The Battle for Your Identity

Hello children,

I want to talk to you today about your identity. Whether you know it or not, everyone has an identity and everyone wants to know their identity. What is an identity? An identity is asking and answering the question, “Who am I?” Every human being asks that question and is also looking for an answer. Throughout your life, especially before you become an adult, much of your physical and emotional energy will be spent trying to answer that question. For adults, if they don’t find a satisfactory answer to that question, they will waste much of their adult life, looking for the answer. It is an inescapable question. You might even say that God created human beings to be unique from all other creatures, in that only humans ask the question, “Who am I?”

There are several different places where we look to get our identity. We try to get our identity from our culture. Our culture includes things like school, social media, music, TV shows and movies, religion, friends, and family. These are the things that are most influential in shaping our identity. Culture says that you have to look a certain way, wear the right clothes, listen to the right music, be included in a certain group of friends, get the best grades, be talented at something and even to believe the way our culture tells us to believe, but there’s a huge mistake in the way our culture shapes our identity. First, it is always changing. Culture is always changing, so if you base your identity on culture, that means your identity will always be changing with the culture. To base your identity on our changing culture will be emotionally exhausting. Second, it’s almost always superficial. Superficial means that it’s only on the outside or on a surface level. It isn’t deep. It isn’t who you truly are.

So, from where should you and I get our identity? We should get our identity from God. Let’s say you were the first person ever to invent a very useful tool; let’s say it’s a shovel. This tool has one purpose: to dig. Because you are the creator, you get to name it and you get to decide what its purpose is. God is your creator. He designed you. He made you. So, ask yourself this question: “Who would have a better idea of who I am -- me or God?” (Who would have a better idea of what a shovel is, the shovel or the creator?) Of course, the answer is God. What, then, are some of the things God reveals about your identity? 1) You are God’s special creation, created in His image, created to be in a relationship with Him. 2) You are a sinner. We sin because we are Adam’s children and because of that we deserve God’s punishment. 3) You are loved with the most amazing love, shown when Jesus died for your sins. 4) If you trust in Jesus, then you are a Christian. That’s one of the most precious things you can be called. 5) You are either male or female and there’s no other choice. You are a boy or a girl. That, too, was part of God’s perfect plan for you. 6) You were made the way you were by God. Your personality, your sense of humor, your intelligence, your talents and abilities—all of these things are gifts from God who loves you.

Who am I? I am created in God’s image. I am a sinner. I am saved by Jesus Christ. I am God’s child. I am part of God’s family. I am going to heaven. I am who God says I am and who God made me to be. Don’t believe what our culture says, believe God.
 

Soli Deo Gloria
Pastor Peter