Identity - Who am I? I am A Christian!
Notes
Transcript
GREET EVERYONE-
Good morning Loved ones - Good morning Saints - Good morning Everyone
If I have not had a chance to meet you; My name is Scott and I am a follower of Jesus and have the privilege of serving Him as the Lead Pastor among the people of Stonewater Fellowship.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
RENEWAL
Today - After worship. If you are in Covenant relationship as a member of Stonewater fellowship and recieved a renewal invite - The elders and I would love to connect with you over lunch and walk through renewal Together.
BAPTISM TRAINING -
Next Sunday after worship - Jesus commands all of us to go into the world make disciples of his and baptize - Which means we all need to be baptizing new believers into the faith. In the scriptures Baptism plays such an important roll in the life of believers -
Believer who take their first steps of faith and believers who walk with others as they take those first steps -
SO if you are desiring baptism in you journey in following Jesus - or as a follower of Jesus - If you have not been equipped to Baptize Join in the discussion next Sunday after worship.
FORGIVENESS AND VALUE
Next Sunday we begin a New series called Forgiveness and Value - as we will walk through a beautiful little letter in the new testament written by the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul to his friend and church leader Philemon -
SO DO you know someone who struggles with forgiveness - Who struggles with knowing that they are Valued by God?
Great time to invite them to hear from God through the beautiful letter as we begin this new series next Sunday.
ORPHAN SUNDAY
- JULY 9th - 1 Hope for Kids our foster agency partner will be here - We will have lunch - CPR classes for anyone who needs or wants CPR classes and an information meeting as to how you might get involved in the Foster ministry - Whether that is a s a potential parent or one o the other dozen or so ways you can be a part of caring for kids who need to experience the love and care of Jesus in their lives.
YOU ARE NOT HERE BY ACCIDENT
God is sovereign - There are no coincidences with God - You are hear this morning becasue God has you here and He has a word for you - to encourage you - to strengthen you and to call you to something significant and greater -
IF this is the first time that we have met and you may feel like you don't have it all together you are in great company - We certainly don't have it all together either and we are all on a journey with Jesus.
LETS GRAB OUR BIBLES IF YOU HAVE ONE AND
Open it to Ephesians Chapter 2 we will look at vs 8-10 today as we conclude our teaching series called IDENTITY - exposing what Jesus says about our Identity - Answering and dealing with the question:
Who am I?
PRAYER FOR THE SERIES
Has been that we would begin to understand and that we would begin to intentionally move away from any form of “self Identity” and move to being objectively identified by Jesus.
And when our Identity is by Jesus and from Jesus and we understand what He says about us - That we would have a deep understanding that what Jesus is calling us to -
is a life style -
A way of living -
and in that calling of life style our Identity in Christ is inextricably and directly tied to what we do.
PRAYER FOR THIS MESSAGE
Is that we would take the truth of how significant it is to identify ourselves with Jesus and call our self “A christian” and we would let that significance overwhelm our hearts and minds every moment as we walk through this life with each other and with Jesus.
TENSION
one problem that we see happening in our culture is Words have lost their meaning. And it is a problem that has unfortunately made it way into the the assembly of the called out ones - also known as the church.
One of the words that has lost its meaning is our name. When I say our Name I mean our proper name. The Identifying word that our parents gave at or close to our birth.
IT was not all that long ago that when parents named a child they did so with a prompting of the child’s personality and early responses to the world
It was their identity based on what they did for the first few days of life and at some level what mom experienced as the child was in the womb.
Here is what is interesting - Your name has meaning -
Your first name and your middle name and possibly your sir name for the most part have - Origin - Have cultural history and they have meaning -
Here is an example - My full name is Gregory Scott
Gregory - Greek in its origin - Means - Watchful or Awake.
Scott - Means - Warrior - Someone who speaks Gallic - from Scotland
Now I don’t know if my parents looked all that up before they named me -
You see - I’m not sure we even think about names having meaning anymore.
But our first and in some cases most important identifying factor about us is our name -
Our name is on our uniforms - it is on our government issued forms of ID -
It is on our Marriage license - Our drivers license - Our Gun license - our voter registration - our legal documents - our court documents - our debt documents - and even the titles to our cars and our homes -
OUR name has significant importance in our life and the things we interact with it -
And when we look at our face in the mirror we cannot help but know and identify the face looking back as our own that is identified by our name that was given to us by someone else.
Church - We must live in the reality of the truth that if we are a follower of Jesus - If we are adopted children of God, by faith that He gives and the very grace that He is filled with -
We have been given the name Christian - and it is not a name that we self claim - it is not an identity that we put on ourselves becasue we have a natural desire to - or because of how we feel -
It is a name that is given to us by someone else and it has meaning, it has significance - it is intended by the one who gave it to us for us to be defined by it because of our lifestyle.
It is intended by the one who gave it to us to be of such significance that it is one of the forces that drive and motivate us in how we live.
God intended the words “I am a Christian” are to be the single most significant identifier we have in this world.
I am a Christian - are four words - they are to be the four most powerful words to those that belong to Jesus -
4 words that define who we are -
4 Words that define what we do and how we live -
4 Words that give purpose meaning and value beyond any other identifying language that can be or will be or was ever spoken over our life.
4 words that mean - Everything has changed-
4 words that say to myself - I represent Jesus here on this earth and in this life and I make Him known to anyone, anywhere and anytime.
BACKGROUND -
Loved ones - to understand the back ground of what God would have for us this morning -
Let us understand what the Name Christian is Given to us.
those 4 words “I am a Christian” do not originate from us -
that cannot be a valid self proclaimed -
1st and foremost - The only valid identity of declaration that “I am a Christian” comes from a factual event that occured in our life -
An Event that we may or may not have seen coming - however an event that is the most significant and life altering event that has Ever happened to us -
An Event that moments days week months or even years and decades later we are still in awe of the face that this event happened to us -
and it was certainly an event that happened to us
That Event was that we were SAVED by Jesus -
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
This passage of Scripture is part of the Gospel Story -
God sent Jesus to do the work and Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to make us alive in Christ -
Loved ones - hear God loud and clear on this - The only circumstances which we can rationally and reasonably and rightly identify as Christians is becasue we are saved by Him
It is ONLY by the finished work of Jesus on the cross that our broken relationship with God can be repaired - and the possibility of it being repaired by this finished work is called Grace -
“For by Grace” - the text says - that we have been saved - The Grace of God that would compel Him to send Himself in the form of a Human - His Son - To take on flesh and dwell among us - Enduring the circumstances of living and suffering and being tempted as we are -
So that God is understood to sypothyse with us in our suffering inn this broken life.
Then He joyfully took on His own body the very wrath of God that was due you and me for our sinning - And He paid the price for us - It is finished He said!
That is the grace of God fully exercised and with an open invitation for all to see and hear and enjoy -
Then What God did to save people is He sent His Spirit - His spirit to Give people a gift - the Gift of FAITH -
The Gift of What? FAITH -
The Scriptures call faith TRUST -
Our Text says that we are Saved BY gods grace - Through the gift of FAITH - TRUST -
And Trust comes with action - Trust is not a feeling - Trust and Faith are things I take action upon - For if it is not something I take action on then I do not trust.
If I look at this chair and believe in the engineering facts that it will hold my weight - but I never sit down in the chair - I cannot call that Biblica faith - or Biblical Trust - becasue really all i have done If i do not sit in the chair is agreed with engineering facts -
The action that comes with God given faith and trust is Repentance - What shall we do to be saved? cried out those who were under the wrath of God at Pentecost - Repent Peter said - Repent TURN to Jesus - Turn Everything to Jesus - and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins and you will be saved -
This is why the Scripture says - It is not of our own doing - It is not of works - Some of you versions say -
It is a Gift from God - Not a result of works -
Loved ones - Listen to me - You had nothing to do with your being saved -
Some one may say - now Pastor, I certainly had something to do with it - To which I would reply -
Who saved you? did God save you or did you save you?
Your answer must be from the scriptures -
God saved me - I would then say Welcome to Election -
This is SO important -
Because when we understand that God is the saving Power in His story of our life - It become his story in our life - Not our life story with God and there is a huge difference.
But WHY?
Why did God save us -
Loved ones The Scripture makes it abundantly clear that we are not saved BY works - But works are the very purpose for which we are saved -
You see were not saved BY works but we are saved FOR works -
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Our Identity - we ARE God’s workmanship -
God did the work on us and in us and desires to bring that good work to completion in us -
Created - Created means that we were brought from nothing - Created - Dead in our trespasses and sin and rebellion against God and made alive by external forces - made alive in Christ -
This is what it means to be “Created in Christ Jesus”
And we are created in Christ Jesus FOR a very specific purpose - the Good works that God prepared beforehand -
Before what? - Well it could be before time - It could be before we got saved - Reality is it matters not - That is one of those things that doesn't matter when we know it was just beforehand -
God prepared these good works - beforehand and saved us for the eartrly purpose that we would walk in them -
What does it mean to walk in them -
Well back then when the Holy Spirit of God spoke and Paul wrote this - Walking was the major means of going and doing anything -
If you were gonna fish you walk to the sea -
If you were going to shop you walked to the merchant -
if you were going to worship you walked to the synagogue -
Walking was the every means of your existence -
what God has just said is that the earthly purpose of your salvation is that I have prepared beforehand good works that you will do becasue that is the very earthly purpose of your salvation.
Those good works we must declare as our identity as we Exclaim “I am a Christian”
and So we find that these Good works that God has prepared are the works that He has invited us into - To be the salt and the light of the world - To be the living breathing Body of Jesus here on earth -
So those mark our Identity as Christian -
We our life styles are so different that we are accomplishing the mission of jesus Representing Him and Making Him known -
We say I am a Christian - We say I am a believer - I trust the finished work of Jesus as the Only means by which the relationship with God that I broke through my own sin and rebellion can be fixed - I believe and trust that He bodily Rose form the dead - I believe and trust the He has reveled Himself in the 66 books of the Bible and He has over seen its faithful translation into English.
I cannot say I am a christian if I do not embrace the Truth of Himself and the truth He gave us.
When I say I am A christian - I say that I am a Follower Jesus - I follow Jesus into His love and care for people with His kind of love and his kind of forgiveness and His kind of serving heart -
For I cannot truthfully say I am a christian if I do not love, forgive and serve others.
When I say I am a Christian - I way that I am a Bond Slave - A joyful purchased servant of His - Joyfully obedient to His command - TO live the life HE has for me.
For I cannot truthfully say I am a Christian if I do not Joyfully serve Jesus and strive to obey His commands.
When I say that I am a christian - I must also be able to truthfully proclaim I am a witness- Joyfully ready willing able and actively Proclaim to anyone, anywhere at anytime what I have seen and witnessed in the very life that God has given me - sharing the gospel with others as I live the life He has for me.
When I say I am a christian - I must also be able to truthfully claim I am a Prayer warrior - For I am at war with my fellow believers - War with the common enemy of all things created by God - The Common enemy of all people - And the one who hates God and everything about Him - I must actively pursue that the Enemy is defeated already by Christ but He is still active and prowling - And I see victory in Jesus over the schemes of the devil with I use the most powerful weapon God has Prayer - The Battle is won on the knees long before it is won on the battle field - -
I cannot truthfully claim that I am a Jesus follower unless I am one who prays -
Finally - To Identity “I am” claims that are inextricably connected - “I am a Christian and I am a Church Member”
“I am a Christian means I am an active unifying serving part of a local church which is the living breathing reality of Jesus Body here on earth - The very one who is called the Bride that Jesus died for.
Many people today have miss or dismissed or degraded or deteriorated the Biblical Truth of those to interconnected truth claims - I am a Christian and Active Serving Unifying member of His local Church”
These are gifts - They are not heavy obligations that hang on us - They are gifts -0
God has given us the Identity of Christina and of joyfully living out our faith as the Body of Jesus Living Breathing Body of Jesus
WHY?
because when we live it out as He has designed us to live it our together -
Three thing get really really big in our life -
GREATER FAITH - TRUST
GREATER HOPE
GREATER LOVE
1 - Greater Faith
Living this life that Jesus came to give us, this saved life - When we live it out together as Active Serving Uniting Church members Locking arms with each other on the quest and adventure
This will bring us to a greater FAITH-Trust -
41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.
You see when we lock arms together on the quest and adventure taking risks and living the life He has called us to be as Believer, Follower, Bond Servants,Witness, Prayer Warrior, and Church Member - Things like acts 2:41 happen and 3000 come to faith in one day and God gets the glory and our trust in Him is brought to a greater level than ever before -
When that happens and our Faith our what ?
our faith
our trust in God that not only is He able but that He still does - When that Happens we become Bolder - We see sings and wonders -
29 And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, 30 while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” 31 And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.
32 Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. 33 And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.
God works in us and through us actions for His Glory and we See Great Boldness as in acts 4:29,31
WE see demonstrations of Faith as Signs and Wonders take place - Acts 4:30
30 while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
We will love in a greater outpouring of blessing as our generosity increases - Acts 4:32 and we will share the power of the Resurrection with others Acys 4:33
The Second thing that we will experience is Greater HOPE - Greater Hope that Jesus will step into our culture and Fix the sinner and the pharisee-
In John Chapter 8 vs One through 11 It is the Story of the Woman Caught in adultery -
AS the Story Goes Jesus attention is caught by a crowd - that had gathered together to stone to death a woman caught in the very act of having sex with a man that was not her husband - Adultery -
Jesus is confronted by the scribes and Pharisees who had possession of this lady - I can only imagine the shame and embarrassment this woman must be feeling -
These leaders come to Jesus and say - Teacher we caught this woman - The law says Stone her - What say you? There was a crowd of people there all with rocks in their hands and they were all ready to condemn this sinner to death -
Jesus does not reply - He does not say a ward at first - All Jesus does is bed down and wrote with his finger on the ground -
and As Jesus was writing He simply said - “any one who is without sin … you can be the first one to throw a rock” and He kept writing on the ground -
The Story goes that One by One beginning with the older people they went away until it was just Her and Jesus -
Jesus says Where are they? Has no one condemned you?
The Woman answers NO ONE LORD - She was saying NO ONE MASTER -
Jesus then looked at her with Grace and mercy and the new life that he came to give us all and said -
Nether do I condemn you - Go and then Jesus tells her the life changing thing - GO and sin no more -
what happened is Jesus displayed his grace at the fullest and at the very same time invited this sinner into his changing life - GO and sin no more.
You SEE when we lock arms into His body Active Serving Unifying - We Have Greater Faith Trust - We are elevated to a Greater Hope - and we can give and experience a greater love - Luke 11:42
Agape Love - A love that is patient -A love that is Kind - A love that is not envious and does not Boast - A love that is not based in pride - That does not act arrogantly that is not Rude. Love that does not insist on its own way. Love that is not resentful or irritable or easily angered or frustrated.
A love that does not rejoice in wrongdoing or failures but rejoices with Truth.
A love that beards all things -
A love that believes all things -
A love that hopes all things and
a love that endours all things.
This love this agape love is the Love of God that we are to receive form Him, Experience from Him and distribute to others freely.
This kind of Love, the Love of God, Never ends. it Never fails, It never goes away and it is never withdrawn.
of all the Gifts of the Holy Spirit indwelling in us and working through us this is the greatest of Gifts.
It is the kind of love that we should have for one another - the Greater love of Jesus -
STICKY POINT DARRELL AND TEAM LEAD US TO THE TABLE OF JESUS.
APPLICATION OR IMAGINE
Being a Christian, a believer a Jesus follower, a Bond Slave of His, A witness A Prayer warrior A integrated serving active unifying member of His body in a local church is not a burden or a legalistic obligation - If it is to you then please please loved ones - Examine yourself and make sure you are of the faith.
Being Identified by GOD as a Christian and living it out as a person who trusts God, who follows Jesus into love and forgiveness - Who is a Bond Slave Joyfully serving our master - Being a living witness to what we have seen in our life and the life of others - being a prayer warrior - and an active, serving, unifying member of His body in the expression of a local church - it is not and cannot be viewed as an over weighted burden or a legalistic obligation - Jesus said my yolk is easy and by burden is light - so there is a yolk and there is a burden it is just one filled with inexpressible joy when we serve our lord and master who gave his very life for us.
This is true freedom
This is fulfilling our purpose -
This is the good work that God has designed in advance for us to do .
Church -
It is time to Embrace our Identity -
It is time time to take fully on the Identity of Christian, Believer, Follower, Bond-servant, Witness Prayer Warrior and Member of His body the Local Church.
If you have not already it is time for everyone who claims Christ to take our place among the other messy, sinning, hypocritical, got it wrong sometimes people, Locking arms together on the quest and adventure taking risks together -
to love one another and discover one another in deep and more meaningful ways all in the context of a local church -
Its time to serve instead of being served -
its time to Grow instead of being stagnant or stunted -
Its time to pray and see the wonder of God instead of remaining in silence and wondering if He is still there.
Its time to witness and be in awe of God as he changes people right in front of us instead of thinking the gospel has no power -
It is time to carry each other burdens - loving and caring for each other in such a way that separates us from the world Being Holy as He is Holy -
Where the world wonders “What must I do to be saved?”
It is time for us to be the church - Who is the Church?
We are the Church -
Then let us live to our identity as Christians - believing, Following, Serving, Witnessing, Praying and being a serving active unifying part of the something that is certainly greater than our selves and that is the mission of Jesus being kingdom builders in and as a local church.
With our life styles so significantly changed that we are actually accomplishing the mission of Jesus together that we are all called to and that is Representing Christ together and making Him known to anyone anywhere at anytime.
COMMUNION
THE TABLE OF JESUS
Acknowledgement of our need for Jesus to prepare for the table of Jesus–
The Scriptures tell us that when we come to the table of Jesus it is a time of remembrance – A time of thinking about what Jesus has done and accomplished on the cross – A time of remembering why Jesus did what He did. And So as the people who have been called out of darkness, we take time to contemplate and to repent –
Repentance is a turning to Jesus again and again and again – In the life of a follower of Jesus it is never a once and done thing. The Bible tells us that if we agree with God “we confess” in the ways we have rebelled against God “our sin” He is faithful and just to forgive our sin and clean us from all unrighteousness.
So, to prepare our hearts to come to the table of Jesus, as a community, we spend time in prayerful contemplation, agreeing with God trough confession, the areas of our life where we have rebelled against Him, where Jesus still needs to do some work and touch us and heal us.
When we do this we encourage you to take a posture of Humility, as we spend the next minute or so in silent contemplation.
A posture of humility to you might be to stay in your seat with your eyes closed and your head bowed, you might stand with your eyes lifted to heaven and your arms and hands raised as Solomon did when he prayed, you might come and kneel here at the front or there Where you are seated – whatever that is to you, let us take a posture of humility, agreeing with God through prayerful confession the way where we have rebelled against Him as we prepare our hearts to participate in the table of Jesus.
Pause for 60 seconds in prayerful contemplation
Assurance of our forgiveness through the table.
As we come to the table of Jesus together, we are reminded of the assurance of our forgiveness. Because we openly and actively declare the Gospel as we participate in communion together. The poured out blood of Jesus and the death of His body as he joyfully took upon Him self the wrath of God that was due us.
Unity of the Table
When we come to the table of Jesus, we are spiritually united together. Paul says in this letter to the Corinthians “that Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread.”
So as we come to the table of Jesus we are spiritually united together as brothers and sisters in Christ. We are also united with Jesus in his death and resurrection at His table.
Participation at the Table
BREAD: On the night He was betrayed, He gathered His disciples for a Passover meal. While they were eating Jesus took some bread; after He blessed it and gave thanks to the Father: He broke it, gave it to His disciples and said: “Take this all of you and eat of it, for This is My body, which is for you; when you do this, do this in remembrance of Me.”
Eat the Bread with Everyone
CUP: After the meal, in the same way He took the cup, again gave thanks to the Father. He took the Cup and gave it to His disciples saying, “Take this all of you and drink of this cup. This cup is the cup of my blood. The blood of the New and Everlasting covenant. My blood which will be poured out for the forgiveness of sins for many; when you do this, as often as you drink it, do this in remembrance of Me.”
Drink the Cup with Everyone
PRAYER TEAM!