We're supposed to be what we are that God might be seen to be who he is.

That God might be seen to be who he is.

You are who you are so that God may be known for who he is.

That's the meaning of Christian identity. We exist and get our identity from the

destiny to make God known. If the meaning of Christian identity is that we exist to make God known, how do we do that?

That's the question John Piper wrestles with in 1st Peter 2 9 and 10 in this

episode of Light and Truth. This sermon was originally preached at Bethlehem Baptist

Church on April 17, 1994.

Last week as I was praying with Noel, I found myself without even forethought, thanking the Lord for

being human.

I said things like, thank you that I can see and hear and feel.

Thank you that I can think about this reality, that I see here, thank you that I can

form judgments about it and talk about right and wrong and good and bad and beautiful and ugly.

Thank you that there can on the basis of these judgments be strong, deep emotions of joy and sadness and hope and discouragement and hate and love and thank you that on the basis of all this

I can I can plan and and strategize in the hopes of accomplishing something worthwhile.

Thank you most of all that all of this human activity gets caught up into knowing and loving and serving the greatest being in all the universe.

We have a dog, her name is S a heightened sense now that I am not one.

And I look at her and she's kind and loving and gentle and forgiving and warm and and she can really

kindle strong affections and a relationship and then it hits me she's a dog.

She's just a dog and I'm not. She doesn't ever lose a night sleep over what's the meaning of being a dog.

She never asks any ultimate questions at all about where she came from or why she's here and what's her identity.

She's just there.

...