A Case of Mistaken Identity | Dr. David Watson

Dr. Watson, President of Asbury Theological Seminary, guest-teaches on identity, drawing from Romans 8 to emphasize believers' status as children of God and the transformative power of embracing that identity. He discusses the dangers of self-identity shaped by external labels and encourages attendees to see themselves through God's love. 

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[0:19] So, church family, I am not saying anything that you don't already know when I say that all of us are standing on the shoulders of many who've gone before.

[0:30] Many of the Sunday school teachers that poured into you when you were a child, small group leaders, pastors through the ages, through the decades, were standing on the shoulders of those who've gone before. And one of the persons whose shoulders we stand upon is Dr. Maxie Dunham, who not only pastored Christ Church for well over a decade, but also served as the president of Asbury Theological Seminary for over a decade.

[1:03] Many of you are aware that Asbury Theological Seminary has an extension campus on our campus serving the Mid-South. In fact, there are over 60 students enrolled in Asbury Theological Seminary preparing for vocational ministry on our campus. There are over 124 graduates out of our campus, extension of Asbury Theological Seminary, serving around the world at this time as well. And so we're mindful that the legacy of Dr. Maxie Dunham and so many others not only has touched our lives in this church family, but many, many others around the world. As we affirm that, we're aware that the seminary has a brand new president and he is with us today. And I've known him as an acquaintance for a number of years, but we've had the privilege of co-laboring together on some projects and getting to know one another all the more as God has called him into this new role. When we heard, when I say we, many of us in Methodist world heard that he was named as the brand new president of Asbury Seminary, all of us simply breathed a sigh of relief. Well, of course.

[2:24] And Dr. David Watson is with us today, and he came to Asbury Seminary from the faculty and serving in administrative roles at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, where he served as the senior vice president as well as the professor of New Testament, academic dean, and vice president of academic affairs. He earned his BA degree from Texas Tech University, his MDiv from Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University and his PhD from Southern Methodist University as well. What I treasure about him is not only his keen theological mind, but perhaps even more is his warm, enlightened heart.

[3:07] He gets to share with you today. Would you put your hands together and give a warm Christ Church Memphis welcome to Dr. David Watson?

[3:17] Bless you, my brother. Thank you. Thank you. That is such a kind introduction. Thank you. It's an honor to be here with you today. And I really mean that. It is an honor. And I just want to express my deep appreciation for the Reverend Paul Lawler. You know, Paul and I worked together on the mission statement of the Global Methodist Church, and that was a labor of love, and I wasn't sure we were going to get it through. The time was running out at the end of the conference, but God smiled on us. And I'm just so appreciative, Paul, of everything you did to make that happen, your wisdom in this process. Thank you. And thank you for the honor of standing in the pulpit here at the church today. I also just want to honor the Reverend Dr. Maxie Dunham. Maxie and Jerry, both, their legacy at Asbury Seminary is so keenly felt today still. And we love them and so appreciate everything they've done here at Asbury and elsewhere. They're just giants in the faith, and we're so grateful for the legacy they leave us.

[4:39] Asbury Theological Seminary is an absolutely amazing place. I've only been there since July. I didn't go to Asbury. I'm not an alum or anything like that.

[4:49] But as I've been there, I've just become so appreciative of the people that God has led there and the long legacy of producing faithful pastors at Asbury Seminary. We've graduated over 14,000 people in our history, and they have gone throughout the world. So when Asbury started, it was started by Henry Clay Morrison, who was a holiness preacher and a great theological mind, Henry Clay Morrison started Asbury Seminary out of Asbury College with three students. And with these three students, he said, you know, I think the motto of this seminary should be the whole Bible for the whole world. That is an audacious claim when you've only got three students. But today, 14,000 graduates later, we have alums in all 50 states in 80 different countries. God has placed his hand on Asbury Seminary and the vision of our founder, Henry Clay Morrison. And we're so grateful for his guidance and provision over these years.

[6:10] I want to read to you from the 8th chapter of Romans.

[6:17] Beginning with verse 12, and I'm going to go through verse 17. So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, Abba, Father, it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we're children of God, and of children, then heirs, heirs of God, a joint heirs with Christ if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

[7:17] What an appropriate text on a day when we have a baptism. Davis, are you in here? Are you back in? Davis, you're right there. Davis, that was for you. You know, whatever you may think of yourself, however you may understand yourself, however other people may understand you, if you are in Christ, God has another name for you. He calls you son or daughter. You've been adopted into his household, and he's given you a new identity. Davis, he's claimed you in the waters of baptism and adopted you into his household. Praise God.

[7:59] So, late last year, I was participating in this working group on Scripture. It was in Minneapolis. This group had been going on for years, and I had never been a part of it before. I was honored to be invited. And the person who was supposed to kind of take me from the airport, show me around, introduced me to people, was on my flight. And so we get off the plane and we, you know, see one another. And he's been in this group for years. Okay. So he knows everyone in the group very well. And he's going to introduce me to all his friends. And he sees one of his friends in one of the stores in the airport as we're walking through. Now, his friend is holding up and looking at a pair of tiger stripe pajama bottoms. Okay. Now, if I see a man my age.

[8:59] Looking at a pair of tiger stripe pajama bottoms as if considering buying them, I'm just walking away. Okay. All right. I don't, I don't need to insert myself into that decision making process at all. Okay. But my friend who picked me up, he had a different approach. And so he comes up to the guy who didn't see him. He comes up to him and he goes, Hey, you're going to buy those? And the guy looks up at him and he looks at the guy and then they realize they don't know each other after all.

[9:33] So that was awkward. That was a case of mistaken identity. And it's easy for us to get a case of mistaken identity, not just about other people, but ourselves. The question, who am I, is one of the most important questions we can answer.

[9:59] And it determines how we'll live, and it determines what we believe we can do, what kinds of friends we'll make, how we'll spend our money, how we'll spend our time, what kinds of jobs we'll pursue. Who am I? That question matters. And Paul wants us to know the answer to that question. Throughout Scripture, you know, God gives people different identities. God took the elderly and childless Abram and Sarai, and he made them into Abraham and Sarah, the father and mother of a multitude. He took rash and impulsive Simon, a fisherman, and he turned him into Peter, the rock on whom the church is built. He took the great persecutor of Christians, Saul of Tarsus And made him Paul, the greatest evangelist the church has ever known, He came to the peasant girl, Mary And he made her the mother of God, whom all generations will call blessed.

[11:17] God is in the renewal business god is in the business of remaking and giving new identities and he wants to give each of us a new identity too.

[11:31] Let's go to this passage in Romans 8 that I just read for you. Now, up to this point, Paul has been contrasting spirit and flesh. Let's drill down into that a little bit. He says in verses 12 through 13, So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. Now, in the ancient world, you could become enslaved to someone if you owed them a great debt. So slavery in that case was a way of working off the debt that you owed them. And Paul is saying, you're not indebted to the flesh anymore. It can't enslave you. What does he mean by indebted to the flesh?

[12:26] You know that passage in 2 Peter where he says that Paul's letters contain some things that are hard to understand? I think of that a lot, and I think, yeah, that's really true. And this is one of those passages. So, what does it mean to be indebted to the flesh? Okay, for Paul, flesh and spirit are kind of shorthand ways of talking about the unredeemed self and the redeemed self. When he uses the term flesh, he's talking about the unredeemed self. When he talks about the Spirit, that's what God has done in us. That's the redeemed self. So if we're indebted to the flesh, that means that we're acting like slaves to sin. And that way, says Paul, is the way of death. But that's not who we are anymore.

[13:22] We have to come to understand ourselves in a new way. And in fact, Paul says, we can even think of ourselves as children of God. He writes, for all who are led by the Spirit are children of God. All who are led by the Spirit are children of God. There's an idea out there, and one I even hear in churches a lot, everyone is a child of God. And everyone is certainly a creation of God. Everyone bears the divine image of God, but in the New Testament, being a child of God is something different. It's a special status we receive by being adopted into God's household. We are children of God by default. In fact, we're separated from God by sin. We're estranged from God. But through Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, we can become children of God. We can become sons and daughters. And how does that happen? Well, Paul writes, you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption, a spirit of adoption.

[14:51] Now, adoption in the ancient world was a little bit different than in our time. You could take a child into your home and raise that child like your own without going through the formal process of adoption. Adoption was something that usually took place with adults. Adults were adopted, and it was a way of securing an inheritance. It was a way of making sure that one's inheritance passed to trustworthy people. So Julius Caesar adopted Octavian as his son, and Octavian went on to become the first Roman emperor, Augustus. But why did he do that? He did it to make sure that his wealth and power and influence were transferred to someone he trusted. A number of the Roman emperors did this, and the reason that they did it is they wanted to have say over whom their power, influence, and wealth went to. They wanted to have say over their inheritance. So whatever else adoption did, it secured an inheritance.

[15:58] I heard a story one time about a young man who asked a rich old man how he made his money. And the rich old man said, well, son, it was 1932, and I was down to my last nickel. I invested that nickel in an apple, and I polished it, and I sold it for 10 cents. And then the next day I bought two apples And sold them for 20 cents And then my wife's father died And left us two million dollars.

[16:31] But that's like our inheritance. We don't earn it. It's a gift. When you're adopted into God's household, you become an heir to God's great promises. When we cry, Abba, Father, it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we're children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God, adjoined heirs with Christ, if, in fact, we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. We receive the inheritance Christ received, resurrection and eternal life. And yet that faith may cost us something now, but in the age to come, we will experience glory alongside Christ. That's our inheritance as sons and daughters. That's our inheritance.

[17:28] Now, it's interesting that, you know, when Paul says, we cry out, Abba, Father, Abba is, Paul's writing in Greek, but that term Abba isn't Greek, it's Aramaic. Why does Paul use that term? It's a term of affection for a father. And they have to know that this is how Jesus addressed his father, as Abba. It's a term of intimacy. It's the term Jesus used in Gethsemane. So now we can address God in the way that Jesus did. We have the great privilege of calling God our Father, of addressing Him just like Jesus did. You know, last year I was invited to speak at a church in Tulsa. They put us up in a nice hotel, the valet service and all that stuff.

[18:28] And my wife and I, my wife Harriet and I had some downtime, so we took a walk around downtown Tulsa, and I was wearing an Asbury T-shirt. I was representing. I had on the team colors, and as I walked back into the hotel, one of the valets stops us. He says, Asbury, huh? I said, yeah, yeah, have you heard of Asbury? He said, oh, I heard about that revival you all had there. And I said, yeah, that was something else. I wasn't there, but yeah, it was really an amazing thing. Actually, I did go to it, because my son was a student at the university during that time. But I said, you know, are you a Christian? And yeah, he is. And he said, I go to this church, I forget the name of the church, but it's a large church outside Tulsa. He'd become a Christian. And he said, you know, I didn't have a father, but now I do.

[19:34] We have an inheritance of eternal life and glory, but we have something else. We have a relationship with a Father who loves us and came to us in Jesus Christ.

[19:49] The Spirit of God bears witness to us that we're no longer slaves, but we're children of God. He calls us sons and daughters, and that's the most important thing we can know about ourselves. So now you have a new name and a new future. The world calls you all kinds of things, and some of those things aren't good. But God calls you daughter. God calls you son. God creates a space for you in his home. God offers you an inheritance.

[20:31] So when I ask you that question, who am I? I want you to answer, I'm a child of God. I'm a son. I'm a daughter. That answer changes all the other identities you have in your life. And we all have lots of identities, right? Are you a mother or a father? Are you a student? Are you a staff person at this church? Are you a barista or an attorney or a coach? Are you retired? No doubt you're a friend Some of you are mentors, Are you a Democrat? Are you a Republican? Are you independent? Are you a business owner? Are you a mower of lawns? A trimmer of hedges? Are you a musician? Are you an American? A Tennessean? Some of you, I bet, are Arkansans? Mississippans.

[21:43] Whatever you are, and all of us are many things, before you're that, you're a child of God. Before He calls you anything else, before He calls you, even before those He calls to ministry, right? He calls them son or daughter.

[22:06] Sometimes I think the hardest thing about believing the Christian faith is that it's too good to be true. The God of all creation sees you, and He loves you. He became a human being for you, and He died for you. And I don't just mean He died for everyone. He died for you. He died for you personally. He knows you, and He sees you, and He loves you. You know, John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, in 1738, had a profound experience that we call, spiritual experience, that we call the Aldersgate experience. And like Pastor Paul talked about with Davis, it was in a way a revelation of God's love for him. He said his heart was strangely warmed, but you know he was English, so that's a really big deal. That's a very emotional experience. His heart was strangely warmed, but he describes part of his experience in that as knowing, that Christ died for him, John Wesley, personally, for his sins. God gave himself for him, and God gave himself for you and for me.

[23:29] You're forgiven of your sin. You're a new creation. You're adopted into God's household, and you have eternal life with God. That's good stuff, isn't it? That's not just good news. That's the best news. And skeptics might say, well, you know what? That's exactly the kind of thing people might make up to make themselves feel better. To which I say, have you met people? Because most of the people I know Are not that optimistic on their own.

[24:09] It's easy to walk around with a kind of self-protective pessimism to keep ourselves from wanting really good and beautiful things because we don't think we'll ever get it. Or maybe we think we don't deserve it. There's a story about a really optimistic guy, and he had a really pessimistic friend. And the optimistic guy takes his pessimistic friend duck hunting. And he had a dog, and this dog could actually walk on water So they go out duck hunting, he shoots a duck Duck goes down, and the dog takes off across the lake On top of the water, gets the duck, brings it back And the pessimist goes, that dog can't swim, can he?

[25:10] Our spirit can be at war with the Spirit of God that's testifying within us, and what God's saying to us that we're His children, that He's adopted us, that He loves us, that He gave Himself for us. We're part of His household. We're sons and daughters, and we're saying, that just can't be true. I'm just not good enough. And let's be honest, we've all Me included Made a mess of our lives at times, We've made choices that ended up hurting us and other people Maybe we've muddled our way through bad relationships, Maybe we've fought addiction, We face temptation, and sometimes we've lost. And it's easy to look back on our lives and say, I messed up. That's just who I am.

[26:18] Or on the other hand, we might say something like, I'm the person who was abandoned. I'm the person who is taken advantage of I'm the person who is abused I'm the person no one loves And maybe that's just because I'm unlovable, And if that's you, right? If those are the thoughts that you have in your heart Then the Lord sent me today to tell you that that's a lie.

[26:57] That's a lie. There are people in the counseling profession who would talk about that as negative self-talk, okay? Negative self-talk is generally a bad idea, and some people tell you to counter that with positive self-talk. You remember, if you're old enough, you remember the Saturday Night live skit called Daily Affirmations with Stuart Smalley. And Stuart Smalley would always go, I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, people like me. That's positive self-talk. But that's only going to get you so far. Maybe people like you, maybe they don't like you. I'm talking about something much more significant than that.

[27:47] The Lord's put His hand on you, and He's called you son, and He's called you daughter. He's adopted you into His household. And part of the Christian life is coming to understand yourself according to the way that God understands you. Okay, so I don't want to have a thought about myself that isn't in agreement with what God thinks about me. Sometimes I do, but to remind myself, that's not who I am. God thinks enough of you to die for you. And when we give him even the slightest opening, right, when we crack the door a little bit, he kind of sticks his head in. And he doesn't look at you and say, hey, liar. Hey, cheater. Hey, addict. Hey, loser. He says, hello, daughter. Hello, son. I've been hoping you let me in. And I have great things in store for you.

[29:11] All right, church people, if I say God is good all the time, what do you say? All the time, God is good, right? Let's try that. God is good all the time. I was in Kenya a few years ago, and they say the same thing, but then they add something that everyone says together at the end, the preacher and the congregation. They say, God is good all the time, all the time God is good, for that is his nature.

[29:43] Let's try that. God is good all the time, for that is his nature. He's good all the time, and that is his nature. He made Abram and Sarai into Abraham and Sarah. He made Simon into Peter. He made Saul into Paul. And God's given you a new name too. It's son, it's daughter. Let's pray. God, we thank you for the great privilege of calling you father. We thank you for the great privilege of being adopted into your household. We thank you that you don't leave us as orphans, but that you call us son and daughter. And God, I know there are people here today who are struggling with that. I know there are people here today who are struggling with issues of identity.

[30:55] Maybe they're struggling with self-hatred. Maybe they're struggling with suicidal thoughts. Maybe they can't forgive themselves for something they did. that maybe someone said something to them in their past that they can't get over. And so in Jesus' name, I just, I rebuke those thoughts. In Jesus' name, Lord, will you send your Holy Spirit to sear upon our hearts, our identity in you, that you've claimed us as your own, that you've called us out of darkness into a glorious light, and you've made us your own. Thank you, Lord. We love you and we pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.