Known & Named

What if the loudest name over your life isn’t the truest one? Opening with Genesis and the image of God forming humans from the dust, declaring us very good before performance, accolades, or failure ever show up. From there, we take an honest look at the voices that compete for our identity—worldly success metrics, other people’s wounds, cultural comparison, and the enemy’s oldest tactic of questioning who we are. These voices don’t just echo; they shape thought patterns, build neural pathways, and quietly script the false self we end up wearing.

Resources from this episode:

• The Return of the Prodigal Son - Henri Nouwen
• Abba’s Child - Brennan Manning
• Jamie Winship - Identity Exchange

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Free Resources to help you on your journey to Becoming Whole:

• Email us questions! info@regenerationministries.org

👉Men's Overcoming Lust & Temptation Devotional
👉Women 21-Day Prayer Journal & Devotional - (Women overcoming unwanted sexual Behavior)
👉Compass 21-Day Prayer Journal & Devotional - (Wives who are or have been impacted by partner betrayal)

Chapters

• 0:00 Known And Named By God
• 2:28 Creation, Image Bearing, And “Very Good”
• 7:38 Competing Voices And Thought Life
• 12:23 The Mind’s Power And Its Limits
• 18:33 Scripture On Renewing The Mind
• 23:59 The Cross, Not Willpower
• 28:24 False Voices To False Self
• 35:29 The Father’s Voice And True Self
• 42:24 Confession, Repentance, Transformation
• 49:19 Prayer, Benediction, And Closing

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:36

Welcome back to Becoming Whole. I'm your host today, Aaron Taggart. And today's episode is going to hit right at the heart of who we are and who we belong to. We're talking about being known and named, what it means to live as men and women who are fully known by God and deeply loved by Him, even in our sin and even in our mess. We're going to talk about how powerful our minds really are and how what we believe begins to shape who we become. We'll look at the false identities we've carried and true identities that God has spoken over us and what it means to actually partner with Him, to let His Spirit renew our thinking and to teach us to live out His truth in our everyday lives. But friends, this is not a pep talk because you and I both know we can't think our way into wholeness. We can't outstrategize shame and we can't outmuscle our sin. We need Jesus for that. So let's dive in. I want to start today by talking about two things that have really stood out to me more recently in the creation account in Genesis. That I'm so incredibly gripped by the that you know God speaks everything into existence on day one, day two, day three, day four, day five, and then on day six, he doesn't speak man into existence. He creates us, he forms us out of the mud. I literally picture God kind of getting down in the mud like like you and I might on all fours and beginning to sort of scoop up the mud and begin to shape it and and make it into something so incredible. Uh you know, I think about you know, I I did some pottery back in high school and sitting at a potter's wheel. I actually I might want to take that back up because there's something so beautiful about being able to shape and to craft something, and and especially out of mud or or clay in that instance, but because it just hits, I think, in some ways to the core of this idea of God as creator. And here's the thing, friends, the creator knows his creation. I mean, think about it. Have you ever made something? Have you ever, you know, made something out of wood? Maybe you took a shop class, a woodworking class, or one of those paint, those sort of paint dates, or the paint by not by number necessarily, but the board and brush. I think they call them like board and brush or something like that. But you create something, and there's something so profound about creating a work of art or a wooden masterpiece. And if you're a parent, what about a human life? That you've created a human life, and and and think about that. If if you've made something as the creator of that thing, right, you take some pride in it, you know your creation, you are the creator or co-creator of that thing, and so you know it by the by looking at it, you know what went into making it, your heart for it. And if it's a little human, don't we get down on sort of all fours on the floor and just be with that little person, right? That little creation. We know what we've created, and and God is the same way, He knows his creation. The second thing we cannot miss in this creation account is that God does not just call us good like the rest of creation. Uh, at the end of every day, after God had created the the thing for that day, he says, and they looked and said it was good. But when he made you and me, when he made Adam, he said it's very good. And what makes us so good? I think it's that we bear God's image. We actually have the capacity to have relationship with him, with the creator. Think about that. If you make a something out of wood, there's no relationship there. That's just the thing, the object, and whatever maybe you're going to use it for or sell it or you know, admire it, whatever. But there's no relationship. The other thing, too, I think was really unique is that we also have a calling. You know, when God made Adam, he sort of put him in charge of the garden. And so we're even purposed when we're created. We have purpose. And that's, I think, something that's so unique to all of the other creation or things that are created. And the other thing I want to point out, too, about God telling Adam or calling Adam mankind very good is that this is before Adam does anything. There's nothing Adam did that made him very good. God is just saying, oh, look at that. This is very good. The creator made him that way. And quite simply, we are we are very good because, well, because he says so. So if we're created to be very good by the creator himself, where do we get the notion that we're anything less than this? I think that's where evil enters in. And in the garden, we know it comes in through a whisper. But here's the thing you're not gonna find a single place in scripture where God made someone bad. That doesn't mean there aren't people who are, we would probably say, bad people because of their actions and the way that they're behaving and and and and things like that, but you're not gonna find anywhere in a creative account that God says that he made something bad. So he doesn't make bad men and women, he doesn't make bad fathers and mothers, he doesn't make bad husbands or wives, he doesn't make bad sons or daughters, but the enemy, the enemy would want us to think that he does. In his work in Unwanted, Jay Stringer says that evil cannot create anything out of nothing, it can't clothe a tree with the abundance of beautiful leaves, it can't make hops or grain for beer or spirits, it can't create the beauty of human life. The enemy lacks the ability to create. And he comes so hard after that which God has created and that which bears his image, and that is you and me. C.S. Lewis says it this way: that badness is only spoiled goodness, and there must be something good first before it can be spoiled. So I don't know if you guys are hearing this, but you are not bad men and women. You are not bad fathers or mothers, you are not bad husbands or wives, you are not bad sons or daughters. You've been made by the Almighty, and he says that you are very good. Now, again, I know that you might hear that and cringe a little. There's a real element where there are circumstances and actions and behaviors of somebody else who is affecting your perception and view of one of those things I just mentioned. Maybe you're being treated poorly, and so you feel like your spouse is bad. Maybe you just can't shake your addiction and you feel like you're bad. But that's not the truth, and that's not who God has made us to be. So I'm gonna unpack this a little bit more because the question becomes if God says that you and I are very good, what voice are we listening to that says that we're not? In Matthew 10, 27, Jesus is uh talking about the sheep and the shepherd, and he says that my sheep hear my voice and that I know them and that they follow me. And so the sheep hear my voice, Jesus says, but he doesn't say that's the only voice that we hear, right? The enemy speaks, wounds speak, our experiences speak, our culture speaks, our past speaks, and somewhere along the way, the voice that we listen to becomes a story that we live from. John Eldridge said that today's input becomes tomorrow's thought life. So the things that we allow ourselves to sort of dwell on and take in, and if we don't take those thoughts captive, and and then we really run the risk of letting that control our thought life. And so what we think matters. Now, again, I'm gonna keep saying this throughout because I don't want us to feel like a self-help, or you know, as we talk about some of these, you know, ways of positive thinking and just that we can just uh shake and overcome anything in our lives. The truth is we can't. If we could, we wouldn't be in the situation, or we wouldn't be in a place of not being able to stop maybe doing something like looking at pornography or masturbating or going to sites or places for random hookups. If this was so simple, we could just think differently and it would be it would be that. And so I am in no way communicating that it is literally that simple, but I do believe that our minds play a very significant role in some of that outcome and some of how we kind of carry on or carry about. And and I really want to dive into this uh idea of the power of our mind. And I am immediately drawn to just about a couple months ago, maybe a little less than that, our staff here at Regen had a uh a staff care day, and we had this wonderful speaker, and she shared this analogy, this holy imagination sort of study. And I want to share that with you guys because I think this is another way of showing sometimes how powerful our minds can be. So, in this study, there was a group of people who would spend 15 minutes a day visualizing themselves doing bicep curls. You know, I don't know how much weight they were visualizing. You know, I might have you know hundreds in my hand or whatever the case might be, right? But they're they're not physically lifting weights, they're just visualizing themselves lifting weights. For 15 minutes a day, they saw themselves doing bicep curls. Now, the 11% of the group became physically stronger from internal visualization. So, in other words, sort of I think almost first person kind of like you know, seeing themselves lifting and curling weight. 11% of the group actually became physically stronger from that exercise. Five percent of the group became physically stronger from external visualization, so almost kind of like seeing themselves, either maybe in a mirror or sort of a third person point of view, like seeing themselves lifting weights, five percent became physically stronger. And to me, that is just incredible. How do you get stronger without actually doing the work? And I just go back to that our our minds are so powerful, and there are a couple other places where our minds show up, and it also carries some pretty unbelievable abilities. Uh, one of the other things that yeah, you know, I think of is the placebo effect. And and so there have been you know some different studies and different things, and uh where you know people you know might you know heal or feel less pain or or symptoms might disappear because they you know believe that you know the pill that they're taking or this procedure would help them, and and then their and results you know showed that it it wasn't actually anything that they you know were were taking. Maybe it was a vitamin, you know, or something, but convincing their mind in a way to help them believe that they were getting better. And again, I know that could be a sensitive place, you know, for some listeners. And I'm not saying again that this is just we get better, you know, by you know, I don't want to be sick, so I'm just gonna think about not being sick. It doesn't quite work that way, and that's not what I'm trying to communicate. So I hope you're hearing me, but sometimes our ability to believe something can change uh some of those outcomes. Another thing, too, is that anxiety uh is not something typically that is happening, but it's more about what might happen. And so our minds begin to create whole worlds of fear and scenarios and consequences before anything's occurred, even. And so our mind can create storms even that that don't exist. And what about the things that we believe about ourselves? Uh, one sentence about ourselves, I'm a failure. I always mess up, I'm alone, I'll never meet anybody, I'll never get better, can dictate our reactions, our behaviors, and our relationships for decades. A single lie can become a lifelong identity. Science even shows that the brain physically reshapes based on repeated thought patterns. Things like fear and lust and shame and anger and you know, faith, hope. These different things each build its own neural pathway in our brains. And so these aren't just thoughts, you know, they can become cages. I'll never trust anyone. I have to figure out life alone. I'll never be weak again. And these sort of inner vows become internal laws. But what does scripture say about our minds? Romans 12, one and two talks about presenting our bodies as living sacrifices and not being conformed to the pattern of this world, but being transformed by the renewing of our mind. Transformation starts in our mind. In fact, that is the very first place where Lucifer, when he fell, he fell because he started to think that he could be like God. So it started sort of in the mind. And and change isn't going to begin with behavior, it's it begins with belief. Proverbs 23:7 says that as a man thinks in his heart, so he is. And so thought shapes identity. Your inner narrative becomes your lived identity. Mark 12, 30, loving God with our mind. Love the Lord with your with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And this is actually a part of worship with our minds. Colossians 3:2, setting the mind aligns the heart. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. Attention determines direction. Ephesians 4 22 through 24, renewing our inner narrative. So it says that be made new in the attitude of your minds and put on the new self. So our true self can emerge through renewed thinking. Now, what about Philippians 2.5? Adopt his mindset, let his mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. So, in some ways here, right thinking leads to right living. And again, it's not that simple. We cannot think our way into healing, but what we think about, how we think, what we dwell on, all of these things matter deeply. So we talk about the mind, we need to be really clear that you, even though we try maybe to find our way into healing, you know, through you know, just thinking more positively, or if I do this more, if I do that more, so many of us try that. We try to outreason temptation. We try to outsmart old patterns. We we try to think better thoughts or speak better affirmations, or maybe it's, you know, I'm gonna read more books on this and how to overcome it. What's the newest? What's the latest? What's the greatest? We try to learn more strategies, get more hacks. But the Christian story does not teach that we are changed by better thinking alone. The Bible doesn't say renew your mind and save yourself. It says be transformed by the renewal of your mind. And friends, transformed is something that is done to us, not manufactured by us. Lots of people would love Christianity if it was just a new set of ideas. If healing was just learning the right worldview or psychology, if freedom was just about managing triggers, curbing urges, or adjusting self-talk. But if we could think ourselves into freedom, we would have already done that, right? So you and I both know that the mind is where the battle is fought, but not where the victory is won. The victory was won on a cross. We don't just need better thoughts, we need a new heart, a new spirit, a new sort of source or outlook, and uh as only possible because of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection. Jesus didn't just inform us, he became one of us. He literally became one of us. And we're gonna be going into the Christmas season, and we're gonna be talking a lot about the embodiment and and and God coming in flesh. He became one of us. The creator became sort of the creation to understand it better, to experience it better, to redeem us. And he didn't just give us teaching, he he gave us himself. We have access to him. There's no other God that that has that that we can access as the creation. And he didn't just model purity, he became sin for us, so that sin could lose its power over us. I'm so thankful for that. So the power to overcome unwanted sexual behavior is not in your ability to think differently, it's in your union with the risen Christ. And Romans 6 says it pretty bluntly. It says, we have been unified or united with him in his death. So we will also be united with him in his resurrection. Our old self was crucified with him, so we are no longer enslaved to sin. Your old patterns don't break because you tried harder. They break because the old you died with Christ. Your new freedom doesn't appear because you finally got disdisciplined. It appears because you have been raised with Christ. So, yes, we talk about the mind. Yes, we talk about beliefs and identity and thought patterns, but not because the mind saves us. We talk about the mind because the mind needs to be re-anchored to what Jesus has already done. I like to use the word reoriented. And I'm an outdoors guy, I like backpacking. I think of maps and a compass and a heading. And if we, you know, looking at that map and that heading, if I am off just a slight degree, I am going to miss my target, my destination exponentially. And so I need to reorient or course correct, and I think that's what this is talking about. So this is a way for us to sort of course correct with our minds into the work that Jesus is doing and wants to do in our lives in healing. So if our thoughts shape our identity, then who or what is shaping our thoughts? Because thoughts don't just appear out of nowhere, they come from some sort of voice, right? Some source that we've agreed with. Before you or I believe a lie, we first heard one. Before you or I think wrongly about ourselves, we are named wrongly. We hear something and begin to agree with it. Before we live from a false self, we listen to that false voice. So again, this is where the battle begins. It's not first in our behavior, it's in our agreement. So, what voice is building your thought life? I want to walk us through the false voice that leads to the false thinking that leads to false self. And I'm gonna do the same thing for the true voice that leads to true thinking that leads to the true self as well. Because I think these are these are important to sort of understand how is it that we end up acting maybe sometimes in a certain way that that we're sort of at war with in our flesh. I don't want to be addicted, but I can't stop. What is that all about? And so you might be thinking that, you know, or or other places where where there's a false voice, you start to think about that, and then you start to live your life from that sort of false place. So let's talk about the false voice, or I should say false voices, because there are uh there are many of them, and these are sort of do voices. They are loud, they are seductive, and they lure us into going out and proving ourselves. Uh, these voices show up in the world where the world constantly speaks that you are what you produce, you are what you own, you are what you achieve, right? So I need a bigger house, I need the highest paying job, and I need to achieve success and climb the ladder. Uh, and that's what the world speaks. Those voices, you know, to strive, to do, do more, do, do, do. And so these are do voices: status, wealth, performance, all of it comes back to your identity. When we listen to the world, it can be as if we are like the prodigal son, running about in a distant land. Henry Nowen says that as long as I keep running and asking the Lord, do you love me? Do you really love me? I give all power to the voices of the world and put myself in bondage because the world is filled with ifs. If I achieve this, then I'm successful.

SPEAKER_00: 30:02

If I can quit this addictive behavior, I'm worthy. And there's also the voice of others.

SPEAKER_01: 30:14

These could be parents, sometimes blessing, sometimes cursing. You'll never be enough. Why can't you be more like such and such? Your brother, your sister, someone who's got it all together. Right? Someone maybe that that doesn't look like a black sheep. Could be from friends, peer pressure, comparison, labels, you know, the funny one, the screw up. There are so many different labels and things that are put on us by friends, or that friends might try to get us to do. Or what about bosses? Identity tied to performance reviews or productivity. People don't always name us as God does. They often name us from their own wounds. And so that's even more of the reason why we need to be really careful in who we're listening to and who are giving power and authority over us by calling us, you know, different things, and then us believing and coming into agreement with that. Two more voices would be the culture. So things like ads, media, and especially social media. Man, you're not enough unless you buy do look, you know, like this. And false names that come out of that are unsuccessful, unattractive, unwanted. We we tend to compare so, so, so much more when we're scrolling through social media. And so just something to be aware of, you know, how is culture speaking into your life? And then the enemy, and the enemy always attacks at the identity level. And we look at Matthew chapter four, uh, when Jesus is coming out of the uh the wilderness, and the first thing that he says to him is that if you are the son of God, and we know but before Jesus went into the wilderness, he was baptized, and the heavens opened, and and a dove descended on Jesus, and God said, This is my beloved son, and who I'm well pleased. So Jesus has already just spoken his identity, he gets his identity spoken over him by the Father, and I would say probably is working that out in the wilderness, and then is tested in that very place of identity when he comes out of the wilderness. And again, the enemy, his lies are just absolutely outrageous, and but they sound believable, and and and we can we often believe these quite easily. But again, he can't create names because he's he's not a creator, he can only twist what God has said. So he turns the beloved into the unlovable, he turns sons and daughters into servants and slaves, he turns the chosen into the rejected, he turns the adopted into the orphaned, he turns the delighted into the disappointed, he turns the image bearers into the disqualified, and he turns the very good into condemned and beyond repair. False thinking is what happens when we start to think on these voices, and we begin to sort of cross a threshold. Again, Henry Nowen writes that when I forget that voice of the first unconditional love, then these innocent suggestions can easily start dominating my life and pull me into the distant country. And it's not very hard for me to know when this is happening. Things like anger and resentment and jealousy, desire for revenge, lust, greed, rivalries are the obvious signs that I have left home. And that happens quite easily. And I can relate to that. Thinking on those false voices makes me act more angry or jealous. I'm not acting from a place of wholeness, I'm acting from a place of brokenness and fracture, fragmentation. And after a while, we begin to agree with that voice. And this is like when Adam and Eve, we go from image bearers to hiders. This is when we hide in fear, like Gideon, and name ourselves out of weakness instead of calling. I am the least of my tribe. This is where, like the prodigal son, we carry shame and believe that we are unworthy to be called a son or daughter. And this is where, like Peter, we convince ourselves that we are disqualified and go back to fishing. Or where, like Zacchaeus, we believe that we are outsiders and too far gone. So the false voice, at least the false thinking, leads to false self. And this is where we come to believe these false things. We heard the voice, we are letting that voice shape our thoughts, and we start to live out a counterfeit identity, and really we are living as imposters. That is the false self. It's rejecting what God has called very good in exchange, it's like exchanging the robe that the father gives the son for grave clothes and walking around in masks and external disguises. It's ultimately self-rejection. Brendan Manning in his book, Abba's Child, says this self-reflection is the greatest enemy. Sorry, self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the beloved. So when we reject ourselves, we are rejecting God's words that we are the beloved. And Henry Nowen says again that I am the prodigal son every time I search for unconditional love where it cannot be found. The farther I run away from the place God dwells, the less I am able to hear the voice that calls me the beloved. And the less I hear that voice, the more entangled I become in the manipulations and power games of the world. So we've named how the false voice leads to false thinking and a false self, hiding, hustling, performing, rejecting who God has made us to be. But the story doesn't end there. Thank God the story doesn't end there. If the wrong voice can distort us, the right voice can restore us. If false thinking can imprison us, then true thinking can set us free. And if the false self is a mask, then the true self is God's masterpiece. Above every lie and label, there is still the first voice, the one who formed us like Adam, who breathed life into us, and declared, This is my beloved son and daughter. And we return to that voice when we let his truth reshape our minds. We don't have to pretend, we don't have to perform, and we don't have to hide anymore. We can actually live as the true self, the beloved. So that we can allow that voice to shape our thinking, so that we can live out that thinking as our true self. But again, it starts with that true voice. There is only one true voice, and that is the voice of the father. His voice is a be voice, and so maybe you'll remember that. The the false self is a do voice, and the true voice is a be voice. And I don't mean like be nicer or be, you know, more fit or be it just capital B, capital E, just be, and just being. And this is where I love, and I've I don't I feel like maybe Bob Reagan, who used to be a part of our team here at Regeneration. I feel like I I got this from him, I feel like. Um so shout out to you, Bob, if you're listening. But uh he said something uh along the lines of being a human being rather than a human doing, right? We are called human beings, not human doings, and I just I love that, and and you know, when you let that sort of simmer over you, and again, you can just, you know, almost I close my eyes and almost picture even myself coming out of the water and God saying over me that this is my son, my beloved son, and who I'm well pleased. I can just be, and I don't have to do, I don't have to achieve, I don't have to strive. And there's something so freeing in that. It is the voice of unconditional love. And what's so amazing about the passage where Jesus is baptized and he comes out of that water and and God speaks over him that that's this is my beloved son, who I'm well pleased, is that this is before Jesus has started his public ministry. It's before he performs any miracles or that he lets the it before he lets the rest of the world in on the little secret, the family secret, that he was God in the flesh and on a mission to save the world. This is before any of that. But here's the most crucial part. The same voice calling Jesus his beloved son, and whom he's well pleased, speaks the very same thing over you and me. I truly believe that. And so much of what I've shared from these quotes from Henry Nowin comes from his wonderful book, probably my number one favorite book outside of the Bible, and I'll put it in the show notes. But it's The Return of the Prodigal Son. One of the most profound books I've ever read. Uh, so, so many just incredible things in that book. But the the that same voice that calls Jesus speaking over you and me, that's the voice, that's the true voice. And that's our baseline identity as sons and daughters. And here's what Jay Stringer says about this in Unwanted. He says that the gospel teaches us that we are beloved before any sexual sin or addiction entered our lives. And we remain so even at the height of our brokenness. Sexual brokenness can feel so miserable precisely because deep within us is a belovedness that aches to return home. The gospel tells us that our belovedness will never change according to our wanderings, but our belovedness is intended to change our wanderings. I want to say that last part again. The gospel tells us that our belovedness will never change according to our wanderings, but our belovedness is intended to change our wanderings. And to me, that's that's so much about listening to his voice and his love for us and and and being connected to him and wanting to grow in that love and loving him in return. That as a result of that, we wouldn't want these other things. Our wanderings begin to change because of our belovedness. But we are always going to be beloved. That's never going to change. No matter those wanderings, no matter your addiction or hang-up or whatever it might be, your belovedness does not change. But your belovedness is intended to change those wanderings. It's beautiful. In the prodigal son passage in Luke 15, there's something really remarkable that happens when the sun returns home. The sun kind of hits a rock bottom after he's gone away. And he sort of fashions this plan in his head and how he is going to return because he doesn't feel like he's worthy to be his son any longer. And so he co-conspires a plan that's going to allow him to return as a hired servant and not the younger son. And I think most of us probably know the rest of that story. You know, while he's a long way off, the father runs out, he puts a robe on his back, he puts a ring on his finger. But before all that, the father does something. And I think it's just uh uh I missed this so, so many times. This is one of those places in scripture where the Lord revealed it one time, and it was like, How have I missed that all these times where I've read this story? And it's before the son can get out the words that he is anything less than a son. The father cuts him off in the middle of his speech. Luke 15, 21 says, And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before you I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But he's not yet speaking what he thought he could be for his dad, that hired servant. And verse 22 says, But the father said to his servant, so he cuts him off. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Stop, stop. But the father said to his servants, his hired servants. So the father stops his son, looks at the actual hired servants that he has, and says, Bring quickly the best robe and put it on him, put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet, and bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this is my son. He was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found, and they began to celebrate. So in that moment, the father doesn't even allow his son to speak anything less than what he is. He cuts him off so that he, the true voice, can speak into his son's life. The voice of the Father changes everything. That is the true voice. And when we are tuned into the true voice, the voice of unconditional love, we allow God to define us as his sons and daughters. True thinking requires us to test our thoughts. 2 Corinthians 10:5 says that we destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ. So the idea of sort of a responsibility in our minds to take some of these different thoughts captive, we have sort of a responsibility for some of that, I think. And when we listen to the right voice, this is where like Adam and Eve are image-bearers of the creator of the universe. When Gideon listened to the true voice, he was a mighty warrior. When the prodigal son, as we just talked about, was listening to the true voice, he was nothing less than a son of the father. Peter was the rock and a shepherd, and Zacchaeus was included. And so listening to the true voice and allowing ourselves to think on that leads us to live from that place. Like David. Where others saw a shepherd boy, God saw him and named him a warrior and a king. David rejected performance and comparison and the false self by denying Saul's armor and sticking to the sling and stones. David put that armor on and it wasn't him. He was trying to be something other than who God said he was. And so he threw off that armor and said, No, I'm good. I'm gonna stick to the sling and stones and what God says I am. He even brushes off comments that are hurled at him as he encounters Goliath. And Goliath talks about, you know, you would send a dog to me. Who is this? And so again, David could have listened to those false voices and operated differently as the false self, and we probably would have had a different story. But he brushed that off, he took it captive, he listened to the true voice in moments where false voices were flying around. And he allowed himself to think on who God said he was anointed, future king, powerful. Or about Jesus in the wilderness, again, as the son, right? Tempted by Satan in two ways when he comes out. One for his identity, if you're truly the son of God. And then another place where he was most vulnerable. He hadn't eaten for 40 days. He was probably really hungry. And so the second thing the enemy says to him is command these stones to become loaves of bread. In John 10, 10, there's a tale of two selves. There's a thief that comes to steal, kill, and destroy. And then there's Jesus who came that they may have life and have it abundantly. There is no more fulfilled life, friends, than the one living out of the true self. So we talked about the false voices and the masks that they can create. We've seen the power of the true voice and the father's unconditional love to reshape our thinking and restore us to our true identity as beloved sons. But here's the thing: it can't just stay a good theology in our heads. Identity isn't something that we nod along to, it's something we step into. Jesus didn't say that you will know the truth and admire it. He said you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. Freedom doesn't come from hearing truth once, it comes by agreeing with it, by confessing where we've believed lies, by repenting and changing our minds and being transformed into the form God intended from the beginning. So the question is, what do we do with this? True self, false self, false voice, false thinking, false self, true voice, true thinking, true self. I want to, I wanna sort of bring some application to that because it's not again something we just will to happen, or it's kind of this element of effort and grace. And you know, God provides the grace, but you know, there's some things that that are required of us. And not too long ago, I was uh listening to a podcast actually on identity and was introduced to Jamie Winship, who has just a remarkable story um and does some incredible work on helping people really step into their identities in the Lord. And he laid out this framework uh really and it talked about confession, repentance, and transformation. So, in other words, confession sort of leads to repentance, repentance leads to transformation. And I and I wanna I want to bring that in here because I think when when we hear some of these things, I think we think automatically, you know, oh, confession means you know, telling all my deepest, darkest secrets or you know, exposing, you know, the the the things that are hidden. And that is that is true, but it's so much more than that. And I think we uh confession, I think gets sort of a bad rap. And the way Jamie Winchip talked about it was so refreshing. He talked about confession just boiling it down to truth telling. Confession equals truth telling. So confession is so much more than speaking about what we've done, it's even telling the truth about who God is and who we are, or telling the truth about the names that we've believed about ourselves. You know, so it might look something like, God, I've I've I've believed that I was not worthy to be your son. I've believed the false voices that I'm never gonna get better, that what's the point of even trying? It's it's truth telling. And that can be pretty vulnerable and it can be pretty hard, but it's also it can you know telling the truth about who God is. You know God is love, God is forgiving. God is with me. He calls me his beloved. Right? It's it's it's just uh it's a different sort of way of I think in some ways thinking about confession. So thinking about again, just what you know what are the things that you've been thinking, and tell the truth about those things. Louis Giglio says in his book, Don't Give an Enemy a Seat at Your Table. He says that you either bind the thought or the thought binds you, and that either way, something is getting bound. And I don't know about you, but I would sure much rather bind the thought than be the one that is bound because I've been there. And I don't, I don't ever want to be back in that. So I want to bind those thoughts. And we must identify the thoughts and we restrict their access. We can speak to those thoughts in Jesus' name. We take them captive. This is what that active work, that effort, you know, taking them captive with the Lord's help. Because we've been given divine power to demonish strongholds. The other thing Jamie Winship talks about is repentance. And and really, this is um about mind change. So it's kind of again, truth tell leads to mind change. It's a it's a turning of direction. And I think what's really important about repentance is not just the turning of direction, but knowing what you're turning towards. Right, because when we when we've been living a certain way and we're going a certain direction, and we decide to stop or to turn, maybe give our life to Christ to to lay this down finally. That might look like you know, sharing, you know, with with your partner, with your spouse that you have been struggling, or you know, bringing some things into the light. That is a that is a change of direction, you know, from hiding to being in the light, from in darkness to to the light. But again, I think it's you know, what what are you turning towards? Because every time we turn away from something, we are naturally turning towards something else. So what is that? What what are the things that you're turning towards? What is the thing? And I hope it's in this case, Jesus and your belovedness in him and and allowing that to really transform your life. And and here at Regeneration, you know, we in our coaching and different things, like we do, we do believe, you know, the Lord, the Lord can heal, the Lord can deliver. Most of the time, it's not that way. Like He meets us in that space. But the belovedness and and and trying to draw clients into a deeper place with Jesus. Um, because that's where we've seen transformation in our own lives. And I know that's true for me. When when I really experienced the Lord in a really personal way, it changed everything for me. And then the last uh element of this would be transformation, uh, and that is form change. So if we put this all together, it's truth telling leads to mind change, leads to form change. And again, this is from Jamie Winship and some of the work that he does. But so transformation or form change, you know, it looks like Romans 12, 2. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And that and again, there too, renewing is not renewed by the renewed mind, it's renewing. It's it is sort of implying that this is something you need to continue to do and to come back to. And and again, I use that, you know, reorient yourself to who does God say you are? We've we talked about that today. Sonship is a baseline identity, daughtership is a baseline identity. David was a warrior king, Moses was a deliverer of God's people. And so, friends, the the point of today isn't that we can outthink our shame or outmuscle our sin. The point is that Jesus has done what our best strategies could never do. On the cross, he carried every false name you've ever worn. In the tomb, he buried the old self that kept you bound. And in the resurrection, he rose with a new name for you, beloved, and a new life that is actually possible because his spirit lives in you. And that is the gospel that changes everything. It's because of him and his spirit. Again, this is not because of my thoughts or my positive vibes. This is because of the work of Jesus Christ in his life, in his death, and in his resurrection. I want to pray for you. And then I want to leave you with a bit of a benediction. So, Jesus, thank you that your death silences every accusing voice. And that your resurrection speaks a truer name over us. Seal this truth in our minds, stitch it into our hearts, Lord, and let it spill into our lives, into our homes, into our workplaces, into our bodies, Lord, our relationships. Make us men and women who live as those who are truly known and truly named by you. Now may the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead give life to your mortal body. May you hear the shepherd's voice and follow him. And I would also say, listen to that voice, think on that voice, and live. That's the following. Live as the true self. And as you overcome, may you receive the white stone with a new name that only your Father and you will know. Found in Revelation 2.17. Friends, you are known, you are named, and you are loved. This isn't positive thinking, it's resurrection reality. So share this with someone who needs that reminder today. And stay rooted in Jesus. And as always, keep becoming whole.