DO YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE?
Creating A Positive ID – Part 1
06-02-13 Sermon
HEBREWS 11:23-27
“By faith Moses' parents hid him for three months after
he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not
afraid of the king's edict. By faith
Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's
daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to
enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake
of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was
looking ahead to his reward. By faith
he left Egypt, not fearing the king's anger; he persevered because he saw him
who is invisible.”
KNOWING MY TRUE IDENTITY...
1. Demonstrates_____________________________________________________
“By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to
be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter.” Heb. 11:24 (NIV)
Jesus:
“I know where I came from and where I am going.” John 8:14
“Jesus knew that he had come from God… He also
knew that the Father had given him complete power. So he got up, wrapped a
towel around his waist… and began washing his disciples' feet.” John 13:3-5 (CEV)
2.
Defines_____________________________________________________
“Moses chose to be mistreated along with the
people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short
time.” Heb. 11:25 (NIV)
I’m
spiritually mature when I stop…
·
·
“Each
of us will give an account of himself to God.” Rom. 14:12
3. Decides____________________________________________________
“Moses regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ
as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking
ahead to his reward.” Heb. 11:26 (NIV)
The World's Priorities
(vs.
24) P______________________
(vs.
25) P______________________
(vs.
26) P______________________
Moses’ Priorities
1.
__________________________________________is better than popularity
2.
__________________________________________ is better than pleasure
3.__________________________________________ is better than possessions
“Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with
the priceless gain of knowing Christ Jesus.” Phil. 3:8 (LB)
4. Determines___________________________________________________
“It was by faith that Moses left the land of Egypt. He
was not afraid of the king. He kept right on going because he kept his eyes on
the one who is invisible.” Heb. 11:27 (NLT)
“Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and
finished this race we're in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost
sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish with God—he could
put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever.” Heb. 12:2 (Mes)
“Set
your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits… Let heaven fill
your thoughts. Do not think only about things down here on earth.” Col. 3:1-2 (NLT)
DO YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE?
Creating A Positive ID – Part 1
06-02-13
Sermon
I am starting a new series of
messages today on our true identity.
Here is what one person wrote: “I realize that because of my own insecurities, I often allow
people to walk all over me. Because
I don’t really know who I am or who I’m supposed to be. I end up molding myself to the expectations
of others. I am my own crazy maker.”
I thought that’s a great point. Because the reason why we let people
jump all over us, move all over us, manipulate us around is we don’t really
know who we are. When you don’t
know who you are other people are going to mold you into their image.
You read in the news about
cases of mistaken identity. ABC News
had to apologize for reporting when that mass murder happened at the Batman
movie in Aurora, and they immediately reported that it was a guy who was a
member of the Tea Party. Later
they had to come on and say whoops!
Wrong guy! Mistaken
identity.
Then there’s that phrase
“making a positive ID.” “In Broken
Arrow, Oklahoma police were finally able to arrest a perpetrator of a long
stream of home burglaries after victims and neighbors made a positive id of
Michael Richard Borris to law enforcement officers.” Also in Oklahoma, “The body of a 77 year-old man who had
been missing since 2009 was finally laid to rest after DNA tests made a positive ID of the man found by a
creek bed.”
As you think about the phrase
“making a positive ID.” That’s what we all need to do. We all need to make a positive id. Not a negative id
of your life but a positive id of
your life.
So I want to begin this
series on creating a positive id
by asking this question: Do you know who you really are?
We’re going to look at one of
the most famous examples in the Bible of a confused identity. It’s the story of Moses. You know the story of Moses. Baby Moses is found in a basket in the
Nile river by Pharaoh’s daughter. She’s
out bathing, she sees this little basket and plucks Moses from the river. Do you realize Moses’ life began as a
basket-case? So if you think
nothing’s going to happen in your life, you say, “Look at my life so far! It’s a basket-case.” Congratulations. You may be the next Moses because he
started off as a basket-case.
She takes this little baby
home and pretends it’s her baby. He’s
not an Egyptian baby. He’s a Hebrew
baby. But the Pharaoh’s daughter
says I’m going to take this baby home and pretend he’s mine. So he’s raised in the Egyptian royalty.
What this story is is the
story of a lost identity, a confused identity, missing identity. It’s the story of how Moses
rediscovered who he really was, how it changed his life, and how it changed his
destiny and how it changed history.
All kinds of lessons for you about who you are and who God made you to
be.
The story is summarized in Hebrews
11. Hebrews 11:23-27 “By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three
months after he was born, [because of the rule to kill all the baby boys] because they saw he was no ordinary child. They were not afraid of the king’s
edict. By faith Moses, when he had
grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the
people of God rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. And he regarded disgrace for the sake
of Christ as a greater value than the treasures of Egypt because he was looking
ahead to his reward. By faith, he
[Moses] left Egypt, not fearing the
king’s anger; and he persevered because he saw him who is invisible.”
In this passage we learn the
four things that happen when you figure out your true identity. That’s what we’re going to do in this
series.
So the first reason we’re doing
this series is this:
1.
Knowing my true identity demonstrates spiritual
maturity.
It is a mark of maturity. Knowing my true identity demonstrates
spiritual maturity.
Growing up, Moses asked all
the questions that everybody else in the world asks – I do, you do, everybody
else. We all ask these questions
growing up: Who am I? Where did I
come from? Where am I going? Does my life matter? Does my life have meaning? Who am I really? What am I supposed to be? What am I supposed to do with my life? What is my life all about?
Those are all identity questions. They are the most important questions
in your life. Who am I? What did God put me on this planet for?
We all ask these questions growing up.
But at some point you’ve got to figure out the answer. In verse 34 it says this “By faith Moses, when he had grown up,
refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.”
Circle the phrase “when he
had grown up.” Knowing my identity
demonstrates maturity, spiritual maturity. When he had grown up he refused to stop living a lie.
The road to spiritual
maturity is the road to personal identity. What does that mean?
The closer you get to God the more you’re going to understand you. Because God is your Creator. The more you understand your Creator,
the more you’re going to understand why he created you. The more you understand God, the more
you’re going to understand you. Spiritual
maturity leads to personal identity.
When he had grown up he
refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He refused – that means to reflect, to disown, no turning
back.
What do we have here? We’ve got a full-scale identity crisis. Moses has just two choices. I
can pretend for the rest of my life that I really am Pharaoh’s grandson. He could pretend. And if he does that he’s going to have
fame, he’s going to have fortune, he’s going to have the luxurious lifestyle, a
great career. Every pleasure he
could ever want in life – power, possession, position, privilege, status, sex, salary,
everything he wants if he just keeps his mouth shut.
On the other hand, if he
admits what I really am is the son of
Jewish slaves, he is going to be poor his entire life, he’s going to be
disgraced, humiliated, thrown out of the palace and put into slave labor for the
rest of his life.
Which one would you choose? Would you fake it for the rest of your
life and be somebody you weren’t really meant to be? Or would you be who God made you to be?
Moses is a man of integrity. He refuses to live a lie. Nobody could pressure him. So he makes the decision to change his life
forever. No amount of peer
pressure could persuade him.
So much stress in your life
comes from you not knowing who you are.
When you don’t know who you are then you live for the expectations of
others. You live for the approval
of others. You live for the fear of
rejection of others. You become a
people pleaser because you don’t know who you are so you just be who your
girlfriend or your boyfriend wants you to be. Who anybody else wants you to be, your parents want you to
be, your husband, your wife, whoever.
What this teaches us – when
he had grown up he refused to fake his identity anymore. He wasn’t going to have a fake id. Knowing my identity demonstrates spiritual maturity.
Who is the most spiritual
mature person in the entire history of mankind? Jesus Christ. And
Jesus Christ was the clearest person about his identity. The Bible says in John 8:14 “Jesus said, I know where I came from and I know
where I’m going.” That friends,
is maturity.
Write this down:
I am a product of my past, but I’m not a prisoner of my past. I’m a
product of my past, but I’m not a prisoner of my past. Yes, you have a past. Some of it is good, some of it is bad,
and some up it may be flat out ugly. And you’re a product of your past.
But your past is past. It’s over. It can’t control your future unless you let it. It is not your destiny. Your past is past. It is not your destiny. Your future is your destiny. I’m a product of my past, but I’m not a
prisoner of my past.
The most spiritually mature
person is Jesus. He said, I know who
I am and where I came from. John
13 “Jesus knew that he had come from God…
[there’s no doubt in his mind about his identity.] He also knew that the Father had given him complete power. [So he goes I know who I am and I know
what I’m good at.] So he got up, wrapped
a towel around his waist… and began washing the disciples’ feet.”
That doesn’t sound like a big
deal to us today but in those days only slaves washed the people’s feet. Nobody wore shoes in those days. They were more like flip flops. Their feet got dusty. There were no roads that were paved. So when you came to somebody’s house, the
first thing they did was wash your feet.
But it was never done by the owner, the host. It was always done by some slave. It was the worst menial job, washing dirty, sweaty feet.
Jesus, knowing who he is,
knowing what he could do [he knows his identity] he gets down, wraps a towel
around his waist and starts washing the disciples’ feet.
You can only serve others
when you know who you are. Until
you get rid of your insecurity you’re going to be afraid to do the menial thing.
So the first thing we learn
is that knowing my identity demonstrates spiritual maturity. The second reason we’re going to do
this series together and we’re going to look at who you are in Christ is
because
2.
Knowing my true identity defines my responsibilities.
Let me explain this to you. Knowing my true identity defines my
responsibilities. What I mean by
that is it clarifies what God expects of me. It also clarifies what God doesn’t expect of me.
I’ve learned that God doesn’t
expect me to sing opera. Why? If you heard me sing you’d know why. One day when I stand before God he’s
not going to judge me for gifts he didn’t give me. He’s not going to evaluate me on talents he didn’t give me. So when you know who you are, you know what your responsibility is and
you know what’s none of your responsibility. That’s very important because it relieves stress in your
life.
God created you to do some things
in life. But he didn’t create you
to do everything. Maybe the reason
you’ve been under stress is you’re trying to do everything. When you try to do everything God’s going,
“Wait a minute! Time out! I
didn’t ask you to do everything. I
created you to do a certain thing.
That’s your responsibility. That’s not your responsibility.”
When you take on more
responsibility than God intended you to have there’s a warning sign there. It’s called worry. Are any of you familiar with this word? Worry is the warning sign that you’re
taking on too much responsibility.
You’re not responsible for
everything in the world. You
aren’t. But you are responsible to
be what God made you to be.
God custom made and planned
all of the events around Moses’ life in order to prepare him for one task and
one task only. He wanted Moses to
be the national deliverer of Israel.
So everything that happened in Moses’ life was designed to set him up to
do that. God didn’t design Moses
to be an artist. He didn’t design
him to be a rock star. He just
said I want you to be this.
When Moses finally learns his
real identity – I’m not Pharaoh’s grandson. I’m not even Egyptian.
I am a Hebrew, a Jewish slave’s son. When Moses finally learns that, he knows immediately his
assignment, his mission, his purpose.
He can no longer ignore the cries of people in pain and he accepts his mission
and accepts his responsibility.
Verse 25 “Moses chose [circle “chose” – this is accepting responsibility. Moses decided, Moses chose…] to be mistreated along with the people of
God [that’s all the slaves] rather
than to enjoy the pleasures of sin in the palace of Egypt for a short time.”
Notice a couple of things
here. In verse 24, God chooses
Moses when he’s a baby. Moses
didn’t even know God yet. God chose Moses. Verse 24. Then verse 25, when he grew up, Moses had to choose God.
The same is true of you. God chose you to be born. When you grow up, you’ve got to choose
him. There’s two parts. God has already chosen you. That’s why you were created. But you’ve got to choose him. In verse 24 we find Moses refusing. In verse 25 we find Moses choosing. First he said no, I’m not really Pharaoh’s
daughter’s son. I’m not Pharaoh’s
grandson. No to my fake identity. And he’s choosing, yes, here’s who I
really am.
In your life if you’re going
to be what God wants you to be, there’s going to be some things you have to say
no to. And there’s going to be
some things you have to say yes to.
Negatives are always followed by positives in your life. When does it happen? It says, when he had grown up. Here we have two more marks of
spiritual maturity.
I’m spiritually mature when I stop
blaming others for my life’s direction.
That’s a mark of maturity. I stop blaming other people for my life’s
direction. That’s going to be hard
because everything in our culture says nothing is ever your fault. We grow up learning in America it’s
always somebody else’s fault. Blame
everybody else: It’s the government’s fault, it’s society’s fault, it’s
culture’s fault, it’s your parent’s fault, it’s the media’s fault, it’s the
school’s fault, it’s the person who hurt you fault. We’re taught to blame everything in our life on other people. Maturity is when I stop blaming other
people.
Listen: Other people in your
life can and will hurt you. Other
people in your life can and will harm you. Other people in your life can scar you. But no one can ruin your life without
your permission. They can hurt
you, they can scar you, they can give bad memories to you. Nobody can ruin your life but you. Even Satan can’t ruin your life. Only you can ruin it.
Moses accepted responsibility.
Here’s another thing you need
to write down, the other mark of spiritual commitment.
· I stop
living off other’s spiritual commitment.
That’s a mark of maturity. I stop living off of other people’s
spiritual commitment. People say, “My
girlfriend’s a committed Christian.”
“My dad’s a committed Christian.
My mom’s a committed Christian; my brother’s a committed Christian. I have an uncle who’s a missionary.” So what? The real issue is you.
What about you? I stop living off of other people’s commitment.
Romans 14:12 says this “Each of us will give an account of
themselves to God.” When I get
to heaven and God says, “How did you do on earth, Frank?” I’m not going to say,
“My wife Peg was pretty good at prayer and singing and playing the piano. I sucked at it but she was really good
at it.” God says, “No, no. I want to know about your life.”
Knowing my identity
demonstrates maturity and defines my responsibility.
This is really important: The
reason we’re going to do this series on figuring out who you are is that
3.
Knowing my true identity decides my priorities.
That’s the next verse. Knowing my true identity decides my priorities. It helps me to decide, it helps me to
know what to focus on and what to ignore.
When you know who you are and who God made you to be, it helps you know
what matters and what doesn’t matter. What to value and what not to value. What to prioritize and what to not prioritize.
Once Moses knows his true identity
it changes his priorities. All of
a sudden the stuff in the palace doesn’t matter any more. Verse 26 “Moses regarded [that’s a judgment call. It means to evaluate, to consider, to weigh in the balance. Moses made a value judgment.] Moses
regarded that disgrace for the sake of
Christ was of greater value than the treasure of Egypt [He decided, regarded,
that disgrace for the sake of Christ was of greater value than the treasure of
Egypt.] because he was looking ahead to
his reward.”
The Bible says we are to know
our values. Why? Because if you don’t know them you certainly
can’t live them. If you can’t even
name them I guarantee you you’re not living your values.
So here’s your homework. I want you to go home and make a list of
what are the five most important values in my life that I want to build my life
on? Because until you’ve done that
you are at the mercy of every crazy maker in life. You’re at the mercy of the pressure of people around you. If you don’t set your priorities the
world will.
In this passage it shows us the
world’s three top priorities and it shows us Moses’ three top priorities. The interesting thing is five thousand
years later, the world’s three top priorities haven’t changed from Moses’ day. They’re identical today. The same three things that were most
important in Moses’ life, in Moses’ culture are still today. In fact, every advertisement on television
or on the internet is based on one of these three values.
What is the world’s value system? It’s three things.
1. Popularity.
You can call it power, you
can call it prestige, you can call it status, you can call it fame, but it’s
really pride. It’s popularity. I want to be popular. That’s one of the
values. That’s verse 24. It says “He refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s
daughter.”
2. Pleasure is the second
value.
Everybody wants to have
pleasure. If it feels good do it. Whatever feels good that’s the cool
thing. I want to be happy. I want to have fun. I want to have pleasure.
Moses lives in a palace with
every pleasure possible known to man.
Moses walked away from popularity.
And Moses walked away from pleasure. Verse 25 He chose to
be mistreated along with the people of God rather than enjoy the pleasures of
sin for a short time.
3. The third thing, verse 26, he walked
away from possessions, which is the
third value. He
regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures
of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.
What I’m saying is this. By the world’s standards Moses had it
made. He’s got salary, sex, and
status. He’s got passion, possession,
position, privilege, power, pleasure.
He’s got it all. Popularity,
pleasure and possessions. But he
walks away from it.
Why would he do that? Because he knows his identity. And once he knows his identity it sets
his priority and it determines his responsibility and it shows his maturity.
What were Moses’ values? Here’s what Moses decided according to
this passage. Moses decided in
verse 23 that…
1.
Fulfilling God’s purpose is better than popularity. Moses decides, I know I could stay here
and be the grandson of Pharaoh and be very popular. But fulfilling God’s purpose is much more important than
popularity. Why? Because fame doesn’t last.
2. The second thing of Moses’ priority
fulfilling God’s purpose is better than popularity; loving God’s people is better than pleasure. Loving God’s people is better than
pleasure. So what’s he do? He trades in the palace to go help a
bunch of slaves. Loving God’s
people is better than pleasure. What’s
his third value?
3. Having
God’s peace is better than possessions. It’s interesting if you go back and read this passage it
says Moses gave up the world’s measure,
the world’s treasure and the world’s pleasure. Those words are used.
He gave up the measure of status.
I’m not going to be Pharaoh’s grandson anymore. By the world’s measure that was the
pinnacle. He gave up the world’s treasure.
I’ve got all the world’s treasure here in Egypt. And he gave up the world’s pleasure to go follow a bunch of slaves. It says “…rather than enjoy the pleasure of sin…”
Notice verse 26. “He looked ahead to his reward.” Write this down: My
vision determines my values. What
I look at is what I’m going to become.
And what I look at most is what I’m going to love the most. My vision determines my values. And Moses is a man of vision. He looks ahead to his reward.
Paul had the exact same vision. Philippians 3:8 “Yes, everything is worthless when compared with the priceless gain of
knowing Christ.” All the stuff
I used to have – all the clubs and the popularity and the sex and the drugs,
none of that is worthwhile anymore compared to the priceless gain of knowing
Jesus.
Knowing who I am decides my
priorities. It determines my responsibilities. It demonstrates spiritual maturity.
Here is the fourth reason we’re
going to do this series over the next several weeks. We’re going to study and identify your identity because
4.
Knowing about my identity determines my destiny.
Your identity determines your
destiny. Once Moses realized who
he was his life took a whole new direction. Change always starts in your mind with your identity.
You know what the problem is? We
want to change our circumstances, God wants to change us. We’re so excited about changing our
circumstances. Because we think if
I can just get away from this relationship, if I can just get away from this
home, if I can just get away from this environment, then I’ll be happy. You know what the problem is? When you move you take you. And if you’ve got all this stress in
your mind you could move to Tahiti and guess where the stress just went. To Tahiti. Because you take you with you.
.
We want to change our circumstances,
God wants to change us. He wants to
change the way we think. Verse 27
tells us that knowing my true identity determines my destiny. “It was by faith that Moses left the land of Egypt. He wasn’t afraid of the king. [That’s Pharaoh, his supposed
grandfather.] He kept right on going because
he kept his eyes on the one who is invisible.” He’s talking about Jesus
there. He’s talking about God.
So he left Egypt. Why? Because he knew his identity. The Bible says “Therefore
if any man be in Christ he’s a new creature. The old has passed away. The new has come.” You get a whole new identity in Christ. That’s why they call it being born again. You get a whole new identity.
Not only that it gives me the
courage to keep going. Notice
verse 27 “He kept right on going.” Circle that. He kept right on going. Why? Because he
knew who he was and he kept his eye on the one who was invisible.
It says he kept right on going.
Moses had tremendous endurance. In fact, probably no man ever endured as
much as Moses did. Forty years in
the wilderness waiting in Midian after he got kicked out of Egypt and he ran
away. Then forty years coming back
facing Pharaoh and then leading the children of Egypt for another forty years
across the wilderness, a bunch of spiritual babies. He was persistent.
If you don’t know who you are,
you’re going to give up. You’re going
to give up on your dream. You’re going
to give up on life. You may give
up on a marriage. You’re going to
give up if you don’t know who you are. Knowing your identity gives you persistence, gives you
endurance. It says he had the
ability to keep on keeping on. He
kept right on going.
The secret of success is
persistence because that doesn’t happen overnight. But the secret of persistence is vision. He kept his eye on the one who is
invisible.
I like to say it like this: You can only do the impossible, when you
see the invisible. You can only
do the impossible in your life when you see the invisible. It was impossible to free the Jews from
four hundred years of slavery. He
had no army. He had no weapons. And Pharaoh was the most powerful man
in the world. That’s an impossible
task. But when you see him who is
invisible – God – then you know that you can do the impossible.
The two easiest mistakes you’ll
make in life, are forgetting your identity, who you are, and losing your focus,
what God put you here on earth to do. Forgetting your
identity and losing your focus.
Who am I and what did God call me to do?
So let me close with a couple
of verses. Hebrews 12:1-2 says this
“Keep your eyes on Jesus who both began
and finished the race we’re in.”
Keep your eyes on Jesus who
both began and finished the race we’re in. Study how he did it.
Because he never lost sight of where he was headed. He didn’t lose his identity. He didn’t lose his focus. Because he never lost sight of where he
was headed, that exhilarating finish line with God, he could put up with anything
along the way – the cross, the shame, whatever.
So keep your focus. Keep your eyes on Jesus.
Colossians 3:1-2 “Set your sights on the realities of heaven,
[That’s long-term thinking. Not on what do other people think, what does God
think. The realities of heaven…] where Christ sits… Let heaven fill your thoughts. Don’t think only about things down here on earth.” Don’t lose your focus and don’t forget
your identity.
I can’t think of a more
fundamental question than, Who am I? and What am I here on earth for? What is my focus and what is my vision
and what is my identity?
Prayer:
Say
this in your mind: Father, I want to grow up spiritually. I don’t want to be a spiritual baby any
more, in spiritual diapers. I want to be spiritually mature. When I have grown
up like Moses I want to refuse the fake id’s
I’ve lived under. God, because I
often feel insecure I’m often unable to be like Jesus, to wash the feet of
others because I’m worried about what other people think. I have a hard time
serving because I don’t know who I am. I’m not that confident, really. I
pretend to be but I’m not. Lord, I
often feel overwhelmed by all the things I think I’m supposed to do. Help me to know who you want me to be
so it defines my responsibilities, simplifies my life. I don’t have to focus on trying to do
everything, be everything to everybody. I focus on what you made me to be and do. I want to set my
priorities like Moses in fulfilling your purpose that’s better than popularity. That loving your people is better than
pleasure. And having your peace is
better than possessions. I want to look forward to the reward, not short-term
thinking. I want to fulfill my
destiny. I want to keep right on going. I want to not be afraid to leave Egypt,
to walk out on the things that hold me back and to keep right on going and keep
my eyes on the one who is invisible.
I want to keep my eyes on you, Jesus, because you never lost sight of
the goal. I want to set my sight on the realities of heaven not just think about
here and now but to think about all of eternity. I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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