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