https://www.bible.com/events/49384868
Church of the Nazarene – East Rockingham Campus
Relationship Goals Part 1
Our Identity is in Christ
Over the next few weeks, we will work through several relationship goals that we can see in the scriptures.
By naming this series Relationship Goals, we are acknowledging from the very beginning that our relationships have room to grow. They may need work, maybe even a lot of it. We also recognize that WE need work. that ME in relationship, needs work.
The purpose of this series is not to make you feel guilty about yourself or the quality of your relationships. Our desire is to offer hope, to set some goals and find practical tools that will help us work on our relationships.
As the old saying goes “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.” So why not set some goals to get us where the bible is calling in our relationships?
Today we begin with relationship goal #1 “Our identity is in Christ”
In relationships we must begin by grounding our own identity in Christ before pursing relationship with others.
To know who we are as a child of God created in his image for a purpose, frees us to engage in relationships freely and with confidence because we know that no individual can ever be my “number 1” in any relationship because that place is always reserved for Jesus.
To get a clearer picture of our identity and god’s design, I want us to go back to the beginning, let’s turn to Genesis chapter 2
In genesis 1-2 we have the account of how the Lord created everything Sun, moon, and stars, land and sea and everything in it. There is no sin present, everything is as God designed and intended it to be, including the first man, Adam.
Let’s read about his beginnings
Genesis 2:7-8
Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed.
“God formed a man from the dust of the ground”
Who are you? You are god’s masterpiece, skillfully and purposefully created. You are not an accident. You are created with intrinsic value and worth. Formed, shaped, knit together by the hand of the Lord.
“Breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being”
This idea is of the breath that you would blow onto an ember to bring it flame. God took the elements of the earth and breathed life into them.
Genesis 2:15-17
The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
The Lord had a specific plan, a specific place for Adam. He gave him a calling, a vocation, a purpose to give his life work to.
Like Adam we are created for a purpose, to glorify God as he has a plan for us. The Lord also gave parameters, instructions on how to live out his calling and how to live in relationship with God.
Adam first found his identity in relationship with the Lord. It was there that Adam had fulfilled the deep core created longings of his heart. And now he was ready for relationship.
Genesis 2:18
The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
Having our identity, purpose, and belonging secure in the Lord, doesn’t mean we don’t need relationships. I believe it means we are ready for relationships.
Adam had all this sorted out and settled in the Lord, but God still looks at him and sees “it’s not good for man to be alone”. And what we see in this passage, in this “not good” idea, is that we were made for relationships. It’s part of who we are and how we are made.
We are made to be in community and relationship with others. It’s good. But don’t miss the order in which the Lord brought these things together.
Adam first had his identity in the Lord, THEN relationship with Eve.
If we enter into relationship with our identity being incomplete, inevitably we will seek to complete ourselves, our identity, our purpose, our value, in another person. And friends that is not going to go well. We cannot expect any other person to complete something that God designed for himself.
That means that nobody can be our number 1. Not our parents, not our kids, not our spouse, or even our best friend. That place must be reserved for Christ alone.
And friends, that’s why our first relationship Goal is “Our identity is in Christ First.”