identity theft

I have had the privilege of visiting the LA Dream Center this week, and last night and heard a message that I would like to share with you, or at least the notes from the sermon.  Pastor Bob Beckett from The Dwelling Place Family Church in Hamet, CA shared a message titled “Identity Theft”, and this was a powerful word that all of us need to hear.

When we understand our identity in God, we will experience the abundant life that God has for us.  As you read the notes from this sermon I pray that God will use these nuggets inspire us to claim and believe that our identity is found solely in Him.

SERMON: Identity Theft (shared at Angelus Temple in Los Angeles, CA by Pastor Bob Beckett on 11-20-2014)

John 10:10  (MSG)

A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.

Identify the thief. See Revelation 1:18. 

Understand who the thief is and that he has no right to you. 

The devil doesn't even have the keys to his own house (see Rev 1:18). 

He has no right to kill you. If he cannot kill you, he doesn’t have the right to your identity. Then you begin to take back your identity. 

If he's able to steal your identity, then he can take with it your acceptance. 

How we see ourselves is how the devil deals with us. So, if we don't see our identity in Christ, then the devil will mess with us  

We no longer live with envy or competing with others when we understand our identity. Our identity is tied up in who God sees you to be and who he made you to be. 

See God's dream for your life and take back your identity. 

He can lie to you, and when we believe it, we let the world’s design for us take over.

There is a progression in John 10:10 that we need to understand:

--- Steal your identity in God. 

--- Kill your purpose.  

--- Destroy your value and acceptance. 

The definition of the word acceptance is something that comes from a hidden place. 

Ephesians 1:4  (NLT)

Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.

God's dream for you is what He wants to reveal. God reveals the hidden place. 

You were designed before the foundation of the world and in the heart of God. 

Who you were designed to be before the devil stole you away is what God did. 

Before you were formed in your mother, God designed you. 

You were designed in God, and your appearance or success or possessions have nothing to do with him or with who you are. 

When you are born again, you are reborn from the design God gave you before you were formed. 

Acceptance is what identity provides for you. 

Live from the bigness of the God who designed us. Acceptance is important. 

The word favor when God spoke of Mary is the same word as acceptance. 

These people in the Bible had an identity crisis. Yet when they understood who they were in God, something changed in them:

Abraham

Jacob

Elijah 

Gideon 

Esther 

David 

Paul 

They found their identity in God, and God brought them to new places and did incredible things. 

See Ephesians 3:20. Help people find the plan of God for your life. 

The way you find your identity is not in your importance but in your intimate time with God. 

Your greatness is not in what other people think about you. 

Religion cannot give you the identity that God gave you. 

John 17:20-24  (NLT)

“I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me. “I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me. Father, I want these whom you have given me to be with me where I am. Then they can see all the glory you gave me because you loved me even before the world began! 

When you realize who you are, you won't want what others have.  You will see that God will give you what you need.

In relation to Jesus' prayer about “this cup pass from me” it was his pain and agony in being separated from God. 

Your identity is not on the cross. That's the old you. Your identity came down off the cross and is alive today. 

You've listened to the world long enough. It is time to take your identity back. 

Get the right you reading the Bible and you begin to understand it. Take back your identity.