Who Do You Think You Are?
Transcript
Good evening. You can be opening your Bibles to John chapter 12. And I won't say all the reasons for it. Uh but what Berry just preached is going to dovetail uh I think quite perfectly with the things that we're going to be talking about tonight. Uh but if somebody was to ask you, who do you think you are? That's oftentimes one of those questions that's asked with a bit of an attitude. But if you were to ask yourself that question in a sincere way, how would you answer that? Uh what would you say that your your sense of self-worth or self-esteem or self-standing or your sense of identity? All these different ways that we could use to describe this would be. And maybe another question that we could ask is who do you talk to more than anyone else? If you were to look back at your call logs and see, I guess I call that person quite a bit or I text this person quite a bit.
I bet you that that's not the person you talk to the most though, all of us constantly have an internal dialogue that goes and how we handled this situation or what I think about me right now and how other people are thinking about me. We're always having this internal dialogue going on which is linked to my sense of identity. And there's some people that think, you know, I'm pretty great and I'm awesome and the kingdom needs me and all this. But I'll tell you that in my own life and people that I've gotten to know, I think the bigger struggle that people have is to say things like, "I'm a loser. I'm a failure. I'm a good for nothing. I don't know why anybody has ever shown me an ounce of kindness. I don't deserve anything." that oftentimes we struggle with a very low sense of self-esteem, if I can use that kind of term. We all were created to need a kind of validation. Berry just talked about our need for glory.
I'm going to say more about that in just a second, but I want what I want us to do, and I we'll work our way to this, but I want to share with you a tool that's going to be on the PowerPoint in due time that changed my life. Uh it was something that once I saw it in the scripture, it was something that immediately my wife and I when we would have studies with people before we ever had kids and she could come with me to things um we started showing this to people in scripture and it helps humble the people that are self-exalting and it helps raise up the people that are self-loathing. But I want to start out with two false ways that people seek to be affirmed or be validated. Neither of these approaches work, but both of these approaches are things that we so easily drift into. And the first one that I want us to think about is seeking the glory that comes from man. Look at John 12.
And all throughout the Gospel of John, this is the gospel of unsaved believers. Ironically, John 3:16 is the famous get out of hell free card if you believe. But all throughout the Gospel of John, there are people who are said to believe, but they're not delivered from sin yet. They are said to believe, like we're about to read here, but these people are clearly not saved. This is a portion of a summary section about Jesus's ministry in the Gospel of John. Jesus's p public ministry concludes in John 12. And we get these summaries of how people responded to him. Look at 12:es 42 and 43. Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him. But for fear of the Pharisees, they did not confess it so that they would not be put out of the synagogue. For they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God. Try to imagine being part of a Jewish synagogue in this time period. And there's a big population that believes that the King has come.
And there's other people in this synagogue that they're wrestling with this, maybe whispering about this, like we see in some other passages in John. And uh there are some people that are too afraid of being kicked out of the synagogue. What would be such a big deal about being kicked out of the synagogue? All my business comes to the synagogue. All of my social connections come through the synagogue. What would it feel like to you if you got kicked out of this church, but you were like a member in good standing, trying to do the right thing, and you got kicked out? Would that affect your life? These Jews in the synagogue cannot come to openly confess Christ even though they believe in him. For what reason? Because they loved the glory that comes from man more than the kinds of things Berry just talked about. They loved the the pat on the back. They love the compliments. They love the fitting in with other people.
So, I can buy, sell, and trade and have all of these earthly benefits rather than loving a glory that comes from God that transforms your life that gives you a home with him forever one day, that gives you meaning and purpose in life. They exchange the glory that comes from God for the glory that comes from man. Now, does any of you struggle with that? What uh we know from everything we've been talking about today that that's a terrible exchange. But how many of us struggle with I can't feel good about me unless other people tell me I'm good. I can't think that I'm rich unless other people acknowledge I'm rich. I can't think that I'm smart unless other people acknowledge that I'm smart. I can't think that I'm beautiful unless other people acknowledge that I'm beautiful. And I am codependent on everything other people think about me. And all the while we could just get glory that comes from God.
Proverbs 29:2 says about this, "The fear of man or the overexaltation of what man thinks about me lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe." Um, one I think vivid picture of this comes from the book of Esther.
Do you remember when Hmon gets the king to make it so everybody bows down to Hmon whenever he's walking around the streets and uh he's you know can you imagine day number one like okay I'm leaving the king's palace and everybody's going to bow down to me and this is going to be such a great day for me I've always wanted this and he's walking around and everybody's just bowing down bowing down like dominoes falling down and except for one person but when he gets home and he and the wife goes you know she maybe making bread or something hey honey how was your day he can't just say, "You know, honey, it was really good. 99.9% of people bowed down before me." And instead, he has to say, "The Jew, the one Morai would not bow down to me." You know what happens when we're trying to seek validation and affirmation based on what people think about us? We can get praised a hundred times and one criticism is going to outweigh all the praise.
This is not an approach that's going to work. And there's some days that you're going to feel really great about yourself and then one wrong look or wrong assumption about what somebody might think about you is going to knock you off the horse. So, this approach doesn't work. How about a second approach? Look at Luke 18. Some people go from looking for the glory that comes from man to finding a lot of comfort and finding failure from other people. In Luke 18, Jesus is going to tell a very famous parable. And look at Luke 18 starting in verse 9. He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt. Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisees standing by himself prayed thus, "God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, not commanded in the law, by the way.
I give tithes of all that I get. But the tax collector standing far off would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, "God, be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted." Try to imagine this. This almost starts out like a joke. Two men go up to the temple to pray, one a tax collector, one a Pharisee. And you got the Pharisee that's, you know, just informing God in case God didn't know how great I am and how pitiful this other guy is over here in case God, you know, didn't know that. Very self- congratulating kind of prayer. And this other guy is just beating his breast asking for God to be merciful to him. Imagine for a moment that a modern psychologist uh was to sit down with the Pharisee and say, "Okay, Mr. Pharisee, how do you feel about yourself? What's your self-esteem?
And he'd say, "Well, it's 10 out of 10." And you go, "Well, that's great. I'm glad that you feel so good about yourself." Nope. Not for this reason. Okay. If you ask the follow-up question, okay, Mr. Pharisee, why do you feel good about yourself? Cuz there's a lot of idiots around me. And I can find a lot of people that I'm better than. And I can, you know, you know that we can all feel really good about ourselves by finding people that we think we're better than. You want to know why gossip is like described in the book of Proverbs like a dainty morsel? It just tastes so good, the gossip. Because it makes me feel and then it goes into your stomach and changes you. But it it feels so good in my mind to lift myself up above somebody else. Why does it feel so good to find dirt on somebody else?
Why is it that we're always looking for faults and failures or some edge on somebody else to go, "Well, I can do that better than that person. even if they have more money than me, I I at least feel better about myself in this way or that way. Do we ever do that? Just finding faults in other people to feel good about ourselves. You know, just like seeking the glory that comes from man is fragile because one criticism is going to knock you down. This is also fragile. Let's say that we were to retell the parable. Two men went up to the temple to pray. one a Pharisee and the second was a more phariseaical Pharisee. How's the How's the Pharisee feeling now? Not too good about himself. If the thing that you take pride in is having more than other people, you love being around people who have less and hate being around people who have more. if what you take pride in is your intellect or your beauty.
You love being around people that you deem less and hate being around people that intimidate you. And so it's extraordinarily fragile and it really limits the kind of people that you're willing to show love to. You end up secluding yourself. But look at Romans 12:15. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. When I'm trying to find validation based on this, I am weeping when other people are rejoicing and I'm uh weeping rejoicing when other people are weeping. It's one of the most unloving ways to live our lives. Now, how many of us in this room, if we're really honest with ourselves, struggle with these things? I care too much about what people think about me, not what God is going to do in my life. I care way too much about finding fault in other people so I can get an edge on other people. and we go between these different approaches. What's a better way? For the rest of this lesson, we're going to be in the book of Ephesians. Go to the book of Ephesians.
And Berry uh alluded to some of this this morning. Uh talked a little bit about some of these things, but let me fit this into the theme that Berry's working with. The answer to these problems is to find comfort and solace in what God says about us. How many politicians are going to bestow favorable words upon upon people? How many kings in the Old Testament really really actually lifted up the people of Israel? Not many of them at all. But if we have a king that is different than that, we're going to have a king that's going to help us with these things. And we'll I'll show you how the book of Ephesians does this. Let me start out though with Ephesians 1:3. Look at Ephesians 1:3. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. This word for blessed in this text means to speak well of. So we speak well of Christ.
We just talked about how God is worthy of all glory and honor. That we're the kind of people that because of what God has done in us, we walk around and we speak well of him. Do we do that? What's the reason in this text that we speak well of Christ? Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has what? He's blessed us. He's spoken good things about us. In the Bible, when God has spoken things, what happens? In fact, going back with this King theme in Genesis chapter 1, what would what would Genesis chapter 1 mean to the original audience of the Israelites walking around in the wilderness? They they get this document and it's introducing them to God. And God can speak and there's light. God can speak and there's plants. God can speak and there's the sun, moon, and you ever noticed this in Genesis 1 and the stars. Uh just can speak all. So kings in the old world, what could they do? Make me a couple pyramids and it gets done.
Give me one of those gra like a bowl of grapes and the ancient air conditioning thing with the leaf and do that for me. anything that I want, my words make it happen. And then Genesis 1 shows that God is the cosmic king and when he speaks, things change. I what I'm what I'm about to do is I want to show you a few things that Ephesians 1 through3 that show us that what God has spoken about us. And if you struggle with trying to find glory that comes from people or you struggle with trying to find fault with other people, get this track in your mind and repeat these things to yourself. I'm going to show you what God says about you if you're a Christian. And these are the things that ought to encourage us and inspire us to be people who then speak well of him because this is what he's spoken of us. Look at the f.
We're not going to read all of these passages, but I'm just going to leave this up here as a tool. If you want to take a picture of it after all these things are up here, you can do that. But we're not going to go in great detail with all these things. You are a saint. The book of Ephesians opens up by referring to the audience as saints. This is not that they had to die and 20 years passed and it was proven that they did miracles and all of that. You're set apart for God's purposes. We sometimes talk in terms of I'm no saint. I grew up I grew up in Minnesota and we have St. Paul as one of the cities there. What if we all started greeting each other as St. Casey and St. Kevin and St. Ken and we all that's the way that God depicts us. Even you Tony you are a saint. How about this one? You are chosen. This is unfortunately one of those things that people have argued over a lot.
Calvinist, which is one of the ugliest doctrines I think that's ever been created. And they're wrong about how they understand these kinds of things. But you're chosen. Chosen for obedience. Chosen to be his people. Chosen uh to be bring glory to him. Have you ever been the kind of person that was never chosen for anything? I remember when I was in seventh grade, I wasn't the best math student, but I wasn't the worst either. And the math teacher one day called up a certain selection of kids to her front desk and um then she announced to the class, these are the kids that next year can go into the accelerated math class and have qualified for that. And I I went up to her after that and I said, "So, Miss Foss, you don't you don't think I could cut it?" And she said, "Well, I don't know.
Uh if I were to choose you for that, would you be interested?" And I said, "I'm not really sure." And she said, "I think you could do it." I said, "I don't want to do it, though." like you I just wanted to know that I would have been chosen as all but in Christ you have been you're one of the chosen ones uh you are adopted in the ancient world just like today there's lots of orphans lots of people that that have nothing and in the ancient world especially there's writings that have talked about this kind of thing that a kid who had nothing would suddenly go from rags to riches and now they're set to inherit whatever it is that their parents have. But it's not because they've earned anything. I I don't think this is the intention of this word or the really the etmology of the word. Maybe it is, but this is the way I like to think of adoption. It's an ad option. Nobody's obligated to add to their family. Adoption is an ad option.
God didn't look at us and go, "Well, I have to have them on my team or something like that." No, he decided to exercise the option of adding you to his family and now you have him as your father. You're adopted in Christ. You are redeemed to be bought back. I think about the book of Hosea when you've got the prophet who marries Goomer who's cheating on him. And Hosea chapter 1 goes on to seem to indicate that maybe some of these children that they thought they were having together is not even Hosea's child. And it's very heartbreaking situation. And then God wants him to go and redeem her back, showing the heart of God for the people. We've all sold ourselves to Satan and to sin. And through the blood of Christ, a king who sacrificed himself for us. What other king would ever do that? Our politicians are called public servants. And that's funny. You've got Jesus who died to redeem us back. So in Christ, you are redeemed.
In Christ, you are forgiven. uh you people worry about inflation and with more money being printed the dollar is worth less uh and all that but the English language has got a lot of words and more words that get invented and it's almost like well does that mean there's kind of like an inflation in the English language that there's words that just they just don't mean what they used to. I think one word that will never stop losing its meaning is forgiven. All the things that you've said that as soon as those words left your mouth and you you knew that it was going to pierce that person's heart and you saw the reaction on their face. All those times you've done that. All those times that you've done things that still nobody knows about. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. In Christ, you're forgiven. Your sins are done. In Christ, you are loved. And the text in Ephesians 2:4 doesn't just say loved.
It says you are greatly loved. We're going to come back to this in a little bit. But one of the struggles that I've had as a Christian is that maybe I could be loved if I get to a certain level of maturity. And then God would look at me and say, "Okay, well, you're worthy of being loved now." But in Ephesians chapter 4, this audience are people that still need to put off certain things and put on other things. And they're not perfect yet, but God has still shown them love. Have you ever struggled to believe that anybody loves you? It should be so real to our hearts, God's love for us, that even when other people don't love us, yeah, that hurts, but I'm still okay because I'm loved by God. It should mean that much to us in Christ, you are alive, which presupposes that you were dead. One of my favorite images of this in the Bible, there's in the book of Ezekiel, you all are studying that right now, right?
What which section are you in now, Casey? 13. Okay. So, throughout the book of Ezekiel, there are four visions. And uh the the third vision is Ezekiel 37 when Ezekiel is in the valley of dry bones. And can you imagine being Ezekiel and there's a bunch of bones strewn all about the valley. And then God tells you, I want you to start speaking to these dry bones. And of course, as a preacher, you're wondering, has there ever been a more dead audience than that? And so, he starts preaching to the to the dry bones, and they start magnetically connecting together or some dragging across the sand. And then they stand up and become this great army, not a country club, but a great army. Um, you're alive. You were as dead as those bones in the valley, but now in Christ, you've been made alive. In Christ, you've been saved. So, the word saved is uh one of those words that I think in our culture we have to define.
Uh when we lived in Nashville, that was around where Dave Ramsey's stuff is. And Dave Ramsey teaches you how to save money. Uh when we lived in California, there would be a beached whale and they would have to save the beached whale. What does it mean to save something? to rescue it from some kind of peril or danger. Um, I think subjectively all of us look at salvation from a improper perspective when we're not letting God define it for us. Whatever you look to be your savior is going to be defined by whatever your worst fears are. If your worst fear is never being married, your savior will be a spouse. If being poor is your worst fear, having money and your job will be your savior. And you could do that exercise with a lot of other things. Objectively speaking, what's the worst thing that could happen to you? You're separated from God forever. You have no meaning in your life. You have no hope. None of that sort of thing is in your life.
But you've been rescued from all of that. If you're in Christ, you're saved. In Christ, you are God's workmanship. This is one of my favorite ones. Uh the Greek word for workmanship is poema and it's where we get the English word poem. What is a poem? A poem is art set to words. And um the only other time that this word is used in the New Testament is Romans chapter 1 20 where it talks about the things that God has made in creation. Have you ever looked at creation itself as a poem? Genesis chapter 1. And he said and he said and he said he spoke everything into existence. It's Poema. You know, but I'm really impressed with people that can make things out of wood and they're carpenters and they can make things look really beautiful and all this sort of thing. You know what God does is he doesn't even start with a blank canvas. He starts with people that are a mess and then he cleans them up and doesn't just stop there.
He doesn't just bring it back to the white canvas. He starts to make these people into something that's proactively beautiful. Do you know what in creation is also a work of art or a poem of God is each one of us that God takes us, he cleanses us, he starts to change us and it's all done through his words that he speaks to us. In Christ, you are reconciled. Means that you didn't have a relationship, now you do have a relationship. And it's not just us to God, but it's us to one another as citizens in the kingdom. A gathering like this. Okay, so I'm from the North and you guys are letting me be here. I'm a Philadelphia Eagles fan. I don't know what other sports teams some of you guys like, but do there's probably a lot of reasons that we should hate each other and not get along with each other. But because of what Christ has done, he's put this group of people together to work for his purposes.
In Christ, you are also God's holy temple. That means that God has chosen to represent himself in you. I'm not going to say a whole lot about that right now. There's going to be one other thing I want to show you, but let me say something before we get there. If you just look at this list so far, the next time you're tempted to get another hit of praise from somebody, like it's a drug hit, start running this through your mind. No, Erik, I'm a saint. I'm chosen. I'm adopted. I've already been praised by the most praiseworthy. Next time I'm tempted to find fault or failure in other people as if that somehow boosts my sense of identity, it's still this. I want to show you how this these first three chapters of Ephesians end. Look at Ephesians chapter 3 starting in verse 14. This is my favorite prayer in the whole Bible. Ephesians chapter 3:es 14- 21.
For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think according to the power at work within us. To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen. I think this prayer summarizes what Ephesians 1 through3 is doing. What is this prayer about? That you would know the love of Christ. that you know the love of Christ that actually surpasses knowledge.
How can you know something that surpasses knowledge? I know in the Spanish language there's two words for knowledge. One of them is intellectual understanding. Another one is experiential. So I want you to experience the love of Christ that goes beyond just intellect. It's one thing to know what the notes of a music of of a hymn are. It's another one to be struck with the song. You can know, yeah, Jesus loves me. God loves me. But it's a whole other thing for it to mean to me. I don't have to look for failures in other people anymore. I don't have to crave the the glory that comes from man anymore because I've experienced this. Let me tell you this. when I was on the path to becoming a Christian.
The girl that taught me the gospel um that what I had some certain things that I was struggling with to believe like you know how does science really work with the Bible and then the person that taught me the gospel she said you know like if you start with the premise that there's a God who created everything he can sort of do whatever he wants with creation. Well that that actually makes a lot of sense and so that wasn't very difficult for me. Then the whole Jonah thing whatever yeah God can do whatever he wants if he created it all. I'll tell you this. The hardest thing for me to believe in the Bible when I was a new Christian up until right now is that God loves me. This, I think, is the hardest thing in the Bible to believe. Because we're used to this. We're used to managing our image in front of other people and we become imaginary then.
Because if you found out who I really was, my my human experience is that people wouldn't want to be around me anymore if they knew what I've done. But then the Bible teaches that we have a God who knows everything about us. Scary, but somehow at the same time loves us. Can you see why Paul would say, "I I'm praying that you would have the strength to comprehend the love of God.
I'm praying that you would understand how much God loves you. uh the the song Jesus loves me this I know this is not just a kid song adults need this song our biggest struggle is to really believe that he loves us that we have a king and we're used to kings making examples of people and they got to do that sometimes but never loving their subjects and we have one that is that way why does it matter in this passage that we would know the love of Christ and when by the way when's the last time you prayed to God help me know how much you love me. When was the last time you prayed that? Why does it matter, though? Look at verse 19 again. And to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with the fullness of God. If I take a cup and I fill it with the fullness of coffee, what's in the cup? Coffee.
If God takes a human vessel and he he puts the fullness of God in that person, what's in that person now? You're thinking the way God thinks. You're reacting to people the way God reacts. You're forgiving people the way that God forgave. You're acting like God who created you, bringing you to glory. You know, the only kind of people that you really let into your life to give you advice and give you intimate knowledge of things. The only kind of people you're willing to do that with are people you're convinced love you.
The more I know that God loves me, the more I'm going to let him in and say, "God, if that needs to get out of my life, take it out. If this needs to change in my life, make that because I know you love me." All of this in verse 16 shows that we're now strengthened. You have strength derived from the love of God. Not derived from the glory that comes from man. Not derived from finding fault with other people. You're finding now strength in the Lord to let him come and fill you up. I remember when I was in second grade, I played baseball and I had one of those coaches that it's like he wanted to be in the big leagues and since he failed at it, he needed to vicariously whip us into shape or something. You know, one of those angry guys and um I quit playing baseball after that year cuz I that guy stunk.
You ever seen those parents that the way that they treat their kids is you're a failure, failure, failure. try to be good enough and I might love you. You ever seen those baseball coaches that are like that? That's not God. That's not how he is towards us. That's not the king that we serve. He says these things about us. And then in Ephesians 4:6, now live different empowered by what I've said about you. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed you, spoken these things to you. All of this in verse 21 is leading to his glory. He changes people, puts them up as trophies of grace and glory so that the world can see what he does in people. Some of us here might be exhausted because you've been building an identity that you were never meant to create for yourself, but it's something that you don't achieve, but you receive it in Christ.
The value of a lesson like this is not that you remember every single thing that I just said, but it's a tool that next time you're struggling with how you think about things, let God lift you up and know that this is what he thinks about you and let this change the way that you live. We're about to sing this song just as I am. We can come to him broken and he loves us so much that he doesn't only forgive us of our sins, but he starts to pick up the broken pieces and make something into it that you never could have done on your own. I thank you for your good attention tonight. And if there's anybody here that's not a Christian, the Bible teaches that you do that by repenting and being baptized into Christ for the remission of your sins. If you've not done that before, don't leave here without talking to somebody about that.
If you have done that at some point, but you've not been dedicated and focused on this glorious king that we serve that speaks these kinds of things to us, you're not going to find any deeper kind of purpose or satisfaction or way to live than what it is that Jesus gives to us. If we can do anything for you, please come forward while we stand, while we sing.