I-DENTITY: DISCOVERING WHO GOD CREATED ME TO BE Week 1: Who I Am Not

Galatians 1:10 - Obviously, I’m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant.

This week's topic built on our previous conversation about finding our identity in Jesus Christ. We live in a world where it's common for people to wear many "hats" and conform to different groups' expectations. Sometimes things get ugly. People hurt one another with their words. They think that relationships will make them complete-and then they jump from relationship to relationship to try to fill a void in life. People base their value on the wrong things. This week's lesson gave the youth some ideas and tools as they considered who they are NOT and how God wants them to NOT live.

Lesson Objectives:

• WHAT: God calls us to interact with people in ways that defy our culture's expectations.
• WHY: As we gain confidence in our identity in Christ, we can begin to develop healthier patterns of interaction with other people.
• HOW: We examined three patterns of behavior to avoid-and by avoiding these patterns, they will affirm their identity in Christ and point other people toward him, too.  (3 Patterns of Behavior - letting other people's opinions define you, focusing on just yourself, focusing on other people's appearances).

We looked at Galatians 1:10, 1 Samuel 16:7 and James 4:1-2.

We can choose to follow God's way, or we can choose to follow the world's way. The choice to follow our culture usually gets us caught in the trap of trying to win people's approval. In this week's key verse in Galatians, we saw how Paul had chosen to not fall into this trap.

Jesus avoided this trap, too. Jesus didn't treat people based on what they could do for Him. The Pharisees were concerned only with people who were "holy" enough. The disciples were constantly guarding Jesus from people they deemed unimportant. A crowd of people constantly surrounded Jesus looking for the next miracle-they were concerned with what Jesus had done for them lately.

But then there's Jesus. He consistently shattered people's expectations of who should get attention. Religious leaders of His day didn't expect him to hang out with tax collectors, Samaritans, fishermen, or sexually promiscuous women-but He did, because those were the people who needed a savior.
Our students live in a world where people are deemed valuable based on their wealth, personality, clothing, attractiveness, athletic ability, or musical talents. Many young people act in certain ways or hang with certain crowds because they believe being friends with these individuals will make THEM more valuable.

What if our youth broke this cycle? What if they were so clear of their identity in Jesus that they felt the freedom to live differently? It could change the world they live in!