Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Pastor Heather…
Good morning, everyone. Welcome to morning prayer. My name is Heather Sibinski. I’m one of the pastors here at Living Word. Thank you for joining us here in person or online, however you’re joining us.
The enemy is attacking our identity…
When I was praying about what to speak about, I felt the Lord talking about identity. In the world that we’re in today, I think the biggest thing the enemy is trying to attack is identity. And you see a young generation trying to figure out who they are, trying to find themselves, trying to find where they fit in. A lot of young people, even just experimenting… like “I identify as this,” or “I identify as that.” And so you see just an attack of the enemy on identity. And I was praying about that. You hear a lot of talk right now about people on a self-discovery journey. “I’m just trying to figure out who I am right now.” Or, “It’s a new year, a new me.” You hear a lot of those things… just very self-focused, self-centered. But at the same time, also just very confused about who we are and why we’re here. And so I want to touch on that a little bit this morning.
We were created for a purpose…
One of the things I’ll never forget that Pastor Lynne said that grabbed me when she said it. She talked about how we are created for a purpose. She said, “Think of a washing machine. The washing machine is created for a purpose. We don’t create a washing machine and then look at that machine and we go, Hmm, what should I do with this? Should I bake cookies in this? You think of all these different things that you could do with this washing machine. But no… it’s a washing machine! It was created to be a washing machine.
He created us for a purpose and a plan…
God creates us with a purpose. And there’s many scriptures that say we were created for a purpose and we’re here for a purpose. And He created us with a purpose and with a plan. And so many times we see the reverse of it. We think, “I’m here, but what am I supposed to do? Lord, can you show me where I’m supposed to go, what I’m supposed to do?” When really it’s the opposite. He created us with a purpose. And He’s always wanting us to step into that plan, into that purpose. So just like a washing machine is created to wash clothes, we are created to fill in the… [fill in the blank]. Everybody has different calls and different purposes. Obviously, the sole purpose of what we were created for was to worship and love Him and to be a light while we’re on this earth, to be His hands and feet. That is the core purpose of who we are; we were created to love Him. We were created to worship Him. We were created to be in His likeness.
The Bible doesn’t tell us what vocation we’re supposed to have…
And so when we’re not doing those things, obviously, we are ever looking for purpose. Like, why am I here? What am I supposed to do? And part of that is good. But part of that is not in the Bible. The Bible’s not going to say “You are supposed to be a teacher… You are supposed to be a lawyer… You are supposed to be a pastor.” Those are the things you walk out with God as you walk out your calling and you walk out His will in your life.
The core identity of who we are…
But today, I wanted to talk about just the core identity of who we are. And if you’ve ever heard somebody say, “I’m just not quite feeling myself today.” I’ve said that before. “I feel off. I don’t feel like myself today.” And usually to me when I’m feeling that, that’s a sign that I haven’t been in His presence enough or I haven’t been seeking Him enough. So today, I have a few things to encourage you before we go into prayer.
Romans 8:9…
I want to start with Romans 8:9. It says, “But when the spirit of Christ empowers your life…” This is the Passion translation. “You are not dominated by the flesh, but by the spirit. And if you are not joined to the spirit of the anointed one, you are not of Him.”
Footnote for Romans 8:9…
And then there’s a footnote here that really spoke to me. He says, “This is an unusual Greek clause that can be translated: “If anyone is not joined to the Spirit of Christ, he cannot be himself. A similar construction is used in Luke 15:17 where it says the prodigal son came to himself.”
Sometimes we don’t realize God gave us everything we need…
And I love that story. The prodigal son. And, of course, that’s a story of a son who basically had everything he ever needed, but he doesn’t realize that he does. And how many of us can relate to that sometimes, but we don’t want to admit it. God has given us everything we need to live in this life. And He has provided everything, but so many times we’re out searching for things to fulfill us. He was searching for identity.
The prodigal son…
And so you have the story about a father and two sons. And one of the sons says, “I want my inheritance now. I want it now, and I want to go out and I want to live life.” You could say, he was like, “I want to go find myself.” Maybe that was some verbiage that we would use today.
And so what does he do?
The father, of course, is so loving and patient, and he’s like, “Everything I’ve ever had is yours, but yes, if you want it, I will give it to you.” And he gives him his inheritance. And what does he do? He goes out and wastes it. He just spends it on fulfilling his flesh and instant desires, any whim that he had. And of course, what happens? He runs out of money.
Now I’m thinking that he probably was given a lot of money. I don’t know that it says in the Bible, but when they talk about this father and his home, there were servants. It sounds like this father had a lot of money, so if he gave his son his inheritance, that was a lot of money for him to spend as quickly as we did. Of course, we don’t know how long he had that money.
So he spends all this money, and then what happens? He’s broke. He has nothing. He’s too embarrassed to go back to his family. He’s too embarrassed to go back to his dad and be like, “I spent all your money on prostitutes and partying.” He’s too embarrassed because he feels ashamed. And so what does he do? He goes and he finds a farmer and says, “I’ll feed your pigs.” Whatever he could do to find some money. And so we know the story. He’s feeding the pigs and then he’s in that pig pen with the pigs, which for a Jew at that time, that was unclean. He was not supposed to be with pigs. That was against their law, against their tradition. But there he was. So not only was he feeding the pigs, but he was so broke and destitute that he’s literally eating the food that he was giving the pigs… slop, the leftovers. He’s sitting there eating it.
He came to himself…
And there’s a moment where it says, “and he came to himself.” And I think in life we all have to have those moments. Not that we have to go out and hit rock bottom. I really feel like he hit rock bottom. But we do have to have those moments where we come to ourselves. We come basically to the end of ourselves. And we realize that all of those things that we’ve been doing and striving and trying to make something of ourselves or seeking these things, we get to the end of that. And we realize that the only true thing that’s going to make us feel fulfilled and happy is our Father’s love.
A moment of humility…
He’s like, “I could just go back and ask my father to be one of his servants. I could just be a servant and I would be treated better than I’m being treated right now.” And so what do we have there? A moment of humility. So he humbles himself and says, “I’m going to go back and ask my father if I could just be a servant, because I would be treated better.”
And as he’s walking, it says, the father saw him coming from a long way off, and he ran out to greet him. He hugged him. The son had this whole speech figured out, “I’m going to say this, I’m going to say this.” And he starts with his little speech. He is like, “Father, I’m not worthy to be.” And the father stops him and he hugs him and he throws a robe on him and he throws his ring back on him. And of course, the father’s loving and gracious, brings him back into restoration, back into that family with his love.
And then you have the other son…
And I have to admit, I used to identify with the other son. The other son was like, “I’m out here working every day. And this son of yours goes out and wastes your money on prostitutes and parties.” And of course, I don’t think the son knew that. Maybe that was just the other son’s guess of what he was doing. But that’s what he assumed he was doing. And he’s like, “And I’m here every day. And now he comes back and you’re going to throw him a party.” He was angry.
Everything I’ve ever had is yours…
And what does the father say to him? “Everything I’ve ever had is yours.” And so here is this other son that’s bitter because this son that went out and had a hard life experience is just welcomed back with basically no questions asked. But the other son had everything that he needed too. And clearly he wasn’t appreciating everything he had either.
The core of our identity is knowing the Father loves us…
And so, back to identity, knowing who you are and what you have, and the core of that is knowing that we have a father that loves us so much. And that’s where our identity is in. Our identity is not in working really hard and proving how worthy we are, how good we are. Though we want to do those things out of an abundance of our love for Him. But it’s not about a “works program.” That can be a tricky tightrope walk sometimes.
A “come to ourselves” moment…
Or you have the other where they’re just off and running and trying to find themselves, but they have this moment where they come to themselves. And so we have to have this moment where we come to ourselves. Because in those moments, that’s when we are seeking the heart of a Father. And we can either humble ourselves or life can humble us. I suggest humbling yourselves first. That’s a lot easier lesson to learn. And I’ve done it both ways. The humbling yourself is a lot easier than having life or circumstances humble you.
Heidi Baker’s devotional entitled, “Into the Heart of God”
I want to read a Heidi Baker devotional called “Into the Heart of God.” And the devotion that I was reading today is called “Lower Still.” And here’s what she says.
INTO THE HEART OF GOD: Lower Still
“I found that just when I think I have surrendered my all to the Lord, He gently, graciously uncovers a new layer of resistance in me that I didn’t even know was there. For a few years now, I have preached a message that I call “Lower Still.” This sums up the process of Jesus tenderly shaping, patiently reshaping, and then gloriously filling our lives with Himself. Do we think we have humbled ourselves and surrendered everything to Him? We can still go lower. There is still more for us to give up. Surrendering everything to Jesus sounds risky, like it could be painful, difficult, demanding. Many ask. “If I completely surrender to Him with reckless devotion, will I still be me?” Here is what I have found to be true. Yes, it’s risky. But the reward vastly outweighs the risk. Yes, it can be painful, difficult, and demanding. But the joy and all-surpassing peace that Jesus gives can hardly be compared to such fleeting inconveniences.
“Most of all, Jesus doesn’t rob you of being you. You don’t somehow become less than yourself because Jesus’ presence is larger in you. It’s just the opposite. The more you surrender to Him, the more you become who the Father always intended you to be. This is all part of God’s upside economy, which defies the narrow-minded, one-dimensional, limited wisdom of human thinking. In choosing to become nothing, we become everything we were ever meant to be.
“As always, Jesus is our model. He made Himself as nothing so that the Father might be glorified through Him. In Philippians, Paul urges us to imitate Jesus’ humility. He cautions us not to be selfish or to spend our lives trying to impress others. Instead, we are to live humbly, putting the interest of others before our own. See Philippians 2:3–4. As we do this, we’ll not only find our purpose in Jesus’ kingdom, we’ll also truly find ourselves.”
Pastor Heather continued…
I thought that was good. And isn’t that just like God, that the more we seek Him and the more we become like Him, the more we become ourselves. We become who He created us to be because our identity is found in Christ. Anything outside of that is just passing. And it’s not everlasting and it’s not going to bring us happiness. It’s not going to bring us fulfillment.
And so I just wanted to read a few scriptures to base that off of. And then as we get ready to head into prayer, it just helps us to set our sails.
Philippians 3:7–10…
The Passion translation says, “Yet all of the accomplishments that I once took credit for, I’ve now forsaken them. And I regard it all as nothing compared to the delight of experiencing Jesus Christ as my Lord. To truly know Him meant letting go of everything from my past and throw all my boasting into the garbage heap. It’s all like a pile of manure to me now. So that I may be enriched in the reality of knowing Jesus Christ and embracing Him as Lord in all of His greatness. My passion is to be consumed with Him and not clinging to my own righteousness based in keeping the written law. My only righteousness will be His based on the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, the very righteousness that comes from God. And I continually long to know the wonders of Jesus and to experience the overflowing power of His resurrection working in me. I will be one with Him in His suffering and become like Him in His death.”
So again, it’s that forgetting those things and those accomplishments that as humans, we really want everybody to know how great we are and all the great things we’ve done. But really, it’s all in Jesus. We wouldn’t be able to do any of it without Him.
Psalm 139:13–16…
I’m not going to read the whole thing, although we could cause it’s all so good. In the Passion translation says, “You formed my innermost being, shaping my delicate inside and my intricate outside and wove them all together in my mother’s womb. I thank you, God, for making me so mysteriously complex.” We are complex! “Everything you do is marvelously breathtaking. It simply amazes me to think about it, how thoroughly you love me, Lord. You even formed every bone in my body when you created me in the secret place. Carefully, skillfully, you shaped me from nothing to something. You saw who you created me to be before I became me.” I love that. “Before I’d ever seen the light of day, the number of the days you planned for me were already recorded in your book.”
He saw who He created us to be before we ever became into existence. And so for us to worry or stress about what we’re supposed to do or how we’re supposed to do it, He already has a plan. And so the more we seek Him, the more we press into the His presence, the more we become who we are supposed to be. And… I won’t say easier, but the more instinctive it becomes to be who He created us to be. The more we are led by the Holy Spirit instead of being led by our minds.
Ephesians 2:10…
In the Passion translation says, “We’ve become His poetry. A recreated people that will fulfill the destiny He has given each of us, for we are joined to Jesus, the anointed one. Even before we were born, God planned in advance our destiny and the good works we would do to fulfill it.”
Ephesians 2:10, here’s a little thing on the word “workmanship.” It says, “The Greek word for workmanship in this verse is a noun that simply means “a thing made,” which is where we get the word poem. According to Strong’s Concordance, the word for works He created us for though is (?) which is an action that carries out an inner desire. So we were something created to carry out an inner desire. So He puts that inner desire in us. And once we listen to that and we are led by the Spirit of God, then we will walk out that inner desire. He puts it in us. And so sometimes we’re like, “What should I do? Where should I go?” But you have this desire in you to do the things that He’s called you to do.
Henri Nouwen quote…
Henri Nouwen said, “If you know you are the beloved, you can live with an enormous amount of success and an enormous amount of failure without losing your identity. Because your identity is that you are the beloved.”
And coming back to that, if we were nothing else on earth or did nothing else, we are a son, we are a daughter of God. And that in and of itself is enough. It’s enough! Now, we love Him. We want to do things to please Him. We want to walk out that plan. But even in that, just reminding our hearts of our worth, it’s enough to just be a son. It’s enough to just be a daughter.
Ephesians 1:11…
And then the last one, Ephesians 1:11, “Through our union with Christ, we have too been claimed by God as His own inheritance. Before we were even born, He gave us our destiny, that we would fulfill the plan of God who always accomplishes every purpose and plan in His heart.”
And so all that to say, He created us with a plan. He created us with destiny. And that is where our identity is held in Him, in walking out that plan and that destiny that He’s placed inside of us. So much so that… I mean, even people in the world, you’ll see people that have amazing voices, they’ll find their way to sing. People that are athletic, they’ll find their way to play basketball. There is something instinctively in us that has a desire. We are created with a desire to do something. And God puts those desires in there to really, they’re there to glorify Him. And to bring people to His kingdom.
And so how do we bring that into submission to Him?
It’s just walking out those desires in your heart. But at the base of it all is knowing that we are loved. We are loved. We are loved. Like you think of that, the prodigal son, he came to himself. I think he came to the end of himself. He came to the end of the striving and the running from God and trying to figure out who he was or what would make him happy. And when he came back and was restored, that’s when he truly felt that purpose and that love was in his father’s embrace.
