Simple question asked of Jesus about taxes. Jesus produced a profound answer that points us to inspect our identities and the reflection of our identities in terms of what people perceive. You see, what is important to understand about identity is the things that we hold important to us and the things that we engage in in this life become a reflection of what people see. And that's why it's incredibly important to understand this message because the rest of the world is inspecting us as believers and we call to carry the light of God in the places of authority that we carry.
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When we understand the statement that we are in the world but not of the world and we adopt that, by revelation, then the message makes sense.
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You see, Jesus spoke a lot about God and he spoke a lot about faith and he spoke a lot about religious understanding during his ministry. In this particular message, we see how the Pharisees tried to put Jesus between a rock and two hard places and the representation of those things was first of all the Roman rule of that day. The hard place won was the Jewish resentment towards the Roman rule and having to pay taxes.
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Yet Jesus doesn't fall into that trap. He answers the question with profound wisdom. It's really a masterclass of discernment and discipleship.
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We are all made in God's image, but only believers carry his identity. You see, when we look back at Scripture back into Genesis, it clearly says that as man and woman, as men, we've been made in God's image. So all of us, whether we're believers or not, are made in the image of God. But we don't all carry his identity. Because only if we've given our lives to Jesus and accepted him as our Lord and Savior do we then adopt his identity.
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How many times do we look at people and within a few minutes, we've judged them just by what they're wearing or a few words that might come out of their mouths? Jesus didn't do that, and we shouldn't either. He looked into people's hearts and he saw who they were. Often he pitied them, not in a way that was demeaning, but he had to speak the truth to them, because he didn't want to leave them. He loved them too much to leave them where they were.
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His identity wasn't grounded in people's perception, but it was what he knew God had said about him. And so for us two friends, if our identity is wrapped up in what people think about us, then as soon as the applause and the praise stops, what happens? Our identity crumbles. That's why it's got to be rooted in what God says about us. Identity is not what people say about us. It's what the Word of God says about us. When we root ourselves in that, we will never have a problem. It's the honest truth.
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We don't want to put filters that are going to pander to what the identity of the world wants us to look like.
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Our youth face the most trying times in this day and age that they've ever faced throughout history. I mean, goodness me, we know that. I spoke to my son. He's been studying in America for a couple of years now. And they're on summer break. You know the Americans just like the movies. They have the summer break. You've seen plenty of movies like that. Sometimes they're a bit risky what happens on the summer camp. But anyway, he's looking after 7 to 14 -year -olds. And it's a great experience for him. But I felt really sad after I'd spent half an hour on a call with him when he was just explaining to me some of the gender confusion that's going on in this age group. 7 to 14 -year -olds. And it's mainstream. And not only in America, but all over the world. It seems to be getting worse. Just, you know, identity confusion. We've got to pray for our kids.
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Here's a question for all of us this morning. What image have we been working hard to protect? What is the image that we've been working hard to protect? Is there something we're holding on to that we're afraid to let go of? And that's a take -home for all of us. Try and figure that thing out and then trade that for what God says about us. Be rooted in Christ.
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Our identity really stands at a three -way intersection. The first of those intersections is what I believe about myself, what we believe about ourselves. The second one is the perception that people have of us. And are we pandering to that? And the third one, and the most important, is what does God say about us?
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When there's confusion at that three -way intersection in our lives about who we are, it causes confusion inside of our minds. We need to be very clear what is the right way here. If we're confused, we need to look to the Word of God, and He will clarify that for us. If you are in Christ, above all, we belong to Him, and we bear His image.
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Jesus says, pay your taxes, but don't forget, you bear another image.
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It's easy to feel like bowing out sometimes, isn't it? Because it just seems so difficult. It's easy to abdicate our responsibility. But how can we ever expect a better future for our children if we're not the examples of what it is to be faithful with those things? Pay our taxes. We need to vote when we're given the opportunity. How else can we see change coming into place, the change that we're praying for, if we don't exercise our vote? We need to respect authority, unless it asks us to compromise our belief in God.
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We need to be subject to our governing authorities, not because they're perfect, because they're absolutely not, but because God is above all authority. That's why we need to be faithful in these areas, because he is above all authority.
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There's a responsibility that we all carry when we carry an authority in an area, whether it's your own home, as a father or mother, whether it's your workplace. We have to be faithful with that thing. We have to be responsible with it.
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As we understand that, you know, this passage is really about two kingdoms. It's about an earthly kingdom, which is temporary. Give to Caesar what is Caesar's. Caesar gets to keep the coin. But we get to understand and have authority from an eternal perspective. That's the other kingdom.
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Life is full of choices. We understand that. Who gets our time? Who gets our energy? What are we desiring as people right here at Grace Life Church today? Are we choosing faith decisions here in our lives? Or are we choosing fear decisions? And it's a question that we all need to answer.
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A living sacrifice means laying your life down for others. When you step into Grace Life Church, we hope that you're going to lay your life down for others because we want to model what Jesus taught. Jesus laid his life down for people. And our life takes on a certain meaning when we do that. There's a reward that comes when we lay our life down for others and we see breakthrough, when we see addictions broken, when we see people entering through worship, this beautiful relationship with Jesus that sometimes takes them to their knees.
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In a culture that's increasingly secularized, sexualized, and selfish, we are called to lay our lives down as a living sacrifice. And the vehicle, one of the most effective vehicles that has been chosen is local church and bringing people to Jesus.
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Let us consider how we may spur one another on towards love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together and encouraging one another, and all the more as we see the day approaching. What a lovely thing when a local church is working in a community and shining and reflecting the light of this beautiful God that we have. It's so exciting.
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Time is the most important commodity we have. I've got the privilege of going deep with my father. He passed away probably about a few weeks ago. And in the last conversations, we were very, very careful what we spoke about because we knew the time was short. And he was looking back at his life and reflecting on that. And one of the things that he said to me, he said, I wish I'd spent more time in church matters. He didn't ask me to bring him his bank statement so he could have one last look at bank balance. He didn't ask me to bring him his things. Bring me all my stuff quickly. Here, quick, so I can have one last look at it. What was he interested in? He said, bring me my family. I wish I'd spent more time in church matters. I think that's a poignant thing for all of us. What are we spending our time doing? What are we reflecting?
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