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SERIES: ALIGNING WITH GOD
SUBSERIES: IMPACT OF FOUNDATIONS
IDENTITY
MESSAGE TITLE: "CHOSEN AND CALLED"

MAIN MESSAGE

CONTEXT:
We have been busy with a series on foundations. Now we’re shifting our focus to how those foundations when we understand them AND THEN APPLY THEM, should impact certain key parts of our lives - the most important ones that actually affect everything else.

We want to see How
1. Repentance
2. Salvation
3. Faith
4. Lordship & Obedience
5. Water baptism
6. Holy spirit baptism
7. Spiritual family
8. Discipleship

Impacts
1. Identity
2. Purpose
3. Marriage
4. Parenting
5. Community

How is my identity impacted by the foundations?

Repentance: I realize I am a sinner in need of a saviour and choose to turn away from my old self to God - I burn down the house of the old man and I make a 180 degree turn toward God.

Salvation: I am saved by grace through faith and I am now a child of God and can cry out with the spirit of adoption Abba, Father, to the almighty God, creator of the universe

Faith - I have received a gift of faith and I choose to exercise it exclusively in my relationship with God by putting all my faith in Him

Lordship and obedience: Jesus is Lord, Christ and King, but now I realize it, accept it and make him the lord of my life and because I love Him, I do what He says

Water baptism: my own man is washed away, I am a new creation, no longer in condemnation

Holy Spirit baptism: I receive the spirit of God, fire and power - part and parcel of my new identity in Christ

Spiritual family is my new family in God where I choose to commit by serving and submitting to leadership

Discipleship is the process of maturing in my identity in Christ through meaningful relationships where accountability is key with people in the church


“CHOSEN & CALLED”

1.Who am I?
2. Why am I here?
3. What is my message?
4. To whom is my message?

These are four very important questions we need to ask ourselves.

We are all living from an identity. It’s either our true identity given and ordained by God, or, it is a false identity based on lies we pick up on the path of life. Or, it is somewhere in the middle.

One of the devil’s main strategies is to lie to people about their identity. Your worth. Your sense of belonging. Etc. This has always been the case. But it seems like the gloves have come off so to speak and even the basic biology of humans are now being messed with and questioned. More than two genders? What?? You can be who you want to be? Let the universe tell you? Live your truth? If it feels good, do it? And it escalates in some people’s minds to - you are not worthy to live, it would be better if you just weren’t here, God doesn’t love you anyway - look at your life, he has left you, or you’re such a bad sinner He could never love you… Lies, lies lies!

My heart’s desire is that we will all have an encounter with God today where we see ourselves through His eyes. And my hope is that such a perspective will help us to cancel all the lies and distorted ideas we have of ourselves.

We all need to realize that we are affected by life’s baggage. We all have issues from past hurts, right? It looks different for each one of us. From an objective perspective one person’s issues may look less difficult than another’s, but the fact is that for each individual, the pain, suffering, abuse, fear, uncertainty, humiliation etc. that they experienced in life, is very real and very hurtful.

I firmly believe that we are not defined by our circumstances, but rather by how we choose to react to them. The problem is, however, that most people experience their most profound hurts at a young age when most of us do not have the knowledge or discernment of how to correctly handle hurt, disappointment, abuse or some other form of pain. And the worst is when the hurting is done by the people who should actually be protecting and nurturing us, our parents.

I do not know what each and every one of you think of themselves or how you view yourself. But what I do know is that:
You do have a view of yourself
It has been formed by your circumstances
How you view yourself today and who you are will be a direct result of how you chose to react to your hurts
Each of one of us has a memory of the most traumatic thing that has ever happened to us and for most people that has marked our lives and how we responded to that or whether we have been helped through it, will have a great impact on who we are today

This is very important: Your identity has been established before the foundation of the earth was laid. It is a done deal. It is set by God, you heavenly father who created you and therefore knows you the best. It is settled and it cannot change.
But, the baggage of life, pain, hurts, all that stuff, can cause us to form a wrong or counterfeit version of our identity. We will live the identity that we most believe to be true. And unfortunately for the average person this usually translates to a substandard, sub par version of who we were originally designed to be.

When we do not know who we truly are, we will create an identity we can cope with and sell to the people around us. Most people will “buy” it. But those who really care and love you, will see through it and keep calling you out on counterfeit behaviour - so you might try to cancel those people out of your life.

Thank God that he has given us His word through which we can discover who we were meant to be. From his word we can see that he planned all of us from before the creation and that he knew us before we were formed in our mother’s womb. Amazing! So He knows each of our true identities.

But what do we do and what does the world teach us? Go find yourself. And what does that usually mean? Go to some other nation and walk a lot. Hoping you’ll bump into your true self somewhere along the way.

But all any of us really need to do is to take a short trip - bend our knees and kneel, humble ourselves before the living God, take up his word, the bible, choose to make our hearts fertile soil and to be obedient, and read it and do what it says.

From this humble posture, where we are truly receptive for the truth of God, we can discover our true identity in Him. As we get to know Him better, we get to know ourselves better. Why? Because he made us and knows us the best.

Apart from God we cannot know our true identity given by Him. It is just not possible. That is why our foundations are so important - the first step to access our God given identity, is to know Him, which means - repentance and salvation and putting our faith in Him. Once we have done that, we now need to read the scriptures from the position of a son and daughter of God and believe that His promises apply to us.

So, let’s go to God’s word and discover how we are chosen and called.


Scriptures:

John 3:16 - 'For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. '

Ephesians 1:3-12
'Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.'

Ephesians 4:1-6 - 'I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.'


Romans 8:28-30
'And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.'


I Peter 1:22-23
'Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, '



I Peter 2:1-10
'Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.
Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture, “Behold, I lay in Zion A chief cornerstone, elect, precious, And he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.” Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, “The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone,” and “A stone of stumbling And a rock of offense.” They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed.
But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.'

It should be very clear to all of us how much God loves us, how he has plans for each of us that goes beyond the confines of time and that in Him we can discover our true identities and live them out in service of His kingdom.

You are chosen by God! You are called by God! Believe it! Receive it! Settle it in your spirit and live it!


REFLECT AND RESPOND
Let us all take some time to reflect and respond to these scriptures and truths of God’s word
Let any counterfeit identity die today - fall our of agreement with any lies about who you are and receive the truth of God’s word over your life and identity.
Know and receive that in Jesus you are loved, forgiven, set free from any and all sin, addictions and abuses. Receive it!