Who I Am

Who I Am

Subject – Discovering Our Identity in Christ

by Rick Welborne

Psalm 139:13-18 (NLT) 

13 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. 

14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. 

15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. 

16 You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. 

17 How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! 

18 I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me! 

Review Last Week:

1. There has never been and never will be anyone else like you!

Mark Batterson - You owe it to yourself to be yourself.  But more important, you owe it to the One Who designed you and destined you.

2. No one can worship God like you or for you!

Batterson - You were created to worship God in a way that no one else can. How? By living a life no one else can–your life. 

3. To find out who you are supposed to be, you will have to dig deep.

Batterson - Self-discovery is like an archaeological dig. It takes a long time to uncover the hidden treasures that lie buried beneath the surface. You can never be certain of what you will find or where you will find it. And it is a painstaking process.  

Psalm 139:14 (NLT) 

14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. 

–Tonight we want to continue this journey of recognizing God’s unique print upon us and our willingness to find our uniqueness in God. We want to look for defining moments.

1. We must recognize those defining moments which reveal our destinies.

Batterson: Time may be measured in minutes, but life is measured in moments. And some moments are bigger than life. And it’s those defining moments that dictate the way we see life.

–Some of these moments may be as predictable as a wedding day or the birth of a child. Others may be as unpredictable as an accident.

–You never know which moment may become a defining moment, but being able to identify those moments is the key to identifying who you are. We must be sensitive to Holy Spirit all the time. 

–Psychological research suggest that one’s self concept is defined by a very small number of experiences. They say 99% of life’s experiences vanish like vapor into the subconscious abyss. Not sure about that percentage.

–That means only 1% of these experiences (according to them) make it into our conscious memories and only 1% of that 1% not only are remembered but are unforgettable. 

Batterson:  These are the moments that define who we are. And managing those memories is a form of stewardship. Every past experience is preparation for some future opportunity.  

–One of the ways God redeems the past is by helping us see it through His eyes. His providence. So the key in finding your destiny is hidden in your past memories.

Joshua 4:5‑7 (NKJV) 

5 and Joshua said to them: "Cross over before the ark of the LORD your God into the midst of the Jordan, and each one of you take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, 

6 that this may be a sign among you when your children ask in time to come, saying, 'What do these stones mean to you?' 

7 Then you shall answer them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it crossed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. And these stones shall be for a memorial to the children of Israel forever." 

–Joshua was telling the people to set up memorial stones for their children in the future...These valuable memories become a part of who they are...do it for your kids. I have set up memorials for our kids.

–When you look in the mirror what do you see...you see the reflection of accumulated experiences.

–Defining moments are what shape us into what we have become. We are the aggregation (accumulation) of where we’ve been, what we’ve done, and who we’ve known...Wow...how important our choices are.

–Hear me...there are a few places, a few experiences, and a few people who leave imprints in ways that become parts of our soul prints.

–Can you give us an example in Scripture? I believe Stephen left his soul print on Saul who would become Paul:

Acts 7:56‑60 (NKJV) 

56 and said, "Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!" 

57 Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord; 

58 and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. 

59 And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." 

60 Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not charge them with this sin." And when he had said this, he fell asleep. 

Acts 8:1 (NIV) 

1 And Saul was there, giving approval to his death.

1 Corinthians 15:9 (NKJV) 

9 For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 

2. We must understand what our soul print is.

–Think about this...your finger print distinctly identifies and differentiates you from everyone else who has ever lived, but your finger print is only skin deep.

Batterson: You possess a uniqueness that is soul deep. I call it your soul print. It’s not just who you are, present tense. It’s who you are destined to become, future tense. It’s not just who others see when they look at you from the outside in. It’s who God has destined you to become from the inside out.  

–Your soul print hard wires your true identity and true destiny like your genetic code programs your physical anatomy.

–We always try to live our lives forward but God works backward. The Omniscient One (All Knowing) always starts with the end in mind.  Example please:

Psalm 139:16 (NIV) 

16.... All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.  

–As with the Psalmist all your days are ordained by God. It is our holy responsibility to discover that God ordained destiny, just like David did. His epitaph speaks for itself:

Acts 13:36 (NIV) 

36 "For when David had served God's purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his fathers and his body decayed. 

–Very important that you understand this: Even though David had very humble beginnings and made huge mistakes he fulfilled his destiny. Your mistakes do not define you…giving up will.

–We will look to David as our example of having this soul print and fulfilling God’s unique purpose in our generation.

–On a day a defining moment happened when he bent down in a brook and picked up 5 smooth stones. His life was about to end or was about to begin. His destiny was being designed by God and by his courage. 

–Everybody who had ever known David, including his own father, saw him as nothing more than a shepherd boy. Don’t worry about what others do not see in you. God sees you differently.

–David saw the person God had destined him to be...a worshiper and a giant killer. That was his true identity and his true destiny.  What is your true identity and destiny?

Ephesians 2:10 (NLT) 

10 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. 

3. We must believe that we were conceived by God before we were conceived by our parents.

–Every work of an artist originates in the imagination of the artist...so you and I were conceived in the imagination of God...how awesome is that?

–You took shape in the heart and imagination of God before you took shape in the womb of your mother. 

Vincent van Gogh: Christ is more of an artist than the artists...He works in the living spirit and the living flesh; He makes men instead of statues.

–God is painting a picture of grace on the canvas of your life. God is writing His-story, history with a hyphen, through your life. God is crafting your character through the circumstances of your life.

Batterson: To see yourself as anything other than God’s masterpiece is to devalue and distort your true identity. And it’s in discovering your true identity that your true destiny is revealed.

–A sense of destiny is your sacred birthright as a child of God. Former verse:

Ephesians 2:10 (NLT) 

10 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. 

–The word “planned” is drawn from the Eastern custom of sending servants in advance of a king to prepare the road ahead. It was their responsibility to secure safe passage and make sure the king arrived at his destination.

–Paul took something they understood and turned it upside down (really right side up). The King of kings goes before His servants to prepare the road ahead. Jesus is going ahead of you!

–In other words He strategically places us in the right place at the right time. God is setting you up and that ought to fill you with an unshakable sense of destiny. Example:

Isaiah 45:1‑3 (NKJV) 

1 "Thus says the LORD to His anointed, To Cyrus, whose right hand I have held‑‑ To subdue nations before him And loose the armor of kings, To open before him the double doors, So that the gates will not be shut: 

2 'I will go before you And make the crooked places straight; I will break in pieces the gates of bronze And cut the bars of iron. 

3 I will give you the treasures of darkness And hidden riches of secret places, That you may know that I, the LORD, Who call you by your name, Am the God of Israel. 

--God will do the same thing for us if we seek Him with all of hearts.