6-30-13 Sermon

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WINNING WITH THE HAND YOU’RE DEALT

Creating A Positive ID – Part 3

06-30-13 Sermon

            “Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!”  Psalm 139:14 (NLT)

             “A person who fears God deals responsibly with all of reality, not just a piece of it.”                                                    Eccles. 7:18 (MSG)

FIVE FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE MY IDENTITY

            “Life is like a hand of poker. You have to play the cards you’re dealt.”

     

      1.  MY______________________________________________________________________

     

     

      2.  MY______________________________________________________________________

3.  MY______________________________________________________________________

4.  MY______________________________________________________________________

5.  MY______________________________________________________________________

FIVE WINNING CHOICES

1.            I Can Choose_______________________________________________________

                        “You made my body, Lord; now give me sense to heed your laws.”  Psalm 119:73 (LB)

2.            I Can Choose _______________________________________________________

            “Let love be your highest goal.”                         1 Cor. 14:1a (NLT)

           

            “I pray that Christ will live in your hearts by faith and that your life will be strong in love             and be built on love.”                 Eph. 3:17 (NCV)

                        “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear.”   1 John 4:18 (NIV)

3.            I Can Choose ________________________________________________________

“God knows us far better than we know ourselves... That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.  God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him.”       Rom. 8:27-29 (MSG)

                        “I will praise the Lord no matter what happens.” Psalm 34:1 (LB)

4.            I Can Choose __________________________________________________________

“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.”      Rom. 12:2 (NLT)

           

5.            I Can Choose __________________________________________________________

                        “When someone becomes a Christian, he becomes a brand new person inside. He is not                         the same anymore. A new life has begun!”  2 Cor. 5:17 (LB)

WINNING WITH THE HAND YOU’RE DEALT

Creating A Positive ID – Part 3

06-30-13 Sermon

The Bible says there’s nothing simple about you.  You’re very complex.  You’re multifaceted.   You’re not easy to understand.   You’re not easy to explain.  There are many factors and there are many forces that create you.  In Psalm 139:14, David says “Thank you Lord, for making me so wonderfully complex.”  Circle that on your outline – “wonderfully complex.” 

Guys if you’re sitting next to your wife whisper into her ear right now, “Honey, you are wonderfully complex!”  And then wives you whisper back, “You are amazingly simple!” 

Actually, the Bible says we’re all wonderfully complex.  To become all that God intends for you to be you have to look at every dimension of your life, not just one. 

Ecclesiastes 7:18 – I love this in The Message paraphrase:  “A person who fears God deals responsibly with all of reality, not just a piece of it.”  If you’re going to be who God wants you to be you’re going to have to look at every area of your life.  Every factor, every facet, every force in your life and deal with all of them, to be all that God made you to be.

Today, I want us to look at this subject of being who God meant you to be.  I’m calling it Winning with the Hand You’re Dealt. Because there are actually five factors in your life that influence your identity and who you are.

You did not choose these factors. God dealt some to you. There are some things that you have been dealt in life.  You didn’t choose them.   There are a lot of things that make you you that you had no choice in at all.  They are the hand you were dealt. But you’ve got to play the hand you were dealt.

The good news, and what I want us to look at today, is that the Bible tells us how to still win the game with the hand you’ve been dealt.  What we’re going to do today is talk about the five things that influence your life that make you you and then what God says to do with them to make sure you turn it into a winning hand.

1.    The first factor that makes you you is what I call My Chemistry.

This is your chromosomes. It’s your dna. It’s your genes. It’s your hormones. It is your chemical makeup.  At the most basic biological level it’s you and your body.  Everything that happens to you in your life happens in your body and your body is made up of chemicals.

Every one of us have structural and chemical weaknesses in our bodies.  Some of you have a predisposition to your back going out. It’s just the way your body’s wired.           All of us have biological and chemical deficiencies.  And these create emotional problems. These create physical problems. These create mental problems in our lives. 

I want you to write this down: No flaw is sinful or shameful. In my physical body, in my biology, in my chemistry, no flaw in me is shameful or sinful. It’s just how you’re wired. 

Any artist knows that they’ll often create a flaw in a picture or in a vase or in a piece of pottery to say, there’s nothing else like this in the world. It has this unique flaw in it.  The flaw creates the uniqueness.  Your genes have intentional flaws to create your uniqueness.  Your flaws are a part of your custom design. God designed you and he even uses those flaws for his purpose and his glory.

The first characteristic in your life that makes you you is your biology.  Your body.  Your chemistry.

2.    The second thing that determines your identity is Connections – my Connections.

My connections are my relationships in life.   You are a product of your relationships, especially your early year’s relationships.  Those relationships may have been good or they may have been bad. They may have been healthy. They may have been unhealthy.  They may have been nonexistent. Or they may have been abusive. But you are a product of your relationships.

Study after study has shown that your identity, how you see yourself is largely determined by what you think the most important people in your life think of you. What you think the most important people in your life think of you tends to determine your self-image, your self-esteem, your self-concept.

That’s why I’ve told you many times to make sure Jesus is the most important person in your life.  Because he’s going to love you unconditionally and he’s going to tell you the truth.

So the connections in your life, your relationships, help determine your identity.  My connections give my life meaning. My connections give my life purpose.  And my connections give my life identity.

One day Jesus was walking down the street and a guy comes up and says, Lord, what’s life all about?  And Jesus says, Life is all about love.  He said, You can summarize all of life in two sentences: Love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. Be connected to God and be connected with each other. Be in harmony with God and be in harmony with each other.

There’s a third card that makes you you. My chemistry – that’s my biology, my body; my connections – that’s my relationship. 

3.    The third card that makes you you and makes me me is My Circumstances.

These are the things that happen to you. These are the things that happen around you. None of these things were in your control.   You didn’t choose your chemistry.   You didn’t choose your initial connections. And you certainly haven’t chosen all your circumstances.

If you’ve ever been abused your abuse has affected your identity whether it was physical, emotional, sexual or whatever.  If you’ve ever experienced rejection, that has affected your identity. If you’ve ever had a failure or a series of failures, major failures in your life, that has affected your identity.  If you had a crisis, if you had a catastrophe, these are all things that leave scars on your identity. Problems shape your life.  Pressures shape your life.  Pain shapes your life.  It’s part of what you were dealt in life.

There’s a fourth card, a fourth factor that makes you you.  And this is a big one.

4.    It’s what I call My Consciousness.

My Consciousness is how I talk to myself. That’s your consciousness. How I talk to myself. How you think about you. 

You’re talking to yourself constantly.  Constantly. There is never a time in your life when you are not talking to you.  If you talk to your friends the way you talk to you, they wouldn’t be your friends. Because you are your toughest critic. And by the way, you lie to yourself all the time. The Bible says, the heart is deceitful.  You lie to yourself more than you lie to anybody else.  You tell yourself things that just aren’t true, but you believe them.

Your consciousness influences your identity. Other people said to you– you’re no good, you’re worthless, you’ll never amount to anything,  you’re  uncoordinated, you aren’t very attractive, you’re a loser, blah, blah, blah.  You file that. But then you started repeating it. And you started saying it over and over.  That’s just like me to be… this. That’s just like me to be... that.  You’ve said it over and over and over and it got deeper and deeper in your consciousness.

Your habitual thoughts are your identity. What you think about you. That’s your identity. The Bible says this.  Proverbs 23:7, “For as a man thinks in his heart, so he is.”  What you think about you, that’s you – whether it’s true or not.

Proverbs 4:23 says this: “Be careful what you think, because your thoughts run your life.”  If you want your life to go in a different direction you’re going to have to direct those thoughts in a different direction.

Here’s the amazing thing: When you think a thought it doesn’t have to be true to hurt you.   You just have to believe it.  So if somebody says, you’re never going to amount to anything, and you believe it, guess what?   You’re never going to amount to anything. If you tell yourself, this marriage isn’t going to last, it isn’t going to last.  The person who says I can’t and the person who says I can are both right!  For as a man thinketh so is he.  Be careful what you think because your thoughts run your life. And if you think a thought long enough you become it. And if you believe it about yourself, you act it out.

Here’s the problem.  You know those fears you’ve got that you keep going over and over in your mind?  Our fears are often self-fulfilling.  We sabotage ourselves. We set ourselves up. Job 3:25.  Job says this. “What I have always feared has happened to me. What I dreaded has come to be.”  A self-fulfilling prophecy.

That’s the problem with fear. Fears can become reality.  We start acting in that way.  “I’m afraid to do this,” so then you are afraid to do this. “I’m afraid I can’t do this,” then you can’t do that.

Write this down:  Feelings aren’t facts. 

“I feel unattractive.”  That doesn’t mean you are.  “I feel fat.” That doesn’t mean you are.  “I feel dumb.”  That doesn’t mean you are.  “I feel nobody would ever want to marry me.”  Are you sure?   Feelings aren’t facts.  They’re feelings.  And feelings lie all the time. 

So my consciousness affects my identity.  But there’s a fifth card. This fifth card is so important because it controls all the other cards. 

5.    The fifth card that makes me me is My Choices.

The Bible says that you were created in the image of God.  What does that mean? 

It means a lot of things but one of them is this:  You have a free moral choice.  You have the choice to choose. That’s because you’re made in God’s image. God made you.  You can choose to do right or wrong.

The freedom of choice is your greatest blessing.  It is also your greatest curse.  Because we make stupid choices all the time. We make dumb choices. We make self-defeating choices. We make harmful choices that harm ourselves, our bodies, our circumstances and everybody around us.  So it becomes a negative thing in our lives.  It’s a blessing but it’s also a curse.

But here’s the good news about this card.   God says it’s a wild card.  It’s the wild card.  This card can change the suit and the number of any of the other cards you’re dealt.  This is the wild card.

Your choices can determine these other cards.  I didn’t get to choose my chemistry but I can choose what I do with my body and how I make the most with what I’ve got. That’s my choice.  And I can choose to do the best I can with what I’ve got. 

         I didn’t choose all of my relationships but I can choose how I respond to them.  And I can choose new relationships.  And I can choose to learn relational skills.  And I can choose a lot of things that will change my connections. 

         I don’t choose my circumstances but I certainly can choose how I respond to them. I am response-able.  That means I’m responsible. I’m able to respond. God has given us responsibility which means we have the ability to respond.  I don’t control everything that happens to me.  But I control everything that happens in me, by what I choose to do in that response.  

         And even on my consciousness, I didn’t control what people said to me, those old tapes that went in my mind and I started believing, believing them. But I can choose to stop believing them.  And I can choose to think differently.  I can choose a different consciousness.  I can control my thoughts. I can change the rudder of my boat by simply changing the way that I think.  

This is the good news.  And if you use it you can change the number and the suit of every card.  And your life and your destiny in eternity is determined by this card.  Ultimately your identity is based on your choices. And it’s the wild card that can change everything else.

There are five winning choices that you can make with the hand you’ve been dealt. Each of them has to do with each of these cards.

With this first card, My Chemistry, my biology, my chromosomes, my makeup, my physical being.

1.    First choice. I can choose to get healthier.

I don’t care what handicap you have in your life. You can be healthier than you are right now.  I can choose to get healthier.  There are things that I can do that will increase my energy.  There are things I can do that will lower my stress. There are things I can do that will cause me to have more power, more health in my life.  I can eat better, get more sleep, reduce the stress. There are all kinds of things I can do.  And that’s totally in my control.  Psalm 119:73 says this, “You made my body, Lord; now give me sense to heed your laws.”  

So improving the control-ables reduces the impact of the uncontrollables in my life. There are things in your life you can’t change about your body.  But you can change the controllables.  And you could have more energy than you’ve got. And you could be in better shape. And you could probably extend your life some simply by eating right, doing right, being right – things like that.                           

So that’s in your control. Maybe you need to go get a checkup. Maybe you need to go get some blood work. Maybe you need to go see a dentist. Maybe you need to get a supplement or get on some kind of hormone replacement.  Whatever.  I don’t know. But the fact is, there are some steps you can do – medicine, exercise, controllable things. So you start with the physical. The first card. What do I need to do physically?

The second choice has to do with My Connections.  

2.    The choice I make here is I can Choose to Deepen Relationships. 

That’s an intentional choice, to make my relationships better.  They can be better than they are right now. I can choose to deepen my relationships. I can learn some communication skills. I can build some new, healthy relationships and replace some bad, unhealthy relationships.  I can reach out. I can work on my relationships. I can risk connecting. 

I don’t say that word “risk” arbitrarily. Because any connection you make is going to be a risk. If you’re going to build some new healthy relationships, you’re going to have to risk some connecting. 

Write this down:  The fear of rejection prevents connection.  The reason why you feel disconnected is your fear of being rejected, your fear of disapproval, your fear of being hurt, your fear of others. 

How do I get rid of fear?  How do I get rid of that fear?    1 John 4:18, “There is no fear in love.    [Circle “no fear.”]  Perfect love casts out all fear.” 

Why does love take away fear?  Because love takes the focus off me and puts it on somebody else.  It’s not about me.  My needs, my health, my heart, my hurt. It’s about you.  Love has no fear because it’s not about me. 

Fear is FEAR – False Evidence Appearing Real.  It’s not real. 

So how do you get rid of the fear in your life?  The fear of making that connection. The fear of making a commitment.  The fear of getting to know a stranger.  The fear of getting in a small group.  All of these things.  How do I get rid of that?

You can’t talk yourself out of it because fear isn’t logical. It isn’t rational.  So you can rationalize it all you want but it isn’t going to go away.

There’s only one way to get rid of fear.  Do the thing you fear the most.  Move against your fear. Fear does not go away by logic.  Fear goes away by action.  You move and the fear vanishes.  Fear is always worse than the reality.  Why?   Because fear torments you twenty-four hours a day. And the reality of that might only last an hour.  The fear is always worse than the reality. 

So you have to say, what am I going to do?  1 Corinthians 14:1 “Let love be your highest goal.” That ought to be your goal for the rest of your life. It’s not about accomplishments. It’s not about achievements. It’s not about fame. It’s about love. Love is going to be my highest goal.  Life is all about learning how to love. 

Love means risking connections. It means stepping out.

You ought to pray Ephesians 3:17, “I pray that Christ will live in your hearts by faith and that your life will be strong in love [circle that – “strong in love.”] and be built on love.  [Circle that “strong in love” and “built in love.”]   You ought to pray that every morning.  Every morning get up and say, “Today, Jesus Christ, I want you to fill my heart by faith. And Jesus Christ, today I want to be strong in love. And I want to be built on love.” 

The third, on the Circumstances of life – the trauma, the trouble, the pain, the pressure, the problems, the stress, the suffering in my life. 

3.    I can choose to Trust God no matter what happens. 

I can choose to trust God regardless of my circumstances.  And that gives you an identity nobody else is going to have.

Romans 8:27-29, I love this in the Message “God knows us far better than we know ourselves… That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God [circle “every detail”] is worked into something good. [It’s not all good but it can be worked into something good.]  God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son.  The Son, Jesus, stands first in the line of humanity he restored. And we see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him.”  God wants to use every circumstance in my life to make me like Jesus.

Psalm 34:1, “I will praise the Lord no matter what happens.”  Friends, when you get to that point, that’s a choice.  It’s the confidence that says hit me with your best shot!  I will praise the Lord no matter what happens.  That is a confidence that is built on my relationship to God and it can’t be taken from me. I will praise the Lord no matter what.

Write this down on your outline: I’m a product of my past but I’m not a prisoner of it. I am a product of my past.  Yes, it has influenced me.  My chemistry, my connections, my circumstances, they’ve all influenced me. I’m a product of my past. But I am not a prisoner of it. And I can be different. 

That leads me to number four and this is a big one – the fourth choice.

4.    I can choose what I think about.

I can’t choose what other people say about me or what they say to me. But I can choose what I continue to allow in my mind.  Your self is created by your memories.

For years everybody thought that the adult brain could not be changed.  This is standard.  But then a guy won the 2002 Nobel Prize in neurobiology for proving that you can rewire the adult brain.  You can change your brain.  It is elastic.  It is not in concrete.  And your brain can change and it can be rewired regardless of what’s happened in your past.  You can change.

It’s great that science in 2002 finally caught up with the Bible.  Because two thousand years earlier in Romans 12 God said this “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world… [the habits and their pattern of thinking] but let God transform you [change your mind, change your brain.  Transform you.] Let him transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.”  Change your brain, change your life. 

Philippians 4:8 “Dear brothers and sisters, let me say one more thing as I close this letter. Fix your thoughts [that means intentional focus] on what is true and honorable and right. [You need to fill your mind with the truth, not lies.] Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.”   That means you get the garbage out of your life.   You don’t watch junk tv. There are some movies you don’t go to.  There are a lot of books you just don’t read, because you think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

You can rewire your brain.   You can.  It’s a choice. I can choose what I think about. I can choose my consciousness.

There’s one more choice I can make. Remember the fifth card is the wild card.  This is the wild card that can change the number and the suit, the color, of every other card that I’ve been dealt.

5.    The fifth choice I can choose is this. I can choose Jesus as my Savior. 

When I talk about Savior I’m not just talking about saving you out of hell into heaven. I’m not just talking about saving you from your sins and forgiving you.   I’m talking about letting Jesus be your Savior every day. This changes everything. Because when I choose Jesus as my Savior every day, I get the power to follow through on these choices. I can make these choices but I’m not going to stick with them on willpower. I’ve got to make choices and then depend on Jesus to give me the power to do these things. I choose him as my Savior.

I say, “Jesus, I need you to save me from my chemistry. I need you to save me from my physical, emotional, mental defects. I need your salvation in my heart, body and mind. Jesus, I need you to save my relationships. They’re going south. I need you to save me to have healthy relationships not hurtful, harmful ones. And Jesus, I need you to save me from my circumstances.  From the problems, from the pressures, from the trauma, from the trouble. And Jesus, I need you to save my mind and put a guard up there. Put on the helmet of salvation. What’s the helmet for?  To guard your mind, so it protects you from the thoughts that come in and influence you, because your mind controls your life. Jesus, I need you to save me not from sin. I need you to save me from myself.”

The Bible says this:  “When someone becomes a Christian, he becomes a brand new person inside. He’s not the same anymore. A new life has begun!” It’s like being born again. It’s like starting over. That’s a whole new identity.

You think that you’re waiting on God to change stuff in your life?  God. I’ve really wanted to be married. God, I’ve really wanted to get healthier. God, I really wanted to have that job.  All those things that you think you’re waiting on God for, God says, I’m waiting on you to use the wild card I gave you. Because according to your faith it will be done unto you.  You get to choose.  You get to choose how much I bless your life. And it is never too late to start over. 

Prayer:

      Pray this prayer with me in your heart:  Dear God, there’s some things in my hand that life has dealt me and that others have dealt me that I don’t like. But I thank you for the wild card, that you made me in your image and I can make choices.  Today, in your power and in your strength, I choose to get healthier.  I choose to do the things that will give me more energy and a healthier body and a healthier mind and healthier emotions.  

      Then say, Lord, I choose to build healthy relationships.  I’m so scared to death but I’m going to risk building some new healthy connections. There’s no fear in love. Help me to get the focus off me and onto others. I want love to be my highest goal.  Jesus, I want my heart to be filled with you by faith.  And I want to be strong in love. 

Dear God, I choose to trust you regardless of the circumstances. I will praise the Lord no matter what happens. I’m going to trust that every detail of my life is being worked out for good and for God. I want to be like Jesus. I want to see the original intended shape of my life in him. 

Dear God, thank you that I can choose what I think about. No more garbage in my mind.  No more junk. I want to think on things that are lovely and pure and honest and true. Help me to fill my life with the positive memories that you’ve given me and the word of truth.

Most of all, Jesus, I choose you as my Savior. I need you to do more than save me from my sins and salvation into heaven. I need that. But even more, I need you to save me from myself.  I need you to save me from all the things that have shaped me in the wrong ways. I need you to help me to rewire my mind, my body, my heart, my relationships and every part of my body so that the rest of my life is the best of my life.  I pray this in the name of my Savior, Jesus.  Amen.  

6-9-13 Sermon

Announcement: If anyone is interested in following our Brazil trip you can check the blog I started at http://2013armbrazil.blogspot.com/.

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Facing My Insecurities
Creating A Positive ID – Part 2
06-09-13 Sermon

We are in the second week of our Creating a Positive ID series.  Last week I used a portion of the life of Moses as our scripture of the morning.  I talked about how Moses was a man with a strong sense of identity.  He had a strong sense of who he was and who he wasn’t.  That he knew that even though he had grown up in Pharaoh’s court, that he wasn’t Egyptian.  That he came from different roots and he was an Israelite.  And Rick talked about the importance and benefits of really understanding in whom our identity lies. 

This week we’re going again look at the life of Moses.  Because although Moses was a man with a strong positive identity, just like the rest of us he had some insecurity issues.  When you read the life of Moses you recognize that his insecurities showed up on the scene in a moment that might surprise you.  It’s really interesting.

I wonder how many of you, if ever when you’re facing a big decision, a big opportunity, maybe a little crossroads in life or a fork in the road, I wonder how many of you have ever said something like this: “If I could just hear the audible voice of God…  If I could just see a burning bush, then I would know for sure what I’m supposed to do.  If that happened, God if you would speak to me, if you would set the bush on fire, I would then move confidently the direction you want me to move.”  Most of us have probably said something like that at one time or another.

That happened to Moses and it was at a moment when you would think he would have complete confidence that his insecurities actually bubbled to the surface. 

Insecurity according to the dictionary is simply this – lacking confidence or assurance, self-doubt.  Lacking confidence or assurance, self-doubt.  Our insecurities manifest, they show up in all sorts of our behavior. 

Our insecurities breed a number of negative behaviors in us.  Extreme shyness, arrogance, bragging, being overly aggressive, being overly passive, constantly conforming to what other people think we should be like – that’s a result of insecurity.  A quick temper can be a result of insecurity.  Phoniness – when we wear masks.  When we don’t reveal who we really are, is a result of insecurity.  When we have a fear of failure, when we are afraid to take risks and try new things.  When we gossip about people.  And the list really could go on and on and on of ways insecurity shows up in our lives.

And it showed up in Moses’ life too. You see that when you look at his story, especially in the early chapters of Exodus, specifically the burning bush story.  It’s worth reading on your own.  I’ve compressed it and I’ve left some parts out.  I’ve just left the most important parts, the most significant parts for this conversation between God and Moses.  I want you to read along and here’s what I’m going to ask you to do.  As I read this conversation between God and Moses, do me a favor and just circle every time Moses makes a statement that’s bred out of his insecurities.  When he makes a statement that is lacking confidence, filled with self-doubt, lacking assurance, just circle that. 

Here’s the conversation.  Moses is wandering in the desert and he comes across a burning bush and God speaks to Moses and this is the conversation. 

God says this: “And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.  So now, go.  I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” 

God is giving Moses the assignment of a lifetime.  It’s really what Moses was created for.  Remember what I taught last week, Moses grew up in Pharaoh’s court.  He understood the Egyptians.  And now God, years later, is saying I want you to go back because you’ve got some in-roads there and you’re an Israelite; you’re my man.  Burning bush.  Audible voice of the Lord.  Confidence booster.  And this is Moses’ response:

[CIRCLE]“Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?’  

God says simply this: “I will be with you.” 

Moses replied, “Lord, [CIRCLE]I’ve never been eloquent, I’m slow of speech and tongue.” 

And God says: “I will help you speak and I will teach you what to say.”

As this conversation is going on, part of the story that I’ve left out is there’s some back and forth and at one point God says this to Moses, as he’s really trying to convince Moses, you can have confidence.  You don’t need to be insecure in this assignment. 

He says, “Moses, what’s this in your hand?” and Moses says “My walking stick.”  And God says “Throw it on the ground.” 

And he throws it on the ground and it becomes a snake and God says “Pick it up by its tail.”  And he picks it up and it becomes a walking stick again.

Later on he says, “Moses, I want you to take your hand and put it into your robe and then take it out.”  He puts his hand in his robe and he takes it out and the Bible says “It’s white as snow with leprosy.”  Moses put it back in and takes it out.  He puts it in and takes it out and it’s made whole again.

So as Moses and God are having this conversation God is showing to him, he’s showing him I’m with you.  This is the power I have.  You speak on my behalf.  After all of that this is what Moses says:

“Pardon your servant, Lord.  [CIRCLE]Please send someone else.” 

After all of that. Should I take this new job; should we buy the house?  Should we start this ministry?  If the Lord would speak to me… if a burning bush would show up.  If he would turn this stick into a snake and make my hand be diseased one moment and whole the next, then I would know what to do.

Or would we?  Maybe we’re not that much different than Moses.  Pardon me, Lord.  Please send someone else. 

As I read this part of me goes, “Come on Moses!  This is your moment!  Man up!  Just go for it!”  And he eventually did.  God sort of compromised with Moses.  At one point God says “Ok, here’s the deal.  I will let you take your brother Aaron with you; he’s a better speaker.  He’s got more confidence.  I’ll let you take Aaron with you.”

***We look at that and think how can Moses be that insecure?  How can Moses be like that with that amazing sense of identity like we talked about last week?

I think we’re not a whole lot unlike Moses, and our insecurities show up at the oddest times.  Most of our insecurities don’t arrive in an instant.  It’s a slow build over the course of our lifetime.  Every once in a while there’s a traumatic event that we can point back to and we can go, that’s why I am this way.  But most of our insecurities don’t show up in a shattering moment that we can point back to. 

They’re actually more like the little chip you get in your windshield.  You get a little chip and you notice it and then you don’t pay any attention to it.  A week or two later you notice it’s a little line, a crack of a line going across your windshield.  Then a month later or when you make the mistake of going through the car wash and it gets a little bit bigger.  You’re kind of ignoring it, but you go, I’ll deal with it some other time.  At some point maybe a friend who cares about you notices it and says, “I’ve noticed your windshield.”  And you get defensive, but you say don’t worry about it.  I’ll deal with it. 

At some point, it’s so obvious to you that you’ve got to fix it and you begin to deal with it.  But you probably can’t remember how the chip got there in the first place.  You just know you need to take care of business right now. 

That’s really a picture of how our insecurities build over the course of our lifetime.  There’s a slow build, a chip, in our sense of identity, that over the course of our life gets a little bit bigger and a little bit bigger and hopefully at some point we say, I should probably think about that.  Why is that the case in my life? 

Today we’re going to take a look at some causes and solutions, some sources and solutions of our insecurities. 

I don’t promise that you’ll walk out of here this morning completely secure or lacking insecurity, because what takes a lifetime to build up in us very rarely disappears instantaneously.  And because of our brokenness and our sin nature and the stuff that this world deals us, the reality is that insecurity will always be something that we’re constantly struggling with and struggling through.  Even in the burning bush moments when God shows up in our lives, our insecurities will likely follow close behind.

So today I just want to give you a few thoughts that I hope will put you on a path towards tackling your insecurities.  Because it’s our insecurities that really do hinder our ability to have a positive self identity, the kind of identity in Christ that he so wants his children to have. 

So let’s spend a few moments and look at what are some sources.  There are lots of sources of insecurity.  I want to highlight just a few today. 

1.    One is rejection.

Rejection is a huge source of insecurity.  When love is withheld or our opinions aren’t valued or we feel like we don’t have a voice.  Rejection of any sort creates insecurity over time.

2.    Another source is criticism. 

Criticism builds insecurity.  Most of us can handle the occasional constructive criticism.  Especially when it comes from people we trust and love and we know that they have our best interest in mind.  When somebody pulls you aside and says, “I hope you’ll hear this.  This is what I’ve noticed.”  When it comes from the source of someone who we know loves us and has our best interest in mind, constructive criticism doesn’t necessarily feel good but we all recognize that it does good for us.  The Bible says “The wounds of a friend bring healing.”  The wounds of a friend can bring healing.  They don’t feel good at the time, but we know it’s good for us. 

But when we find ourselves under a relentless cloud of criticism, especially from those who are closest to us – family members, close friends, when we’re constantly criticized and belittled and told that we can’t measure up or we’re not quite good enough, we’re constantly criticized, that builds in us insecurities that then show up in a whole bunch of different ways in our life. 

3.    A third source and I think maybe the biggest, is comparisons.

When we compare we get really insecure.  And we love to compare.  We come by it honestly.  We really do.  It starts when we’re very little.  When we’re little children, we compare.  “His slice of birthday cake is bigger than mine! … Her bedtime is later than mine! … That’s not fair.”  We compare. 

When we become teenagers, we compare.  We compare grades and athletic ability and clothing styles and whether our date to the prom or whatever is as good as theirs.  We compare.

When we get older the comparison game continues.  We just compare different things.  Now as adults it’s more often our salaries, our jobs, our homes, our cars, our spouses, our children or grandchildren, the list goes on and on.    

When we compare it breeds insecurities in us.  So our insecurities – rejection, criticism, comparisons. There’s a fourth source of insecurities-- Life. Just write life.

Life just breeds insecurity.  If you’re breathing today you are insecure.  You have insecurities.  We all do.  Life does that.  We live in a broken, flawed world.  We’re broken, flawed people.  The results amongst many others is our insecurities.

What are some things we can do?  What are some solutions?  Again, I think there are lots.  But I want to share today, three biblical thoughts and examples from Scripture that I hope will help you begin to understand and recognize and address some of the insecurities in your life.

1.    First is simply this: Change my thinking.

Our insecurities are all in our head.  They really are.  Are some of them based in some aspect of reality?  Yes.  They are.  But it’s how we choose to address and think about that reality that results in our insecurities.

It has been called stinkin’ thinkin’.  We are just thinking the wrong way.  When you read Scripture, especially when you look at the life of Jesus, the reason we have stinkin’ thinkin’ is because we have been raised in and have bought into the world’s way of thinking about what’s important and what’s not.  What’s of value and what’s not.  What right and what’s wrong.  We’ve bought into the world’s system and when we read Scripture, especially when you look at the life of Jesus, he loved to challenge our way of thinking.  He loved to flip the world’s thought process upside down.  “The first will be last and the last will be first.”  That doesn’t line up with that bumper sticker that says, whoever has the most toys when they die, that they win.  He flips it upside down.

“You have heard it said [the world’s way – you have heard it said] but I say…”  He flips the thinking upside down.  Jesus had a lot to say and challenge us about the way we think.  

Romans drives it home. In Romans 12:2 it says this “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person [Let God transform you into a new person….  How?]  by changing the way you think.  [I love this.  Why?  Why should we let God change the way we think? Because] Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”  It starts with how we think.  We need to change what we think about. 

We might even change the way we think about ourselves.  In Psalms 8:3-5; I love this passage of Scripture. It says this: “When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers – the moon and the stars that you set in place – what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them? Yet you made them only a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor.”

I want to say to you and ask you: “Let that go to your head today!”  Think about that.  Meditate on that for a moment.  That God created us just a little bit lower than he and the angels and he crowned us with glory and honor.  Wow!  Think about that. 

You might have never been told of your value.  Scripture tells us of our value all the time.  That’s just one of the ways.

Here’s what I want to ask you to do.  I want you to take thirty seconds and just reread that.  I want you to spend thirty seconds thinking about this truth – that God created us just a little bit lower than himself.  Just a little bit lower than the heavenly beings and crowned us, crowned you, with glory and honor.  Read that for a moment and just allow yourself to think on that truth. 

For some of you that might have been a tough exercise.  For some of you, as you were reading and thinking on that, thoughts came rushing in of why that’s hard for you to recognize.  Why that’s hard for you to embrace.  I would encourage you to jot some of those down.  What are the things that came creeping in my mind that give me a hard time embracing that truth?

2.    Another solution is to, Embrace my uniqueness.

Embrace my uniqueness.  One of the things I love most about Scripture is some of the imagery that God uses.  Word pictures that were given to help us embrace what is sometimes hard to understand.  I love this Psalm 139:13 speaking about our uniqueness, “For you, God, created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.”  

You knit me together in my mother’s womb.  When I think of this image I can’t help but to think of God with just some massive crochet/knitting needles just working on Frank, working on Frank...  It’s a fantastic picture.

What makes it interesting is a moment ago I read the verse that said, God created us just a little bit lower than he and the angels and crowned us with glory and honor.  What can get better than that?  What can possibly get better?  What can possibly help your sense of positive, Christ-like identification than recognizing that he created us just a little bit lower than he and the angels and crowned us with glory and honor? 

This is what can get better.  He didn’t come up with some a little bit lower, glory and honor formula and create a cookie cutter like assembly line and have all of us exactly created a little lower and crowned with glory and honor.  Each one of us is uniquely created a little bit lower.  Uniquely crowned with glory and honor.  Uniquely knit together.  We are a one of a kind masterpiece. 

I’m telling you what, when I struggle with insecurity, it’s helpful to remind myself of that.  I’m not the perfect version of Frank as far as Frank’s concerned.  When I fill out information forms about myself I tend to put my weight down as less than what it registered the last time I weighed myself with the hope that it will get back down to that weight.  When those forms ask for hair color I am close to having to put “none.” I wish my nose was a little smaller. I’m not the perfect version of myself. 

But God in his sovereignty and his wisdom, he knit me together.  God knit me together to be who I am.  He spent a little too much time on the nose, on purpose!  I don’t yet know that purpose, but God knew what he was doing.

When I was younger I came across the statement:  God made you and God don’t make junk!  I loved that.  He knew what he was doing.

I want to ask you to embrace your uniqueness.  It’s a good thing.  It’s a good thing the way God made you; he knew what he was doing.  And I’m telling you on the road to security, on the road to a positive identity in Christ you need to begin to understand, I’ve got to change my thinking.  I’ve got to change the way I think about me and embrace and celebrate my uniqueness.

3.    A third solution is to Trust my Creator.

Trust my Creator.  Another verse in Isaiah.  Again it’s a fantastic word picture.  A fantastic word picture in Isaiah 64:8 says is, “Oh Lord, you are our Father.  We are the clay, and you are the potter. We all are formed by your hand.”

We are then clay and you are the potter.  We all are formed by your hand.

That picture is the picture of this: We all start off as clay and God is the potter.  You and I have a choice to make.  The Bible makes it very clear.  We are clay.  God is the master potter.  If we want, we can choose to mold ourselves in the image that we think is best for us.  I’ll deal with my own insecurities.  I’ll handle my own problems.  I’ll take care of my own business, thank you.  I know what’s best for me.  And we mold and we mold. 

I would suggest that this is where that’s gotten us.  Or we can say, God, you’re the master potter, I’m clay.  And I’m going to trust you, the same God who spoke the world into existence, who knit me together in my mother’s womb.  I’m going to trust you to mold me into what you have for my life.  Into the perfect version of me in this broken, sinful, messed up world.  I’m going to trust you with my life.

It’s the choice that every single one of us have.  In fact, I would suggest that it might be a choice for you to make today. 

For some of you, you’ve never thought about that truth.  You’ve just assumed that if I don’t mold my own life, who’s going to?  If I’m not in charge of me, who is?  And you’ve been molding yourself your whole life.  Maybe today for the first time, it’s time to say “God, I want to give my life to you.  You’re the master potter.  I’m going to trust you, not just for my insecurities but for my forgiveness, for my salvation, for my future, for my destiny.  You know what’s best.”

Others of you, you know this is the best way to go.  And you’ve just kind of taken things into your hands one too many times.  Maybe today it’s time to put your life again – it’s not the first time, but put it again into the hands of the master potter.

Prayer:

Father, we pause this morning and we admit our insecurities and we admit our brokenness and I, at least, admit that in my efforts to mold myself, that those have failed.  And God I need to change my thinking and embrace my uniqueness.  I need to trust you and put my life into your masterful hands.  Father, I pray that you would help my friends this morning to do the same.  In your name we pray.  Amen.