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PASTOR BRYAN L CARTER Instagram: / mrbryanlcarter
Twitter: / mrbryanlcarter
Facebook: / mrbryanlcarter
hey there I’m Priscilla and today I’m
going to be talking about your identity
in Christ the reason why is because as
we celebrate first lady’s 50th birthday
one of the things that she has always
said to her kids particularly her girls
is remember your worth because you’ll
either live up to or down to whatever
you believe to be true about yourself so
to commemorate her birthday but also to
celebrate our identity in Christ I’m
going to be talking about what it means
to have you yourself and your identity
rooted in him
he’s worthy he’s
[Music]
worthy don’t don’t move too fast from
this right here just just take a minute
for a second to just say thank
you for everything you’ve
done that we’re still in our right Minds
on this 2024 we thank you
Lord that our body bodes could walk us
into this room we thank you Lord for our
children and our grandchildren we thank
you
Lord you are
worthy
[Music]
[Applause]
woo in Jesus name the name that is above
every
name the name at which demons
tremble the name at which every knee
will
bow and every tongue will confess either
now voluntarily or later mandatorily
everybody will
confess that Jesus is who he said he
is and that he has accomplished for us
what he said he would accomplish we
thank you
Father you’re
worthy in Jesus name everybody said
[Music]
amen
you may take your seats if you’re
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
able he’s
worthy babe can you get me some kleenex
out of my purse cuz I’m not I’m not
going to do well up here without some
kleenex you know we always know that God
is present with us but then there are
those times where he is so present that
it’s almost tangible like where the skin
prickles where the hair on the back of
your neck stands up where the your
physical body responds to the fact that
God’s presence is hanging so
heavy this is one of those
moments God is
here and when he comes he comes to
speak and when he speaks he does does
not just speak to be heard he speaks to
be
obeyed and so I’m ready to hear the
voice of
God I want to this morning do a couple
of things before I just briefly pray and
share something with you that I hope
will be a blessing with you in this
sacred holy moment that God has given us
the privilege to be a part of
today the first thing is of
course to honor your first lady and I’m
going to tell you why I told her this
yesterday but I’m going to say it again
that the older and older I get the less
impressed I am with the flashy and the
famous and the more impressed I am with
people who are just plain old Flatout
faithful like they just keep showing up
and doing what God has called them to do
would you thank the Lord that God has
given 50 years to this woman who has
kept showing up for her family and for
this family at Concord
[Applause]
Church I honor
you I honor
you I also can never be in this church
and I’m so grateful to you Pastor Brian
for inviting me and my husband Jerry
Jackson and Jude are here Jackson is
y’all just stand up my boys are here
y’all stand up these are my young men
Jerry my husband of 25 years Jackson
you’re not standing up babe you too babe
Jackson is 21 years old Jude is 15 years
old we’re missing our our middle son
he’s on the basketball team in college
and so it is basketball season so he’s
there still but um it’s always a
pleasure for my family to be able to
serve alongside your family we honor you
girls and Carson and just your entire
family we’re so grateful we consider
Concord to be our family and so it is a
pleasure and a privilege on this special
day to be here and then I can never be
here
without honoring Dr Sheila Bailey I
don’t even know she’s in the room but I
can’t be here without honoring the
living legend that is Dr Sheila Bailey
would you help me to honor
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
her you have such great women among you
and I’m grateful to be a part of this
day Lord we pray that you will open our
spiritual ears now to hear from you
thank you that your word is living and
active and sharper than any two-edged
sword Speak Lord
your sons and your daughters are in the
house to hear you in jesus’ name amen
amen thank
you my siblings and I went to
Duncanville High School right down the
road graduated in them
90s before we went to Duncanville which
was about our freshman year when we
transferred there the four of us went to
a little private school that used to be
right around the corner here in doto it
was called Brook Hollow Christian School
school kindergarten through 8th grade we
all went through bralo Christian school
then transferred to Duncanville for our
freshman year I remember when this
happened um I thought it would be a
great time for a little experiment now
you need to know that of the four of us
I have an older sister named Crystal
then it’s me and then two brothers
Anthony and Jonathan you need to know
that of the four of us I was the one
that gave my parents a run for their
money you know how it’s always one that
you’re wondering if that one is going
turn out okay I was that one for my
parents I was always just mischievous
and just just doing stuff coming up with
stuff this was one of those occasions I
decided that when I transferred out of
Brook Hollow Christian School and went
to Duncanville High School that I would
change my
name I give myself a new name just as an
experiment to see if it would catch on
at this new school at bralo Christian
school there were 13 kids in my class I
was transferring to Duncanville High
School y’all know Duncanville is like a
a whole university in my freshman class
the year I transferred there were 753
students in the Freshman Class not the
high school just my class so I knew that
I’d be amongst hundreds of people I had
never seen before never met before it
would be a great opportunity to
introduce myself by an entirely
different name and just see if it would
catch on my friend Nicole a lifelong
friend we grew up at youth group right
over here at oakcliff Bible Fellowship
Church she’d be in the been in the
Duncanville school districts her entire
life so I knew she would probably be my
major point of contact between me and
everybody else that I’d be meeting so I
told Nicole about my plan I said Nicole
the first week of school when you’re
introducing me around to new friends and
people that I that I’m going to get to
know do not introduce me as Priscilla
introduce me here was my little nickname
DK I picked two initials put them
together and made my nickname DK I said
I want you to introduce me as DK to
everybody that you introduced me to at
school she said girl
what I said it’s just an experiment I
want to see if it is going to catch on
so that first week of school that is
exactly what she did I met everyone they
were told my name was DK and to make a
long story short for the next four years
of my life everybody called me DK all
the students the teachers the counselors
the principls the athletic directors the
coaches everybody called me de K DK was
monogrammed on all my athletic
uniforms to this day if I’m in the
grocery store or the mall or even
comments online and I run into somebody
and somebody says Hey DK I know that
it’s somebody that I knew during that
season of my life because everybody
called me DK most people didn’t even
know my real name was Priscilla they
just called me DK now my parents didn’t
say much about this until one occasion
when during my senior year I got sick at
school and I remember Mom had to come up
to the school to pick me up I had a
fever had a temperature I was laying on
that cot behind the little uh curtain
that was drawn in the nurses station mom
showed up I remember hearing her come in
and I remember her saying to the nurse
I’m here to pick up Priscilla the nurse
said I’m sorry
what I’m here to pick up Priscilla they
talked just a little bit and then
figured out that yeah DK is who I’m here
to pick up Mom rolled her eyes went in
there picked me up
took me home nursed me back to health
and when I felt good enough it was the
first time that my mom made any
statement about this four-year
experiment that I had had going on she
looked at me and she said now Priscilla
you’re a senior which means that in just
a few short months there’s going to be
an important ceremony and at that
ceremony they’re going to hand you a
very important document and she said now
I want you to know your father and I
haven’t bothered you about this little
new name thing you’ve had going on but I
want to be clear when they hand you that
piece of paper there better not be a d
or a
k anywhere on that piece of paper she
said because Priscilla I I don’t care
what other people have called you and I
don’t even care what you call
yourself there’s only one or two me and
your father there’s only a set of
parents who have the right and the
authority to give you your
name only the one who gave you life has
the power to Define
you for just a few moments on this
Sunday morning I came to remind you what
your name
is that it doesn’t matter what everybody
else has called you and it didn’t even
matter what you’ve looked in the mirror
and called yourself there’s only one who
has the right and the authority to give
you your name you need to know that you
are not qualified and named by your past
you are not defined by your behavior you
are not defined by your failures you are
not defined by your struggles you are
not defined by your feelings you are not
defined by your circumstances you are
not defined by the here today gone
tomorrow false ideologies and and
watered down philosophies of the
craziness and confusion of our current
culture you are who God says you
are he’s given you a name and he says
that you are a chosen race that you are
a royal priesthood that you’re a person
who’s been redeemed and chosen adopted
and qualified you are not a mistake you
are not a liability you are not an
afterthought you have been made in the
very image of an almighty God which
means every aspect every unique aspect
of your physicality and every unique
aspect of your personality both the
strengths and the weaknesses y’all all
of it is a reflection of the creative
genius of An Almighty God and when you
surrender when I Surrender the fullness
of who I am to him he values you and me
enough that he actually takes up
residence in Us in the person of the
Holy Spirit which makes you a temple of
the living and almighty God now that
means that you are an
overcomer that is who you are and it
doesn’t matter what other people call
you it doesn’t matter what you have
called yourself you can only be named by
the one who gave you
life the reason why I thought about this
in conjunction with this particular
Sunday is because as Jerry and I have
had the opportunity to walk in close F
friendship with Brian and Stephanie as
we’ve raised kids together through
Elementary and through Junior High and
high school and now everybody going off
to college one of the things that I most
remember that Stephanie would say over
her children all three of them but
particularly those sweet young women she
would say to them remember your
worth remember your value that she
wanted the entirety of their thinking
and their perspective and mindset to
line up with their value because listen
to me you will either live up to or you
will live down to whatever you believe
to be true about
yourself
so this morning I want to talk to you
about your identity identity is such an
issue of importance in this day and age
y’all and the reason if you aren’t clear
that it is such an issue uh the reason
why you can know that it’s important and
critical is because the enemy is
attacking it left and right he’s going
over time to try to skew it and distort
it to redefine what God has already very
clearly defined so that everybody’s
walking around confused because we do
not have Clarity on who God says that we
are so this theme of identity is
threaded all throughout the Old
Testament and all throughout the New
Testament where God continues to show up
on the landscape of people’s lives just
to remind them who they are in him who
they are in their because of their
relationship with him and this is most
clearly seen with the children of Israel
in the Old Testament because after 400
years of bondage after 400 years of
living under the brutal thumb of pharaoh
and his taskmasters 400 years of slavery
then there are 10 miraculous plagues
where they’re delivered out of Egypt but
it’s going to take 40 years in the
wilderness to get Egypt out of
them because you can come out of Egypt
but if you still think like a slave and
operate like a slave and have the
perspective of the slave then you’ll
still make decisions and choose
relationship ship from a position of
scarcity and lack and
deficiency so it took 40 years in the
wilderness to change their minds to make
sure they knew that before you get to
this land of milk and honey I need to
make sure you thinking right that you
know who you are but the children of
Israel God’s people back then are just
like God’s people today they continue to
be S seduced by the idols of the culture
and Paralyzed by fear of foreign enemies
and lulled to sleep in spiritual apathy
by errant religious philosophies and
institutions they kept forgetting who
they were and because of that God’s
people kept opening thems up to enemy
attack on all sides they would not align
their behavior to make sure it was
congruent with their brand new
identity because idolatry is always a
threat to your
identity so they keep living below their
spiritual means means they’re supposed
to be experiencing abundance but they
keep experiencing so much less just
because they keep forgetting who they
are and never is this more clearly seen
than in the Book of Judges if you have
your copy of the scriptures with you and
you want to turn there with me if you
actually you know still use a old school
Bible with paper Pages like I do or your
iPhone your iPad any manner of eyess
will get you to Judges chapter 6 and let
me just tell you as you turn there that
this book of the Bible is one of the
most clear indictments against the
people of God’s inability to reflect and
live in light of their identity in fact
it is so uh critical and detrimental
throughout this entire book that by the
time you get to the end the last line of
this book will say and everyone was
doing what was right in their own eyes
y’all if that don’t sound like America
in the year 2024 I don’t know what does
and when identity is skewed every body
just starts making up stuff to do making
up ways to behave because they’re no
longer aligning themselves with the
truth and throughout this entire book we
see the people of God they’re living now
in judges they’re in the land of milk
and honey the Wilderness wanderings are
long gone they are now living in the
place that is supposed to represent
abundance but they are not experiencing
the fullness of God because they will
not live in alignment with their new
identity so they’ve opened themselves up
to enemy attack on all sides and when we
meet them in Judges chapter 6 they’ve
been so abused by The midianites Who has
ravaged them for seven consecutive years
that they can’t even enjoy the milk and
honey that they’ve been positioned there
to receive their towns have been burned
down their homes have been pillaged and
destroyed they are now living like
meager slaves on the side of mountains
hiding out in caves for their lives
because they’ve opened themselves up to
enemy attack but everything is about to
change on one day when Yahweh shows up
in the life of one man and reminds him
who he is Judges chapter 6 verse 11 and
12 then the angel of the Lord
came and he sat down under an oak tree
that was in a town called
ofra it belonged to joash the abrite as
his son here he is Gideon
Gideon was beating out wheat in a wine
press in order to save it from those
Doone midianites verse 12 and the angel
of the Lord appeared to him and said let
me tell you who you are he said the Lord
is with you oh Valiant
Warrior these two little simple verses
are getting ready to change the entire
trajectory of one man’s life and the
life of everybody attached to him Gideon
we know his name we know him well
because he’s one of the most famed names
in the Old Testament but he’s known
because he put out that fleece he was
the one that needed a sign from God to
make sure that God was the one who was
speaking to him and we know him because
he’s the one that will go into battle
with a meager Army of 300 against
140,000 midianite soldiers and he’s
going to bring home a victory for the
nation that’s going to change the entire
trajectory of their culture but before
the victory in battle and before he puts
out the fleece before the stuff he’s
famous for we find this man sitting
underneath the shade of an oak tree in
fear and intimidation and insecurity
hiding out in a wine press because he’s
trying to make sure that the midianites
don’t take advantage of him here is
Gideon on this day when he’s sitting in
fear and insecurity and the angel of the
Lord shows up do not miss the power of
this first line
the first line of verse 11 says the
angel of the Lord came oh y’all if I had
time we could just sit right here with
this line for the entire Sunday and you
know what I think I might have time
because it’s second service which means
we ain’t got nowhere to go the angel of
the Lord showed up you need to know that
whenever you see this phrase in the
scriptures the angel of the Lord that
this ain’t no regular Angel this is not
Gabriel or Michael or of those those
angels no this is not just an Angelic
being this is the pre-incarnate Jesus
Christ meaning before he puts on flesh
and shows up in the New Testament he’s
already showing up all throughout the
Old Testament as the angel of the Lord
in the original language the phrase is
MC Yahweh it is translated the angel of
the Lord Israelite Hebrew Scholars call
this the Great presence of Israelite
history this is God himself stepping out
of the landscape of the heavens onto the
landscape of Earth because there’s
something so important so critical so
necessary that he can’t entrust it to
just any old angel he says I need to
come down and take care of this
myself so whenever the angel of the Lord
shows up in the Old Testament you need
to sit on the edge of your seat with
your chin and your hands lean all the
way in to see what is it that moved
Heaven and Earth to make God show up to
come say it
himself and whenever the angel of the
Lord this is a theophany that is a god
sighting whenever the angel of the Lord
showed up in the Old Testament most of
the time y’all he’s showing up to one
individual just to remind them who they
are because this issue of identity is so
important that he himself wants to come
and bear witness to folks that you are
who I say you are you are not your
circumstances you are not your
situations you are not what other folks
have called you you are not even what
you call yourself you are not your past
you are not your behaviors you are not
your deficiencies you are not your
weaknesses God says you are who I say
you
are and so God
came do not let this roll off your
shoulders as if this is no big deal
that the god of the universe would come
see about regular old folks like
us y’all this is God we’re talking
about this is the one who controls the
throws of the universe this is the one
who made sure on this birthday morning
that the sun was positioned in the sky
exactly where it was supposed to be he
is the one that will make sure it stays
at its post all day long till basically
it swaps places with the moon later on
tonight he is the one that will hang
every single star in the sky and when he
do does he will know every single one of
their names and every single one of
their numbers he is the one that is
controlling neighborhoods in the
galaxies that as of yet scientists
haven’t even yet discovered exist he’s
the one taking care of all of that and
in the midst of all of that he’s coming
here on this Sunday morning to come see
about
[Applause]
you and listen to me sometimes for us CH
church folk that been in church a long
time it can start to roll off our
shoulders as casual that the god of the
universe would make time to come see
about
us but what is man that thou are mindful
of him the son of man that you would
even take note of who it is that I am
God has come to see about Gideon and God
has come to see about
you years ago when the boys were little
I remember folding clothes one day
sitting on the edge of the bed it was
morning the Today’s Show was on Campbell
Brown was the roving reporter on The
Today Show at the time that week she was
doing a story on religions of the world
every day a different religion I caught
it on the day she was talking about the
Buddhist faith and I paused because I
didn’t know much about Buddhism I just
want to see what she was going to say I
could see that behind her was one of the
big Buddha statues that stands in Hong
Kong she and her camera crew had
traveled from the studios in New York
halfway across the world to Hong Kong so
that they could do the story in front of
one of these statues she talked about
how long the flight was how long the
drive was to get to the mountain where
this Idol stands how they had to take
all their gear up the side of the
mountain 268 stairs so that they could
be in position for this story the camera
panned and you could see people kneeling
and laying prostrate in front of their
God lowercase G
because Idols have hands but they can’t
do nothing and Idols have eyes but they
can’t see and Idols have ears but they
can’t hear heads but nothing in them to
think
with and yet they travel she explained
halfway across the world saving up a
lifetime’s worth of money if they have
to to be able to at least once in their
life make the pilgrimage so that they
can be on the side of this mountain and
pray to their God lowercase
G and as I watched this story I thought
a couple things to myself but one of
them was if I had to save up a
lifetime’s worth of money and travel
halfway across the world to pray I would
never
pray ain’t nobody got time for
that and while they are traveling across
the world to climb up so that they can
talk to their God our God capital G the
one true and living God he comes
down to talk to
us what mercy and Grace and loving
kindness does he have toward us in that
while we were yet sinners he keeps on
coming down to see about
[Applause]
us and all throughout the Old Testament
the MC Yahweh the angel of the Lord God
himself keeps coming showing up so that
he can remind people of who they are
just like Hagar in Genesis chapter 16
Hagar is sitting in a Wilderness a
desert she’s crying a River of Tears
because she’s been discarded by the
people she was supposed to be able to
trust the people that she was supposed
to be able to rely on they used her and
abused her and discarded her and in
Genesis chapter 16 she has no hope for
her future and she’s sitting in a desert
that is Barren and dry and in the midst
of all of that chaos the mik Yahweh
shows up and says Hagar you are not what
they did to
you you are who I say you
are and maybe you’re not Gideon maybe
it’s not the enemies that have relegated
you to the shade of an oak tree maybe
you’re not Hagar the the the decisions
of other people maybe have not done it
to you maybe you’re Moses and you did it
to
yourself because the truth is in MOS in
Exodus chapter 3 Moses is out there
tending sheep in the middle of the
Wilderness for 40 long years this man’s
not supposed to be a shepherd He was
raised as The Prince of Egypt his job
description his title is supposed to be
better than this but it’s a decision he
made an action he chose a sin that he
committed that put him in this situation
for 40 long years where he’s wandering
around on the backside of the Wilderness
but even there in the situation the
circumstances he created himself one day
a bush starts burning
[Applause]
and he realizes this ain’t no regular
Bush because the bush is burning but
it’s not consumed he takes off his shoes
and realizes this is Holy Ground because
the angel of the Lord is in the bush and
the angel of the Lord says to Moses let
me tell you who you are you are not what
you
did you still are who I say you
are or maybe it’s the fire of trial that
has put you there you just asked the
Hebrew boys they weren’t doing anything
wrong when they were put into the fiery
furnace they were put there for doing
everything right like you you haven’t
been perfect but you’ve been purposeful
and intentional in your marriage in your
parenting on your job in your ministry
but still the fire is Raging all around
you ask the Hebrew boy sometimes he
doesn’t deliver you out of the fire
sometimes the angel of the Lord just
joins you in
it and he makes sure that the SM smell
of the smoke won’t even be on
[Applause]
you and so I say to you today that if
you’re in the fire don’t be discouraged
lift up your eyes to the hills from when
cometh your help your Help Cometh From
The Lord even the fire is not powerful
enough to keep you out of the way of the
Angel of the Lord he’s coming to to
remind you you are not what is happening
to you you are who I say you
are or maybe you’re Hagar and the people
that you were supposed to be able to
trust have done this to you it’s their
choices that have put you in the
situation that you’re in on this Sunday
morning it’s because of what they did
but even there Hagar would you be
reminded on this Sunday morning that God
will meet you even there he will never
leave you nor will he forsake you or
maybe you’re Moses and mo you did it to
yourself you can look back and you y’all
some of us look back and there are whole
seasons of our life we don’t even
recognize the person that was back there
anymore can I get a witness anybody
grateful for the delivering power of God
[Applause]
seriously like you look back on certain
seasons of your life the decisions you
made the relationships you allowed the
paths you walked down the choices that
you allowed the the the the way your
life went and you look back on it and
you realize actually you did it to
yourself you knew when you said that
when you did that when you allowed that
when you commented like that when you
reacted like that you knew when you did
it this one turn out good but we did it
anyway and now we’re like Moses sitting
in that Wilderness be
encouraged the arm of God is not so
short that he cannot
save so if you’re Hagar or the Hebrew
boys or Moses or
Gideon you’re sitting under the shade of
circumstances because the enemy has been
swirling all around you here comes on
one regular ordinary day the angel of
the Lord to a man named Gideon to remind
him who he
is the author of this passage wants to
make sure that you know exactly what
Gideon was doing when the angel of the
Lord showed up he says that the angel of
the Lord came and Gideon was threshing
wheat but he was in a wine
press please don’t miss the detail of
that Discovery he’s threshing wheat but
he’s not on a threshing floor y’all he’s
in a wine press and you need to know
that these two environments are
completely opposed to each other a
threshing floor is on the top of a hill
it’s in an open air setting purposefully
because when you’re threshing wheat the
whole purpose of the threshing process
is to dislodge from the wheat a useless
nutrient called chaff they need to
dislodge all the chaff from the wheat
and when it is dislodged from the wheat
you need to be in an open air setting so
that the wind can drive the chaff
away but here the author wants you to
know that Gideon is not doing this
assignment where he would usually do it
no he is in a wine press which is the
exact opposite of a threshing floor a
wine press was usually in the deep
depression of the rock down at the
bottom in a little Cavern that would be
damp and shaded the right environment
needed for grapes to ripen and harvest
and so he is in a completely different
environment and the reason why he’s
there the last line of verse 11 to save
it from the
midianites he knows that if he threshes
wheat on the top top of that hill and
the wind drives the chaff away the scent
of it will go straight to the midianite
camp and they will know there’s
something to
pillage so he’s
hiding y’all the reason he’s in the wine
press is because he’s currently
operating in fear and insecurity and
intimidation he is in the wine press
because he’s trying not to be
found and in the place where he’s trying
not to be found the angel of the Lord
comes and finds him
and if I can just open up a parenthesis
right here for just a quick second
there’s somebody in this room a mother a
grandmother a father a grandfather you
need to be encouraged because you have a
son or a daughter or a grandchild and
they’re trying not to be
found you’ve been asking God and calling
out to God to open up their eyes so that
they can see him and to redeem their
heart from their life from the pit and
to sever relationships that are driving
them outside of the will of God and
these young folks of ours or your spouse
or your parent doesn’t matter how much
you pray it seems like they’re trying
not to be found their heart is hardened
and their back is turned I want you to
know that even when folks are trying not
to be found the Hound of heaven will
find them wherever they
[Applause]
are he seek seing people that don’t even
want to be found the Book of Judges is a
whole description of folks who have
turned their back on him and still he
comes and sits down underneath this oak
tree and he says to
Gideon the Lord is with you oh Valiant
Warrior he calls
Gideon a
valiant
Warrior
while he is currently operating in
fear while he’s actually in the moment
of threshing wheat in a wine press
because he’s intimidated and insecure je
the pre-incarnate Christ comes himself
to a man who is not behaving in a way
that lines up with his
identity and he says you are not your
behavior oh my gosh somebody in the room
needs to hear this cuz it’s is going to
free you up you are not what you
did you are not what you did last
night you are not what has been done to
you you are not the circumstances that
are swirling around you you still are
who God says you are you can still do
everything that God says that you could
do nothing that is around you or even in
you is powerful enough to Define you
only the one who gave you life has the
power to give you your
name and so he steps up to Gideon and he
says start acting like this start
behaving like this start having a
perspective and a mindset Gideon that
lines up with who I say you are not with
what the midianites are making you feel
you are not your
feelings listen to me can you imagine
how it would change the the actual PR
practical course of Our Lives me and you
if we stopped behaving in a way that
lines up with the way we
feel you don’t have to feel like it to
know it’s
true so instead of waiting for a feeling
we say no he says I’m accepted he says
I’m approved that means this decision
that I’m about to make to say this to
post that to interject that if I’m doing
it for the approval of other people then
I’m not going to do it because I don’t
need their Applause I already have the
Applause of
Heaven it means single woman or single
man it changes the way you date because
you date from a posture of knowing who
God says you
are it changes your everyday practical
choices because you are behaving in a
way that lines up with what God says not
the way you
feel cuz your feelings are up one day
and down the next your feelings are too
dependent on them midianites and those
external circumstances but when you are
anchored by your identity when you
remember your worth when your value is
attached not to the Applause or lack
thereof on social media but it is
attached to the Applause of Heaven it
changes the way you live your
life and for Gideon the Yahweh Yahweh
shows up and says you’re a valiant
Warrior and when you have time brothers
and sisters take an opportunity to read
the rest of chapter 6 and into chapter 7
cuz will find that Gideon the
intimidated and insecure comes out of
the shade of this oak tree after having
a meeting with the the MC Yahweh he
comes out from underneath the shade of
this oak tree and he starts acting like
God is telling the truth and the very
first thing he does is go right to his
father’s
house and he he goes home and he takes
all of the idols that are indicative of
his entire family line and he smashes
all of the idols one by one one he
changes the entire trajectory of his
generational line because he starts
acting like God is telling the truth do
you know how many people are attached to
you getting a hold of your identity do
you know that there are sons and
daughters and grandsons and
granddaughters and great grandchildren
that we may not even lay our eyes on
them walking in Victory and abundance is
attached to whether or not we’ll get our
identity in
view because once we know who God says
we are we can go home and break
generational curses and clear out those
things that need to be clear out so we
can change the course of our family’s
lives and then after he goes home and
deals with that then he steps into
battle 300 against 140,000 midianite
soldiers and he brings home a victory
that changes the
nation If my
people who are called by my name if I
can just give get them to rise up and be
who I’ve called them to be I’ll hear
from heaven and I’ll heal the whole
land the Victory and abundance y’all of
the whole culture is tied to God’s
people believing that God is telling the
truth about who we
are and
so for just a couple minutes on this
Sunday morning I thought I would just
take a
second to remind
you who you
are the Bible says you are a child of
God you have peace with God the Holy
Spirit lives in you you have access to
God’s wisdom you are helped by God you
are reconciled to God you are not
condemned by God you are Justified you
have Christ righteousness you are Christ
Ambassador you are completely forgiven
and you you are completely free you are
tenderly loved by God you are the sweet
fragrance of Christ to God you are a
temple in which God dwells you are
blameless and you are Beyond reproach
you are the salt of the earth you are
the light of the world you are a branch
on Christ Vine you are Christ friend you
are chosen by Christ to bear fruit you
are a joint air with Christ sharing in
his inheritance you are united to the
Lord one spirit with him you are a
member of the body of Christ you are a
saint you are hidden in Christ with God
you are chosen by God You Are Holy and
dearly loved you are a child of light
you are Sanctified you are one of God’s
living stones being built up in Christ
as a spiritual house you are a member of
a chosen race you are a royal priesthood
you are a people for God’s Own
possession you are firmly rooted and you
are being built up in Christ you have
been made complete in Christ you have
not been given a spirit of fear but of
power of love and of a sound mind all
your needs they are met by God you are a
prince or a princess in the kingdom of
God you’ve been bought with a price and
you belong to God you’re adopted as a
child of God you have direct access to
God you cannot be separated from the
love of God you’ve been established
anointed and sealed by God you can be
confident in this that the same God who
started a good work in you he will be
faithful to complete it you are a
citizen of Heaven you are a personal
witness of Christ you are God’s
workmanship you are seated with Christ
in Heavenly places and you can do all
things through Christ who gives you
strength in Jesus
name in Jesus name
amen