Summary & Intro

Chris Fowler – Christ-follower, Husband, Dad of 4 kids, (3 girls, 1 boy), Pastor of Fletcher Memorial Baptist in Statesboro, Georgia for 2 years, hails from Atlanta, lover of UGA Football (Go Dawgs!!), loves God and people and his family and calling people to find their treasure in Christ and live for God’s glory in all things.

Recap & Synopsis

My good friend and pastor, Chris Fowler and I plumb the depths of what we treasure and how that affects and shapes our identity. As Jesus said, “where your treasure is there you’ll heart shall be also.” Listen in as Chris shares his personal story about his upbringing and life. Chris and I connect the dots between what men treasure and worship and how it shapes who we truly are. “We become what we worship.”

*The following notes are quotes from Chris and I. Use them freely and widely, but please offer credit where credit is due. Thanks.

“Two main questions we answer about ourselves: 1. Who am I really? 2. What’s my role or place in the world.”

“An identity crisis is when I can’t answer that question with any degree of certainty. I can’t answer who I am or what my place is in the world.”

“Anytime we face major changes in life we’re forced to ask those questions: marriage, mid-life crisis, or any major change or upheaval forces those questions to be reanswered.”

“Today it’s so common because so many of the markers that were there to help us in this identity search have been removed.”

“My identity discovery story came in phases.”

“God invaded me and was like ‘are you ready to do this my way yet?’ That was the first launching off into that identity.”

“I was a bit legalistic, so I thought I could earn grace back from God. So I did all the church stuff. I had an institutional church identity. It wasn’t until seminary when I was exposed to these great thinkers that forced me to look at grace a different way.”

“Buckle in for the long haul because for most of us it will probably come in patches or seasons. I think we learn better that way then hitting us all at once.” (Jonathan)

“The danger is stopping anywhere along that path and thinking ‘okay this is it'”.

“It’s almost like as leaders we are trying to create identity crises, because so many of us are living with lesser identities or lesser treasures that take their wrong place. We almost want to force these crises sometimes so that they are open to that next step. Forced to view ‘what am I treasuring?'”

“There was no identity crises in the beginning until Genesis 3 with the Fall. Now you can see the splinter effects of that identity crisis: creation vs. evolution, environmentalism vs. creation care blessing, marriage, work as an act of worship vs. becoming what we worship.”

“We default right away to things we are responsible for and the things we do.”

Matthew 6: Jesus connects the dots between what we treasure and where our heart is (22 min.)

“Jesus touches on identity with a little bit more depth in Matthew 6:21: “Where your treasure is there you’re heart will be also. It feels so revealing about this issue of identity. Jesus is saying when you find your treasure, you’ve found your heart.” (Jonathan)

“The question of Jesus helps us reform an identity in something greater that helps us through the major upheavals of life.”

“There’s an unbreakable link between what we treasure and what defines us, what captures our heart, the core of who we are is owned by our treasure.”