The talk — final

The talk, “new creature”

Intro:

Baptisms:

Acts 8:35–36 ESV

Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?”

Acts 22:12–16 ESV

“And one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there, came to me, and standing by me said to me, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight.’ And at that very hour I received my sight and saw him. And he said, ‘The God of our fathers appointed you to know his will, to see the Righteous One and to hear a voice from his mouth; for you will be a witness for him to everyone of what you have seen and heard. And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.’

2 Corinthians 5:16–18 ESV

From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;

Prayer

story: First message ever to a youth group was about identity.. Identity is so important!

transition: Today, we had baptisms, and that’s exactly what this represents. Our old nature has died with Christ. Our old nature we consider it dead. We are raised up in newness of life.

Romans 6:4 ESV

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

— We have a new identity, and that’s what I want to talk about briefly today

— There’s a lot of talk about identity lately. Especially when it comes to sexuality

— You may have heard that what the church/bible teaches about this subject is HATE.

— I want to dispel that notion for a simple reason. The bible teaches that ALL HAVE FALLEN SHORT of the Glory of God. It is not just people who identify with the LGBTQ lifestyle who have fallen short. WE have all fallen short.

— It is not just for the sin of homosexuality that the wrath is coming for humanity. His wrath is coming for all sin. For the “missing the mark” that we all have done.

— Now, certainly there are churches out there that single out that issue. They do in fact teach hate.. God “hates gays” etc. That is just not what the bible teaches.

— John 3:16

John 3:16 ESV

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

— The idea that we are teaching hate, by simply teaching that sin is sin, is just simply not accurate. Just as inaccurate as telling a doctor who calls cancer cancer that his prognosis is hate speech!

— I don’t care if it’s politically correct, but the bible teaches clearly that sex belongs between a male and a female who are commited in a loving covenant we call marriage.

— The bible is clearly against homosexuality. The world would try and separate identity and sexual preference. But I see little value in trying to parse through all of that. I think it’s crazy for kids to be pushed to decide their gender etc. For kids to be exposed to drag shows etc.

— What is this drive we see in the world to “find your true self, your true gender”

— This whole identity issue is not new. It goes all the way back to the beginning. It goes back to Adam and Eve.

— You see, since sin came into the world, all have been born with this thought, “something is not right with me” and this pursuit of finding our true self and true happiness..

— Our problem isn’t that we were born with the wrong body!

— Eph. 2:1-3

Ephesians 2:1–3 ESV

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

— So yes, we need a new identity!

— The world wants us to drown in options. We as a species don’t do well with options. Have you been to 31 flavors? I mean have you watched Indiana Jones and the Holy Grail? Where there are all these cups.. Choose wisely!!

— The bible makes it simple. And I mean we need simple!

— Deut. 30:19

Deuteronomy 30:19 ESV

I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live,

— I want to choose life!!

— And this is applicable to all of us!!

The Harmon building

— The word Harmon was painted on there. It is not owned by Harmon anymore

— What about us? What about us has changed, but we still have labels that tell us we are the old nature

— Anger? Analogy of package. The enemy will bring you a package and try to call you the old Harmon building. The old Anger building

— If you have nothing to revert back to, then you will simply take the package because you relate to that old identity

— What we need to do, is remind our flesh. Remind the enemy that we are a new creation!

Closing:

As our new identity relates to the LGBTQ issue. Some of us have family members, or maybe we ourselves struggle in this area. I want to leave you with hope. Maybe you don’t know how to start a conversation. Or maybe at a deeper level, can God bring change and transformation to myself or my loved one? So i want to end with bringing Kassie and her sharing her story with us.