[SPECIAL] Your Gospel Identity – The Foundation
As the Church today, like it or not, there are a lot of things changing and not everyone is happy about it… or sure what to do next.
In this episode of the Everyday Disciple Podcast, we’re sharing Day 2 of the Everyday Disciple Challenge. This is the audio from the Live training we did online. Understanding how our true Identity changes motivations and sends us OUT on mission is key to making disciples in everyday life.
In This Episode You’ll Learn:
- How God created us in the image of his own triune (three-in-one) nature.
- What changes when we start to believe what God says is true of us.
- Why our Gospel Identity puts to death the DO=BE lies we’ve been taught.
- Practical implications that happen when we help others believe their true identity.
From this episode:
“Don’t believe the DO=BE lie anymore. What you DO does not create your value and who you really are, your true identity… especially in God’s eyes! Believing what God says is true of us sets us free from performance-based spirituality and constantly wondering if we’re DOing enough.”
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Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
Everyday Disciple Challenge and Workshop – Register Now!
Transcript
In light of all of this, please don't believe the do equals be lies anymore.
Caesar:In other words, what you do equals who you are, you are not the sum of your faults past sins, accomplishments, bank, account, pedigree, degrees, after your name, title at the church.
Caesar:You know, whatever that, what you do does not equal who you be.
Caesar:That's a lie.
Announcer:Welcome to the Everyday Disciple podcast where you'll learn how to live with greater intentionality and an integrated faith that naturally fits into every area of life.
Announcer:In other words, discipleship as a lifestyle, this is the stuff your parents, pastors, and seminary professors probably forgot to tell you.
Announcer:And now.
Announcer:Caesar Kalinowski
Caesar:okay.
Caesar:Alrighty.
Caesar:Here we are.
Caesar:Again, back together.
Caesar:That's super, that's awesome.
Caesar:I hope that you are having a great day and I hope that you're experiencing grace in all of its measure informs, which just, it keeps expanding and getting bigger and bigger.
Caesar:And I hope you know that, and I hope you're sharing that and rehearsing that if you listened to the podcast yesterday, you realize we had a very special episode where I shared with you day one.
Caesar:Of the Everyday Disciple challenge.
Caesar:I shared the audio with you, and that was an episode and the training about what is discipleship.
Caesar:And we really dug deep into the difference between evangelism and discipleship and how they're actually more linked than we ever thought, instead of separate, like one thing leads to the other, but they're really both connected.
Caesar:So if you didn't hear yesterday, Podcast on what is discipleship?
Caesar:I want you to stop right now and go back and hear that.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:But today, uh, another special episode, I'm going to share with you the audio from our day two training from the Everyday Disciple challenge.
Caesar:And in this training, what we talk about.
Caesar:Gospel identity.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Which is the foundation for all of discipleship, understanding how our true identity starts to change our motivations and others, and then sends us out on mission is really key to making disciples in everyday life.
Caesar:We're a little overwhelmed by how many people were on.
Caesar:Yesterday's challenge and how much homework's come in.
Caesar:It's been phenomenal and the responses have been great.
Caesar:And I hope and believe that you're going to enjoy this part of the training, just as much as yesterdays and I want to get right to it because there's plenty.
Caesar:And so here we go.
Caesar:Listen to this, make some notes, feel free to hop into the Everyday Disciple Podcast group.
Caesar:That's where the training and the comments and homework all get posted.
Caesar:You can go to Everyday Disciple dot com.
Caesar:Facebook, that'll take you right to that group.
Caesar:Feel free to join us in that there, you can also see the full video that, but here, listen to this now, and then I'm going to come back at the end with just a few comments.
Caesar:What did we learn yesterday?
Caesar:Yesterday?
Caesar:We learned that Jesus taught and modeled discipleship that preceded.
Caesar:People becoming Christians.
Caesar:I don't know if you've ever thought about that though.
Caesar:Jesus never discipled Christians.
Caesar:There weren't any.
Caesar:And even when he sent his disciples out, go and make disciples now all over the world, it says in Matthew 28 at the Ascension, some of them still did not believe they weren't believers in that sense that he was the Messiah, that he was actually the savior of the world.
Caesar:Isn't that crazy.
Caesar:After three years, every day, so clearly.
Caesar:And we looked at that whole continum.
Caesar:Discipleship precedes becoming a Christian and continues right as the gospel is applied to life.
Caesar:Now, we also looked at discipleship and evangelism are not two separate things.
Caesar:When done correctly.
Caesar:There are much more interconnected in a loop.
Caesar:I believe the fact that we bifurcated this separated this completely, I don't know when years ago, probably before my life is a big part of why the church has not engaged in discipleship in the same way.
Caesar:And we lost the mission, which is make disciples.
Caesar:Third thing we looked at yesterday was discipleship is the process of moving from unbelief to belief in light of the gospel in every area of life.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:And today, when we look at our gospel identity, this is one of don't miss this.
Caesar:This is one of the biggest shifts that we need to make from unbelief to belief and help others make as well.
Caesar:And this is foundational regardless of COVID or scattered or whatever.
Caesar:As we learn to speak identity into our life, into our family, into each other, into community.
Caesar:Oh, my goodness, this changes everything.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Yesterday, we also learned that discipleship must and can take place in all of everyday life.
Caesar:In other words, if discipleship is the process of moving from unbelief to belief in the gospel, in every area of life, then our discipleship needs to take place in all the everyday stuff of life.
Caesar:It's not a classroom where we get some head knowledge, and then we're sent out.
Caesar:You couldn't parent that way.
Caesar:Can you imagine if you only talk to your kids, if you're a parent for like 45 minutes or so once a week, while they sat in silence, maybe took a few notes and then they left and he said, we'll see you next week.
Caesar:Maybe we'll see you midweek.
Caesar:So discipleship is a lifestyle and we look deeply at that yesterday.
Caesar:So today what I want to do is I want to talk deeply about our gospel identity.
Caesar:And many of you have heard your whole life like, well, your identity is now incorrect.
Caesar:And I think I've heard that my whole life as a Christian and it's powerful.
Caesar:And, but I think it was really reduced in words, what's it mean to be an image bearer?
Caesar:And what does it mean to have our identity flowing from God?
Caesar:And that's what we're going to look at deeply today.
Caesar:And this is critical.
Caesar:Like I mentioned earlier in making disciples, everything we're going to talk about as the week progresses and the training.
Caesar:And a lot of when we get to the doing what I start doing and your homework we'll have you do in some things.
Caesar:A lot of you want to get to that right away and tell you we've made that mistake.
Caesar:We made that mistake before, remember yesterday, I started telling you about the first time we started to live this way in community and didn't go so well, let me tell you the rest of that story as we can go on.
Caesar:So years and years ago, before we started living this way in community, like a family on mission, like a family of missionaries right here, like we'd been sent overseas, but we were doing it right here.
Caesar:Tina and I, and the Vanderstelt some of, you know, Jeff Vanderstelt before we started SOMA together.
Caesar:And they were in our small group, this mega church that we were all on staff at.
Caesar:And some of our bestest friends we'd been in the same small group for a million years together.
Caesar:And we really started getting this burden to start living on mission.
Caesar:I don't even think the word Missional had started yet.
Caesar:And we started introducing some ideas and concepts and people are like, yay.
Caesar:Yeah, that kind of sounds good.
Caesar:Kind of like, cause I had been doing lots of international travel, like I'd mentioned yesterday and it was really starting to bend my head like, wow, those people live.
Caesar:Like they live, they are the church.
Caesar:We kind of go to church.
Caesar:They are the church and we put on church.
Caesar:And so they were like, yeah, yeah, we agreed.
Caesar:But then as soon as we started saying, let's start inviting, like are not yet believing neighbors and friends.
Caesar:And some of them we had in common to like some meals and stuff.
Caesar:I'm like, oh, that'd be a good idea, but, oh man, we're really, we're busy these days.
Caesar:And they're like, how about Saturday?
Caesar:Or in a couple Saturdays, let's go out and let's do a service project together and we'll invite our neighbors and their kids.
Caesar:And we'll have a meal afterwards and they're like, oh yeah, there's a lot of soccer going on right now.
Caesar:And even though it's not going on this weekend, we just feel like we really got to get to clean in that garage.
Caesar:And it didn't go very well.
Caesar:And see what had happened is we hadn't formed people in their identity and we were using lots of should language.
Caesar:You should be doing this and we're so how are we supposed to do this?
Caesar:Jesus died for you.
Caesar:Can't you do?
Caesar:You should do this.
Caesar:And we're we like to say there's no, should or shouldn't in the gospel.
Caesar:There's you get to.
Caesar:Because of what Christ has done or you need not, because this is true of you and what Christ has done, this is true of your identity.
Caesar:And so we say, you know, stop shoulding all over yourself and everyone else, but that's what we were doing.
Caesar:And it didn't go well.
Caesar:And, and actually it ended up our small group kind of just said, well, you guys go that way and we'll take the summer off.
Caesar:And then we'll, maybe we'll find something.
Caesar:And what was at the core of that mistake.
Caesar:We didn't know it yet was we weren't formed in our identity, our full gospel identity, and we hadn't formed others in that as well.
Caesar:Now, what I'm going to share with you today, you may or may not know, and you may have heard of this many, many times, but you may not have, but our identity flows right out of the great commission in Matthew 28, Jesus is going make disciples and baptize them in the name of the father.
Caesar:And in the name of the son in the name of the Holy Spirit . He's saying immerse them in this and that's all a great identity statement.
Caesar:Think about that in the name of whoever's name, you bear is whose family are part of baptize them in the name of the father.
Caesar:Whoa, heavy, right in the name of the son family relationship in the name of the holy spirit.
Caesar:See our identity flows right out of the Trinity to say our images.
Caesar:Is from God, like we're created in the image of God is kind of out there and hazy and all, but the truth is it's super grounded in the Trinitarian identity of God.
Caesar:We're not just now as Christians, like our identity is found in Christ.
Caesar:True.
Caesar:But it's also found in the father and it's found in the Spirit.
Caesar:And each of these is powerful in our understanding, our identity and our authority and our privilege as sons and daughters.
Caesar:It really, really is.
Caesar:And without this, without our being understand our being, then all of our doing and trying to move people to new Missional forms or let's start small churches in our houses because we can't gather the same way and all that, all that doing.
Caesar:If it isn't proceeded by a deep rooted belief and understanding of our identity, Like a huge shift from unbelief to belief about what's true of us and the implications, all that doing, I'll tell you it becomes law.
Caesar:It really does.
Caesar:It becomes sort of a new law and eventually people are going to be like, well, I don't know.
Caesar:And why do we have to do it?
Caesar:Why can't we just right.
Caesar:And you're going, and you're going to get frustrated and you're gonna feel like, man, these people.
Caesar:This is all super foundational.
Caesar:So let me go ahead.
Caesar:I'm gonna go back to share my screen and we're going to dive in really, really deep.
Caesar:And let me go ahead and turn off my video.
Caesar:You'll get myself out of the way there.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:So look at this, our identity, right baptized as them soak them, immerse them in the name of the father in the name of the son named the holy spirit flows right out all that.
Caesar:If God is our father.
Caesar:You believe that, right?
Caesar:I know you do.
Caesar:If God is all of our father, then we are as children who live as brothers and sisters, that's who we all are.
Caesar:And that makes us a family.
Caesar:The church is primarily and foremost, a family.
Caesar:It's not a meeting.
Caesar:It's not a building.
Caesar:It's not a denomination.
Caesar:It's not a set of doctrines.
Caesar:God is our father.
Caesar:We are his children that makes us brothers and sisters were.
Caesar:We are a family that is really, really important to understand that comes right out of all kinds of scripture.
Caesar:I could quote scripture for probably the whole time here today.
Caesar:Look at second Corinthians six 18, the apostle Paul says, and I will be a father to you talking about God, and you will be my sons and daughters says the Lord almighty, Hebrews two 11, both the one who makes people holy.
Caesar:And those who are made holy are of the same.
Caesar:Family.
Caesar:So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.
Caesar:How powerful is that?
Caesar:Is that amazing?
Caesar:What's the implications to somebody like, like you might think of like, oh yeah, God's our father, you know, and we kind of pray our father, our father and habit, but do you really believe you're a dearly loved son and daughter?
Caesar:And your daddy, your Abba is your dad who owns everything.
Caesar:And Jesus is your brother.
Caesar:You know, we're, we're taught and it's right to believe him, believe in Jesus as our Lord and as our savior and submit to him in that, in those ways.
Caesar:But he says, he's not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters.
Caesar:What's the implication of that.
Caesar:What are your thoughts?
Caesar:What's the implication.
Caesar:If the church is a family, like what do we get to do?
Caesar:How do we get to live?
Caesar:Not should, but get to, we say like, if you are living a healthy family who, where God's your daddy and Jesus, your brother, how do you get to live?
Caesar:Like how often do you hang out?
Caesar:What do you do together?
Caesar:It's everything that a healthy family would do, right?
Caesar:I'm going to hang out as often as I can, and we're going to eat together a lot and we're going to play and we're going to party and we're going to have fun.
Caesar:And then we're going to serve together and sometimes we're going to fight, but then we're going to forgive and extend grace, which is going to show us the father's love again.
Caesar:See, there's great implication in this.
Caesar:Isn't there.
Caesar:What are some of your ideas?
Caesar:Like, just punch it in.
Caesar:What's a big implication.
Caesar:If the church, if we really believed we were family and those were leading.
Caesar:And scattered ways, starting to foundationally change their belief deeper into believing that we really are a family, not sort of a family, not the church is kind of like a family, but what are some of the implications of that?
Caesar:I want to hear your thoughts on that.
Caesar:How might we live differently now and into the future, if really you see everybody in the churches, your brother and your sister.
Caesar:And let me take this a little bit.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:And I don't have time to get into all the scripture, but there's so much scripture that says God sees all of the humans.
Caesar:All of everybody, all people as his offspring, as his sons and daughters.
Caesar:So see, we have redeemed brothers and sisters right now as they love dad.
Caesar:They've been brought back into the family life, but we've got brothers and sisters who are far from dad.
Caesar:Remember I said like discipleship yesterday.
Caesar:This is like walking in the ways of Jesus and finding people to do that with us.
Caesar:You're inviting a back to the family back to taste and see the dad is good.
Caesar:That life is good in God's family.
Caesar:Huge implicate.
Caesar:All right, let's go on.
Caesar:So we're baptized in the name of the father that makes us a family.
Caesar:We are also baptized in the name of the son, immersed, soaked into an identity relationship.
Caesar:We were created this way in the image of God, but now because of Christ, this is being restored powerful right now.
Caesar:Here's what we take away from this.
Caesar:We live as Jesus did as a servant.
Caesar:Jesus came as a servant.
Caesar:He says I didn't come as to be served.
Caesar:I came as one who serves, I came as a servant.
Caesar:That makes us servants as well, by the way, you're wondering what this disciple in the middle is.
Caesar:This disk that's disciple right in the middle of this whole identity triangle.
Caesar:I'll explain a little bit more of that as we go on.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Just like Jesus.
Caesar:We are servants.
Caesar:It's it's not like we serve that's do to be.
Caesar:We are servants.
Caesar:So we get to serve, show people what he's like to glorify him.
Caesar:We are servants.
Caesar:Here's what Jesus said.
Caesar:Whoever wants to be great.
Caesar:Must become a servant.
Caesar:Whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave.
Caesar:That is what the son of man has done.
Caesar:He came to serve not to be served.
Caesar:He came to serve, not to be served Philippians 2, 5 11 in your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ.
Caesar:Jesus, who being in very nature.
Caesar:God did not consider equality with God.
Caesar:Something.
Caesar:To be used to his own advantage.
Caesar:Rather he made himself nothing by taking the very nature, see this isn't like, he acted like he took on the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness.
Caesar:That is true of us as well.
Caesar:We don't serve because we're supposed to, or we should, or because it makes us look good or maybe people will want to come to our church services.
Caesar:We serve because like our Lord.
Caesar:Brother Jesus.
Caesar:We are servants.
Caesar:We were created in the
Caesar:image
Caesar:of a servant.
Caesar:God, think about God from the very beginning, Genesis, this is a servant God.
Caesar:And he sends Jesus.
Caesar:And he is that same way.
Caesar:If you've seen me, you've seen the father, I only do what I've seen the public do.
Caesar:This is true of us.
Caesar:What are some of the implications of being a servant?
Caesar:What are some of those implications?
Caesar:What do you think I want you to, I want you to put some of that in the, in the note.
Caesar:Share what you're thinking.
Caesar:What are some of your ideas?
Caesar:What are the implications?
Caesar:If the church believed we were family and that primarily we are servants.
Caesar:Right.
Caesar:So, yeah.
Caesar:Get good.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:All kinds of stuff.
Caesar:All kinds of things happening.
Caesar:All right.
Caesar:So isn't that amazing.
Caesar:See how this starts to change.
Caesar:I hope you're catching this and I'm, I'm going to loop back on all this and connect a lot of dots for you here.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:A humbleness.
Caesar:Yep.
Caesar:Betty.
Caesar:Yep.
Caesar:Ron, he didn't act like a servant.
Caesar:He was one and us to see, even if you never serve anyone, you're still a servant.
Caesar:This you were created in the image of a servant and baptized in the name of right.
Caesar:Name relationship.
Caesar:By the way again, like when we pray in the name of Jesus, we always tack it on like the end of a prayer.
Caesar:Like, you know, it's like a little magic potion.
Caesar:Oh, this and that.
Caesar:And do this and do that and give God our to-do list.
Caesar:And then we're like in Jesus' name.
Caesar:Uh, you know, Jesus' name.
Caesar:And like, if we don't say it, then he won't do it, but it's like a talisman or something.
Caesar:No.
Caesar:What we're taught to pray in the name of Jesus, say, pray in light of your identity.
Caesar:You don't have, cause you don't ask.
Caesar:I only do what the father does.
Caesar:I only say what I see, you know what he says, that's what we're doing, where Lord, I am father, I am coming to you.
Caesar:And I'm asking you in the identity of Jesus.
Caesar:And God says, yeah, that's how I see you.
Caesar:That's who you are now.
Caesar:Not if you do this and do this and do this, then you'll be like this.
Caesar:You already are.
Caesar:That was the sin in the garden that, that Adam and Eve didn't believe a couple verses after it says, and God created both the man in the woman, in his own image to be like him, and then sent them out to be fruitful and multiply breathe his own breath.
Caesar:The spirit, then a couple verses later, the serpent comes and says, oh God just knows.
Caesar:If you do this, like eat this fruit.
Caesar:If you do this, it says you will be like him.
Caesar:Wow, wait a minute.
Caesar:See, that's the original sin.
Caesar:That's the original lie that you have to do something to be like the way God made us to be.
Caesar:And we are still doing that today.
Caesar:That's do to be distortion.
Caesar:This thing that we have to earn our value
Caesar:that we have to prove who we are.
Caesar:We create a self apart from God, an identity that has to be propped up and we get angry when people don't salute or recognize our sovereignty and all that stuff.
Caesar:That's where we get upset.
Caesar:That's all goes right back to the beginning.
Caesar:All right, let me keep going.
Caesar:We are also baptized in the name of the spirit, the holy spirit.
Caesar:That's different for us.
Caesar:Most of us, we never thought about having an identity relationship with the holy spirit.
Caesar:We are filled, empowered and sent by Jesus' own spirit.
Caesar:That makes us missionaries in scripture.
Caesar:When it says sent ones, we translate that in English to missionary.
Caesar:You are a missionary regardless.
Caesar:You don't have to go overseas and do anything to be a missionary.
Caesar:We have a missionary God, right after Adam and Eve, choose this obey and believe the lie.
Caesar:God goes looking for them.
Caesar:Where are you?
Caesar:He goes out on a journey, a missionary journey to go and find them.
Caesar:He sends his son on a missionary journey.
Caesar:We are missionaries like it's part of our birthright.
Caesar:It's who we are.
Caesar:John 2021 to 22 peace be with you just as the father sent me, I send you, then he took a deep breath.
Caesar:This is Jesus and breathed into them and said, receive the holy spirit.
Caesar:Wow.
Caesar:Are you connecting the dots here?
Caesar:Back to Genesis?
Caesar:God created the first man from the dust of the ground, breathing his own breath through a spirit, into them, giving them a life and be fruitful and multiple.
Caesar:Jesus says peace to you.
Caesar:Just as the father sent me, I send you.
Caesar:And then he breathes on them and says, received the spirit.
Caesar:And they connected the dots.
Caesar:I promise you to like, oh, this is connecting back to our identity.
Caesar:This is connecting back to the beginning.
Caesar:This is who we are.
Caesar:He's reminding us that.
Caesar:And he's provided that reality.
Caesar:He's restored that re.
Caesar:Be fruitful.
Caesar:Multiply is kinda like go and make disciples, fill the world with my glory.
Caesar:Wow.
Caesar:Wow.
Caesar:What is the implication here?
Caesar:Think about it even with our scattered times.
Caesar:If you believe you're a missionary, then anywhere you are, wherever you go, even if it's like with a mask on, or it's just, it's limited at use, it's different.
Caesar:You are a missionary.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:A few weeks ago, Tina and I were I'll just let me just I'll stop sharing for a second.
Caesar:Let me put my, uh, my screen back on, hang on, wound zigging.
Caesar:Okay, how do I get this going?
Caesar:There we go.
Caesar:Stop Tina and I, few weeks ago, we were that grandson Patton and we, we take them to the local airport.
Caesar:It's really small.
Caesar:It's not like the big Sea-Tac airport, but the planes come and go and come and go all day and he loves it and we go, and we get some tater tots and, and we, we know the staff and getting to know people.
Caesar:And a few weeks back, we met this lady, Julia, and she was sitting there by herself.
Caesar:And we, because it's social distancing, we were at the table, the three of us eating ours.
Caesar:And she pretty much inserted herself into our conversation the whole time.
Caesar:And we were like, great.
Caesar:And right away, we're starting to think this might be a person of peace.
Caesar:This is someone who's kind of leaning towards us in relationship.
Caesar:And so we talk and talk and talk.
Caesar:Before we left, she gave Tina her card and said, Hey, I live like five minutes away.
Caesar:I'm here a lot.
Caesar:Anytime you guys want to come, I'll come and I'll meet you guys.
Caesar:We're like, awesome.
Caesar:Thanks God.
Caesar:So few weeks later, maybe two weeks later, kind of last minute, we ended up going to this airport with Patton again on our way from somewhere to somewhere else.
Caesar:And it dawns on us like, oh my goodness, we promised her, we would call her call Julia.
Caesar:And we did.
Caesar:And so we're like, she's sitting there in exact same table.
Caesar:They see us at the same exact table next to her.
Caesar:And we have all kinds of deep conversation.
Caesar:We're apologizing.
Caesar:Oh my gosh, we didn't, we didn't, we forgot and all that.
Caesar:And she was like, that's okay.
Caesar:And we talk and talk and talk and.
Caesar:Now last week we were, we knew we were going to the airport.
Caesar:So on the way we called her, got her voicemail, told her what we were doing said, sorry, it's a little last minute.
Caesar:We just decided, but we promised you we would.
Caesar:And so she's, she calls back right away and says, oh totally.
Caesar:I'm there.
Caesar:I was wondering I was going to do for dinner.
Caesar:So we get there and we beat her there when she comes in.
Caesar:Not only.
Caesar:Because she's stoked to see us and we're happy to see her, but she is, she knows everybody there.
Caesar:She knows half the staff's names.
Caesar:I mean, she probably knows all the staff's names.
Caesar:She knew half the patrons there.
Caesar:She's introducing us to people.
Caesar:She sits with us now and we talk and we go deeper and she agrees to come on over.
Caesar:She says, I'm fine.
Caesar:I'm healthy.
Caesar:I'm not too worried about coming over.
Caesar:And she started sharing her life and heart with us and we found out she has no family zero.
Caesar:None in the area.
Caesar:I'm not sure even if there is any alive, if there are other east coast, but she's here all alone.
Caesar:She's quite a bit older than us lives alone and she's dying to come over and she's going to get her hair cut by our daughter.
Caesar:Who's part of our oikos and family on mission and all that was just the sweetest.
Caesar:And we're now next step is to come here.
Caesar:Come here now.
Caesar:Why am I telling you all this?
Caesar:We would not be noticing everybody while we ate our own tater tots and watched airplanes with our grandson.
Caesar:Who's just the cutest.
Caesar:If we weren't living out of our missionary identity, meaning we're always sent.
Caesar:To restore to bring people back to the family.
Caesar:And that's exactly what we're going to get to do.
Caesar:She has no family.
Caesar:She does now.
Caesar:She's part of team K.
Caesar:She doesn't know yet.
Caesar:And we're excited.
Caesar:This is a new person of peace.
Caesar:We believe we're not sure yet, but it appears that God brought her into our life and she's leaning towards us in relationship.
Caesar:So you see there's, there's great implications.
Caesar:There's great implications for us when we believe not only that we're missionaries, but we believe our full identity.
Caesar:This is true of us.
Caesar:We were created and now baptize in the name of the father that makes us family in the name of the son, like Jesus, we are servants and like Jesus, we've now been sent and empowered with his spirit
Caesar:as missionaries it's who we are.
Caesar:It's not just those few photos up on the wall.
Caesar:Like when I was a kid at church going to church, can't go to church, but, you know, go into the church building.
Caesar:There was a big map on the wall, uh, all the continents.
Caesar:And then there was all these eight by 10 pictures, you know, color coordinated to let us know those were our missionaries.
Caesar:Oh my goodness.
Caesar:And every once in a while they would come and they would visit us and it was crazy.
Caesar:And they would tell these really sad stories and show lots of pictures of little kids with flies in their eyes and all that.
Caesar:And it was like, those are missionaries.
Caesar:Uh, I don't want to be one of those.
Caesar:Do they look kind of sad and wearing outdated clothing, right?
Caesar:Here's how this all comes together.
Caesar:This is our transformed or our gospel identity in Christ.
Caesar:We are a family of missionary servants sent.
Caesar:As disciples who make disciples.
Caesar:So that's why that D disciple is in the middle.
Caesar:This is kind of how our dis, as a disciple, our identity flows, we are a family of missionary servants, sent as disciples who make disciples.
Caesar:That's who we are, church.
Caesar:That's who we are, brothers and sisters.
Caesar:That's true of us.
Caesar:And you know what, and that is true of you if you're in Christ, even if you never knew it before or understood how it connected deeply to the trinity.
Caesar:This is true of us, but we are like broken records with that phrase.
Caesar:We are a family of missionary servants, sent his disciples who make disciples.
Caesar:That's our identity.
Caesar:Like we posted on the wall.
Caesar:It's on mirrors.
Caesar:It's it shows up and flows out of every, every sermon, every video probably it's in almost every podcast.
Caesar:You've heard me tell, let me ask you a question here.
Caesar:I'm gonna just stop sharing for a second and I want some feedback on from you here.
Caesar:What changes for you?
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:For you personally, what changes if you primarily believe and find your identity and self-worth in the reality that you were, you're an image bear that you were created in the image of this triune.
Caesar:God, who always an only does what is good and perfect.
Caesar:This perfect.
Caesar:God is good.
Caesar:Right?
Caesar:And perfect.
Caesar:God, you are.
Caesar:To be like him.
Caesar:That is true of you because of Christ.
Caesar:You were created that way and now Christ has come.
Caesar:That, that might be true of us once again.
Caesar:What changes for you personally, if you believe that's true of yourself that you and your primary self-worth and identity came from the fact that you're the omagodai , you're the image of God.
Caesar:Now, like a mirror, like you are, it's like, it's your identity.
Caesar:God sees you this way.
Caesar:It's true of you unbelief to belief, the cornerstone key shift.
Caesar:What changes for you if you believe that's true.
Caesar:Trying to look here and just see some of the comments coming in.
Caesar:You don't need to seek that validation of other people.
Caesar:So center.
Caesar:Heather you're so right.
Caesar:See how it starts to, it starts to pull down that fear of man approval.
Caesar:I need everybody to love everything I do.
Caesar:When the glorious, one of the universe who literally hung the moon and stars and created, you says you're my dearly loved daughter.
Caesar:I'm crazy about you.
Caesar:That's my son.
Caesar:I'm, well-pleased not because of what you do because you're my kid.
Caesar:Why we feel that way with our kids.
Caesar:We love.
Caesar:And we don't have to yearn for the approval of everybody else because we have the only approval that really matters.
Caesar:It changes everything.
Caesar:And this starts to change life and community and allow the church to be the church.
Caesar:So I know we're talking about like scattered and all that.
Caesar:Listen, if you're live streaming, talk about identity.
Caesar:If you're on zoom calls, talk about identity.
Caesar:When you get together in smaller meetings, help people believe their identity.
Caesar:We even it's in our language.
Caesar:It's not just the teaching.
Caesar:We call everybody brother or sister.
Caesar:You've seen me posting for your homework.
Caesar:Good gob sister.
Caesar:Hey brother.
Caesar:So glad you're here with us, right?
Caesar:That's not vernacular.
Caesar:It's how I see you.
Caesar:I want you to see me as your brother.
Caesar:I want you to see Jesus as your brother.
Caesar:Here's another one.
Caesar:It changes every thing.
Caesar:Yeah, sure does.
Caesar:Like an ambassador represents this country we're called to represent not ourselves, but the others.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:I'm not who others have said that I am.
Caesar:I am who my heavenly father says tonight.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Isn't that amazing?
Caesar:You're not who everyone else says you were, or your past some of mistakes or faults or sin.
Caesar:You're a dearly loved daughter or a dearly loved son.
Caesar:Isn't that powerful.
Caesar:Now here's the second follow-up question.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:And I want your feedback again.
Caesar:What changes in your relationships?
Caesar:If you see others like first and foremost, primarily as there's an image bear, that person was created in the image of God, a God who is good and perfect, their words.
Caesar:We see them first and primarily, and their value intrinsically as image bearers.
Caesar:Not the sum of their faults or their accomplishments, or, you know, that person, you know, years ago he did that or she did that, but I forgave her.
Caesar:Like what if we see people first, as soon as we need them, primarily there goes an image.
Caesar:That's an image.
Caesar:I want to hear your thoughts years ago when we were planting our second, I think Soma community, we lived really close to where we would gather up and was kinda like a cafe thing.
Caesar:And, uh, I would literally walk right around the corner to it and I would pass all kinds of people.
Caesar:There was a transitional housing shelter that the salvation army ran there.
Caesar:And as I would walk past, I would see tons of people just in a short, like, Three block walk, and I'm like, everybody else, I'm kind of on my plan and I'm walking and I'm going pass people.
Caesar:And sometimes you go like, Hey, you know, or whatever.
Caesar:And I, at one point, God convicted me and says, you know, every one of those people you've just walked by or your brothers and sister.
Caesar:And they're and they bear my image.
Caesar:They're my sons and daughters.
Caesar:You need to greet them.
Caesar:And I started doing it and I did it all the time.
Caesar:I still do that when we ended up moving to New York for a couple of years and people are flying and there's millions of people, literally people were all shocked at, I want to talk to them.
Caesar:All right.
Caesar:But when you treat people this way and you treat them like family, but the way God sees.
Caesar:They might not be redeemed family yet, but they're still offspring their image bears.
Caesar:When you treat them like brothers and sisters, something shifts in you and in them.
Caesar:See.
Caesar:So what changes for you in your relationships, if you first and foremost see people in their value, as there's an image, bear, think about your own kids.
Caesar:Think about your staff.
Caesar:Think about the people in your church or people at your work.
Caesar:If you know where ever you work.
Caesar:But that's not like a person who fills a job do to be.
Caesar:That's why I value them.
Caesar:That's an image bearer.
Caesar:Who's a brother or a sister, right?
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:If we saw people, it's going by so fast as image bearers first.
Caesar:Wow.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Free to be who you really are.
Caesar:Not people pleasers.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:I love out of, yeah.
Caesar:I've God's love for us yet.
Caesar:There's so many going by.
Caesar:I can get.
Caesar:For you to be who you really are.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Daddy loves his children.
Caesar:Wants me to love them too.
Caesar:This is so much easier if I love, if I live in a relationship with daddy.
Caesar:Yeah, it does.
Caesar:And see we're called to glorify God.
Caesar:That means show others what he's like, what does he do?
Caesar:He shows love.
Caesar:He is love.
Caesar:That's what we get to.
Caesar:We don't, we don't have to, we're not supposed to, it's not that we should.
Caesar:We get to because that's living fully out of our God-given identity.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:I want to start to wrap up here.
Caesar:I want to give you one more thing to fit you about chew on here a little bit.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:We'll go back to my screens.
Caesar:So I just want to say in light of all of this, please don't believe the do equals be lies.
Caesar:In other words, what you do equals who you are, you are not the sum of your faults past sins, accomplishments, bank, account, pedigree, degrees, after your name, title at the church.
Caesar:You know, whatever that, what you do does not equal who you be.
Caesar:That's a lie.
Caesar:That's the meta wound.
Caesar:If you will, like right from the right from Genesis three, if you do this, then you'll be like, God know you were already created in his image.
Caesar:And now in Christ been restored and the sanctification process, this discipleship is helping people move from unbelief to belief of all.
Caesar:That's true because of that in every area of their life.
Caesar:And this is a big one.
Caesar:This is a big.
Caesar:Yeah, this is bigger than just getting a get out of hell card someday.
Caesar:This starts to transform relationships within the church and within our families and within the neighborhoods now.
Caesar:So please don't believe the do to be lies.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Now, in light of this thing, you know, where I was just sharing here, like we are a family of missionary servants, and we're going to treat everyone like family.
Caesar:You may be asking yourself, how would we possibly live this way?
Caesar:Like treating everyone, like family, Tina and I live with an open door policy.
Caesar:We really do.
Caesar:We have for decades and people are here a lot and there's always people staying with us and it's all, someone was just over the other day.
Caesar:And they were like, I don't, I can't remember a time when you didn't have people staying with you.
Caesar:Yup.
Caesar:Sometimes short-term sometimes long-term we had people this weekend.
Caesar:I'll probably listen to them.
Caesar:Tim and Deb.
Caesar:Hey, love you guys, brothers, sister.
Caesar:And you're wondering how would I ever live with.
Caesar:And how would it be possible to fit this all into our busy lives?
Caesar:And, you know, a lot of you wrote in like, I really want to get into discipleship, but everybody's too busy.
Caesar:What if I could show you that?
Caesar:It's not, what if I can show you that God's actually ordered the world in certain way and we all live in it.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:That's what we're going to talk about tomorrow.
Caesar:That's what we're going to talk about tomorrow.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Powerful.
Caesar:Today we learn.
Caesar:We are all created in God's image to be like him.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Don't don't think that sounds too high.
Caesar:It's true of you.
Caesar:And that's what God says is true.
Caesar:Our true identity is Trinitarian flowing from who God is.
Caesar:Father son spirit three in one as the church, we are a family of missionary servants sent his disciples who make disciples.
Caesar:I hope you wrote that down and grabbed a screenshot of that and are doing flows from our being not the other way around, not the other way around powerful, right?
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:So again, tomorrow, I'm going to help you understand how to begin to really live this out in the normal rhythms of everyday life tomorrow.
Caesar:We're going to shift to some more of the doing, how do we start to do this?
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:And your homework will reflect that.
Caesar:Let me give you the homework for today.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:I'm going to post a post it'll look like this.
Caesar:There'll be this little card and I'll remind you of all the homework by the way.
Caesar:Again.
Caesar:Thank you for all of you.
Caesar:Who've been posting homework and posting lives.
Caesar:If you post homework, that's an entry into when some of the prizes I was telling you about like signed books and audio books, and some time with me and Amazon gift cards.
Caesar:If you post a live video, Either here in this feed below in the comments where you've been commenting, like your takeaway, your aha.
Caesar:Wow.
Caesar:I want to hear it.
Caesar:Then you get three entries to win.
Caesar:In fact, let me just remind you before you get off, would you just figure it out?
Caesar:How to go live?
Caesar:And I know not everybody wants to be on camera or it, but it really blesses us and it blesses everybody in the group.
Caesar:And tell me your aha moment.
Caesar:What's your aha today?
Caesar:What's your.
Caesar:remember three entries to win.
Caesar:And if you just can't do the video, I still want to hear your aha.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Please post your homework.
Caesar:Not here under this video, posted in the homework post where this is, cause that it will be right below.
Caesar:You'll find it.
Caesar:Just look for that, that I stare in the face because that way we won't miss it.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:We won't miss it and you'll get your entries to win.
Caesar:Here's your homework for day two.
Caesar:I want you to answer these questions.
Caesar:List.
Caesar:Which of the aspects of your identity in Christ you most live out of today?
Caesar:Like do most live out like with others as family?
Caesar:I'm not about your own nuclear family alone.
Caesar:I'm talking about, I really believe my identity and we live treating others like family and the church that way.
Caesar:Or do you most live out of your missionary identity as a sent one or as a servant?
Caesar:Or as a disciple, really into discipling others and helping them move from unbelief to belief, applying the good news of the gospel to everything right now, which aspects of your identity do you most live out of already?
Caesar:And then I want you to be honest with me here, list, which aspect of your identity, family, missionary, servant, and disciple is hardest for you to believe and to live out of like your head might believe.
Caesar:But you're not sure if you believe in your heart and then live out of it, like list, which one would be the hardest for you for currently.
Caesar:And what would change if you believed it was true though.
Caesar:Like you just made that shift from unbelief to belief that God says, it's true.
Caesar:I'm going to believe it.
Caesar:And I'm going to pray, you know, like father, I believe, but help me with my unbelief, by the way, you can download the homework worksheet for today and it will recap all of this stuff and you can go to Everyday Disciple dot.
Caesar:Forward slash day two.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:And then you it's free.
Caesar:Just boom, pull it right down.
Caesar:Just download that thing and you can print it off as a reminder or fill it out for yourself and then post your homework.
Caesar:Right.
Caesar:Post your homework back here under this.
Caesar:I'll have that up within 10 or 15 minutes of getting off today.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:So that's kind of it for today.
Caesar:Tomorrow.
Caesar:I'm going to talk about discipleship rhythms in all of life and I'm, I really, I'm going to pop the lid off if you've never heard me teach on.
Caesar:Or heard anyone teach on this, how God's ordered the whole world in all these rhythms that you already live in.
Caesar:And they're perfect for living out our gospel identity with others.
Caesar:And even now, and I'm going to give you all kinds of like social distancing tips and downloads for that, and all I'm going to, I'm going to help you out.
Caesar:But I hope you're seeing the connection from yesterday.
Caesar:What discipleship is all about and how moving from unbelief to belief and helping people do that connects to this gospel identity, starting in the mirror.
Caesar:I hope that you are getting just how important it is to understand our true identity in Christ and really in the Trinity, it's much bigger than just sort of saying, oh, our identity in Christ.
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:But it's look at that.
Caesar:We're created in the image of a Trinitarian God and our identity as a family of missionary servants.
Caesar:Flows from that.
Caesar:And we are now discipled sent as disciples to make disciples.
Caesar:And there's great implication in that.
Caesar:I hope you're getting all that again.
Caesar:I want to invite you to come on over and join the party in the Everyday Disciple Podcast group, where these trainings are and the videos are.
Caesar:So if you want to see all the slides, just go to Everyday Disciple dot com forward slash Facebook.
Caesar:And that will take you right there.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:So tomorrow.
Caesar:I'm going to be sharing with you day three of the audio from the challenge trainings, and that's where I'm going to get into six discipleship rhythms.
Caesar:I'm going to reveal like these ordinary rhythms of life that are perfectly created by God for natural daily discipleship that fits everyone's schedule yours.
Caesar:Everyone.
Caesar:Else's.
Caesar:Is really important in this scattered time, in these times of social distancing and all, they kind of change our perspectives on just how many opportunities we really do have to be and share the gospel and do discipleship in all of life.
Caesar:So I hope you'll join us back for that tomorrow.
Caesar:And I want to thank you again for being with us today.
Caesar:Talk to you real soon.
Announcer:Thanks for joining us today for more information on this show and to get loads of free discipleship resources, visit Everyday Disciple dot com.