Parkview Training Podcast

Hello, hello Parkview Church. My name is Devon Neese and I work here on staff at Parkview as the communications and associate worship director. It is my joy and pleasure to be with you here today to continue our series on a whole disciple and what it looks like to live in health in this, in these areas. Today we're gonna be talking about what it means to embrace your true identity in Christ as a whole disciple. So hopefully if you've been following along, we've already had two episodes in this series. We've had Thomas giving us just a, a general overview about the definition and I'll repeat that for us as we get started here.
And then Andrea taught us about submitting to God's word. So if you haven't checked those out yet, I'd invite you to go back and listen to those before you listen to this one. Cause our teaching will all be building off of one another. So yeah, to start us off, I would just like to remind us if what our definition of a whole disciple is. So a whole disciple is a forgiven child of God who's taking the next step to learn love and live Jesus. In this episode, we're diving in on the second area of health for learning Jesus, which is that a whole disciple embraces his or her true identity in Jesus. Let's get started. So the Bible has a lot to say about what our new identity is. It's pretty exciting actually. Jesus has completely renewed us by His spirit when we have become believers.
And so here's just a couple of things that the Bible tells us about our new identity. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Galatians 2:20 says, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. And Romans 8:16 and 17 says that we are children of God. And if children then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, what good news, we are renewed. We have the spirit of Christ living within us, and we are sons and daughters of God, co-heirs with Christ to his eternal inheritance. Other places in scripture tell us that we are citizens of heaven, God's people, a treasure for his own possession. We belong to God. We are not who he used to be before Jesus. So how do we embrace and live out this new true identity in Christ? Well, the Bible helps us there too. The Bible tells us that embracing our new identity in Christ is a process. It's not all gonna happen at once, though we are renewed by the Spirit when we become believers. It is a continual process of what we call sanctification or growing more and more into the image of Christ. And so Colossians 3 actually helps us a lot with understanding what it looks like to grow in embracing our true identity.
In Colossians 3, Paul's writing to the Colossian church about putting on the new self. So the process of embracing our true identity is putting to death our old ways. So leaving behind our sinful ways, gossiping. What else does he say about this? Sexual immorality, slander, malice, anger, putting those things to death and then putting on or bringing to life in us compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, patience. And so I think it's really important right here to stop because if you're like me, you've already gotten out your pen and paper and you're starting to write down all the things that you need to do and all the things that you don't need to do, and trying to figure this out on your own. Let's pause for a second. Remember Galatians 2:20, Christ's spirit dwells within every believer. It is not by our own strength, our own will or ability to make a fantastic to-do list that we embrace our new identity in Christ.
It is by the power of the Holy Spirit within us that we are transformed more into the image of Christ. Now, this does not release us from all responsibility in our own growth, but it reminds us that it is through the partnership between us and the Holy Spirit that we were able to embrace our new identity in Jesus. So by the power of the Spirit, we put off the old self. How do we do that? We confess the sin in our lives to the Lord, but also in community. And we pray and rely on the Holy Spirit when we are tempted by sin. Because though we have a new identity in Jesus, we are not immune to temptation. And so we can rely on the Holy Spirit in these moments to give us the tools that we need to resist temptation. And then on the flip side, and at the same time, by the power of the spirit we put on the new self, we ask the Lord to change our hearts, our minds and our habits.
Our responsibility here is to set our minds on things above as Colossians 3:2 puts it. Or as Philippians 4:8 and 9 says, finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me that is Paul, practice these things and the God of peace will be with you. So we're supposed to surround ourselves with scripture and the things that are pleasing to God with community that reminds us and points us back to the reality of Jesus and our our identity in him. And as we are obedient to God in this area of our life, we grow in health as a whole disciple. Our perspective on life has changed to be more in line with God’s.
We begin to see all of life through the lens of the gospel. We can have the ability to apply the truth of the gospel like Andrea taught about by reading God's word, submitting to God's word. We can then apply that to our everyday lives. It can change how we interact with our coworkers, our family, and our friends. It changes how we show up to everything that we have going on in our lives. Every activity, every conversation, every commitment. If we are showing up in our full identity as a follower of Jesus, it is different than how we used to show up to things before we knew Christ. So knowing who we are in Christ changes our perspective of daily life. To focus on the eternal, to be able to step back, to zoom out from hard situations of everyday life and think about them in the context of Jesus' resurrection and his second coming.
Because when we remember that Jesus died for us and conquered sin and death and Satan, when we remember that he is coming back to restore all of creation. When we remember that he is with us by His spirit, empowering us to live in Christ, we can embrace our true identity in Jesus. So now turning to just a couple ways that we can practice this area of health. If you need to grow in this personally, a really easy way to get started is to just pick one of those verses. I am a new creation. I no longer live it's Christ who lives in me. Pick one of those verses and write it down on a sticky note or an index card. Stick it to your mirror in the bathroom, stick it to the fridge in the kitchen anywhere that you see every single day, multiple times a day preferably.
Put that verse in front of your face so that you are constantly reminded of your new identity. You no longer live according to the ways of the world you live according to the way of Jesus. You can even find phone backgrounds with verses on them to put on your phone just by Googling that verse reference with the words phone background. So for instance, Galatians 2:20 verse background. I personally just started making scripture note cards to put on my dashboard in my car and I see it every single time I drive. So at first it kind of freaked me out cause I was like, what's this thing on my dashboard? But now I'm used to seeing it and remembering the verse that I have written on there. We just need to remember our identity. To rehearse it every day. And another way that we do that is through community.
We need to be in community to also remember our identity in Christ. It is not easy to remember your own identity in Christ on your own. Especially in times when you are struggling with sin and with temptation. It is so important to have somebody alongside you who you can call, who you can text, who can be there in a matter of minutes just to show up and remind you this is not who you are anymore. You are a new creation. So I'd highly encourage you if you're not already, to get involved in a community group, a Bible study somewhere where there is a regular and authentic confession of sin and community together embracing that true identity. And if you're feeling like I've got this, I know who I am in Christ, I'm living this part of my life as a whole disciple fully, I would encourage you to take the next step by helping somebody else learn how to embrace their identity in Jesus.
We have lots of opportunities to serve at our church with youth ministry, with kids ministry. And they are at a crucial time to know what their identity is in Jesus, whether they're believers or not. They have this available to them. They can become new creations in Christ. But they need to be reminded just like we do every day, that we are a new creation. And there's also new believers who are older. If that's more of your, your demographic that you like to help, just look for somebody who needs help. Cuz we all have a role to play in helping one another take the next step to learn Jesus. So if you're looking for any ideas or additional resources to help you get started in taking the next step in this area, you can check out the description box or the show notes wherever you're listening to this podcast for more helpful tools and links. Thanks for listening.