Where do we derive identity from?

God has "being" and we are "beings". And everything derives itself from there. Join Joshua Hoffert as he talks about how we come to know God and know ourselves.

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Transcript

00;00;17;12 - 00;00;59;16
Joshua Hoffert
Your capacity to be efficient or you are. That's a reflection of the person which is the other person is a reflection of God. And his capacity to communicate hits to himself because he has. You only have a person because you derive your personality ultimately from him. Because you serve. Those are just a couple exercises, maybe one. We'll see.

00;00;59;19 - 00;01;47;19
Joshua Hoffert
So you close your eyes. Think about think about someone that you care for. We don't just picture them. And maybe it's a spouse, maybe it's a parent, maybe it's boyfriend, girlfriend, an animal, you know, a you have a puppy that just adores you and your dog. Whatever it is, something you can hold as an image that you're that you care about, that you have affection for and tenderness towards.

00;01;47;20 - 00;02;20;26
Joshua Hoffert
Just think about that someone, someone that when you're around, you just are satisfied. You're just a rest. Think about their life. Think about who they are, the ways they move, communicate, talk, the inflection of their voice, the clothes they wear. Just hold that image in front of you.

00;02;20;28 - 00;02;38;23
Joshua Hoffert
I'm like, How many of you just in your in your mind's eye, you can see that person pretty clearly. Yeah. And you have a fodder of feeling about them as you hold them before you write.

00;02;38;25 - 00;02;53;01
Joshua Hoffert
Okay. Just in that space. Now, think about yourself for a second. Let's try thinking about yourself.

00;02;53;03 - 00;03;27;27
Joshua Hoffert
Let's hold the same way you can hold the image of the person that you care about or affectionate towards. Have feelings thought towards. Hold an image of yourself in front of you. But think about yourself. Who you are, where you came from, the kind of work you love to do, what you're really good at. What are you really good at?

00;03;28;00 - 00;03;46;23
Joshua Hoffert
What can you put your hands to? And, you know, without question, you could accomplish it. This picture yourself doing something that brings you satisfaction.

00;03;46;25 - 00;04;05;21
Joshua Hoffert
Maybe it's woodworking and a shop. Maybe it's writing fiction. Maybe it's going on a walk in nature, something that brings you just see yourself, something that brings you so much satisfaction.

00;04;05;23 - 00;04;36;25
Joshua Hoffert
Just just add pictures of something you've done recently that brought you satisfaction. Think of yourself. You know how many of you just you you kind of you can you can see that about you can see yourself and you can see that thing and you could see or the satisfaction you have with your self, just the pleasure you can take in what you're able to do.

00;04;36;27 - 00;04;43;00
Joshua Hoffert
Yeah.

00;04;43;02 - 00;05;14;02
Joshua Hoffert
Now, think about this. You don't have to close your eyes anymore. You can if you like. You know, I'll think about this. So you on some level are aware of yourself, right? You can think about yourself. You're aware of others, and you're aware of yourself. You can think about yourself. You could probably, if you want to think about a lot of things you don't like about yourself, too, right?

00;05;14;05 - 00;05;37;10
Joshua Hoffert
But you can think about things that you like, that you've done that bring you satisfaction that when you when you think about that thing, you picture that thing, it's like, man, that that just pleases me how I see myself in that light. What I did there, you know, maybe, maybe you're Heather and you can picture yourself leading worship or just being for the father and just go, I'm just so satisfied.

00;05;37;10 - 00;05;57;29
Joshua Hoffert
And how that went and just pleased and that I was able to offer that to the father, you know, maybe something like that. Right. You could picture yourself and hold an image of yourself there and be pleased with that image. It's not a hard thing to do. Correct? Not I mean, not physically. Sometimes it's hard to find something that you're pleased with about yourself.

00;05;57;29 - 00;06;22;21
Joshua Hoffert
But I mean, just this you can do that on the face of the earth. You're the only being that can do that, right? You know that like a bird does an image itself and then find pleasure in itself and then recreate the thing. It just it exists to me or to meal. And it has a drive in life to reproduce and to exist from meal to meal.

00;06;22;21 - 00;06;48;08
Joshua Hoffert
The same I have we have a nine month old chocolate lab. It exists to eat. It's a dog. If it once it's done eating, he goes to find where the food is to see if there's any that have spilled over because he just wants to eat more. He has very limited conception of himself. He's not self-aware. He wants affection, he wants exercise, and he wants to eat.

00;06;48;08 - 00;07;12;19
Joshua Hoffert
That's about it. Right. Like a dog is a pretty simple animal. Any any any animal has on some on some level, the way that you can project yourself, think about yourself, be satisfied with yourself, and take pleasure in yourself. Take pleasure in something that happened 30 years ago. There's no other being on the face of the earth that can do that.

00;07;12;21 - 00;07;41;13
Joshua Hoffert
Only you can. That's a that's a reflection of being and a reflection of being a self awareness. The ability to communicate yourself or like a dog doesn't communicate. It is personality. It doesn't tell you what is personality is it just is. And he has his personality is based on his demands and his needs. Your personality is based on many more nuanced factors in that right.

00;07;41;15 - 00;08;12;23
Joshua Hoffert
So a marker of being is the capacity to communicate, being as that makes sense to you. A marker of by being, I mean existence of having personhood, right? Having awareness is the ability to communicate on some level who you are, the nuances of that, and to project that image in yourself and projected image to others. Now think about that as a as you are a reflection of the divine being, right?

00;08;12;23 - 00;08;53;01
Joshua Hoffert
You've been made an image image. So if you can one that if if a marker of true being existence personhood is the capacity to communicate yourself, that's a reflection of the marker of true being which is grounded in the divine being in his capacity to communicate himself. You understand what I just said? Your capacity to communicate who you are, who you are as a reflection of your personhood, because you have a personality, is a reflection of the divine being.

00;08;53;03 - 00;09;21;23
Joshua Hoffert
God and His capacity to communicate hits his self because He has personhood. You only have personhood because you derive your personality ultimately from him, because your is made in his image. Okay, So you get does that make sense to you? Yeah. Okay. Okay. So so the capacity to communicate is a reflection of personhood. And it's that the ultimate capacity to communicate is a reflection of the divine personhood or God as He communicates himself.

00;09;21;29 - 00;09;48;22
Joshua Hoffert
All of creation reflects him. ROMANS One tells us this His invisible attributes. It's Romans 118. I think this is invisible attributes right in the middle of Romans Chapter one, anyway, is the visible attribute is invisible. Attributes are on display, making himself known through all of creation, and then he makes himself known through speaking through the prophets, through the law, through the tabernacle, and then ultimately through the expression of his son, because he communicates himself.

00;09;48;24 - 00;10;14;29
Joshua Hoffert
Now, with all that said, so, if you can project an image of yourself, think about it and take satisfaction in it. And that's a reflection of being in the capacity to have thoughts about yourself. That's a pale reflection of God's thought. Like God thinks about himself. Okay, you tracking with me here? If you can think about yourself, you're can be certain that God can think about himself.

00;10;15;02 - 00;10;42;20
Joshua Hoffert
Okay? Because your capacity to think about yourself is a reflection of him. Because your capacity to think about yourself as a is a reflection of your personality and your personhood over against any other created being. So his capacity to image himself because he says, I'm going to create them in my image, meaning he had an image he thought about so meaning that he's taken thought of himself and he sees something about himself.

00;10;42;23 - 00;11;11;12
Joshua Hoffert
Right. Okay. Because if he has an image, it means he's thought about himself. Okay, So to take close your eyes one one, one more time and think about yourself and try and think of trying to think about this. Try and think about the last four digits of your credit card number or this the code on the back. If you have to put that one in or the expiration date, which everyone you know, even just the first number.

00;11;11;14 - 00;11;48;15
Joshua Hoffert
Think about your last name. Okay, We're getting there. Think about your birthday, the date. Right. And think about your mom. All four of them. Hold them all at once. How many could you hold in your brain at once? Whether none. Maybe two, right? Yeah, maybe two. So your capacity to contemplate yourself is limited, right? Okay. Is God's capacity to contemplate himself limited?

00;11;48;17 - 00;12;18;01
Joshua Hoffert
You know, so God is full of all what K.A. led, all full of all knowledge, right? So his capacity to know himself is unlimited. Think about it. He's an unlimited being with the unlimited capacity to know all of himself, which is unlimited. Okay, So which is just a mind boggling, baffling thing to think about. But this means that when he thinks about himself, he doesn't think about part of himself.

00;12;18;04 - 00;12;42;18
Joshua Hoffert
He doesn't think about a portion of himself. He doesn't think about the moment of conception or the day he did this, the day this when he thinks about himself, he thinks about everything that pertains to himself. Great. You understand? You get where I'm going. You like the concept? Makes sense at least, right? So if he thinks about himself, he doesn't think about himself in a limited capacity.

00;12;42;18 - 00;13;10;14
Joshua Hoffert
It's in the fullness of his being. Right. So when he thinks about himself, what he sees is the perfect representation of himself, or as Scripture calls it, the exact representation of himself. We talked about this this morning, Right? Hebrews 1313, Jesus being the brightness of His glory and the exact image of His being. So when he thinks about himself, he projects an image, contemplates it right?

00;13;10;14 - 00;13;36;10
Joshua Hoffert
And thus you have the only begotten son who is eternally begotten. Because God has always thought about himself as the Son always is. The son is always begotten because it's the product of God's thoughts about himself, the image of God, and it's exactly who God is, right? Jesus says, If you've seen me, you've seen the Father, because the son is the thoughts God has about himself.

00;13;36;13 - 00;13;57;22
Joshua Hoffert
He's called the logos the word. This literally means the structured and ordered thought. The rational way of communicating who you are. That's the logos. That's what it means when it says that Jesus is the word as a Greek word is logos. So Jesus is the divine expression of thought the Father has about himself. All right. You tracking me with me?

00;13;57;22 - 00;14;16;10
Joshua Hoffert
That right? So when you think about yourself, you have a limited capacity. When he thinks about himself, he sees the exact image of himself. And then when you think about yourself, you have certain feelings stirred about whether you bring yourself pleasure, satisfaction, all that. Well, when he thinks about himself, he just goes, Whoa.

00;14;16;12 - 00;14;45;14
Joshua Hoffert
Right. Because what he's seeing is perfect beauty. And when he contemplates himself, he can't help but satisfy himself. Because when he thinks about himself, all he thinks about is the perfect beauty and is completely satisfied in what he sees. So thus you then this is now you have the spirit, the one who gives utterance, who cries out all the father, Who is the love of God sent into your hearts to incarnate His image.

00;14;45;14 - 00;15;13;11
Joshua Hoffert
Because when he thinks about himself and he goes, Whoa, I'm satisfied with myself. The satisfaction he has is the spirit that exists between him and his image, the love that the father has for the son. Because the father thought about himself and begot the son because he's eternally thinking about himself. Now, this Jesus, this is this. This is Jesus is the only begotten, right?

00;15;13;11 - 00;16;00;29
Joshua Hoffert
Because God, when He thinks about him, you couldn't beget you in the same way because you're a limited expression. But he's the only begotten because he's the full expression of who God is. When God thought about himself, thus the word stands separate, yet the same exact same, but separate. So in the Trinity, in dwells you when the fullness of godhood and dwells you when the presence is when it says right, the spirit of His Son, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit who raised him from the dead, the Spirit of the Father, all these things it says in Scripture comes to you.

00;16;01;01 - 00;16;38;23
Joshua Hoffert
And what happens when the Spirit comes to you is, Whoa, That's probably the the best way theologians have conceptualized thinking about the Trinity as our our best thoughts. Trying to contemplate a mystery are best are going to be limited. But we've kept it now in relational language and devotion and desire and affection, language.

00;16;38;25 - 00;16;56;11
Joshua Hoffert
So you see, you know, whenever it says this multiple times in scripture, it says the father loves the son, right? And it says the father. So the father, God so loved the world, would understand that to be the father, so love the world that he sent his only begotten son. So we know. Scripture talks about the father loving the world.

00;16;56;14 - 00;17;23;25
Joshua Hoffert
The father loves the son. The father loves creation. The father loves its people. We know the son loves the father. Are the Scriptures expressly clear about the the son? It was, said John, 17, this great devotional prayer of Jesus to the Father. How much he loves the Father. We know that Jesus the Son loves his people, right? He says that just as I've loved you, so you are to love one another.

00;17;23;28 - 00;17;44;06
Joshua Hoffert
We know that the son loves creation. It says everything that came into being came into being through him, through the word, through the son. So we've got the father loving the son, the father loving creation, the father loving his people. We've got the son, loving the father, the son loving creation, the son loving his people multiple times throughout Scripture.

00;17;44;11 - 00;18;14;06
Joshua Hoffert
But you know what It never says. It never says the spirit loves. There's not a single reference in Scripture that says the Spirit loves the father or the Spirit loves his son because the Scriptures say this. John first. John four If you read first John four, you'll see it there. The spirit is the love of God. The Spirit doesn't love because the spirit is love again.

00;18;14;06 - 00;18;30;04
Joshua Hoffert
You remember we said we saw earlier, John 16. Jesus said he's not going to speak on his own accord at all. He's only going to tell you what he hears and what's he going to tell you about. Jesus says that he's going to take what's of mine. He's going to declare it to you. And what's mine is also the father's.

00;18;30;04 - 00;18;52;09
Joshua Hoffert
And so he's going to declare the fathers to you. So all the spirit does is tell you everything about the father and son and the love relationship. They have eyewitnesses to that. So when he comes into your heart, he cries out at the father because he is the love of God. Should have right in your hearts.

00;18;52;12 - 00;19;29;06
Joshua Hoffert
So again, this drives deeper. Friday night, we were talking about this morning, talking about the nature of prophecy, to call orphans home, to abide in the father, because the spirit whose gives utterance to prophecy in our lives, the manifestation of the Spirit, First Corinthians 12, says, is given for the benefit of all. When the Spirit manifests, love is made known not so much because the Spirit requires us to love in order to operate because but because the spirit is the very love that exists between the father and the son.

00;19;29;08 - 00;20;01;26
Joshua Hoffert
What do you think about that? So make your brain think, Let's do this. I'm going to do another little exercise. But you can. You can if you're taking notes and writing down the exercise. I would call this practical steps to catching a glimpse of the beauty of God. Practical steps. Okay, So first thing we're going to do is you're just going to go silent, okay?

00;20;02;01 - 00;20;32;19
Joshua Hoffert
And close your eyes. I'm just going to have you think through a couple of different things and dialog with the Lord and just kind of tune your heart into him. And then we're going to go into go into a group exercise for a few minutes. Okay. So just just close your eyes, Father. We just ask you to visit and be with stir up the affection that we have for you and the affection you have for us, the affection we have for one another.

00;20;32;21 - 00;21;10;21
Joshua Hoffert
Okay. I just want you to do this. Just. Just listen to the questions, and then I'll give you a moment in between each question, just to kind of ponder, reflect on. This is the first thing to reflect on. Reflect on the moment in your life. You became aware of God. Maybe that's the moment of salvation. Maybe you're raised in the church and there was a particular moment in worship or you're driving or or in prayer or something.

00;21;10;23 - 00;21;19;15
Joshua Hoffert
But the first moment you remember, I'm aware of him.

00;21;19;18 - 00;21;45;16
Joshua Hoffert
Maybe your memory is not good. And it was just a couple of days ago was fine. Maybe it was 20 years ago, 30 years ago. Maybe it was a year ago. That's fine. Let's reflect on the first moment you remember being aware of him and just dwell on that for a moment. First moment you remember being aware of him.

00;21;45;18 - 00;22;35;16
Joshua Hoffert
What does it feel like? What was going on in your heart and in your insides and your inner man was stirring? Was it desire, peace, glory, love? What was it? Affection? What was it? Just reflect on that for a moment before the Lord. Just as you're reflecting on that, just just offer this prayer or something like this up to the father.

00;22;35;16 - 00;23;35;07
Joshua Hoffert
You can do it silently out loud. It's up to you, Father. Reveal your beauty to me. Reveal your beauty to me. Reveal your beauty to me, Father, Just hold that prayer before him for a moment. Just let your thoughts go to specific moments where the father's visited you in your life and you've got the big first moment. And now maybe, maybe there's three or four other big moments.

00;23;35;07 - 00;24;00;19
Joshua Hoffert
Or maybe there's ten, maybe there's 20. Maybe there's just one or two other big moments. So let your thoughts go to those other formative moments in your life where the father visited. You became aware of something, You spoke some truth, or maybe it was a prophetic word. It was a moment of prayer. Maybe it was a dream or a vision that you had because you were aware of his vision that he came through.

00;24;00;19 - 00;24;56;16
Joshua Hoffert
And something very dramatic for you just formative moments that were key in your life that the Lord visited, spoke, and you understood something more of who He is. Just let your thoughts go to those few moments in your life. Beyond that first moment with this prayer, Show me your beauty. Now that you're kind of in that zone, you know, you've got that that first moment.

00;24;56;19 - 00;25;24;16
Joshua Hoffert
You've got this beauty going on. The the fugue, the key moments. Now just let your mind reflect on the last three heartfelt moments of you can only think of one or two. But let's just we're just doing a number all through the last three heartfelt moments you had with the father. Maybe it was in a in a conversation with someone else where you just felt super encouraged or uplifted a moment of prayer.

00;25;24;19 - 00;26;41;01
Joshua Hoffert
Maybe you felt his affection or his you took proud. He was proud of something you did or some great accomplishment. You felt his pleasure. Just reflect on the last few moments that you've had with him. Let's revisit those. Let's see them from different sides and different angles. Just hold them there, the awareness of them before you know, of all those all those things you've just kind of wandered to in this journey here in the last couple of minutes.

00;26;41;03 - 00;27;07;18
Joshua Hoffert
Choose one, just choose one and give it a name and choose one moment that stands out to you. Maybe it's that first moment, formative moments to the few, the few most recent heartfelt moments. Just choose one that you can focus in on and give it a name. There's no right name or wrong name. Just give it a name, something that stands out to you.

00;27;07;21 - 00;27;12;19
Joshua Hoffert
You just give it a label that you would if you could. If you'd refer back to it, you could just refer to it as that.