You’re a Loser. You’re Perfect. You’re a Failure. You’re a Success. You’re Ugly. You’re Beautiful. You’re so Shallow. You’re so Deep. You’re Shameful. You’re Special. You’re  Washed Up. You’re so Youthful. You’re a Problem Child. You’re the Favored Child. You’re Beyond Hope. You’re God’s gift to this world.

What does it feel like to hear these kinds of words spoken out loud? Did any of them stick to you more than others? Did it feel like a roller coaster as I alternated between really positive words and really negative ones? This is what’s happening for so many of us when it comes to our perception of who we are. We are all so prone to living for a name.

And we live in a world full of people who think it’s their right to name us, label us, and define us. And they speak with so much certainty, as if they hold the authority over who we are and what we’re allowed to become.

If I’m in a crowd and I hear someone say, “Ted”, I’m not going to give them my attention because my name is Ben. If I’m at church and you yell, “Hey Rob”, I won’t respond because that’s not my name. And yet, you and I find ourselves responding to so many names that aren’t actually our names, because we’re so unsure of who we really are. Here’s my opening question that also serves as the title of this message:

Who is naming you?

Here’s what I do not mean by this question. I’m not asking if people are calling you names or saying things about you. Humans have always tried to define other humans. What I mean is this – Who are you entrusting yourself to? Who are you allowing to define your identity?

Like you, I have had plenty of people over the years try to tell me who I am. And sometimes, I have received the label they put on me into the very depths of my soul. I’ve let other people define me, even when there was zero truth to what they were saying. This is true for the amazing things people say about us and the terrible things they say about us. And sometimes, the people who have said the best things about me became the people who have now said the worst things about me. It’s amazing how that shifts as soon as you’re no longer doing what they want you to do for them. One of the great challenges in life is to stop letting people name us who do not know the whole truth about us.

Who are you entrusting yourself to?

We have so many options when it comes to how we answer this question. Does your boss get to determine who you are? Are you allowing the person you used to date to define your existence? Are you letting people on social media determine who you are at your core? Jesus also had so many voices trying to label him. His family put a label on him. The devil asked him to prove himself. He was called a glutton, a drunkard, and accused of being demon-possessed. With so many options, who did He entrust Himself to? I want to show you how Jesus would not entrust Himself to the positive opinions of others or the negative ones.

John 2:23-25 Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name. But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person.

1 Peter 2:23 When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.

When people saw what Jesus did, many openly believed in Him. But Jesus did not believe their belief. He knew who they really were. And He did not need someone to tell him who they were, for he knew what was in each person. And He didn’t need them to tell Him who He was. And even when Jesus suffered on the cross and all kinds of insults were lodged at Him, He did not retaliate…but notice this – He also did not receive the labels they were trying to stick on Him. Instead He entrusted Himself to him who judges justly.

“But he did not look to the expectations of others to understand who he was. Instead he looked to his relationship to God.” -David Benner, The Gift of Being Yourself

The Greek word that gets translated as “entrusted” is:

παρεδιδου (paredidou) – to hand over, commit, surrender

Jesus would not hand himself over to the opinions of his audiences. It didn’t matter if it was his own family, the devil, the religious leaders, or his own disciples. Everyone projected an identity on to Jesus, either who they thought he was or who they wanted him to become. Instead, he handed his identity over to his Father, the one who named Jesus with both accuracy and authority. Jesus decided he would live for an audience of One.

Who have you handed over your naming rights to?

If you do not live for an audience of One, you will live for the approval of everyone.

If we’re going to live into our God-given identity, there’s something else that must leave our lives – fear of man. Some of us have spent so much of our lives trying to please people. Not only is that not healthy for us; it’s also not possible.

So funny and yet so true. Not only is pleasing everyone impossible; it actually causes us to forfeit something else.

John 12:42-43 Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved human praise more than praise from God.

Galatians 1:10 Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.

For starters, Paul gives us some great news of hope here – even if you have been a people-pleaser, you can be set free from that. He asks, “am I now trying to win the approval of human beings or of God?” And he says, “If I were still trying to please people.” He’s admitting that this used to be a struggle for him.

I am intimately acquainted with people pleasing. For so much of my life, I wanted to be included, accepted, approved of. When you don’t know who you really are, every moment becomes like a performance on a stage. Do they like me? Do they think I’m special? Am I coming across as a great leader? Are they happy with me?

And maybe like you, I thought I just needed to focus on putting a stop to living for the approval of others. But that aim didn’t help me all that much. Instead, I have discovered that the way out of people-pleasing is to pursue the significant vision of God for my life. If I cannot please God and please you, I have to go with pleasing God. If I try to please you, I won’t be able to love you well and I won’t be able to pastor this church well. This means I need to be okay with the criticism and letting people down that comes with a role like mine. It means I have to remain deeply rooted in my identity in Christ. Tim Keller wrote a very short book that has helped me so much.

‍“We look for that ultimate verdict every day in all the situations and people around us. And that means that every single day, we are on trial. Every day, we put ourselves back in a courtroom.” -Tim Keller, The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness

1 Corinthians 4:3-4 I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me.

What’s the role we’re called to play in each other’s lives on this topic? One of the most significant roles the body of Christ plays in each other’s lives is to simply remind one another of who we truly are. Tell each other the truth. It’s so easy to allow our failure or our sin or another person to define us. We don’t need more people telling us lies about our identity. We need more people telling us the truth.

It’s important that we entrust ourselves to God and to a few people in our inner circle who know God well and know us well. Not too long ago, I was struggling with some labels people were putting on me. It left me asking, “Wow, is this who I really am?” I shared it with a close friend who knows me very well and he said, “That is a lie from the pit of hell.” I wonder what labels we’re living out of that are lies from the pit of hell.

Audience of One. Who is naming you?

Let the Name that is above every other name be the name that names you.

Responses:

-Entrust yourself to Jesus. Receive your new name.

-Ask God to help you receive your name from Him in the deepest places.

-Ask God to free you and take away every name that doesn’t go with His name for you.

-Baptism is the Identity Practice for Christians. We’re doing baptisms today after the 12:00 and if you’re a Christian who hasn’t been baptized, today is your day. We are prepared for you; we have the clothes you need and our team is ready to walk you through this. In fact, in a moment I’m going to pray for us, and after I do – people will begin to come forward for prayer. But if you need to be baptized today, I want you to walk up to Will and let him know.