Finding Identity: Whose Am I in Christ?

well how do I find my identity my self-identity directly or indirectly we give that essential question all the time in the inbox take for example this email from Nick a listener and a former Collegiate volleyball player he gave his life to competitive Sports in college and he discovered as every athlete eventually does that his career would end and it ended sooner than Nick expected and when it did he fell into a season of Darkness he had failed to achieve his athletic goals and he hadn't prepared himself for the abrupt end unprepared to be separated from the competition from his school and from his teammates [00:00:03]

Paul a bond servant of Christ Jesus call as an apostle set apart for the gospel of God now there are three phrases there we'll look at them and I want you to see the man I want you to see his letter I want you to see his God and just by way of application right off the bat you know sometimes you read a verse and and even before the exposition comes it says a word to you so personally that it sort of Skips over the exposition and I I just have a feeling that the word that just blurts itself out here is it isn't who Paul is it's whose Paul is [00:01:41]

the big questions in life are not who am I the big question in life is whose am I you got to answer that question whose are you whose are you that's the issue we get all in the 20th century we get all bent out of shape about self-fidentity and stuff who am I and my worth and my esteem and my value and all that when you read the Bible the huge issue is Right relation with God and whom you belong to whose you are so let that be the question hanging over this verse phrase number one a bond servant of Christ Jesus [00:03:00]

what does that mean to be the bond servant it means he's bought by Jesus owned by Jesus ruled by Jesus I'll show you where I get that First Corinthians 7 23 he says you were bought by a price with a price do not become slaves of men so to be a slave of somebody is to have been bought by them so he calls himself a slave or a bond servant of Christ which means Christ bought him and that's what he says Christ bought me and since he bought me he owns me if you're a Christian this morning you are doubly owned by God you are owned by virtue of creation and you are owned by virtue of purchase you are doubly your doubly not your own double he is he owns you he can do with you as he pleases [00:05:23]

and what we want to create at Bethlehem and I know that the vast majority of you are with me on this what we want is a church of people who are radically oriented on pleasing Christ honoring Christ magnifying Christ and letting the chips fall where they will instead of being what most people are namely second-handers get that phrase from I am Rand who wrote the novel Atlas Shrugged who despised second-handers that is people who have no vision and values of their own for which they live triumphantly and are always looking over their shoulder wondering I wonder what they think about this and I wonder what they think about this and I wonder what they think about this and they live their whole lives second-handedly always trying to get into other people's good graces and be liked and stroked and praised and complimented and paid it's a horrible way to live [00:07:37]

and Paul said I am owned by another I've been bought and I am ruled and I have one person to please Christ and he has revealed his word in me and that's my life let's be like that owned by another amen the foundation of our self-identity is not who am I but whose am I that was from John Piper's April 26 1998 sermon title the author of the greatest letter ever written It's a Wonderful clip one that my wife found and brought to my attention [00:08:35]

while self-identity was a theme in John Piper's very first message in his famous sermon series on the book of Romans many of you know about that sermon series Pastor John preached through all of Romans in 225 sermons over the course of eight years and eight months spanning from the spring of 1998 to the end of 2006 all 225 of those Rich messages are collected under the serious title the greatest letter ever written as we recently heard Romans as a key to his own self-identity and uh in sermon number one of his series number one he started with verse one of Romans as Holly covered in verse the first servant to cover the Apostle Paul's identity and from it our identity [00:00:51]

now we religious types who read the Bible for dozens dozens of years we got to realize what a shocking phrase that is we got to decide here if this man's crazy Jesus Christ according to tacitus secular Witness as well as all the Christian witnesses as well as Josephus said Jesus died 25 years ago he's dead he's not master of anybody and Paul says he's my master and he's alive I am a slave to the living Christ Jesus so you've got to decide now at the beginning of this book are these the rantings of a Madman who thinks people die and then pop up out of the Grave three days later and then become masters of people is he a crazy man or did possibly that happen and that's reality and all the people in the world who ignore that or mock that are unreality you got to decide this there's a huge issues is he crazy call himself the bond servant of Christ Jesus [00:04:34]

so you've got to decide now at the beginning of this book are these the rantings of a Madman who thinks people die and then pop up out of the Grave three days later and then become masters of people is he a crazy man or did possibly that happen and that's reality and all the people in the world who ignore that or mock that are unreality you got to decide this there's a huge issues is he crazy call himself the bond servant of Christ Jesus what does that mean to be the bond servant it means he's bought by Jesus owned by Jesus ruled by Jesus I'll show you where I get that First Corinthians 7 23 he says you were bought by a price with a price do not become slaves of men so to be a slave of somebody is to have been bought by them so he calls himself a slave or a bond servant of Christ which means Christ bought him and that's what he says Christ bought me and since he bought me he owns me if you're a Christian this morning you are doubly owned by God you are owned by virtue of creation and you are owned by virtue of purchase you are doubly your doubly not your own double he is he owns you he can do with you as he pleases [00:04:34]

and what we want to create at Bethlehem and I know that the vast majority of you are with me on this what we want is a church of people who are radically oriented on pleasing Christ honoring Christ magnifying Christ and letting the chips fall where they will instead of being what most people are namely second-handers get that phrase from I am Rand who wrote the novel Atlas Shrugged who despised second-handers that is people who have no vision and values of their own for which they live triumphantly and are always looking over their shoulder wondering I wonder what they think about this and I wonder what they think about this and I wonder what they think about this and they live their whole lives second-handedly always trying to get into other people's good graces and be liked and stroked and praised and complimented and paid it's a horrible way to live [00:07:37]

and Paul said I am owned by another I've been bought and I am ruled and I have one person to please Christ and he has revealed his word in me and that's my life let's be like that owned by another amen the foundation of our self-identity is not who am I but whose am I that was from John Piper's April 26 1998 sermon title the author of the greatest letter ever written It's a Wonderful clip one that my wife found and brought to my attention [00:08:35]

while self-identity was a theme in John Piper's very first message in his famous sermon series on the book of Romans many of you know about that sermon series Pastor John preached through all of Romans in 225 sermons over the course of eight years and eight months spanning from the spring of 1998 to the end of 2006 all 225 of those Rich messages are collected under the serious title the greatest letter ever written as we recently heard Romans as a key to his own self-identity and uh in sermon number one of his series number one he started with verse one of Romans as Holly covered in verse the first servant to cover the Apostle Paul's identity and from it our identity [00:00:51]

now we religious types who read the Bible for dozens dozens of years we got to realize what a shocking phrase that is we got to decide here if this man's crazy Jesus Christ according to tacitus secular Witness as well as all the Christian witnesses as well as Josephus said Jesus died 25 years ago he's dead he's not master of anybody and Paul says he's my master and he's alive I am a slave to the living Christ Jesus so you've got to decide now at the beginning of this book are these the rantings of a Madman who thinks people die and then pop up out of the Grave three days later and then become masters of people is he a crazy man or did possibly that happen and that's reality and all the people in the world who ignore that or mock that are unreality you got to decide this there's a huge issues is he crazy call himself the bond servant of Christ Jesus [00:04:34]