Identity Crisis

Why are we here?

Why do we struggle with self esteem?

Comparing yourself to others and their possessions brings you feelings of not measuring up.

These things bring depression and discouragement.

Be set free from comparison.

Satan is the master of using this to effect your witness.

Be who God made you to be.

How to avoid an identity crisis.

1. Remember what is really important in life!

38 Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house.

39 And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. - Luke 10:38-39

Establish your core values.

Know what is right.

Be truthful.

You can not please everyone.

Set your priorities.

Commitment to Worship 

Commitment to Family

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, - Ephesians 5:25

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. - Ephesians 6:4

2. Keep the main thing the main thing.

But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me." - Luke 10:40

Distraction is with us always.

Impending death brings contemplation of your life priorities.

Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, - Philippians 3:13

You are who you are in Jesus.

You are forgiven in Christ.

Press on.

When storms roll in.

When the bottom falls out.

I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. - Philippians 3:14

7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; - 2 Corinthians 4:7-8

persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; - 2 Corinthians 4:9

Trouble is coming but Christ is King!

3. Guard your attitude.

41 But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things,

42 but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her." - Luke 10:41-42

Don't let bitterness steal the glory God wants you to have.

Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.  - Proverbs 4:23

1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. - Colossians 3:1-2

3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. - Colossians 3:3-4

Christ is your life.

Walk in holy boldness and confidence knowing you can do all things in Christ who strengthens you.

If not, repent!

Thanks Pastor Kevin!!

What Makes God Proud

But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. (Hebrews 11:16)

I want very much for God to say to me what he said about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: “I am not ashamed to be called your God.”

As risky as it sounds, does this not really mean that God might actually be “proud” to be called my God? Fortunately this wonderful possibility is surrounded (in Hebrews 11:16) by reasons: one before and one after.

Take the one after, first: “God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.”

The first reason he gives why he is not ashamed to be called their God is that he has done something for them. He made them a city — the heavenly city “whose designer and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:10). So, the first reason he is not ashamed to be called their God is that he has worked for them. Not the other way around.

Now, consider the reason he gives in the front. It goes like this: “They desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God.”

“Therefore” signals that a reason has just been given for why God is not ashamed to be called our God. The reason is their desire. They desire a better country — that is, a better country than the earthly one they live in; namely, a heavenly one where God is.

When we desire this heavenly city — this dwelling place of God — more than we desire all that this world can give, God is not ashamed to be called our God. When we make much of all that he promises to be for us, he is proud to be our God. This is good news.

So, open your eyes to the better country, the city of God that he has prepared for us, and let yourself desire it with all your heart. God will not be ashamed to be called your God.

John Piper 

Why doesn't God obliterate evil?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine. 1 Chronicles 29:11

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Have you ever wondered why God doesn’t obliterate the devil and eradicate all sin? If God destroyed evil, God would destroy every opportunity for choice. And if God were to destroy every opportunity for choice, then God would destroy every opportunity for love. Therefore, God would destroy the highest good. For God to destroy evil would be evil.

God doesn’t destroy evil, instead God defeats evil. How? Calvary and the resurrection! God turns every hurt into a hallelujah. Every defeat into victory!

ACTION POINT:

Spend some time today thinking about heaven and the glorious reunion you’re going to have with Him one day.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Praying on auto-pilot?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Matthew 6:7

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

It was a very long, tiring day. I had preached three sermons and dictated a stack of letters. And at the close of each letter I ended it, “In Jesus’ name, Adrian Rogers.”

A man came to me at the end of a service and said, “I must see you. I have a severe problem.” I was bone weary but I said, “Very well, come on back and let’s talk.”

We talked and I listened. My heart was moved with compassion. I said, “Let me pray for you.” And when I finished I said, “In Jesus’ name, Adrian Rogers.” And then I thought, “Oh my! Did I say that? Did he hear me say that?” How easy we slip and rattle off our prayers.

ACTION POINT:

Do you find yourself using repetitive phrases in your prayer life? Today, just talk with God. Don’t think too much about your words. Follow your heart.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Faith for the Impossible

He grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. (Romans 4:20–21)

Paul has in mind a special reason why faith glorifies God’s future grace. Simply put, the reason is that this God-glorifying faith is a future-oriented confidence in God’s integrity and power and wisdom to follow through on all his promises.

Paul illustrates this faith with Abraham’s response to the promise of God: that he would be the father of many nations even though he was old and his wife was barren (Romans 4:18). “In hope he believed against hope,” that is, he had faith in the future grace of God’s promise, in spite of all human evidences to the contrary.

He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. (Romans 4:19–21)

The faith of Abraham was a faith in the promise of God to make him the father of many nations. This faith glorified God because it called attention to all the omnipotent, supernatural resources of God that would be required to fulfill it.

Abraham was too old to have children, and Sarah was barren. Not only that: How do you turn a son or two into “many nations,” which God said Abraham would be the father of? It all seemed totally impossible.

Therefore, Abraham’s faith glorified God by being fully assured that he could and would do the humanly impossible. This is the faith we are called to have. That God will do for us what we could never do for ourselves.

John Piper

Who Are the Children of Abraham?

In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:3)

You who hope in Christ and follow him in the obedience of faith are Abraham’s descendants and heirs of his covenant promises.

God said to Abraham in Genesis 17:4, “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations.” But Genesis makes plain that Abraham did not father a multitude of nations in a physical or political sense. Therefore, the meaning of God’s promise was probably that a multitude of nations would somehow enjoy the blessings of sonship even though physically unrelated to Abraham.

That’s no doubt what God meant in Genesis 12:3 when he said to Abraham, “In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” From the very beginning, God had in view that Jesus Christ would be the descendant of Abraham and that everyone who trusts in Christ would become an heir of Abraham’s promise. Paul says in Galatians 3:29, “If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.”

So, when God said to Abraham 4,000 years ago, “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations,” he opened the way for any one of us, no matter what nation we belong to, to become a child of Abraham and an heir of God’s promises. All we have to do is share the faith of Abraham — that is, bank our hope on God’s promises, so much so that if obedience requires it, we could give up our dearest possession like Abraham gave up Isaac.

We don’t become heirs of Abraham’s promises by working for God, but by being confident that God works for us. “[Abraham] grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised” (Romans 4:20–21). That’s why Abraham could obey God even when obedience looked like a dead-end street. He trusted God to do the impossible — like raise his son from the dead.

Faith in God’s promises — or today we would say, faith in Christ, who is the confirmation of God’s promises — is the way to become a child of Abraham; obedience is the evidence that faith is genuine (Genesis 22:12–19). Therefore, Jesus says in John 8:39, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did.”

Children of Abraham are people from all nations who put their hope in Christ and, like Abraham on Mount Moriah, therefore don’t let the loss of their most precious earthly possession stop their obedience.

You who hope in Jesus Christ and follow him in the obedience of faith are the descendants of Abraham and heirs of his covenant promises.

John Piper 

It's an inside job...

BIBLE MEDITATION:

The just man walketh in his integrity: his children are blessed after him. Proverbs 20:7

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

This world says if we could just arrange conditions where we never have any sorrow, pain, or hurts, then we could change men. If we can change conditions we can change character. But the Bible teaches just the opposite.

The world puts the emphasis on condition—God puts the emphasis on character. Someone has well said you can’t purify the water by painting the pump. And yet that’s what we try to do. We think that if we can change the exterior or make conditions such that we never have any hurts, then we’re going to be okay. But, Jesus put the emphasis upon character. Upon what you are, not what you have.

ACTION POINT:

Is there someone in your life you admire? Someone who is a person of integrity? Praise God for His work in that person’s life and give him or her a word of encouragement.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers