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you in praise. Because of Calvary's
fountain, he took my place. And someday, some glorious morning,
I shall see him face to face. ♪ Amazing grace ♪ ♪ Amazing grace
♪ ♪ God's amazing grace ♪ ♪ Amazing grace ♪ We've been joining some standing
this morning. We'll sing hymn number 423, Joy to the World, the Lord
is Come. Hymn number 423. And heaven and nature sing. Repeat the sounding joy. Repeat the sounding joy. Repeat, repeat the sounding joy. No more let sin and sorrows grow. far as the curse is found, far
as, far as the curse is found. He rules the world with truth. Amen. Thank you. May we be seated. I went to worship I've found his storerooms all
filled with dust. I've bowed and altered. They turn to us. All worship
only at the feet of Jesus, his love alone. My holy grail. The call of hope. Fortune made me a pilgrim to
journey to fames promised heights. But as I climbed, the promise
faded. and the feet of Jesus. will never fail. There'll be
no other God before Him. Just Jesus only will never fail. filled us with empty shadows.
Oh, promises that turn to light. ♪ Earth, veil and betray me ♪ ♪
You alone are truth and love alone ♪ and the feet of Jesus, his love
alone, my holy prayer, help me in the hope. will never fail. He'll never
fail. I heard a old story, how the
Savior made one glory. ♪ When I repented of my sins and
won the victory ♪ ♪ The victory of Jesus, my Savior forever ♪ ♪
He sought me and bought me with His own blood ♪ And though our love is weary,
we've much to give. ♪ Of cleansing blood ♪ ♪ I heard
a cloud is healing ♪ ♪ Love is cleansing, love revealing ♪ ♪
I will make the lame to walk again ♪ ♪ And cause the blind
to see ♪ ♪ And then I cried, dear Jesus ♪ ♪ I will heal my
broken spirit ♪ And somehow Jesus came and brought to me the victory. The victory in Jesus, my Savior
forever. He sought me and bought me with his redeeming blood.
He loved me ere I knew. He touched me to victory beneath
the cleansing flood. I heard about a mansion He has
built for me in glory. And I heard about the streams
of gold beyond the crystal sea. ♪ And the old redemption story
♪ ♪ When sunsween day I'll sing out there ♪ ♪ The song of victory
♪ ♪ The victory in Jesus, he's my Savior for evermore ♪ He sought me and bought me with
his relieving blood. He loved me ere I knew him, and
though my love is dwindling, he wants me. Amen. Please remain standing
as we go to the Lord in prayer for our offering. Yeah. Glad tidings of great joy, tidings
of comfort and joy. Fear not, behold, I bring to
you glad tidings of comfort and joy. Ages of waiting have reached
an end when the herald angel appeared, saying, Peace on earth,
goodwill to men, rejoice the Savior is here. glad tidings of great joy, tidings
of comfort and joy. Fear not, behold, I bring to
you glad tidings of comfort and joy. Ages of time now have come
and gone since that night in Bethlehem. He's still today for
all the world, and God sent His message again. Glad tidings of great joy, tidings
of comfort and joy. Fear not, behold, I bring to
you glad tidings of comfort and joy. Sing hallelujah, Messiah
has come Let every nation proclaim He's Savior, Redeemer, the light
of the world And Jesus is His name great joy, tidings of comfort
and joy. Fear not, behold, I bring to
you glad tidings of comfort and joy. Fear not, behold, I bring
to you glad tidings of comfort and joy. Glad tidings of comfort and joy. Good, stand once again. We'll
sing hymn number 429, Hark the Herald Angels Sing. Hark the
herald angels sing, glory to the newborn king. God and sinners reconciled. Joyful, all ye nations, rise.
Join the triumph of the skies with angelic host proclaiming. Lord, to Thee, O angels sing,
Glory to the newborn King! Christ, my highest hymn adore,
Christ, the everlasting Lord, We in time behold Him come, ♪ The Godhead sing ♪ ♪ Hail incarnate
deity ♪ ♪ Jesus made with men to dwell ♪ ♪ Jesus, our Emmanuel
♪ ♪ Hark, the herald angels sing ♪ ♪ Glory to the newborn King
♪ Hail the day-born Prince of Peace! Hail the Son of Righteousness! Light and life to all He brings,
Risen with healing in His wings, Mild He lays His glory by. Born to raise the sons of earth.
Born to give and take and learn. Born to hear all angels sing. Hail to the newborn King! Whom the entire nation's proud,
makes heav'n and sky a home, like this Amen. Thank you, maybe some day. Shall I take from your hand your
blessings, yet not welcome any pain? Shall I thank you for days
of sunshine, Yet brumble in days of rain, Shall I love you in
times of plenty? Then leave you in days of drought. Shall I trust when I reap a harvest? But when winter winds blow, then
down be done in me. In your love I will abide. Oh, I long for nothing else as
long as you are glorified. Are you good only when I prosper? And true only when I'm filled? Are you king only when I'm carefree? And God only when I'm well? You are good when I'm poor and
needy. You are true when I'm parched
and dry. You still reign in the deepest
valley. You're still God in the darkest
night. Oh, let your will be done in
me. In your love I will abide. Oh, I long for nothing else as
long as you are glorified. So quiet my restless heart. Quiet my restless heart. quiet my restless heart. In done in me, in your love I will
abide. Oh, I long for nothing else as
long as you are glorified. Lord in my life be glorified. It's our honor to have the Carters
with us, and I see a few more slid up the hill, or didn't slide
down the hill anyhow, and so it's good to have you. Brother
Carter, if you would come and preach for us this morning. Mrs.
Carter's right here, keeping him in line, and so, Lord bless
you. Well, praise the Lord. It's a
blessing to be here today, and I'm at that I'm at a weird age. At that weird age where, yeah. So I'm at that weird age where
I still think I'm young. And then I go to places where
I know people that I knew when I was a kid who have kids that
are married and have kids and are going to mission fields and
stuff like that. then it makes me question my
whole existence and whether I'm truly understanding who I am
anymore and my view of myself as young becomes questionable.
But I know it's true. I know I am. I am young. I look at myself every, it is
my truth. I look at myself in the mirror
every morning and say, you are young. This gray hair means nothing. So anyway, praise the Lord. We're
blessed to be here. I just actually am still overcoming
jet lag. We were on a missions trip and
then a missionary retreat at the first of October through
the most of October and then we got back and I was home two
weeks and then went back to the mission field and took a couple
on a survey trip. My oldest daughter actually and
her husband on a survey trip and they're gonna be going to
the mission field. My son's I started deputation already, and he's
going to be going to the mission field. Anyway, I've been overseas
six out of the last eight weeks. And I don't know what time it
is in here, you know? And so in the middle of the night,
just randomly, I wake up and think. And that's not a good
thing. That's not a good thing at all.
It gets worse, doesn't it? Yeah. You know what I mean? I
have jet lag. Amen. Well take your Bibles to
Romans chapter number 8 and I thought I wasn't going to use that but
I'm definitely going to use it. I changed my mind. So we're in Romans chapter number
8. We talked in Sunday School about the issue of truth and
understanding what truth is and where a rejection of truth leads
us. And we saw that progression in
Sunday school. If you weren't able to be here
for that, I would encourage you to go back and watch the recording
of that online. But we ended with this thought
that when we reject truth, what happens is that we become adrift. James. Chapter number one, we're
not gonna go there, but just for explanation, but James chapter
number one tells us that a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways,
right? And he gives this illustration, he says, he's like a wave driven
with the wind and tossed, right? He's up and down, he's unmoored
from something that keeps him stable. And so this is often
what happens when someone has rejected a foundational truth
in their life. I personally believe that it's
the root cause for most of what's called bipolar. up and down and
up and down and the problem is there's nothing anchoring and
sustaining a stable position, you see. And so James explains
that in order to re-establish a stable position A person has
to come to a grounding in faith and understanding faith gives
them a place of footing or foundation, if you will, to reestablish stability
in their life. And that's really the whole book
of James addresses that concept. It starts off talking about the
problem of being double-minded, being unstable in all your ways.
like a wave driven with the wind and tossed and so forth. And
then he grows through that book in that philosophy or that concept
of how to eliminate that problem in your life. It's a very important
book in understanding, but one of the things that happens then
is that when a person unmoors from a foundational place of
identity and security, they've released themselves from a truth,
okay, from a place of truth, and that place of identity and
security, it might be that they grew up in a Bible-believing,
independent Baptist church that preached the word, and maybe
they rejected the word of God, maybe they rejected the New Testament
church or something along those lines. And now they're set adrift. and they've got to find some
place to set their identity. They don't have it established
any longer. Maybe it's they grew up in a
family that had a particular stand or position or a sense
of who they were and they reject their family and then all of
a sudden now they have to find that place of identity. So it
can happen in a lot of different ways, but it typically happens
when there's a releasing of that which was foundationally held
to as a young person. Now in our culture, the problem
we have is a subtle philosophy that slipped in several generations
ago. And this subtle cultural philosophy
was that you should not indoctrinate children. Now, this is an actual
lie that is told by leftists, if you will, that indoctrination
of children into biblical things and in church and all of this
is a bad thing because they're very actively trying to indoctrinate
children, but they think it's wrong for you to do it. They
don't think it's wrong to be done, by the way, okay? But what
has gone on is you hear people make statements, and for years
I heard people say little things that seem odd, Like, I don't
go to church because when I was a kid, my parents drugged me
to church, right? Well, they also made you go to
school. They also made you eat your food, you know, your vegetables
and stuff. And there are people that are
like, I don't eat vegetables because my parents made me eat vegetables. And that's
more reasonable, actually. I understand that a little bit
more. But you understand, philosophically, it's a dumb argument. Because
my parents also made me bathe, and my parents made me eat my
vegetables, and my parents made me go to school, and my parents,
there were many things my parents made me do, like clean my room,
right? Now my wife makes me do that,
but my parents used to make me do that. And so to say, well,
my parents made me go to church, that's an odd statement, but
really what it is is I'm rejecting the indoctrination of my parents.
I'm rejecting God, I'm rejecting the church, I'm rejecting that
philosophy, if you will, and I'm going to be my own person.
The problem is, is what kind of person is that gonna be? Where
is my identity now going to be rooted and centered for the future? And so what we have is a culture
that bought into this idea of, well, I don't want to force God
on my kids because they heard these type of things. So I'm
not gonna force my kids to go to church, so we're just gonna
not go to church. So now my kids are exposed to every worldly
philosophy out there, and they're being indoctrinated in these
worldly philosophies, and they're going to find some place to put
their identity. And so because they don't have
a grounding of truth to establish their identity on, they're going
to put it on the shifting sands of culture around them. Now in
Romans chapter number 8 we see three aspects of where identity
comes from or how identity is established and it's important
to grab these for understanding because our young people are
looking for an identity. Everyone does. Everyone tries
to figure out who am I? Who am I? How can I identify
myself? And this culture is offering
identities to them. Saying, pick this identity, pick
that identity. Identify as this or identify
as that. And young people are drawn to it because their parents
are standing back saying, Hey, you just be whoever you are.
We don't want to influence who you become and what you are.
That's foolishness. If you have a child here today,
you better be trying to influence the direction of their life and
who they are. You better be. You're a parent.
You're responsible. You're responsible. Now, they
can reject it. They have a free will, okay?
They may reject what they're taught, but you're responsible
to teach it. You are responsible. God believes
in indoctrination. Read Deuteronomy chapter number
six. He believes in indoctrination, right? And so we ought to be
teaching, but look at Romans chapter number eight. Let's talk
about this issue of identity for just a minute. In verse number
12, do you stand when you read scripture? Let's stand. Romans
8, verse number 12 through 17. It says, Therefore, brethren,
we are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh. For
if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die. But if ye through
the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For
as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of
God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to
fear, whereby we have received the spirit of adoption, whereby
we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness
with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children,
then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if so
be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. Father, I pray that you would
help us this morning as we consider this portion of scriptures. the
application that you've given for us today. Use it in our hearts
today. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.
You may be seated. So, you might read this and say,
I don't see the word identity in there, and you'd be right.
The word identity itself isn't in these verses, but the concept
or principle of identity is, as he begins here in verse number
12 and 13, speaking about those who identify with the flesh.
that the flesh is their identity, if you will. We're debtors not
to the flesh to live after the flesh, for if ye live after the
flesh, ye shall die. And then the contrast, if ye
through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall
live. So we have a comparison, if you will, of two different
identities, the identity of living after the flesh and the identity
of living after the spirit. And these two contrasts are what
is, if you will, the big picture options that people have. It
actually is only two options, but there are variations within
these options, if you will, okay? So if I say, well, I want to
live after the flesh, what can I identify as in the flesh? Well,
you can identify with any sinful behavior you decide to make prominent
in your life, right? Whether it's addiction, Whether
it is, you know, sexual perversion of some variation, you know,
I'm a homosexual, I'm a transvestite, I'm a this, I'm a that, you know,
whatever, I'm a playa. That's a cultural option. It's
a cultural option. And so that identity can become
anything that's after the flesh. And then you have those that
live after the spirit. Now, the after the spirit options
are more limited. And I mean this in a very specific
way. I don't mean that there aren't
people that claim to be Christians who are liars and hypocrites
and sinful in their behavior, because there certainly are.
But those people are liars about living after the spirit. They're
actually living after the flesh. They just put on the persona
of living after the spirit. They're not really living after
the spirit. There really is only one way to live after the Spirit,
and that's to obey the Word of God and to follow His principles,
His commandments, His law, and to exemplify that in your life.
So if you're not doing that, no matter how much you go to
church, call yourself a Christian, or put on that facade of Christianity,
you actually are still living after the flesh. So these are
your two options. You do whatever your flesh wants
and desires, or you do what God wants. Those are the two roots
of identity. Those are the two places. So
a person can take their identity from their behavior, from what
they do, maybe from their abilities. It's not uncommon for us as men
to get together. And when you meet a new man,
what's one of the first things you say? So what do you do? Where
do you work? How do you identify is what you're
asking. What's your identity, right? Are you a contractor?
Are you a tradesman? Are you a white collar, blue
collar? You know, what's your identity
in that? And we often fix identity to what a person does, right? Or what kind of hobbies do you
have? Right? You know, you ride motorcycles
or, you know, you drive a big truck or, you know, you throw
axes, which is a newer thing. I never, you know, anyway, it's
kind of fun to throw axes. You're supposed to throw them
at targets, though, and not at people. That's less fun. What do you do? What kind of
abilities do you have? Did you play sports when you
were in school? Right? Do you still? There's a lot of
grown men that are still trying to recapture their youth, breaking
their hips and stuff like that. Who's your friends? What kind
of relationships? These are the ways that people
find identity, right? What they do, where they're from,
these type of things. And it all revolves around the
flesh and the things of this world and the identity that is
available to us based upon the deeds, actions, or abilities
of the flesh. I want you to get this principle
in your mind because what we're doing is we're trying to find
a source of identification. When we try and find that source
of identification based on the flesh, what we're trying to do
is fill the void that is present in us. in some fashion, in such
a way as to bring gratification or satisfaction to our heart
about our position or standing amongst others in this world
and also with God, right? We're trying to say, I'm okay.
I'm an okay person, right? I'm fulfilled, if you will. We're
trying to find that. Now, when you look in the scriptures
in Genesis chapter number one, In Genesis chapter number one
you see God creating everything and he uses a statement at the
end of his creation, all through the chapter he says it was good,
right? He saw that it was good and he created something else
and he saw that it was good. Six times he says he saw that
it was good and then at the very end of Genesis chapter one he
says he saw everything that he had made and behold it was very
good. So seven times he says it's good,
it's good, it's good, it's good, it's good, right? In chapter
number two, we get into a new phase, if you will. Now, chapter
number two, sometimes critics will say, there's two different
accounts of creation in the Bible. Chapter one is different from
chapter number two. That's not the case. Chapter number one
is like the big picture view, and chapter number two is the
zoomed-in view, where God kind of focuses in on a more particular
thing. And obviously, when you zoom
in, you see some more details that you didn't see the big picture
view, okay? So in chapter number two, he
zooms in and he talks about creating Adam and taking the ground and
forming him and breathing into his nostrils the breath of life
and Adam becoming a living soul. And then he says as he goes through
there, he begins to give Adam... responsibility. And so he gives
them physical responsibility first to dress and keep the garden
and then he gives him moral responsibility. And that moral responsibility
is that he is to not take of the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil. And so remember that's in Genesis 2 verse 17
if you want to look at it right there. But he said, the day you
eat thereof ye shall what? Surely die. And then the very
next verse, verse number 18, we often use verse number 18
as a marriage verse, right? But the context, remember that
when Genesis was written, matter of fact, when all of the Bible
was written, it wasn't written in verse style, right? I mean, like Moses wasn't writing
now verse number 18, you know. He wrote it as a narrative. And
so the narrative continues on. Punctuation matters a lot more
than verse numbers. And so he says, the day you eat
of it, you'll surely die. And then the very next statement
is, it's not good that man should be alone. And then there's a
colon there. And then it says, I will make
and help meet for him, which is talking about marriage. But
the statement, it's not good that man should be alone, had
nothing to do with that he didn't have a wife. That follows. But it has to do with what preceded.
The thing that would make him alone is when he died and became
separated from God. Think about that. At one point,
Adam was the only person on the face of the earth, and yet he
was not alone. He wasn't going to be alone until
sin. And sin had not yet happened.
It's not good that man should be alone. So sin creates separation
from God, but the consequence of that is being alone. Marriage doesn't solve aloneness. I've done counseling for over
30 years now. I've done a lot of marriage counseling.
Some of the most alone people I've ever met in my life are
married. Right? So just getting married, young
people have this idea. I'm alone, but when I get married,
I'll never be alone again. When you get married, you're
like, could I please be alone? I'm kidding about that, but. But it doesn't cure aloneness.
You can be alone sitting here today in this room full of people,
right? Aloneness is not a result of
not being around people. Aloneness is a result of being
separated from God. And it's important to grab that.
Now catch this view then, okay? So I'm gonna put like a tree
here. My drawings are phenomenal. And I'm going to put a root down
here because a tree has a tap root. And we're going to put
this word loneliness here, right? And the fruit of this tree is
identity. Identity. In other words, your
identity is what other people or what you think of yourself
and what you want other people to think of you. It's the thing
you want people to see. who you are, right? But sometimes that
identity, because of our sinful behavior, trying to cure aloneness,
sometimes that identity becomes that fleshly persona of addiction
or sexual perversion, or arrogance and pride, and all of those type
of things. It's the identity that people
see of us and that we try and portray. This is who I am. And
so that people even commonly now, it's very common for people
to publicly state their identity as their sinful behavior, right? I am gay. I am trans. I am this. I am that. And I'm
going to get a flag and carry it around and wear it on my shirt
or my hat or my whatever. I'm going to tattoo it on my
body so everybody knows this is who I am. I've adopted this
identity. And please catch this. Many,
many, maybe even most of the people that get involved in this
ideology are doing so because they don't have an identity of
their own and they're trying to find one. And they're told,
if you'll have this identity, you won't be alone anymore. This
is a lie of Satan. You won't be alone. You'll be
with all of us, our loving, accepting community. Right? Well, those Christians
are hateful. They don't accept you. That's
a lie, by the way. But we accept you for who you
are, as long as who you are aligns with who we are, and then you
won't be alone. Guess what? It doesn't work either.
That's why suicide rates are insanely high amongst this perversion
stuff. I mean, exorbitantly high. Why? Often, the key element or statement
in regards to suicide has to do with, I don't want to be alone
anymore. Nobody cares. Nobody loves me. Nobody accepts me. I'm alone. Actually, statistically, they
say that the number one reason for suicide is depression. And the number two reason for
suicide is loneliness. But then when you study depression,
you find out that the number one contributing factor for depression
is loneliness. Alone. This is a problem. And so the drawing that I had
up here during Sunday school, if you divided this into two
different categories, this would be sin in the world. And this
would be sinful responses. All right, the drawing I had
up there earlier would come off here, how we respond to being
alone, how we're trying to solve the problem. And if you've, pastor
asked me to bring books. And my brain has not been working
the last couple days, because I mentioned I just got back from
overseas, and I forgot. But one of the books that I have
written in the past is a book called Emotional Pain. It's on
dealing with emotional trauma. That's the things that have happened
to us that aren't our fault, but have brought trauma into
our life. Abuse, betrayal, conflict, death, disease, divorce, rejection,
and so on. That would all fall under this
side. Things that happen to us because of sin in the world,
and then there's ways that we respond because of sin in our
own way. All of this feeds into this issue
of aloneness, which we try and cure by developing an identity
to isolate ourselves or remove it from our life. Alright, does
that make sense? Bunch of drawings put together. This is the world's attempt at
solving the problem of aloneness. Substitute an identity based
on sinful behavior. We see it in scripture many different
times. Probably one of the clearest times we see it in scripture
is when we see it over in the maniac of Gadara over in Mark
chapter number 5. We won't turn there for the sake
of time, but there in that passage, you remember when Jesus comes
to the Gadarenes, he says, what's your name? And the man's response
was? Legion, and he said, because we're many, right? Now, do you
think, just think, put on your thinking hat for a moment, do
you think that that mom, when she had that baby boy, looked
at him and said, I think I'll call him full of devils? Maybe she did. I don't know.
People are weird. I've heard some really strange names of
late to be honest. But I doubt it. He wasn't really
telling Jesus his name, his given name. He was telling Jesus his
identity. This is who I am. I'm full of
devils. And that's exactly what Satan
wants people to do today. It's what he wants you to do.
It's what he wants these young people to do. It's to accept
an identity based on sinful behavior that is offered from the world
as a way to cure your aloneness, as a way to not any longer be
alone. And so often that's exactly what
we find when we deal with addiction. In our church we have a the hope
addiction program that we produce and we have over 500 churches
that use it but we also have residential homes and I do weekly
counseling with those that are in our residential homes and
it's constant that it's like I tried to fit in with the crowd
you know I wanted to be like everybody else and so I started
smoking marijuana and I started doing this and I started doing
that and before long The sin that's in the world brought trauma
in their life and anchored those behaviors into their understanding
or their thought that this is a way to cure my aloneness is
through partying and being around people and having fun. And what
they find is that it only brings more and more destruction until
it becomes their identity. and it destroys their life. Please
understand this is what Paul is speaking about here in Romans
chapter 8 when he says don't live after the flesh because
if you live after the flesh ye shall die and when you die because
of the sin of the flesh you're alone. That's exactly what he
says in Genesis 4. It's not good that man should
be alone. Being alone is the fruit of following after the
flesh, doing the things of the flesh. It's important to understand
that. And it's necessary to grasp this principle that if aloneness
is actually the result, not of the people around me, and not
of the things that have happened to me, Not of the way even that
I think. Those all contribute to the feeling
of aloneness and magnify it, if you will. But if it's not
produced from that, then I can't solve it by addressing or looking
at those issues either. Please catch this. The way you
cure aloneness is by making right the relationship with the one
you were separated from. That is God. You have to restore
your relationship with God to cure aloneness. And this is a
very key point. It's something, young people,
you really need to grab hold of and understand. You're never
going to find a fulfilled identity in the flesh, ever. The only
way to find a secure and fulfilling identity is in the one who made
you, in your creator. And so you have to restore a
right relationship. Now, there's a lot of factors
that go into when we talk about relationship. And when I'm dealing
with young people in this particular area of issue of aloneness, loneliness,
which is a big problem, which is contributing factor in all
of these identification areas, the first thing that I talk to
them about is this. I'm going to just give you a couple quick
points. grab hold of this, okay? Number one, you need to start
looking for places in the scriptures to identify where you see yourself. You see your expression of how
you feel, okay? What a great song service. Man,
the choir special, the other specials, they were just, they
were awesome. It was a blessing to me. It was
nourishing to my spirit, amen? And I identify with those songs. I identify with them. But you
know, there was a point in my life I didn't. And I learned
this, there was a while back, there was a car that pulled up
next to us. This was, I don't know, a decade or more ago. And
you know, they had their music going on. And it was that, you
know. and my car is shaking, and I'm
getting angry because we're stuck at this light, and I'm thinking,
what is wrong with these people with this music that's just,
like, got to be blowing their eardrums out. I mean, like, hurting
my ears, and I'm not even in their car. You know what I'm
talking about. They do that in Kansas City, too. And so I'm thinking, what's
wrong with him? And I start telling God about
it, you know, because I believe in the Bible, using Bible methods. And one of the methods in Psalms
is imprecatory prayer, you know. And that means, you know, you
pray for harm against people you don't like. That's what that
means, really. So, you know, dear God, Blow their car up. Blow their speakers out. Make
it stop, God. And so as I'm thinking about
this, and you might think I'm joking about that. I'm not actually
joking about that. I was like praying, God, make their music
stop. It's horrible. And I started
talking to God about this, about this music. I'm saying, why would
anyone ever listen to that music? And it was like the Lord spoke
to me and said, because they identify with it. And that's
what music does, or that's what it is, actually. Music is an
expression of the soul. And you can tell the condition
of your soul by the music you identify with. Think about that. That's a little scary. Because there's people that identify
with music that's very angry, and the reason is because they're
angry. And they don't know how to express it, And they see that
expression there, so they identify with it. And then what happens
is, over time, you identify with the music, and then you begin
to identify with or as the music. Had a friend in school, as a
high schooler, I remember freshman year, no, sophomore year, I'm
sorry, We hung out, and we talked, we played sports together, and
then went back my junior year, and I didn't even recognize him.
We hadn't seen each other. That was before cell phones and
social media, kids. And so we didn't see each other
all summer, because he lived out on the other side of the
country, on the other side, and we were on this side of town.
And I came to school, and he shows up at school. He's like
wearing a trench coat in western Kansas, all right? He's wearing
a trench coat, black boots laced up, you know, all the way up
his calf. He's got black hair. He didn't have natural black
hair, but his hair's black. It's over his eyes. He's wearing
black fingernail polish. This is in the 90s, all right?
And he had started listening to grunge. And he came to school,
and he was reflecting that. It wasn't who I had seen the
year before. But he was always an angry kid.
I mean, that was one of the things about him. He was mad about stuff,
you know? But he found this music that reflected how he felt inside,
and then he began to reflect it. And that's what happens with
music. You've got to be careful. I'm trying to get that thought
across and understand, because he was looking for something
to express. And what he found was an identity
that he invested himself in. And he began to see himself as
this. Okay, which was an expression
of his fleshly, sinful feelings, and that became his persona.
Okay, now, music does that, and this is important. Let me get
back to I really enjoyed the song service, because it reflected what I feel
inside. And you need to be thinking about that. And one of the ways
you can find a proper identity, instead of going to the world
to find a place you identify with, go to the scriptures. Remember,
all of the Psalms are songs. God did that on purpose. They
express all kinds of emotions and feelings and from anger,
David expresses anger in the Psalms, to joy, from frustration
and depression even, to jubilance and God is so great and even
the imprecatory Psalms I mentioned just a minute ago where David
basically says, dear God, kill that person and kill their whole
family and break down their house and pile it with manure so that
everyone knows that they're a bad person and they did me wrong.
That's kind of a paraphrase but it's not far off. That's in the
Psalms, kids, right, where you learn to be a good Christian. You read that and you go, well,
Christians should never feel like that. Well, how haughty
you are. Christians feel all kinds of
ways. But here's what identity with Christ does. It helps us
take those feelings and go to the scriptures and find that
expression and then look for God's answer that's given, and
that's always given in the Psalms. I can find how I feel, but I
also find an answer from God for that problem as well. And
so what happens is when I find that identity in the word of
God, I begin to see God's answers for my feelings and problems.
Instead of reinforcing the negative feeling, which is what the world's
music does, the word of God takes that feeling and says, I see
how you feel and I understand it. And you know what? I'm touched
with the feelings of your infirmity and I wanna help you. Here's
an answer for that problem. And I begin to identify with
God. I begin to identify with his word. I begin to identify
with his answers. And that's what takes those psalms
from, everyone's against me, no one's for me. Why art thou
disquieted, O my soul? Why art thou cast down? To, I
will glory in God. It's that transition from that
sinful feelings because of the things that have happened to
me, instead of responding in a sinful way, my sinful feelings
become exposed by the Word of God and I begin to respond in
a godly way because I identify with the Spirit instead of the
flesh. This is important. You have to learn to identify
with the Word of God if you're going to have an identity in
God. Once you identify with the word of God, you need to spend
time meditating on his word. That's the second thing. This
is how you build relationships, by the way, in case anyone's
wondering. Say, what do you mean by that?
All right. You ever go to a preacher's meeting? This doesn't happen in churches
normally, just in preacher's meetings. You go to a preacher's
meeting, and you meet that preacher that only talks about himself.
And it's like, you're the sounding board for what he's saying, but
you never get to get a word in edgewise. It's just like, me,
me, me, me, me, me, my, my, my, my, my, my. And you're like,
oh, yeah, that reminds, oh, well, brother, it's been good to talk
to you. And he's off, right? That's how a lot of people treat
God. It's a one-sided conversation.
They let God dialogue, or not dialogue, but monologue, if you
will. Maybe they read a scripture or two, and this is God's monologue,
and now it's my turn, and I'm gonna tell God, blah, you know,
and there's never a dialogue. There's never a give and take
in the conversation, right? You don't build relationships
when there's only monologues. Build relationship through dialogue.
You know, how are you? You tell me. And then you're
like, well, how are you? And I tell you. And back and
forth. And that's part of building relationships, OK? It's important
to understand it works the same way with God and with people.
And if you're only looking to find someone to tell stuff to
and not looking for someone that you're actually willing to let
tell back, then you're not actually investing yourself in a relationship.
So don't be surprised when you feel alone. No one will listen to me. Start
listening to them. That's usually the problem, by
the way. Start listening to them, and then they'll be open to listening
to you. It's a big part of it. Okay? But it's the same when
we come to the word of God. So when I read my Bible, I'm
looking for some place that expresses or I identify with something
that stands out to me, that speaks to me. I'm looking for God to
speak to me, right? But then I want to spend time
thinking about what he's saying and processing that, and that's
called meditation, right? And Joshua 1.8 says, this book
of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt
meditate therein day and night, right? That's the place of meditation.
And then he says, that thou mayest observe to do according to all
that is written therein. That's the purpose of meditation,
meditating to implement, to do, right? And then he says, for
then thou shalt make the way prosperous and thou shalt have
good success. That's the promise of meditation, success. And if
you invest that same way in your communication with other people,
you'll have better relationships with them. listening to what
they say, and thinking about it instead of having that conversation. This is frustrating conversations
when you can tell they're not really listening to what you're
saying. They're just waiting for you to stop so they can say
what they want to say. That's frustrating. Like, listen to me. And I don't
want to talk to you because you don't listen to me. And then
that person goes away and says, no one wants to talk to me. Yeah,
because you don't listen to anybody. I'm being mean, aren't I? It's
true, okay? It's true, it's part of the problem.
You wanna develop a relationship with God, you've gotta listen
to him, you've gotta think about what he's saying, and then you
need to respond to him. Prayer, right? Prayer is a beautiful
picture of communication, and it's applicable, if you will,
we won't go into all that, but it's applicable if you'll pay
attention to it, it's applicable to marriage relationships and
communication as well. You can always take, The spiritual
truth and reverse engineer it to apply to the physical problems. The spiritual truth is a solution
that needs to be applied to the physical problems. You just have
to evaluate it. Reverse back to that issue. So this identity
problem, this aloneness and trying to find an identity to cure my
aloneness, to solve me being out here and isolated because
of my sin, Instead of repentance and seeking God, we dive further
and further into our sin, hoping that eventually, even though
it hasn't worked so far, eventually, somewhere down there, we're going
to find that satisfaction and comfort and calmness that we're
pursuing. But you never will. Only if you seek God. Only if
you recognize that identity, true identity and comfort comes
from Him. Now look back to our passage
here in Romans chapter number eight. Because he gives this contrast
of the flesh versus the spirit in verse 12 and 13. And verse number 14, he says,
as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of
God. Now, son of God, that's an identity. That's an identity. For you have not received the
spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the spirit
of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. In verse number
16, the spirit of itself, the spirit itself, beareth witness
with our spirit that we are the children of God. Notice the connection
there then between verse number 14, if you are led of the spirit,
you are the son of God, and then verse number 16 where he says
that the spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the
children of God. In other words, I see myself
as a son of God, but God also sees me as his son. connection
here between these two. It's my true identity and it
comes from my relationship in God through Jesus Christ. Not
what I have done, but who He has made me. This is important. My identity is not about the
things I've done. Man, I'm so glad. I'm normal. I'm a normal failure of a human
being. Well, you shouldn't talk about
yourself as being a failure. I am. In my flesh, I fail. I mess stuff
up. I've done lots of dumb stuff.
I am so thankful. Listen, one of the things you
learn as you get to a certain age, like I'm at a certain age
at this point now, where there's some people I don't really want
to see, not because I don't want to see people, but because I've
done some dumb things I don't want to be reminded of. Anyone
see that person? I'm like, oh man, I was such
an idiot. What did I do? I'm glad that's not my identity.
I mean, the things that I've done, I've done, but that's not
who I am. I am a child of God. I am a son of God. And not only
do I see that, but he sees that, and his spirit bears witness
with my spirit. That's where assurance comes
from, by the way. Assurance isn't just about a memory or a feeling. Assurance is a knowing. That
calmness of fellowship that comes from knowing Him and having that
assurance or speaking to your spirit from His spirit and He's
saying, you're my child. That's a wonderful thing. Look
on to verse number 17. He says, and if children and
heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that
we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together. So
catch this. My identity doesn't come from my behavior. My identity comes from my relationship
with God. And my future is determined by
that. And by the way, your future is
determined by your identification, whether it's with the flesh or
with the Father. Your future is determined that
way. Because if you continue to pursue identity after the
flesh, here's what you're going to find. Destruction and death.
misery and sorrow and continuing so. But if you identify with
the father, you identify with the spirit, you identify as his
child and you recognize that he identifies as your father,
that's a wonderful, awesome thing. And then you find out that because
he's my father, I have an inheritance laid up for me and I'm headed
somewhere because of God being my father, I have that identification
as one who has a place in heaven. and an inheritance among the
saints. That's me. I grew up in a Christian home,
and I'm thankful for that. My dad started churches in western
Kansas as I was growing up. Started a number of churches
out there. My dad was from Western Kansas. He got saved as a child,
actually, out in California in an independent Baptist church.
And then his family moved to Scott City, Kansas. And he grew
up there. And there wasn't an independent
Baptist church there. And so they were just out of church.
And his dad was very worldly. He was a drunk. all the things
that come along with that lifestyle. And when he went to college,
he went to Barton County Community College on a track scholarship
out in Great Bend. And that's where he met my mother. And they got married. And after
they got married, they decided they wanted to go to church together.
And her family went to an American Baptist church. And so they went
there, and my dad from being a kid out in that independent
Baptist church in California had a King James Bible and didn't
use it, but he had one, and he started going to Sunday school
there at the American Baptist Church, and he got mad because
they weren't reading out of the real Bible, and he didn't even
know anything, you know, I mean, he just knew that what that guy
was reading wasn't the real Bible, and he wanted to go to a church
where they read the real Bible, and so they end up at an independent
Baptist church. And God changed their life and
they went into ministry and all that. My dad's identity became
a believer that walked with God and a preacher and all that,
right? And he saw this big contrast.
I'm getting somewhere, okay? He sees a huge contrast between
how he grew up and the life he saw growing up, the identification
with the flesh. And his commitment to Christ
and the life he now has, the life that he received from his
fellowship with the Father, right? There's a big contrast here.
He was really a first-generation Christian. I grew up in a preacher's
home. I grew up going to church. Listen,
from the time I was just out of the hospital, I was in church
my entire life. I know how to sleep on church
pews really well. Right? I grew up going to youth
rallies and youth camps and preacher's meetings and all of that type
of stuff. I've been around the Bible and around church my entire
life. I'm going somewhere, hold on,
hold on. That didn't give me an identity with the Father. And a lot of people I grew up
with, who grew up the same way I did, no longer identify with
the father. Because growing up a certain
way doesn't make you that. That's that. My wife didn't grow
up in a Christian home. Your assistant pastor's wife,
her mom was the reason my wife got into church. Her parents
wouldn't let her go to my wife's family's house because they weren't
Christian. And so the only time she could
be around her friend was if she went to her house or went to
church. And so she went to church so she could be with her friend.
And God changed her life because of that. And man, praise God.
But, you know, it's one of those things where she's a first-generation
Christian. And our kids grew up in a pastor's
home. And I'm telling our kids, and
my wife's telling our kids, listen, you're not a Christian because
you grew up in this home. This isn't your identity unless
you choose to make it your identity. Please get that? This isn't your
identity just because you grew up in church, kids. You may be
sitting here, and you grew up in a church, and you grew up
in a home that's Christian, and you're like, well, I'm a Christian,
and I don't care for this churchy stuff, and as soon as I get a
chance, I'm going to go out and do whatever I want. That's because
you're not really have an identity in the Father. You don't have
an identity in the Father unless you choose to have an identity
in the Father. You can grow up in church and identify with the
flesh. And there are all kinds of people that still identify
with flesh, even preachers, who don't really walk in the Spirit.
Their identity is in the things of their flesh, and maybe it's
in their abilities, and they followed certain abilities that
led them into ministry, and ministry is a great place for narcissists,
by the way. There's a certain amount of either
notoriety or public persona that can be had, and a narcissist
loves that. The best preachers are usually
the ones, and this is just my opinion, this is my subjective
truth, The best preachers are usually the ones that don't really
enjoy being up in front of people. When someone really enjoys being
up in front of people, it's probably a problem. But our identity, even for preachers,
cannot be, that's my identity, I'm a preacher. Because that
goes away. There's gonna come a point where
I can't do this. My identity has to be, I'm a
child of God. He's my Father, and His Spirit bears witness
with my spirit. And I have this relationship with Him, and I
developed that relationship with Him, and I have an inheritance
waiting, not because of what I do, but because of who I am. My identity does away with all
those things that happen to me because of sin, or the ways that
I've behaved because of sin. And when I pursue that path of
walking in the Spirit, in truth, God gives me an identity that
is secure. Any identity that you take on
outside of Him will fail. Any identity you take on that
is the result of the pursuits of your flesh, the offerings
of this world, It will fail. It will bring you misery and
sorrow. But when you find your identity
in Christ, and in your relationship with him, this is a firm foundation. That's
why David constantly in the psalm says, he is my rock, my fortress,
my strong tower, my shield, my defender. Why? Because he was secure. Most people
struggle with insecurity. The reason is because they struggle
with where their identity is, who they are. In this world,
it's always going to be tossed to and fro, up and down with
the waves of the sea. But in Christ, we can stand secure
and know who we are in Him. Bow our heads this morning. Father, you are wonderful. Your truth
is everlasting. Your spirit, the fellowship of
your spirit is so sweet. And I thank you, Father, for
that fellowship. I thank you that your spirit
bears witness with my spirit and with all of those who walk
in the spirit. Lord, I pray that if there's
someone here today who doesn't identify as a child of God, maybe
their identity is still in their behaviors, maybe it's in their
abilities, maybe it's in their work or their desires, But they don't have an identification
with you like they ought to. Pray that today they'd get that
straight. Maybe they need to get saved today. Maybe they're
saved, but they've grown up in church and they just don't even
know anything else. And they haven't yet made the
conscious choice to pursue you and set their identity in you.
Pray that they would do that today. Lord, this world wants
to give them so many false and fake identities, but in you they
can have that security and a knowing of who they are, who you are. Pray that they would choose that
over the flesh. In Jesus' name I ask. Let's all
stand. The piano is going to play. Maybe
God spoke to your heart about something today in Sunday school
or in this morning worship service and you need to respond to the
Lord. The altar is available to you. You can kneel where you
are if you feel that God would lead you in that way, but why
don't you do what God would have you do today. I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back. No turning back. Though none go with me, still
I will follow. I will follow, though none go
with me, still I will follow, no turning back, no turning back. The world behind me, the cross
before me. Lord, still in your heart today,
I encourage you to come, whatever your need. You're here without
Christ as your Savior. Let him take my wounds, share
them with you. That you can know that you're
saved on your way to heaven. Whatever your need, would you
come? No turning back. No turning back. I have decided
to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back. No turning back. Amen. It's good to be in the
Lord's house today. Make it and be here with us.
Brother and Mrs. Carter, if you would go ahead
and make your way to the back. There's a table just there in
the entryway. You stand in front of that. People
and shake your hands as they leave. We have teen Christmas
party December 2nd. We have Christmas missions offering
December 3rd. Cantata on the 10th. Match the
Pirate Program on the 17th, Ladies Christmas Party on the 18th,
and then Christmas Eve, of course, we'll have our regular morning
service, and then Christmas Eve candlelight service in the afternoon
at one, and so you mark all that down, plan to be with us. Now
we'll be breaking for lunch, coming back at one, and Brother
Cardo will speak one more time, and so if you can stay and be
with us, I know it will be a blessing to you. Let's go to Lord and
word of prayer. Lord, we love you and we thank
you for your many blessings. Thank you for the things that
we've heard today. I pray that you'd help us to receive those
things, think they're on, and Lord, might we amend our living
accordingly that you might be honored and glorified in our
lives and in our hearts. Thank you for the opportunity
to be here today. We pray that you go before us
in all that we do. We ask these things in your name,
amen. you
Quest For Identity
Series Guest Speaker
| Sermon ID | 1126231754107609 |
| Duration | 1:24:09 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - AM |
| Bible Text | Romans 8:12-17 |
| Language | English |
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