Reality Distortion (Unmasking The Real You part 3)
Scripture
1 Thessalonians 1:4 (NLT)
4 We know, dear brothers and sisters, that God loves you and has chosen you to be his own people.
Galatians 4:6
And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.”
Romans 8:15
So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.”
The Ballad Of Jed Clampett (sing along in your head – yes … we really did sing this on Sunday)
Come and listen to a story about a man named Jed A poor mountaineer, barely kept his family fed,
Then one day he was shootin’ at some food,
And up through the ground came a bubblin’ crude.
Oil that is
Black gold
Texas tea.
Well the first thing you know ol Jed’s a millionaire,
Kinfolk said “Jed move away from there”
Said “Californy is the place you ought to be”
So they loaded up the truck and moved to Beverly.
Hills, that is.
Swimmin’ pools.
Movie stars.
Lyrics from <a href=”http://www.elyrics.net”>eLyrics.net</a>
We can learn a lot from the Clampetts. They had the money, they had they big house, they had the swimming pool, they had everything and more – but it did not change who they were.They stayed true to who they were despite how the culture of Beverly Hills tried to change them. They weren’t performing …..They weren’t pretending ….. They weren’t trying to play a role just to fit in.
Our culture is always trying to shape who we are. Our culture is always trying to change the way we think and shape our identity. Our culture wants us to perform in a certain way.
- In our culture, image is everything.
- In our culture, performance is everything.
- In our culture, money is everything
- In our culture sex is everything.
I think we all have an understanding that our culture likes good-looking people who perform well and make a lot of money, plus look sexy. And many of us want to be just like them. And it is all a hoax. It is all a lie – and many believers are buying into it. We are allowing our culture to tell us who we are and who we should be.
Listen to Cameron Russell, who is a supermodel, as she describes what they (the culture) does to make you, and in this case women, feel insecure about yourself because you don’t look, act, or dress a certain way. In these sound clips she exposes the hoax. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO INTERVIEW.
Most of us get this but many of us don’t. We buy into the lie. We lose our identity and start believing in the lie. I don’t know the young lady who took her life in Marion this past week but I am pretty confident that she bought into the lie. She couldn’t fit in anywhere. She didn’t dress like everyone else. She bought into a culture that repeatedly lied to her. She couldn’t measure up to everyone else’s standards. That .. compounded by hurt ….. lead to a tragedy.
In many ways we do this spiritually. When you buy into these cultural lies you commit spiritual suicide. We destroy the very
way God has created us. We destroy everything he has designed us to be when we buy into the hoax that we are not okay. We
destroy our true identity because we don’t like who we are or what we have become and how God created us.
Because we don’t like ourselves or we don’t like the way God created us. … we create a false identity to keep with what our cultural says is the norm.
The Norm (our culture)
- Culture looks at the outside appearance
- Culture says do what feels good
- Culture says you need to measure up
The Reality (our God)
- God looks at the heart
- God says do the right thing
- God says that you are ok
It is a constant spiritual battle – God is trying to convince us that he loves you the way he created you and the culture is trying to convince you that you are still not good enough so you must try harder.
One must answer the question who are you going to believe?
Walter Kelly made Pogo, his comic strip character, say – “We have met the enemy, and he is us.” We judge ourselves unworthy to know and serve God, and that judgment becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. We believe the lies of the enemy that we are not good enough. We are not smart enough. We are too weak. We are too inexperienced. We can’t forgive ourselves when we mess up or we go the to the other extreme to where we convince ourselves we are so good we never mess up.
Neither extreme is healthy and both extremes are based on lies.
So who does God say you are? (The Reality)
1 Thessalonians 1:4 (NLT) – 4 We know, dear brothers and sisters, that God loves you and has chosen you to be his own people.
- God has chosen you to be His people!
- God loves you.
- You are His beloved.
Once we are convinced of this reality, our true self doesn’t need a trumpet to announce our arrival or fireworks to hold people’s attention. Brennan Manning says, “People who know they are totally loved seem to honor God just by showing up every day as nothing more than, or less than, or other than themselves.”
Define yourself radically as one totally loved by God.
- Your boss can’t love you the way God does
- Your spouse can’t love you the way God does
- Your girl/boyfriend can’t love you the way God does
- Your parents can’t love you the way God does.
- Your mom can’t love you the way God’s does.
- Your best friend can’t love you the way God does.
His love for you does not depend on you! Or anyone else.
Galatians 4:6
And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.”
- You are His child
- He has set up camp in your heart
- We can call him the same name Jesus called him in Mark 14 when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane. He cried out “ABBA, FATHER, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Not my will but your will be done. WE GET TO CALL HIM THE SAME NAME: ABBA!
No Jesus is not referring to the Swedish pop group that came out in the 70’s called ᗅᗺᗷᗅ. Some of you are breaking out into Dancing Queen or Take Chance on Me in you head right now. ABBA is the most intimate name you can call God. The name “Abba Father” is one of the most significant names of God in understanding how He relates to people. The word Abba is an Aramaic word that would most closely be translated as “Daddy.” It was a common term that young children would use to address their fathers. It signifies the close, intimate relationship of a father to his child, as well as the childlike trust that a young child puts in his “daddy.” Read more: http://www.gotquestions.org/Abba-Father.html#ixzz2T2xLOa7v
It is in an intimate relationship with Him that defines your true identity. A relationship built on trust. He already trusts you with His life – He is just waiting for you to trust Him with yours.
If you spend time with Him He will reveal to you your imperfections and insecurities. If you trust Him – He will transform those imperfections into maturity. If you trust Him – He will transform those insecurities into strengths.
Take a moment and sing this song to yourself right now (Sing to the tune of Jesus Loves Me)
Abba loves me this I know
For the Bible tells me so
Little ones to Him belong
They are weak but He is strong
Yes, ABBA loves me
Yes, ABBA loves me
Yes, ABBA loves me
The Bible tells me so.
Romans 8:15 – So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.”
- He has adopted you as His own children. He has given you His spirit! His Spirit is a not spirit of fear, a spirit of timidity, spirit of insecurity or a spirit that is weak.
- Because you are His own. Because He has adopted you:
- He has given you the same Spirit he gave Paul to share boldly
- He has given you the same Spirit he gave Mary to trust willingly
- He has given you the same Spirit he gave Peter to live courageously
- He has given you the same Spirit he gave Jesus to love unconditionally.
You find your true identity by surrendering to The One who already put everything you need inside of you.
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