Looking in the Mirror
May 22, 2011
Eph 2:6
Introduction
- Please raise your hands if you have not received a bulletin - you will need it before the end of the service
- We have all heard about identity theft
- we become paranoid about someone seeing our social security number or birthdate
- I even started altering my birthdate on facebook and my email accounts, but later felt that was dishonest and changed them back
- But we do so much online
- email, paying bills, it is convenient
- but when we go to nasty places on the web we can contract a nasty virus, which compromises your identity
- You may not know it has happened to you until you receive bills for a credit card you never had, or you are held liable for bad checks passed in your name, on a bank account you did not know existed
- it affects your credit and your credibility and you end up owing lots of money
- Identity theft happens in our spiritual life too
Thief steals ID
- John 10:10
- Satan is a thief
- What does he steal? Not our goods, he has no need of them
- he steals our identity
- How does he do this?
- He plants bombs in our thinking
- He starts off when we are very little, and sets up situations which are designed to steal our value and worth
- It may start off when we are conceived - maybe we were an unwanted child
- Some of us were adopted or fostered out, and at the core of our being we feel like we don't belong, because we did not have a sense of being wanted, in the early years of our life
- Maybe our family split up and we became part of the 50% of children that grew up in a broken family - 50% of marriages end in divorce
- As a child you don't know you are not responsible, nor that it is not unusual anymore - instead you feel like your family is sub-standard and that means you are sub-standard too
- This is all stuff the enemy engineers
- Maybe your teachers were old-school and tough and put you down
- maybe home life was affecting your grades and you bombed out at school
- Later on, we are affected by our employers
- They can build us up or tear us down
- It happens in church too
- we can be beaten down in church, convinced we are going to hell, convinced we are the scum of the earth, and that we don't measure up to the standards expected of us
- I grew up with a measuring rule - you had to pray one hour per day, study the Bible one hour per day, and also find time to meditate. I would try and try to do it but it never really worked. So I walked around carrying a huge load of guilt
- This was all part of the enemy's plan for me
- When we look in the mirror, this is what we see
- But Jesus has a different perspective on this
We are in Christ
- Eph 2:1-7
- The Bible teaches that when we have accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are "in Christ"
- This is more than a theological concept
- It is more than imitating the life and teaching of Jesus
- It is the present experience of the risen Jesus, living in us!
- Paul and John both use this term, being in Christ, to express the personal and dynamic relationship between the believer and Christ.
- This term is used 8 times in Galatians, 34 times in Ephesians and 18 times in Colossians
- This term refers to what we call "identification with Christ"
- It means God has done something in our life, so that we have become identified with Christ.
- As a result, what is true of Christ's standing, has become true of us
- Jesus was crucified, so were we! We are crucified with Christ - Gal 2:20
- Jesus is risen from the dead - so are we - Rom 6:4
- But it goes beyond this
- Jesus rose to heaven to be with the Father - if I am identified with Christ I too have ascended to heaven and am seated at the right hand of the Father!
- Eph 2:5-6
- Of course we have not become creators of the world, nor have we become God
- But our identification with Christ goes much further than we think
Who am I?
- Let's read aloud from the insert in the bulletin:
- I am the salt of the earth - Matt 5:13
- I am the light of the world - Matt 5:14
- I am a child of God - Jn 1:12
- I am part of the true vine, a channel of Christ's life - Jn 15:1,5
- I am chosen and appointed by Christ to bear fruit - John 15:16
- I am a son of God and one in Christ - Gal 3:26, 28
- I am a saint - Eph 1:1, 1 Cor 1:2, Phil 1:1, Col 1:2
- I am God's workmanship, his handiwork, born anew in Christ to do His work.
Conclusion
- Please read the summary of our Christian identity
- During the next few weeks we will take a closer look at the kind of person we truly are
- This will be a life-changing experience for you
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