#41: Our Identity

On episode 41, Tim explains why we should always find our identities in Jesus and what he did for us on the cross.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome into Bring Heaven Down. My name is Tim and
I'm the host of this daily devotional podcast. This is
episode number forty one. Make sure you hit that follow
button so to this podcast will show up in your
feet as often as it comes out. And rate and
review the show if you're willing, so that we can
get this podcast more exposure and introduce Jesus to non

(00:23):
believers and bring Jesus to more people. Today's topic, I
want to talk about our identity in Christ and why
it's so important to ground ourselves in Jesus. So grab
your favorite drink or a cup of coffee. Let's bring

(00:45):
Heaven a little closer together. First, Peter chapter two versus
nine says this, but you are a chosen race, a
royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession.

(01:09):
That you may proclaim the excellences of Him who called
you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Our identities
should always be found in Jesus. And if I'm being
with one hundred percent honest, this is something that I

(01:33):
struggle with from time to time when I am not
focused on God's word or am not focused on what
I mean to God. Too many times I'm looking around

(01:54):
my life, whether it's my career or my relationship with
my wife or kids, to make me feel good or
to identify myself with. Just the other day, I host

(02:15):
another podcast. It's a Minnesota sports podcast. I live in Minnesota.
I'm from Minnesota, so I do a Minnesota sports podcast too,
And I was looking at the numbers and I was
kind of disappointed, and I was trying to figure out
how to grow the thing, because it goes through mountains

(02:35):
and valleys of like, oh, this is a really good week.
Oh this one was a really bad week. Oh the stinks.
And when you go through those bad weeks, you don't
really fully understand just how much you place your identity
in it until you have a bad week and then
it's like, oh, well that kind of stinks. So just
the other day, I was struggling because I felt like

(02:58):
I was not accomplishing what I should be accomplishing, and
I didn't know how to accomplish what I'm supposed to accomplish.
And what I was doing is I was placing my
identity in how I was performing with my other podcast,

(03:18):
and that's not what I should be doing. I should
be grounding myself in Jesus. And I've done this before too.
I've struggled with finding my identity with how much money
I have in my bank account. I've struggled with finding
my identity and how good of a husband I am.

(03:42):
And if you're struggling with this, or have struggled with it,
or might struggle with this in the future, my greatest
advice that I'm personally trying to fight myself is to
ground ourselves back in God's word because what this world

(04:07):
tries to do, it tries to distract the world tries
to throw different things at us and get our attention
off of Jesus. Because when you really break it down
and you think about it to its fullest extent, Jesus

(04:32):
became man and died for my sin, and there is
no greater thing to identify with then Jesus Christ himself,
because he saw me, he saw you, and was like,

(04:58):
I loved this person so much much that even though
I am God, I am going to die for them,
I Am going to take their place on the cross.
And when you really process and meditate on the truth

(05:19):
of Jesus dying for our sins, resurrecting three days later
and giving us the Holy Spirit. There is no greater
thing than that in the entire world. Jesus should be

(05:42):
number one in our lives. And the problem with me
and my sin is that I don't put Him at
number one in my life. I put a job, or
my relationship with my wife, or my relationship with our
kids ahead of God. So if you are struggling with

(06:04):
identity purpose, my greatest advice to you is to ground
yourself back in God's word and to meditate on the
truth of God's word. And I'm going through it with
you because I found myself getting a little sad or

(06:26):
even a touch depressed, because I was placing my identity
in a place where it didn't belong. And even if
what I was placing my identity and was doing a
great job, and I could feel good about myself about

(06:50):
how good of a job I was doing, well, how
material is that Even if the thing you're placing your
identity is doing good, maybe the best husband or wife
in the world, and you feel good about that, And
that's where you're placing an identity. It's not going to
last forever. We all fall short, we're all sinful. So

(07:14):
if you're placing your identity into something other than Jesus.
It's material and it's not long lasting. That's why we
are called not to identify with a job or relationship.
But we are called to identify ourselves first as a

(07:37):
child of God. If someone asks who are you, the
answer should be I am a child of God, and
then my name is Tim, or my name is Tim
and I am a child of God. Thank you for
choosing Jesus today, and I hope you learn something new.

(08:00):
I hope the Holy Spirit is working in your life
and revealing more and more about our Lord and Savior
and Jesus Christ.