Untitled Sermon (4)

Committed to my Identity.

how does a person defines themselves?

What's there identity?

We can define ourselves by Personality traits, abilities, likes and dislikes, your belief system or moral code, and the things that motivate you — these all contribute to self-image or your unique identity as a person.

But is this who we really are?

1. Gen 1: 26-28 “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.””

‌in this text we can break down how

1.Man was created with identity-

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2.Man was created with Authority

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3.Man was created with blessing/ ability.

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1. Man was created with Identity.

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Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.

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Genesis 2:4-7“then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”

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From the ground, God made a body for us to live in, and God breathed into this body the breath of life. God’s breath gave us life. He blew His Spirit into us and created our spirit. God put himself in us.

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-God created us a spirit. That is what and who we really are.

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John 4:24 “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.””

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-The spirit is what gives life. We see here we are connected with God spirit to spirit. Our identity connect us to GOd

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John 6:63 “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.”

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‌2. Man was created with Authority

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And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

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Man had dominion over everything because God put himself in us. Everything he created on earth had to obey Adam because when he used his authority it was as if God was present.

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Lets on expand on this authority

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Matthew 8:9 “For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.””

In this verse a centurion soldier was speaking to Jesus. A centurion was an officer in the Roman army in command of a unit of approximately 80-100 soldiers.

The soldiers under the Centurion did not listen to him because he was feared or he was this great person. They listened to him because of who he was under (Roman Empire.) So when the Centurion spoke to the soldiers under him they carried out orders as if it was given directly from the Roman empire.

What it’s like to walk in your own authority when your nature is not changed‭‭

So how does this relate to man being created with authority?

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We don't swear by our own authority but by God's authority. We carry his image so, when we use our authority things have to change because when we use it's as God himself was there!

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We have to get this! I am made in the image of GOd so things have to change and happen in my life.

Why do things have to change in your life when you use your authority?

3.Man was created with blessing/ability

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And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.””

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God equipped them for success. God had made everything they will ever need before he created them. Imagine God made us when the earth was dark and formless, or when the water was filling the earth Adam and Eve would be in big trouble lol.

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Gen1:11 “And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so.”

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God met every need they will ever need and he gave them the ability to create things just like him.

‌The fall of man.

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Gen2: 16-17 “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.””

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- The spirit part of Adam was the part of him that died when he ate of the forbidden fruit (Genesis 2:16-17); Adam’s physical body didn’t die until age 930 (Genesis 5:5).

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Gen2:25 “And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.”

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Gen 3:9-11 “But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?””

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In Genesis 2:25 “And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.”

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We see that Adam and Eve didn't even know they were naked. God said who told you were naked. Adam wasn't aware he was naked until he ate the fruit. This scripture tells us that Adam and Eves identity was in their spirit before the fall and not in their flesh.

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In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve had perfect communion and fellowship with God. When they rebelled against Him, that fellowship was broken. They became aware of their sin and were ashamed before Him.

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Because of the fall we lost our identity, authority and blessing/ ability

What happened to our identity

Because of the fall we are all born sinners.

We were all born sinners (Ps. 51:5)

and had the nature of the devil working in us (Eph. 2:2-3).

Man did not know who he was anymore because they were separated from God.

What happened to man's authority

Because of the fall of men. Satan became the ruler of this world.

John 12:31

He is also called the god of this world.

2 corinthians 4:4

1 john 5:19

So, the Bible never teaches that Satan actually rules over the entire world, but that he is ruler over the current system of sinful opposition to God.

What happened to the blessing

Gen 3:17-19 Esv

17 And to Adam he said,

“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife

and have eaten of the tree

of which I commanded you,

‘You shall not eat of it,’

cursed is the ground because of you;

in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;

18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;

and you shall eat the plants of the field.

19 By the sweat of your face

you shall eat bread,

till you return to the ground,

for out of it you were taken;

for you are dust,

and to dust you shall return.”

‭‭ When god created the earth he provided everything for Adam and Eve in advance. They didn’t have to work for anything. All they had to do was just enjoy what God provided for them.

But here we see that man has to work for everything. Man could still receive the blessing but it required work instead of resting in what God provided.

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The Great exchange

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

But because of Jesus Sacrifice for us God will never leave us nor forsake us even when we mess up.

Jesus took your sin so you could become righteous which means in right standing with God.

2 Cor. 5:21‌

“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him”

‌He placed Jesus’s righteousness on you. Your spirit is immediately re-created with the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

‌We are then able to fellowship with God spirit to Spirit.

“God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24).

THis is what this scripture truly means

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‌Jesus has restored back our identity, authority and blessing/ability from the fall of man.

We are back to the state of the beginning when he created Adam and Eve were created

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Many times we question our salvation or God's love for use because we don't see results.

2 Cor 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

We see the word new creation. We think we change physically but we don't. If you were 4´8 before you got saved you're going to be 6 ´5 after you got saved. What this scripture is saying is that because you made Jesus Christ your lord and savior you don't have a sin nature any more but you have the same spirit as christ.

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We have to know who we are to be victorious in this life.

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2.1thessalonians 5:23 “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

‌We are made of three parts: spirit soul and body.

Our spirits were the only thing that changed at salvation. Our soul and our body still operate as if we still had our old nature. Your soul is (mind, will, and emotions, conscince) didn’t change at salvation the way your spirit did. Your body is just what you see as an effect of the soul.

Who we are in the spirit

1 John 4:17 “By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is, so also are we in this world.”

COLOSSIANS 2:9-10

9For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;

10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.

We are complete in him. No thing is missing and nothing broken

1 PETER 2:24

24 who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.

We are healed already

ROMANS 8:37

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

More than conquerors you can conquer anything that you are facing in life

2 PETER 1:3

as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue

God has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness

1 CORINTHIANS 2:16

For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

You have the mind of christ in your spirit.

You already have health and prosperity.

3 john 1:2 beloved I wish above all that that you may prosper and be in health even as

your soul prospers.

Our mind has to be renewed to health and prosperity in order to receive it.

‌ As we see our born-again spirit is always in agreement with God. We need to use the word to renew our mind to who we are in the spirit.

Do 3 volunteers up front

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Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

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The word “renewing” in this verse was translated from the Greek word ANAKAINOSIS, and this word means “renovation” (Strong’s Concordance).We don’t just need a new coat of paint over our natural minds; we need a total renovation.

We need to let the word of God tell us who we are.

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Message Version Romans 12

12 1-2 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

We can not be conformed to our old nature. We have to renew our minds to who we are in christ. We can't look to the world to identify us but we have to look to the word to identify us. We have to be committed to the word to transform our lives. We have to let the word dictate how we see ourselves..

(mirror) What you see in the mirror is nothing but a reflection and that may just not be how people see you in real life. Who you are in the spirit is the real you. Instead of using a mirror to see who you are, the word to identify who you are.(bible)

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The spirit world created this physical world. So we can say that the spiritual world is more real than the physical world. We have to let the unseen world dominate what we think.

‌Renewing our mind = meditating the word of GOd

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3. Joshua 1:8 “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”

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Meditate in hebrew has been used

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TALK OF, SPEAK OF; “lay thinking” STUDY, IMAGINE; “keep in mind” (Josh. 1:8), MUTTER, “think on,

‌when God told Joshua to meditate on

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We all meditate on things. For instance you can be at work worrying about something but still be able to handle all of your work duties. So why not think of things that are going to proper me and give me good success.