Speaker Notes October 21 2010 - Jordan Hohm

Who Am I?

YMCA Soccer League

Set a trend for me – nothing to define myself

Soccer, basketball, plays, musicals, worship team, but I never found something that I was exceptionally good at…sounds sad, but its cool.

Power Midget

Three big labels: music, sports, relationships

Not bad in and of themselves, but rather, dangerous. They are unhealthy if they define you. Because what happens if you are defined by these things and they fall apart?

These things are good if built on a foundation in Jesus Christ. But this is all kind of abstract, let’s get practical.

How can you tell if you’re defining yourself by something other than Jesus?

• Defensiveness: When someone criticizes your game or your skill, do you get offended?

• Stubbornness: In your way of expertise, do you have to have things your way? Stubbornness stems from pride and arrogance.

• Alienation from others – sometimes the only people we want to relate to are people like ourselves

• Lack of peace and joy fairly consistently

  • It’s easy to get defined by the leadership position you’re in. Who all in this room right now would consider themselves a leader? On the field, on the stage, at your job, on your floor, in your family? Stubbornness is huge in leadership. But, if your leadership is built on the foundation of your relationship with Jesus Christ, flexibility will follow. You’ll be able to listen to the ideas of others and honestly take them to heart.

  • Also, if you’re in a leadership position and are not feeling peace and joy fairly consistently, that might be a good sign that you’re putting too much stock in that position. You’ll start to believe that your worth lies in the outcome of whatever you’re leading; happiness will definitely come from this leadership but joy comes from Jesus.

So that’s how we normally define ourselves and what often results from that.

But there’s a strong foundation on which to build those things (sports, music, relationships especially) that is healthy and its long-lasting. There’s something that brings joy and confidence. And that’s the foundation of Jesus Christ.

Philippians 2.

I mentioned alienation before. That doesn’t happen when you’re defined by Christ. According to Philippians 2, its all about community.

Descartes

But this is all getting abstract again. Again, let’s bring it to a practical level:

So, how do we get to a place where we’re defined by Christ and not primarily all the other things we put on? Well, how do we get to the place where we are defined by sports, for example?

• Practice! Practice, practice practice.

• Constant communication with teammates

• Constant communication with coaches

• Go to sports games, watch people you look up to in action

• Read books, magazines, strategies

• They don’t wait for summer camp.