This morning, we continue our “Identity Crisis” message series where we are faced with that question, “When everything else fails, at your core, who are you?”  We’ve been reminded how we were created on purpose and for a purpose.

We learned of our need to be born again and how, at that  moment, we become children of God.  We were also reminded of the worship war raging and how jealous the enemy must be of us.  After all, God chose not only to create us in His image, but also for us to be His temples; filled with His Presence through the Holy Spirit. 

We know that we are loved with an unconditional and eternal love that nothing can separate us from; nothing like the way in which we use the word love.

This morning, we’re focusing on a topic that has stirred up quite a bit of controversy.  However, this controversial subject is surrounding a part of who we are; our identity.  This topic is one that I’ve often warned us about; to actually not form our identity around it or else Heaven will be very disappointing to us.  However, here on the earth, it is a key part of our identity.

What is this controversial identity crisis?  You are gifted!

We spend quite a bit of time throughout our youth determining what our natural gifts and talents are.  We try different things like sports or playing instruments or taking different classes.  All of us can throw a ball or hit a drum, but not all of us are gifted in these areas. 

As we enter our teen years, we begin seeking out what possible career we want to commit ourselves to and then begin to study and train for it.  We find our gifts and then dedicate ourselves to learning more about them, increasing ours skills in them, and seeking out opportunities to put them to use.  This is a significant part of most of our lives taking up most of our resources.

What a shame it would be if a world class sculptor never had the opportunity to touch clay, but was rather taught that art is a waste of time!  What if the most skilled of mechanics, who could fix anything, never touched a wrench, but was taught just to replace things when they break instead?

These people never reach their full potential and they would never truly feel fulfilled in life.  Also, think of all of the people who needed their gift who would be missing out as well.

This is all very good.  This is all a part of determining who God created us to be.  It’s fun and an adventure to learn through trial and error and explore who we were born to be.  Those natural gifts and talents are a part of who God created us to be; part of our identity!

Then, we choose to put our faith in Jesus and to follow Him.  We are born again. 

Added to our natural giftings is also a whole new world of spiritual gifts to explore!  In the same way that we figured out our natural giftings as a youth, we now get to try out the spiritual gifts.  We can all operate in all of the spiritual gifts, but there are some that we will be more gifted in than others.  Just like throwing a ball or hitting a drum.  We can all do it, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it is my actual gifting.

Once we figure them out and we mature, we learn more about those gifts and increase our skills in them and seek out opportunities to put them to use.

This all just makes sense, right?  Well, not to everyone.  There is a vast amount of Christians who want nothing to do with spiritual gifts.  They don’t want them and seeing them in operation makes them uncomfortable.

What a shame it is for a Christian to be taught to avoid spiritual gifts.  They would never discover their giftings, they would never experience the true adventure and thrill of following Jesus, and those around them would be left in need of the gift that they are neglecting.

We fully embrace everything else that the word of God teaches us.  We accept it all with gladness.  We say that we need to live like Jesus lived.  However, He moved in the gifts of the Spirit often.  The New Test