Reboot Identity

You are the beloved of God.  You are the apple of His eye.  He is always for you, never against you.  He loves you with a tender-hearted, merciful love that will never cease. He has called you and named you His child.  You belong to Him.  THIS IS YOUR CORE IDENTITY if you have responded to His grace to you in Jesus and received His Son as your Savior.  You are the beloved of God.  That is who you are.  However, over the years, the one issue I’ve encountered over and over again is how few “Christians” actually see themselves this way or identify themselves as God’s beloved.  Instead, like much of the world, Christ followers are often seduced into building an identity based on our relationships, our money, our power, our status, our beauty or our accomplishments.

And what happens when we pursue these false sources of value or identity- we are left struggling with the constant fear of rejection, riding a rollercoaster of successes and defeats, feeling miserable one day and elated the next, and always grappling with worries and concerns that are beyond our control.  But God does not want you to live this way.  God doesn’t want you to DEFINE yourself by what you do, who you know, how you look or what you’ve got.  He wants you to live out of the identity He gave you when He called you to believe in Him.  He wants you to live out of your true identity as His beloved child.

That’s why it’s imperative that we take a fresh look at WHO GOD SAYS you really are. For our world is constantly trying to shape you into its image: trying to tell you who you are, trying to tell you how you should live and who you are to trust in.  And the truth is, that EVERYHTING the world is pushing on you today is a lie.  Oh sure, it’s great to receive the applause of man for a moment, it feels good to succeed in business and in life – and you may glory in the flush of your accomplishments for a day, and you may enjoy all the comforts cash can buy.  But none of what the world promises you will ever give you the approval, or the value or the security that God has already given you when He made you His beloved.

So, this morning, we are going to look at what God has done to make you His own, to transform your confidence, and give you an identity that will help you can get off the approval treadmill, free you from being a slave to money, power or success, and give you a whole new confidence and outlook on life.  So, if you long for the approval, security and life that God wants for you as His beloved, then let me encourage you to open your Bible to 1 John 3:1-3, where we are going to see how God changed everything for you the moment He made you His beloved. So, if you’ve found 1 John 3, here is how John describes your true identity as God’s child: Behold what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.  Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see him as He is.  All who have this hope in Him purify themselves, just as He is pure.  1 John 3:1-3

In this passage John shows us three ways being God’s beloved will change your life.  And the first is this: Being God’s Beloved Will Change How You See Yourself   This is all about your value and worth as a person, and it begins with understanding the love in God that moved Him to make you His own:  Listen again to how John describes God’s love for us.  He says: Behold what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.  1 John 3:1

The very first word in this verse commands us to take a good hard look at God’s love.  He says “Behold”  This means we are to take a good hard look at, to really see, to examine the breadth and depth of God’s love for you.  Consider what KIND of love the Father has given to us. This is an out of this world kind of love.  You will not find God’s kind of love from humans in this world. It’s a totally different kind of love.  Its the kind of love that surprises us; that’s foreign to us; that takes our breath away in profound amazement.

It’s the unconditional love of God.  It’s the kind of love that delights to pursue the worst sinner on the planet and make him His child. We don’t love like this.  But God does. Think of a person who’s treated you with contempt, made fun of you or slandered you.  Think of a person who’s messed up so bad you want nothing to do with them.  Think of someone so full of himself or herself that you’re disgusted by them.  Then think of the kind of love that not only befriends him or her, but reaches out, embraces and welcomes him or her into your home and makes them part of your family. That’s the kind of love God has for you.  It’s the scandalous kind of love that takes a defiant rebel and makes him an intimate member of God’s family. This is the love of the Prodigal God who pursues you, embraces you, accepts you, and welcomes you into His family when you trust in Jesus.

This is the kind of love that names us His child.  We don’t call ourselves His children.  The Father names us His children the moment we trust in Jesus.  And when He does this, He makes a permanent claim to your identity and relationship.  You are His beloved child now and forever.  This is not wishful thinking, but an eternal reality.  It has always been God’s plan to make you His child.  That’s the whole point of God adopting you as His very own child the moment you believe in Jesus.  He makes you His child.  It’s His choice.  The choice to make you His own rests entirely on the Father’s great love for you.

So then, once you are His child, you are the object of His great love now and forever.  He gives you the righteousness of Jesus, so that you never have to seek His approval.  You will always have it.  You don’t have to impress Him to get His love.  You don’t have to earn His love.  He will always love you.  I’ve gotten a glimpse of this kind of love this past weekend.  We’ve had all three of my grandsons staying with us.  It’s a little crazy.  But there’s something in me that is willing to love each one of these boys no matter what.  They don’t have to earn my love.  They have great value to me jus as they are.

And yet, God’s love for you is so far greater than any love I might have for them.  Think about this:  God’s essential nature is that of love.  Love is who He is.  Love is His identity.  God is defined by His love.  God sent Jesus to you to show you how much He loves you, how much He wants you to be with Him.  So, He doesn’t just take away your sins when you come to Him; and He doesn’t just give you the righteousness of Christ so you can live in His approval; His love moves Him to adopt you as His very own child, so He can love you every moment of every day.  And the good news of Him adopting you as His very own child, is that there is absolutely nothing in you that will keep God from loving you.  You can be certain that He will always love you.  The good news is that He made you His child so you can live with the security that you will always be loved by Him. That’s the kind of great love the Father has given us – has given to you in Jesus.

So, here’s the most important thing you can do with this truth: Believe in God’s love for you.  Believe you are valuable to Him.  Believe you have His approval.  And believe you are God’s beloved child.  This is who you are.  This is your true identity.  See yourself as God sees you.  Don’t worry about how the world sees you. The world will never recognize your true identity as God’s child, and the reason people in the world will never see you this way, is that they do not know God.  But you do.  So, live in God’s reality, not the world’s reality. See yourself as His beloved.  See yourself as named by Him.  See yourself as adopted by Him.  He initiated this relationship out His love for you.  He first loved you, so that you could love Him.  You are God’s beloved. This is your true identity.  And God wants you to see yourself as He sees you.

And when you do begin to see yourself as God sees you, not only will you have a new sense of security in this world, but you will live with a new kind of confidence.  And that’s the second change God wants us to experience as His child: Being God’s Beloved Will Change Your Confidence!  Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see him as He is. 1 John 3:2

Again, John calls us by our new name.  He calls us the beloved.  We are God’s children – now.  In the present!  By saying this he emphasizes how we are to live out of our identity in the present.  We are to live God’s beloved now. But at the same time, he reveals a future aspect to our identity as God’s children.  There’s coming a day when what we will be is to be revealed: “what we will be has not yet appeared.”  This is an amazing statement loaded with application for us.  He is talking about our character.  What we will become!

Because we are God’s children now, there will be a day when we will be just like Him.   We will be just like Jesus.  We won’t just have all the rights and privileges of Jesus, but we will have the complete character of Jesus.  Here’s the point He wants us to grab hold of here:  On the day God made us His children; He didn’t just change our identity; He changed our nature.  He didn’t just make us His children, He began to change us on the inside so that we would begin to resemble Jesus.  He made us His children He could fit us for heaven, so He could begin to restore in us what has damaged by our sin.  He begins to make us whole, make us right, change our hearts, and change our lives, so we might become more and more like Jesus.

Another way of putting it is this: Your Father Believes in You!  You are going to become like Jesus in every way.  This is not a promise for the few, or for the gifted or talented.  This is a promise for every single person who trusts in Jesus.  Doesn’t matter how broken you are by your sin.  Doesn’t matter how ruined may be your reputation. Doesn’t matter how many bad things you have done.  Doesn’t matter if you grew up in a Christian home, or just came to faith in Jesus.  Doesn’t matter if you are a celebrated CEO or a condemned criminal.  The only thing that matters is that God loved you enough to make you His child, and now wants to make something beautiful of your life.

And I don’t know about you, but when I begin to realize what God wants to do in me, His love for me – His belief in what He can do in me and through me, His belief in me gives me a new kind of confidence to live for Him.  Let this sink in.  God doesn’t just love you with an unconditional love.  He believes in you.  He sees in you what you can become.  And one day you will be just like Jesus, for you shall see Him as He is.

This may be the greatest motivation for change ever given.  God loved you to make you His own.  And God loved you so much He doesn’t want to leave you the way you are.  He wants to transform your life into something beautiful, gracious, pure and good.  This is the second reason why God chose to make you His beloved.  So He could pour His life into you, His love into you, His grace into you, His truth into you, His compassion into you, so you can become more and more like Jesus.

Here’s the thing, some of you may have sat in Churches all your life and never realized how much God wants for you.  He doesn’t simply want you to experience His approval and rest in His love.  God loved you so He might help you become a person of significance and worth in how you live your life!  He believes in you.  He sees what you will be.  But do you see yourself the same way as God does?  Some of you think that perhaps God has forgotten you or given up on you.  But this verse tells us differently.  This verse tells me that God’s not done with you.  He called you to be His beloved so He can help you love like His Son. And today you just need to be reminded of how much He loves you so you can get into the game and begin to love others with the love of Jesus.   Your Father Believes in You!  One day you will be just like Jesus.  One day you will see Him face to face.  And when you do, you will be just like Him.  And when you allow this truth of how the Father sees you, become your core identity, it will give you a new confidence to live for Him.  You will want to follow Him, learn His ways, live like Him, love like Him and live for His glory… You identity as the beloved will change how you approach everything in life.

Which leads me to the third change that should well up in you, as a result of God’s love for you, and that is this: Being God’s Beloved Will Change How You Live     Look now at verse 3, and see the natural response of God’s children who live as the beloved: You will want to be more like Jesus:  All who have this hope in Him purify themselves, just as He is pure.  1 John 3:3  Once you realize who’s you are, who loves you and will never leave you.  Who is always for you and never against you.  Once you embrace your identity as God’s beloved, His love for you doesn’t just change your sense of value, His love for you doesn’t just change your sense of significance, but it changes your motivation for living.  You will want to become more like Jesus.  All who have this hope in Him purify themselves, just as He is pure.  You will be done with sin.  You will see the emptiness and futility of the ways of the world.  You will want what God wants.  So you will pursue His truth, let His Word renew your mind, let His ways become your ways, and let His love transform your life so that you purify your life just as Jesus is pure. For Jesus is pure love, pure patience, pure mercy, and pure grace.  So then, your life will take on a whole new direction.  Listen now to the characteristics of those who are God’s children:

You will follow the Spirit: For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. Romans 8:14

You will become a peacemaker: Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Matthew 5:9

You will love your brothers and sisters in Christ:  This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister. 1 John 3:10

You will have an intimate relationship with your Father: The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by Him we cry “Abba, Father.” Rom 8:15

This is all the new life of the beloved.  Are you starting to see what a difference it can make in your life when you see yourself as God’s beloved?  God has so much more in mind for your life than you may have ever deemed possible.  But do you really believe it?  In Brennan Manning’s book, Abba’s Child, he tells the story of John Eagan.

John Eagan, who died in 1987, was an ordinary man.  An unheralded high school math teacher in Milwaukee, he spent thirty years ministering with youth.  He never wrote a book, appeared on television, converted the masses, or gathered a reputation for holiness.  He ate, slept, drank, biked cross-country, roamed through the woods, taught classes, and prayed.  And he kept a journal, published shortly after his death.  One of his entries was of his annual, silent eight day directed retreat.  On the morning of the sixth day, he was visiting with his spiritual director.  Here is the record of that meeting:

“That day Bob says again with great clarity, striking the table with his fist: “John, this is your call, the way God is calling you.  Pray for a deepening of this love, yes, savor the present moment where God is.  Indulge the contemplative in you, surrender to it; let it be, search for God…  Then he states something that I will ponder for years; he says it very deliberately.  I ask him to repeat it so I can write it down. “John, the heart of it is this: to make the Lord and His immense love for you constitutive of your personal worth.  Define yourself radically as one beloved of God; God’s love for you and His choice of you constitute your worth.  Accept that, and let it become the most important thing in your life.”

So this is what God wants of us: Believe you are the beloved child of God.  Believe you are God’s child.  Find your worth in His love for you.  Believe your destiny is secured in His naming you and adopting you as His child.  And believe He believes in you enough to help you become just like His Son.  Believe you are the beloved child of God.

And if you can embrace your identity as God’s beloved, His love for you won’t just change how you see yourself, but will change how you handle life’s challenges.

So then, whenever you’re discouraged by your own sin or failures, you will remember who chose to love you when you were at your worst, who never gives up on you.

So then, whenever you’re craving a compliment or recognition to gain approval, you can remember who calls you His beloved and sings over you with His love.

So then, whenever you feel unlovely, unworthy, unimportant or unnecessary, you can remember that your God initiated His relationship with you, that He has always wanted to be with you, that He really likes you just as you are, and that He believes in you.

So then, whenever you feel intimidated by those who seem more successful, more beautiful, or more together, remember that God gave that which was most beautiful, talented, and precious to Him so you could become His beloved.

The truth is, if you have come to faith in Jesus Christ at some point in the past, God  has changed your core identity.  You are no longer your performance.  You are no longer your past mistakes.  You are not what you do or what you have done.  For once you have received Jesus Christ by faith; been made right with the Father; God changes your identity, you are now a beloved child of God.  And once you believe this, you’ll never be the same.   Behold what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.  Do you believe this?  Let’s pray.