What Defines You?

This week in worship, Pastor David asks the question, “What Defines You?” and shares some things we should consider as we form our identity.

Thank you for worshiping with us.

If you would like to give toward the work we are doing to share God’s mission at Brewster Baptist Church, please follow this link to our secure online donation page or you can text BrewsterGive to 77977.

If you would like to connect with us at BBC, please follow this link to our connection card.

To Register for Worship on April 25, please follow this link to our connection card.


The first video below is JUST THE SERMON.
If you would like to watch the entire service, scroll down a little more.

Click to listen to the message:

Download a printable copy of the sermon:


The video below is the WHOLE SERVICE.

What Defines You?

Good morning and welcome to Brewster Baptist Church.  My name is Pastor David Pranga.  I am glad you are here today with us.  Whether you are in the sanctuary, in fellowship hall, or watching online today, I am happy you here with us.

Pastor Doug and Jill are away on vacation this week.  Getting some much-needed R&R.  Today, I have my parents Bill & Martha, here in the sanctuary.  They have traveled from the great state of Wisconsin.  I feel blessed they are here.  Even though they came to see the grandkids more than Christy and me.

I want to start by asking you a simply question.  Here is the question:  What defines you?  If somebody asked you about yourself, how would you go about answering this question?  Another way of looking at this question is – What makes up your identity? 

For most of us, we may start talking about our profession.  We often tell people about our profession – Teacher, Salesman, Electrician, Plumber, Nurse, or working in landscaping. We may even share about the company we work for, what we do, and even what we enjoy about our job.   

For some of us in this room, the first thought was about the people we love – our family and friends.  We may talk about our spouse and children.  For some of us, who are grandparents we start talking about our grandchildren.  We pull up the pictures from our phones of all our grandchildren.  We start talking about how wonderful, outstanding, brilliant, and unbelievable talented each and every one of our grandchildren are.  I have seen several pictures of people’s grandchildren in this congregation.

What is another thing that can define you?

Possessions, Hobbies, and Sports:  What are some possessions that we have that can define us?  For some it would be house, where we live.  For others it could be clothes we wear.  Maybe it a fishing boat, antique car, or even a cell phones.  We all have possessions that can define us. 

What hobbies define you?

Maybe you are into cooking and all your friends know you are the best cook.  Maybe you enjoy gardening, fishing, hiking, biking, photography, or skiing.  These are all things that define us.

Do you know anybody passionate about sports?  Many of us have favorite teams we love watching like the Boston Red Sox or Patriots and we find our identify and meaning in associating with our favorite teams.   We wear the clothes with our team’s logo, watch the games on T.V. and if we’re lucky go to their stadiums to see them play and to be surrounded by thousands of other like-minded fans. Our moods go up and down depending on our team.

Possessions and Hobbies can also define us.

How about Politics.  Can politics define us?  I won’t ask anyone here what they believe about politics.  Saying you are: Republican, Democrat, Independent, or something else may define us especially in these politically charged times.  What radio stations you listen to.   What paper or websites you read.  What tv shows you watch all define who you are and how you think and view the world.  These are things that can define us.

Summary:  These are just a few ways in which people can define themselves.

Let me ask you:  What is one thing that defines us that I am missing up here?  It should probably be the most important thing that defines who we are?  Can anybody figure out what I am missing here?

Our CHRISTIAN FAITH in God should define us as well.  Our faith in God should be the core and center of who we are and how we look at things.  But for some reason, our faith in God just does not come up as easily as talking about our profession, people we love, possessions & hobbies, or even politics.

A few weeks ago, I taught our middle school teen about identity.  All the ways you describe yourself are important.  All these characteristics that we talked are good.  God did not make us all the same.  It is good to have differences; different personalities, different interests, different talents, and different hobbies. (PAUSE)

I shared with our middle schoolers is that our relationship with God is the most important aspect of our identity.  It should be our foundation.  Everything else should be based upon our faith in Jesus Christ.

This week, I came across a quote from Pastor Eugene Peterson. 

“My identity does not begin when I begin to understand myself.  There is something previous to what I think about myself, and it is what God thinks of me.”

Pastor Eugene Peterson

I love this quote.  If you consider yourself a Christian, as many of us do are here or watching on screen, our identity does not begin with the way I view myself or what I do or have done or even how other people see me.  Our identity first begins with how God thinks about me.  It starts with how God sees you! 

I want to read a verse that emphasizes how God sees you.  It comes from 1 Peter 2:9-10

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.            

1 Peter 2:9-10

There is lot in these two verses in the way that God sees each person here today.  I want to share a few thoughts… 

First, God has chosen you!   The God of the universe.  The God who created all things.  God choose you and wants a relationship with you! 

Whether you realize it or not, you are very special to God.  God says, you are part of my royal priesthood, you are part of my holy nation.  You are part of God’s special possession.  Just think how much God loves you! 

Second, God looks at each person here as special.  God values higher than any possession we have.  Maybe you have a house, boat, or automobile that is very special to you.  God values you, so much higher than anything we own or have.  God values you more than you value your children and grandchildren!  God loves and care about you way more than we can fathom. 

Third, it is special being part of God’ family.  God loves and accepts us.  We are part of God’s family.  God values each of us.  God looks at each person in this room and watching on tv, as a unique person with great significance.  God invites each of us into his family.

How do we know this?

John 3:16 says, For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 

When you take Jesus and make him Savior, you are making him Lord over your life.  Our identity changes from ourselves to that of God.  We are part of God’s family.  Jesus is now our foundation.  Our focus should change in our lives.  We should now focus on God and things above and not so much on earthly things. 

Point 1:  Our identity starts with Jesus Christ.

One of my favorite movies is “Miracle” which came out in 2004.  “Miracle” is the story of Herb Brooks, the coach who led the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team to victory over the powerful and seemingly invincible Soviet squad.  If you have never seen the movie.  It is awesome!!!  It is one of my favorite movies.

At the beginning of the movie, it starts with coach Herb Brooks.  Herb is coaching the best college hockey players from across the country.  These hockey players are made up different colleges.  Some of these colleges as you might expect are rivals and these players don’t care for each other.  Some of the players held grudges from the previous season.

It was up to coach Herb to make these athletes come together to make them the best team possible as they head to the Olympics.  There was a part in the movie, where the players had to introduce themselves to each other.  Coach Herb would say, What is your name?  Where are you from?  Who do you play for?

Players would say, name… Mark Johnson, I am from Madison, Wisconsin.  I play for University of Wisconsin.  Each player shared name, where they were from and what college they were from: Minnesota, Wisconsin, BU, Boston College, Minnesota-Duluth to name a few.

The United States were playing an exhibition game against Sweden.  The players were not playing as a team.  Their focus was not there.  They were playing as individuals instead of as a team.  The US Team gets pounded by Sweden. 

The game is over and players are ready to go to the locker room.  Coach Herb is disgusted with his team performance.  Coach Herb has the team skate sprints.  Ice skating to the middle of the rink.  Then return to the goalie side, then all way down to the other end and back.  This goes on for a very, very long time.  The ice rink employees want to go home. The coach said he would lock up.  Coach would blow the whistle again and again.  The players are exhausted and ready to collapse.

Finally, one of the players said, I am “Mike Eruzione, from Winthrop, Mass.”

Coach Herb said, who do play for?  Mike Eruzione said, “I play for the United States of America.”

Then the coached ended practice and walks off the rink.  It was one of the powerful parts of the movie, so far.

What was coach Herb trying to teach the players?  They needed to come together and be part of one team.  Coach Herb said, “You don’t play for the name on the back of the jersey.  Which is the individual name.  You play for the front of the jersey which is the United States of America.”

The players came from different parts of the country but they had one goal.  They needed to put there differences behind them and be part of the team working together to achieve success.

As Christians, we are part of the body of Christ.  We come to church to celebrate and honor God.  That is very important.  Our identity starts with Jesus Christ.  We as believers belong to a team which is the church. 

As Christians sometimes we can forget that we are part of the same team.  We let our differences, separate us from each other.  Even though we part of the church, we divide ourselves.  Instead of focusing on the major things we all believe in, we can focus on the things that separate us.

Which leads me to Point 2:  As Christians we are all on the same team!

I was listening to a podcast of a famous pastor named Rick Warren.  Rick Warren is a pastor in southern California, who wrote the Purpose Driven Life book and Purpose Driven Church.

In the podcast, Rick Warren mentioned this…

“The most pressing issue facing the church today is our “Identity”.  Christians do not get their primary identity from Jesus or the church.  Christians are dividing themselves and getting their identity from politics.”

As Christians we are forgetting what drew us together to begin with.  It was our love for God.  It was our love for other people, because we realize what God had done for us.  Our attitude changed in the way we treated people in society. 

Rick Warren shared how Christians who stepped up and started hospitals, orphanages, schools, red cross and so many social programs to help people.  It was people of God who showed love to the community and to the people who needed it the most.  It was the Christians who cared and loved people that society shun.

As Christians, we are part of a bigger team.  God did not want us to live out our faith by ourselves.  God wanted us to live our faith with other Christians.  As we come to together, we form a bigger team.  That bigger team is the church.

I want share with you Galatians 3:26-28.  The Apostle Paul needed to remind the early believers that they were part of the same team.  Let me read you these verses….

26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.                                                                                                       

–  Galatians 3:26-28

The apostle Paul is reminding the early Christians and the early church of a very important lesson.  One that we needed to be reminded of today. 

We are all children of God through our faith.  We are united with Christ Jesus.  We are in it together.  We are all part of one team!  We are part of Jesus’ team.

What if the verse read like this?  I am going to paraphrase this verse for today….

“There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, neither Red Sox fan nor Yankee fans, neither Patriots fans nor Green Bay Packer Fans, neither Republicans nor Democrats, neither people who were born on Cape Cod nor people who moved to Cape Cod, for you are all ONE IN CHRIST JESUS.

There is a lot of things that can separate us as Christians.  Here at Brewster Baptist Church, we have a lot of people that call us their church home.  There are a lot of different beliefs of people at BBC.  We have a wide spectrum of what people believe, which is good.  We have people on one side and people on totally different sides of issues.  I would say that is all good. 

Despite all these different beliefs, political views, and everything else, we need to remember what draws us together.  What draws us together?  Our belief and need of Jesus Christ!

What we need to remember is that we are on a journey.  Each of us are in need of Jesus Christ.  We are sinners.  We make countless mistakes.  Yet, Jesus died for our sin.  We have taken Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord.  We need to change from our ways and put Jesus first. To show love toward God and our neighbor.

Colossians 3:1-2 says,

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

What we need to remember as body of Christ is that it ok that have differences.  We may see things differently.  We may have different preferences.  All that is fine. 

Here is the most important part.  That is everybody in this room, people in fellowship hall, and people watching on tv.  As Christians, We are all part of the same team.  We are all one in Jesus Christ!  That is the most important!

Point 2:  As Christians we are all on the same team!

Let me ask you a follow-up questions:  Why is it so important that we are all on the same team?  Why is it so important that we are united with Jesus Christ and that we get our identity from him?

I want us to look to Ephesians 2:10…..

“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”  – Ephesians 2:10

Point 3:  God prepared good works for us to do.  (Individually and as church)

God in his infinite wisdom has already prepared for us to do good works.  God already knows the problems that have we face in our community.  God knows the struggles people face individually.

God has already organized for us to do good works that needs to be done.  He is just looking at us to do it.  In these verses, we see that God wants to use you and you and people watching in fellowship hall and the people watching on tv.  God wants to use you and me, to do these works!

God wants to use you to help people in need.  God wants to use you as a listener to a person that needs a listening ear.  God wants to use you to cook a meal for somebody in need.  God wants to use a person with carpentry skills to bless someone. 

I believe God wants to you to use your skill set – to bless a person or a family that needs it.

I just believe that God will use you.  But we need to keep our eyes focused on Him.  God will bring people in our path to help and support.  But if our eyes are focused on ourselves, we will miss the opportunity to bless someone in need.  That is why it so important to keep our eyes and heart focused on Jesus Christ.

Lastly, I want to share with you one more story from Peanuts Cartoon: 

Two characters:  Lucy and Linus and they are in the living room watching tv…

Lucy demanded that Linus change the TV channel and then threatens him with her fist if he doesn’t.  “What makes you think you can walk right in here and take over?” asked Linus

“These five fingers,” says Lucy.  “Individually they are nothing, but when I curl them together like this into a single unit, they form a WEAPON that is terrible to behold.” 

What channel do you want?  Asked Linus.

Turning away, he looks at his fingers and says, “Why can’t you guys get organized like that?”

I share with you this story because at times, I believe there are things we cannot do by ourselves.  Good calls a team to work together to complete a task at hand.  There are some tasks and opportunities that need a lot more people.  We must be open to working with other churches or other organizations to get it done.

As I reflect upon Brewster Baptist Church, one of things that I am most proud of is willingness to work with other churches and Christian organizations to make a difference.  In the process, we have found out we make more of difference working as a team.

Think of VBS.  A few years ago, Barbara had a vision to partner with other local churches to have VBS.  We had a few churches that wanted to join forces.  By working together and focusing what we had in common and what we wanted to accomplish.  What happened?

VBS reached more kids than ever before.  We had more volunteers than ever to lead things.  Our community was blessed.  God was praised as we taught our children spiritual truths.

It took a team approach in doing it.  It was no easy task.  But was it worth it?  YES. 

I think of the Holiday Fair.  As a church we all come together and pitch in.  There is a lot of planning, preparing, and work that needs to be done before the event.  People come together and volunteer for one day to raise money.  BBC takes in over $30,000 in one day.

What I like best, we give 100% of it away.  We give it to the community.  We give 100% of the proceeds to agencies to help people that need it the most.  By BBC raising the money, we are caring for and helping people that are in need.

These are just few ways, that God has used BBC working with other churches and organizations to help people in our community.  God has called us to evangelize and to care and love people in our community.

Key Points:  What defines us?

Point 1:  Our identity starts with Jesus Christ. 

Point 2:  As Christians we are all on the same team!

Point 3:  God has good works prepared for us to do. 

Questions for discussion and reflection:

  1. What defines you?  What are things you usually talk about when people ask you to tell me something about yourself?  Do you find it easy or difficult to share your faith with others?
  1. How much has your commitment to Jesus Christ and his way of life influenced your values and identity?  (A lot, A little, Not as much as I would like, or Not at All)  Why?
  1. Read 1 Peter 2:9-10. How does it make you feel to be chosen, royalty, and God’s possession?  When is it most difficult to remember what God has made you?
  1. Read Galatians 3:26-28.  What are things that stand out from these verses?  How does being “clothed with Christ” eliminate major cultural barriers?  Or does it?
  1. Often people talk about the differences in the church.  Why do you think Paul is emphasizing that we are “one in Christ Jesus”? 
  1. Read Colossians 3:1-2.  As Christians we are things we should focus on?   Why should we focus on heavenly things versus earthly things?  Is that easy or difficult?  Why?
  1. Read Ephesians 2:10. God has prepared good works for us to do.  Does that excite you or cause stress to your life?  What “good works” can you do this week as an expression of thanks to God for what has done for you.
Share online