Followed By Mercy

Who God Says You Are: Finding Your True Identity in Christ

• W. Austin Gardner • Season 3 • Episode 13

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This message was preached at Shady Grove Baptist Church in Marietta, Georgia. 

Have you ever introduced yourself by your failures? “I’m divorced.” “I’m an addict.” “I’m a mess.” What if your true identity had nothing to do with your past mistakes or even your greatest achievements?

In this episode, we open Ephesians 1:1 and discover the breathtaking truth of who God says we are: saints and faithful in Christ Jesus. This isn’t a title we earn by flawless living. It’s a gift we receive by grace.

Just like a name given at birth or a new surname in marriage, our spiritual identity comes from God’s declaration, not our performance. Through Christ, we are transferred out of Adam’s family of sin into God’s family of righteousness. He no longer defines us by what we’ve done but by who we are in Jesus, holy, blameless, and dearly loved.

We’ll discuss how this identity shift changes everything:

  • Why being “in Christ” means His righteousness, acceptance, and position become ours.
  • How God sees beyond our past and into our potential, just as Jesus saw Matthew, the tax collector, as a future apostle.
  • Why holy living isn’t about striving harder but about resting in who God has already made us to be.

You don’t have to keep introducing yourself by your worst moments. Your most authentic identity is found in Christ alone. Listen now and discover the freedom of living as who you really are: a beloved child of God.

Thanks for listening. Find us on YouTube, Substack, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

Austin Gardner:

Well, good morning to you. Good to be in the house of God with you. Take your Bibles, if you would, and turn with me to Ephesians, chapter 1. Ephesians, chapter 1. I'm excited to be in the presence of a family been married 73 years. Amen. I cannot imagine how. About a round of applause for me again, that's good, 75. Is it 75 or 73? Anyway, whatever it is, it's a long time, amen, longer than I've been around, and so I do remember. One day I said something about Betty and I being married 50 years. He said, oh, that's cute, because at that time they'd been married 70 or something.

Austin Gardner:

Okay, let's have a word of prayer, and I want to thank God for who he calls you. He calls you, he has a name for you, he has an identity. Calls you, he calls you, he has a name for you, he has an identity for you, and I want to pray and thank you for that. Let's bow our heads. Father, we love you, you are our father and I thank you for that. That's about as good a thing that we could ever say. You are our father and you have gloriously blessed us to call us your children and I thank you for that. Blessed us to call us your children. I thank you for that. We thank you for that. We love you. We also thank you that we are not who we think we are. We're not who the world says we are. We're not even who we say we are. We are who you say we are, and I pray that today your name would be glorified and magnified in every way as we look through this passage of Scripture, and I give you praise for it all. In Jesus' name, amen, open your Bibles.

Austin Gardner:

To Ephesians, chapter 1 and verse 1. Ephesians, chapter 1 and verse 1. The Apostle Paul, under his praise of the Holy Spirit, is writing a letter to the church at Ephesus and he says in that letter Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. I want you to look at the verse, if you would. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God. Look who he writes to to the saints which are are at Ephesus. Now, these are local saints in a local congregation. Everybody that studies the Bible would tell you that the letter of Ephesians was written to a church in Ephesus. That's nothing unusual, but what's shocking is and pretty hard for us to understand. We kind of balk at it, we kind of rebel against it. He wrote it to the saints at Ephesus, to the saints, and we're like whoa, whoa, whoa, I'm a sinner saved by grace, I'm forgiven, but don't go so far as to call me a saint. That's a little too far for you to call me a saint. But when he wrote the letter, he wrote it in the Holy Spirit of God. How many of you believe the Holy Spirit of God is the author behind the Bible? Say amen, we got writers, but we got an author, and that author is the Holy Spirit of God and he says to the saints which are in Ephesus Now I spent a long time working in Peru, south America, working among people that have a very popular religion that has saints on the walls in the church, and so it's icons, it's statues, and it'll be St John and St Matthew and St Mark and St Bartholomew and they're all over the room and people usually come in and they'll pray to them, they'll light candles to them and they are showing their reverence to them.

Austin Gardner:

And so this pastor friend of mine got invited to go to this evangelical church and he showed up at this Baptist church and he walked into the. What the guy? The guy told him it's our church building. And he walked in and he sat down and he looked around. He goes where are the saints? And the buddy who wrote it, invited him to church, said they're about to get here because Because y'all came in Saints. Then he says, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus Saints and faithful, that's your new identity.

Austin Gardner:

Now I want to tell you some shocking things here. When, if I ask you who you are, you'd answer with your name, but very few of you picked your name. Now Chris Gardner would tell you my name's Chris Gardner. Well, he didn't name himself. We named him. He came out, he didn't go. I think I'd like to be called Chris and just call me William Christopher. That's what I want to be called.

Austin Gardner:

Y'all want to hear why I went. He didn't earn the name. He didn't earn the name. I mean. He was born. I named him Chris. I talked to my beautiful young wife back then and I said I want to name him Chris because Christopher meant Christ bearer and I wanted to have a son that would bear the name of Christ. But he wasn't bearing the name of Christ. You ain't going to believe this, but when he was first born, he had never preached a message, he hadn't prayed a prayer. Literally, all he did was throw up and you know what else Amen. And so he didn't earn that name. We named him, and so I want you to catch on to a massive truth that's being taught here, and that is your identity comes from what they call you.

Austin Gardner:

How about this one? If I said my wife, not every? How many women in this room want to stand up? I say stand up. I want my wife to stand up. How many of y'all going to stand up? Betty's going to stand up. The rest of you are not going to stand up, because she's my wife. She's called my wife. I got to start calling her that on August, the 18th 1973. Now we have Hannah Nicole Gardner here today, and in just a few days she's going to get married and it's going to be Avery and Hannah Gardner. Just a few days, she's going to get married and it's going to be Avery and Hannah Gardner. Amen, some reason Avery's shaking his head the other way, and she's going to change her identity and she will, from then on, be named Hannah Cole. You want to hear a wild one, andrea's last name was Plant. How many of y'all knew that? Her last name was Plant? I met Andrea Plant, but she got a new name and a new identity on the day in 1996 when they got married.

Austin Gardner:

And so I want to talk to you this morning about the word saint and the word faithful in this verse, because that's who God says. You are Now. Saint. That means set aside, set apart, holy. That's what the word saint means. That's kind of what the word wife means. Y'all with me, I mean my wife.

Austin Gardner:

When I made her my wife, she was set apart for one guy. Can I get an amen there? Is that not what happened? That's what happened. And that day, by the way, when I married Betty, she did not earn being my wife. She came down that aisle I didn't say here's a list of 25 things, you agree to them and you do these and you pay this and I'll let you be my wife. That's not what happened. I've offered her the gift of being my wife. She accepted the gift and she became my wife and she was set apart and holy for me. She was set apart for me. She was set apart for me. I was set apart for her and on that day I became husband. I became husband that day. I'd never been husband before. But on that day I became husband and she became wife.

Austin Gardner:

And here's what happens when God saved you. He changed you and named you his. He set you apart for himself and the word he likes to use for you is saint. Now we call each other brother and sister, but we could just as well, right here at church, say saint, saint chris, saint austin, yeah, we could. Saint, saint Chris, saint Austin, yeah, we can say that, because that's a biblical term for us. And it's not based on what you do. It's based on what he called us. It's not based on what you earn. It's based on what he did in our lives. He made us holy, he made us separate, he set us apart for himself. It's not based on your behavior, for by grace are you saved, through faith, and not of yourselves. It's a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. A saint is someone who is holy, righteous, separated, unique from the rest of the world. Why? Because we belong to God. We belong to him, faithful. Faithful is what he calls those who believe. He calls those who believe, and I want to stop here, real.

Austin Gardner:

Before I go any further, paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, got to the saints which are in Ephesus. Could I just stop here real quick and tell you that this church at Ephesus was a lot like Shady Grove. It had a lot of messed up people in it. I mean, in Ephesians chapter five he's going to write a whole thing about let me explain marriage to you people. In Ephesians four he's going to say stop stealing, stop stealing and get a job. That's what he tells them. In Ephesians chapter four he says hey, don't let the sun go down on your wrath. Somebody must be getting mad a lot because they don't let the sun go down on your wrath. It's a church full of regular people with regular problems, but God called them saints and faithful, faithful. And they were in Ephesus, a regular place. This is a wicked city, a city that's known for idolatry, a city that's known for fornication, a city that's known for temple prostitutes, and yet he calls them saints and faithful in Ephesus.

Austin Gardner:

Now I want you to go back, if you would, to Ephesians, chapter one and verse one. And I want you to notice one other thing here. It says and we'll get to all this little by little but they're the faithful in Christ Jesus. They're the faithful in Christ Jesus. They're not faithful to get into Christ Jesus, they're the faithful in Christ Jesus. Now, in November I think it is I would assume that Chris will walk Hannah down the aisle and she will walk her last few steps as a gardener and some jerk will be I mean Avery will be standing there and Avery will take her and then they will name her Hannah Cole and then Chris, the preacher, will say let me be the first to introduce to you Mr and Ms Avery Cole. And she will move out of our family into their family. And that doesn't mean she won't love our family I hope but it means she moved into another family and that means that you didn't know that Andrea's last name was Plant, but I did, because I was around when she made the move, like 30 years ago.

Austin Gardner:

And so that's what's happening in this story. It's a transfer of identity. It's a transfer of identity. So go with me to Ephesians, chapter one, verse three. Now listen. It's a faithful in Christ. This is something he does. You need to understand that you are who he made you to be. The song that Hannah and Andrea just sang I don't need my name in lights. I'm who the Father says I am, and that's exactly the lesson that we have from Ephesians, chapter 1 and verse 1.

Austin Gardner:

In Ephesians, chapter 1 and verse 3, I want you to notice how we get to be in Christ. The Bible says Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. Do you know who did the work to get you in Christ? God, look blessed, be God worshiped, be God thankful to God. God be worshiped, god be magnified, the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, who blessed us. He blessed us. We didn't deserve it, he didn't do anything to earn it. He did it by his grace, he did it by his goodness and he blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. And notice the key words in Christ.

Austin Gardner:

As you read Ephesians, chapter 1, you want to learn in Christ, that's in your new identity. In your new identity, there are only two races of people on the planet and it has nothing to do with skin color or language or nationality. It has to do with who your daddy is. It has to do with who your daddy is. Has to do with who your daddy is, and there's only two, and in the Bible it's Adam. In the first Adam he had a whole race of sinners and if you're a human being and you're on the planet, he's your granddaddy. How many of y'all are grandchildren that Adam holds your hand up? You know what you got from him, all his characteristics, boy. You're a bunch of liars and sneaks and sinners, and that's what we are without Jesus. And we're over here in the Adam family. And then one day we get saved and God puts us in the Christ family, who is the second Adam. And now we've got a new identity. We're not who we used to be, and that's the two races who they still are. And we're not who we used to be, and that's the two races who they still are, and what we're not who we used to be.

Austin Gardner:

Crowd. That doesn't mean you're perfect. You didn't do anything to earn it. You got it by giving it, the father giving it to you. Look at verse four. Look what he did. Look what the father did in verse four According, as he hath chosen us before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. You know what he did Before you were ever born. You didn't earn it, you didn't do anything to get it before you were ever born.

Austin Gardner:

The God of heaven looked down and said I love all of you and I'll give you a way to heaven in Christ. Look at it in Christ. It shows us according as it shows us in him, in Christ, in Christ. Look at it in Christ. It shows us according as he had chosen us in him, in Christ, in him, before the world began. What did Jesus say? I'm the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the father, but by me. How do you get to heaven? You get to heaven because you're in Christ, you're in him. And then he predestined us to the adoption, and I'll show you that later in a very special way. I'll try to show you that.

Austin Gardner:

Now go with me down to chapter two and verse six. Do you know what he did? And all this is already true If you believe the Bible. He seated us in the heavenlies Look what Ephesians 2, 6 says and have raised us up together. We died with Christ at the cross, we were buried and we rose again, and he made us a sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Because basically, whatever Christ does, we do. Wherever Christ goes, we go. Before you're saved, before you're born again, before you're in the other family, wherever Adam goes, you go. And wherever Adam because you're too much like your daddy, you're too much like your daddy. You do what your daddy did, you talk like your daddy, you act like your daddy. But when you're born again, you're put in a whole new family and we're in Christ and Christ is now seated in the heavenly places. Look at Ephesians, chapter two and verse 13. He's broken down all the division. There's no separation. The Bible says in Ephesians 2, 13,.

Austin Gardner:

But now in Christ Jesus, you were sometimes far off or made nigh by the blood of Christ. You were sometimes far off or made nigh by the blood of Christ. We couldn't even get to God. There was no way. You know what In the Old Testament, for 39 books of your Bible, the Old Testament, the Jewish person, the Gentiles, we could go this far, and then the Jewish women could go another step further, and then the Jewish men could go another step further, and then the priests could go another step further. But there was one place where only one man went in one time a year and we were a long ways off. We're back over there in the court of the Gentiles. But Jesus said no, I am the high priest, get in me and I'll take you all the way in. We have a new identity. We're no longer identified by our past. We have a new citizenship, we have a new homeland.

Austin Gardner:

Now, the guy who wrote the letter Ephesians 1.1,. Look at it again. Even the guy who's writing the letter understands the whole truth. Look who wrote the letter Ephesians, chapter 1, paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ. Well, paul, paul's not Paul, paul's Saul. Who's Paul? Huh, you see, saul was part of killing Stephen. Saul was a man who was very good in his own eyes and very religious and very performance based and tried to follow all the rules and tried to do all the stuff. But he was wrong and he saw that he was wrong and he was born again because he saw Jesus and he accepted Jesus and he becomes Paul. You understand what happens. Every one of us are new. Now we're probably not going to change our name like he did. You know we don't come along and say well, don't call me, don't call me Austin anymore, call me something else. He, but he used the Roman form of his name, which is what I did. Improve, by the way. So exactly what I did improve.

Austin Gardner:

How do you come to be in Christ before we go on? How do you come to be in Christ Before we go on? How do you come to be in Christ? You come to be in Christ by trusting Jesus.

Austin Gardner:

The Bible says in John 1, 12, as many as received him, to them gave he the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. You get saved because you trust what Jesus did. And it's not what you do, it's what you receive. Look at what it said in verse 12. It says you received. You see, the Bible says the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God's eternal life, and so it's a gift and we receive that gift. It's Ephesians 2, 8, 9, for by grace are you saved. By grace are you saved through faith. That's not of you, that's of God, and he does the work. And not only that. We are sealed Ephesians 1.13,. We are sealed. We'll get to that later.

Austin Gardner:

But do you realize what God's saying? He put a seal on you. He says I own you, you belong to me, I protect you, I go with you Wherever you go. You have my seal, we have the seal, we have the guarantee of our eternal life. And here's the deal. In Romans 8 he said and nothing or no one will ever be able to separate you from my love, nothing or anyone. So I want to show you something real quick.

Austin Gardner:

When you hear the word saint, yes, you ought to want to live holy. Can I get an amen right there? I mean, don't you dare go away saying, well, he called me his wife, but I don't to want to live holy, can I get an amen right there? I mean, don't you dare go away and say, well, he called me his wife, but I don't have to act like it. He called me his wife, but I don't have to act like it. He called me his son, but I don't have to act like it. That's not. That's not who acts like that, who acts like that. Somebody that's acts like that. Somebody's not a wife, somebody's a jerk. And so here's the deal You're a saint, but you need to learn to rest.

Austin Gardner:

You rest in this. You didn't earn it, you don't deserve it. You were called by grace to the word saint. I'm a saint not because I've been preaching all my life, not because I go to church, not because I give money, not because I pray, not because I write articles every day of my life. That's not what makes me a saint. What makes me a saint is my father calls me a saint, and what makes Chris Chris. We named him, he didn't name himself and the father named you.

Austin Gardner:

When you fail, run to him, don't try to fix yourself without him. All your responsibility is is to rest in Jesus, to rest in him and all that he has done so that you can be saved. He has done everything to save you, everything to give you a new life. It's him. So I want you to. I want you to go back with me real quickly. I want you to go back. You are faithful in Christ. Now you are going to be faithful. I really believe that's who you want to be. That's how you want to live. But you're not called faithful because of what you do. You're called faithful because he saves you and he calls you faithful. He saves you and he calls you faithful.

Austin Gardner:

Betty has been a gardener for 52 years over 52 years now but she's not a gardener because she gets up in the morning and goes and cooks breakfast. To be blunt and honest with you my mother, who's in heaven. But my mother could have fixed breakfast for everybody in this church and she'd have probably been done in 30 minutes. She was a wild country woman. I mean. She could throw it together, whip it together. She was one of them. Old country mamas, you've got to be old to know about that, but most of y'all are pretty old yourselves. Amen, she could just whip it together. She could put it together. If you told Betty, the whole church is showing up for breakfast after she passed out, after she freaked out, after she panicked and after I call someplace and buy us some breakfast, okay, she could fix breakfast. She just needs a few hours. Yeah, but that's not why she's a gardener. She's not a gardener because for all these years she's taken care of me and all these years she's been on my knees. That's not why she's a gardener.

Austin Gardner:

She's a gardener because I saw her and I loved her. I thought she was beautiful then. I think she's beautiful now and I went to her and I called her to be my wife. I asked her if she would consider marrying me. I offered her the gift Now, if she didn't know what she's getting, she probably wouldn't have took it. Say amen, but she was 19. Hey, watch it, she was, but she was 19. Hey, watch it, she was 19. She was 19 and she didn't know much better. And she married me. She had no idea I was going to drag her all over the country but she became my wife. You know, I was going to a church as a missionary.

Austin Gardner:

Now, when I was a missionary, there was a lot of churches that knew my name. They knew me. They knew who I was and when I would show up I'd walk in the door. Somebody said, hey, you're Austin Gardner. I said yeah. They said you're the missionary to Peru, right? I said that's me. I felt pretty good. That was my identity.

Austin Gardner:

But over the years my identity changed and one night Betty and I were going to this church, a country church up in the mountains, and a whole bunch of missionaries were showing up at this church. We were going to shock them. They had no idea we were coming. And I get out of the car and I start walking across the parking lot and somebody comes over and shakes my hand and they said, hey, how are you? I said I'm fine. I said my name's Austin Gardner, and I handed them my prayer card and they said oh, you're the daddy of our missionary, chris Gardner. I was like back that up just a little bit. I was like whoa, whoa, whoa, back that up just a little bit. My was like whoa, whoa, whoa, back that up just a little bit. My identity just took a massive hit. I used to be the famous missionary, I used to be the guy they knew, and now I'm the daddy of the guy they know.

Austin Gardner:

Amen, that's a change of identity and that's what happened with you. You changed identities. You are not who you were. How many of you? Literally, honestly, you think of yourself as that failure. One of the first things you say is I'm divorced. That's how you identify yourself. How do you identify yourself? You identify yourself because you say something like. You say something like hello, my name is Austin and I'm an alcoholic. You say something like hello, my name is Austin and I'm an alcoholic. You identify yourself as one of these failures.

Austin Gardner:

And here's what's happening in the book of Ephesians. The Lord is saying I'm speaking to the saints, I'm speaking to the faithful in Christ Jesus. I'm telling you that's not. You're not who you were. The Bible says there's a whole list of sins. And he said and all of these people, none of them get to go to heaven when they die, none of them get to the kingdom of God. And then he starts the next sentence and says and such were some of you. Yeah, you've been the worst of society, but I have washed you, I have sanctified you, I have separated you, I've made you new. That's what God did to you. God reached out in your life and saved you. In fact, god separated your sin so far from you that, even though you may think of yourself as an adulterer, he doesn't even see that or think that. He looks at you and says I put your sins as far as the east as from the west. That means they're behind me. When I look at you, I don't see the junk, I see you, I care about you. That's a new identity. Let me give you this one last story and I'll quit for today.

Austin Gardner:

Jesus, walking through town, and nobody would speak to Levi, matthew the tax collector. He's like the scum of the earth. He's like the worst kind of person on the planet. He's a Jew who betrays Jews. He's a Jew that's destroying other Jews. That's who he is. That's what he's been doing for years. He's gotten wealthy doing it. He's made a lot of money betraying his own people, and it was a Jewish custom to never mention his name except at the synagogue. When you prayed curses on him At the synagogue, everybody prayed God, kill him, god, destroy him. He's a horrible person. But one person walked through town and just looked straight at him, jesus. And Jesus looked at him and saw him. He saw him not for what he was. He saw him for who he would make him. He saw him not for what he had done, not for all the failures, but he saw him in Christ. That's what he does to you. I just want you to know, paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, the Father of our Lord, jesus Christ, to the saints, to the saints.

Austin Gardner:

And today, when you go home, you won't feel like you're worthy maybe. I often feel like Betty could have married a much better guy, a much better looking guy, a guy who would have done more stuff and treated her better than I have. I don't always feel like I deserve to be her husband. I've always said for over 50 years I married way up. That didn't change the fact she still calls me husband, she still calls me honey. We're still married. And that's exactly what's happening in Ephesians, chapter one, to the saints.

Austin Gardner:

And the last thing I'll give you is this you can't get this from the church and you can't get this from your family, and you can't get this from your works and you can't get this from your works. You can't get baptized enough times. Old country preacher, I worked for the first time up in Rome, georgia, little country church, dykes Creek Baptist Church. But he used to say if you get baptized in every creek in Dykes Creek area till every frog knows you by name, you'll still die and go to hell if you don't know Jesus. And now you understand this.

Austin Gardner:

You can't go to heaven except in Christ. You can't change your identity except in Christ. How do you get to be in Christ? You have to be in Christ. When you realize I can't do this on my own. I can't change. I can't be who I was designed to be. I can't be who I can't be who I was designed to be. I can't be who I want to be. I want my life changed. I want things different than they were. I want God to work in me.

Austin Gardner:

Then you receive the gift it's offered to you.

Austin Gardner:

All you have to do is receive it. Trust Jesus, believe that he really is God in human flesh, believe that he died on the cross, believe that he really is God in human flesh, believe that he died on the cross, believe that his blood was shed and believe what he did for you and you can be saved. Have you trusted Christ? If you have, praise the Lord. If you haven't trust today, and if you have trusted Christ, you can get a little easy rest. You can get a little happier Because in Christ, you are now a saint and you are now the faithful Father in heaven. I love you, I thank you for the chance to serve you and I thank you for what you've done in my life, and I pray that your name would be magnified and glorified. I pray, god, that people in this room that aren't saved would get saved, and I pray, god, that people that are saved would aren't saved would get saved. And I pray, god, that people that are saved would recognize who you made them and give you praise and honor in Jesus name, amen.

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