Speaker 1: Oh, how many of you guys have seen the movie Avatar before?
Speaker 1: Okay, a lot of you.
Speaker 1: Others of you are like what are those weird blue things in there?
Speaker 1: Okay, those are avatars, and the movie Avatar has the main character go through something that maybe you've gone through or maybe you will one day.
Speaker 1: They go through an identity crisis.
Speaker 1: He has to decide who is he going to be, and the biblical truth that we're going to talk about today is the truth of identity.
Speaker 1: In fact, let's all say identity together.
Speaker 1: Ready, let's try it.
Speaker 1: This takes us to Daniel, chapter 1, and leads us to a question that I want to ask you today, and this question actually has massive implications in your life and a significant power in your life, maybe more than you even realize.
Speaker 1: The question is who are you, you?
Speaker 1: Who are you?
Speaker 1: Now, a lot of us, we have that question.
Speaker 1: The first thing we jump to is like a, maybe a role that we have, maybe a relationship, maybe I'm a parent, I'm a grandparent, I'm a spouse, I'm something else.
Speaker 1: Or maybe you jump to your career, like I am, and then you say where you work at, and the reason this is such an important question is because, at some level, this is a question about identity.
Speaker 1: This is a question about how we see ourselves.
Speaker 1: Now, we hear the word identity thrown around a whole lot in our society right now, don't we?
Speaker 1: It's like who's our identity all the time.
Speaker 1: It actually might be helpful for us to define the term that we're talking about.
Speaker 1: What is identity?
Speaker 1: Identity is our sense of self or our personal worth.
Speaker 1: It's the story you tell yourself about yourself.
Speaker 1: Now, all of us, either consciously or subconsciously, find our identity in something.
Speaker 1: All of us have a sense of self, a sense of personal worth, a story we tell ourselves about ourselves, whether we realize it or not, and the reason why this has such massive implications I'll give you one example is maybe you realize, or maybe you don't realize, or maybe somebody in the world realizes or not realizes, that maybe they see themselves, their identity, as one of being unlovable or broken or not worthy of love, or being an addict Like this is just who I am.
Speaker 1: And if that's the story you tell yourself about yourself, that man, I'm not worthy of love.
Speaker 1: This is who I am.
Speaker 1: It's going to lead you to do some things that you probably shouldn't do.
Speaker 1: It's going to lead you to maybe allow some people to mistreat you in ways they shouldn't mistreat you?
Speaker 1: And the answer is not.
Speaker 1: Don't let those people not treat you that way.
Speaker 1: The answer is identity, because of how you see yourself and the place that you find your identity and I find my identity really determines how we see the world, how we experience the world, how we process things, and you get the answer to your identity the who am, I question, really by looking to three places, and this is like a universal truth.
Speaker 1: This is how all of us form our identity, whether you're a Jesus follower or not a Jesus follower, or if you're 17 years old or if you have more experience in your life.
Speaker 1: 17 years old, or if you have more experience in your life, is you find your identity from a combination of the place or places you find your acceptance, your security and your significance.
Speaker 1: So, for example, acceptance.
Speaker 1: So here's the question okay, who or what do you look to for acceptance?
Speaker 1: So, for example, if you find your identity from the acceptance of a certain person or from a group of people, what's going to happen is you're going to live your life needing and craving their acceptance and maybe not even realizing it, you might live your life being a people pleaser because you need them to think a certain way about you so you can have a certain sense of self.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we look to a combination of our acceptance from people and sometimes it's security, like the place where we look to that kind of holds us together.
Speaker 1: So for some of us, we find our identity in our finances, because we find security in a full bank account.
Speaker 1: We find security in having this many zeros, right.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's acceptance, sometimes it's security, a combination of these, and sometimes it's where we find our significance.
Speaker 1: This is a human thing, so it's what or who gives you validation or a sense of value, right?
Speaker 1: So, for example, I've heard Olympic athletes talk about you guys excited about the Olympics coming up Coming soon yep.
Speaker 1: I've heard Olympic athletes talk about how you guys excited about the Olympics coming up Coming soon Yep.
Speaker 1: I've heard Olympic athletes talk about how their entire sense of self-worth was based on how they do in the Olympics, because that's where they find significance, and when some of them haven't done as well, they've literally gone into a deep depression.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because their identity, their sense of self, was based on what they could accomplish and their significance in winning or not winning.
Speaker 1: And how many times?
Speaker 1: Let's not pick on Olympic athletes or anything but like?
Speaker 1: How many times have all of us me, you how many times have we looked to things that we think will bring us something that they actually can't bring us?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 1: We have this human condition where we tend to build our identity, we tend to build our self-worth on things that either let us down or leave us disillusioned or discouraged or even burnt out, like things that are far lesser than God.
Speaker 1: And this is what you'll discover in your life is, if you build your life, you build your identity on fragile things, you will become a fragile person.
Speaker 1: If you build your identity on something that can change, if you build your self-worth on your net worth, if you build your self-worth on what you look like in the mirror, if you build your self-worth on something that can change something fragile, you'll become a fragile person.
Speaker 1: And we've experienced this before.
Speaker 1: We thought that once I buy this or own this, or get in this relationship or graduate from this college or get accepted by this college or drive this car, then I'm going to feel a certain way about myself, then I'm going to feel significant, then I'm going to be okay, because I want to feel okay, like I want to feel good about myself.
Speaker 1: So we get to that level we buy that thing, we own that thing, we graduate from that college, we do these things, we get in the relationship that we thought would make us feel significant and we get there and we're like this is it.
Speaker 1: We've experienced this and maybe we haven't put this in words, but what this is is.
Speaker 1: This is identity.
Speaker 1: This is us building identity on fragile things.
Speaker 1: Now, this isn't the first time that somebody has done this before.
Speaker 1: We aren't the first people that do this, that have done this, and our culture that we live in in America is discipling us and teaching us to find identity in things that are far lesser than God, and ultimately, this has damaging effects on us.
Speaker 1: America, we have this culture where it's telling us to build our identity on all these other things.
Speaker 1: But the first time well, maybe not the first, but one of the early times where in human history, where they try to get people to build their identity on something other than God, is in the book of Daniel.
Speaker 1: In the book of Daniel, the Babylonian people did a social engineering project on some teenage dudes.
Speaker 1: A social engineering project on some teenage dudes.
Speaker 1: What they did was they took these teenage dudes that had a God-centered identity and they kidnapped them and they trafficked them and they sent them away from their home, away from their godly influences, to a godless place called Babylon.
Speaker 1: Everybody say the word Babylon ready to a godless place called Babylon.
Speaker 1: Everybody say the word Babylon ready.
Speaker 1: Take them to Babylon, a godless place.
Speaker 1: And everything was cray in Babylon.
Speaker 1: It was crazy.
Speaker 1: In Babylon, the Babylonian people had a goal.
Speaker 1: The leaders had a goal, and it was to systematically and intentionally disciple these guys that had a goal.
Speaker 1: And it was to systematically and intentionally disciple these guys that had a God-centered identity into being Babylonian, into thinking like the world thinks, into living like the world lives, into doing what the world does.
Speaker 1: And I don't want to get too far ahead of myself, because I can get a little excited about things.
Speaker 1: You guys know I get a little excited sometimes.
Speaker 1: So I don't want to get too far ahead of myself.
Speaker 1: But they did this two strategic ways.
Speaker 1: They put these fellas, these teenage dudes, in a godless environment and they tried to change their identity.
Speaker 1: That was the goal of the social engineering project.
Speaker 1: So I want you guys to check out this project.
Speaker 1: Spoiler alert, it didn't work.
Speaker 1: Verse number one of Daniel, chapter number one it says this it says in the third year of the reign of King Jehoiakim of Judah, king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon Hold on, can we just stop and just thank the Lord that our moms didn't name us Nebuchadnezzar?
Speaker 1: Can we just have a moment?
Speaker 1: There Got a little distracted.
Speaker 1: Name us Nebuchadnezzar, just have a moment.
Speaker 1: There Got a little distracted.
Speaker 1: King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to Jerusalem and laid siege to it.
Speaker 1: So they laid siege around the city, so nothing could get in and nothing could get out.
Speaker 1: No food could get in, no food could get out.
Speaker 1: And the Lord handed King Jehoiakim of Judah over to him, to Nebuchadnezzar, along with some of the vessels from the house of God.
Speaker 1: So what Nebuchadnezzar did is he went to the temple where the true God was worshipped.
Speaker 1: They took the different vessels, the cups and things, took them out of that temple, took them to Babylon and put them in the temple of where these false gods were worshiped.
Speaker 1: The king verse 3, ordered Aspenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the Israelites from the royal family and from the nobility, young men without any physical defect, good-looking, suitable for instruction in all wisdom, knowledgeable, perceptive.
Speaker 1: And these fellas got it going on.
Speaker 1: Capable of serving in the king's palace, he was to teach them the Chaldean language and literature.
Speaker 1: Man, these guys are smart, they're intelligent, they're gifted, they're good looking, they walk in the room.
Speaker 1: All the single ladies are like whoo.
Speaker 1: I mean, they got the brains and the brawn, they got it going on.
Speaker 1: Reminds me of the teenage dudes in the FCC youth group, Fellas, where you at guys, teenagers, come on, okay, teenage girls, you think the teennever mind.
Speaker 1: So they take these guys and they kidnap them, these good-looking guys, and they kidnap them and they put them in Babylon.
Speaker 1: And the goal?
Speaker 1: The goal is to change their values and their habits and their way of living by immersing them into this culture.
Speaker 1: It was a social engineering project.
Speaker 1: Verse 5, the king assigned them daily provisions from the royal food and from the wine that he drank.
Speaker 1: They were to be trained for how many years?
Speaker 1: They were to be trained for three years and at the end of that time they were to attend to the king.
Speaker 1: Among them, from the Judahites, were Daniel, hananiah, mishael and Nazariah and you can be thankful you don't have to stand up in a room full of people and try to pronounce those names right.
Speaker 1: And verse 7, and the chief eunuch gave their names.
Speaker 1: Now you might think that's not a big deal, that question for you.
Speaker 1: How many of you guys you ever have a nickname growing up?
Speaker 1: Nickname?
Speaker 1: Somebody want to shout out their nickname, a nickname they had growing up Stringbean, dusty.
Speaker 1: Somebody else?
Speaker 1: What?
Speaker 1: Chewy, chewy, that's right.
Speaker 1: Some of y'all are too embarrassed to shout out your nickname.
Speaker 1: You're like I didn't say it.
Speaker 1: You might see this and you're like, oh, it's not a big deal, like it's just a nickname, like just change up the names, give them a little nickname.
Speaker 1: No big deal.
Speaker 1: Actually, this was a major deal.
Speaker 1: This was a major deal Two reasons why?
Speaker 1: Reason one names in scripture super significant, especially in this time period.
Speaker 1: Very significant.
Speaker 1: Reason number two these new names positioned these guys from an identity with God, the true God, to an identity with these false gods.
Speaker 1: So check this out.
Speaker 1: I want you to look at what the names of these guys mean.
Speaker 1: Okay, the name of Daniel.
Speaker 1: It means God is my judge.
Speaker 1: Belteshazzar.
Speaker 1: Baal, one of the gods of the Babylonians.
Speaker 1: Baal provides Hananiah.
Speaker 1: God, the true God, has been gracious.
Speaker 1: Shadrach, inspired by a coup, another false God.
Speaker 1: Mishael, who is like God.
Speaker 1: Meshach, who is like Ach.
Speaker 1: Azariah, god has helped Abednego, the servant of Nego.
Speaker 1: This is not just a random name change, like ah, you're in a new place, we're just going to kind of give you some new nicknames.
Speaker 1: No, they're changing them at the very core of who they are.
Speaker 1: By trying to change their identity, they're positioning their lives from relationship with the true God to relationship with all of these other false gods.
Speaker 1: Social engineering project.
Speaker 1: And the way they began this project was by number one, by taking them out of a God-centered environment and putting them in a godless environment.
Speaker 1: These guys were taken out of everything they were used to and sent to Babylon.
Speaker 1: Now, have you ever been to a new place?
Speaker 1: And you were kind of like what is this place all about?
Speaker 1: Like, what do I do here?
Speaker 1: Like how do I act here?
Speaker 1: Maybe you're here at FCC for the first time and you're kind of like what do I do?
Speaker 1: Like how do I like feel this place out?
Speaker 1: What's it all about?
Speaker 1: Which I want to pause and say for a second I think this year we're just over halfway through the year We've already had like almost 120 guest families come and visit FCC this year, which is like mind-blowing, right.
Speaker 1: Y'all are inviting your friends and family and they are coming.
Speaker 1: Yeah, let's clap for that, curtis, that's right.
Speaker 1: Thanks for getting that start, that's right.
Speaker 1: So maybe you, like, came here for the first time and you're like what is happening, right?
Speaker 1: Why is there popcorn in the lobby?
Speaker 1: Why are they doing grape juice in a cup Like this isn't enough, I need some more.
Speaker 1: I'm still thirsty, right, whatever.
Speaker 1: So you're trying to figure things out, right?
Speaker 1: What happens here?
Speaker 1: I was recently experienced this because I went to see my parents.
Speaker 1: They live in Southern California and they wanted to go to the gym, and the gym where they go to is a country club.
Speaker 1: Any of you guys ever been to a country club?
Speaker 1: Okay, now, it's not necessarily my vibe, it's kind of fancy.
Speaker 1: There.
Speaker 1: They got this golf course, got a banquet hall, they got a restaurant, they got all these amenities and all these different things, and people drive from their 6,000 square foot homes on their personal golf carts into the country club.
Speaker 1: You know, and just like man, this place is different.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm not really used to all this and it's a little bougie for me.
Speaker 1: So we're going to go to work out.
Speaker 1: So now, what I'm used to in the gym where I work out, it's basically a big warehouse that's really hot, with no air conditioning, heavy weights being thrown around, people talking all the time, music blaring this is the environment that I'm used to.
Speaker 1: And then I go in to the country club gym.
Speaker 1: Everybody's got a personal towel.
Speaker 1: They got a nice little front desk area where you walk in and somebody could say hi, mr Sunstreet, there's mirrors all over the place.
Speaker 1: The gym where I'm at we don't have any mirrors anywhere.
Speaker 1: I mean, we're not vain at my gym and I'm like this is weird.
Speaker 1: Like the first day I was like what's happening.
Speaker 1: By day two I was like this ain't too bad Personal towels.
Speaker 1: Like hey, that's not too bad, you know, it's all right.
Speaker 1: Day three, I'm like hey, I think I could get used to this.
Speaker 1: You know, grab my personal towel flexing in the mirror, getting in the sauna.
Speaker 1: You know there's a restaurant there.
Speaker 1: I'm like mom, what if we just like cut our workout in half today Because we don't want to overdo it?
Speaker 1: I mean, it's a lot.
Speaker 1: Plus, is that a hangnail I have?
Speaker 1: I don't want to.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't want to aggravate that.
Speaker 1: That could turn into an injury or something.
Speaker 1: Let's see, tell my mom.
Speaker 1: I'm like man, this place is nice.
Speaker 1: Like I like this place.
Speaker 1: I'm like who needs that?
Speaker 1: Like warehouse, crossfit gym stuff, like a bunch of meatheads.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: And I say that because what I didn't even realize was happening is, while I was there, in that really comfortable environment with my personal towel and all the amenities of the country club, is my environment was starting to influence me, even though I didn't even realize it, didn't even realize it, and this isn't a shocker to anybody, but we live in a world that does not have God-centered values and we may not realize, but the world is constantly trying to influence us and shape our thinking, and one of the primary places it does that is through our identity.
Speaker 1: Primary places it does that is through our identity by shaping how we see ourselves, by shaping what identity is, by trying to redefine certain words.
Speaker 1: Our world that we're in says your identity is found in your feelings, your sexuality, your politics and what you have and what you can achieve and what your accomplishments are.
Speaker 1: Like you're this old, well, show me what you have and what you can achieve and what your accomplishments are.
Speaker 1: Like you're this old, well, show me what you've done.
Speaker 1: That's what your self-worth is based on In our world.
Speaker 1: Like self-worth.
Speaker 1: Identity is based on how productive we can be.
Speaker 1: I don't know about you guys, but this can be something that I've fallen into.
Speaker 1: I can look at seasons of my life where I thought my self-worth was based on how many things could I get accomplished?
Speaker 1: I got 19 things accomplished.
Speaker 1: On this day, I am the man let's go.
Speaker 1: I got hardly anything accomplished.
Speaker 1: Like I'm going to go cry in my bed.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, because my self-worth was based on what I could accomplish.
Speaker 1: We live in a world where it's very popular to make your trauma or your issue your identity.
Speaker 1: So you maybe have experienced or are experiencing something terrible or hard, and now this issue has become who you are.
Speaker 1: This has become the story you tell yourself about yourself, and this is so dangerous because as long as you have a single story perspective about your life, then you are not going to let God transform your story.
Speaker 1: Like if you make your issue or your trauma your identity, the trajectory of your life will be one that's paralyzed by fear and negativity and powerlessness, because this is how you view yourself, this is how you see yourself, and I want to free somebody this morning in the best possible way in the name of Jesus that maybe you are experiencing a hardship, or maybe you have experienced a hardship or trauma and that was terrible, but because of who Jesus says that you are.
Speaker 1: Your trauma and your hardships are not who you are, like your challenges and your difficulty that you went through, like yeah, that was hard but that's not who you are.
Speaker 1: And what needs to happen is we have to change how we see ourselves.
Speaker 1: We have to change how the story we tell ourselves about ourselves.
Speaker 1: Right, and I'll say this too because of the character of God ourselves.
Speaker 1: Right, and I'll say this too because of the character of God he's a redeeming God.
Speaker 1: So what God can do is God can take the hardship and God could take the trauma and he can actually redeem that and make something good come from it.
Speaker 1: So, like right now so right now you may be in a season of like hardship or you may have gone through something, or maybe you have a single story perspective about your life.
Speaker 1: This is who you are, everything is through this lens and you may have gone through something.
Speaker 1: Or maybe you have a single story perspective about your life this is who you are, everything is through this lens and you may think there's no way anything good can come from that.
Speaker 1: There's no way anything can be redeemed from that because of fill in the blank.
Speaker 1: Can I say this my God can make something beautiful come from something broken.
Speaker 1: Can I say this my God can bring resurrection from death.
Speaker 1: Can I say this?
Speaker 1: My God can take that tragedy and bring a testimony from it.
Speaker 1: Can I say this my God can take that hardship and allow you to give somebody hope through it.
Speaker 1: Can I say this we have a God that's in the redeeming business.
Speaker 1: Will somebody say amen, come on, hey, I'm preaching 50% better than y'all are responding this morning.
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm just saying, guys, I get fired up about this.
Speaker 1: Okay, and this is why, because we can live our lives with a single story perspective and God says that it's not who you are.
Speaker 1: Guys, I know it hurts, I know it's overwhelming.
Speaker 1: I've been there, I've walked that path, I've had the sleepless nights and the tears, stained pillows and this is what I know.
Speaker 1: I know that God can redeem things and I can tell you why God can redeem things and I can tell you why.
Speaker 1: Those things don't have to define you, because there's power number two in a name.
Speaker 1: There's power in a name.
Speaker 1: The name is Jesus and he says that you are a child of God if you come to him in faith.
Speaker 1: Now here's what's really interesting.
Speaker 1: You read the book of Daniel, you go through this book and, though they tried to change their name to Shadrach, meshach and Abednego which, by the way, that rhymes pretty good it rhymes better than the original names right?
Speaker 1: Though they tried to change their names, daniel does not refer to them as Shadrach, meshach and Abednego.
Speaker 1: He refers to them as Hanani, meshach and Azariah.
Speaker 1: And Daniel and the boys had something that's so important they had identity resistance.
Speaker 1: They had identity resistance.
Speaker 1: They had the world.
Speaker 1: And these people are trying to label me.
Speaker 1: They're trying to say this is who I am.
Speaker 1: Nope, I'm resisting that.
Speaker 1: Now, I brought something to label me.
Speaker 1: They're trying to say this is who I am.
Speaker 1: Nope, I'm resisting that.
Speaker 1: Now I brought something to church today, another prop, because we've been having a lot of fun with the props the last several weeks, haven't we?
Speaker 1: Or at least I have one of the two.
Speaker 1: So I brought something just for fun.
Speaker 1: I brought some chicken and homestyle noodle soup.
Speaker 1: I brought some soup.
Speaker 1: How many soup lovers are there in the room today?
Speaker 1: Yes, doesn't soup just hit Like it just hits the spot.
Speaker 1: I mean not when it's like 138 degrees outside, but you get to like December or something.
Speaker 1: I'm like give me some soup.
Speaker 1: This is chicken noodle soup, right here.
Speaker 1: This is good stuff.
Speaker 1: This is my go-to.
Speaker 1: It's actually my favorite.
Speaker 1: Progresso got some protein.
Speaker 1: Let's go Now.
Speaker 1: Let's say that somebody in the room didn't like chicken noodle soup.
Speaker 1: First of all, they need prayer.
Speaker 1: They're like I don't like this.
Speaker 1: I'm going to change the label so this is not going to be chicken noodle soup anymore.
Speaker 1: In fact, what I'm going to do is I'm going to take a Sharp, going to like take a Sharpie and I'm going to color out the word chicken so you can't see it anymore, because there won't be any more chicken in here, because I'm going to color this out.
Speaker 1: There's no chicken in here anymore.
Speaker 1: Would that work?
Speaker 1: No, it's not.
Speaker 1: I'm going to color out noodles, I'm getting those out, and then I'm going to get a sticky note and I'm going to put a sticky note on there and I'm going to write tomato soup and this is going to be tomato soup.
Speaker 1: That's what this is going to be.
Speaker 1: I'm going to label it.
Speaker 1: This is what this is tomato soup.
Speaker 1: Guys, this ain't no tomato soup.
Speaker 1: We ain't settling for no tomato soup in this place, bro, it's chicken noodle soup In fact, bro, it's chicken noodle soup In fact.
Speaker 1: Somebody tell me chicken noodle soup.
Speaker 1: Somebody tell me what is in here.
Speaker 1: What's in this can right here?
Speaker 1: Chicken noodles, carrots, celery, that's right.
Speaker 1: Chicken broth Way too much salt.
Speaker 1: We're not going to talk about that.
Speaker 1: That's what's in here.
Speaker 1: Friend, you can label this whatever in the world you want to label it, as you can say.
Speaker 1: You can say yep.
Speaker 1: You can say chicken fingers.
Speaker 1: You could say Hawaiian pizza and bless God, that's something good.
Speaker 1: You can say whatever you want to say.
Speaker 1: That ain't changing what this is.
Speaker 1: Some of y'all know where I'm going.
Speaker 1: We live in a world and we have things and sometimes it's ourself where we put labels on us.
Speaker 1: We put labels about this is who I am.
Speaker 1: We put labels about this is the type of person that I am.
Speaker 1: But can I say that who you are, no matter what your label says, no matter what people put on, you is child of God.
Speaker 1: That is who you are.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, y'all getting it now.
Speaker 1: It's child of God.
Speaker 1: That is who you are.
Speaker 1: You are not a mistake.
Speaker 1: You are not an accident.
Speaker 1: You are not forgotten about.
Speaker 1: You are a child of God and you know what that means In your life.
Speaker 1: This means that you are loved, that you are fully accepted by God, that you are gifted, that you are adopted, that you are chosen, that you are forgiven, that you are wanted, that you are significant and those things are 100% a result of God's grace and not your efforts 100%.
Speaker 1: Now, there's something really hard about this.
Speaker 1: We don't always feel that way, do we?
Speaker 1: We don't.
Speaker 1: We don't feel that way all the time.
Speaker 1: We experience things.
Speaker 1: Things pop up and we're like, ooh, I don't feel very forgiven right now, I don't feel very significant right now, I don't feel loved right now.
Speaker 1: And it's interesting in recent days, as science has developed and we've learned about the brain, is that the brain can actually have physical changes based on experiences we have in our life.
Speaker 1: So, for example, if, growing up, you were in an environment that was driven by fear, that literally will imprint your brain scientifically.
Speaker 1: If you grew up in an environment that, for whatever reason, maybe you were given the message that to be accepted in this family or be accepted in this place, you have to measure up, it literally shapes your brain or to be loved, you have to do this over here, or you had this experience over here that maybe wasn't the best.
Speaker 1: This is what happens scientifically.
Speaker 1: It shapes your brain.
Speaker 1: It fundamentally reorganizes how your brain thinks and how you operate and how you see yourself.
Speaker 1: So when we talk about things like you're unconditionally loved, you're forgiven, when we start clapping, we get excited about some of these things.
Speaker 1: It's like, yes, this is great.
Speaker 1: But then we go into the real world and we're like, oh, I don't feel this way.
Speaker 1: And we go to the real world and it's like something happens and we're like our default is like man, I just don't measure up.
Speaker 1: Our default is like I, just for so many of us.
Speaker 1: And we live our lives thinking like I can never get freedom from this.
Speaker 1: We live our life thinking I can never experience healing from this.
Speaker 1: We live our life thinking I can never live in the freedom and the realities of the gospel.
Speaker 1: We read some of this stuff and you guys hear me up here get excited every now and again it's about every week these days and you're like how could I even live this way?
Speaker 1: Because in the real world out there we don't feel it, because there's been things that have imprinted and shaped our brains.
Speaker 1: So what do we do in those moments when we're not feeling it?
Speaker 1: What do we do in those moments when it's like we go back to, maybe, an experience, and this is how I feel.
Speaker 1: What do we do then?
Speaker 1: What do we do when our feelings clash with our identity in Christ and who we actually are?
Speaker 1: The next three minutes are going to be the most important three minutes of this message, so I want you to lean in.
Speaker 1: Milton Vincent says we need to extract the benefits of the gospel.
Speaker 1: What in the world does this mean?
Speaker 1: Let me give you a quote.
Speaker 1: God did not give us his gospel just so we could embrace it and be converted.
Speaker 1: What that means is so we could understand that Jesus came.
Speaker 1: He died on the cross for our sins and he was buried and he resurrected the third day, and by turning from our sin and putting our faith in him, we are saved.
Speaker 1: He didn't just give us the gospel so we could embrace that message.
Speaker 1: Actually, he offers it to us every single day as a gift that keeps on giving us everything we need for life and godliness.
Speaker 1: The wise believer becomes oh I love this word proficient in extracting the available benefits from the gospel.
Speaker 1: Each day, we extract these benefits by being absorbed in the gospel.
Speaker 1: Speaking it to ourselves Okay, this is a lot there.
Speaker 1: To ourselves Okay, this is a lot there.
Speaker 1: So the gospel gives declarations about who you are.
Speaker 1: This is who you are, but practically, how does this work?
Speaker 1: Milton says what we do.
Speaker 1: Man, what a name.
Speaker 1: Milton says what we do is we learn to extract the benefits of the gospel every single day, in every situation, by being absorbed in its message.
Speaker 1: So now, this is where I want you to chime in and I want you to talk to me.
Speaker 1: Can you give me an example of something that can make somebody feel less than Maybe an example?
Speaker 1: They go through this, they experience this, this happened to them.
Speaker 1: It could be something small, something big, where somebody does something and it makes them or experience something and it makes them feel less than, or unloved, or something like that.
Speaker 1: So somebody talk to me.
Speaker 1: What was that?
Speaker 1: Facebook can?
Speaker 1: Yeah for sure, they're going to be like comparison, like they're better than me.
Speaker 1: Yep, 100 percent, yeah.
Speaker 1: Divor, 100%, yeah.
Speaker 1: Divorce, absolutely.
Speaker 1: Homelessness, absolutely.
Speaker 1: Feel less than Prison, yeah.
Speaker 1: Rejection, Rochelle, clickiness Absolutely.
Speaker 1: These are all like super real things.
Speaker 1: Somebody else give me something else.
Speaker 1: Suicide, yeah.
Speaker 1: Neglect, absolutely.
Speaker 1: Addiction.
Speaker 1: We could go on and on and on and on.
Speaker 1: Everything that every one of you said is so real, every single thing, and they make you feel a certain way.
Speaker 1: So when you feel this way, when you experience this, what we have to do is we have to extract the benefits of the gospel and speak that in this situation Brother Ron he said rejection I feel rejected deeply we extract the benefit that in the gospel, god says he will never reject us.
Speaker 1: Somebody was touching on saying I feel alone, I feel by myself.
Speaker 1: In the gospel, jesus says I will never leave you nor forsake you.
Speaker 1: I'm extracting that benefit to my life right now.
Speaker 1: Talked about social media.
Speaker 1: Right, the comparison.
Speaker 1: Like they have this, like you know I don't have this, they have that.
Speaker 1: They got themselves together, whatever.
Speaker 1: Hey, the gospel says that I am significant because I'm a child of God.
Speaker 1: This is who I am and this is what needs to happen for us to grow in this area and grow in our faith and mature is to learn to extract the benefits of the gospel to our everyday situation in our life.
Speaker 1: Like this is how, when Jesus says I've come to give you life and have it more abundantly, this is how we walk in that abundant life Like this is how we walk in that freedom by saying I am not all these other things, I'm not even how I feel, I'm not what people say about me.
Speaker 1: I'm extracting the benefit of the gospel and I am living in this reality every single day.
Speaker 1: I am a child of God.
Speaker 1: I am a son of God.
Speaker 1: I am a daughter of God.
Speaker 1: This is who I am.
Speaker 1: I want to end with an old quote that you may have heard, but it's so powerful because everything that we're talking about it starts in our mind.
Speaker 1: The old quote goes like this Watch your thoughts, they become your words.
Speaker 1: Watch your words they become your actions.
Speaker 1: Watch your actions they become your habits.
Speaker 1: Watch your habits they become your character.
Speaker 1: They become.
Speaker 1: Watch your habits, they become your character.
Speaker 1: Watch your character, it becomes your destiny.
Speaker 1: Can we just say that?
Speaker 1: Let's just go through that one more time?
Speaker 1: That was a lot to swallow.
Speaker 1: I was drinking through a fire hydrant there, okay?
Speaker 1: So watch your thoughts, they become your words.
Speaker 1: Watch your words, they become your actions.
Speaker 1: Watch your actions, they become your habits.
Speaker 1: Watch your habits they become your character.
Speaker 1: Watch your character, it becomes your destiny.
Speaker 1: Where does it begin?
Speaker 1: In our mind, between our ears?
Speaker 1: Can I just say you are a child of God if you come to Jesus Christ by faith, and that needs to be the story that we tell ourselves about ourselves, because that is the source of your identity.
Speaker 1: And when you live from that place, you are going to be the most confident and secure person in the room.
Speaker 1: You're not going to be filled with pride because you know it's all a gift of grace, but you're not going to have this like woe is me, I'm nothing.
Speaker 1: You're like, no, I am somebody.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So, guys, this is who we are.
Speaker 1: Live from that, and let this song, let this message of who we are in Christ be the story that we live from, be the story that we tell ourselves about ourselves.