Message Preached on October 30, 2022 by Pastor Charles Little
Outside of your vocation and your title, do you really know who you are? We tend to define ourselves by the standards of men, instead of the standards of God. All throughout our lives what we realize is that those around us define, or at least try, to define who we are. So much so that we start to please or pattern our lives after who they say we are. Again, ask yourself do you really know who you are?
As a child, there were labels put on you. Often these labels allow you to be shaped and defined. You can also be destroyed by these labels that were spewed out. Have you ever been aspired to do something because family wanted it? Or others were projecting on you to do a certain thing? To the point you achieved what was pushed, only to realize you don’t even like what you’re doing. You reached that ladder of the corporate job or got promoted, only to realize it’s not what you wanted or thought it would be. What’s happening is there is no fulfillment in what you thought you wanted, or better yet what “they” wanted for you.
We struggle to meet others expectations. Sometimes you succeed and other times you fail in meeting those expectations. Many are finding themselves unhappy and unsatisfied; circling back to the question of ‘Do you know who you really are’? Too often we see others leaving their homes, marriages, spending money, using substances, and going on sabbaticals just to find their identity. Still no answer to what they seek.
Something that comes easy, we don’t pay much attention to. The Gospel of Jesus is so easily available to us that we often lose sight of the ramifications of what God is asking of us. When you decide to take heed of God’s call on your life, and accept; you’re deciding to step out of what you knew into something you did not know. Abraham was a perfect example of this (ref. Genesis 12). The only time and way to know who you are is when you accept the call of God.
Stop setting your standards according to someone else’s standards! You’re not able to find out who you are because you are too busy fixing your eyes on others. Don’t emulate others and what they have. Work out your calling and know where God has called you. There’s no need for jealousy but know who you are in God and not in what others have to say you are.
Talk to God to know your identity. Go before Him and don’t be afraid to ask, ‘who am I’, ‘what have you called me to do?’ To go even further, surround yourself with people who will pour into you.
For to present yourself as a living sacrifice, you must know who you are in God.
