Sunday 28th May - Rooted in Love - Ian Harding

[Music] foreign welcome to week four of a series that we are calling rooted um and as we've been sharing every single week it is based off this scripture um from Colossians to seven that says this let your roots grow down into him let your lives be built on him him being Christ then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught everything that we have been um talking about everything that we've been sharing in terms of this this series rooted it's about strengthening your faith and as we've been showing every single week we want to provide a picture for you and we've been casting a vision of what it looks like to live a life rooted in God and this week um I want to um and this week as we close out the series um I want to speak a message I'm calling rooted in love so for all those of you who like to take notes and I'm sure that's all of you um I want to speak a message I'm calling rooted in love discovering an identity we can trust so this morning I want to speak on the issue of identity because one of the things that I've realized is that for every single one of us identity is something that is being formed in us every single one of us has an identity every single one of us at some point will ask the question who am I and of course in that moment we're not asking the question who am I in the sense of what's my name we know who we are what we're really talking about is is right at the core of ourselves what is it that makes us us what is it that makes us unique and what are the things that we can build an identity on and this morning I want to give it a little bit of a spoiler because I think there are three simple words that are really helpful when it comes to building an identity and not surprisingly they're from the Bible and the Bible says this over and over and over again in lots of different ways it says this you are loved if we are going to build an identity that is secure the security of your identity is linked directly to your understanding of how God loves you and why God loves you if you want to build an identity that is secure that is what you need to base it on and when I talk about identity um I want to kind of just spend just a couple of minutes just kind of like recognizing the fact that I know that in the world in which we live the culture within which we live right now there are many identities at play we're encouraged almost to explore these identities but when I say identity here what I mean by identity is simply this who you really are and I believe that who we really are is defined by God but there are other even as Christians there are other identities out there that I think we find ourselves drawn to and I'm just going to share kind of a list so when we talk about who we are maybe we think about our age or our stage of Life maybe we think about our gender and often what we do when it comes to identity is we take all of these things from this list and like a bit of a pick and mix we take those ones which we seem to resonate with and we add them into like our identity kit and that's what we that's the way in which often we are encouraged and by our culture to approach identity identity is therefore our culture says anything in a list that you would like to choose and put in your own personal identity box so we have age we have stage of life we have our gender maybe our marital status our upbringing might go into that particular box our sexuality our job or profession the achievements that we have qualifications our level of Education our health our class maybe even our appearance our title our IQ our political views and of course the list goes on whatever it is that you can think of often in our culture we are encouraged to search through that list and decide based on that Who We Are and my own observation is is that whether we do this consciously or unconsciously every single one of us is kind of like almost encouraged to build our identity based on that list now there may be things I've missed off that list but you get the general idea um and basically identity therefore in terms of the way in which the world suggests it to us it's it's an idea of like it's a it's crafting a way in which we wish to be viewed by other people now I'm sure that you like me um know that this is true we all have a way in which we wish to be viewed and and remember the last time you met somebody for the first time I wonder what was in the back of your mind when you were having a conversation with them what is it maybe that you want to share with them in that first meeting something that they know about you the chances are whatever that thing is the reason you want to share that with those people is because that's important to your identity the Bible has a lot to say about identity and it seems I'm contrary maybe to what some people might think that actually the bible really wants to say a lot about Who We Are but obviously unsurprisingly the Bible does have a different view of what should be our priority when it comes to our identity you see according to the Bible living out a secure identity is not about learning to love ourselves more or love ourselves better discovering our identity is not about looking inward more to try and find out who I am what the Bible seems to suggest is that actually learning our identity is found in discovering that we are all ready loved you see identity is not something that we pick from a list identity as we're going to see in the Bible is something that we choose to be baptized into it is something that is given not something that we have to find this is what we see in Mark 1 verses 9 to 11 a very familiar story I'm sure to many of you as these words come up behind me on the screen I'm sure you will have read this many times before Mark 9 verses 9 to 11 and this is from a version um I'm going to read to you a version called the New Testament for everyone which is by NT right anyway moving on it says Jesus baptism but it's the same thing but I just like the way he wears it this is how it happened as in the baptism of Jesus around that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the River Jordan that very moment as he was getting out of the water he saw the heavens open and the spirit of God coming down like a dove onto him then there came a voice out of the heavens and here's what it says you are my son you are the one I love you make me very glad now sorry now one of the things I want you to notice in this particular scene is this simple thing that takes place Jesus asks John his cousin to baptize him at this moment John is offering a baptism of repentance now because Jesus is sinless he has nothing to repent of so whenever I've read this I've always asked myself the question why does Jesus get baptized here why does he need to be baptized it's not because he's done anything wrong and then as I read this recently I realized that I realized that the reason why Jesus is baptized here is because just like us Jesus needs to hear the voice of his father telling him who he is that this moment of Jesus baptism takes place before Jesus has done anything it takes place before Jesus has stepped into his ministry in any way shape or form and what it shows me is this that even Jesus before he steps into his ministry he needs to step into his identity first Jesus like us needs to hear the voice of his father tell him who he is and this morning I feel like the holy spirit is saying to some of you in this room and he's inviting you to be baptized into maybe again maybe in a new way maybe in an heart of who you are he's inviting you and he's saying it's time for you to be baptized fully into who I say you are you've been carrying around bits of identity that have more to do with the way in which our culture sees you done the way that God sees you and that just like Jesus before you go any further in your walk your Journey of Faith maybe you sit here and you feel confused about what God's asking you to do and where he's calling you to go maybe the reason for that is at this moment Jesus is saying I want you to hear from me who you are first it's time to come back to your god-shaped identity rather than living out of any identity the culture places upon you and I'm just going to unpack these five minutes at a time there are three statements that I believe are fundamental to every single human being's identity and they are fundamental to you as a Christian you need to hear these words from your father and here they are you are my son my daughter you are the one I love and thirdly you make me very glad for every single one of us here there will be an element of those three statements that are in some way mixed up confused like static in your soul where it's not clear and you know it intellectually but you don't believe it in your spirit not really and this morning I believe that this is an invitation for you to be baptized into something and I'll say this just as an aside if you were baptized as a kid by your parents you know like your kids took you along to church and they poured water over you that was your parents decision the reason why I believe in adult baptism is because I believe what this story shows us as a principle is that every single one of us needs to do because you'll notice what Jesus did here he asked John to baptize him he chose to be about ties into this identity this was not an identity placed upon him this was not an identity forced upon him this was an identity he chose and then God speaks I think it's the same for every single one of us as adults the reason why we need to be baptized is because we need to be baptized into a god-shaped identity and we need to hear these words let's just um unpack them a little bit number one you are my son I find it fascinating here that the first thing that God affirms when it comes to Jesus identity is that Jesus is his son meaning of course that God is his father Jesus affirms Sorry God affirms that Jesus belongs in family it's not the only place obviously in the New Testament that we hear such language of adoption and the image is deliberate what it means is is that it doesn't matter what your past is it doesn't matter what your past story is when I and when I say it doesn't matter there I'm not saying that what happened to you didn't matter what I'm saying is is that your past does not define your identity what this demonstrates is that you are my child When God says you are my child what he's saying is is that even if as a child there were things that would happen to you there were things that were spoken over you that were not not the word of God that actually the word of God can replace those narratives and you're therefore invited into family Romans 8 verses 15 to 16 makes this clear look at this so you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves here's the truth every single one of us because of life because of the Brokenness of our parents because of the Brokenness of humanity the broken people that we live with and are surrounded by every single one of us be it the way in which we kind of like work we do become fearful slaves to something now whatever for everything one of us in this room that will be something different but they'll re there is a part of us that is kind of like afraid of things there are things that we are afraid to step into if you haven't experienced that recently it's probably because you're living in comfort zoneville and you need to step into something that actually kind of like challenges you but look at what he says instead you have received God's spirit when he adopted you when he adopted you what that means is that God chose you you chose God yeah and when we choose our god-shaped identity yes we choose it we choose to be baptized into it but really it's actually a response to what God did first again you know Romans makes this clear it says you know it says that he first loved us and now we love him as a response to that and then it goes this you adopted you as his own children you've been adopted as a child of God now we call him Abba Father Abba meaning there like the intimate name for father in other words this is the kind of name that you call God when you know it's half past two your mind is racing you are full of fear um you don't know what to do the kind of access you have is at that moment you can say holy spirit Holy Spirit come and bring your peace and in that moment the Holy Spirit comes that's the kind of access you have any moment any place anywhere you ask God to come he's there for his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God's children John 1 verses 12 to 13 says this but to all who believed and accepted him that's Jesus he gave the right to become children of God they are reborn in other words what your past was is not what your future is it's not what your present is you've been Reborn you have been reborn into an identity sometimes I think what happens is is that for some people God's handing them an identity saying look this is the god identity I have for you but sometimes we still choose to live out of our old identity our old habits our old fears our old worries and largely just because they're comfortable because we know them so not with a physical birth resulting from Human passion or plan but with a birth that comes from God so and again it's Pentecost Sunday the day that changes reality it's not just the Fulfillment of a promise it's where it's where God changes the way in which we experience reality because we actually have God remaining living on the inside of us guiding us talking to us leading us into all truth empowering equipping that's what Pentecost means and stands for and so and in that moment God's saying you are my son you are my daughter he's marking you with his assurance let me say you belong to God you are his and part of the identity he wants to give you when he says you are mine is he wants to set you free in whatever area your identity is broken and not whole he wants to make it whole next one you are the one I love we can spend all day on this but we literally have seven minutes so I'm going to break it down and make it really simple really really simple just in case you had never realized you are God's Great obsession God is obsessed with you like that's what the Psalms basically show you know and when the psalmist writes and says things like gosh I'm fearfully and wonderfully made it's because he's realizing how incredible the love of God is for him but he realized In This Moment gosh God you you are just obsessed with your creation that's why he sent you know the famous scripture John 3 16. for God so loved the world you know that he sent his son to die for you and for me God wants us to know more than anything else we are loved we loved not because of our of our ability again if we come to this moment in scripture Jesus has done nothing he is fulfilled you know if it's like Jesus's Ministry like uploading how many percentages you know imagine like a bar on a screen at this point it's zero percent Jesus has fulfilled precisely zero of the mission he came to Earth for but in that Monument his father affirms says You're The One I Love I love you not because I love you because I love you because I love you it's exactly the same kind of love that a parent has for their child and if we can understand even though our parents are not perfect that they incompletely love us how much more the perfect love of God that he loves us unconditionally completely and that that love is stronger than failure that love is stronger than sickness that love is stronger than the darkest Darkest Day in our life that love is stronger that's why you know in one Corinthians 13 He says Love Is This Love Is This Love is this and then right at the end it then has like that short sense love never fails in other words ultimately no matter what comes against you love will win why will love win because love defeated death on a cross and if that love is able to break through the power of death then we don't even need to fear death anymore we don't need to fear anything that happens to us in this life why because the love of God means that there is an eternity for you and for me final thing I want to kind of bring up that it's said here the final statement you make me very glad I've realized this is the parent there's this funny thing um like Ezra does not doubt that we love him questions but sometimes in a weird sort of way you need more than to know that your parent loves you if all Ezra ever got from mum and dad was you are loved there would be something missing and it's this final bit you make me very glad in other versions it says I'm with you I am very pleased in other words if we if you are going to grow if a kid's gonna grow secure and strong here's what they need to know they need to know not only that Mom and Dad love them but they also need to know when mum and dad are happy with them when mum and dad are pleased with them and again the wonderful thing the wonderful thing of this particular it's all right MJ it's fine and the wonderful thing that we see here is that before Jesus does anything for his father his father affirms I am very pleased with you I am very glad about you we live in a culture that constantly measures Us by outcomes and output God comes against that and says because you are in my family and because I love you I am pleased with you my pleasure is based on the strength of my love for you not how well you're doing which is good because my pleasure in Ezra is based on whether he's doing what I'm asking him to not so much so that's where it is different and like elsewhere in the Bible it calls this like the favor of God it's the favor of God although other places it's called the grace of God in other words the unmerited the undeserved unearned blessing of God that when we are baptized into this identity we realize gosh God you're pleased with me and therefore our entire life becomes a response to that because what this demonstrates is don't and I the idea identity the way the Bible sees it is not something that you are seeking to find it is something that has been given and that you live in response to what is given it's not the rushing around trying to crazily find out who am I this person am I this person I'm going to look at this influencer and copy them no that doesn't seem to quite fit and it's coming to that place now God this is who I am and here's the thing the degree to which we are rooted in this truth is the degree to which we will be able to share the love of God with others when you know you are loved and that becomes the primary way in which you are being shaped you will be able to love people better even annoying people or people who get enemies like the Bible says love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you I don't know about you but when I read that I'm like how but I realize that when I read stuff like this I'm like God I want to be that kind of person though and they're like God show me more of who are of who you say I am so I may be more of Who You Are that my identity is primarily shaped by the character of Christ not the character of the world and not the character of my culture and the wonderful thing is and coming back to Pentecost I'm going to close up here it's not something that you have to strive for or gain it is something that we are baptized into so I'm just going to say a very quick prayer and if you feel like the holy spirit's speaking to you I think we want to encourage you hold out your hands just as a symbol of I'm receiving something here Holy Spirit right now I pray for every single one of us in whatever area it is Lord God where our identity is something that we feel like we've been struggling to find or to grasp and In This Moment we speak peace I speak the Peace of the Holy Spirit and right now I pray for every single person baptize this Jesus more fully into who you say we are in Jesus name