Speaker 1: and he's all right.
Speaker 1: Okay, so I get the privilege to preach this morning.
Speaker 1: Continue in our series Freedom, Breaking Chains and Living Free.
Speaker 1: How do we have freedom in Christ, from our identity with him?
Speaker 1: This is the things we've talked about so far and discussed so far.
Speaker 1: In week one, we've talked about embracing the grace and mercy of Jesus and the freedom that comes from that.
Speaker 1: We've talked about the freedom from walking in the light of confessing our sins and walking in the light of God's word.
Speaker 1: Week three, we talked about the freedom of learning and growing in truth.
Speaker 1: And today, week four, we're going to talk about this new subject the freedom of being misunderstood, the freedom of being okay if someone doesn't fully understand us, if someone doesn't fully see you, know you get you.
Speaker 1: Now, how many of you have probably been misunderstood before?
Speaker 1: Yeah, maybe you've been in this.
Speaker 1: This is kind of a silly example, but you've been in a conversation, maybe in a loud place, and you're trying to talk to someone but they can't hear you and, like this is a pet peeve of mine to have to repeat myself over and, over and over again.
Speaker 1: Parents in the room, you know what it's like to have to repeat yourself constantly and you do this kind of conversation right.
Speaker 1: You say something to someone and they're like what?
Speaker 1: And you say it again and they go what?
Speaker 1: And you say it again and like a third time, fourth time and finally by like the fifth time, you're just like you know what, never mind, like I was just trying to make a dumb joke, anyway, it doesn't even matter.
Speaker 1: Or you're on the receiving end of it and someone's trying to say something to you and you're like what?
Speaker 1: And they repeat it and they're like what?
Speaker 1: And then someone asks you what did they say?
Speaker 1: And you're like I have no idea.
Speaker 1: Most of us want to be understood.
Speaker 1: We want to be heard.
Speaker 1: It's part of being human.
Speaker 1: And here's why it can hurt to be misunderstood.
Speaker 1: When we're misunderstood, we feel unheard.
Speaker 1: When we're unheard, we feel unseen.
Speaker 1: And when we feel unseen we feel unloved.
Speaker 1: No one gets us, no one fully knows us.
Speaker 1: Therefore, no one really fully loves us.
Speaker 1: And as a Christ follower, sometimes we can have this fear of being misunderstood by non-Christ followers, by the world, when we try to proclaim scriptural and biblical.
Speaker 1: Thank you, alberto.
Speaker 1: Can we give it up for our media team?
Speaker 1: He really hates when we do that.
Speaker 1: But thank you, alberto, we can have this problem of being misunderstood and sometimes it stops us from wanting to present the truth of the gospel, to present the truth of God, because we're like man.
Speaker 1: What if they see me as judgmental?
Speaker 1: What if they see me as hateful towards them?
Speaker 1: Because I'm trying to share biblical truths and sometimes, no matter how we package it, no matter how we proclaim it, people are going to make those claims about us.
Speaker 1: But we're going to learn from Jesus today how we can be okay with being misunderstood for proclaiming God's truth.
Speaker 1: We're going to be in John chapter 8 today, starting in verse 48, if you have your Bibles, john chapter 8, starting in verse 48, and we're going to finish out the chapter.
Speaker 1: Some recap before we dive into it.
Speaker 1: If you've been following along in our series Last week, pastor Nate was earlier in this chapter and basically what's happening is there's this conversation, this discourse, this debate of Jesus with some Jewish people, some probably Jewish leaders, some people with some authority, and Jesus is proclaiming scriptural truths to them, talking about why he's here, the purpose of him being there, and they're just kind of arguing with him and it all kind of comes to a head in this last portion of the chapter and we get to see how Jesus finishes out this discussion.
Speaker 1: So that's where we pick off today.
Speaker 1: In verse 48, the first thing we see is this we see the accusation against Jesus.
Speaker 1: The accusation against Jesus, verse 48 says this that the Jews responded to him.
Speaker 1: Aren't we right in saying that you're a Samaritan and have a demon?
Speaker 1: So they call Jesus out Jesus is speaking truth.
Speaker 1: And then they start name calling toward him.
Speaker 1: All right, they call him a Samaritan.
Speaker 1: Now, if you don't know what this is, being a Samaritan was like a bad word.
Speaker 1: That was like fighting words.
Speaker 1: To call someone a Samaritan was kind of like this it was a racial and religious slur.
Speaker 1: To call someone that they're basically saying like you're, like a mixed person.
Speaker 1: They were Jewish people, mixed with blood of other people and descendants of other people, and religious because they say say like you worship different gods than we do, you don't worship the correct way.
Speaker 1: To be a Samaritan was like a racial and religious slur.
Speaker 1: Jewish people hated the Samaritans so much that if they were like going on a road trip and the GPS routed them through Samaria, they would click the alternate option and go all the way around, even if it added days to their trip, just so they didn't have to go through the city.
Speaker 1: Like that's how much they didn't like these people.
Speaker 1: And not only that, they go even further and they say he has a demon.
Speaker 1: Here's what they're saying.
Speaker 1: They're saying you're insane, like you're a crazy person.
Speaker 1: You have a demon living within you.
Speaker 1: You are ethnically impure, so we should not listen to you.
Speaker 1: You are also spiritually impure.
Speaker 1: Therefore, no one should listen to your message.
Speaker 1: See, here's what happened Christ was proclaiming truth to them, giving them scriptural truth, and they were trying to fight back against the truth.
Speaker 1: But eventually they realized that what Jesus was saying was correct.
Speaker 1: So they switched from attacking the truth and debating with him and they went to attacking his character.
Speaker 1: They were trying to discredit his character, and sometimes this happens to us as Christ followers.
Speaker 1: People can't attack the truth of scripture, so they attack the character of Christians.
Speaker 1: Maybe they don't like the truth that Scripture proclaims, so instead of attacking the Bible, they begin to maybe attack us.
Speaker 1: And here's the difference between Jesus and us.
Speaker 1: And why it hurts is because sometimes their character attacks on us might be correct.
Speaker 1: Sometimes they'll say things toward us and we have to be humble enough to say man, you're right, I struggle in that area.
Speaker 1: I need to repent of that.
Speaker 1: But we get to see what Jesus does to get the attention off of himself all these character accusations and to get back on mission.
Speaker 1: We saw the attack of Jesus or the accusation of Jesus.
Speaker 1: But number two we get to see Jesus' response, how he puts it back to the truth of God's word instead of just on himself.
Speaker 1: He says this in verse 49.
Speaker 1: I do not have a demon.
Speaker 1: Jesus answered Super calmly, plain and simple.
Speaker 1: He's like I don't have a demon.
Speaker 1: On the contrary, I honor my father and you dishonor me.
Speaker 1: I do not seek my own glory.
Speaker 1: There is one who seeks it and judges Truly.
Speaker 1: I tell you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.
Speaker 1: So we see Jesus's response.
Speaker 1: Number two this is what he did.
Speaker 1: He didn't fight back and he stayed on mission.
Speaker 1: He didn't make this huge defense for himself.
Speaker 1: If you notice this, he didn't even mention the Samaritan thing Like that didn't even bother him.
Speaker 1: He didn't even bring it up.
Speaker 1: It wasn't even worth his time to bring it up.
Speaker 1: Here's what that shows us.
Speaker 1: We don't have to acknowledge and argue every insult that's thrown our way.
Speaker 1: So often, when people insult us, we think we have to defend ourselves and try to prove ourselves right.
Speaker 1: And that's exactly the trap they want us to fall into, because it gets us off of the truth of God's word that we start to try to defend ourselves.
Speaker 1: He just answers truthfully I don't have a demon.
Speaker 1: On the contrary, I honor my father and you dishonor me.
Speaker 1: In other words, he says I'm not here for myself, I'm here to glorify God.
Speaker 1: I'm not here to talk about myself, I'm here to talk about my father, who sent me and to bring him glory.
Speaker 1: His mission was to glorify God, not himself.
Speaker 1: Then Jesus makes a bold and eternal promise.
Speaker 1: He says if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.
Speaker 1: And he's not talking about physical death All of us are eventually going to physically die.
Speaker 1: He's talking about this spiritual death, this spiritual separation from God, that because of our sin, we can no longer have a relationship with God.
Speaker 1: He's talking about accepting him as his savior.
Speaker 1: How do we know this?
Speaker 1: Earlier, in verse 24, he says this therefore, I told you that you will die in your sins, for if you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.
Speaker 1: He's telling them hey, unless you believe that I'm the Messiah, come to save you from your sins.
Speaker 1: You will die in your sins if you do not believe the message that I declare to you.
Speaker 1: He gets back on his mission, he gets away from the character attacks and he goes back to the crowd.
Speaker 1: So so far we've seen the accusation against Jesus.
Speaker 1: Number two Jesus' response.
Speaker 1: Number three we see the crowd's rejection of Jesus.
Speaker 1: The crowd's rejection of Jesus.
Speaker 1: Verse 52 says then the Jews says now we know you have a demon.
Speaker 1: So they double down on their attack.
Speaker 1: Now we know you have a demon.
Speaker 1: Abraham died and so did the prophets.
Speaker 1: You say if anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.
Speaker 1: Verse 53 says are you greater than our father Abraham, who died, and the prophets who died?
Speaker 1: Who do you claim to be?
Speaker 1: They double down on their accusations.
Speaker 1: They refuse to believe the message of Jesus.
Speaker 1: And then they're saying do you think you're greater than Abraham?
Speaker 1: You think you're greater than all of the prophets?
Speaker 1: We're going to see Jesus' answer in a little bit.
Speaker 1: Pastor Nate talked about last week that these Jewish people.
Speaker 1: They were clinging to their genetic heritage.
Speaker 1: They thought they were somebody special because of who their great, great great grandfather was.
Speaker 1: Jesus was saying hey, that's great that you're of his descendant.
Speaker 1: But it's about your personal relationship with God.
Speaker 1: Do you believe in the son of God that was sent here to this earth to free you from your sins?
Speaker 1: And they get upset at him.
Speaker 1: Like who are you to claim that we will never see death?
Speaker 1: Then Jesus says this in verse 54.
Speaker 1: He says if I glorify myself, jesus answered my glory is nothing.
Speaker 1: My father, about whom you say he is our God, he is the one who glorifies me.
Speaker 1: You do not know him, but I know him.
Speaker 1: If I were to say I don't know him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word.
Speaker 1: Your father, abraham, rejoiced to see my day.
Speaker 1: He saw it and was glad.
Speaker 1: The Jews replied you aren't 50 years old yet and you've seen Abraham.
Speaker 1: Jesus gets like a little more pointed and a little spicier here with them.
Speaker 1: Right, he's saying you don't know God and that's why you don't understand the things that I'm saying, because you are not of the same God that I am talking about.
Speaker 1: You think you know him, but you're just clinging to a family heritage.
Speaker 1: You don't actually personally know him and that's why you don't understand the truths that I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: Here's what that tells us.
Speaker 1: It's an important message for us.
Speaker 1: When we are having conversations with people who are not yet Christ followers, we can often get super sidetracked.
Speaker 1: We can talk about things like abortion and homosexuality and all of these different hot topic items of the day, but people who are not of God will not understand the things of God.
Speaker 1: Why would they understand these scriptural biblical truths if they're not yet?
Speaker 1: His children See what Christ did is he went back to his mission.
Speaker 1: He says you're not of God.
Speaker 1: Here's the message, here's the gospel.
Speaker 1: When we're having conversations with people who are not yet saved, we have to get off of all of these sidetracked conversations and point them back to the gospel.
Speaker 1: Hey, you're a sinner in need of a savior.
Speaker 1: That is the message we have to declare.
Speaker 1: That is the message we have to talk about before we ever get to all of this other stuff, because life change can only happen once we have the Holy Spirit within us.
Speaker 1: That's when the transformation begins.
Speaker 1: We need to get back to them knowing God before they can understand the things of God.
Speaker 1: And then he goes this he adds that Abraham looks forward to his coming and they rejoice in it.
Speaker 1: And this confuses the crowd.
Speaker 1: They're like how do you know Abraham?
Speaker 1: You're not even 50 years old, you're just a young dude.
Speaker 1: You would have no idea what Abraham had to say and he's about to make a bold statement.
Speaker 1: But this is what we've seen so far the accusation against Jesus.
Speaker 1: We see Jesus' response to that accusation.
Speaker 1: He points back to the truth.
Speaker 1: He points back to his mission.
Speaker 1: The crowd still rejects him, his mission, the crowd still rejects him.
Speaker 1: And number four Jesus claims his identity.
Speaker 1: He makes an identity claim in verse 58.
Speaker 1: This is what he says.
Speaker 1: Jesus said to them.
Speaker 1: Truly, I tell you, before Abraham was I am.
Speaker 1: So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus was hidden and went out of the temple.
Speaker 1: It says before Abraham was.
Speaker 1: He says hey, your great father Abraham, before he ever was, I am, I existed, I am eternal.
Speaker 1: He's making a call back that they would have understood, back to Exodus 3.14.
Speaker 1: It says this.
Speaker 1: It says God replied to Moses I am who I am.
Speaker 1: This is what you are to say to the Israelites I am has sent you.
Speaker 1: Jesus made his claim to deity.
Speaker 1: He claimed his identity as God.
Speaker 1: And we'll hear this sometimes.
Speaker 1: We'll hear, like Jesus was a good person, he was just a prophet.
Speaker 1: Hey, that's factually incorrect.
Speaker 1: He makes a claim saying I am the same God of the Old Testament.
Speaker 1: That is who I am.
Speaker 1: And they understood this claim.
Speaker 1: And that's why it says they picked up stones to kill him.
Speaker 1: Because in their eyes, this is blasphemy.
Speaker 1: This was like one of they reject him.
Speaker 1: And it says Jesus leaves, they try to kill him, jesus leaves.
Speaker 1: And that's how the story ends.
Speaker 1: They didn't receive him, they didn't understand the message, but at the same time, jesus didn't change his message.
Speaker 1: He didn't go home feeling like oh man, they didn't like me.
Speaker 1: I should have said something a little differently.
Speaker 1: No, why?
Speaker 1: Because he was rooted in his identity.
Speaker 1: He made an identity claim.
Speaker 1: He knew who he was and he knew what his mission was.
Speaker 1: So what do we do with this?
Speaker 1: How does this apply to us?
Speaker 1: How does this help us?
Speaker 1: What can we learn from this?
Speaker 1: We have three major takeaways today for that.
Speaker 1: But it kind of depends where you're at.
Speaker 1: For the first point, today, some of you maybe identify more with the crowd, the people who haven't yet trusted Christ.
Speaker 1: Maybe you don't believe them and you're still searching.
Speaker 1: Can I say this hey, I'm so glad you're here, I'm so glad you're searching, I'm so glad you're looking.
Speaker 1: If that's you, growth happens one step at a time.
Speaker 1: This is your first step to become a child of God.
Speaker 1: To become a child of God, this is what that means to recognize that you are a sinner in need of a Savior.
Speaker 1: John 1, 12 through 13 says it this way.
Speaker 1: But to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be children of God, to those that believe in his name, who are born not of natural descent, not of Abraham, not of who your father was, or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
Speaker 1: Some of you, you're not yet a child of God.
Speaker 1: Hey, I want to encourage you that there's a God who loved you so much that he died for you.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 1: He gave his died for you.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 1: He gave his life for you to die for your sins, and he didn't stay dead, that he rose again from the grave, and that is why he is our Savior.
Speaker 1: And if that's you, maybe you need to become a child of God, to accept Christ for the first time.
Speaker 1: I want to encourage you to come and talk to me, talk to someone at our prayer and next steps banners If you want to encourage you to come and talk to me, talk to someone at our prayer and next steps banners, if you want to accept Christ as your Savior and fully understand what that means.
Speaker 1: But maybe for some of you in the room you already are a child of God.
Speaker 1: You've accepted Christ, you've trusted Christ as your Savior and here's your next step for you.
Speaker 1: Number two Identify the false identities you are clinging to.
Speaker 1: Identify the false identities, the false lies that you tell yourself.
Speaker 1: Maybe you are a child of God, you've trusted Christ as your Savior, but you're still struggling with your identity.
Speaker 1: You still feel misunderstood, you still feel discouraged.
Speaker 1: You're still not sure what your mission and purpose in life is.
Speaker 1: Hey, can I say that's normal if you have these false identities.
Speaker 1: All of us carry false identities that have been spoken over us or that we've believed for our lives.
Speaker 1: There's a false identity that I struggled with for a really long time and sometimes it still pops up and I still struggle with this and it goes all the way back to like middle school, elementary, high school.
Speaker 1: I was not exactly a model student in elementary, I'll put it that way.
Speaker 1: I did my fair share of summer school so that I could get into the next grade.
Speaker 1: Any like summer school kids like me in here, all right, a couple of us, all right.
Speaker 1: In elementary I was like barely passing.
Speaker 1: Same with middle school, like Ds I was clinging to, like hey, cs get degrees, so if I can just get a C and try to play some sports, like that's pretty good.
Speaker 1: But finally we got to my 10th grade year and I was like this is the year, man, like I got to start getting it together.
Speaker 1: You know college applications start mattering, they care about your GPA and I got tired of just feeling like dumb.
Speaker 1: So I was like this is the year I'm going to lock in, as the kids say, right, and I'm going to get a 4.0.
Speaker 1: I set this goal for myself.
Speaker 1: I was like I'm going to be a 4.0 student.
Speaker 1: 10th grade, this is the year.
Speaker 1: So I'm super excited during the summer and I'm like I want some accountability with this.
Speaker 1: So I go and I run and I tell my dad.
Speaker 1: I'm like hey, dad, dad, I got to tell you something.
Speaker 1: This year I am committing I'm going to be a 4.0 student, straight A's, I'm going to get all straight A's.
Speaker 1: Now maybe some of you are parents in the room and you said some things maybe you shouldn't have said, and you know that.
Speaker 1: Hey, I have a great father.
Speaker 1: But this is one of those moments I told him Dad, I'm going to get straight.
Speaker 1: A's Super excited and he kind of thought about it.
Speaker 1: I'm like waiting for his answer.
Speaker 1: Then he speaks and he says Cody, that's a really good goal.
Speaker 1: But sometimes in life you should set more realistic goals for yourself.
Speaker 1: So if you set like super high goals and you miss them, you're kind of setting yourself up for failure and so the truth is not everyone's an a student.
Speaker 1: Maybe you're like, maybe you should try to get c's and b's, like, maybe set that as your goal for yourself to help you.
Speaker 1: So I walked away from that conversation like, well, my dad thinks I'm an idiot.
Speaker 1: I put that on myself.
Speaker 1: I was like man, my dad doesn't think I'm smart.
Speaker 1: My grades have shown in the past yeah, I'm not very smart, I'm just a dumb kid.
Speaker 1: That's the identity I put on myself.
Speaker 1: But I'm also very stubborn and I'm also very competitive.
Speaker 1: So when my dad said that about me, I said, oh, okay, well, I'm going to show you dad right.
Speaker 1: So I go into 10th grade year.
Speaker 1: He said you don't think I can get straight A's.
Speaker 1: Watch this.
Speaker 1: So I go through 10th grade year and like I'm doing it, I'm getting straight A's like A student.
Speaker 1: People are like what happened to this kid?
Speaker 1: I got straight A's.
Speaker 1: I get all the way to the end of the year.
Speaker 1: I have a 4.1 GPA, absolutely crushing it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you Killed it that year.
Speaker 1: But then comes the dreaded part at the end of the school year that, like adults are thankful we don't have to do anymore Final exams.
Speaker 1: Part at the end of the school year that, like adults are thankful we don't have to do anymore final exams.
Speaker 1: And I killed all my final exams and I have my last one to take and it's my history exam.
Speaker 1: So I take this history exam.
Speaker 1: I'm super nervous.
Speaker 1: I'm studying for hours.
Speaker 1: I take it, turn it in, come in the next day and the teachers give you your grades back and they do the thing where they put it upside down so you can't see it.
Speaker 1: No one else can see it right.
Speaker 1: So I'm nervous.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to get perfect score and I flip it over and I see 1-0-0.
Speaker 1: 100% on the exam.
Speaker 1: But this is what happened.
Speaker 1: I broke down in my seat crying, probably 30 other students in the classroom and like I'm just sobbing and crying and people don't understand why.
Speaker 1: See, on the test there was a bonus question and if you got the bonus you could get 103% and I got it wrong.
Speaker 1: So all those identities of you're dumb, you're stupid, you're a failure came flooding back.
Speaker 1: If I were smart enough, I would have got a 103.
Speaker 1: If I were smart enough, I would have got everything perfect, everything right.
Speaker 1: Here's the thing.
Speaker 1: Reality said dude, you're a 4.1 student, chill out like you're doing okay.
Speaker 1: But my identity said no, you're dumb, you're stupid, don't listen to the GPA, you didn't get a perfect score.
Speaker 1: So many of us in this room have false identities that we cling to Lies that someone has spoken over you, that you believe about yourself, or lies that you tell yourself that you would never say to anyone else.
Speaker 1: We need to identify the false identities we are clinging to, that we are letting rule over our lives, because those are not the identities that God claims over us.
Speaker 1: Now, mine was that I'm dumb, stupid.
Speaker 1: Maybe for you it's something else.
Speaker 1: Here are a list of just some common lies, of what they can look like Maybe for you it's I'm not good enough, I can't do anything right, I'm not good enough.
Speaker 1: Maybe for you I'm defined by that past mistake, like I can't do anything right, I'm not good enough.
Speaker 1: Maybe for you I'm defined by that past mistake, like if you knew my past.
Speaker 1: Maybe for you I'm just a failure.
Speaker 1: Everything I try to do, I just mess it up.
Speaker 1: Maybe you believe deep down inside no one really loves me.
Speaker 1: Maybe you think because of the way you grew up that you have to earn God's love.
Speaker 1: Maybe you think this lie that God could never use someone like me.
Speaker 1: I'm not talented enough, I don't have what it takes.
Speaker 1: Maybe for you, your lie is I've always been this way.
Speaker 1: I can't change, like this is just who I am.
Speaker 1: Maybe your lie is I've messed up too much for God to forgive me.
Speaker 1: Maybe for you it's my worth is based on how others see me.
Speaker 1: You just care about what other people think about you and that's what gives you your value and your worth.
Speaker 1: Maybe for a lot of us it's if I'm not successful, I'm not valuable.
Speaker 1: If I don't have this position in my job, then I don't have value.
Speaker 1: If I don't make this much money, then I'm a failure, I'm not valuable.
Speaker 1: Can I say this?
Speaker 1: These are all false identities that hold us back from living in the freedom of Jesus.
Speaker 1: These are false identities that someone's spoken over, that you, that you've spoken over yourself, that we cling to and we believe.
Speaker 1: But God wants to free us from those things.
Speaker 1: God says you're not, those things you are, who he says you are.
Speaker 1: The challenge is learning to let go of those false labels and cling to the truths found in Jesus.
Speaker 1: Maybe you have to identify what lies do I believe about myself?
Speaker 1: And then number three today and we'll be done to submit to your identity as a child of God, to submit to your identity as a child of God, to submit to your identity as a child of God.
Speaker 1: Number three and I use that word submit on purpose, because there will be times in your life where you do not believe these things.
Speaker 1: There will be times in your life where you read something in scripture and you're like God says that's me.
Speaker 1: I don't feel that way.
Speaker 1: I don't think that way.
Speaker 1: We have to submit and say, hey, if that's who God says I am, that is what I'm going to believe to be true, and you've probably heard this before that you're God's child and you need to rest in your identity in Christ.
Speaker 1: But I think the reason so many Christians struggle with actually doing that is because you don't know who God says you are, is because you don't know who God says you are.
Speaker 1: You haven't gone through the Bible and read the promises that God has declared over you.
Speaker 1: We saw this when Jesus stood firm on his identity.
Speaker 1: He claimed his identity.
Speaker 1: He said I am.
Speaker 1: Did you know?
Speaker 1: There are several I am statements that God has made about you.
Speaker 1: I just want to read through some of these that I am a child of God, adopted into his family, joint heirs with Christ.
Speaker 1: I'm forgiven.
Speaker 1: I'm not my past sin.
Speaker 1: I'm not my past shame.
Speaker 1: I've been forgiven.
Speaker 1: I am chosen and loved.
Speaker 1: I don't have to earn anything.
Speaker 1: God chose me and he loves me.
Speaker 1: I am redeemed.
Speaker 1: I am not condemned.
Speaker 1: That guilt that I hold over myself.
Speaker 1: God doesn't hold that over you.
Speaker 1: I am free from sin's power.
Speaker 1: Therefore, I should stop living in sin.
Speaker 1: I am called with purpose that God has a unique purpose for your life.
Speaker 1: He wants to use you for something incredible.
Speaker 1: Your life has deep and rich meaning.
Speaker 1: Lastly, I am who God says I am.
Speaker 1: To go through the scriptures to say I'm going to declare these things over myself and I want to say this this is not some like self-help talk.
Speaker 1: This is not some motivational speak.
Speaker 1: This is you saying God, I'm gonna worship you Even though I don't believe these things about myself.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna submit to my own intellect, I'm gonna submit to my own feelings and say this is who you declare me to be and I'm gonna start living like it.
Speaker 1: In this world we hear this so often that you have to find yourself, that I have to go out and discover myself and figure out who I am.
Speaker 1: I want to leave us with this is you don't need to discover who you are.
Speaker 1: God has already declared who you are.
Speaker 1: You just need to learn it, live in it and accept it.
Speaker 1: You don't need to discover who you are.
Speaker 1: God has already declared who you are.
Speaker 1: Will you believe it this morning?
Speaker 1: Will you believe that that's true in your own heart?
Speaker 1: We're going to sing this song If we want to stand and worship.