Sermon Tone Analysis

Ephesians 2:5-6 “Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:”

I. Intro

1.

What makes up your identity?

Sanctification is a process that God wants to use to refine you.

You'll find your identity there.

What makes up your identity?

Sanctification is a process that God wants to use to refine you.

You'll find your identity there.

The Bible has a lot to say about this…not selfies of course but the idea of us seeing one thing and God seeing another.

That’s one of the things I love most about God: He doesn’t have my eyes.

He has His own and they don’t see what I see.

It’s a theological term called Justification.

It simply means that (upon accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior, explain salvation…) God sees Jesus in us!

That starts a process in us called Sanctification.

It’s a process where God refines us.

Where God wants to start making us more Christ-like.

That’s exciting, right?

Here’s the problem…It’s not a fast, microwaved process.

It takes the length of our entire lives to happen.

Thankfully, God is patient beyond our wildest dreams.

He’s working a process in you.

Right now.

To truly understand the process, we need to be honestly aware of our own sin.

The book of Isaiah chapter 1:5&6 – the prophet Isaiah says that we are all sick.

Our entire bodies are sick he says.

Diseased.

Let’s take a look.

Isaiah 1:5-6 “Why should ye be stricken any more?

Ye will revolt more and more: The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; But wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: They have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.”

He says from the sole of our feet to the top of our heads there is no soundness in it.

Most Old Testament prophets were healers too.

Isaiah knew medicine.

He knew disease.

He knew the human condition of not just the body but also the soul.

Do we really GET what God did for us?

Really?

Jesus was in His perfect, stainless, matchless, untarnished and majestic Heavenly home when He CHOSE to come here, to a place that had an epidemic spread to every human soul on the planet.

It was infection, it was irreversible and it was catastrophically FATAL.

Would YOU go to a city where EVERYONE had Covid, EVERYONE was dying, EVERYONE was contagious and you go, knowing the disease was going to suffer you a horrific, brutal death just to save people who WILLINGLY CHOSE to get sick!!??? Now I bet you’re glad God doesn’t see us as we see ourselves.

Have you ever looked in the mirror and been horrified?

Usually first thing in the morning.

You can be the best looking person of the year on the cover of people magazine and still wake up in the morning and think you’re ugly.

God does His best refining when we stop looking in the mirror.

With this human body comes a dashing suit of insecurity doesn’t it.

We are riddled with insecurity.

Each and every one of us on some level.

You’ve all used the term “identity crisis”.

Maybe on yourself, maybe on someone else you’re observing.

Most Christians are suffering from an identity crisis.

Time to be brutally honest with yourself.

If you can’t do this right now, there’s NO reason for me to even be wasting my time.

– What makes up YOUR identity?

Is it what others think of you?

Friends, co-workers, husband, wife, kids?

Is your identity found in what car you drive, what house you have (that isn’t even yours because the bank owns it) , what job title you have, what successes you achieve?

As Christians our identities are found in CHRIST ALONE.

The King James version says it best in John 1:12 when you believe in the NAME of Jesus, He gives YOU power and strength…even so much that you are considered SONS (and daughters) of GOD! John 1:12 “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:” God sees Jesus in the mirror in your bathroom, you see a failure.

God sees His child in your face and you see imperfections.

God sees a champion and a warrior in you and you see a coward.

God sees a saint of holy standing in you and you see a spiritual wreck.

God want’s to do a great work IN us but WE keep getting in the way!

If you’re not letting God refine you, if you’re getting in His way by selfish living, insincere prayer and non existent Bible reading…YOU have an identity crisis that you need to take care of right here, right now! There’s a process God is waiting to do, in you, that will make you the very best you can be.

A cast iron pan is the best pan to cook in.

My cast-iron pan doesn’t look anything like my parent’s cast-iron pan.

My cast-iron pan isn’t as nonstick as theirs is.

Did I buy the wrong cast-iron pans?

What the heck was going on here?

Of course I would come to find out the secret.

Their pans were really old.

Their pans were seasoned.

Their pans were in a different stratosphere than my pans.

I had pan envy and I had it bad.

I’m getting closer but I still haven’t caught up to their pans.

(it takes years to season cast iron, proper cleaning and oiling after each use slowly turns normal cast iron in the greatest cooking surface know to man) Some of you are saying that’s too much work, just buy non-stick.

NON STICK IS ONLY NON STICK UNTIL IT DECIDEDS IT DOESN’T WANT TO BE NON STICK ANYMORE.

And it always happens at the worst time.

Non stick starts to have it’s own identity crisis…and your eggs suffer a horrible death!

Meanwhile cast iron (with a little attention and dedication) get’s better with time and seasoning.

Your faith grows more non stick as you find your identity in Jesus Christ!

Galatians 2 says that.

You’ve got to abandon any image of yourself that is not from God.

You need a Christ-centered identity that sin and insecurity can’t stick to!

You need to stop accepting how OTHERS have defined and labeled you.

START believing what GOD says about you!

You are a NEW creation!

He is PLEASED with how He created you so you better be.

So what do we do?

1.

For starters stop running towards sin and start running away from it.

2. Get in God’s word daily, talk to Him constantly.

Ask Him to refine you, get out of His way get into His plan!

3. Abandon your old self.

Trust me, you’ll like the new YOU that God creates!

Soon you won’t even recognize the old YOU.

You’ll find your identity in Jesus and you’ll change forever! 2 Corinthians 5:17 says (upon salvation) You have become a new creation!

The old you is GONE and the NEW you is ready to rock.

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

When we moved, went back one last (hopefully emotional) time…empty.

Voice echoed.

Didn’t smell lived in.