child of God and I have an eternal home in heaven waiting for me, I have hope, I have future.
[17:33] I belong with Christ. Let's go back to the beginning for just a moment, back to Genesis. Genesis 1:26-27. 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. This is an important part: His own image. In the image of God, He created them. Male and female, He created them. See, God created us. He created you in His image, not in the image of what the world says.
[18:19] You are not in the image of what you think you should be, but He created you in His image and you are a reflection of who God is. You are made in the image of your Creator. You are made in the image of God. You aren't God. You can't do God things. You do not have His abilities. But you are a reflection of His attributes. So you are not God, but you are a reflection of who He is. We are known by God, the God who created the universe. And He tells me that I am created in His image.
[19:05] I am not born of dirt, and I have no origin. No, I am born of Christ and I am the child of the one true King. Can you just think about that for a minute? You are not nothing. You are born of God and in His image. And He said when He created you that it was good. I am the child of the true King. And we are called to a much higher purpose than just finding our identity and the clothes we wear, the belongings we have, or, you know, doing only what we feel is right. Only through Christ can we fully and completely know who we are.
[19:50] Only through the saving grace of God can we be made whole. Because the more I know who God is, the more I know who I am, the more I know God my heavenly Father, the more I know who I am not, the more I know who I am, not the more I say that I'm a good person. Not that I did a great job, but the more I know who God is, the more I will know who I am. So how do we know this? Let's take a look at some other verses. In Psalm 139:14, we're talking about you are a beautiful creation. I praise You. I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
[20:38] Wonderful are Your works. My soul knows it full well. As I've told my girls, God don't make no junk, right? You are loved. As it says in 1 John 4:9-10, this is how God showed His love among us. He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. That is love. Not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. This is love. Not that we loved God, but that He loved us. Because now, guys, the search is over. Maybe you've been looking for love in all the wrong places, but the search is over.
[21:29] There is love for you. And the only pure, great love that you can receive is from your heavenly Father. And He will love you no matter what. He's not gonna let you down. He won't toss you aside when you disappoint Him. And you don't have to earn it either. He offers it to you freely and without hesitation. You are loved. Look no further. You belong. I know often we want to feel like we belong, but it says that we do in Ephesians 2:19-20. So then you are no longer foreigners and noncitizens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of God's household because you have been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone.
[22:21] You belong 'cause you become a follower of Christ. You belong to a family. You belong. You are claimed. Even if you have nothing, even if you feel like you're a failure, you belong and you are free, as it says in John 8:36. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. Not bondage but freedom, and you are forgiven. Romans 5:8. But God demonstrates His love for us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 'Cause Christ died for your sins, as many of you know.
[23:10] But sometimes I don't think we act like it. Like we really know He has forgiven you. Your past failures and mistakes. Yeah, they can have consequences, but they do not need to define who you are because if you humbly have asked for forgiveness, you can be free. Because as far as the east is from the west, He has removed your sins from you when you ask. So do not be ashamed. You are forgiven. The big, the small, the hidden, the public. You are forgiven and you have purpose.
[23:57] We're always looking for a purpose, right? What's our purpose in life? 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, so whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God. See, we fulfill our purpose every day. Not by our job and our fitness plan or not plan, all of these things. It's not that. That is our purpose. Our purpose is every day glorifying God in the little things and the big things in whatever we do. We are living our lives in relationship with Christ and in faithful service to Him every day. We have a purpose, and there is nothing more stable basing our identity and who we are in an unchanging God in a very changing world.
[24:58] So how have you navigated the change, in changes, in disappointments in life? 'Cause I know you've all had curve balls. I know you've all had expectations that have not been met and disappointments that have happened. Maybe right now you need to stop and evaluate what you're seeking after. If you had to stop and think about it, because I think we do sometimes and don't even know we're doing it. If you had to stop and think right now, is there something that you are seeking after to fill the void, to kind of make us feel important and valued? And yeah, help us to know who we are. So stop and evaluate. What are you seeking after? If it is a heart issue, then none of us are immune to whether it's, if you're a believer your whole life or you've been a believer just for a short period of time, it's a hard issue that we all have.
[25:57] And we all need a question. We all need to evaluate so we can know who we are. 'Cause have you tapped into who God is so you can know who you are? Or when life has thrown you a curve ball, have you gotten lost in disappointments and disillusionments and you've lost your identity and who you thought you were or you should be when expectations and dreams of what life should have been? Don't live up. How have you done? Are you just surviving, floundering, or are you flourishing because you are leaning heavily on the everlasting, unchanging, foundational love of Christ?
[26:54] How you doing? Romans 12:1-3. Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you'll learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. I must confess, I've seen a few too many people turn away from God. You know, ones that seemingly were sold out on fire for Jesus. And then out of the blue, we're looking at them and they're trying to find out who they were in all the wrong places.
[27:39] And I wonder why. What's happened? I wonder how did they end up in that predicament. Too many of my college friends. Yes, I went to a Bible college. So this applies, like, my college friends seemingly know who they all were in Christ. And then they didn't seem to make the turn when they were tossed all these curve balls. And they were faced with an identity crisis. My good friends who are now floundering, wondering who they are because they're looking all in the wrong places and they're believing the lies of the enemy. But it can happen to any of you. It can happen to me.
[28:24] Young believers, mature believers. If we don't stay grounded and in a relationship with Christ and looking to Him for who we are, we're going to falter. Because if we aren't grounded in who God says we are, we aren't going to be grounded in who we are, because we have to lean on Him for who we are. 'Cause I can tell you personally, oh, at times I feel the pressure to measure up. I feel the pressure that I've gotta measure up to what people want from me, or what culture says I should be. I feel that pressure and I get tired of messing up.
[29:12] I do it all the time. And you guys see it half the time. I mess up and I'm tired of the journey that seems never ending as the curve balls just keep coming, one after another. And I get tired of forever realigning and reevaluating, heart checking, to see if my identity's in the right place. And I wish it was way easier to just put my eyes on Jesus and live a perfect life. But we live in a broken world with broken people, and I'm one of them. So I can either live my life for the pleasures of this world.
[29:58] I could live my life for who people think I am, or I can live my life for a God who knows me with all my quirks and insecurities. And He will love me in spite of them. And He loves you in spite of yours. So if we take a minute right now and ask God if there is something that we need to adjust, something that maybe we need to realign and bring back into perspective. I think Eugene Peterson in The Message, the paraphrase, The Message. I think he summed it up nicely for me in Psalm 62:7-8.
[30:46] And he says, "My help and glory are in God, granite strength, and safe harbor God. So trust Him. Absolutely. People, lay your lives on the line for Him. God is a safe place to be." So who are you? You are defined by the Creator of the universe. The universe. You are created and defined by Him. You are created and defined by the One that is perfect in our imperfect ways. And He calls you and He wants to make you whole.
[31:34] So let me finish with this. You, my friends, you are not the total sum of what you do, what others say you are, or your past failures or your present circumstances. You are who God says you are. And the more intimately you get to know Him, the more you will know who you are. Can we pray? So, dear God, I can't even fathom sometimes when I think that You created me, the God of the universe. You know me, You love me, You see me, and You know who I am.
[32:27] And God, today for me and all of those around us, I just pray that we would lean heavily in finding out who You are so that we can know who we are, because You are a perfect, unshakeable foundation. And I thank You for that. In Your name, amen. So as we, so as we stand, we're gonna sing a song, "Who Am I," talking about who you are. I want you to take this moment now to think about who you are in Christ and where you lay your foundation.