Identity Crisis
Identity Crisis – 4K HD
Identity Crisis - 4K HD
This teaching from Founded In Truth Fellowship addresses the critical question of identity in the context of faith, particularly as it relates to the upcoming season of repentance and reflection known as Elul. The speaker, Matthew Vander Els, emphasizes the importance of understanding who we are in God's eyes rather than being defined by our weaknesses, imperfections, or societal labels.
The Season of Repentance (Teshuvah)
- The month of Elul is a period of Teshuvah, or repentance, leading up to the Fall Feasts, including Rosh Hashanah (Yom Teruah), Yom Kippur, and Sukkot.
- This is a time for intentional prayer and reflection, seeking to purge our lives of anything that hinders our relationship with God.
- Sukkot, in particular, is highlighted as a commandment to be joyful, emphasizing that joy is not optional but a commitment.
The Problem of Identity
- The world often labels people with simplistic adjectives, defining them by a single trait rather than their full potential.
- We often define ourselves based on our weaknesses and imperfections, allowing these flaws to become our identity.
- This distorted self-image can create a desert-like relationship with God, making it difficult to approach Him with confidence.
Understanding Our True Identity
- God invites us to come before Him, regardless of how we feel or what we're going through.
- We are more complicated than single adjectives can define, possessing many layers.
- Like Shrek, we have layers, but unlike the donkey’s view of onions, our layers represent the complexity and beauty of God's creation.
- God knows our hearts better than we do, including our struggles, anxieties, and imperfections.
- Even our imperfections can be meant for a reason, as seen in the example of Moses' speech impediment.
- We are fearfully and wonderfully made. God knit us together in our mother's womb, and we are not mistakes.
- God's thoughts about us are precious and outnumber the grains of sand.
Practical Application for Daily Life
- Reject perfectionism: Recognize that flaws are a part of life, and trying to be perfect in one area to compensate for another is unhealthy.
- Be honest with God: Engage with Him in prayer, expressing your true feelings, frustrations, and struggles.
- Embrace your complexities: Acknowledge that you are more than a single adjective and that God created you with many layers.
- Focus on God's love: Understand that God's love is not something we earn but the foundation upon which we build our relationship with Him.
- Remember you are in Christ: Recognize that your identity is rooted in Christ, and you are a child of the Living God, forgiven and redeemed.
- Pursue God, not perfection: Instead of striving for an unrealistic image, seek to grow in the areas God has gifted you.
- Acknowledge God's Ownership: Understand you have been purchased and sealed by God. Your identity is not yours to define.
Redemption and the Seal of the Holy Spirit
- Redemption is reframed in its first-century context as a slave term, signifying purchase rather than merely freedom.
- In Ephesus, slaves were often branded with a seal to indicate ownership.
- Believers are sealed with the Holy Spirit, signifying God's ownership and their new identity in Him.
- Paul urges believers to walk worthy of their calling, putting aside old habits and embracing their new identity as children of God.
- Entering into Elul, believers should approach God as His redeemed children, confident in His love and ready to be molded into who He wants them to be.
God's Love as the Foundation
- God loved us first, before we ever cared about Him or were reconciled to Him.
- God's love is not the goal of our change but the tool that produces change in our lives.
- We pursue holiness and righteousness because He first loved us.
Ephesus: A City of Contrasts
- Ephesus was a major city in the Roman Empire, a hub for trade and various cultural influences.
- It was also a city filled with immorality, including scam artists, thieves, gamblers, and prostitutes.
- Paul established his ministry in Ephesus, preaching the grace and love of God in this challenging environment.
- The book of Ephesians serves as a refresher course for believers in Ephesus, reminding them of their identity in Christ and urging them to live accordingly.
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References
Read the transcript (1,340 words)
Automated transcript, lightly edited for readability. Scripture appears as spoken; the video is the authoritative teaching.
This message was far from thrown together, but it was unexpected. Because many of you may know that we're going into a time or the season known as the month of Elul. And it's the time of Teshuvah, or the 40 days of Elul—even though it's only 30 days, or the 40 days of Teshuvah. Any of you guys ever heard of this? So essentially, we're about on Monday. Monday is the 21st, right? Yeah. When the world's going to end, yeah. So 40 days from Monday will be Yom Kippur. And traditionally, now this was a Jewish tradition that developed, I believe, long after the first century. It really wasn't recognized as a specific tradition in the first century, but regardless. It's a great tradition, and it's a tradition of understanding that it's a time to prepare to enter into the fall feast days.
The Fall Feast Days
Now, the seventh month of the year of the biblical calendar, if you will, contains three festivals within 15 days of each other. And it's really cool because the Father has invited us to come near to Him for a long time. And that's also intimidating because when we go before the Father, we want to make sure that we know who we are as we go before Him, and we know how to recognize Him in His presence. And we also don't want to bring something to Him in our lives that ought not be there. You guys understand what I'm saying? And so traditionally, the next 40 days are a time of Teshuvah, or repentance, where you go before the Father with intentional prayer to say, "Father, I want you to purge me of the things in my life that ought not be there"—specifically before we blow the trumpets for Rosh Hashanah, one of the four traditional New Years, or Yom Teruah, the Day of Trumpets, or specifically for Yom Kippur, and as well as Sukkot, the season of our joy.
Do you guys know Sukkot is the one place where there's a commandment to be happy? It's a commandment to be happy. All the other days of the year, you do what you want. You come into Sukkot—happy, joy. You need to have joy.
A Commandment to Be Happy
"I don't feel like it, so..." Can you imagine the Father saying that to you? "I'm depressed this way." "I don't really care." "You know, I'm stressed out at work because my boss gave me grief for getting off work and I'm really stressed out or I don't like camping." We camp. We do the whole crazy camping thing for the whole eight days. "I don't like camping. I don't like stink bugs or whatever." Maybe you're just going through a time in your life where, "Man, I'm just stressed and I don't feel like doing the religious stuff." Can you imagine the Father looking at you and being like, "So? You're going to be happy for the next seven days because that's what I commanded.
And I don't even want you to fake it. You're going to do it." You see, that's incredible. That's how our God is. You don't have an excuse not to be joyful because it's a commandment. And so during this time, this season of Teshuvah is what we're preparing to go into. And I wasn't really sure what type of message to bring. I mean, we could prepare for the preparedness season, but then the content for this message literally fell off my bookshelf onto the floor. And literally—short story—but it's about our identity.
Identity Crisis
Because if we're going to go before the Father and we're going to go to Him with intention to celebrate His glory, His kingdom, His salvation, His redemption, His mercy, we need to understand what our identity is when we go before Him. And sometimes, guys, we get lost in the world. We get overtaken by stress and our own weaknesses, imperfections, maybe even sin in our life that we can't shake. And we allow that to form and become our identity. And then we find it harder and harder to try to go before the Father because we see ourselves as this unworthy being who is the pinnacle of whatever our weakness, imperfection, or sin might be, and we find ourselves in a desert-without-water relationship with God. And so that's what this message is about, if you haven't guessed—identity crisis. What is our identity in Him?
The Eclipse
And I know August 21st is a really exciting day. There's going to be a unique phenomenon—it's rare, but it's not unique. It happens on a cycle every couple of years or once in our lifetime, called a full total eclipse. I don't know if you heard about this thing or not. You cannot get glasses for this stupid thing. I'm sitting here Googling how to make those cardboard box things with the aluminum foil. You're looking at it this way, and I don't know how to do it, but it's going to be fun. I'm looking forward to the shadow snakes. I want to see if I can see those things. And you're probably not going to be able to see them here. But that's when you look down and all your shadows are doing this. Because the way the sun and the light and physics and stuff, I don't know. But one thing I'm really excited about the eclipse is just how rare it is. I mean, it's something that was planted in God's fingertip when He pushed everything into motion in creation. This eclipse was predestined to be here. So much so, you can predict these things, which is amazing.
The Assyrian Eclipse and Jonah
I know there's a lot of chatter about the eclipse having to do with prophecy and fulfillment and stuff. It could be, yeah. I saw a video the other day where a guy was trying to sell a book about Blood Moon stuff that really didn't come to fruition. And he sold another book. And he's trying to sell another book. He was talking about the Assyrian eclipse. It's a famous eclipse that we have in the Assyrian tablets, cuneiform tablets, that happened June 15th, 763 BCE. And we know that was the exact date because of modern-day science and how we can calculate the eclipse and go back and we can pinpoint the date.
And we have a clay tablet that may have indicated that that eclipse took place in Nineveh. And he was saying this eclipse took place as soon as Jonah landed in Nineveh. The eclipse took place in those two minutes. And then he said, "40 days you have to repent." And that is what facilitated the repentance that took place in Nineveh. And I love assertions. Assertions are very powerful things because assertions produce lots of things in the imagination. It allows you to entertain a lot of stuff. It allows a lot of could-bes. The issue with the assertion that this took place is that when Jonah landed in Nineveh—we know around what time scope that was, when the book was written at least—it's around 790 to 760 BCE.
Somewhere in there. We don't know the year. We don't know the month. We definitely don't know the minute. Yeshua said something. He was talking about the sign of Jonah. And we know what Matthew says. The sign of Jonah is three days, three nights, the belly of the whale, Son of Man. That's going to be the sign you're going to be given. And he says something interesting afterwards. He says that in Judgment Day, the citizens of Nineveh are going to stand up and judge you because Jonah preached and they repented. Guys, can I make an assertion or an opinion? There may have been an eclipse in Nineveh. I don't know.
I don't think that's what caused the Ninevites to repent because Yeshua said Jonah preached and caused them to repent. The Spirit of God came forth out of the mouth of a prophet and the Ninevites heard and repented.
