Identity Insecurities
Sermon Audio
Sermon Notes
Intro:
Hey everybody my name’s Louis I’m the lead teaching pastor here at City Awakening, it’s great to be with you this morning. Today we’re continuing our series called Unfollow, and it’s all about learning to balance life and technology. Last week was our first week in this series, and we talked about learning to balance all the distracting rings, pings, beeps, alerts we get from our phones. But this week we’re talking about balancing our identity insecurities, especially as it relates to the use of social media. Identity insecurities is one of those things all of us wrestle with in life, and can be things like our bodies, looks, personalities, or things we’ve done in the past that we try to keep hidden, because we’re afraid of being rejected if people knew the truth. For a lot of women their identity insecurities come from their looks, for a lot of men it’s their success and bravado compared to other men. But identity insecurities are something all of us have in life.
Now the reason we’re talking about social media, is because social media can help feed our identity insecurities. I mean sometimes our social media can feel a lot like high school, where you’re constantly comparing yourself to others, trying to gain the approval of others. It’s evident by the fact that some of us use filters on photos because we fear rejection, if we don’t cover up that pimple on our forehead. On the other hand some of us will boldly post raw photos, photos of our family throwing tantrums, and even talk openly about our struggles in life, all in the name of “keeping it real.” But even our attempts to keep it real, we can have this little desire in us to gain the approval and validation of others for keeping it real. So just like high school, we’ve created these fake digital personas of ourselves, hiding the parts of us we feel others will reject, and promoting the parts they won’t. We’ve created these fake digital personas that are rooted in who we think others will like us to be, instead of being who God truly created us to be. So today we’re gonna talk about balancing our identity insecurities, especially as it relates to our social media. Let’s turn to Ephesians 1:3-10 and get into. It’s Ephesians 1:3-10, located in the last quarter part of your bible. The title of today’s message is Identity Insecurities, and here’s the big idea. Social media can help feed our identity insecurities, but Jesus is willing to love us despite our identity insecurities...Jesus is willing to love us despite our identity insecurities.
Context:
Here’s your context. Ephesians was written by a guy named Paul who’s known as one of the greatest Christian leaders in history. He writes this letter around 60 A.D. to Christians living in Ephesus, and one of the things I love about Ephesians is that it talks a lot about our identity in Jesus, about who we are in Jesus. In fact Paul uses phrases like in Christ or in him at least 80 times in his writings, and 30 of those 80 are used right here in his letter to the Ephesians. Paul’s continually trying to remind them of who they are not in society, but in Jesus. Today he’s gonna teach us 4 identity securities everybody in this room can have in Jesus. So let’s check it out.
The Word:
Ephesians 1:3-10 states this, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places...” Notice Paul says we’re “blessed in Christ,” and this is the 1st of our 4 identity securities. Paul’s teaching us:
Identity Security #1 = We’re Blessed in Jesus - Paul says we’re blessed in Jesus...But notice he doesn’t just say we’re blessed, he says we’re blessed with every spiritual blessing, meaning God’s not holding out on us...God’s not holding out on us, He’s not withholding any spiritual blessings from us. In vs. 8 he even says God lavished His grace upon us, the Greek can also translate as He showered us with grace, above and beyond what we deserve. But the problem is we tend to root our identity in our material and temporal blessings, not our spiritual blessings, and this leads to all kinds of insecurities and discontentment as we compare our lives to other people’s lives. This is where social media’s a killer, a sniper to our lives. I mean social media has this way of making us feel like we’re missing out, like God's holding back on us, like He’s not blessing us compared to others, and here’s how it tends to play out.
Let’s say you’ve had a rough few days, they’ve busted you up a bit. Work’s been hard, your car broke down, something happened to your dog, it’s basically been a sad country song few days...and so you’re like “I thought God was supposed to lavish me with grace, shower me with grace, but I’m feeling showered with misery.” Then you crawl into bed at night, you start scrolling your Instagram, and what do you see? Everybody’s life looks amazing...Everybody’s life looks amazing...Everybody’s marriage looks great, the kids are all smiling, and another one of your friends just posted they’re getting married, as you sit depressed in your singleness...Then there’s another “we’re pregnant” photo, your buddy buys the truck you wanted but can’t afford, and somebody else starts posting about their tropical vacation to Aruba...Everybody’s life looks amazing, while you sit in bed eating ice cream crying over an episode of This Is Us...I can’t watch that show. I start feeling emotions I’m not used to feeling...It makes my nose tingle...But everybody’s life looks amazing on Instagram, and so you start envying them, resenting them, getting bitter at God for blessing them over you. But is He?..Is God really blessing them over you?..It’ll appear like He is, if your identity’s rooted in material and temporal blessings. But if your identity’s rooted in spiritual blessings, you’ll realize He’s not blessing them over you, because you’ve already been given every spiritual blessing there is in Jesus. Paul says they’re spiritual blessings in the heavenly places, meaning they’re eternal and won’t fade away like our material and temporal blessings, which is why I’m calling these identity securities! It’s because they’re 4 things you can be eternally secure in, you don’t ever have to worry about losing or God holding out on you, even if you sin. The 1st of those 4 securities, is being eternally blessed in Jesus.
Again vs. 3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.” Okay so this is the 2nd of our 4 identity securities. Paul’s teaching us:
Identity Security #2 = We’re Chosen in Jesus - Paul says we’re chosen in Jesus. He’s talking about our salvation here. He’s saying we don’t save ourselves, it’s God who saves us. We don’t first choose God, it’s God who first chooses us. Everybody starts life wanting to be their own gods, wanting to rule and reign their own lives. We see it at a very young age that we like to call the terrible 2’s or hellashish 3’s, and we see it in adulthood as we tantrum over people not doing what we want in our own little kingdoms. So we don’t start off choosing God, we start off trying to be our own gods and rebelling against God. But Jesus chooses to save us, to die for our sins on the cross, and to change our hearts from rebelling to following God, to striving to live holy and blameless lives that’ll bring glory to God as Paul says. So you can’t take responsibility for your salvation, but you are responsible for how you choose to live out your salvation. You don’t first choose God, it’s God who first chooses you.
Now one of the great things about God choosing you is He chooses you regardless of who you are and what you’ve done. Paul says He chose us before the foundation of the world, meaning He chose to save us before we even existed. He chose to save us before our good deeds, bad deeds, insecurities even started to form, which means you don’t have to do anything to try to prove yourself to Him. We spend most of our lives trying to prove ourselves to people, but God’s so gracious He doesn’t put that burden on us! He wants us to feel totally secure in our salvation and relationship with Him, so He makes our salvation totally dependent on Him. He’s way more gracious to us than people in society and social media are, because they’ll reject you based on your deeds and insecurities but God chooses you regardless of those things! In fact there’s so much pressure to be socially accepted on social media, that Harvard published an article in 2017 saying it’s affecting our mental health. They said depression and suicidal thoughts are increasing, especially with teens. Harvard stated, “The rise coincides with the release of the first iPhone.” They said social media’s playing a major role in this, because our moods can be affected by the amount of likes, dislikes, and comments we get...But what Jesus offers us on the cross is so much greater than what society and social media offers us. He offers us total security in our salvation and relationship with Him. He sees you in your sin, baggage, insecurities, love handles, bedhead, pimples with no makeup on, and still chooses to save you anyways. He still goes to the cross for you, despite those things...Nobody can ever love you, like Jesus loves you...We’re chosen, in Jesus.
Again vs. 4, “Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.” This is our 3rd identity security.
Identity Security #3 = We’re Loved and Adopted through Jesus - Paul says we’re loved and adopted into God’s family through Jesus. He uses the word predestined which freaks people out, but he’s simply saying God’s always had a plan to save and adopt us into His family through Jesus. In Roman society the Greek word for adoption would’ve been understood as having full access to the father’s inheritance, which is why Paul say we’re given every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. It’s because once you’re adopted into the Father’s family, you’re given full access to every spiritual blessing the Father has to offer, and the greatest blessing is having an eternal, loving, relationship with the Father. That’s the greatest blessing, because if the Father didn’t choose to love and adopt us, we wouldn’t have any of these identity securities. So the greatest blessing is knowing the Father loves and adopts us as His very own children. It’s having the security of knowing we’re loved and adopted into His family eternally, through Jesus.
Vs. 6, “To the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.” Our response to all this should be praise. We should praise God for blessing us, choosing us, loving and adopting us into His family. Our response should be to praise and bring glory to God.
Vs. 7, “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight...” This is our 4th and last identity security. Paul’s teaching us:
Identity Security #4 = We’re Redeemed and Forgiven through Jesus - Paul says we’re redeemed and forgiven through Jesus, through his shed blood on the cross. The word redeemed in Greek means to loosen or set free from something like chains or slavery. In this case Paul’s referring to how Jesus’ death on the cross redeems us, sets us free from the slavery of sin and the penalty we deserve for rebelling against God. It also entails being fully forgiven of all our sins, at this very moment. Paul says we have redemption and forgiveness, not we hope to have it. He says we have redemption and forgiveness right now, at this very moment. Anybody in here can have that eternal security, knowing you’re fully forgiven of all their sins, through faith in Jesus.
Vs. 9, “Making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” Simply put, “in the fullness of time,” Jesus will return to restore all things that’ve been damaged by sin. He’ll unite heaven and earth as one, eradicating all sin, sickness, and sadness forever, including our identity insecurities. So until that time comes, let me give you 2 applications to help you with your identity insecurities, especially as it relates to social media.
Application #1 = Let Jesus’ love for you, shatter your lust for likes - Let Jesus’ love for you, shatter your lust for likes, your desire for approval. In vs. 4-5 Paul said God chose to love and adopt us, and Jesus proved that love when he died for our sins on the cross. So you don’t need the likes, love, and approval of others, if you have the eternal security of being liked, loved, and approval of Jesus. This applies to every area you’re seeking approval in, but especially social media, because social media feeds our lust for likes and approval. It allows us to post, refresh, refresh again...then watch the likes rise or stall, leaving us feeling accepted or rejected. In fact this is such an issue for us that companies like Facebook started capitalizing on our lust for likes and approval. I mean when Facebook first came out it didn’t even have a like button, but it has it now...It has a like button now, and in 2009 they made even more adjustments because of a study that was done using pigeons. The study entailed pigeons being put in a cage with a clicker, and every time they’d click the clicker, they’d get a treat. So they’d just click away until eventually they got tired and stopped. But the researchers learned if they changed the algorithm, if they changed the process to a more random process where the treats came every 2 clicks, sometimes every 3 or 4 clicks...the pigeons would keep clicking until they hurt themselves, or broke their beaks...Their conclusion? Humans aren’t much different than these pigeons...We’ll keep clicking our social media feeds to get our treats called likes and approval. Companies like Facebook, Instagram, and Google recently admitted they’re capitalizing on this by not allowing likes to show up on our feeds right away, so we’ll keep coming back, keep clicking like pigeons. We’re being societally conditioned to seek the likes and approval of others. It’s not hurting our beaks, but is hurting our identities, and the way to overcome this is to let Jesus’ love for you, shatter your lust for likes. The solution to your identity insecurities won’t come from deleting your social media, it’ll come when Jesus’ love for you, is worth more than your lust for likes.
Application #2 = Seek to praise Jesus, not your posts - Seek to praise Jesus, not your posts. You can post on social media, just don’t seek the addictive praises of your posts. In vs. 6 Paul tells us to praise Jesus for blessing us, choosing us, loving us, adopting us, redeeming and forgiving us of our sins. The entire text screams for us to praise Jesus! Paul uses the phrase in Christ and similar phrases 12 times in vs. 1-14, and he does this so we’ll focus on praising Jesus for the great work he’s done for us on the cross. We’re to praise Jesus for the identity securities he’s given us, and if you praise Jesus over your posts, it makes any likes, dislikes, and comments you get seem insignificant. It’s because you know Jesus is the only one who’s worthy of praise, so you don’t need to seek the praise of your posts or the praise of others in society. Jesus is the only one who can shatter your lust for likes, and he’s the only one who’s worthy of your praise.
The Big Idea:
Let’s have the worship team come up at this time and get to the big idea. This is the big idea. Social media can help feed our identity insecurities, but Jesus is willing to love us despite our identity insecurities...Jesus is willing to love us despite our identity insecurities, and it’s a much greater love than what society and our pigeon clicking social media offers us. It’s a love where our approval isn’t achieved, it’s received through faith in Jesus. See the great news of the gospel is that Jesus came to live, die, and rise again so we can have the security of knowing we’re eternally blessed, chosen, loved, adopted, redeemed and fully forgiven of all our sins. You can’t achieve those things, but you can receive them by repenting of your sins and believing Jesus died for your sins. Then in time you grow in learning to rest in the security of those things.
City Awakening what Jesus is offering us today, what he offers us on the cross, is the eternal security of a loving relationship with him, that won’t ever delay like an algorithm...His love won’t ever delay like an algorithm...He won’t like you today, and not like you tomorrow. He won’t befriend you today, and unfriend you tomorrow because you did something wrong... The great news of the gospel is you can have total security in knowing when Jesus likes and befriends you, he likes and befriends you forever. He sees right through your fake societal and digital persona, yet he still chose to go to the cross for you...He likes and befriends you for eternity.
At this time let’s have those serving Communion start passing the plates...Communion is something Jesus told us to do in remembrance of him, in remembrance of who he is and what he did for us on the cross, and so as the plates are being passed, use this time to repent of your sins and thank Jesus for dying for your sins. If you want somebody to pray for you, or if you want to know how to have relationship with Jesus, some of our team will be standing in the back left corner of the room to pray with you. Feel free to go back there any time now or during the last song. Let’s take a few minutes to repent, remember, and thank Jesus for the eternal security of the cross…On the night Jesus was betrayed he was having a meal with his friends. He took some bread, gave thanks for it, and broke it saying “This is my body which is to be broken for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. As often as you eat it, do so in remembrance of me, in remembrance of who I am and what I’ve done for you.” When supper was ended he took the cup, blessed it, gave thanks for it, and said“This cup is a symbol of my blood which is to be shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. As often as you drink of it, do so in remembrance of me, in remembrance of who I am and what I’ve done for you.” City Awakening let’s eat, drink, and stand to praise Jesus like Paul said, in response to the eternal love and security he’s given us.