What does the Bible say about trying to discover yourself? What about being yourself?

<p>What does the Bible say about trying to discover yourself? What about being yourself?</p>

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Eugene Prewitt

Home Studies

Finding, Knowing and Being Yourself

Come Let Us Reason Regarding Justice and Pain

Deliver My Soul


God bless you. It's good to be with you here. This is going to be the first of a series of messages that I'm going to call the Home Studies. Studies on Christian living in the home may be appropriate for use in family worship. This 1 is going to be on finding yourself.

I title it Finding, Knowing, and Being Yourself. We're going to begin today by looking at Proverbs 18. Turn with me in your Bibles to Proverbs. Proverbs chapter 18 and verse 2. Proverbs 18 and verse 2.

It says, a fool has no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself. What is it that makes a fool happy? A fool is happy when he can find himself, when he feels like he's found himself, when he knows himself. I don't want you to misunderstand me or misunderstand the Bible. There's nothing wrong with really knowing yourself.

In fact, the Bible says that we should examine ourselves, that we should know ourselves. But the fool finds his delight that way. We want to talk about that today. Why is he delighted that way? Why is he delighted no other?

Turn with me in your Bibles to Psalm 115. This is back probably about 40 pages for you. Psalm 115 in verse 2. Speaking of idols, it says, Why should the heathen say, Where now is their God? For our God is in the heavens, He has done whatever He pleased.

Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak not, Eyes they have, but they see not, They have ears, but they hear not, Noses have they, but they smell not, they have hands but they handle not, feet they have but they do not walk, neither do they speak through their throats. They that make them are like unto them, so as everyone that trusteth in them. O Israel, trust you in the Lord. He is their help and their shield." It's an interesting idea.

The idea, of course, is true that idols have no eyes, no hands, they don't smell, they don't speak. But what about this idea that those are like them, that trust in them? And what sense is an idol worshiper like an idol? You know, it's not in a physical sense. It's not that he can't see, or that he can't speak, or that he can't smell.

It's in a moral sense. It's that idolaters end up adopting the character, or being molded into the character of the gods that they honor, those gods that are deceptive or cruel or power-hungry or greedy. And this is why the pagan gods, with their terrible characters, led the pagans into moral debauchery. Now, I want you to think about this for a minute, because you and I live in an age when the most common idol is self. And what happens when you spend your time honoring self, thinking about self, serving self, when you give self the kind of attention that the heathen used to give to their idols.

Do you know it has a similar effect? Because the part of self that we indulge is not our high moral nature. The part of self that we think about is not our reason, our conscience, our judgment. It's our desires, our passions. So when we think about ourself, when we are trying to discover ourself, when we're trying to figure out where do I fit in or what is my passion or what do I what am I really like or who do I really get along with, when we're looking at those things those are not our virtues.

We fit in naturally with people who share our vices. Our passions naturally are the things that we're to resist when we deny self and take up our cross. The people we get along with naturally are ones who are like us. They would be going the wrong way if it wasn't for the Spirit of God. So what's wrong with trying to find yourself?

When you try to find yourself in a way that delights you, it means you're trying to affirm the way that you are. Listen to this idea carefully. The fool has no delight but to find himself. In other words, when he finds himself, he's happy with what he finds. He's glad to know what fits him.

He's glad to know what his passions are. He's affirming himself. He's discovering himself, not to change, but for the purpose of learning how to be himself. That is just the opposite of the way that the Christian finds himself. Turn with me in your Bibles to 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 13 and verse 5.

2 Corinthians 13 and verse 5. It's taken me a moment to find it. 2 Corinthians 13, verse 5. Life. The Bible says, examine yourselves, whether you are in the faith.

Prove your own selves. Don't you know your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except you be reprobates or rejects? I want us to see that to find yourself is a good thing to do. I want to know who I am, what I'm like, but I don't want to find myself for the purpose of affirming myself. Quite on the contrary, I want to find myself for the purpose of improvement.

That is, the fool finds himself to become static or to stay the same, but the Christian discovers himself for the purpose of changing, improving in a better way. Turn back maybe 12 pages to 1 Corinthians 11. 1 Corinthians 11, verses 28 and 31. This is speaking of the communion. It says in verse 28, but let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup." In other words, before I take part in communion, I want to examine myself and see, am I being properly reverent?

Am I relating to this ordinance in a way that shows the high regard I have for the sacrifice of Jesus. Now look down at verse 31, for if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. That's the real benefit of knowing yourself. The real benefit of finding yourself is that you can modify your behavior so that you will not be condemned. So what we've shown so far is that there are 2 different philosophies of finding oneself.

There's the fool's philosophy of finding himself for the purpose of self-affirmation. There's the Christian's philosophy of finding himself for the purpose of making changes now to avoid judgment later. When you are searching your own heart, I want to give you 2 diagnostic tools that you can use. 1 is that you want to check to see, when you examine yourself, have you been following your feelings or have you been living by faith, doing what God says in his written word? When you're examining your life, What Paul said is examine yourself to see if you be in the faith.

That was 2nd Corinthians 13 and this is what it means. Examine yourself to see, am I living by what God says or am I following my feelings? But there's another way you ought to examine yourself, and we can see that best if we go to James chapter 1. James chapter 1, we're looking at a second diagnostic tool for discovering my own self. James chapter 1 and verse 22.

It says, but be you a doer of the word and not a hearer only, deceiving your own selves. For if any man be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man beholding his natural face in a mirror. For he beholds himself and goes his way and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But whoever looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues therein, not being a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this man will be blessed in his deed. If any man among you seem to be religious, embroidle not his own tongue.

He deceives his own heart. This man's religion is vain." So if our first diagnostic was to see if we're in the faith, to see if we live by feeling or whether we're living by what God has written in his word, whether we're following our impressions or whether we're doing what he says. Our second diagnostic is to consider whether we are an attentive listener or a forgetful listener. In other words, in our devotional life, in our Bible study, even in our listening to audio-verse sermons, we're going to be confronted with weaknesses and defects in our life. To see those things is like that man who sees his natural face in the mirror, we see, when we look into God's Word, defects.

The question is, are we going to leave that revelation behind? Forget about the impression in the sermon. Forget about what we saw in the Bible. Forget about those defects. If we do that, we're cutting off from ourselves the means of blessing that God has put in the law of God.

The man that's blessed is the 1 that when he looks at the law of God and sees his defect, he begins to practice that law in contrast to his defect. He's blessed in the keeping of the law. What we're saying is that finding yourself, when I find myself, this is a great thing if I do it by comparing myself with the law of God. If I do it with the intention of going away as a man that is changing, a man that is trying to practice what he sees in that law. Now you might remember this passage from Psalm 139.

It's a song of a scripture song. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my ways, and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. In that song, the searching of my heart is something that God does in answer to my prayer. I ask him, please show me who I am.

And that's something God delights to do. He did that for Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4. He showed Nebuchadnezzar a picture of who he was in that tree. And God wants to show me, whether by illustrations in the lives of others, or natural illustrations, or by what I see in the law of God, he wants to show me who I am. So I ask him to do the thing he wants to do.

Father, please show me my weakness. Show me who I am. In Haggai 1, verses 5 and 7, there God twice says the same idea. If we come to him in Psalms and say, search my heart, he comes back to us in Haggai and he says, consider your ways. That is, we want to be thoughtful regarding our behavior.

We want to consider our conduct. God is asking that we do know ourselves, that we do find ourselves, but not for the purpose of affirming ourselves, but for the purpose of making changes, that is judging ourselves today so that we will not be judged later, dealing with our sins now so our sins will not be dealt with later. When a man is trying to find himself other than this way, often what he's really trying to find is a way to describe his impulses. He wants to know what's natural to him. Does he have a sweet tooth?

Does he tend to hold grudges? Does he despise authority? Or is it hard for him to submit to it? Is he impulsive in other ways? But to find your defects like that shows that you've missed 1 of the key ideas of the Holy Bible.

Listen to this carefully. God is the 1 that created you. And when He created you, when He created me, He created me with an idea in mind. Not the idea of what I was from my parents' inheritance. Not what I was when I was born, but when I was born, He already had in mind what I could become through His grace strengthening me.

That is, you might say that God has a blueprint for me. He calls Himself the master builder. He calls Himself the husbandman. And he says that he's building me up. He knows how he wants me to be.

Now, the way that God looks at me is not the way that I am. He looks at me the way I can become. That is, when God looks at me, he sees my defects as not part of the blueprint. He sees them as issues to be resolved before I really become myself. If you want to find yourself in a godly way, find the self that God intends for you to be.

Do you remember how Paul speaks about sin in Romans 7? He says there in verse 17 and verse 20, he talks about sin like it's almost a third party. He says that when I do something wrong, it's not the real me that's doing it. It's sin that is dwelling inside of me. In other words, Paul didn't think of his defects as being part of the blueprint of his life.

The defects weren't part of the plan for his life. On the contrary, they were an outside influence. They were something to be reckoned with, something to be opposed. He said, who will deliver me from this body of death? That is, how am I going to be delivered from these natural impulses, from the sin that is easily getting me down?

That's the power of the gospel. He said, I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord. In other words, God has a blueprint for who I should become. It does not involve any sin, And I can't even discover that without finding the sins in my own life and putting them away, turning towards the law of God and living according to it, and in this way putting away the sins in my life. When you find a snowflake and it lands on your finger and you try to examine it, you don't really see its beauty for long because the process of paying that kind of attention to it destroys the snowflake.

And if, as I find my own defects, I pay too much attention to them, thinking about those defects, meditating on them, or letting them discourage me, will create in me the same defects that I'm observing. Now someone's saying, you sound like you're contradicting yourself. You're saying on 1 hand that we need to find our defects and not forget about them, and we need to put them away, but on the other hand, that we should not think about them too much. Let me explain what I mean. I find my defects by comparing myself to the beautiful standard of the law of God and to the life of Jesus.

And I remain thoughtful of my defects by continuing to look at that standard, the life of Jesus and the law of God. But it's while I think about the life of Jesus that I receive the encouragement to make changes and move forward. Thinking about the life of Jesus allows me to be aware of my defects without having my eyes blinded by them. But when I stop thinking about Jesus and his beautiful law, when instead I think about how weak I am, how impulsive, how grudge-holding, how given to appetite, when I think about myself I'll find nothing there but that which will discourage me. When Paul spoke about the end of time, he said perilous times would come.

And he said in 2 Timothy 3, verse 2, that men would be lovers of themselves. No, not lovers of the beautiful blueprint that God has for their mind, but lovers of themselves the way they are. Lovers of their appetites, their passions, their desires. Men would be searching and finding themselves and being content with what they see. That's what I don't want for you.

Quite in the contrary, when you and I find ourselves, I hope that we will think of ourselves as children, children that are growing up. And we want, by the power of God's Spirit and by the gifts of His Spirit, to grow up, like it says in Ephesians 4.15, to the full stature of Christ. Let me summarize what I've said so far in this message. We've shared all the thoughts we're going to share. Do I want to be myself?

Yes, I want to be the kind of man that God intends me to be. Do I want to be myself? Yes, I want to be the kind of man that God intends me to be. Do I want to be myself? No, I don't want to be the kind of man I am right now with my defects.

Do I want to know myself? Yes, I want to know and deal truly with my soul. I want to think about Jesus until I can see the defects I have. Do I want to find myself for the purpose of Discovering where I fit in or what my passions are or where do I really get along? No, it was never the passion of Moses to lead rebellious people It was never the passion of Luther to stand up against the Roman Church.

Our passions are the cross that we have to take up and carry. When Jesus said, deny yourself and take up your cross and follow me, that's because Jesus said, not as I will, but as you will. I want to find myself and remember what I see in the beautiful face of Jesus so I can change. I want to judge myself now so I won't be judged later. I want to ask God to help me discover myself, but then to hear Him saying back to me, consider your ways.

And when I allow myself to grow up into the full stature of Jesus, I'm going to consider that those sins that have gotten me down are not really part of the plan for my life. They aren't the way that God is building me. They're going to leave and not be part of what He's accomplishing. So be yourself, the 1 that God intends. Find yourself, the 1 that you are.

Know yourself, the way you need to change. And find in thoughts about Jesus, all you need to encourage yourself. That's what I'm suggesting to you. That's what I'm praying for myself. That's what leads me to feel every day like it'd be amazing if God can even save me.

And I'm hoping that you'll have the same experience. We'd find nothing in us that would create self-confidence. All true obedience comes from the heart. It was heart work with Christ. And if we consent, He will so identify Himself with our thoughts and aims, so blend our hearts and minds into conformity to His will, that when obeying Him, we will be but carrying out our own impulses.

The will, refined and sanctified, will find its highest delight in doing His service. When we know God as it is our privilege to know Him, our life will be a life of continual obedience. Through an appreciation of the character of Christ, through communion with God, sin will become hateful to us. That's Desire of Ages 668. And it says what we've just shared in this message, that we can become different than we are, that we can eventually be a life in harmony with the blueprint that God has for us.

That's when we really can be ourself. Amen. If you would like to know more about Audioverse, or if you

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Home Studies

Finding, Knowing and Being Yourself

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Other Teachings in Series

Finding, Knowing and Being Yourself

23m

Come Let Us Reason Regarding Justice and Pain

51m

Deliver My Soul

25m

Sound Doctrine