This week we continued our 3 week series on IDENTITY and SELF-WORTH. We are following the story line of Joseph from the Old Testament. Joseph is a great example of how to walk by faith when we are tempted to find our IDENTITY apart from being a child of God. This week Joseph was tempted to devalue God’s gift of sexuality and find his identity in his appearance alone.
Joseph found himself in charge of the household of a ranking official in Egypt named Potiphar. Potiphar didn’t have to worry about anything except for what he was going to eat because he left Joseph in charge of everything. Potiphar’s wife noticed that Joseph was attractive and tried to persuade him to sleep with her. Joseph’s response clearly demonstrates his faith in God and understanding of how sexuality is to be viewed by a child of God.
Joseph responded to Potiphar’s wife by saying that he could never do ANYTHING physical with her “because you are his wife” (Gen. 39:9).
Someone who walks by faith and finds their IDENTITY in being a child of God realizes that every other relationship is secondary and in submission to what God’s Word says. Which leads us to the main point from the message this past Sunday:
- Emotional and Physical Relationships will never give you the Value and True Identitythat you were Created for and that your Soul Longs for.
The Bible is clear that we are all created for a perfect relationship with God. Because of sin that relationship has been broken and Ecclesiastes 3:11 tells us that eternity has been placed in our hearts. This means that on a deep spiritual level we all know that we are missing something. It sounds cliché but their is literally a God sized hole in our hearts. A majority of people spend their entire lives trying to fill that hole with things apart from God but nothing apart from God will ever truly satisfy them. Even after we have had our relationship with God restored through belief in the gospel we can still at times feel unsatisfied. Satan tempts us find our value and identity apart from God in a number of other places.
One major place that middle and high school students are tempted to find identity and value in is through physical and emotional relationships. Students are bombarded with the temptation to constantly have a boyfriend or a girlfriend. They regularly “talk” to people which just means they are in a relationship with no real commitment. They are told to form strong opinions about their sexuality and are even asked to identify themselves based on their sexuality. They are regularly pushed to believe that sex is no big deal and just something to be freely enjoyed.
A lot of middle and high school students are trying to fill that God shaped hole in their hearts with physical and emotional relationships as well as private sexual sin via the internet. Below is a list of 5 indicators that a student might be elevating physical and emotional relationships to an unhealthy place in their lives. Use this list as an opportunity to discuss this topic with your students and help them evaluate where they might be finding their identity apart from their relationship with God.
- You always have to be in a relationship or “talking” to someone.
- You flirt with lots of people because you like the attention that they give you.
- You try to get inappropriate pictures from other or you send inappropriate pictures of yourself for attention.
- You regularly cross physical boundaries that you have set-up for your physical relationships.
- You regularly view pornographic material.
If you have any questions or concerns about this weeks message or how you might want to follow-up with your students on this topic feel free to get a hold of me at iconstudents@outlook.com.