Who Are You?

Who Are You?

 

Good Morning Friends,

 

Paul on the road to Damascus asked Jesus today’s question. We ask it of ourselves with a bit of the insight that Paul in time gained from asking the question as he faced his sin in the light of Christ. For once we discover who we are and what we are living for, we can learn how to love in a better way. Once our identity is in Christ, He remembers us. Back before the foundations of the earth were made, God decided to adopt us into His family through Jesus Christ. God decided to love us as His own…. to remember us. In today’s scripture once again we see the insight about life when we know the answer to today’s question. So, who are you that God would want to know your name? Who are you that God would want to share your hurt? Who are you that God would want to share His love? Who are you that God would want to calm the raging storm inside you? Who are you?

 
 

Scripture: Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” He asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.

 

Acts 9:3–5 (NRSV)

 

Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.

 

Isaiah 49:15-16 (NRSV)

 

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, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.

 

Ephesians 1: 3-14 (NRSV)

 

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ–if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

 

Romans 8:14-17 (NRSV)

 

Message: Who are you really deep inside? What is your identity? I think we are what God’s Word says we are. We are forgiven. We are redeemed. We are righteous through the righteousness of God in Christ…joint heirs with Jesus. We are blessed with all the spiritual blessings.  We are children of God and our inheritance is greater than we can imagine. Friends, everybody wants to be somebody. So strive to understand who we really are already. Understand that we do not need to try to become someone or something we already are. We have received the Spirit of adoption. We are not just part of the family, but sons and daughters of the Father. We are heirs of the kingdom of God.  The one thing that we all need to know is that we are loved. We base our importance on our appearance, achievements, approval, wealth and power, but the problem with all these constructed standards is that they are not stable. They can change in the blink of an eye. If you want to build your self-image, build it on something that will last. When we love God enough to give up the things in life that do not last, He gives us something that lasts eternally…His uplifting grace-filled love that soothes our very souls. Trust Him, love Him. Know you are a child of God… that He can heal any feelings of rejection you have…He can love you even though you can no longer remember. God can convert us even though we cannot yet clearly see that He has written our names on His scarred hands.

  
 

Pray for all those children in Haiti who have never had a parent lift up their name in prayer. Pray for all those children whose parents have died.
Pray as in the Lord’s Prayer that we break down all social, ethnic, economic and denominational distinctions. Pray we allow God’s Spirit to lead us. Pray that we realize that with God on our side we cannot lose in the things that really matter. Pray we stand in a relationship of love with God and with each other as a family. Pray we act like we are children of God.

 

Blessings,

 

John Lawson