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Now let's dive into this week's message. The
question, who am I? Who am I? Well, in this moment
in our culture, spiritually, emotionally, that
question has become one of the most central,
powerful, and most contested questions there
is. We live in a time that talks constantly about
identity. We are told to find ourselves, express
ourselves, to be true to ourselves, and yet for
all the language about authenticity, people are
more anxious more fragmented and more unsure
of themselves than ever before. The truth is
most of us aren't actually discovering who we
are. What we are doing is we're trying to construct
a self that we then have to work really hard
to hold together. Most people are not out discovering
themselves. Discovering would imply finding something
out there in order to find myself in it. But
most people are being driven to look inward and
construct their own identity, construct their
own way of understanding themselves. And then
they have to work really hard to hold it all
together. You know what I mean? A self that can
explain and justify us. A self that can survive
disappointment or failure, criticism or loss.
and this idea of constructing a self and trying
to work to hold it together, it's exhausting.
And if we're honest, a lot of what we call identity
today really feels fragile. It is so easily threatened.
It's so easily shaken. It's so easily offended.
And when identity is something you have to build,
then it's something that you have to maintain.
And when identity is something that you have
to build, you're always afraid it will collapse.
And that's why this series in this year's theme
is called True and Better. Because the gospel
offers a true and better identity than any other
identity that's currently on the market. The
gospel tells us something radically different
about who we are. Not something invented or discovered
inside ourselves, but something received. And
this series is about identity in Christ, a theological
reality that reshapes everything. How you see
yourself, how you interpret your past, how you
live in your body, how you relate to others and
how you endure suffering. And our gospel anchor
for this series is identity is received in creation,
destroyed by sin, and restored in Christ. Identity
is received in creation from God, destroyed by
sin, and restored in Christ. And that sentence
is going to anchor our next eight weeks in this
series. Today we're just kind of flying over
at 30 ,000 feet to get an idea of identity in
Christ. You cannot understand who you are until
you understand who God says you are. So this
morning, we're gonna look at two places in scripture.
We're gonna go back to the beginning and look
at Genesis. And then we're also gonna fast forward
and look at a man whose entire identity was dismantled
and rebuilt, the apostle Paul in Philippians
chapter three. The gospel. doesn't just offer
forgiveness for sins. The gospel offers a truer
and better answer to the question, who am I?
If you're taking notes, number one, identity
is received, not achieved. The Bible starts with
God speaking. Genesis one opens with divine intention.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and
the earth. It begins with God, God who creates
on purpose. And if we pick up in Genesis chapter
one in verse 26, it says, then God said, let
us make man in our own image according to our
likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea
and the birds of the sky, the livestock, the
whole earth and the creatures that crawl on the
earth. And so God created man in his own image.
He created him in the image of God. He created
them male and female. And God blessed them and
said, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth
and subdue it, rule over the fish of the sea
and the birds of the sky and every creature that
crawls on earth. Notice that God did not say,
let them define themselves. And God did not say,
let them invent meaning for themselves. He said,
let us make them in our image and likeness. Which
means that identity begins not with self -expression,
but as a divine gift. You are someone because
God made you someone. Before Adam ever did a
single thing, before he worked the garden, before
he performed any task whatsoever, he already
had an identity. He was made in the image of
God. To be made in the image of God, what does
that mean? Well, it means at least three things.
Number one, it means first that identity is relational.
You exist because God wanted relationship. Your
life is not an accident. You are not the result
of chaos and chance. And number two, it at least
means that identity is embodied. God forms Adam
from the dust. He breathes life into his body
from the very beginning. To be human is to be
a soul in a body created and called very good
by God. It means at least number three, that
identity is purposeful. Human beings are created
to reflect God's character into this world, to
rule and steward and cultivate and care, which
means identity comes before function. You are
not defined by what you do. You do what you do
because of who you already are. This is where
so many of us get things backwards. We live as
if, if I perform well enough, then I will matter.
If I succeed, then I'm valuable. But Genesis
says the opposite. Belonging comes first. Value
comes first. Meaning comes first. Work flows
from identity, not the other way around. And
if you miss that, you're gonna spend your whole
life trying to earn something God already gave.
In Genesis, God walks with humanity. In Genesis,
God provides. In Genesis, God names what is good.
No performance anxiety. No self -justification.
Just a God -designed, God -approved identity
that he called good. The opening pages of scripture
say something that should really free us. And
that is you don't need to invent who you are.
You need to receive who you are. And that's why
this matters for the rest of our series because
what was given in creation will later be lost
through sin and then restored in Christ. Which
means the gospel is not trying to turn you into
something unnatural The gospel is not taking
you and trying to twist you and turn you into
something, you know hideous and unnatural The
gospel is trying to restore you to what you were
meant to always be And that's good news When
we start where the Bible starts we began to discover
something that is true and something that is
better. Number two, if you're taking notes, identity
was fractured by sin. So Genesis one and two
show us identity received. Genesis three shows
us identity fractured. Listen to what it says.
Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the
wild animals that God had made. And he said to
the woman, did God really say you can't eat from
any tree in the garden? And the woman said to
the serpent, we may eat the fruit from the trees
in the garden, but about the fruit of the tree
in the middle of the garden, God said, you must
not eat it or touch it or you will die. No. You
will certainly not die, the serpent said to the
woman. In fact, God knows that when you eat it,
your eyes will be open and you will be like God,
knowing good and evil. The woman saw that the
tree was good for food and delightful to look
at and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom.
So she took some of its fruit and ate it. She
also gave some to her husband who was with her
and he ate it. And then the eyes of both of them
were open and they knew they were naked. So they
sewed fig leaves together and made coverings
for themselves. Notice how the fracture of identity
happens here in Genesis. Three, the first sin
in the Bible is not primarily about breaking
a rule, it's about rejecting a given identity.
The serpent begins by planting doubt. Did God
really say? And then he presses it further. God
knows that when you eat it, your eyes will be
open and you will be like God knowing good and
evil. And that phrase, like God, that's interesting
because Adam and Eve were already created in
what? in God's image and likeness. They're already
created in God's image and likeness. So what
is the serpent offering them? They already had
identities. They already had meaning. They already
had purpose. What is he offering them? The temptation
of the serpent is not become more human. No,
the temptation of the serpent is to become autonomous.
Cut yourself off from your creator. Cut yourself
off from the identity he's given you. It's to
move from I receive who I am from God to I decide
who I am for myself. And this is where identity
fractures. Because sin is not just moral. failure,
sin is self -definition apart from God. I'll
say that again. Sin is self -definition apart
from God. It's the moment we say, I will determine
what is true and good. I will decide. I will
name myself. And when that happens, everything
begins to unravel. Immediately after the fall,
we see three things enter the human experience.
The first one is shame. Genesis tells us that
their eyes are both open and they realize they're
naked. Nothing about their bodies changed. Nothing
had changed. Only they had tried to self -define
apart from God. What would change was how they
saw themselves. And they move from being at ease
in their identity to hiding and covering and
managing. Shame says something is wrong with
me. Shame is the result of sin. The second one
is fear. When God comes walking in the garden,
Adam says, I was afraid, so I hid. Fear reframes
God not as a loving creator, but as a threat
to our autonomy. And third, blame. Adam blames
Eve. Eve blames the serpent. See, when our false
identity is exposed, responsibility for self
-definition becomes unbearable. We have to protect
the self at all costs. Sin doesn't just break
the rules, it breaks reality. Once identity is
no longer received, everything becomes unstable.
Truth becomes negotiable. Meaning becomes subjective.
The self becomes fragile. And this fracture,
it hasn't gone away. It echoes through every
generation. Every time we say, I get to define
myself, No one can tell me who I am. My feelings
are my authority. We're replaying Genesis chapter
three over and over again. We're not inventing
something new. We're just returning to something
that is very old. And the result is what we see
all around us today. People desperately trying
to anchor identity in performance, in success,
in pleasure, in affirmation, in power, even in
despair and nihilism. See, if nothing is given,
nothing is received, then everything has to be
constructed. And if you try to build your identity
apart from God, you will always feel the need
to defend it. You will never be at ease in it.
You will feel threatened by anyone who questions
it. Because when identity is self -made, it can
always be undone. Genesis three shows us the
cost of rejecting a received identity. And it
sets the stage for why we need restoration. Number
three, identity is misplaced. Human beings, we
can't live without identity. If we don't receive
it from God, we will anchor it somewhere else.
And the apostle Paul is really honest about his
life and his experience in Philippians chapter
three. Paul gives us what you might call his
identity resume. He says, if anyone else thinks
he has grounds for confidence in the flesh, I
have more. circumcised the eighth day of the
nation of Israel, of the tribe of Judah, Benjamin,
I'm sorry, born of Hebrews, regarding the law
of Pharisee, regarding zeal, persecuting the
church, regarding the righteousness that is in
the law, blameless. But everything that was a
gain to me I have considered to be a loss because
of Christ. More than that, I also consider everything
to be a loss in view of the surpassing value
of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him
I have suffered the loss of all things and consider
them as dung so that I may gain Christ and be
found in him not having a righteousness of my
own from the law but one that is through faith
in Christ the righteousness from God based on
faith. My goal is to know him and the power of
his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings
being conformed to his death. assuming that I
will somehow reach the resurrection from among
the dead. Paul lists out, circumcised on the
eighth day, people of Israel, tribe of Benjamin,
Hebrew of Hebrews, a zealot, a Pharisee persecuting
the church, a righteousness based on the law
that was blameless and faultless. And Paul's
not bragging here. What he's doing is he's showing
us where his confidence used to live. Where he
drew meaning, where he drew worth, where he drew
identity from. And you notice something important
about what he lists there. They're not bad things.
Ethnicity, religious faithfulness, moral discipline,
passion, achievements. If Paul was here today,
He'd probably be wearing one of those 49er jerseys
too, right? And he'd be like, and a 49er fan,
right? Chargers, yeah. Then you really would
be righteous. You know, we hear his pedigree,
we hear his resume and we go, that sounds like
a pretty good person. Like, I don't know. And
that's exactly where the danger lies. His misplaced
identity is often rooted not in rebellion, but
in good things that become ultimate things. And
Paul is saying, if anyone had reason to feel
secure in who they were, it was me. And yet,
Paul later calls it all a loss. Why? Because
identity anchored in anything other than Christ.
will eventually fail you. We do the same thing
today. We may not list our tribe or religious
pedigree, but we all have our own resumes, every
single one of us. I am what I do. I am how successful
I am. I am how needed I am. I am how others see
me. I am how I feel about myself. Some of us
anchor identity in performance. Some of us in
morality. Some of us in victimhood. My identity
is in being the victim. And I've anchored my
life to that. Some of it is in achievement. Some
of it is in sexuality. Some of it is in despair.
Even nihilism becomes an identity. Nothing matters,
so nothing can hurt me. And then you add to it
a digital age that we all live in, and this gets
amplified. We curate a version of ourselves that
looks competent, looks happy, sounds thoughtful,
appears unbothered by the world, and never, ever,
ever gets corrected. A self that always needs
affirmation and cannot tolerate being challenged.
But friends, an identity that needs constant
validation is not secure. If your identity is
rooted in performance, rest will be threatening.
I can't rest, I can't stop, I can't stop, I gotta
keep performing, I gotta keep up. If your identity
is in success, well failure will feel like soul
crushing. If in sexuality, then any disagreement
feels like an attack on your very existence.
Misplaced identity doesn't just disappoint us,
it enslaves us. It turns good gifts into cruel
masters. And it sets us up for a collapse when
those things are taken away from us. And Paul
is preparing us for a shift because what Paul
doesn't say in the next part, he doesn't say,
I found a better version of myself. Here's my
pedigree and I just found a better me. What Paul
says is, I lost myself and I found something
better. So if you're taking notes, number four,
identity is restored in Christ. Notice how Paul
begins verse seven of Philippians chapter three,
three, but everything that was a gain to me,
I have considered to be a loss because of Christ.
And that word, but matters. because it signals
a complete reorientation of his life, of his
self. Paul is not saying I added Jesus to my
existing identity. He's saying my entire way
of understanding myself has been overturned.
Everything I spent years and years of my life
building my life on and constructing and trying
to hold together with all of the energy and effort
that I had in my bones everything, I now consider
it all a loss. I want to build my life on something
secure, not something constructed. More than
that, I consider everything to be a loss. So
Paul just goes further and he's like, yeah, all
of my resume, loss. And then everything else,
loss too. And not only is it a loss, it's dung.
It's poop. Really, it's one of the times that
Paul is a little vulgar in the scriptures right
here, right? Because of him, I have suffered
the loss of all things and consider them dung
so that I may gain Christ. That I may gain Christ,
I'd make a good tattoo. That's the heart of the
Christian identity. I knew that would divide
this room. Tattoo, huh, what? Now there's like,
I need another tattoo. Now go to war. Yeah, that
I may gain Christ is at the very heart of a Christian
identity. Listen to what Paul does not say. He
doesn't say, I set all those things aside so
I could gain peace. Or he doesn't say, I set
all those things aside so that I could gain purpose
for my life. Or that I could gain fulfillment
in my life. He says, I set them all aside that
I could gain Christ. In other words, Paul's identity
is no longer centered in, found in something
he possesses. His identity is shifting to a person,
someone he is united to now. And this is what
theologians call the union with Christ that believers
experience. It means that Christ's life becomes
your life. Christ's righteousness becomes your
righteousness. Christ's story becomes your story.
to be found in him, not having a righteousness
of my own from the law, but one that is through
faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based
on faith. In other words, I no longer have to
build an identity that justifies myself. I no
longer have to prove myself. I no longer have
to explain myself. I no longer have to hold my
construction project altogether. I don't have
to save myself. My identity is now received again.
This time not through creation, but through redemption.
Identity in Christ is death and resurrection.
What do I mean by that? It's not a fun sentiment.
Identity in Christ, identifying with Christ is
identity in his death and his resurrection. If
you're going to identify with Christ, if you
are going to follow Christ, something has to
die in order for the new life to be resurrected.
And that something that has to die is the self
that you have been curating and creating and
constructing. tweak his resume. He doesn't slip
Jesus in on the fourth line. He throws it out.
He doesn't try to refine himself or make himself
better. He surrenders his life and in losing
it, he finds something better. My goal is to
know him and the power of his resurrection and
the fellowship of his. suffering, that's identity
language. Paul is saying my life is now shaped
by Christ's life, resurrection power, cruciform
suffering, a hope beyond death. And this is why
Christian identity is so different from every
other identity that's on the market. Because
it's not fragile. It doesn't have to be constantly
propped up. It's anchored in something that has
already happened when someone, Jesus, went and
died for our sins and was resurrected to life,
which means when you fail, your identity doesn't
collapse if you're in Christ. When you suffer,
your identity still has meaning. When you're
misunderstood, you're secure. This is the restoration
that Genesis was pointing to. What was lost in
Adam is restored in Christ. And it's not restored
by self -expression, but by self -denial and
union with Christ through faith. And so in conclusion,
I'll say the gospel tells us to look to Christ.
Christianity says, die to self. and live new
life in Christ. And I don't know about you, but
we want affirmation, not a cross. We want validation,
not surrender. But friends, self -definition
cannot heal you, only Jesus can. And he's calling
right now. If you can hear him, he's calling.
Jesus isn't here to help you manage your identity.
He's not here to show up with some super glue
to help you keep it together. He's not here to
put a Band -Aid on it and say, go get them, tiger.
You've got it. No. Jesus is here. to wrap you
up and bring you in so that who you are and who
he is are united. United to Christ, his life,
his resurrection, his power. And you know what
that means? If you're united to Christ, then
he's doing all the heavy lifting. He carries
the whole identity. No weight left for you to
carry. No weight left for you to manage. He carries
the whole thing. And he says, hey you, come and
I will give you rest. And we talked about that
a little bit last week, but I want to go a little
deeper on that word rest. He does say, come to
me all you who are heavy laid and burdened. Come
and I will give you rest. What is the rest that
Jesus is offering? Well, the rest that Jesus
is offering to us is a rest from the exhausting
project of self -creation. He's offering us a
rest from the exhausting project of trying to
build a self that we can manage and hold on to
as long as possible so that we feel meaning and
hope. And the city's saying no. Come be united
to me come have my righteousness come have my
life come live united to me, and I'll carry the
weight and you you rest Lay down the fragile
self that you've been trying to hold together
And Paul says you know what Having gone through
this process having done this I actually consider
everything a loss because of the surpassing worth
of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. And when Paul
says, I consider everything a loss, he's not
saying, oh man, I lost a whole lot. Like, you
know, if my house burned down, that would be
a loss, right? And I, oh, I lost a lot of things
in that fire, right? That's not what he's talking
about. He's saying like loss, like worthless,
like dung. I consider it all loss. Put it all
behind it, put it out of my way for the surpassing
worth of knowing the someone who stepped in my
place. This is not ultimate loss, is it? This
is ultimate gain. To have Christ is true and
better, amen.