Tonight while I was relaxing playing a game of golf, I started wondering if the bible said anything good about us as people. All the years I read the bible sinner has been burnt into my memory and now it's left a nasty stain on my mind.
What do you think, does the bible say anything good about us?
OH BOY OH BOY does it....The bible says all kinds of wonderful things about us. Afterall, God created us in His image, so why should he not have things that he loves about us... Check this out, It's a sermon I preached a while back. I think it will pretty much tell you what the Bible says about YOUR identity!
"Who I am"
This is the final session in a series about our identity crisis, where we are discovering who we are.
The first question of "What is your current identity?"
The second question was "Where does your identity come from?"
You were asked to think about those two questions and make a list of the attributes that you believe make up your identity. I hope that you did that.
As we begin tonight, we are going to spend a lot of time reading scripture, and if you want to take notes, I would encourage you to do so.
Everyone say your name. Now say "is"
Planned - Psalm 139:13-16
"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."
I sincerely hope that nobody has ever told you "you were an accident". You are NOT an accident. God knew you before you were even born, and as this verse tells us that your entire life was officially ordered by God before you even came to be. You were deliberately planned by the God of all creation. You were meant to be here. You were put here specifically to fulfill a part of God's big amazing story. You were put here for His glory.
Deeply Loved - Romans 5:8
"But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners"
God knows we are sinners, he knows every horrible thing you've ever done. He knows all your secrets. He knows everything about you. And even after knowing you fully, he gives you his unconditional
UNCONDITIONAL love for you. He loves you so much that he gave his Son to DIE for you. His love is not based on your performance. He doesn't love you more if you try to be good. He doesn't love you less if you do bad things. He just loves you.
God loves you as much as he loves Jesus.
WHAT? No way. Now you've gone to far.
Listen to this: John 17:23 This was Jesus himself praying to the Father. He said "I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me." WOW
Now there's a mind-blowing truth. God loves you as much as he loves Jesus, and whats even more mind-blowing is that he loves you like this even when we are dirty rotten stinking heathens.
Paul wrote : "For I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love. Death can't, and life can't. The angels won't, and all the powers of hell itself cannot keep Gods' love away. Our fears for today, or worries about tomorrow or where we are -- high above the sky, or in the deepest ocean -- nothing will ever be able to separate us from the love of God demonstrated by our Lord Jesus Christ when He died for us." - Romans 8:38-39
Whatever difficulties and struggles you are going through today, or will go through tomorrow, will NOT separate you from God's Love. There are however things that will keep you from experiencing His love.
Righteous - 2 Corinthians 5:17
"This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun"
One of the requirements to enter heaven is complete righteousness. Something we cannot do on our own, because we are living in a broken world, and are a broken people. The good news is, once you receive Christ through faith, he imparts his righteousness onto you. He clothes you in His righteousness. We will talk more about this later.
Adopted - Ephesians 1:5
"God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ"
Some of you may be adopted. For those of you that are not, one thing you need to understand about adoption is that the child is taken into the family and treated as if he/she was part of the family
.not only treated, but VIEWED as one of the family
.not only viewed, but IS one of the family.
When Paul wrote this verse, he was writing as a way for people of the day to understand. Under roman law of the time, an adopted son or daughter was entitled to the exact same legal rights as a naturally born son or daughter. The adopted son or daughter was entitled to the family name, the inheritance, and the citizenship to the country of the family. The father of the adopted child was also expected to do everything a natural father would do. Provide guidance, care, and discipline to the child. This kind of adopted relationship was used to show what our relationship with God is like through Jesus Christ.
Being adopted, we have been given the family name and every principality knows what family we belong to, we've been given the family inheritance, our citizenship is guaranteed, and our Dad gives us guidance, care and discipline. And here's something really awesome
. In his kingdom, there is no such thing as a "only child". You are not alone, everyone else that has been adopted is your brother or sister.
Chosen - Ephesians 1:4
"Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes"
From before the beginning of the world, God had a plan to save everyone lost in sin. Everything you read in the Bible about Christ saving us, is part of that plan. Being part of this plan, you were chosen by Him to belong to Him. You were made for Him.
Sealed - Ephesians 1:13
"And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you, and when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own.
Throughout history, if a official document was sent it was sealed. It could be a mark, a signature, or they would drip wax and stamp it, sealing the document. When it arrived at its destination, the legitimacy of the document was verified by the seal. In many cases a specific seal from a king or ruler added prominence(importance) to what contained in the letter.
Make no mistake about it, when you placed your faith in Jesus Christ, and surrendered your life to Him, The Holy Spirit entered you and marked you with a seal on you that cannot be erased. It cannot be hidden. It cannot be disguised, and it seals his promise to you.
Protected - Phillipians 4:7
"Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus"
I recently listened to Louie Giglio's series Prayer:Remix. He took a rather humorous look at how we pray. He said how many times do we pray "Father, we ask you to watch over us and protect us". It's funny, because we do it. Many many of us have either pray for protection, or heard someone do it. How goofy we are to ask for something we already have. What did we do lose it?
There are enemies around us, that want to devour us. and without Christ, they would succeed. We don't need to fear evil, because we have the great protector with us all the time.
But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. - 2 Thessalonians 3:3
What we are really asking for is "Please God don't let me get sick, get hurt, die in an accident, etc." He suggested that our prayer should look more like Jesus's prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. Father, if its possible, I don't want to get sick, or get hurt, or die today, but let your will be done, not mine.
Blessed - Ephesians 1:3
"All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we united with Christ"
Well, Amen to that. When we united in Christ, we received every blessing, every divine favor he could pour out on us. He has endowed us with every cherished thing that we will ever need. Thank you Jesus.
Pardoned - Romans 8:1
"So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus"
Imagine if you will a courtroom. Your days on earth have ended, and you are now standing in the Holy Courtroom. You've been accused of all your sins. The judge enters the courtroom. It is God the Father. You're lawyer is standing next to you, and if you check his credentials, he is Jesus Christ, the son of the Judge. Jesus stands in front of you while the charges are being read. He covers you. And every time the Judge looks at you, all he sees is Jesus. And every time a charge is read, Jesus raises his hands and shows the nail holes. God the father bangs his gavel down hard on the bench, and he says "I declare you righteous, blameless, not because of who you are or what you've done, but because of My Son, and who He is, and what He's' done. You are pardoned"
You are
planned, deeply loved, righteous, adopted, chosen, sealed, protected, blessed and pardoned.
Do you know your current identity? This is your identity through Christ.
