Who Do You Think You Are?

So, if it was 2,000 years ago and Jesus was walking around, you guys are the type of people Jesus would be hanging out with is that that's how I I look at it. Okay? And it's an honor to me for me um to be a pastor um of you guys. And when I'm at that door and and I see you and I've got a big hug and a big smile, it's because I'm really excited to see you.

Like like it's, hey, they're coming to my house, you know? It's like it's like a little kid. And um and I'm so excited about that. So I am humbled and honored uh that I get to do this.

Um it's just super neat. So the the question I have that we're going to launch into is who do you think you are? Okay, that's the message today. Who do you think you are?

2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation. The old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new." The old have p has passed away. Okay?

You laid it down at the cross, the foot of the cross. You repented of your sins. Jesus forgave you. The Holy Spirit came into you.

You are now a new creation. And that is a fact of scripture. Okay, we just read it right here, which scripture is truth. It is a truth.

You are now a new creation. It's a biblical truth. Okay? It's not it's not pretend.

But that truth can only manifest and change your life if you believe it and embrace it. See how you think about yourself. If you're still thinking that you are that old self that has to clean up, okay, then the truth won't fully manifest. If you you don't clean up your old self to qualify for salvation, okay?

You just accept the free gift. And a passage that that really I used to not understand and then and then uh God really moved in my heart this week around this message. Matthew 9:17, Jesus is saying, "Nor do they put new wine into old wine skins, or else the wine skins break, the wine is spilled, and the wine skins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wine skins, and both are preserved."

The way you think about yourself, your old pasture happens is these wine skins are very tough after they've been used, right? But new wine, when it's poured in, it actually ferments. So, it's actually going to grow some in the thing. Okay?

Just like when we get saved, the spirit is going to grow us. Okay? We're going to expand. And so, when that happens and the old wine skins break and everything gets lost, okay?

Something Kerianne, you don't have this, but but right before this passage, this hit me yesterday as I'm laying there sick. Um, Jesus, this is 16. I just read 17. This is 16.

No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment for the patch pulls away from the garment and the tear is made worse. So often we sit there and we try to take this new idea and patch up, you know, an old thought process about ourselves. Okay, that doesn't work. It's going to break.

Both of them break. All right, you can't cling to that own old self and you don't clean up. You're already clean. Jesus says we're already clean.

Last week when I was teaching about the Holy Spirit and cleaning us up and changing us, I want to be clear that all of that was about the things that God does and grows you after you're saved. But none of it has anything to do with your salvation. Okay? That's just what God does once he's God is a God of growth.

He spoke the universe into existence and it's still expanding as we speak. He's just a God of growth. That's just how it is. So if you're saved, you're going to grow.

But you have to embrace the new wine skin. >> Um, in conversations, in prayer requests, I still see um people clinging to, you know, an old version of themselves. This past still hurts hurts me or I've ruined my testimony or or deep down you feel like you still need to clean up. You know, I I I thought that way for a long time.

I really for a long time I didn't feel like I deserved a love as great as God's. Like I had to get to a point where all right now you know I'm I'm I'm good enough to earn it and and I'm I was already validated as are you. Okay, you're already validated. Um some may be trying to validate themselves.

You just can't believe you're good a good enough Christian. You still feel dirty. That's all up in your mind. That's all up in your mind.

Jesus cleaned you. Let's look at Ephesians 4 20- 24. But you have not so learned Christ if indeed you have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus. What Jesus says is true.

What Jesus says about you is true. Your old thoughts that you thought about yourself, they're not true. Jesus is true. Okay, you got that?

that you put off concerning your former conduct the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lust and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Okay? And that you put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness. You were created by God in true righteousness and holiness.

All right. You're you're not just some old vagabond who's cleaning up. You are a new creation. It says it right here and and it's all up in your head to embrace that.

Romans 6:4 says, "Therefore, we were buried with him through baptism into death." So that old person is dead, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the father, even so we should also walk in newness of life. All right. John 3, Jesus talking about being born again.

Okay? And accepting the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit actually coming inside of you. Hear me now. God is literally inside of you.

How can you be yesterday's trash? You You can't be okay. You are a new creation. You are seated with him in the heavenlies.

You are co-airs of Christ. These are all things in scripture that claim who you are now. Okay? This is who you are.

And we've got to embrace that and put away the old version of ourselves. Um, you may see the carnage that's around you from past your kids doing something. You're like, man, if if we didn't divorce, that probably wouldn't have happened. You might think, gosh, you know, uh, and and the truth is that life is sad.

Okay, there are sad moments in life. Bad things do happen. And sometimes our past does have consequences for our past actions. Okay?

But but that's who you were. That's not who you are anymore. Okay? That person that slipped up back then, that was the old you.

That's not that's not who you are right now. And you and you can't continue to beat yourself up on it because it's gone. That emotion, that pang, that emotion you have when when you see something, you're like, gosh, that's just not right or something. That emotion is actually not a sin.

It's not a sin. Okay? Where it becomes a sin is when you start beating yourself up on it. And that's when the devil is getting in there.

Okay? Because the devil's going to come in with shame, with guilt, with um condemnation. Okay? Okay.

And he's going to come in there and he's going to mess with you. And you've got to talk about how to how to fight that devil. If if you have if you see something you may think, man, that person's never going to forgive me for what I did to them. Okay?

You've got to repent first because it's against God and God who alone who you sinned against, right? And then you go and you ask him to forgive them. And it doesn't matter if they do or not. Okay?

Your job is to ask for forgiveness. You can't control their heart. You can't change their heart. Only God can change their heart.

But once you've done that, you can forget about it. You can walk your the new self who you are and flourish. Okay? Pray for them.

Pray that God will change their heart because he's the only one who can. But you can walk. You need to put it away. Acknowledge the emotion in the moment, but remind yourself that's your old you.

Okay? And and here's the key. If you dwell in that emotion and feel the shame and guilt, that's the devil. Okay?

He's beginning to work in there. But we talked a few weeks about the sword of the spirit. All right? Which is the word of God.

The full armor of God you put on. And then the sword of the spirit is the is is the armor of God. That's your Bible. That's your verse.

That's the word of God right here. We need to have two or three verses, okay, that are that are like written down. You need to have him in your armor, in your arsenal, so that you're ready when the devil messes with you because he's going to try to mess with you, okay? He only deals in deceit and lies.

So, he wants to convince you that you're your old self, but that's not true anymore. You're not your old self. You're a new creation. But if he can get you thinking you are your old self, then he can keep you bound up.

Okay? Instead, you got to have your your your armor ready. So, you see an expouse or someone who's harmed you and that pang pops in, you know, and then all of a sudden you hear the devil start saying, "See, you you really messed up that relationship. You're no good.

You're this. You're that, you know, cuz because that's going to happen, right? Instead, get behind me, Satan. I'm in Christ.

I'm a new creation." Okay? Remember that sword of the spirit is a little dagger type of sword. It's not a big broad sword, man.

you're I was at I was at I was at work earlier this week and uh some thought the devil started messing with me and I got up and I'm like and I said there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus right if Mary would have walked by at that time she'd have thought I lost my marbles you know and I'm like I'm just claiming truth Mary and then she'd go oh amen that's how Mary would be but um but something can trigger something maybe something triggers lust in your Okay.

And you know that pattern, it starts with a thought and then then the devil comes in and starts tempting you. Yeah. Oh, it's no big deal. No one's going to see it.

It's it's it's nothing. You know, um you've got to be quick. Okay. You got to be quick.

Get behind me, Satan. I flee sexual immorality. That's uh 1 Corinthians 6:8. Claim a truth of scripture that's in line with the new you.

All right. Claim a truth of scripture. We have to have two or three ready. However you get attacked thought to your ways.

You know how the devil creeps in and messes with you. You know what triggers it. Okay. So, knowing that, go to the scripture and find a verse that counters that with the truth of God.

Okay? And have it ready at all. If you're not sure, Google uh verses regarding struggling with lust. I mean, just whatever it is.

And but but don't just take what it says, go to the scripture and actually make sure they they did it right. Right? Don't just blindly trust AI. But but I'm saying you can look up these verses and have them.

Okay? You can follow it up with I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Right? We can have different verses ready.

The key is to nip it immediately as soon as the guilt or the shame pops up. Bust it out with the word. Okay? The devil cannot defeat the word of God.

So be ready. Um, and this may take some time for people to fully embrace, but keep these verses ready until you do, okay? Because this is this is real life stuff. This is the stuff we really deal with.

This is the stuff that really happens. Those little words in your mind, those little things trying to trip you up, that's real stuff, man. Happens to me. It must happen to you.

No temptation has hit you except what's common to all man. Okay? You can be a new creation and still slip up. All right.

When you got saved, okay, you you became a new creation. You didn't become Jesus. There's only one Jesus, okay? So, you're not perfect.

All right? You don't you're never going to be perfect. All right? So, you will slip up.

But God's made such a great way for us to just move beyond that. Okay? We get down on our knees and repent. You just ask God to forgive you, and God does forgive you.

And then you rise up, you know, and and get back into the game of living your new creation self. Okay? You've got to you got to keep that new creation. If you slip up, it's because for for a moment you were taking an the new patch and putting it on an old thing or you were going back to that old thought or that person always brings up, you know, if if someone always trips you up, you you have to put them away for a little while.

Okay? We got to be serious about the game of staying in our new creation self. Um, and once you've once you've risen up clean after you've asked God to forgive you, it doesn't need to be brought up again. You don't have to keep bringing up, "God, I really screwed up three years ago."

That's been put away with. You don't need to keep bringing it up. All right? Jesus is as far as the east is from the west.

He's not bringing it up. It's you because you're not moving past this moment in time. Some people just have to forgive themselves. Okay.

There's a movie. Has anyone seen The Shaw Shank Redemption? Okay. Almost everyone.

I really like that movie. And um the the most important part of the movie actually is near the end. Uh Andy and and uh Andy is the star and Morgan Freeman. I forget his name, but they're against the wall talking.

Um, so Andy gets uh framed for a crime he didn't commit. Gets thrown in prison. He's there for many, many years. And uh him and Morgan Freeman are good friends.

And they're sitting against the wall. So a guy came in who um shared that someone had admitted to having killed his wife. So now he knew he was innocent. He knew he was innocent all along because he didn't actually do it, but for some reason he just was still staying there, right?

And um and then the the warden who's crooked killed that guy and and andy knew he's never going to get out if he doesn't do something. And so he's sitting against the wall and he says some some very interesting stuff. He says, "I killed a red." Red, that's his name.

He goes, "I killed a Red. I didn't pull the trigger, but but the things I did drove her away. Okay? And then he says this.

He says, "But whatever sins I've done, I've paid for them and then some." And it's time to either get living or get dying. Okay? You might remember that verse.

And then that night he escapes. Now, now that hole that he dug, that he escaped out of had been done for a while. He didn't dig it that night. Okay?

So, he could have gotten out, but he was still choosing to stay there because in his mind, he hadn't paid the proper penance yet. Okay? It wasn't until he finally forgave himself. He finally said, "All right, I've I've done enough.

I've p I've punished myself enough. Now I can be free." Okay? Jesus Christ took that away.

You don't have to keep beating yourself up until you get to a point when all right now I've paid enough penance. No, no, no, no, no, no. He already took it away. There's no more penance necessary.

It's done. That's an mindblowing amazing thing. But we have to embrace it. If we don't think like that, if we continue to think that we still have to clean ourselves up, then then the the the joy of it is gone.

Okay. At the end of the day, the person who did whatever things you're beating yourself up for, that person's gone now. That's an old creation. You are now a new creation.

So, it's the past. Okay? The old self did it, not you. All right?

You don't have to then follow that. The key is focus on Jesus, not on you. As soon as these things come up, get ready with the sword and then turn your eyes to Jesus. Jesus is the key.

You got to abide in Jesus. Okay? Focus on Jesus, not your past. Focus on Jesus, not you.

You have one job in this Christian walk, and that's to abide. All right? Abide in Christ. John 15 verses 1-5.

Boy, I love John 15. I am the true, this is Jesus speaking now. I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away and every branch that he bears fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit.

You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. You see that? That's Jesus saying you're already clean. It's done.

Stop beating yourself up over what you didn't. That's the old you. It's gone. You're already clean.

Abide in me, he says, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches, he who abides in me, and I in him bears much fruit. For without me, you can do nothing.

How do you abide in Christ? The the word of God and prayer, right? Just start your day with the word of God and prayer. So, this is what it looks like.

You wake up, you put on Jesus. All right? We talked about the armor of God is Jesus helmet of salvation. All of those things come to Jesus, right?

The word, you start reading the word. I don't care if it's a proverb. I don't care if it's John 15. I don't care where you start in this word, okay?

This word activates the Holy Spirit. All right? This activates the Holy Spirit. Gets the Holy Spirit going in your day.

And that Holy Spirit is your helper to bring about the attributes of Christ. All right? He'll work in you to produce fruit. Maybe you need to have some phrases that speak to this new creation of you.

Okay? Have it written down. I have a great book and there's certain verses like certain verses like um 1 Thessalonians 4:11 and 12 that says um aspire to live a quiet life to mind your own business and to work with your hands. To me that's always resonated with who I am.

I just want to have a peaceful life. What's my own business? This church, my my work, my family, that's my business. But but not to be all looking all over trying to go crazy looking at stuff.

Um, I don't know what's going on over there, but um, and so there's certain verses that kind of resonate with me. If there's something that when you're reading it, you're like, man, that's that's me or that's my best self when I'm in my place, write it down and remind yourself daily that's who you are. You may have to remind yourself daily that's who you are. Especially if you're used to beating yourself up and dragging up the past, man.

Write down a new thing of what you look like. And then endeavor to go into your day focused on Jesus when the attack comes. Sword of the spirit, baby. Okay?

Hit it immediately and then turn your eyes back to Jesus because he's the one who's going to make you through. Embrace his love, feel his power. Okay? Get back in your day.

If you slip up, you ask, you repent, you ask for forgiveness, and you get back in your day. Monday, this past Monday, I slipped up and in the morning and uh last Monday at lunchtime, I was asked by the Rotary to speak at the Rotary, which was awesome because um I was going to preach. I was ready to preach, right? And uh I don't know that you're supposed to do that, but they asked me, so I was allowed.

And um and so I went and described the church and then I was just going to go into a message from Matthew 24 and 25. But I just asked if there were any questions. I couldn't have imagined there'd be any questions. So I just was ready.

And there was a question. Guys, if I could have written out the best three or four questions to write and the order in which I would write them, okay, I would have it would have played out like that. Stephanie was there. It was it was like crazy.

And every time they would say they'd ask the question, it allowed me to open up more on my heart, more on the heart of this church, it was just like a sales pitch done without with me not doing anything there. Right? It was so beautiful. And that was God.

But I had messed up earlier that day and I had asked him to forgive me and I went on with my day and he didn't punish me. He didn't beat me up. He blessed me anyway. Okay.

I I mean I almost wanted to cry afterwards. I was like he's just so good to me, man. He's just I can't believe it doesn't matter. I I swear God is much more if your heart is right and you're trying.

God is much more like the dad who's watching the baby and they're clapping when you're doing it. He's not the you can't believe you did that. He's just not that way. Okay?

He comes close to the humble and this is a humble church. And so that's God. Jeremiah 29:11, "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord. Thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you future and a hope."

He wants to do you good. He wants you to have a peaceful life. He wants you cleaned up and set and and he wants to set you free. But you must embrace what he's done.

You must embrace a new standard. You're an ambassador of Christ. You're repping the king. Okay?

Think, man, I'm repping the king. All right. You're you're you're you're you're not just another person. You're a valuable important person in this world.

Okay? And we're supposed to live differently. And and it happens in the mind first. Okay?

And when that old sin pops up, nope. Nope. That's not me. That's my old self.

That ain't me. That guy that guy did stuff like that, not me. Okay? You're you're a new creation now.

You got to believe it. Change your comfort zone. A lot of people are comfortable in their old pain. You ever noticed that you're comfortable and you know it's it's almost a safe place.

Shaw shank redemption again talked about that you know where the people become institutionalized. They're so comfortable there in prison they don't even want to get out. Okay. Because it's so comfortable.

They're so comfortable in prison. Don't be comfortable in prison. You've been freed up. Okay?

It's like the gate was open to the thing and you just chose to stay there because it's more comfortable back here. Okay? I think that's why that movie is so good. It resonates with something deep down in us.

Okay? We we start when God brings good stuff into our life, we we can sometimes begin to sabotage it. All right? And and I've seen it, man.

I I've seen it in my work. I've seen it in people. I've seen it in ex-wives. I've seen it in myself.

Okay. We had a guy who early on in my my business, we had a pizza night where we had the guys come in. This was at my work and and dial for dollars to try to make make some money, right? And this one guy comes in and he books two deals.

He makes $16,000 in two hours. Okay. Wow. The next week we're doing pizza night again.

He doesn't show up. He never shows up again. He says in his mind he wants to make a lot of money, but but he doesn't really want to make a lot of money. He stopped doing the thing that he obviously could have continued to do.

If he'd have just gone every week, he'd be a six-figure guy. But in his mind, he wasn't a six-figure guy. He wanted to be a six-figure guy, but he wasn't really that guy. And when the opportunity came to become that guy, he didn't show up.

And that happens to people. They they get married, but they're and and and then the the tough times come in the marriage and what they know from when they were growing up was a single broken home. So then they end up going back to being single because that's their comfort zone. Okay, we've got to change our comfort zone.

Our comfort zone needs to be hanging with Jesus, right? Thank you, preacher. Um, we create a new comfort zone which is abiding in Jesus, looking at Jesus, allowing the Holy Spirit to bring to mind the attributes of Jesus. Begin working them in, letting Jesus live through you every day.

Get up and put on Jesus. And if you have a bad day, the the beauty of the morning thing is, let's say you didn't stab the devil right away and you allowed it to to marinate and now your end whole day ended up ruined. Okay, I've had bad days before. All right, joy comes in the morning.

As long as you start in the morning with that moment, quiet time, you can keep that bad day to just one day. And that's the key. All right, don't let one day turn into two, turn into five, turn into a month. I never have two bad days in a row, ever.

Because at the end of the day, I'm going to I'm going to see why what why I screwed up. Man, I saw her again and that messed up. or oh man, I did this and you know, whatever it is. And then I'm going to wake up the next morning.

I'm going to get on my knees. I'm going to repent. I'm going to ask God. I'm going to dive into the word.

I'm going to get into it. I'm going to pray. I'm going to claim who I am. And I walk into my day.

And I'm going to have a good day today. All right? It's just how it goes. When people backslide, they're putting on their old self.

Okay? They're going back in old patterns and old things. there. Instead of claiming and staying in their new creation, we've got to nip it as soon as it happens.

All that matters is growth in Christ. Think about this. When you die, the um flesh, your bones, all of it, nothing. What's going to continue?

Your spirit. It's going to continue with the Lord. So, growth in your spirit, growth in your spiritual self and your spiritual growth is the only thing that you're going to take with you. You can't take your money.

You can't take any of that stuff, but you can take that with you. That's so important. So, the most important thing you can do every day isn't make money to pay your bills. The most important thing you can do every day really is grow your spiritual walk.

And that starts with be with embracing the new creation. Growth is joy. Man, life is amazing. I'm I was sick this week, but man, sun Saturday, I'm laying there laying there all day long just just trying to get better.

But I started thinking about stuff and I started thinking about this message and then I started thinking about how I've got to craft my new wine skin and and I man I can't wait for the next two weeks to get busy again. Um and because I feel like I've I was out this week. All right. I'm giving you a blueprint here that's tested over many many years.

All right. This works. The God's word is true. You're no longer who you were.

Get up and abide ready with the sword of the spirit. Okay? If you slip up, you repent, you get back to your old creation self, you just get right back in. All right?

You get it? Do you get what we're talking about here? It's all up here. How you think about yourself matters.

You either embrace what God says about you or you cling to this old tired thing that you say. Me, God. Who's smarter to listen to? I'm no genius here.

I think God might be the smarter play. Okay. Um, embrace what God says about you. Put on your new self each day.

Every morning, walk into your day in newness of life. Amen. All right. As my boys come up band, I want you to be honest with yourself.

Okay? It's fun, isn't it? This is fun stuff. It's so fun.

Wait till see what's coming next after this. It's crazy. I just had a crazy idea and we're going to do it because we can. Um >> I'm good.

Well, you're going to like this. Um be honest with yourself. Are you still clinging to parts of your old self? Okay.

Is there still things that you're trying to to keep there and patch with something new instead of instead of embracing and actually living new? Okay. Um, are you still trying to control an old hurt that you've not really given up with manipulation and control? I I I'm here to tell you, you need to give that up.

Okay? Let God come into that deep hurt and heal you because he can. Um maybe maybe you're dwelling in fear. You're worried about money or a relationship or you have anxiety over something.

Okay? And and and you're like, I I don't know. It almost feels like I I should go go back, okay? No, man.

No one who sets their hands to the plow should turn back ever. Okay? It's time to put the old man down, the old self down. All right?

Whether you do it right here, whether you do it at your seats, it's time to lay down that old and pick up the attributes of Christ, love, joy, and peace. Are you walking in them? Are you walking in them? I say on the authority of God's word that you are a new creation.

You are a new creation. Okay. Lay the old down and let's walk out of here new. Amen.

All right.