GYC Atlantic 2018

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GYC Atlantic

Jennifer Schwirzer

Identity Shift

Identity shift is a message, actually I've been preaching for quite a while, but then when I got invited to speak at this conference, and I saw that the theme was identity, I said this is my opportunity to really unpack this thing and fill in some of the details.

And her picture was taken during a political crisis in Afghanistan, where the Russian, the Soviet government, came in and partnered with the Afghan government and there were groups that rose up against that coalition.

And what happened was the people were driven into refugee camps.

So this picture was taken by a National Geographic photographer named Steve McCurry in a refugee camp in Pakistan.

And the amazing part about this photograph is that it captures the desperation and terror and horror of war, doesn't it?

So this picture was taken, it was brought back to the States, and it was put on the cover of National Geographic magazine.

And it is still today considered 1 of the 100 most famous photographs of all time.

And yet, we didn't know who this girl was.

17 years later, the photographer went back to the Middle East and he searched and he searched and he searched and finally found the woman.

And if you want to see her as a grown woman, go ahead and Google that, Shabbat Gula.

So he met her and he tried to explain to her the fact that the West all knew her face.

You know, everybody over here, the people that you don't know, know you.

And they're acquainted with your face and they saw this picture and it communicated to them what you were going through.

They tried to explain that to her and because this is before the digital age where we have pretty much everyone in the world, not everyone, but most of the people in the world have access to what's out there, if you know what I mean.

This is before that age, and so she had no awareness whatsoever that her picture had circulated around and become so famous.

So he's trying to explain all this to her.

She picked out the 1 little flaw in herself that then enlarged in her mind, rather than try to grasp the fact that she was so significant to people that she didn't even know.

I think what we do is we dwell so much on our flaws that we lose sight of the fact that we are profoundly significant to the God of heaven and to the angels, this world that we're not currently so much a part of or at least in a physical sense not inhabiting, but we're profoundly significant to them and we lose sight of that because we get caught up in our flaws.

And So what God wants to do is help us bring our self-awareness to the place where we understand how significant we are.

Now, we as human beings will have a self-concept.

It's not possible for us not to have some kind of self-image, some kind of self-concept.

Other animals in creation lack a self-concept.

I was walking in the park with my chihuahua, about 4 pound, little tiny dog.

Do you know that chihuahuas are very aggressive?

And I think it's because God puts in them this ferocity so that they'll seem ferocious to maybe ward off some of the enemies because the reality is that little dog ends up in the jaws of a big dog and they'll kill him.

I mean my daughter's chihuahua got attacked in a park and She almost died.

We have pit bulls in my neighborhood, and I've got a chihuahua.

And he goes up to the fence and goes, na, na, na, na, na.

They're just like, I'm going to kill you.

And they can't get to him because everything's fenced.

I live in fear that 1 day they'll break through.

But these chihuahuas often have this barking reflex.

And I remember watching this little chihuahua 1 day, and a big dog walked by and she was like, Rarrr!

You know, it was like that kind of thing.

And I was like, this dog has no concept of how small she is, but we as human beings have a self-concept.

So when someone is 20 times bigger than us, we don't go up and go, ah, pick a fight with me.

We don't do that because we are self-aware.

So human beings have this fixed sense of self-awareness, and as far as I'm concerned, it might as well be positive if it can be positive within the bounds of God's will for us.

But That's a little bit of a difficult issue, isn't it?

Because we don't want to be proud, you know?

We don't want to be all about ourselves and arrogant and puffed up and all this stuff.

And so sometimes as human beings, we think that the way to prevent pride is to just have low self-esteem, you know, think badly about ourselves.

In fact, let me share an amazing statement with you.

It says, the Lord is disappointed when his people place a...do I have like 1 of those little...

Oh good, I can do this if you start falling asleep, I'll just, you know.

So the Lord is disappointed when his people place a low estimate.

God is disappointed when we have low self-esteem.

But then let's move on here because we want to make sure that we're on the right page with biblical truth, when they place a low estimate upon themselves.

He desires his chosen heritage to value themselves according to the price He has placed upon them.

And then it says that he wants us to value ourselves according to what price?

The price that he placed upon us, which is how much price?

It's an infinite price because everything of value exists in God and only has existence because God keeps it in existence, and so in Him is all value collectively combined and nothing of value exists outside of him.

So if he poured out his life on the cross for us, that means he values us infinitely.

And notice that he doesn't only want us to accept that he values us infinitely, but he wants us to what?

Now I propose to you that this infinite valuing of ourselves is so much deeper and more stable and more steadying and and more rich than any kind of Self-esteem in the world could offer you that it just pales in comparison you following with me So the world tells you value yourself.

But then it says value yourself based on how you measure against others.

You have more talent, more accomplishments than others.

Tries to lead us into that kind of thing.

Social comparison and basing our value on that.

But you know what happens with that program?

You may be the smartest man in the room, smartest guy in the room.

I mean, I'm the smartest guy in the room when I'm the only person in the room.

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Identity Shift

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