Identity

John 1:19-23

19 Now this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?”

20 He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.”

21 And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?”

He said, “I am not.”

“Are you the Prophet?”

And he answered, “No.”

22 Then they said to him, “Who are you, that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?”

23 He said: “I am

‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
“Make straight the way of the Lord,” ’

as the prophet Isaiah said.”

JOHN THE BAPTIST WAS ASKED 

WHO ARE YOU , WHAT DO YOU SAY ABOUT YOURSELF

Before we go into the message, I would ask you to listen to this conversation between a man and his identity.

wow. we have heard how a person and his identity are interacting with each other.

how a man is trying to find his identity in the world and as soon as he thought he found it, the identity would slip away, because it is his not his true identity.

Today if you are asked this question, 

WHO ARE YOU? WHAT DO YOU SAY ABOUT YOURSELF?

Not a regular Church goer answer? Not the quoted answers you get from typical christians, but if you go into their lives and see it might not reveal. If you take away the mask, it might not be the true character.

Today what is your answer and my answer for the question WHO ARE YOU, WHAT DO YOU SAY ABOUT YOURSELF.

These are questions of depth - not a question like how are you?

but this goes deep inside and bring your very existence and reveal your identity.

John the baptist- when he was asked WHO ARE YOU?

Reject the false identity

He said I am not the Christ.

Are you Elijah - He said No

Are you Prophet - He said No.

In the search of your true identity - the first thing a person should do is reject Who you are not?

Many times we claim to be someone when we are not.
Dont be somebody 

Galatians 6:3

3 For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

When someone thinks of himself to be something , when he is nothing - he deceives himself.

Although this is talking about humility here, I wanted to tell you that if you put on false identity - This is a deception.

If you trying to put on a identity that is not purposed by God for you - you are getting into deception.

Are you Elijah - NO, Are you prophet - NO, Are you the Christ -NO

Everything that God has not called you - say NO

Failure Some people you say you are failure - Say NO - the bible says  you are more than conquerors in Christ. 

Cannot Achieve Some say you cannot do - Say NO - I Can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Reject the false identities.

the sickness might say - you are bound by me, this will take years to come out, this is very hard to get out-  Say NO -  By His stripes Am healed.

Some say all sins you can get out - but this one , this watching of porn, this addiction of video games, this sin - keeps on attacking you cant get out of this - Say NO - 

and declare that my body is Temple of HolySpirit

Sin Cannot master over me - for I am not under law, I am under grace.

Reject the identity of the law - Embrace the identity of Grace.

Today this morning if any of the false identities are forcing over you,  Go back and say NO.

John the baptist said - No.

Reject Comparisons with world
I see in our Church sometimes - people compare others with movie start, you are like that hero, you are like that heroine - 

Don't you know that you are bought by the precious Blood of Christ - why then

you now go back and join yourselves to the identities of the world, 

Don't you know that you are members of Christ.

1 Corinthians 6:15-17

15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not! 16 Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For “the two,”He says, “shall become one flesh.” 17 But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.

Reject the identities that people impart to you -

What did John Say? What do you say about yourself.

"Voice of one crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the Lord."

I am the Voice.

What I say about myself is this" Make straight the way of the Lord"

John 1:

23 He said: “I am

‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
“Make 

straight the way of the Lord,” ’

as the prophet Isaiah said.”

He quoted the promise that he got from the bible.

When was the last time you got  a promise from Word of God, from a prophet.

Do you remember it? Do you talk about it?

Mothers, when you prayed about your Child, what is the promise that you got about your son or daughter?

Or when a prophet has prophesied , what was the Promise that God gave you about your child?

Do you talk about that for yourself or your child?

Hannah when Samuel was born She said this is Child of God.

Every one around her might - Son you should become an engineer, son you should .

The identity she promised to God , she taught him. She imparted the identity that God has in store for him.

John the baptist knows the Isaiah had told about him that he is the voice.

Do you reveal the identity of the Child.

In the same passage:
Identity of the place.

Sometimes our identity is trapped in some place

44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45 Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

46 And Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

Nathanael is not talking anything about Jesus, but he looks at anybody from Nazareth.

If it were me, i would say how dare they talk bad about my region.

But Jesus is gentle.

Gentleness is Strength of God to channel his strength to show compassion to the weak.

For long time, Nazareth had been rejected as a place, they made fun about  Nazareth, and anyone comes out of Nazareth.

Today if you are still struggling with the place, or someone is rejecting you because of the place, color or anything that concerns you which actually does not concern you.

Today what is the bondage that you are going through? Today do you have complains , you say they are treating me bad.Your identity is freedom. Whom the Son sets free is free indeed.

Many times, we carry our previous past, experiences, that those events, even after coming to Christ, that guilt keeps coming, are people keep reminding.

Whom the Son sets free ,he is free indeed.
God says , I am the LORD, I will give new heart. 

Jeremiah 24:7

7 Then I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the Lord; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart.


Blessed are those - Be attitudes- Who you are- not what you do?

Romans 8:16
16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.

Most of the times our identity is our appearance.
David - goliath

In this world , where identifying with someone whom we admire or some think we like, we think our identity is in that.

In your battles , know your identity , know enemy identity

1 Samuel 17: 23-26

23 Then as he talked with them, there was the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, coming up from the armies of the Philistines; and he spoke according to the same words. So David heard them. 24 And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were dreadfully afraid. 25 So the men of Israel said, “Have you seen this man who has come up? Surely he has come up to defy Israel; and it shall be that the man who kills him the king will enrich with great riches, will give him his daughter, and give his father’s house exemption from taxes in Israel.”

26 Then David spoke to the men who stood by him, saying, “What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?”

When all the Israel saw this goliath, the identity of the enemy they saw was 

a champion, a man who was 9t 6 inch tall, a man built with all packs all over the body.

thats the identity.

But when David saw the philstine, he had a completely different view than the rest of Israel.

Because he saw uncircumsied philstine.

David says who is this guy who did not got  cut?

David says dont talk about the height, width, length  all the geometry, trigonometry, algebra.

I dont care about all this math, i only care whether he is cut or not. Whether he is circumsised and presented before God.

and as soon as he realized that the enemy that all israel talking was not circumsied he said who is this fellow who comes against the armies of living God.

Taxes

sometimes we miss out what our strength is because we don't know who we are.

sometimes somebody has to come and tell us that we are armies of living God.

David has to come and say , man you are armies of living God, he is just a uncircumcised fellow.

Knowing the identity of yourself , and knowing the identity of enemy is the key in spiritual war fare.

Your identity depends on what you see
Jacob knows this mystery
Genesis 30:

9 So the flocks conceived before the rods, and the flocks brought forth streaked, speckled, and spotted. 40 Then Jacob separated the lambs, and made the flocks face toward the streaked and all the brown in the flock of Laban; but he put his own flocks by themselves and did not put them with Laban’s flock.

41 And it came to pass, whenever the stronger livestock conceived, that Jacob placed the rods before the eyes of the livestock in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods. 42 But when the flocks were feeble, he did not put them in; so the feebler were Laban’s and the stronger Jacob’s. 43 Thus the man became exceedingly prosperous, and had large flocks, female and male servants, and camels and donkeys.

Your identity can change by what you see.

Now lets dig where the identity of a person is

So what is your real Identity.

So, in this world, when people ask who are you, you might have a last name that has come from your father.

I belong to so and so family.

Do you know why a person gets fathers last name:

Before a person is born, where is the baby , the baby is in the mothers womb.

Psalm 139:

For You formed my inward parts;
You [f]covered me in my mother’s womb.
14 I will praise You, for [g]I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,

It is the mothers womb that carries the baby for 9 months.

When John the baptist was in mothers womb, when Elizabeth was filled with HolySpirit, He jumped and leaped.

Where are we now: We are in mothers womb.

Lets go one step back:

Before a person is formed in mothers womb, where is he?

Hebrews 7:9

9 Even Levi, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, so to speak, 10 for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him.

loins of a man is exact opposite of womb for a woman.

Levi was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him.

In the Spirit realm, you start giving tithes.

When Jacob was in mothers womb, he was fighting for identity with his brother Esau.

But when Levi was in the lions of his father Abraham, he was giving tithes.

Where are we now: loins of the father.

Jeremiah 1:3

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you;
Before you were born I sanctified[a] you;
I [b]ordained you a prophet to the nations.”

this is the realm of Spirit.

The Identity is now getting clearer and clearer.

The Identity of man is in the thoughts of God.

There is something that happens even before he forms you in the mothers womb.

He Knew you so intimately, Your identity beings in the thoughts of God.

Genesis 1: 26,27

26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over [g]all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 

Your very existence begins in the thought of God.

In the thought and Word of God.

Who can know the thoughts of God, except the Spirit of God.

This is how a mans Journey begins:

God knows the person intimately in the realm of the Spirit.

Gods thoughts and Gods Word is Spoken over the person.

And the person is in the loins of man, and in the mothers womb the physical formation is wonderfully created.

And now as the person grows, at some point of time, the intimacy begins again.

For some it might start as early as 8 like king Josiah, and for some it might .

That is the time the Holy Spirit of God quickens you and brings you to repentance. and you will say where was i till now, how long I lived in the flesh.

This is my true identity - My Identity is Christ.

Christ is all for me.

By faith you start living. When your identity is Christ, you life is not based on what you see everyday. The attractions of this world will not touch you.

Because you live by not what you see , you live by what you don't see.

This is the mystery of Christian life.

Faith.

How to reject the world.

Only by faith.

Galatians 2:20

20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. 

1 Peter 2:9

9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.

Royal priesthood.

CHILD OF GOD - story

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Image of God
Likeness of God
.
Genesis 1

James 3:9

Genesis 8

Jeremiah 3
He knows before you.

Your identify might say profession or last name

Today there is Identity crisis.

What you do mostly is because of what Identity you have?

Pastor says remember who you are?

He doesn't say don't do this or do this.
But he reminds and says know who you are.

Some say you are like this movie star or this Hollywood sure.

On the wood he paid the price for you and made you a Holy star, now what made you to go and join yourselves with the Stars of the world.

Everything you do to Satisfy the pleasures is all about finding your true Identity.

David found the Identity of Goliath.
Everyone in Israel saw a Hollywood star with big muscles and 9ft 6 inch.

But David saw an uncircumcised man.

Your fight will completely change if you know the true Identity of yourself and the Identity of the enemy

Everytime you send kids out.
Declare deutoronomy 28:1-14

If you say lucky, then kids think it is because it luck.

John the Baptist.
When they asked who are you?
Not Elijah, not prophet. A voice in the desert crying out preparing the ways of the Lord .

His Identity is rooted in God.