don’t know what for…

Today’s blog post is essentially just the transcription/script that I used for my sermon at TGP NYC along with some of my thoughts from today mixed-in. I cannot believe I gave this sermon almost two years ago but I often think about it in my moments of insecurity even now.

Here we go:

So I am going to be starting off real light and fun today and I’m gonna be talking about the topic of insecurity. I think when many of us hear this word we think about it in the sense of our physical appearance, things we’re not good at, or we think of the stereotypical image of a teenage girl. And those are all valid examples of insecurity but if you don’t resonate with any of them, I want to look at this topic in a deeper sense and look at how all encompassing it really is.

Maybe you’re insecure about the things that God has called you to do. Maybe you’re insecure about the season that God has put you in right now because you’re in a waiting or a dessert season and you look at your friends and they are in the land flowing with milk and honey. Maybe you’re insecure and you don’t realize it but there’s this small part of you that has this incessant need for approval. Perhaps you subconsciously compete with many of the people in your life when it comes to life achievements or friendships or status.

I think God put this topic on my heart because I see how much insecurity is plaguing our world. We just finished up a few weeks ago our Seven Deadly Sins of the City series and I think a lot of those sins, namely: greed, vanity, hustle-mentality are rooted in insecurity.

In today’s age, no one knows what the truth is so we have turned to creating it ourselves. As a result, we have a society that is fueled by competition, where everyone is trying to prove that their truth is the right one. We have to prove our importance, how talented we are, how good of a parent, boss, employee that we are because we are uncertain about ourselves and who we are supposed to be. And the thing about insecurity is that it’s ugly and it spreads. When one person is insecure about something they can project that onto other people and then you may start to question if you’re really as secure about that thing as you thought. Or when one person is striving for the approval and praise from others it makes other people want to do it too because that attention looks like it feels good.

I grew up in church so I’ve never known anything different from following Christ, but when I look at what’s written in scripture and our ever-changing world, I see how we have a world that is growing more and more secure in very insecure things: themselves, a partner, or a career. And then we have a Church that is becoming less and less secure in who Christ calls us to be.

So let’s look at exactly what that is…

I’m going to be reading in 1 Peter Chapter 2. This book was commissioned by one of Jesus’ 12 disciples Peter. This is years after the death and resurrection of Jesus and Peter’s writing FROM Rome to Christians who are dispersed throughout a region called Asia Minor. The people he’s writing to are Christians and considered outcasts because of their faith. They were being persecuted and oppressed by their government, and Peter’s writing to them to encourage them in their suffering and tell them how they should respond.

“As the Scriptures say, “I am placing a cornerstone in Jerusalem, chosen for great honor, and anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.” Yes, you who trust him recognize the honor God has given him. But for those who reject him, “The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.” And, “He is the stone that makes people stumble, the rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they do not obey God’s word, and so they meet the fate that was planned for them. But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.”
‭‭1 Peter‬ ‭2:6-9‬ ‭NLT‬‬

So in this verse, Peter is talking to a people group that could have chosen to be very insecure about what God was calling them to do, about their faith, and about who they were. He’s drawing this comparison out between these two types of people and he’s saying those who don’t follow Christ will be disobedient and will stumble over the rock… the rock being Jesus. And then he says to the Christ followers that he’s writing to “but you are not like that”. Right there he’s saying you are to live differently from this world and not to engage in what they are doing.

So that can mean a lot of things, but when looking at it with insecurity in mind and how I was talking about it before. I think it’s worth noting that Peter didn’t say…

those who aren’t Christians will disobey —> but you Christ followers are going to do x, y, and z. No, he tells them WHO they are: a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a people for his possession. That by itself should make us look at ourselves differently. That is the highest calling that God has placed on our lives.

But I also want to look at how/why we have this identity. If we jump back up to verse 7, It says “Yes, you who TRUST in him recognize the honor GOD has given him,”

It doesn’t say “those who have done everything right recognize the honor that they’ve earned from God.”

WHO we are, is something GIVEN to us and received through TRUST.

I mention this because at its root, insecurity stems from Pride. Because pride is not thinking too highly of yourself, (it can be, but it is first) thinking ONLY of yourself. And when we think that all eyes are on us, that’s when we start to second guess ourselves, feel like we can’t mess up, and fall down this path of self-righteousness. We begin to care very deeply about our image and perception of ourselves because we believe it to be important in the eyes of others in the first place.

But this passage is telling us that the honor we have as Christ followers is one given to us not because of what we’ve done but because of what He’s done.

So what to do with this identity we have?

…if we jump down a few verses to verse 16 it says that “for you are free but you are God’s slaves so don’t use your feedom as an excuse to do evil.” So Peter is telling the Christians being oppressed, you are a chosen people but you are going to show the world that you are set apart through humility and you are going to serve those who persecute you because of your identity in Christ. A very countercultural and unexpected way to think but Peter is telling them to do these things out of their submission and trust in God.

When we trust someone else and submit to their way, the way we do to God, it’s recognizing that there is someone other than ourselves who is in control and we act out of a place that is not all about ourselves. When it comes to insecurity, we have to recognize that this life is not all about us. The enemy wants to fill your mind with thoughts about yourself so that it’s not filled with thoughts about the Lord.

This is something that God has been convicting me of recently (Savannah 2022… but also lowkey Savannah 2024). I can get very wrapped up in what people think of me. I am someone who cares about making a good impression. Sometimes I’ll overanalyze a lot of the things that I do in the day, worried about what impression I made.

So if you’ve ever thought something I did was weird, awkward, maybe a little annoying… trust me i’ve been thinking about it for three days and in two weeks it will be the thought that keeps me up at night. Sometimes I just do things that are in my nature and it’s just not received the way I thought it would be. But the other day I had this epiphany where I thought to myself “Why am I thinking about myself this often anyways?” There is absolutely no reason for that because I am not that important. It sounds harsh but it’s true.

However, the cure to my insecurity is not a new burst of confidence in myself, rather a confidence in who Christ is and a humility in everything that I am.

When I’m able to recognize that the Creator of the universe created me I can also recognize my inadequacy and fall at the feet of Jesus in humility and reverence of the fact that He is the only one who ever got it right… and He still submitted to the Father and took upon himself all of our shortcomings so that we can live in freedom from our insecurity. And we know that because of Jesus’ submission He is the only one who can ever tell us what we are worth.

Because of this truth the way I walk through things should look VERY different from the rest of this world. Peter told those Christians WHO they were not WHAT to do because WHO they are should change WHAT they do. In a world that says to care about really temporal things, to always focus on yourself, to put others down to put yourself up, I don’t have to believe or engage in those things. I can acknowledge the fact that, yeah, I’m not capable of everything. I’m not smart enough, probably not funny enough, definitely not strong enough. I can also believe despite all of that, that the “ones who TRUST in Him will never be put to shame”.

So I’m going to give you 2 practical ways in which we can combat insecurity together:

1. Get in the word. It seems obvious and elementary but so many of us don’t do it as often as we should or take it as seriously as we should.

When we read the Bible, the ONE unified story that leads to Jesus we are reminded that our lives should also be a unified story that leads to Jesus. We are not the main character, He is.

Moreover, I saw this on TikTok so I can’t take credit; it’s our daily bread not daily cake
Some days we feel like eating bread more than others. Some days we’re craving it, some days we’re not. But we eat it because we know it’s gonna sustain us. And it does what it needs to do. It shouldn’t be like cake when we take it out only on special occasions or when we want something sweet to feel better about ourselves on a hard day.
We have to remind ourselves of the truth and who we belong to and what Jesus said. Otherwise we can get it really twisted with the lies of this world.

Which leads into my next point …

2. Get in community
It’s hard to get wrapped up in the lies of this world if we have a Christ-centered community. One that reminds us of our true value in Christ and doesn’t like us because of what we’ve accomplished or what we do. They love us because of the singular fact that we are His.

Also, bear someone else’s burdens and have someone bear yours. Serve someone else in that way and remind yourself that there are other people walking through things. When we share our burdens, we are able to zoom out and realize that we are not the main character in everyone’s story.

When we do these two things we are tapping into the peace, love, and security that God has already made accessible to us and growing into a deeper relationship with the one who created us.

I want to end with one more scripture. In Philippians 1:27-30, Paul is writing to the church in Philippi and he says, “above all, you must live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ.” If I believe in the gospel, I know that God loved us the way He created us. And He loved us so much he gave His son, because of that he withholds no good thing. And because He rose again on the third day, the battle is already won and he is with us through every battle today.

And knowing that makes me so secure. I can go out today not thinking about myself but thinking about how I can show OTHERS how my life is testimony of how He brought me, and you, out of darkness into His light.

Walk as citizens of Heaven.

thanks for reading ❤