Loyalty Anchors Identity
Victory Life Church, Durant — Sunday, May 18, 2025
Introduction
Loyalty anchors Identity
2 Corinthians 5:17 (NLT)17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
The crafting, developing, and curating of:
Identity has become Idolatry
Lie of Desire
The idolatry of self-crafted identity is built on a lie: “Each individual is deemed uniquely capable of defining who they are, not only for themselves, but also for other people.” This is built on the assumption that the subjective phenomenon of how one feels has the moral agency and authority to do this.
Where did this come from? These assumptions and lies stem from a root system originating in the work of Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud and the fields of psychology and psychiatry. His work is built around one central truth assertion (this is a simplification): desire is the center of our life — all life is oriented around internal drives and desires. In essence: self-worship.
These ideas may have drifted into obscurity had it not been for his daughter, Anna, and nephew, Edward Bernays, who brought his ideas into American culture. In the early 20th century, Bernays applied Freud’s ideas to business, calling it “advertisement,” presenting products to the American public in such a way that appeals, not to “need,” but to the person’s hidden desires and drivers. This was the origin of the idea of American “consumerism.” These ideas got adopted and twisted by Nazi Germany and they called it “propaganda.” After WWII, Bernays again implemented these ideas into American business, calling it “public relations,” effectively transforming the American economy into a consumeristic one.
All this is built on the idea that the truest thing about us is our desires. They called it, “the engineering of consent.” The assumption is that we are primarily “irrational animals” driven by inner feelings of fear, lust, and desires that can be manipulated by mass programming. Turns out, the worship of self makes you easy to manipulate.
1 John 2:15–17 (ESV)15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
Loyalty
This is why we must get our worship right. Our worship determines our loyalty. Making a commitment to follow Jesus, does not begin with a new identity, but a new loyalty. If identity is an idolatry, then the temptation is to use Jesus in order to craft a new identity that is still based on how you feel, using Jesus to define your identity that fulfills your desires without de-centering your “self” as the object of your worship. Saying “yes” to Jesus does not begin with you, it begins with him.
Romans 10:9 (NLT)9 If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Loyalty anchors Identity
Romans 10:13 (NLT)13 For “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
“To endure the cross is not a tragedy; it is the suffering which is the fruit of an exclusive allegiance to Jesus Christ…When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Galatians 2:20 (NLT)20 My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
You old “self” has been crucified with Christ. The “self” can no longer be where our loyalty lies, our desires can no longer be the center of our lives, and therefore a “self-defined” identity is dead. The worship of self is unmasked for the self-destructive nature that it is.
Romans 8:5–6 (ESV)5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
Flesh — physicality; life in the body; life driven by “self” (desires) = death
Galatians 2:20 (NLT)20 My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
The new life we live “in Christ” while in the body (“flesh”) is lived, not by setting our minds on selfish desires, and therefore not defining our lives or identities based on ourselves being the center of our lives. The new life we live “in Christ” is lived by trusting Jesus, our complete loyalty is centered around Jesus and his will and desires. This is what it means to worship Jesus.
Worship and Loyalty
Philippians 3:3 (ESV)3 For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh—
Worship — to serve, to orient your life around
Philippians 3:3b (NLT) We rely on what Christ Jesus has done for us. We put no confidence in human effort,
Following Jesus is not primarily a new philosophy, a new spirituality, or a new practice. Following Jesus is a new allegiance, a new loyalty, a new center.
Philippians 3:7–8 (ESV)7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
The ultimate aim in all of life is to “know Christ Jesus my Lord.” To know him as Lord is far more important than anything else in our lives, in contrast, everything else is garbage. Anything that gets in the way or competes against our personal intimacy with the Lord is trash that should be thrown away.
Our worship of Jesus as Lord summons us to an exclusive allegiance to him.
Our exclusive allegiance to Jesus means that our lives are not centered around “Jesus and…”
Learn from others — but allegiance must be to Jesus alone.
Interest in other things — but nothing should get in the way of Jesus.
Adopt helpful practices — but only ones that strengthen our worship.
Ex. Jordan Peterson, Joe Rogan, Podcasts, Teachers, Huberman protocols, yoga, crossfit, diets, vegan, politics, money, sports, family, convenience, entertainment, social media trends.
Some things are dangerously demonic.
Some things are just unhelpful and distracting.
Some things are may be helpful.
What has dominated your attention?
What dictates your emotions?
What compels your commitments (schedule, money)?
What has your life become oriented around? (Worship and Loyalty)
Anything other than Jesus that has received your allegiance is garbage.
Remove it or reorient it that “I may gain Christ.”
Philippians 3:9 (ESV)9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—
This should be the clearest Biblical call to put away the self-worship of our day. A self-defined identity is a righteousness that is our own, not a righteousness that comes from God. Being found in him means our allegiance to him defines our identity and righteousness in him.
Loyalty anchors Identity
Conclusion
Philippians 3:10–11 (ESV)10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
To know him should be our highest aim.
Citations and Read more
Search YouTube for the documentary: “The Century of Self.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The Cost of Discipleship. pp. 88-89