Okay, so last week I asked you the question: Who are you? And I want us to kind of start from that place tonight. Because I want to make sure that, as we look at this new year, we literally start by defining ourselves.
Because what happens for most of us is that we start defining all of our goals and objectives and our plans and all the things we want to do. And we tend to start from the externals. But if we’re not really clear about who we want to be, we can get all those externals right, and never really be the man or woman that we feel called to be this year.
How many of you know that you have been — have gone through — many versions of yourself to get to this point? Do we all see that? You’re not six anymore; you’re not a teenager anymore; you’re not in your early 20s anymore … but you look it, right? [Congregation laughs] You look good, right? [Laughs]
So what I want you to see, right? Is there’s been many versions of you. And sometimes we get attached to a version of who we’ve been, and it’s not the version that God is calling us to be today. And we get locked in, thinking, “I’ve got to be that.” And the difficulty is: when that version of you was a “good” version — you know, you looked good, you had it all going on — it was like a good version. See, if it was a rotten version of you, you might have some guilt about letting it go. But if it was a rotten version of you, it’s pretty easy to let it go. It was rotten, right?
The challenge seems to be when there’s a good version of you — giving it up for a great version of you. And what if, this year, the person God wants you to be would be a great version of you? Would you be willing to let go of who you have been; the way you know yourself: your old ideas and beliefs? And would you be willing to let go of that for a greater possibility of who you could be today?
See, my basic premise here is that, no matter where you are on your spiritual journey, I don’t think God’s done with you! [Laughs] Now, no matter how magnificent you feel on the inside, I don’t think God’s done with you yet! And I’m kind of curious to see who you could be next. And I’d like you to be curious about who God’s calling you to be in this new year, and to really see who you feel is available to you; who you feel you could call forth in you; how much more you are being led to express and to be more and more the expressions of God.
For most of us, the “doing” — and all the external — is nowhere near as important as deeply and profoundly honoring that inner person that is waiting to be expressed. Waiting to be given form. Waiting to be given life. Because, for most of us, we are in a constant process of letting the old die; letting the old be transformed so that the newness of who we’re being called to be has room to express now.
Last week I gave to you the quote from Myrtle Fillmore that was so transformative for her in her own healing where she said, “I am a child of God; therefore I do not inherit sickness.” And I invited you last week to really look at: What is the way that you identify yourself? Is it as a child of God?
And then I got an email from somebody that said, “You know, Richard, I don’t really identify as a child of God.” Great! So how do you identify? And then we kind of talked about, “Well, how do you see yourself? If not as a child of God, then how do you see yourself?” And she said, “Well, I feel like I’m more of a divine creation.” I said, “Well, that works!” Right? And I said, “So how’s it feel when you say to yourself, ‘I am a divine creation!’?” She said, “I like it! I feel it’s empowering to think to myself that I’m a divine creation; that I’m an expression of God … but I’m a divine creation.” I said, “Great! Go with that!”
I said, “There’s so many ways that we can name ourselves — so many ways that we can identify ourselves as expressions of God: we are a child of God; we are divine creation; we are a point of pure goodness; we are a holy expression; we are God expression. I mean, there’s so many ways that I would like you to really begin to play with: How is it that you want to self-identify yourself?”
So we’re going to play a little game. You ready? I’m going to invite you to say your name and then I’m going to give you five different ways to see which one feels the most empowering to you. You ready?
So now, when I say my name, you’re not going to say “Richard Rogers.” [Congregation laughs] I know you want to! I know! Right? But you’re going to insert your own name right there, okay?
So the first one is “child of God.”
So, “I am Richard Rogers; I am a child of God.”
Now, say that for you, together out loud. I want you to hear it out loud: [with congregation] “I am _____, and I am a child of God.”
Feel that! Let’s do it again! “I am _____, and I am a child of God.”
So how’s that feel? Right?
Okay, the next one: “I am — insert your name — I am a divine creation.”
[Congregation:] “I am a divine creation.”
How’s that one feel? Let’s do it one more time!
Say your name – “I am _____; I am a divine creation.”
How’s that one feel? Great!
Okay, the next one is: “I’m a point of pure goodness.”
Together: Say your name – “I am _____; I’m a point of pure goodness.”
One more time: [with congregation] “I’m a point of pure goodness.”
Okay? Next one is: “I’m a holy expression.”
Together: [with congregation] “I am _____; I am a holy expression.”
Last one: “I am God expressing. I am the Spirit of God expressing.”
[With congregation] “I am _____; I am the Spirit of God expressing.”
Now, what I want you to look at is: I want to make sure that the way you identify yourself is big enough to do the will and the work of God in your life this year.
Because sometimes God has a project — God has a purpose — for us, and our old identity is not big enough to handle the project that’s in front of us. And it causes a bit of conflict. And we know that we’re in that level of conflict when we say to ourselves something like, “Who am I to do blah, blah, blah, blah, blah?” And it’s like, our identity is so small, so timid, that it doesn’t allow us to serve God in greater and greater ways.
And so we have to be mindful of really opening up to identify with ways that actually give us greater expression. The way that I self-identify is: “I am Richard Rogers; I’m a man of God.” For me, that is the one that just fits the most for me. “I am Richard Rogers; I’m a ma of God.”
And, for me, there’s nothing wrong with being a child of God, but I don’t want to be a child of God anymore. I’ve been a child of God! There’s nothing wrong with being a child of God, but I’m ready to grow up. [Congregation laughs] Right? I am no longer willing to be a child of God. I don’t identify with that in any way within my being-ness. I am ready to be a fully mature man of God. That I am ready to express the glory of God in greater and greater ways.
And so, when I invited you to open to the idea of being a child of God, I in no way wanted you to be limited in your understanding of who you are. Right? We read in Corinthians 13:11, “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now I see in the mirror dimly, but then I will see face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood.”
See, I want us to really look at: As we own who we are, to really nail that down so that the way you see yourself is big enough for God to do what’s next in your life, so that you ca be the most amazing version of you.
We are not here — this time that we live in — does not call us into small-mindedness. It does not call us into old, limited concepts that no longer fit for who we’re called to be today. We are here to be magnificent expressions of God. And I believe that, as we claim that, that’s not our ego claiming that! In fact, when I say I’m a man of God, my ego gets a little shaky about it! “Grrr. Don’t say it out loud!” [Congregation laughs] Right? Have you ever claimed something about yourself that felt so big, so powerful, so wonderful, your ego’s like, “Shhhh! Let’s just say that privately! Let’s make sure no one knows, so that no one thinks you’re an egomaniac. They know!” Right?
So what I want you to see: As you really stand in the power of who you are, it does require a little inner mobility. It requires a little inner shaking up of the old ideas and the old concepts. And one of the things I do for myself over and over again is: I ask myself the question, “Richard, are you being a man of God in this moment?” And I don’t like when I say, “No.” Like, I’m not being the best version of me in this moment, and I know that, when I put myself against that idea — “Richard, you are a God-man; are you acting like a God-man right now?” — and I say, “No, I’m not! I’m acting small; I’m acting frightened; I’m acting like I’m afraid of my future.”
But when I say to myself, “I’m Richard Rogers, and I’m a God-man,” at that moment I step into a greater, stronger version of me. I step into the truth of who I am. And it opens the space for good — and only good.
And today, I want you to claim a self-identity that is so strong, so powerful that it allows you to do that which God is giving you to do right now.
So who are you? How much of the goodness of God are you willing to claim for yourself? How big a life — how big a light — are you wiling to be for the world?
You know, there was a conversation that Jesus had with his disciples. And it was one of those conversations where Jesus was kind of checking on how his disciples saw him. It’s in Matthew 16. And he asks his disciples, “Who do men say the Son of Man is?” Like, “What are you hearing? What’s the talk on the street? What are they saying about me?” Right?
And the disciples came back and said, “Well, some say you’re John the Baptist; some say you’re Eli’jah; others say you’re Jeremiah; or maybe you’re one of the prophets of old.”
And he said, “But who do you say that I am?” And Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ. You are the Son of the Living God.”
And Jesus answers him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood did not reveal that to you, but my Father, who is in heaven. And I tell you, Peter, that on this rock I will build this church. That even the powers of death shall not prevail against it.”
And I want you to see, like, there is something so profoundly powerful when you claim who you truly are! And are no longer willing to wear a little mask of personality or sub-personality … but you’re willing to be in the fullness and the greatness of who God created you to be.
So I want you to claim a new name for yourself this year, and to really begin to look at: Who is the man or woman you feel called to be this year?
And once you actually do that, then the question is: How am I going to be that? Right?
Most of the time, when we ask our “How” question, our “How” question is usually about a goal or a desire. Like, if you have a big goal or a big desire in your life, usually the first thing that happens is your ego steps in and says, “How are you going to do that? Richard, that’s just too much! It’s too big; that’s too overwhelming. How are you going to do that?”
But I want you to really see that there is a use for that “How” question. And that “How” question is: How are you going to live that much of yourself out loud and in public?
The other prayer that I wanted to share with you in this second year of the new year came from Charles Fillmore, Myrtle’s husband, the other co-founder of Unity. And this is a statement — an affirmation; a prayer. And it is said that he wrote this at the age of 94. Okay, so I want to give you some context.
So as he was being the very best version of himself, he created this affirmation at 94 to allow him to express his best self throughout his entire life. And his affirmation is … Do we have it up? Do we have the PowerPoint for that? If not, I can go without it. But I think we have it; there it is!”
Together: [with congregation] “I fairly sizzle with zeal and enthusiasm and spring forth with a might faith to do the things that are to be done by me today.”
He’s 94! How amazing is that statement? Let’s read it again!
“I fairly sizzle with zeal and enthusiasm and spring forth with a might faith to do the things that are to be done by me today.”
I love that statement! And I love that he was 94! I love the fact that, at 94, he was still committed to being the very best version of him! That he woke up every day and thought to himself, “I fairly sizzle!” [Congregation laughs] I don’t know of any man that gets up out of bed in the morning and says, “I fairly sizzle!” Right?
But I want you to feel the power of that in your life! That, when you are willing to claim that much goodness, that much aliveness and that much power — and to allow it to make a difference in your life — that the “how” is not the “how to do” but the true power of “how” is the “how to be.” How to be the best version of you. How to be the man or woman that God is creating you to be today.
So if you were going to have your own statement of being-ness — your “how to” statement — how would you say it? How would you create your statement every day when you get out of bed that is your statement that reminds you to be the very best version of you? And it doesn’t have to be long; it can be just a few words!
But this year, I want you to have your personal declaration. I want you to have a declaration that you say every day when you get out of bed that reminds you of what you’re about. And maybe, you know, “I am a child of God and I fairly sizzle with zeal and enthusiasm.” But I want us to be willing to look at, not just moving through this year from an unconscious place.
Have you ever lived the same year more than once? I think we all have, right? Where we go through the motions. And we realize, at the end of the year, “Man, I did that year once before!” It becomes even more problematic when you realize, “Oh, I’ve done that whole decade before, and it wasn’t that much fun the first time!” Right?
I don’t want us to be sleep-walking. I want you to know who you are and I want you to have a statement of faith — a statement of power — that, every day, you get up and affirm so you get to move your life forward in the most powerful way.
So here’s mine. [Laughs] I don’t expect you to use it, but here’s mine: “I’m Richard Rogers; I’m a God-man. And I reveal the spiritual truth in the greatest way possible.” And I know that, every daym when I get up and I say, “I’m Richard Rogers; I am a God-man. And I reveal spiritual truth” — every day it focuses me on what I’m about. And I want that level of clarity for all of us!
And it doesn’t have to sound anything like mine! It doesn’t have to sound like Charles Fillmore or Myrtle Fillmore. But it has to sound like you! It has to sound like your soul! It has to sound like the truth that really wants to be set free in your life!
God is not done with you. God is not done with you! And this year, I want you to claim the biggest, greatest, most light-filled version of you and go be that. And watch, as you claim the truth of who you are, how your life will be different. How it will be greater.
That, yes; you can live the same old year one more time. Or you can get crystal clear and listen to what God is speaking directly to your soul, and be that. And I think if we have the courage to be that, this is going to be a fabulous year.
Will you pray with me?
I invite you to open your mind, your heart, your soul to the activity of God. Tonight, I want you to listen to the word that is being spoken in your soul about who you truly are. Not all the old versions of you that you know so well; not all the ways that you’ve shown up and the things that you’ve done and the way you react and the way that you think. I want you to be willing to entertain a new idea. I want you to be you in a new way that is greater and more powerful and more loving and more abundant than ever before. Tonight, we open a space to be the living expressions of the Divine. And we claim that! Not from our ego, but from the greater spiritual truth of who we are. Thank you, God; thank you, God; thank you, God! And so it is. Amen.