Know Them by Name

Introductory/Group Lesson

Who Am I?

Open with Prayer

Opening Story:             

              June 2010. Carrying my resignation letter, I walked into my principal’s office and sat down. I handed him the letter while fighting back tears.

              “Can I talk you into staying?” he already knew the answer.

              “No, but I’m not gone forever.” Emotions caught in my throat.

              “Do you have a job lined up?”

              “No. I’m not sure what’s next. I just know I need to spend this summer learning more about Jesus.”

              He tried to smile. “I don’t want to stand in God’s way, but if you ever want to come back, you will always have a place here.”

              And that’s when God changed everything.

              I came home that afternoon and fell to my knees, tears leaking onto the floor. “Now you’re all I have.”

              For months, I wrestled with my identity. Growing up, I was an athlete, musician, and scholar. Those outward titles gave me purpose and position. Beyond those, I was a leader in the youth group, a good kid, hard worker, determined, and focused; all dashed with a heavy dose of goofiness. I went to church, read my bible, tried to do the right thing, and claimed Christ. But I still felt lost.

              I was stuck in a trap of comparison and found myself measuring up short every time. The tape I played repeatedly in my head was filled with negative words which had also weaseled into my core identity. The lie that no one would really love me if they knew the real me kept my anxieties, fears, and worries buried. “Fake it ‘til you make it” was my mantra and I wore a mask for every occasion. To the average onlooker, I had the world by the tail and was living my best life. But in truth, I was like Jesus described the Pharisees in Matthew 23:27, a whitewashed tomb that looked presentable on the outside but inside was filled with dead men’s bones.

              If I was ever going to learn what my true identity in Christ looked like I had to surrender the last huge hold out—my identity as a teacher. I was a teacher to the core. God placed the call on my life and that was the reason I had been placed on this earth; to shape and mold children until I got too old to work. This job was my mission field, my everything. That sounds holy, doesn’t it? But as long as teaching was my everything, that meant Jesus wasn’t, and something had to change.

              That summer, I asked God to show me who I was if everything else was stripped away. Who was I apart from what I did? I began reading Beautiful in God’s Eyes, by Elisabeth George along with hours a day in the scripture. I learned so much about myself, and even more about God and his character. Here are a few realities from that summer:

·       Being loved by God did not require any performance from me. He could not love me any more or any less than he already loved me no matter what I did to earn his favor.

·       I had not gone too far for God’s love and grace in my life. My sin did not disqualify me.

·       I am holy, blameless, clean, and forgiven; not because of anything I’ve done, but all because of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection on the cross in my stead.

·       God did not “make” me any certain way; I chose to act on my sins and had to start taking ownership for my choices.

·       Feelings are not indicators of truth. How I feel is like a barometer that tells me something is off, not a reality to build my life and decisions upon.

·       Whether I felt chosen, loved, new, forgiven or set apart didn’t matter; God said it and I needed to make a choice to believe it.

·       My identity was not based on what I had come to believe about myself, but what God deemed through scripture.

·       I had purpose whether in or out of the classroom. Wherever I went, if I kept my eyes fixed on him, that was my purpose.

·       Whatever I chose to feed would continue to grow. Fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of being truly seen and known, fear of not measuring up; if I continued feeding those, that would continue to be part of my identity. But if I stopped feeding myself those fears, then I could learn to feed myself God’s true identity.

That summer, I learned who I am in Christ. I don’t suggest leaving your job in search of who you really are, but for me, that’s exactly what I had to do.

Do you know who God says you are? If everything was stripped away and you could never work in education another day, do you know who you are?

Scripture Reading:

Read Ephesians 1:3-8 (NLT)

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.

Read Ephesians 2:4-10 (NLT)

But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.

God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

Discussion

1. According to Ephesians 1:3-8 and Ephesians 2:4-10, what is our identity in Christ? Make a list or underline the key words in the passages.

2. What identity or identifying words have been at your core? How did they get there?

3. If you were no longer wife, mom, daughter, sister, friend, aunt, uncle, husband, dad, brother, grandparent, teacher, principal, paraprofessional, coach, or therapist, would you be able to stand securely on your identity in Christ? Discuss.

4. What are lies you’ve believed about yourself?

5. What names have others called you that you’ve chosen to believe?

Homework     

Read Ephesians 1 and 2 and take note of all the descriptors of believers in Christ.

Personal Reflection

              Spend time in prayer, journaling, or just sitting alone with Jesus this week. Turn off electronics, set aside your to-do list and take off your mask of responsibility. Who do you believe you are? Deep down in your heart, what do you really tell yourself? If it’s negative, ask God to show you the truth and where that belief originated. Examine the narrative that is continuous in your head. Are you speaking God’s truth to yourself about yourself? Or are you feeding lies that don’t need to continue growing? Ask God to guide you through this examination process.