without being sick. Anybody? You might not sick? All right, those are the people you
want to go in fact, all right? Make sure they can fill your pain, all right? It's
good. Just kidding, kidding. All right, we're close to spring. It's close, for
sure. There you go, got it, even. They just pegs with me, all right? But we're
getting there. But we're glad you're here tonight. I know it's been, winter's just
crazy. People have been sick, but you're here and you're faithful and we're
thankful for that. You know, I'm learning more and more how much I need church to
start my week. Like, I don't know how I would do it without church. I need it
because my weeks, as yours are, are just roller coasters and it's just with
different tasks that are happening and different situations and then events
that are scheduled and then things that I plan for and things that I haven't
planned for, which is even worse, they just appear out of nowhere. And with the
crazy week, what I found so often is that my emotions are just so up and down all
the time. Mixed emojis, you might say, which is our new series. And we live in
a culture that is so much about do what you feel, just follow your emotions. And
I personally think that's really dumb advice because my emotions should not be
what I follow, because Miles should not be led by his emotions, because a Miles
emotions each day are different, each hour, each minute my emotions are just
shifting based on my circumstances. Those cannot be the thing I follow
throughout my life. That's not good. It's not biblical more so. And there's a
quote that says, master your emotions or your emotions will master you. And it's
so easy to just let our emotions run away with us. We say, well that's just how I
feel. We kind of use that as an excuse. And what we need to realize is that our
emotions, our feelings, are not what's supposed to master us. Our master, we have
one master, it's Christ, it's the Lord, not our emotions. And that's why we want
to talk about this series of mixed emotions, mixed emojis, and go through
different emotions and see how they can aid us in our walk with Christ. And what's
very interesting about this series is that we'll actually be taking a negative
emotion and be able to look at that negative emotion, see how to respond
positively to it. And just for so you know, each of us that go through the
circle, will have a few different emotions that we're working through. And
we're using a book kind of as our foundation, more so we're using scripture
as our foundation, but as a supplement, we're using a book called Mastering Your
Motions by Adrian Rodgers. So we're kind of falling through that and going through
different passages. But what we want to do is look at emotions through a biblical
lens and see how to shift in and practice a positive response to our
emotions. So before we start, let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we're thankful for
Your Word. We're thankful that we get to come here and we just get to enjoy hearing
Your Word. Lord, Your Word is applicable, it's alive, it's sharp, the need to
etch sword, Lord, and it changes us. So it helps us to see what You have for us
and go and apply it and live for Your glory. We thank You, we praise You in Your
name and men. All right, so I got a little game. I like games, all right? I'm
gonna ask you this question, okay? It's called Who Are They? We'll name it that.
I'm gonna show you a picture of a historical figure. All you gotta do is
just yell out who the historical figure is, all right? Some are easy, some are hard.
See what you got, all right? Who's the first one?
Hear me out. Oh, that was good. I heard of it. Was that you, Michael? Good job, Michael.
All right, hearing the eighth, we got it. Okay, that was the easiest one, in my
opinion. Next one. Wow, all of you. Look at that, it's right there. That was the
easy one. See, I told you it was the easiest one. All right, next one. All right, see,
it's hard now, all right? I don't know who that old guy is. All right, he's an
author. He wrote a book. No, no, that's on the right track though, kind of.
Huh? Who said it? I heard it. Charles Dickens? Charles Dickens. Good job. All
right, next one for me. Kingtie. Man, Michael, you're really good at this, Michael.
He's ready. All right, Kingtie, you got it. Next.
Nauseas or good try though. I heard Aaron. Good job, Aaron. All right, teens are
killing it, guys. All right, Aristotle. It's Aristotle. All right, last one. I'm
relying on you guys, okay? All right, but what's his real name? What's his last
name? Oh, oh, oh, did I get you?
Johnson. Good job. Man, Michael, you got four of them. All right, that is Mr. Beast, by the way,
if you're like, what are they talking about? He's a famous YouTuber. It's great.
They love you. Like, oh, yeah, that's it. All right, okay, okay. All right, anyway, so
I got this question for you. All right, here's what I want you to do, okay? This is
so cringy, but we're all going to do it together. All right, pull out your phones,
okay? Put it right in front of your face, okay? All right, come on. I know you're
like, who's pulling out their phones in church? It's the only time we'll be asked
you that. All right, who do you see? You, yeah, I see you, all right? Here's the next one, Logan.
All right, you see you. And here's the thing, you're like, that was weird, Miles.
All right, exactly. My point is, like, have you ever asked yourself this
question of who am I? Like, who am I actually? And if we're honest with
ourselves, I've done that, like, I'll wake up, I'll look at the mirror. I don't know if you
ever been like a FaceTime call and actually like switch, are you like open your camera up?
And it like shows your face like, oh, that's what I look like. I'm so sorry,
everybody. Like, I don't know if you ever asked this question of who you are. And the
overwhelming majority of people in America, in the world, human beings that
have ever been on this planet, don't like who they are or what they see. And they
don't like the physical of what I look like. And even what I do, they don't like
the mental of, I don't like even how I think, the emotional, I don't like how I
feel, I don't like even socially of how I interact with others. I don't even like
sometimes how I act as a Christian. And we've all experienced at some point this
idea of feeling insecure. This idea of insecure, the word means an uncertainty, a
lack of confidence and trust. We are insecure about who we are. And now maybe,
maybe you're the person like, I'm not, I'm amazing. All right. I'm not insecure. But
then when you're in the dark by yourself and you're just alone, like, I used to
think for the longest time, I was the only one in the world that struggled with
insecurity. So what I did was, I acted like I didn't struggle with insecurity. So I
wasn't the weird person, because I didn't want to feel more insecure. But what I
started learning just my ministry, not just working with teenagers, I see this
with anybody, with myself, is that we feel insecure and we feel like we don't
measure up. And the only thing I'm confident in is that I'm not perfect and
at some point I'll fail and then I'll mess up. But what we try to do naturally is
we try to find some sort of security. We don't like feeling insecure, so we try to
find security. And then I become so worried about how I look in other
people's eyes and I try to find security through them. I want to look, I want them
to approve me and I want to be accepted. I want to find security in them. And I see
this so much in our culture. I mean, social media, man, like, that's just like
you trying to give your best self. Because like, well, that person, that person's
family is really amazing. That person's picture is really great. They're really
beautiful. I want to look like them. I try to make everything perfect. And that's
why you take multiple pictures before you post something, because you want to
choose the best one that makes you look the best. And even, I've seen this in
conversations of, even at work, even in, this is just my personal example, because
I'm being honest with you, is like, even at work conversations, I try to make
myself seem a little bit better. I try to, try to fit in. I try to say the right
thing. So no one doesn't think I'm weird. I want to be accepted. I want people to
respect me. I want to be insecure. I mean, even tonight, I was trying to sermon
about insecurity and I was like, kind of insecure about it. I don't, I don't want
to do that. Am I, am I capable of doing it? I get in my head and I get worried. I
get even despondent sometimes. And what I realize, what I'm learning is that even
if I get approval, like, and not rejection, I still don't feel that security. I
see, even if everyone loves me, I still, there's like, oh, but Miles, I feel like I
still don't measure up. I still don't find security. And the reason for this is
that true security is found only in Christ. Every believer can find security in
Christ. That's hopeful. But I'm remembering three statements of identity.
And we'll see the Singulations chapter four and we'll start in verse four. And
what we see is that security comes from knowing our identity. And if I'm a born
again believer, I'm gonna give you the whole sermon right here basically. If I'm
a born again believer, my identity is in Christ alone. I'm gonna give a new life
in Christ. And these three statements you're gonna see is that, that it's not
just me declaring who I am. Because if I just focus on who I am, I'm always gonna
be left empty. There's always gonna be something missing. So I need to say, who
am I in Christ? This is who I am in Christ. This is who God says I am in Him.
And we'll look at that. Our first statement, well before we actually get to our
first statement, I want to make sure we know the context. Because we're jumping
right into the middle of a letter, Galatians, and Paul is writing to the
Church of Galatia. And this is kind of earlier in his ministry. And right now
he's pretty upset. Like if you read the book of Galatians, especially one
sitting, you're like, Paul's mad. Paul is not happy. He's kind of upset. And he's
upset because he says, Galatia, I just was with you guys preaching the gospel to
you, and you believed it. And now you're trying to go to this false gospel. I was
just there. Stop going to the false gospel. Because they were saying, well Jesus
is great and all, but if we really want to be saved, we got to keep doing works.
We have to follow the Mosaic Law. And Paul's whole letter is a rebuttal
saying, no, no, it's not by your works. It's through grace alone, by faith alone,
and Christ alone. And we see this in chapter 4. He continually
emphasizes this. And he reminds the readers the purpose of the law. And
what he says is, before Christ, the law, the Mosaic Law, these rules you had to
follow, it acted as a sort of guardian, the passage says. It was to keep you in
line. It was kind of your schoolmaster, like your teacher. It was to keep you in
line. He's basically saying, Israel, you were given the law to discipline you, to
keep you in the line, in the right space, to do the right thing. It wasn't to make
you perfect because you kept failing. And what he also says is that before Christ,
you were enslaved. Number one, you were enslaved to the lusts of the world. You
were enslaved to your sin. But you were also enslaved to just works, to try to
earn it. But you kept failing. And Paul says, before Christ, you were in bondage.
You were in slavery. And he's giving them a warning in chapter 4, these first few
verses. He's saying, don't go back there. Stop going to this fault teaching that
spiritually immature. Stop relying on your works and rely on Christ's good work,
His perfect work. And that's what he says in verse 4. We'll pick up there. Paul says,
but when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman,
made under the law. I love the idea of the fullness of time has come. That's
saying at the perfect time in history. Let's take this sermon. I can't go
through it all. I encourage you to look at just the perfect scenario, perfect
circumstances that happen. Christ came at the perfect time when God planned it.
He was perfect. He sent forth His Son, who was born of a woman. He was a real
birth. It was a virgin birth, miracle, but a real birth nonetheless. And He was
born under the law. He was born and He followed this same law. What's amazing
about Christ is He fulfilled the law. And my whole point in building this up is we
have to know the context that Paul's foundation here is Christ. He's saying,
Christ enters the picture and it changes everything about who you are, Galatia.
And that's the same for us. At the fullness of time, Christ came and it
changes everything about who we are. And we see our first identity statement here.
Because of Christ, I am redeemed. See this in the first part of verse 5. It says,
but when the fullness of time was come, verse 4, God sent forth His Son, made of a
woman, made under law, to redeem them that were under the law. He's saying, I was in
bondage to the law. I was truly trapped in my inadequacies, my failures, my sin,
but all the good part, that Christ came and died on the cross and redeemed me. The
idea of redeemed, we got to find that word. It's beautiful. It means to buy back,
to purchase. It's the idea of going to the auction block and buying a slave back.
Saying, I'm taking the slave. I'm putting a price to get them back. The price was
Christ. He died for us. And that gives us freedom. We've been purchased. It's this
beautiful thing. It's when I believe I'm set free. I'm no longer a slave to sin.
So, okay. Good. What does that have to do with insecurity? Well, what insecurity does
is it ignores redemption. And in our culture, we are all so much trying to
just be enough. And the problem is we either feel one of two ways. We're trying
to be enough. I either feel like I'm being too much or I'm not enough. I'm trying
to be enough, but I'm either doing too much or I'm doing too little. And that's
the idea of too much. It's just that we don't like who we are. I don't know if you
ever been told this. I've been told this because I work with teenagers. They're like,
Miles, you're being a little extra. You're doing a little too much, Miles. That was
like all four of you right there. Okay. That was me and her saying you. All right.
But I've heard that. It's fine. It's good. All right. And they're probably right
because I'm doing something weird, right? But this idea of you're doing too much.
You're being extra. It's that I don't like someone saying to you, I don't like who
you are. You're a little too awkward. You're a little too quiet. You're a little
too loud. You're a little too heavy. You're a little too skinny. You're a little too
old. You're a little too young. It's the idea of you're doing too much. I remember
in high school art, middle school, I was like in sixth grade and it's so small,
but it stuck with me because that's how insecure I was then. What I remember as
a third through sixth grade, I didn't care about fashion at all. Not even a
little bit. Not even right now. Probably someone would be like, I don't know if he
cares about it right now. You were thinking that. I know you were.
But my point is I didn't care about fashion. So I wanted to be comfortable.
So I remember I used to wear these bright, because orange is my favorite color.
So I'd wear these bright neon orange shorts. And it wasn't so like to please
people to look at it. It was like orange and I like shorts. So I want to wear shorts.
But I would wear them to like school. And eventually what ended up happening is
that people were like, Miles, you're the weird kid that wears shorts now. And like
I never realized someone over here, Sue laughed way too much at that. She's like,
Miles is the weird kid who wears shorts. But I remember at school, I was wearing,
it was so vivid to me. I was sitting on the soccer field at a game and this kid
comes up to me. He's like, you know, jeans are a thing. You can wear jeans, Miles.
You're wearing shorts a little bit too much. And like you're like, all right,
Miles, man up. All right. You're like, come on. But I remember that stuck with me.
And I was like, I don't ever want to wear shorts again. Like I'm doing too much.
And I remember what I did is I went home and I told my mom, it's like, can I,
can I just, can I buy a pair of jeans? Like I don't want to be the weird kid
sticking out. I feel like I'm being too much. And I remember it stuck with me.
Because I felt like the outcast, like I was too much. Now I've also felt like this,
right? Like this is depressing. No, I want you to relate to this. Because first,
we got to accept that we feel this way often. Right? I also feel that I'm never
enough, that I try to live up to this standard and I never am able to quite
perfectly reach it. I'm not smart enough. I'm not athletic enough. I'm not trendy
enough. I'm not professional enough. I'm not old enough. I'm not manly enough. I'm
not cute enough. Right? It's that others either tell you that or you tell
yourself that. And I remember another scenario in my life is I was interning at
a church and I was about, I was probably freshman in college and was interning for
a summer internship. I remember these pastors, there's about six pastors there
and they had this podcast and they invited me in because I was the intern.
And I remember I went into this podcast and he's laughing because you know
exactly, like I went into this podcast and they started talking and I was like,
I'm really dumb. Like I have no idea what they're saying. And like it's being
recorded. So in the worst part is they be, Miles what do you think about this? What
do you think about the hypostatic union? It's like, I have no idea. But it's
like recording. So I'm trying to be smart. I'm like, well, Philippians,
Philippians one is really, really, really applicable in this area. They're like,
well, explain that, Miles. I'm like, I have nothing else to say. That's all I got.
I thought that was good. It wasn't even right. And I remember I just felt this
inadequacy of I don't measure up and we feel this way. Now some of us are really
good at faking. Like we can act cool. We can act like we have it all together. But
oftentimes what I've realized is the time the people who act the coolest are
actually the most insecure and they're trying to overcompensate for it. Now
here's what's amazing. Here's what's not depressing at all. Here's what's joyful.
It's the amazing thing about the gospel is it recognizes you're not
enough. You weren't supposed to be enough. We get so focused on doing and not doing.
We need to be focused on being. We need to be focused on being and more
specifically being in Christ. Realizing that we are redeemed, that we've been
bought by His blood. Christianity is not behavior modification where we just
try to switch our behavior over a little bit. Notice the change from the heart.
When we change our heart, when Jesus comes inside more specifically and
changes our heart, it starts to change our actions. What we realize is that we
move from the result of this is we were insufficient, but now we see sufficient.
It's not enough. It's not me as sufficient. What it is, is instead of me
trying to rely on myself to be enough, to hit that line of enough, I start
drawing from the well that never runs dry, the living water, and that changes my
being. It changes who I am and then it changes what I do. It changes my actions.
It doesn't mean I'm sinless. It doesn't mean I'm perfect. What it means is I'm
just not focused on... It's not about me. It's not about me being enough. It's on
realizing that Jesus is more than enough and my identity relies perfectly on
His redentive work. We're just getting started. That's the first one. That
redeemed is your condition and Paul continues. He says, now let's talk about
your position. Because of Christ, I am adopted. See this in the second half of
verse 5. It says that we might receive the adoption of sons. Because of my
redemption through Jesus, I became adopted. Personally, I think that's such
an underrated doctrine sometimes because it changes everything about me and
everything about my life. Like, think of... I'm thinking if I was put into
someone's family, it would change everything. If I got put into the Beelow's
family, it would change. Wouldn't you love that? Todd says no. All right, but he's
like, no, I don't want you. All right, but if I went into the Beelow's family, it
changed everything about my life. Like, it changed everything about who I am, what
I do, where I go. Like, it changes everything about me. And that's what's
amazing about adoption is that there's this new identity and that word adoption
truly means, literally means to place as an adult son. And oftentimes when we
think about the idea of adoption, we hear this often used
illustration as if there was this nice family and they find this orphan kid and
this homeless child and they go and adopt him into their family. I think
that's part of it. But what's interesting about adoption is it has this idea of
sons. And this idea of sons is not referring to gender as much as it is
position. The position you now hold because you are part of God's family.
Because it's interesting, he uses adopted as sons, not as children, because that's
two different things he's communicating here. We are his children, don't get me
wrong, but we also need to see that we are his sons. What that son word means is
that we are part of his family. First, where we stand in his family.
That because we are adopted, we have certain privileges. We are fully in the
family of God, not just randomly placed there. No God put us into his family and
we're treated with the same privileges as a son. We get to be like our father.
Our son gets to be like their father. We get to be like our father. That this
relationship doesn't ever change. We get a full relationship with him. We are
officially part of the family of God. Now this adoption, because we hear this,
we think of this doctrine and it's great, but how does this apply? This adoption
has an amazing implication for us as believers. We see this in verse 6. Paul
continues says, because we are sons, he says, get ready now. You're adopted as
sons. Here's what's exciting about this. Because you're sons, God has sent forth
the spirit of his son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Because of Christ,
the Holy Spirit in dwells me. And because of that, what happens is this change in
relationship when I become saved. That God is my dad. That Abba, Father, my
daddy, this close, intimate, loving relationship. I want to make sure we
fully understand this. Maybe this will help. I remember in probably 8th through
12th grade, I had these family friends. They were really family. There was a
kid I had new at school, but I became really close with the kid. We would
hang out all the time. So I became really close with the family. Before you
know it, I seemed like their adopted son. I was always there every
weekend. They would drive me to church. We got so close. I didn't have to
ask permission to use the fridge anymore. I just go in and eat whatever food I
wanted. I have to knock on the door anymore. I just walked in. It was that
kind of thing. I got really close to them. They weren't surprised when
Miles was just randomly walking through the house eating their food. They're
like, oh, there's Miles. He's there. It was this beautiful relationship. It
really was. It got me through a lot in high school because I knew I could
always go there. But there were limits to this relationship. I was close
with these family friends. It was like I was a part of their family, but I
wasn't fully there. I wasn't spending Christmas or holidays with them. I wasn't
there every day. They weren't the people I went to physically when I was
feeling sick. They weren't the people I went to financially when I had college
coming up. I didn't go to my friend's dance. I said, hey, I've been hanging out at
your house. Can you just give me a few thousand for college? He would
run me out of his house. Financially, this is not the people I went to when
I got a car. Mentally, I didn't even necessarily go to them for life advice.
Emotionally, they weren't the people I went to when I was struggling. You know
the people I did that to? The person I did that to was my mom. There was this
family I had that I was close friends with and I was close to, but I would only
do certain things because this was my mom. It was different. I sure I
love spending time with those people, but that's my mom. I knew I
could go to her at 3 a.m. and be like, mom, I'm sick. Can you give me some
cough drops? She'd be like, Miles, you're 25, all right? You can get it yourself.
But she would because that's my mom. I remember I went to her. I was like,
mom, I really like a car. She's awesome. She's like, all right, you
don't do something for you. I'm just gonna give you a hand, you got a car, right?
I remember we worked through that. It was a blessing. She's the person I go to
for advice when I'm struggling. It's my mom. What was amazing is there was a
difference between those two. I am fully her son. I didn't just act like it. I
was fully a part of her family. Sometimes when I think we think about
adoption is that we think of it as this side. I hang out around God. I can
go into the house. I can hang out with him every once in a while, but I got to
be careful because when times get hard, what if he doesn't love me?
What if I'm not good enough? I don't know if I can go to him with everything. I
don't know if I can trust him. I don't know if I can still rely on him even
through the hard times. What if he gets tired of me and kicks me out and he has
too much of me or I'm not able to measure up? I can't go to him for everything.
I'm so glad I'm part of his family, but that's not where I spend my
holidays. That's just that family, and I'm kind of a part of it. What we need to
realize as Christians is that we become, when we're said, fully into the family of
God. That means that he is your dad, and a truly loving dad is with you through
sickness. He's with you in the hurt. He's with you in the pain. He's with you in
the failure. He's with you in the successes. He's with you in the really easy.
He's with you in the really hard. He's with you. Why? Because he loves his
child. He loves his kid. He loves when you call out,
Dad, I need you right now. I really need some help. I can't fake it anymore. I
faked it with everyone else, but Dad, I can't fake it with you. He loves that.
He says, that's my child crying out to me, and I love my child, and I care for my
child. What is interesting is that the same idea is that you treat your child
differently than you do anyone else. That's what God's saying. It's that
you're my child. I'm treating you differently. We'll use this illustration
of, I'll use you Don. You don't have to move. Don't worry. If I look at Don,
and we'll use this. If I call Don at 3 a.m., and I say, hey Don, I'm just
really sick. Can you just run over to my house and just give me some
cough medicine? Knowing Don out of the goodness of her heart, she
probably would do this because Don's awesome. If Miles is saying, she's like,
Miles, go get it yourself, dude. It's 3 a.m. I'm going to sleep. Maybe when
you see me, I'll work in the morning. We'll talk, but I'll bring you something.
Miles, but 100% Aaron's like this. When he goes off to college, he's like,
Mom, listen, I just need some cough. She's like, I'm there. You don't have to finish?
I'm driving over. I'm at Bowling Green. I'm there. I'm here for you. Here's some
cough medicine. I'm just taking a little soup, and then I have a picture of Marlena,
too, so it's great. You'll do good. I'm here to encourage you. Why?
Because we're totally different. I love Aaron. He's awesome, but Don's
going to treat us differently, as she should, because I'm not Don's kid. Don's
going to treat me differently, but she's going to also treat Aaron differently.
She's like, that's my kid. I'm there for him anytime, and that's what we got to
understand. When we're adopted, we have a dad who's with us all the time, who loves
us, who's a good heavenly father. The God of the universe. Oh, I think about this.
Like the God of the universe, angels are before him, singing praises, and he has
all the glory and all the honor as he should, yet he cares about me. He values
me. He didn't just say he values me. He proved it by dying on the cross. Not
only did he die on the cross for us, he says, you believe and you have a place in
my dinner table. Now, I'm just going to save you and then cast you off, say, no,
come live with me. Come be with me and dwell with me. We are a part of his
family, which means he's our father, which means he loves and cares for us. And
what this result should be is we change from insecure to secure. We become
secure in the father's love for us. There's this change here. We see this in
Romans 8, 38 through 39. It says, for I am persuaded that neither death nor life
nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come
nor height nor death nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. I love that last part.
Nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus
our Lord. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing will cause him to love you less. You know, so
I've heard this and I've thought this. It's like, what, Miles? I don't feel loved.
It's like, really doesn't matter what you feel. You're loved. You might say, well,
Miles, I don't feel like he loves me. It doesn't matter how you feel. This is a
matter of feeling. This is a matter of fact. Your God loves you and you can't do
anything to change it. Sorry. He loves you and that's so comforting because I don't
always feel lovable. Yet he loves me and the result is instead of being insecure,
I find my security in him and his love for me. And because of Christ, I find
sufficiency. I find love. But then I got to see, what is my purpose though? Why am
I still here on this earth? I'm glad he loves me, but what is my purpose? And we
see this in our next point. Because of Christ, I am an heir. Last verse for
tonight. Verse seven. Wherefore thou art no more servant but a son. And if a son
then an heir of God through Christ. A change has occurred. I'm not a slave, so
I don't act like it. I'm an heir. What does heir mean? It is one who has the fancy
definition. It's one who has acquired the portion allotted to him. It's this
idea of inheritance. I have this great collection in my office of
rubber chickens. Really weird. And then when I die, my heir, who wants to be my
heir for rubber chickens? Madison, you're my heir for rubber chickens.
You're welcome. Great honor. When I die, then Madison now gets to be the heir of
that great fortune. You're welcome. She gets those rubber chickens. Silly
illustration, but you get the point. And specifically in this context of
Galatians, it's within a family. This idea of heir that he's talking about.
That there's this son that gets something from his father. And the status here is
amazing. Because what that means is, if I'm an heir, then I'm accepted. And I'm
part of his family. That means I have certain rights. That means I have a
future inheritance. We see this in 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 4. Peter says to
an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, that fated thnot away, reserved
in heaven for you. And man, when I start to think about who I am, how much I don't
deserve this, how much grace and mercy God has, man, what a privilege. And what
that changes in my mind. When I truly meditate on the status that I am an heir,
it changes me from feeling insignificant to I know that I become
significant. And it's not the idea of I'm better than all of you. I'm the best.
Know it's that I have value and significance because of Christ. Man,
we're all looking for purpose. We're all looking for belonging. We're all looking
for acceptance. Whether you're like five, whether then you're 95. You're looking
for that. You still want it. And we so desperately are seeking affirmation from
others and even from self. And we see this in society. In college, I was a
biblical counseling major. We talked a lot about counseling, a lot about
psychology, a lot about the wrong ways to do psychology, to be honest. There's
just one wrong way. Go and throw it up there for me, Logan. Alright, there's this
idea of self affirmations. I really, I really don't like it. You might disagree
with me and that's okay, but I really don't like it because this idea, where it
comes from, is this idea of humanism. And it's just focused on me and that I am the
best. And all I need to do to feel better about my life is realize that I am the
best. So to make myself feel better is that I get a mirror every morning and I
look up and I got to go through my self affirmation and say, I am brave. I am
strong. I am smart. I am kind. I am helpful. I am grateful. I am resilient. I am
important. I am loved and I am enough. And I'm not making fun of it, but I kind of
am, alright? Because why I don't like it is because it's so about you. And the
problem is, is that I'm not enough. And I can say it to myself 50,000 times.
Doesn't change anything. Doesn't help me throughout my day. Gives me this false
illusion of security, but then something bad happens and everything falls out from
under me. And I realize I'm not enough. I'm not resilient. I fail. I can't keep
going. I'm not brave to be honest with you. I'm not always kind. If I'm kind, it's
by Christ. And that's the point. It's all by who I am in Christ. What I need to do
is instead of just going through I am, I am, I am, what I need to do is switch and
say, God is, God is, God is. Here's who my God is. And because of him, because of
what he's done, here's who I am. And it realized that I am a child of the king
and a brother to my savior. And I'm significant and I matter not because of
me, but because of him. It's got to be him. And I don't mean to make fun of this
in the sense of if you've done this. More so, I mean, that's not going to solve
your problems. That's not going to make you feel better. That's not going to give
you hope because it's relying on you to do it. And I hate it because there's this
this idea going around where people are literally telling teenagers to do this.
And if you just say this and believe it hard enough, you'll be it. I'm like, no,
you won't. You're literally leading them astray that they can do it by themselves.
And then they get into even more mess, into even more sadness, even more
depression. I'm like, stop telling them to do it. Tell them to look up and look at
Jesus. That he's the hope. He's the one that makes this secure. He's the one that
gives us strength and purpose. He's the one that gives us significance. It's all
about Jesus. And it makes me feel so much better when I'm not about me. I'm about
him. I actually feel better. I feel hopeful because it's no longer about me. I was
watching before I preach a sermon. I try to watch different pastors give a
sermon on insecure or different topics, whatever I'm preaching on. And there was
a pastor that gave one about insecurity, a few different ones. And not to dis on
him. He was biblical. He was exegeting the text. He was good. He just said
something in passing that bothered me. He said, hey, you know, guys, there's just
there's no all-in-one cure for insecurity. And he just kept going. I was like, I
don't think that's true. You just got to learn to live with insecurity. It's just
with me forever. Sorry. It's like, no, Jesus is secure for my insecurity. I
realized that my worth is tied to who he is. And there's this beautiful chain of
acceptance. I think I have it up there for me, Logan. I will talk through this real
quick and then we'll be done and wrap up. Well, there's this beautiful chain of
acceptance that happens when I'm in Christ. There's first, there's grace that I
realized that God accepted me through his death and resurrection of Jesus. It's
grace. It's not something I deserve. Then second is faith. Because of this grace,
grace, I have faith. I have acceptance that God accepted me. So first, God
accepted me. Now I have faith that he has done it. Not that I've done any work. It's
that he's done the work and I have faith in him. I have faith that he's accepted me.
And then because of the faith I have in him, now I can have peace. Now I'm able to
accept myself. There are so many Christians who are just so feeling guilty
all the time, that feeling sorrow all the time, that feel worried all the time, that
just aren't resting. And there's this idea of I need to be able to accept myself
and not the sense of who I am without Christ, but accept who I am in Christ.
That I can go through life and feel peace. And because I have that peace, and it's
not prideful, it's realizing that my value is fixed on Christ, I can then love. I
can go and accept others. Instead of trying to reject them, I can actually
show love to them. Now love isn't permission, it's just let them do wrong.
It's loving to them to say, I'm here for you and I accept you and I'm not pushing
your way. I'm resembling my Savior in how he loves me. And then there's fellowship
because now that person accepts me. And there's this whole idea of acceptance
that's happening. I get grace from Jesus, from God, the gift of Jesus. I faith in
that gift. Then I can have peace because then that helps me to love you more, then
that helps us to have fellowship. And it's a beautiful thing. It's the gospel.
It's that he accepted me. And that changes my entire life, my entire being, my entire
identity. Insecurity is not a must for life. We just need Christ. There's a quote
that says, and I love it, security is not in a place, but in a person. It's in Jesus.
And there's this hard shift that we have to do because insecurity can be so tied
to our daily life. If we get so insecure about failing, I don't want to be a
failure. And then what we do is that I really don't want to be a failure, so I'm
just not gonna try. Not gonna try at work, I'm not gonna try to take initiative,
I'm not gonna try my relationships, not gonna try in life because I just don't
want to fail. Some are so insecure about the future, man, what's gonna happen?
I'm just worried all the time about it. I'm insecure that everything's gonna fall
apart. And then what we do, what I do is that, and I shouldn't do this, is I try to
fight insecurity, so what I do is I go to wealth and I just see if I can just get
enough. But as we learn last, literally last Wednesday, right, first time that he
talks about this, is that don't put your faith in uncertain riches, it'll always
fall. Well then sometimes I try to put my faith in a leader and if I just follow
them and do what they want, and a man leader, not Jesus, but just if I
follow their leadership, then maybe I can make it. But I realize they're not
enough. Sometimes I go to the world and say, if I just live how I want, live for
pleasure, always leaves me empty. And I realize that my solution is so self-
obsessed. But what I gotta realize is my identity doesn't revolve around me. It
needs to revolve around Christ. That changes everything. Your identity, your
believer tonight, rests safely and securely in Christ. So my first question
for you tonight is, have you believed in them? I mean, actually we say that all
the time, and as we should, amen, the gospel should preach every day, proclaimed
every day. But have you had a moment where you've admitted that you are a
sinner, that you need to save your, and the only one who's gonna save you is Jesus
who died on the cross to save you from your sins? Don't let that be a, oh yeah,
all right, we're going in the gospel. All right, this is the time where we start.
All right, we got Seer Bolso, he's wrapping up. Well, think about the gospel for
just 10 seconds, and just how amazing it is, because it changes everything. And if
you haven't believed, no wonder you feel insecure. Man, I'd feel insecure, because
my only security is him, and I'm trying to do it, but only he can do it. Will you
place your faith in Jesus here tonight? Now, I know that there's many believers
who feel miserable, or who just feel worthless, and that breaks my heart. You
feel like your failures in school, failures in work, failures in your
families, failures with your friends, everything you do, who you are, you're
just like, I don't measure up. Miles, I can't do it. I don't measure up, and I'm
gonna say to you, you're so right, you don't. You aren't supposed to, you can't.
So I'm trying to do what only Christ can do. Run to him, just run to him and say,
Lord, I need you, my identity is in you. I've been trying to do it for so long, and
man, I feel so worthless, and I feel like I can't, and I feel like I fail, but go
to the one who's never failed, go to the one who gives you worth, run to Christ,
and see that he is sufficient. He gives you security, he gives you
significance. It's so much better to be in Christ, and to realize your identity is
in Christ alone. So here's some practical things that I want you to think
through, because we have to understand our last verse here tonight is, you are a
new creation in Christ when you believe in him. Saint Corinthians 5.17 says,
therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed
away, behold, all things are become new. I gotta redefine how I see myself, because
here's how God sees you when he looks at you. You see all the old, he says, that's
my new creation, how he sees you. So here's what I encourage you to do, three
things. I encourage you to write them down. I'll say them a few times. I don't
have them on slide, but I want you to think through them. First, meditate on
truth. You gotta have scripture in your daily life. Devotional, 100%. Also, just
have scripture with you at different times. And points, like, I need to put
scripture next to my mirror, because that's sometimes when I feel the worst.
I'm staring, I'm like, all right, dude, we gotta go do the day, and I gotta get
strength, and I don't know how I'm gonna do it, but then I can look over to a
verse, and I see my hope is not in me, my hope is in him. Glacians 4 is a perfect
one to think through. Romans 8 talks all about your identity in Christ.
Sanctions 517, the verse we just read. Ephesians 2-10 talks about us being
workmanship, masterpieces of Christ. Meditate on truth and meditate on Christ.
Second, I encourage you to write down just who God is, his attributes. And
especially if you're feeling insecure, what I encourage you to do is, this is
what I do. I'm feeling insecure, and I just kind of wallow myself in my
insecurities, like, I'm just insecure, and I'm the worst. It's like, okay, if I want to
actually fix it, here's what I do. I think about God. I think about his
attributes. And then I do, all right, because of God, here's who I am in Christ.
I'm redeemed, I'm adopted, I'm an heir. Actually, think through that. You can't
help but leave encouraged. And then third, so first, meditate on truth. Second,
write down who God is, focus on his attributes. And then third, pray. Pray and
say, Lord, you are my Savior, you are my Father, you are my King, and because of
you, I am redeemed, I am adopted, I am an heir. And the result of that is that you
become my sufficiency, you make me secured, you give me significance. I mean, that
changes your day, man. That changes how you think. It works, because that's what
God tells us to do. So often I complain and get upset and insecure, and it's like,
have you prayed? And then I pray and I say, wow, things are better. They're better
when you're with the Savior. I don't know where you are. Here's what I do know,
though, is that you don't have to be insecure. You can be secure. The words of
an old hymn bring me comfort before we close. Rock of ages, cleft for me, let me
hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from thy wound decide which
flow. Be of sin, the double career, save from wrath and make me pure. Remember who
you are in Christ. Let's pray.