Pastor Bernie Federmann
August 31, 2014 - W1435

She loved her Grandpa and loved to listen to the stories that he read to her as she sat in his old stuffed chair. One day while her grandpa was reading to her, she reached up and started touching the wrinkles on his face. She then touched her own face. As he read a few more stories to her, she touched his face a little bit more and said, “Grandpa, did God make you?” He replied “Yes sweetie, many, many years ago.” She then touched her own face and asked her Grandpa, “Did God make me?” He replied “Yes sweetie, just a short time ago.” She then said, “You know, God is getting better and better at making people-isn’t He?”

The truth is, God makes us just right. Sometimes we may compare ourselves to others who have more than us. This can cause us to become a little jealous, or if we are not careful, insecure.

When Pastor Wayne asked me to give a sermon for the series called Victorious, he asked me to speak about an area in my life where I have been victorious. Since I was a small boy, I struggled with insecurity. Everyone always seemed faster, better, smarter, and skinnier than me. Back in high school, the coaches would always pick three of the most athletic students to lead their squads. I was always the last to get picked. I rejoiced when a guy named Bill Page joined my PE class because he was slower than me, and got picked last instead of me.

One day though, I realized that my security is found in Christ, based on His promise, based on His mercy, and based on His grace. I realized that my security is not based on my performance, merit or goodness.

The big idea of my message is that we have an enemy called the devil, who uses tactics to distort and destroy our security in Christ. God had told Adam and Eve that they could eat of any tree, except for one. However, the serpent said, “Did God really say, “You must not eat from any tree in the Garden?” (Gen. 3:1 NIV) This is a tactic of the enemy. When Jesus tells you that He loves you, the enemy is going to speak words of hurt into your heart by saying, “Are you sure that He loves you?”

After 40 days of fasting, “The tempter came to Him and said, ‘If you are the Son of God…’” (Matt. 4:3 NIV). During this time, the devil was challenging Jesus. “Jesus answered, ‘It is written: “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”’” (Matt. 4.4 NIV) Jesus is teaching us how to deal with the voice of the past.

Faith is the embrace of all that God has said.

Faith is believing what He says in His word and what He speaks to us by His spirit.

When Jesus was on the cross and said, “Father forgive them”, He was speaking of us and people like us.

 Our security is “In Christ”. This phrase appears more than 140 times in the New Testament.   It also has to do with our identity or who we are as people.

 IN CHRIST

If you are “in Christ” then

1. You are not who you were.

The Bible says, “…Put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”   (Eph. 4:22-24 NIV)

 We take off our old self, and put on our new self. This becomes our identity.

2. You are holy and blameless. “For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight.” (Eph. 1:4 NIV)

 This scripture is really good for some of us who have had a troubled past. When we embrace by faith what God has said to us, we become blameless in His sight.

 Last week Pastor John Burgess said that we have to get rid of our “selfies”. He said that we put pictures up on face book, but take them down if nobody likes them and post another picture that we think people will like instead. However, our security is not in other people, but in Jesus Christ who sees us as blameless in His sight. This is what matters the most in life.

3. You are chosen and adopted.

At Ephesus, the Jewish people who were followers of Christ, treated the Gentiles as illegitimate children or secondary citizens. However, they were not inferior because “God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. This is what He wanted to do, and it gave Him great pleasure.” (Eph. 1:5 NLT) Before the earth was formed He wanted me. This gave Him great pleasure.

 What God says about us matters most of all.

In Bible times, especially in the city of Ephesus, when a baby was born, it was not taken to its mother to bond, but to the father who decided whether to keep the child, or leave the baby by itself on the door step, and close the door. People believed if the baby survived, then it was by the will of their gods.   You are like this baby. In His great mercy, God opened the door, picked you up and adopted you.

 The Bible says “now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to Him through the blood of Christ.”(Eph. 2:13 NLT)

   Jesus was purchasing my security in Christ when he lay dying on the cross.

4. You are a masterpiece. “For we are God’s masterpiece.   He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago.” (Eph. 2:10 NLT)

The word “masterpiece” has been translated to mean “beautiful tapestry”. God takes the broken strings and fragments of your life ad puts them together. Don’t use your past as an excuse to miss out on your future.

 Don’t allow your past trauma to become your present day drama!

If we let this happen, we may begin to feel insecure because we may label ourselves or start to perceive how we use to be. When I am afraid of what others think, I never stop acting. Instead of trying to live up to what others think, let things get quiet. Then patiently listen for the voice of God who made you and who delights in you. When you start listening to His voice, other voices will start to sound ridiculous.

 To be secure in Christ, I must embrace the idea that

5. You are loved by God. “Because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved.” (Eph. 2:4-5 NIV)

 The Bible says, “And may you have the power to understand as all God’s people should know how wide and how long, and how high and how deep His love is.”(Eph. 3:18-19) This is my prayer for you. There is no situation that God’s love cannot redeem. His love is greater than any situation that you are facing. Therefore, I want you to experience His love. This is the fight against insecurity.

 YOUR IDENTITY

1.”Your identity is derived by what you believe to be the truest thing about you.” David Lomas

 The truest thing about you is that you are loved, adopted, chosen, and marked by the Holy Spirit.

 Moses believed that he could not be God’s spokesperson because he stuttered. His perception shaped his life. Sarah, Abraham’s wife was barren; however, God spoke to him and told him that she would give him a son.

 Abraham sired Ishmael through another woman because he did not believe the promise of God; however, when we partner with God, we are able to fight against the enemy’s accusations, and we are able to see God’s blessings in our lives.

 One Sunday a man in my church came to me and told me that he was a marked man because he was an alcoholic. He slept with the bottle and had fellowship with it. I then told him that Jesus knows everything about alcoholics. I tried to encourage him further by saying what if you started believing that Jesus could help you? What if you got connected to church programs and accountability groups? Remember-there is no situation that has gone too far, that God’s love cannot redeem.

If you believe who you are is who you were, then you will always do what you always did.

2. Is shaped by what you believe the most important person in your life believes about you.

Make God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit the most important person in your life and live by what they say about you. When I am running my race and trying to perform, I sustain myself with a verse from the Bible that says. “For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior and will take the light in you and with His love He can calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.”(Zephaniah 3:17)

 Your identity is in what Jesus did for you.  The Bible says, “…You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price.”(1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NLT) When Jesus died on the cross, he earned the power to label you – no one else has that right. Therefore, when someone calls you incompetent or horrible, or says that they do not love you, let it go and listen to what God says about you.

 In October 2011, there was a renaming ceremony in Mumbai Indi. At their birth, 285 girls were given the name Nakusa, which means unwanted in Indian. This is because boys are considered more valuable. At this ceremony, the girls were allowed to choose their new names which was printed on a certificate along with the words “You are most wanted.”

 A new identity – that is what we find in Christ.

If you do not know Jesus as your savior, He wants to give you a new identity. If you do not know Christ like the church of Ephesus that drifted away, he wants to bring you back with a new identity.

 Lord, by your spirit, free us to let us know who we are in You. For those of you who are about to quit, hang on because God is with you. For those of you who feel unloved, embrace His love. For those of you who fight with insecurity, may you know that there is victory in Jesus Christ, and you can be victorious in Him.

 God Bless you!

 Possible Questions:

• What does it mean from a quote from David Lomas that says, “Your identity is derived by what you believe to be the truest thing about you?

• What are the devils tactics to sabotage your identity?

• What can we do to rejoice and solidify our identity in Jesus Christ?