Identity (1)

Over the next several weeks we will examine core values simultaneously with the Thursday night study that will form our covenant. Thursday nights we will dig deeper than Sunday mornings, and out of the Thursday night study will come the actual covenant.
Let me start out by saying this will necessitate topical preaching. I am not opposed to topical preaching, it has its place, but it isn’t always my preference. I will strive to preach expositional in the topic –meaning that I will try to bring to weight the context and meaning and value of the text we are studying – though it may only be a few verses. If you’ve been worshipping the last year we’ve walked through 2 books – Ephesians and Ruth, word for word, and that type of preaching – expositional – covering the whole of the book and the setting it is written in, is my preference. So, if you hear nothing else this morning, when you open your Bible and read it do so with purpose, read through a book, a chapter, don’t just flip it open looking for verses that mean something – you’ll miss so much in the process.

That said, the Lord will guide our time together during this series, and we are approaching the Bible with purpose and asking questions and seeking answers.

The purpose of this process is that Grace Harbor will have a covenant that will define us. It will be the standard of membership to the church: to agree to hold the church covenant will mean that you are a member of the church. To disregard the covenant will mean that you are a worshipper, but not a covenant member. It will also enable us to say to the city: this is who we are, what we believe, and what we do.

Fittingly, the covenant must start with the question of all time: Who am I? Who are we? There are 3 words that will Biblically describe who we are.

Read Gen. 1:26-27.
From the beginning we were created with identity and purpose. You are God’s handiwork, God’s creation, God’s image, you are, if we could only use one word: invaluable. (This is the 1st of the 3 words to identify who we are).



I. Invaluable
A. Of all the earth, all people everywhere are in God’s image. I took a class in seminary about Beauty and God. At the time I thought, when will I ever use this – it was all about aesthetics and the standards of an absolute God in a world that sees art in the eye of the beholder. I groaned as I lived in KY for a week away from family, contemplating beauty, and thought. This is useless. Until today. God made you beautiful in His eye. Gen. 1:31 – it was very good. Adam and Eve were beautiful, not just physically but entirely as Humans. We hold that same pattern today – we’re created in God’s image. There is no higher value by which to judge beauty than God.
B. From the baby to be born to the elderly – each of us is invaluable. No other created thing is in the image of God. As splendorous as the soon, as shining the moon, as majestic the mountains, as graceful the butterfly and powerful the lion; none are in the image of God as we are.
C. We are the handiwork of God, his craft. We are each unique, we look different, act different, think different, dream different, yet are all in God’s image. Every human is to be respected and understood to be in the image of God. When the Lord gave out the law and said, “do not murder” He was addressing an offence against His image. Were you to kill a person, you would kill the image of God – a direct assault against God. To think evil of someone, harbor hatred against someone is to defame God’s image.
a. Respect the image of God in everyone you see. No one is below our attention or too great for our attention. Everyone is invaluable.
D. As a sign of our great value – God entrusted humans with responsibility. V.26 – rule the earth. We are the crown of creation, to rule over all that is on the earth. Not in a haphazard way but in a way worthy of the image of God.
a. Growing up, my brother and I would spend every Saturday helping my dad work in our 1-acre lot in TN. Being the youngest, I usually got the easiest jobs. But they were boring jobs. Tending the cord was the absolute worst. I saw no value in it. My brother would be riding the lawnmower, and I would be following my dad while he worked with an electric weed eater. I felt undervalued. There’s not greater sign of value than the job entrusted to you. If you show up to work everyday and there is nothing for you to do – start looking elsewhere b/c you’re not valued. But look at what God gives us to do:
i. “Rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth…”
ii. Could there be a more valuable job? It is a sign of our spiritual sickness, sin, that the world is a mess. Created in God’s image, we have marred that destiny with our sin and corrupted the world and rejected His mandate. Instead, the earth, the world, rules us. And we fail in understanding how valuable we are before God.
1. So valuable that to cure the sickness He sent His Son.
2. So valuable that there will be a new Heaven and a new Earth that we will rule with Christ.
3. Christian you are invaluable – the very image of God.
E. We are not His substance – only Jesus Christ is truly God, God from God, and flesh of Flesh. We do no share His substance, but His image.
a. A person of integrity is not concerned about image but about doing the right thing. Our world is more concerned with image. The effects of Sin go even here… Integrity and image are one with God, for us, they seem to be polar opposites. Who we are what we do, not how we appear. To have integrity in living out God’s image we need power, we need His substance.
b. When we become Christians, we do share His substance – His Holy Spirit indwells us, lives in us, and empowers us. Leading us to the 2nd word.
II. Possessed
a. Exodus 19:3-6
i. Possessed by God:
ii. Invaluable – his treasured possession
iii. He brought you to where you are today. Look over your life and ask God to show you His hand. You may not even believe in God, but ask for eyes of faith to see His work in your life – He loves you too much to hide himself.
iv. I Corin. 6:20 – You have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.
1. You were redeemed and paid for, and it was costly. What God bought, He wants. His own Son for you. Does he have you?
b. Possessed of a relationship: priests have access to God. You can go to God yourself, the way is opened. You are a priest, one who knows God intimately and can hear his voice. Jesus is the good shepherd and His sheep know his voice. Priests can hear God’s voice and speak to others on His behalf. A relationship with God is possible through faith in Christ and love for His word – for He speaks to us supremely through the Bible.
c. Possessed of a nation: you are a holy nation. No one man forms a nation. Who cares if I declare my independence from the United States, the sovereign nation of Andy will not last long. You are possessed of a holy nation.
i. 2 words: Holy & Nation
1. Holy – you are possessed of mercy. God’s mercy and sacrifice has made you holy. Your value is free to shine. You are living in the grace and mercy of God. We’ll return to this word Holy in a minute, but for now know that you are set apart, bought, paid for, redeemed. You are owned and possessed – by a God of mercy and grace.
2. Nation: you are part of a nation of believers spanning the world and the ages. It cannot be ruled by this world, but rather seeks to rule with Christ. It cannot be overthrown in this world, but lives in victory in Christ. Our nation cannot stop growing, cannot stop living, cannot stop impacting. We are a holy nation. Your community is a nation. The church, a local NT body of believers, is your connection to the Nation. That is why we are moving toward covenanting so that we will say to the world: we are part of the Holy nation. We live in community with each other and for each other. Listen to this passage.
d. I Peter 2:4-12: aliens and strangers to the world, home in the holy nation.


One word is used in the New Testament 67 times to describe believers: saint/saints. They are always living, never dead. We tend to think of saints as canonized dead people, but Biblically, saints are living followers of Christ.


III. 3rd word: Saints (the New Testament)

It comes from the Greek: hagiazo – to set apart, sanctify, make holy. That understanding is inherent in the concept of God in the Old Testament – he is set apart and holy. One must be sanctified to approach him. His holiness was so great that once the temple was erected, and his presence was known in the holy of holies – the innermost spot – the high priest would only enter once per year in great ceremony. Bells were tied to his cloak and a rope around him so that if he died because he was not holy enough, they would know and could pull out his body. Holiness was needed to know God.

The holiness of God was ingrained in Jews throughout the celebration of their religion, and we should remember that Jews steeped in that culture, except for Luke-Acts if we assume that Luke was a Greek believer, wrote the New Testament.

The idea of holiness is carried in the New Testament term saint – which refers to Jewish and non-Jewish believers. It is used most often to describe those who believe in Jesus Christ. Believers, you are saints.

FF Bruce says that consecration and purity are the basic meanings of the term. Believers are saints because they belong to the One who provided their sanctification.

67 times we are called saints, before we were even called Christians – though that term, “little Christ” or “followers of Christ” carries the idea of saint. Believer, you are a saint. Your life should no longer be seen in sin, or ruled by the world, but should be seen in victory over the world.
You may be hurting today, depressed, lonely, maybe excited about what you’ve accomplished and what the future holds; but that is not who you are: you are a SAINT:

Set
Apart
I am
Now in
The Savior.

We are saints in Christ. This is why I never do acrostics, because I stink at it. But here’s the point. You are set apart – possessed, in Christ. You are saved, made holy, redeemed to value, in Christ. A saint is not a perfect person; it is a real person who has experienced the savior. A saint cannot take their eyes off the savior.

Where do you find your value? Are your eyes on Christ? 3 words to describe who we are:
Invaluable
Possessed
Saints