I recently read part of an article titled “Nine Ways to Find Your True Identity and Discover Who You Are.”[1] The author lists nine ways that we can identify ourselves, and all but one of them deal with internal evaluation. According to this author, you find your identity by looking internally at your own strengths, values, and beliefs. You meditate on these inner thoughts about yourself and simply accept who you are. Only if you are confused or overwhelmed should you look outside yourself to find your identity, according to this author.

I would deeply disagree with this article. If you follow this author’s advice, you’ll be in big trouble. We find our identity in other ways than looking internally. We should be much more concerned about the facts of reality than our inner feelings. Facts don’t care about your feelings.

This is the second part of the second message in our Summer Sermon Series dealing with Christian identity. The world today is very concerned about identity, and Christians should be very careful about how we identify ourselves and how we identify others.

Last Sunday, I spent most of the message dealing with improper or partial sources of identity. People identify themselves primarily by the way they feel about themselves. People identify themselves according to their physical appetites and attractions. People identify with popular trends and fads. People often identify themselves in ways that are indecent, undignified, and contrary to common sense.

Each of these ways of identification leads to problems, both personally and for society. We should avoid identifying ourselves in these ways.

Today I want to focus on the proper means of identifying ourselves. What are the proper sources of identification?

[1] https://thirdbliss.com/finding-your-identity/