Rediscovering my Identity in Christ: Applications from Acts
/“ I know exactly what my life is to be about because of the book of Acts.”
Pastor Brandon has brought us less than halfway through the book of Acts, and his preaching combined with recently taking the LFBI class over the book of Acts has changed my life. Until the Lord brought my focus in on this book, I always felt a cloudy as to what exactly serving Christ looked like when it came to my daily life. I remember getting saved years before I ever came to a church that taught the Bible. In the midst of that, I was also clueless as to what I was supposed to do in regards to having a desire to serve God in my heart. Thankfully, I’m no longer clueless. I know exactly what my life is to be about because of the book of Acts.
“ I know the extremes of severe persecution is an idea in our culture that is hard to identify with, but God communicates it to us in our time nonetheless.”
This year I became a father, a business owner, and a Bible study leader. Throughout all of this transition and change, I was stressed. These things have defined this season of my life. It has been a season of life that without the sharpness and focus that the book of Acts has brought to me could have easily weakened my ministry and my walk.
In light of the acts of the apostles and the movement they created in the persecution they faced, I see these mere changes in position in my life to be small in the eyes of Jesus Christ. To walk with the 12 disciples through beatings, to spend time with them in jail cells, to watch with them as their long-time friends are put to death gives me strength to keep going on‒to know that my life isn’t about the stress. Instead, my life is about the fact that despite the hard times, the gospel never stops being powerful in my mouth. Our ministry will never stop being used by God to reach Kansas City even if they kill us. I know the extremes of severe persecution is an idea in our culture that is hard to identify with, but God communicates it to us in our time nonetheless. Brandon has spent a lot of time with the concepts of persecution and fear in this sermon series.
It is so easy for us to be afraid of the trials of our life. We don’t need to fear death. We need to fear the very idea that things so much smaller than being stoned or slain with a sword, like school, children, work, and ministry, can shut our mouths as effectively as a weapon of execution.
“Anything that challenges this devotion can and must be cast down.”
After our hiatus in the book of Jonah, Brandon returned us to the book of Acts with a review and the focus of “rediscovering our identity.” This message was exactly what I needed. The strain of my life had slowly allowed my identity in my heart to be more and more “business owner” or “husband and father” and less “worshiper and servant of Jesus Christ.” Only a certain number of thoughts pass through our heads every day, and I found myself struggling more and more to control my thought life.
My flesh kept telling me that work was more important than anything else; it was the thing that provided for my family, my life, and my ministry. It was the thing that took up 50+ hours of each and every week. It was as if every thought that concerned this topic had been “marked as important” and everything else took a back seat. I needed to be reminded that my identity wasn’t found in any of these things. I was to be a man of prayer. I was to be a man of preparation for the work of the ministry. I was to be a man that gave my life to my brothers and sisters in my church. Anything else I do in my life, no matter how important it seems, is to be subservient to that true purpose. Anything that challenges this devotion can and must be cast down.
Acts 1:8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
This is why I breathe. This is why I work. This is why I have a family. Brandon has never for a moment ever communicated anything to us other than the fact that he believes that our lives are to be given to this cause and that we can succeed. We have 16 chapters left in the book of Acts and we’ve just begun this work in Kansas City. I pray to God that before our lives are over, we too can make such an impact on this world that we must stand before the kings of this earth and blame the gospel as the reason we had turned the world upside down.
Kendal Anderson is a discipler and small group leader in Midtown Baptist Temple’s College and Young Adults ministry. He also serves on the security team, C&YA hospitality, and the student ministry.