Who Am I with Guest Pastor Sherri Richard

Welcome to the MetaCurch Podcast.

My name's Clayton.

I'm the pastor here at Medichurch.

And my hope is that today's podcast finds you at the perfect time in your life.

God uses it to inspire and enlighten you.

I hope that you enjoy today's message.

And so I uh I was actually thinking this morning that my very first sermon that I ever gave to grown-ups, because I was in student ministry, so the first time they let me loose in front of grown-ups was actually at the 151 saloon, lots and lots of years ago.

And so I just, you guys have such a special place in my heart, Clayton and Noel and your entire team.

I just love you guys, and I'm so excited to be here with you today.

And so I um I wanted to share with you guys something that God has been really, really speaking to me about over the last couple of years, and that's identity.

In my time pastoring people and counseling with people, this topic comes up all the time because we've all struggled to answer this question.

We've all struggled to answer the question, who am I?

And so if you ask me, who am I, I would say, well, I'm Sherry.

Um I'm 33 years old.

I actually turned 34 tomorrow, so I just came so you could tell me happy birthday.

Thank you, thank you.

Um and um, I don't know, I'm five foot nine.

If I stand up real tall, I weigh some number of pounds.

Um I you know, I have brown hair, I have brown eyes.

You know, this is a fairly decent physical description of me.

But is that who I am?

Because if I was to say, cut all my hair off, dye it a different color, put in color context, change my physical appearance, change my name even, would I still be me?

Well, yes, I think most of us agree that I would in fact still be me.

So there must be more to our identity than just the statistics that show up on our driver's license.

And so what about like the intangibles in my life?

Like, um, you know, I love being outside, I love hiking and fishing, I love music.

Like, is that who I am?

Well, no.

Those are just my interests.

Okay, well, um, I'm a Texan.

Is that who I am?

Well, no, that's that's where I live.

Well, I'm a pastor, that's a really huge part of my life.

Is that who I am?

Well, no.

That's my job.

Alright, well, okay, uh, I'm a mom, I'm a sister, I'm a wife, I'm a friend.

Like, those things are so pivotal and foundational in my life.

Certainly that's where my identity lies.

Well, no, those are simply the roles that I play in the unique relationships in my life.

So who am I?

It doesn't matter if you're nine years old or ninety years old, we have all struggled with our identities.

All right, so a midlife crisis.

We've all heard of a midlife crisis, correct?

Right?

Somewhere in the middle of our lives, we start to like have like it's an identity crisis.

We start to ask really kind of deep questions and existential questions about our existence.

Like, have I done enough to leave a lasting legacy?

Am I doing enough to be the person that I want to be?

And most importantly, and I can't emphasize this enough: does this sports car make me look younger?

We're here at church to hear hard truths, right?

The answer is no.

Um, and so and so, you know, we're all familiar with the midlife crisis.

That is simply an identity crisis.

But identity crises aren't just specific to the middle of our lives.

In fact, about a dozen years ago, social scientists coined the term quarter life crisis, where they started to see these same anxieties and these same identity crises happening in young people in their teens and 20s.

Like, am I gonna get into the right school, get the right job, can I get the house, the spouse, the 401k by society's deadline?

And I wish I could say that uh these identity crises didn't go any younger than that.

But the more time goes on, we're seeing younger and younger kids struggling with their identities.

Right now, the research is focusing on kids around 9 or 10, because that they're seeing this spike among them.

And all you have to do is get on your kids' social media accounts to see exactly who the world is telling them they need to be.

Telling them exactly how they need to set their identity in really significant ways at a really young age, and it's toxic.

Y'all, when I was 10 years old, I was practicing Power Ranger moves on my neighbor's trampoline.

I was the pink Power Ranger, and that's important.

If you leave with nothing else, because that's better than the Yellow Ranger, but I was practicing Power Ranger moves.

I when somebody asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, it didn't feel like a contract.

But this is the world our young people are living in when they should still be outside playing freeze tag with their friends.

It doesn't matter if you're nine or you're 90.

We have all wrestled with this question, and the world is always waiting just right around the corner to tell us who we need to be, to tell us how much money we need to make if we want to be successful, to tell us how woke we need to be in our growing cancel culture so we don't get canceled, telling us what it looks like to be a good parent or a good spouse, all right?

Telling us what our priorities should be.

The world will always be right around the corner, telling you exactly who you should be.

It's no wonder we struggle with our identities.

And the world feeds us a formula, right?

And I want to share that formula with us.

This is a formula that we feed each other, our children, whatever.

And that is that what I do determines who I am.

So if I do good things, I must be a good person.

If I do bad things, I must be a bad person.

If I make enough money, I must be a successful person, and so on and so forth.

And this formula makes sense on the surface.

But it's not serving us, is it?

This formula does not work for me, and I'm pretty confident it's not working for you either.

Because I don't actually think there's truth in it, especially if we're followers of Jesus.

A much more accurate statement is this is that what I do does not determine who I am, but in fact, who I am determines what I do.

Or more accurately, who I believe I am determines what I do.

But this wraps us all the way back around to the same question we started with.

Who am I?

And so the Apostle Paul was one of the primary writers of our Christian scriptures, and his gig is he traveled around the Mediterranean and he would go and he would share the good news of Jesus with people in these key places, and then he would plant these churches, these gatherings of people who believed in Jesus, and they went forward and spread the good news.

And Paul, when he left, he didn't just leave them to hang like high and dry, he would write them letters, and that's what most of our Christian scriptures are letters that are written between people.

Now, Paul is somebody who actually struggled with his own identity quite a lot.

And so he actually addresses this issue in several of his letters.

But today I want us to look specifically at a letter that he wrote to a group of people who lived in a city called Corinth.

Now, Corinth was a port city that was known very well, it was infamous for its vices, much like a modern-day Las Vegas, but times like, you know, five or ten.

And so it was so known for its vices that I, in my research, I found this interesting Greek word.

You don't find it in the Christian scriptures, our Christian scriptures are written in Greek, but you don't find this word there.

You find it kind of in um secular writings from the first century.

And the word is corinthiozomai, and it was an insult, and it meant to behave like a Corinthian, and it was a euphemism for sexual immorality.

So even to be called a Corinthian was like a punchline in a dirty joke.

These were people who were very well acquainted with this formula that the world feeds us, very well acquainted with this concept that what I do must determine who I am, that understood that that had this angst about their worst days, defining how people thought about them.

And so Paul writes to them to address lots of things, but this is one of them.

And so let's jump in right here.

We're gonna be in 2 Corinthians 5, 17.

And it says, if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation.

Old things have passed away.

Behold, all things have become new.

So let's break this down really quickly.

All right, let's look at this first part.

If anyone is in Christ, so what does it mean to be in Christ?

All right, this term is used countless times throughout the New Testament.

And so if we can grab a hold of this, it's gonna be really significant for our own personal study of Scripture.

So let's talk about what it doesn't mean really quick.

All right, in Christ does not mean inside Christ.

Like you park your car inside your garage, or there's big red and barbacoa inside your stomach right now.

That's not how this works.

All right, in Christ means that you belong to Christ, that you are united with Christ is sometimes the way that it's translated.

More specifically, we believe that if you have believed in Jesus, that you are in Christ, if you have believed in Jesus, this is your identity.

I want you guys to say this with me.

You say, I am in Christ.

Let's say it together.

I am in Christ.

I hate to tell you, but the 945 was much louder.

It was heartfelt even.

Let's ragging ready.

I'm a youth pastor, I can do this all day, y'all.

So let's go.

All right, I am in Christ.

Awesome.

That is your identity.

If you have believed in Jesus, this is who you are.

And so let's look at this next part, all right?

If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation.

All right, let's focus on that word new really quickly.

Because this word is also translated in the in our Christian scriptures, it's translated the word fresh.

Which new makes sense.

We understand what new makes what means, but when you add the word fresh, it adds this like additional layer.

Because if something is new and it's fresh, it's something, it's it's clean, it's not spoiled or tarnished.

When I think about the word fresh, I immediately think about my, like I said, my time in student ministry when um I would take students to camp during the summer in South Texas.

It was really hot.

And um and so we would go to camp, and it doesn't matter what camp you're at or what retreat you're at, there's kind of a routine that happens every day because most of the time when you have kids at camp, you're spending all day outside.

And so right before dinner, or maybe right before evening chapel, we'd send all the kids back to their dorms to go and get cleaned up.

Now, if I told you go get cleaned up, you'd probably go take a shower.

Makes sense.

And that's what most of the students would do.

But God gifted us with this wonderful beast known as middle school boys.

And uh, whereas most everyone would go, not all middle school boys, but whereas most everyone else went to take a shower, there was always a group of middle school boys that came back like suspiciously quickly from getting cleaned up.

And once they got within about 10 feet of you, you quickly, quickly realized that they had in fact not showered, but instead doused themselves from head to toe in axe body spray.

If you do not know what axe body spray is, you just need to thank the Lord for his provision in your life, okay?

Whew! And so, they, y'all, let me tell you, they thought they smelled real fresh.

And nothing could be further from the truth.

Y'all, when something is new, when it is fresh, it is not something old covered in axe body spray.

It is not a new paint job on an old car, it is not a refurbished laptop, it is not reheated barbacoa from the back of the fridge, no.

When something is new, when it is fresh, it is truly new.

And so I want you guys to say this with me.

I have been made new.

Let's say this together.

I have been made new.

So let's look at this last piece.

If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation.

Old things have passed away.

Behold, all things have become new.

All right, so we talked about what new meant here, so let's talk about what old means here.

All right, the old here is everything we were before we believed in Jesus, if you've believed in Jesus.

All right, but because before we believe in Jesus, before we are in Christ, we are separated with God.

We cannot have a relationship with him because our sin separates us from him.

The old here, what it's talking about is that separation.

But that separation is gone when we are in Christ.

All right, we are united with Christ if we have believed in him.

That is the old that it's talking about here.

All right, behold, all things have become new.

All right, so I want you to say this with me.

I am united in Christ.

Say that.

I am united in Christ.

I hear this little voice over here that I love so much.

Oh my goodness, I love it.

Oh, so I am united in Christ.

All right, so when we believe in Jesus, when we are in Christ, this is our identity.

This is who we are.

And you know, on paper, often it's easy for us to kind of hear it and understand, like, okay, Sherry, I get it.

You don't have to make me repeat after you anymore, like this is my identity.

But you know, it is so difficult for us to truly take this in and truly live it out.

It takes so much for this information to get from our head to our hearts, and even more for it to get from our hearts to our hands and our feet so that we can live it out.

So I want to show you one more thing in scripture to help us really understand our identity.

All right, so in uh we were just talking, we've been looking at this letter that Paul wrote to the people in Corinth.

And so we know that he was writing to them about lots and lots of issues, but I'm gonna highlight a few right now.

All right, these are folks who are a lot like you and me.

They had real struggles in their lives, they had sin that was present in their lives, they had questions about what it looked like to follow Jesus.

And in his letter, Paul's not known for pulling punches, and so he doesn't pull any punches in his letter to those who were in Corinth.

All right, he addresses serious sexual immorality and promiscuity.

He addresses taking advantage of one another and not having integrity and business dealings.

He talks about divorce, he talks about harmful influences, he talks about wavering faith, talks about people who struggle with their faith.

And yet look how he addresses them.

Says to the church of God, which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints.

Now, some of us have preconceived notions when it comes to this word saint.

If you grew up uh maybe Catholic or in a Catholic like adjacent, um, this word you've heard it a lot, right?

Because maybe you've prayed to saints, or you have family who have prayed to saints, or have saints, you know, in their homes and things like that.

And really, if we can boil down what a saint is, is it someone who has lived an absolutely exemplary life, someone who is a fantastic model of what it looks like to follow Jesus, a great example for all of us.

All right, maybe you've all turned and you've used this word really casually.

Like maybe um it's a Monday morning and you're really dragging and your favorite co-worker shows up with a cup of coffee.

You might say something like, Oh my goodness, thank you so much.

You are such a saint.

All right, but in whatever context you've heard this used in everything in between, in these instances, we call someone a saint because of something they've done.

We call someone a saint because of the good behavior that they have going.

But we know for a fact that Paul isn't talking to particularly exemplary people here.

He's talking to people like you and like me, people with very real struggles, people struggling to figure out what it looks like to follow Jesus, and yet he calls them saints.

This isn't an isolated incident.

All right, we can look at a letter that Paul wrote to a place uh called Colossae.

All right, he writes to the people there and he talks about anger, rage, malicious behavior, behavior, slander, greed, and idolatry, and yet, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colossae.

In his letter to the Romans, y'all, if you take all of the mentions of sin throughout the New Testament and combine them together, the book of Romans still has more mentions, times two.

All right, Paul really doesn't pull any punches writing to the Romans.

In fact, he even addresses his own sin in his letter to the Romans, and look how he addresses them.

To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints.

In Ephesus, his letter to Ephesus, to the saints who are in Ephesus, who and who are faithful in Christ Jesus.

Even in the middle of their struggles, in the middle of their mess, Paul calls them saints.

In contrast, our Christian scriptures never refer to believers as sinners.

Our Christian scriptures never refer to people who are in Christ as sinners.

Does scripture address sin?

Heck yes, it does.

Lots of times.

Does it address the sins of believers, of those who are in Christ?

Absolutely, it does, and yet believers are never called sinners.

And that's what we need.

The authors of our Christian scriptures, they understood something that we need to be able to capture right now.

And that's that if we are in Christ, if we are believed in Jesus, our identity is no longer sinner but saint.

We may sin, but that is not where our identity lies.

Our identity lies in Christ.

I want us to say this together.

I am a saint.

Say that with me.

I am a saint.

Y'all, what I do does not determine who I am.

But who I believe I am does determine what I do.

Who do you believe that you are?

If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation.

Old things have passed away, and behold, all things have become new.

This is who you are.

This is where your true identity lies.

What you do does not determine who you are.

This is who you are.

Read these with me again.

I am in Christ.

Together, I am in Christ.

And I have been made new.

I have been made new.

I am united with God.

I am united with God.

And I am a saint.

I am a saint.

If you walk away with nothing else today, but you can hold that tight, it would be the most massive win because understanding who we are in Christ can and will change your life.

And so there's one more thing that we need to address, and it's a big one.

And I know somebody's thinking it right now.

If I am not defined by what I do, if what I do does not determine who I am, then does it matter what I do?

Does it matter what I do?

And if we can boil it down, this is a question about sin.

Because it is so important that we can capture the fact that what I do does not determine who I am, that if I have believed in Jesus, I am in Christ, and that is my identity.

But let's not just leave it there today.

Let's answer a more let's answer a more difficult question on top of that.

Does it matter what I do?

And when we boil it down, this is a question about sin.

Aren't you glad you came today?

Like sin.

Let's go.

Okay, so if this is your first time at church, well, bummer.

Okay, so um, not bummer.

All right, so this is a question that is about sin.

And Paul, to address this, to look at what whether what we do matters, I want us to jump into the book of Romans, to Paul's letter to the Romans.

And like I said, the book of Romans talks about sin more than anywhere else in our Christian scriptures.

Times 2.

But remember how Paul addresses them.

It says, to all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints, because they have believed in Jesus, this is their identity.

They are a saint, not sinners.

And they are loved by God, not because uh because of who they are and not because of what they do.

And so, in order to address sin, Paul goes all the way back to the beginning and the origin of sin.

So that's where we're gonna go quickly now.

So Romans 5 12, it says When Adam sinned, sin entered the world.

Adam's sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned.

Let's break it down.

When Adam sinned, sin entered the world.

Most of the time when I personally think of sin, and maybe you do too, especially in the context of Adam and Eve, we think about it in terms of disobedience.

Like God said, hey, don't do that, and they did it anyway.

And that's an accurate depiction and definition of sin.

But there's something fundamental underneath that I want us to see and capture, because it's very important for our conversation.

In order to illustrate this, I want us to think about God as a shepherd and his people as sheep.

This is a metaphor and an image that's used all throughout Scripture.

And so imagine with me really quickly that Adam and Eve, when they were in the garden, they were like sheep under the care of a loving shepherd.

And their needs were met perfectly under him.

All right, Adam and Eve's not just their physical needs were met, but their emotional needs as well.

Their needs of belonging and significance, of safety and security, were met to perfection.

But then the serpent came.

Satan came and convinced them that their needs were not being met perfectly.

And he entices them to try to meet their needs independently of God.

This is what sin is at its core.

Sin is us, is a wrong attempt to meet our legitimate needs independently of God.

Guys, Satan's ploy in our world and in our lives will always be to try to get us to behave independently of God, to make decisions independently of God.

That is his ploy in our world.

Sin at its core is a wrong attempt at meeting our needs independently of God.

So Romans 5.12, when Adam's sin, we're highlight the next part.

When Adam's sinned, sin entered the world, and Adam's sin brought death.

Death here isn't just physical death, but also spiritual death, because this uh the sin separated God and his children.

Sin separated them from the voice of their shepherd.

And this separation brought gaping holes in their needs.

When Adam's sinned, sin entered the world, Adam's sin brought death.

So death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned.

Their legacy became ours.

We have all sinned.

We have all been spiritually dead, separated from the voice of our shepherd.

And sheep without a shepherd will roam.

They will go out into the wilderness trying to meet their needs, looking for food, water, shelter, whatever, at their own peril.

They don't care if it takes them into dangerous ravines, into wolf-infested territory.

No.

All they can see is their need to meet their legitimate needs.

And we do much the same thing.

But after sin entered the world, after and after his children were separated from him, after Adam and Eve and their legacy left us spiritually dead, God's love for his children never ever wavered.

He could see the pain that came with his people trying to meet their needs independently of him.

He could see their destructive behaviors.

He could see the way that they harmed themselves and harmed others.

And so he created a way to protect them from themselves and to guide them back towards him.

And this was the law.

And so God's law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were.

All right, this sounds super negative, but think about this with me for just a second.

The law here is kind of like a sheepdog.

If you've ever seen a sheepdog work, it is in it's incredible.

These are highly intelligent animals that do the bidding of their shepherd.

They guide the sheep where they need to go, and sometimes more importantly, where they need not to go.

All right, the sheep doesn't like the sheepdog, period.

They don't like being barked at, they don't like being nipped at, they don't like being told what to do.

Can I get an amen?

All right, they don't like that.

But as much as the sheep don't like the sheepdog, a sheepdog is an indicator that a sheep is well cared for.

Because a sheepdog don't just intuitively show up where sheep are.

No.

Sheepdog show up because a shepherd brought them.

Because they care for their sheep and they want to draw boundaries that are gonna keep them safe.

But as good as a sheepdog may be at its job, it cannot change the nature of the sheep.

It cannot make it where it's not prone to wander, prone to escape, prone to go out into the wilderness to meet its own needs independently of its shepherd.

And in the same way, God created the law to guide the people, to show them what to do and what not to do, tried to protect them, tried to draw boundaries to help them stay safe, stay healthy, to draw him, draw them towards him.

But just like a sheepdog cannot change the nature of a sheep, the law cannot change the human heart.

Paul talks about this elsewhere in scripture.

The law has no power to change the human heart.

At its core, the law is good, but it cannot change your hearts.

Following all of the rules can't change your heart.

Checking all of the boxes cannot provide you your identity.

Just forcing yourself to do the right thing cannot tell you who you are.

And doing enough good things cannot fulfill your deepest needs.

Because what you do does not determine who you are.

The law, whether it's the law that we find in Scripture, the rules that you put in your own life, your own standards, your own discipline, whatever that is, they cannot answer the question, who am I?

But as people sinned more and more, God's wonderful grace became more and more abundant.

Alright, so imagine this with me for a second.

All right.

A shepherd, when they hunt for their sheep, their search must always be in equal measure to their sheep's wandering.

Alright, so a sheep travels one mile.

A good shepherd has to go a mile to find that sheep.

If a sheep goes into a dangerous ravine or to wolf-infested territory, that good shepherd will go into that into that danger to go and rescue his sheep and to bring him back towards him.

In order for a sheep to be found, the shepherd's search must always be in equal measure to the sheep's wandering.

And this is what Jesus does for us.

This is why Jesus calls himself a good shepherd, because this is what he does.

He's a shepherd who knows his sheep.

He's a shepherd whose sheep know his voice and he knows them.

A shepherd that would lay down his life for his sheep, a shepherd that would leave the 99 to go and search for the one whose grace is always enough to cover our sin, no matter how far we wander.

Because in Jesus, I am not defined by my wandering.

I'm defined by the love of my Savior.

You are defined by the love of your Savior.

So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them death, now God's wonderful grace rules.

Instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Sin ruled past tense.

Separation ruled in our lives when we were separated, when we were separated from God before we knew Jesus.

Our sin separated us from Him.

But now grace rules, present tense, because Jesus, the good shepherd, has led us back to Himself.

So Paul has just given us a history of sin from its origin to the grace we have received in Christ.

And so now we can finally get to this question, right?

Does what I do matter?

Romans 6, 1 and 2.

Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace?

Of course not.

Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?

Alright, that's it.

See you guys later.

All right.

Alright, this is like a sheepdog, a sheep, excuse me, that has hunted the countryside, trying to meet its needs, uh, its legitimate needs, independently of its shepherd.

All right, this thing's a hot mess.

It's it's gone through the thorns and the brambles, it's put itself in danger, it's starved, it has no shelter, and it is found by its shepherd, and it is lovingly taken back into the fields of his shepherds, where shepherd, where its needs can be met perfectly.

Can that sheep wander?

Yes.

Can it go dart between the dogs and cross boundaries that are meant to keep it safe?

Absolutely it can.

Can it go back out into the wilderness in a wrong attempt to meet its legitimate needs?

Absolutely.

But why would it?

When its needs are being perfectly met, why would it choose to go back to that life?

Guys, you and I, in our sin, we wandered through our lives trying to meet our in our legitimate needs independently of God, our needs for belonging, security, and love.

And when we believe in Jesus, when we receive that grace, we gain a relationship with him.

We can hear his voice.

This is who you are in Christ.

You belong to him, you are in a relationship with him, no matter what you do.

You belong to him, and that is your identity.

But this is the question we have to answer.

Can we still wonder?

Yes.

Can we go back to trying to meet our needs independently of God?

Absolutely.

Most of us do.

I mean, that's part of being human.

Can we cross boundaries that are meant to keep us safe?

Absolutely.

Can we technically go out into the world and do pretty much anything that we want?

Yeah.

Because what I do does not determine who I am.

But who I believe I am will determine what I do.

And when we are in Christ and we continue to make the choice to meet our meet our needs independently of God, then we have to question what it is that we believe about ourselves.

Who do you believe that you are?

Are you living like grace rules in your life?

Or are you living like sin still rules in your life?

Are you living like you are old or like you are new?

Are you living like you are a sinner or a saint?

Are you following the voice of your shepherd?

Are you following your own feet?

Are you letting the world define what is good, right, and true in your life?

Are you God decide what is good, right, and true in your life?

Or are you letting the world define that?

Because the fact of the matter is, and this is so difficult for us to grasp, but if this is where we continue to find ourselves, if we continue to find ourselves in those cycles of sins, trying to meet our needs independently of God, we have an identity problem.

Guys, if this is where you're camped out, you do not have a sin problem, you have an identity problem.

If you continue to find yourselves in the cycles of sins, if you continue to find yourselves in your cycles of addictions, if you continue to find yourselves hurting yourself and the people that you love and back in your cycles of anger, you do not have a sin problem, you have an identity problem.

Because who I believe I am will determine what I do.

This is why what we do matters.

Not because what I do determines who I am, but because what I do is a direct reflection of what I believe about myself.

Who do you believe that you are?

Or grace?

A sinner?

Or a saint?

A child of God?

Or a child of this world?

It is impossible to consistently behave in a way that is inconsistent with what you believe about yourself.

Who do you believe that you are?

And so in 1865, the 13th Amendment went into effect.

And the 13th Amendment freed all slaves.

It freed them from bondage, it freed them from their slave drivers, freed them from laws that said that they were only three-fifths of a person.

And hundreds of thousands of people were freed when the 13th Amendment Amendment went into effect.

It happened on December the 6th, 1865.

And so the question that we have to ask is this how many slaves were there on December the 7th, 1865?

How many slaves were there the very next day?

On paper, none.

In the eyes of the law, these people created in the image of God were free men and free women without exception, without addendum, without an asterisk.

They were free people.

But in practice, nothing could be further from the truth.

Some were able to receive this information, take it in and believe it, and step into their new life, step into the identity that belonged to them as a free person.

Others heard the news, and at no fault of their own, they had no idea what to do with it.

Because all that they had ever experienced was slavery, was bondage.

And so they had no, they didn't know at no fault of their own, didn't know how to step out into life as a free person.

And plenty of people were there to tell them that they couldn't.

And in the last category, in heinous and terrible ways, this truth was kept from so many free people, from free men and free women.

This is why we we remember Juneteenth, because incredible evil abounded and people's freedom was kept from them.

And some people never even had the opportunity to step into their lives as free men and free women.

Y'all, if someone is free, nothing and no one should be able to keep that freedom from them.

That is their identity, it belongs to them, period, and without exception.

If you have believed in Jesus, you are in Christ.

That is your identity without exception.

That is who you are.

And no one and nothing should be able to keep you from that identity, including yourself.

Who do you believe that you are?

A sinner or a saint?

New or old, captive or free.

Who do you believe that you are?

In the face of sin.

Scripture calls us to repent.

And so often we think about repentance as turning away from our sins.

And that's accurate, but it's like the less important part because repenting isn't just turning away from our sins.

Repentance is turning towards God.

Repentance is stepping in to the identity that He has given us.

Because that identity isn't just a feel-good thing to run around and say, look, I'm a saint, and look, it's like it's not a happy-go-lucky thing.

This identity was purchased at a price.

And so often we remember how Jesus died for our sins, and that is incredible.

And thank you, Jesus, forever and ever.

Amen.

But we can't live in Good Friday.

We have to turn around and remember that Easter Sunday happened.

We have to remember that Jesus didn't just come to address our sin, He also came that we could so we could step into new life.

This is why.

This is why what you believe about yourself matters.

This identity was bought with a price.

So will you read these with me?

I am in Christ.

Yes, you are.

Let's read it again.

I am in Christ.

That is your identity.

It belongs to you.

If you have believed in Jesus, it belongs to you without exception.

This is who you are.

I have been made new.

Say that with me.

I have been made new.

Behold, the old is gone, and you have been made new.

I am united with God.

I am united with God.

That separation is gone.

We have the voice of our shepherd because we are united with God.

Last, I am a saint.

I am a saint.

I am no longer a sinner.

I may sin.

I may make some mistakes.

I may fall down and have to be picked back up again over and over again, but that is not my identity.

Because what I do does not determine who I am.

And so right now, we're gonna pray together.

And you know, there's one difficult truth that we need, last truth that we need to say, is that if you've never gotten to the place in your life where you have believed in Jesus, this identity doesn't belong to you.

It's not yours yet.

But if you want to step, if you've never believed in Jesus and you have a desire to step into this identity, you can do that today because it genuinely is as easy as believing.

And for the rest of us, I want us to sit and I just want us to I want us to pray that God would show us and help us to grab onto and let this information move from our head to our hearts and from our hearts to our hands and our feet, because understanding who we are in Christ can change our lives.

Who do you believe that you are?

So will you pray with me?

God, we thank you for who you are.

God, we thank you for the new identity that you gift to each and every one of us when we have believed in Jesus, when we are in Christ.

God, thank you that we no longer have to be defined by our worst days, our worst moments.

We no longer have to be defined by any of that, God, because in you, in Christ, we have a whole new identity.

God, help us to turn away from what the world says is good, right, and true, God, and help us to turn towards you and to step into the identity that you paid so dearly for.

If you're here right now and you've never believed in Jesus, it genuinely is as simple as saying, I believe.

Jesus, I believe in you.

Whether you say it out loud, you say it in your heart, you say it in your mind, whatever that looks like, it's as simple as saying, Jesus, I believe in you.

And this identity is yours.

Because, God, we are in you.

I am in Christ.

I have been made new.

I am united with God, and I am a saint because of what it is that you have done for me.

Thank you, Jesus.

It's in your name that we pray.

Amen.

Thanks so much for listening to the message today.

If this was helpful to you and you want to help us get the word out, you can subscribe to this podcast.

You can rate and review or share it with your friends.

If you want to get connected further with what MetaCurch is doing, you can go online to metachurch.tv.

There you can learn how to take next steps.

You can learn where our different venues are at if you ever wanted to visit, and you can also give financially to help push this movement forward.

And I love you guys, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.