Who I Am – 4

Who I Am – 4

Subject – The Freedom in Being Yourself

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! 

Last week:

1. As you consider God’s destiny for you have you ever felt like a captive?

Luke 4:18-19 (NKJV) 

18 "The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; 

19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD."  

2. As you consider God’s destiny for you...you must recognize that He not only wanted to save you but give you a new life.

Batterson: He doesn’t just set us free from who we were.  He sets us free to become who we were meant to be.  Salvation is not the end goal. Salvation is a new beginning.

Romans 8:28-29 (NIV) 

28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 

29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 

3. As we consider God’s destiny for us we tend to focus on what and where.

Batterson: Those two destinies may seem to be at odds with each other, but they are anything but. To become like Christ is to become unlike anyone else. He sets us free from whom we’re not, so we can become who He destined us to be.

–Today, again I want to challenge you to be who God created you to be.

1. Because you are God’s child your heredity and destiny are from Him.

 –All of you astute students, like myself, will remember from Biology class that you have 46 chromosomes. 23 from your father and 23 from your mother. Biology class…light bulbs.

–It is that unique combination of chromosomes that determines the color of your eyes to the number of hairs on your head...in some cases both of them.

–So what am I saying...your identity is part heredity. When you have been in the same church as long as I have you see how much children look and act like their parents...scary!

–You do not have to look very far...my pretty wife and daughter are perfect examples.

–Everyone else in my family...blond hair blue eyes...dad brown hair green eyes...Stephanie’s eyes began to change...she said oh no! Thanks!

–Here is some wonderful news for you today spiritually...the image of God is both your heredity and your destiny.

–The mathematical probability that you would get the exact 23 chromosomes you got from your mother is 1 in 10 million. But the same is true about the 23 chromosomes you received from your father.

–So if you multiply these two together the probability would be 1 in 100 trillion. But you have to factor in that your parent’s chromosome history had the same probability, and their parents, and their parents’ parents.

So what is my point...there is just no way to calculate how unique you are...that’s exciting…you are one of a kind. 

Psalm 139:13-14 (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. 

2. Why is it that we all start out as “one of a kind original” but too many of us end up as carbon copies of someone else.

–Instead of celebrating our uniqueness, and the uniqueness of others, we are too often threatened by it.

–I felt like the Lord wanted me to share this at this point because someone may be right in the middle of this.

–After 42 years of ministry and from just studying people...when you allow yourself to hate and get bitter toward people you are supposed to love and you choose to not forgive them...you begin to take on the traits in them you hate so much. You become them.

James 3:13-18 (NLT) 

13 If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom. 

14 But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don’t cover up the truth with boasting and lying. 

15 For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. 

16 For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind. 

17 But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere. 

18 And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness. 

–I had a sibling who hated all the evil traits in my dad and instead of being an original...that sibling became just like him...even after dad was saved and transformed...this person still was bitter and hateful. 

–This sibling became bitter and hateful as is to this day...I chose to forgive my dad even before he was changed by God and it freed me to be who God called me to be.

1 Peter 4:8-9 (NKJV) 

8 And above all things have fervent love for one another, for "love will cover a multitude of sins." 

9 Be hospitable to one another without grumbling. 

–I continue to love, forgive, and pray for my family longing for the day of their salvation and our reconciliation …In the mean time I am free from any bondage to them because of God’s call on me.

Batterson: We forfeit our uniqueness because we want to fit in.  Instead of daring to be different, we sacrifice our soul print on the altar of conformity.

3. If we will have God’s uniqueness for us, and if we will be who we are, we must be willing to take Saul’s armor off.

–What? There comes a point in every person’s life when they realize that imitating someone else is detrimental ...we must take ourselves for who we are for better or for worse.

–I think this is what David did when he prepared to fight Goliath. His meeting with King Saul:

1 Samuel 17:38-40 (NKJV) 

38 So Saul clothed David with his armor, and he put a bronze helmet on his head; he also clothed him with a coat of mail. 

39 David fastened his sword to his armor and tried to walk, for he had not tested them. And David said to Saul, "I cannot walk with these, for I have not tested them." So David took them off. 

40 Then he took his staff in his hand; and he chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook, and put them in a shepherd's bag, in a pouch which he had, and his sling was in his hand. And he drew near to the Philistine. 

–Arming for war was a major ritual in David’s day...armor was an extension of the warrior’s character...David could have gone into battle like a king...tempting!

 –Thank goodness David said I cannot go into battle with this armor...I have not tested them and they definitely do not fit...Saul was head and shoulders taller.

–What would have happened to David if he had gone out to meet Goliath on Goliath’s terms? Fully armored and fully armed.

–I believe David would have lost because he was not used to being a swordsman. He probably had never touched or trained with a sword at all at this point in his life. 

–Listen...David was a shepherd...for better or for worse...That was who he was and what God had destined him to be up to that point in his life.

–The sword to him was probably more of a threat to David than it was to Goliath...but because he was a shepherd he was deadly with a slingshot.

–David was at a cross road in his life...like so many of us...He had to make a choice...This choice would determine his destiny. Be myself or try to be someone else.

–He could go into battle as Saul, with Saul’s armor, wield Saul’s sword, hold Saul’s shield or he could go into battle as himself...a shepherd with a slingshot.

–David decided not to go into the battle as Saul for a very good reason...He was not Saul...He decided to be David...to be who he was.

–We are all faced with the same decision...there comes a point in all of our lives where we need the courage to take off Saul’s armor or whoever’s armor you have put on.

–It is the rarest form of courage...it is the courage to be yourself. That is what I will give account to God for...being who God called me to be.

Romans 14:12 (NKJV) 

12 So then each of us shall give account of himself to God. 

–Each of us will have to answer this question when our life is over...Did you do what you were supposed to do?  Were you who God meant you to be?

–Why do composers write music, why do athletes compete, why do politicians run for office, why do entrepreneurs start businesses, why do teachers teach?

–There are a lot of answers to these questions but the right answer is they do it to give expression to something deep in their souls...that something is God’s soul print in them. 

–We find fulfillment in doing what we were originally designed and destined to do by God. The business you start, your teaching, your music is an expression and a reflection of your soul print. 

–Our failure to give expression to our soul prints (to be who we are supposed to be) will result in our greatest regrets.  

--What God has destined you to be you must be who you are or you will be miserable. It is the only way to be true to yourself, and more important, true to God.

 Soren Kierkegaard: The deepest form of despair is to be another than oneself.

Batterson: At the end of the day, God isn’t going to ask, “Why weren’t you more like Billy Graham or Mother Teresa?” He won’t even ask, “Why weren’t you more like David?” God is going to ask, “Why weren’t you more like you?”