Sermon Tone Analysis

Identity- Discovering Who He has Made You to Be

Now the last part of that title is very key to you unlocking your riches in Christ.

Discovering who He has made you to be, not discovering what he made you to do.

We are a purpose Driven culture, we desire to know that we have significance, but when you find purpose in what you do instead of who you are, You will be doomed to live a life of unrest, overwhelmed by feelings of inadequacy, a heart full of pride, and getting hung up on the areas where you blew it.

God has created you not to do, but to be.

Doing involves work, performance, success, not that those things are not important, they are just not the most important.

God didn’t create you to do, He has the holy Angels that can outdo any of us.

God created you to be, created you for rest, create you for family, created you to simply Be, Be what?

Be a Child of the most High God.

Read with me in Ephesisians 1

Ephesians1:3

Now to most people this just seems like it is one run on sentence, but I am jsut using my sanctified imagination here and I am guessing that when the Holy Spirit moved on the Apostle Paul to write this epistle to the Ephesian Church that when he wrote verse 3 about these spiritual blessing that we have in Christ, He just got to giddy and just packed as much into one sentence as he possible could.

You have been blessed in Christ with all spiritual blessings,, ooh oh you were chosen in Him before the world was even created , and predestined you for the adoption into the family of God… Yea yea, God knew that sin was going to ake a mess of things, get people sp[un out of control, ye, yes I know that darkness will rule with a heavy hamd .... but God predestined you, that is he already had a plan for you , He knew that one day you would be brought in by adoption, and a part of The Beloved… Do you know this morning that you are not the red headed step child that the parent wishes he never had, but beloved , accepted, chosen..... Yeah but what about my sin, and my failures, and my horrible choices,,, oh yeah verse 7 He has a plan for that too.... you are going to have redemption through the blood of His son, You will have absolute pardon for all of your evil deeds, those times when you knew exactly what you were doing, sinned with your eyes wide open, yeah there is going to be pardon, forgivness.... Verse 8 and in case that isn’t good enough According to the riches of his grace He is going to lavish, pour out in full measure, so that you don’t even have room to contain it, Grace upon grace upon grace upon grace

Your like are you sure it doenst seem like that, well thats because its a mystery sill… Verse 9 hes going to let you in on His secrets, He will reveal his mystery, that everything is wrapped up in His son… And He will reconcile things in heaven and earth......

And all that is in the nasty now..

Need more… verse 11 by the way you have an inheritance, He has given His Holy Spirit who is the guiarentee of an inheritance that is coming… If God has called you to a hard life, to really suffer for the gospel, He says don’t give up… It will be worth it in the end.

There is a crown coming to those who endure.

The Letter to the Ephesians has been described as the Christians bank.

Spiritually in God’ eyes when you heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, you repented of your sin,

You went from being a bum, to being Billionaire, from being a pauper, to being a Prince, From being a con man to being more than a conqueror

You say well that sounds great and all, I have said yes to Jesus.

I have been a Christian in fact for many years, and most days I feel like I’m just barely hanging on.

Well you simply haven’t taken god at His Word.

You have not entered into your Promise Land through faith you haven’t possess your possessions.

You are still live living with an orphan mentality with he has said you a re royalty.

Most people are wearing their wounded ness on their sleeve, and they propablyt know its the wrong type of attention, but in their mind its still attention.

At least I don’t feel invisible..... Listen God’s will for you and healing, God will for you is freedom, God’s will for you is purpose, but before you can hav e those things you must discover who you are, and that is in Christ and you have all the resources of heaven at your disposal.

But many will live their life.

Drawing their breath, drawing their salary, malcontents, discontented with life, and will dying in a spiritual desert when the had an oasis at their disposal.

ILLUSTRATION

There was a lady known in American history known as Hetty Green.

Hetty Green was called “America’s Greatest Miser.”

When she died in 1916, this is a long time ago, when she died in 1916 she left an estate value at $100 million.

That’s a lot of money in 1916.

But Hetty Green was so miserly that she said she ate cold oatmeal because it was too expensive to heat the water to warm it.

Her son had a severe leg injury and it was so severe that she was delaying trying to find a free clinic where it could be treated and she delayed so long it had to be amputated.

In fact she got apoplexy one time and hastened her own death by arguing the merits of skim milk because it was cheaper than whole milk.

Now that’s a strange lady, folks.

To die with $100 million in your estate and your son loses his leg and you actually encourage your own death and eat cold oatmeal all your life—that’s really not understanding how to use your resources.

The kind of Christian who wanders through life with a case of spiritual malnutrition, who doesn’t know where the feast is.

The kind of Christian who doesn’t know how to tap his resources maybe because he doesn’t know what they are and so he never really finds out how rich he is

The kind of Christian who wanders through life with a case of spiritual malnutrition, who doesn’t know where the feast is.

The kind of Christian who doesn’t know how to tap his resources maybe because he doesn’t know what they are and so he never really finds out how rich he is

Identity-

Your riches are bound up in your identity and your Identity is bound up in Jesus.

I told you that most people try to find their identity in what they do.

And when they are about 45 they realize that they never quite made it.

Listen Child of God your identity is not bound up in what you did, Its bound up in what He has already done.

IT IS FINISHED!!

You are already kings and Queens, its just that you are

Illustration_ Slip $40 Dollars

Slip ten dollars into someones purse

Dou you believe me to be a good man

Do you trust me

Do you love me

Would you do something for me that wouldn’t cost you anything and would be the right thing to do?

Would you do something for me that you could accomplish right there?

Give me ten dollars...

Do you love me

Do you trust me

Then give me ten dollars

THE NEED FOR A POSITIVE SELF IDENTITY

MOST PEOPLE TODAY ARE OPERATING OUT OF A WOUND.

They have been hurt and betrayed by others, friend that is not God.

They have been abandoned by man, But He has promised to lever leave you or Forsake you

Depression is at all time highs and this ought not be for the

Let me Tell you why you are somebody?

First off you are only a somebody if you are in his body.

You have said Yes to Jesus Christ!

In order for you too have these riches at your disposal, you must come to the place where you realize that you are absolutely spiritually bankrupt

Until you say to the Lord Nothing in my hand I bring simply to the cross i cling.

Jesus said blessed are the poor in Spirit.

But when you confess that you are nobody, and you are adopted into his Body.

You become a Somebody.

Not a somebody that struts their religious pride all over the place.

#POSITION IN CHRIST

You are somebody because of your position in Christ

IN Christ- is used 27 times in the Book of Ephesians.

In Christ

u are somebody because of your position in Christ

NOw when the Lord rose from the dead, the Bible says He did with all authority.

That He was given the name that is above every name.

That when He paid for the sins of the World He opened a new entry way into Heaven.

And it is through Him.

Now when we enter into a relationship with jesus, we are adopted into his family

Verse 5and 6

Ephesians 1:

Now when it says that He predestined us to adoption.

Don’t get the idea that means he picked one sinner over another.

That he has predestined soome to heaven and predestined others to hell.

No this means simply and beautifully before the foundations of the world God had you and I on his heart.

Before He flung the stars into the sky before he heaped the mountains up high, before all of this He was thinking of you and I.

I don’t think for a second tht there is not a person on the earth that God does not want to save

How do i know that god hasn’t predestined some for heaven and others for hell… Well because that would be contrary to His word.

Some people teach that god made atonment for some, and for others He did not.

1

Now there are some theologians and Pastors out there that want to turn the all people to some people, namely the elect people

2 Peter

Revelation

do you want to be saved!@

I have wonderful news you can be saved.