09/01/2021 | Identity | Pastor David Myers

i want to talk to you about a subject that has just been in my heart for i guess several weeks now and i wasn't quite sure where to deal with this issue but i thought since uh i had an opportunity to talk with you someone on a wednesday night that this would be a good a good time to um sort of open this subject i want to talk to you about identity identity i i'm convinced um that identity is so important in fact i remember when uh brother uh david bernard who's our general superintendent and um has been here with us before and he is doing such a great job leading the united pentecostal church international i remember when he first took office which is maybe been 10 years ago now he had already been a successful pastor in austin texas and was an honors graduate law school university of texas he's he's written i don't know 25 books he's a brilliant man has unbelievable work ethic is a person of character we're really blessed as an organization to be under his leadership but i remember when he took uh office as the general superintendent of the united pentecostal church that he um he established three things um to focus on as a movement and one of those things was apostolic identity and uh in talking about apostolic identity he really talked about the things that were critical for us to identify with as a church and i i think that its identity is something that's probably like the word faith and that we kind of know what it is but it's not really easy to kind of get your arms around it um but i want to talk about that a little bit i want to look to first kings chapter 22 and read uh just a few verses about this story and then uh i'll just uh summarize it as we get into it uh because the story is quite interesting and it and it's it's the end of first kings and the beginning of second king but i'll uh i'll just read a few verses and this is sort of the um the high point of this story as it unfolds and the king of israel said unto jehoshaphat let me just stop and say this the king of israel is ahab and the king of judah is jehoshaphat and they're coming together at this point to do a sort of a combining their forces together and they're they're wanting to go after syria and redeem an area of land that they had held previously but they had lost under syrian rule and so they decided to come together and to sort of join forces first kings 22 and 30 and the king of israel said unto jehoshaphat i will disguise myself now if there's one thing we've learned about ahab and that is that he is a weak leader he's really a coward in a lot of ways and had really subrogated even his entire rule as king to jezebel his wife and they they had really just turned totally against the god of israel and and they were worshipers idolaters and worshipers of baal and so forth and he was a person that was always kind of looking for a way to sort of uh pass the book so to speak and here he decides when they go into battle that he will disguise himself he says i will disguise myself and enter into the battle but put thou on thy robes in other words now king jehoshaphat we'll go into battle together but you go ahead and wear your robes that signifies that you're the king but i will disguise myself and of course he's doing this uh if anybody's targeting the king they would target jehoshaphat and not him so he wants to disguise himself in some ways it could be said that he was changing his identity for what he thought was in his best interest and that was to be camouflaged as it were or to have a different identity in battle but put thou on thy robes and the king of israel disguised himself and went into the battle the king of syria this is of course their opponent commanded his thirty and two captains that had rule over his chariots so he the king of syria's got 32 captains that are in charge of all the chariots and all those warriors the fighting that that goes on um in the chariots you know um he says these 32 captains which i'm sure were some of his best soldiers fight neither was small nor great save only with the king of israel in other words i want all i want you guys to do is target the king of israel i don't want you trying to kill the other you know foot soldiers the chariot drivers i want you just to target the king of israel so that's their assignment there's 32 of them they're going after ahab the king of israel and it came to pass when the captains of the chariots that's these 32 guys saw jehoshaphat because he's he's wearing his king's robes that they said surely it is the king of israel so they see jehoshaphat and it would appear at this point that ahab's strategy was working because they were targeting uh jehoshaphat because of the attire that he was wearing that they said surely it is the king of israel and they turned aside to fight against him and jehoshaphat cried out now jehoshaphat sees that they've all turned to come after him and jehoshaphat now he's been set up by king ahab he starts to say hey i'm not king ahab i'm not the king of israel and it came to pass that when the captains of the chariots perceived that it was not the king of israel that they turned back from pursuing him so they thought they had saw him they they thought jehoshaphat was him he wasn't when he hollered out corrected they saw it wasn't him they turned from pursuing jehoshaphat and a certain man drew a bow at a venture now i'm sure in close range they're fighting with bows and arrows and they would target individuals but then there were some that would just draw a bow back and would just launch it hoping that it would land somewhere find its mark and and do its purpose and so that's what happened a certain man drew a bow at a venture and smote the king of israel this is ahab between the joints of the harness where the armor comes together in the joint of the heart harness wherefore he said unto the driver of his chariot this is ahab turn thy hand and carry me out turn thine hand he's wanting to turn the chariot around and carry me out of the hose for i am wounded just by chance even though he's disguised he has changed his identity the chance bow which probably was not by chance at all god directed the little stone in david's sling i'm sure he could direct this arrow and he and and ahab ends up dying uh from this the the longer i live the more convinced i am that the power of identity is the single greatest contributor to the decisions that we make on a daily basis the power of identity is the single greatest contributor to the decisions that we make there's a famous saying that i think is so true it goes like this we are not who we think we are and we are not who others think that we are but we are who we think others think we are now i hope that makes sense we're not who we think we are we're not necessarily who others think we are but we we are or we try to be what we think other people perceive us as and so identity is something that evolves it's not like a light switch that's suddenly turned on uh identity is not random identity comes from our experiences and our values and it's greatly influenced by our self-esteem and our social interaction but most of all most of all we get our identity from what we love we get our identity from what we are passionate about that's why you've always got to guard your heart you've got to guard your heart because what you fall in love with what you allow the emotions of your heart to sort of wrap itself around it will become the greatest contributor to your identity and the decisions that you make you you see this there's numerous examples but you see it in how people love uh football and they love their favorite team and they will buy jerseys to wear around and uh it's it's their identity and that team wins they're happy that team loses they're depressed all weekend [Laughter] do you know people that are like that it's it's because that's what they love and so they identify with it and when when when a team wins a super bowl everybody in the whole city has a big parade because their identity became that team because that team was the source of their passion now here's what we know as christians that and we have numerous passions we have things that we like but everybody has a master passion the thing that you love above everything else and to really truly identify as a new testament christian your master passion has to be jesus christ anything else that you love that continues to grow and your love for jesus is kind of squeezed out it will become less and less of a priority and your identity becomes more and more associated with the other things that you're pursuing that's why everything in life has to be prioritized based upon you having a master passion that says above all else i must be safe it doesn't mean that you can't like you know swimming or tennis or have hobbies or you know travel and take pictures of the beautiful grand canyon i mean we all are blessed to have a life that billions of people in this world would die for and we we have it every day we're blessed blessed blessed blessed beyond measure in america we live i was telling this to a friend of mine recently we live in a country most of the world is trying to find food we're trying to figure out how not to eat so much food what a blessed people we are i've watched people walk around and try to find clean water with little blue uh um united nation buckets trying to just scooping water out of a mud puddle and parasites all over it i mean most of the world it's hard to even get your brain around unless you've traveled and seen it firsthand but there there's most of this world is is trying to find a way to sustain themselves and here we are with all these blessings that we've been given what what a great god we serve but don't ever let the the affluence of our culture or the the blessings of our of of our country to uh crowd out that that special place in your heart that puts jesus on the throne of not just the throne of this world and the throne of eternity but the throne of your heart and my heart we've got a single throne every one of us and there's something that's sitting on it what is it it can be another relationship it can be finances it can be uh us trying to get our identity from being successful at work but all of those things cannot be our master passion it cannot be what truly identifies us you can't camouflage who you are i i've known people to to grow up in the church and and you know when they're coming to church they dress like they're a pentecostal and then go to school and have other attire in their locker and try to live as a camouflaged christian in a public school you're not doing yourself any service there's going to be a a stray arrow that's going to fine you there's going to be somebody that says something that's going to lodge in your heart and spirit you when you take on the identity of being a born-again christian and thank god for people that live a lifestyle of holiness now i know there's sometimes ridicule in the world but we're not trying to please the world we're trying to please god he's the trier of our hearts and i'm sure there's other things that we could do that are not sins that would put us in hell but yet we draw the line way back here why is that because we're trying to identify with a cause and a movement and a biblical principle that's bigger than ourselves sure there may be ways to be more comfortable and and to dress in a more provocative manner in the hot summer of florida but i thank god for men and women in this church that say we're not ashamed hallelujah to be associated with being able to walk with god in a way that brings dignity to the cause of christ by the way we present ourself to this world i know it's the blood of jesus that saved us but i'm thankful for the identity some of the times that we put these standards in our life it's not so that we can say we're better than everybody else and i know that identity is much more than dress but let me at least deal with this aspect of it for just a moment i know it's much bigger than that but when you associate with people of holiness and people of character people of of righteousness you're saying to yourself i am identify with something that is righteous i'm identified with something that is a called out chosen unto god and when you do that you are setting i believe a protection around yourself around your spirit around your mind and around your family oh hallelujah and i'm thankful for people that still believe in that in the 21st century i know it's not popular but it is still biblical principles that we live by if we simply follow culture we will find ourselves shipwrecked now let's talk about this story that we read for just a moment the last chapter of first kings and as i said the first chapter in second kings is is a great lesson on the power of identity the syrians you know they're here hanging around ramoth gilead that's the area that jehoshaphat and ahab had come together to try to retake it and jehoshaphat says you know to ahab you know my people are your people your people are my people your armies my army so forth so let's go but he said before we go let's see what the lord says and so um ahab calls 400 prophets but they're pretty much yes men the king had learned uh to call certain people that would just come and tell him what he wanted to hear uh one nick one guy named zedekiah he uh he knew uh the right way to live he knew what it was to hear from god but he had had pretty much thrown all of that up in the air to just please the king and tickle his ears fortunately christianity has become that in so many circles it's just tickling people's ears it's cotton candy when we need substance we need meat and potatoes we need the doctrine of the word of god the identity of who jesus is and zedekiah was sort of the leader of these 400 prophets and he makes these little horns and puts them on his head little iron horns bible says and he runs around with his head down you know and he's doing all this little drama before king ahab and he says this is what you're going to do to the syrians and he's got his little horns you know and all that and they're all plot and he runs around you know and all the other prophets in there it's just a big show and jehoshaphat who still has a uh a place in his spirit when he can tell something's not of god he still has a sensitivity to what's real and what's not real he says are there any other prophets around that we can talk to and ahab says yeah there's this guy mckay i but he's a bad prophet i really don't like him because he always prophesized against me now here's the thing about michael he has a strong identity of who he is he says my identity is that i tell you what i hear god tells me thank god for that ladies and gentlemen that's what the world needs the world is full of positive motivators the world is full of uh personalities that are uh you know charismatic in nature and have a a winning personality that's not what the world needs the world's full of those kind of people but what the world needs is a word from god and people that will say this is what thus saith the word of god it may not be what you want to hear it may not be what i want to hear but thank god that there's a voice in our midst that we can believe is from the lord and we're blessed as a people if we have that now this particular prophet he had a strong identity that when you have a strong identity you're not afraid of the truth when your identity is weak in terms of your christian identifying with the cause of christ and with biblical principles you're you're sort of tossed to and fro all the time and you're you're like this ahab you got to put on a different garment for every circumstance you're in i'm going to battle now i got to put on this garment now i'm over here i got to put on this garment now this person says have you ever talked with people i have friends i saw this even recently in a conversation it was so fun i had a person that was talking to me about a certain uh situation that was going on and boy they just had such strong opinions and it wasn't like 15 minutes later that we were in a the same person we're in another setting there was another individual now that was presenting the uh the alternate viewpoint of what they had just been so adamant about and the alternate viewpoint was presented in a very forceful manner and the person who had just had the opposing view he automatically agreed with the person that's now making the counterpoint and i'm like i thought you were just saying a and now you believe b you know people that are like that they're like these lizards that run around in our yards they just they kind of change colors based on they're on the fence post or they're on the if they're on a leaf they turn green if they're on the sidewalk i can't keep up with it whatever happened to just being who you are and if you're if you have an identity it doesn't mean that you go around trying to find a way to be rude and to be crude but you just say this is who i am i believe in the word of god and people ask you questions well does that mean this is going to happen does that mean that's going to happen does that mean this is going to happen somebody the other day asked gregory my son gregory he was telling me about this somebody he works with where's tim jenkins it's one of tim jenkins workers is tim even in here is he busying himself with something else decided to clean a bathroom or something in the middle of bible study some of these guys will only work on the church during wednesday night i feel a pastoral spirit come over me right now god forbid they won't come here on tuesday now but wednesday night they find a lot to get the whole church will all be fixed by the time this service is over tonight it'll be amazing oh goodness but this guy that that was working with gregory and gregory um you know i think they knew that he was a bible quiz or something so he wanted to ask him a question and he said to him you know a lot about the bible and gregory was like no not really i mean i'm just a bible quote he said well he said let me ask you a question according to the word of god is it like a sin like you're not gonna go to heaven if you commit suicide and uh gregory said y'all you're not you know if you commit suicide your body is a temple you're taking your life you know you're you're you're basically doing the opposite of what god created you to do and so forth so he explains that and the guy said okay that's what i thought i had heard that but he said now here's the question i have when 9 11 happened and people were way up in the building and the building was on fire and they jumped off the building and committed suicide did those people go to heaven or hell people love asking christians these questions don't they so gregory said you know here's what i told him i don't know if it's the right answer or not but this is what i said and he said i told him that i didn't think those people were going to hell because they weren't really committing suicide they they were jumping but the building was already on fire and so they were not doing that out of choice they were forced into that position i said i couldn't have said it better myself son in fact i'm glad you told me that now i know how to answer somebody if they ever ask i don't know people are always wanting to ask us now you know the bible right you're the pastor you know this okay is this person going to heaven or i don't know i'm so glad i don't know because there's only one that's making that decision and it's not me it's the lord he's the judge and i'm so glad he's the one because guess what he's more merciful than all of us i'm glad he's the only one making the decision if it was a committee making it i'm so glad i don't believe in the trinity if you believe there's three persons on three thrones who's making the decision where you go for eternity is there a group discussion is it two out of three it's so complicated i'm glad i know hero israel the lord our god is one and he's a merciful god so we don't we don't try to have all of the answers all we know is this we know that we love jesus with all of our heart and we're trying to live according to the word of god it doesn't mean that we have all of the answers about who's going where and what's going to happen to aunt betty and uncle ernie i don't know but i know jesus hallelujah and i know what the word of god says and so i have to walk in light as it is revealed to me and the bible has made it clear you've got to repent of your sins be baptized in the name of jesus and be filled with the gift of the holy ghost and you don't have to be afraid of the truth you can be strong in who you are and in your identity and not have to try to change your cloak based upon who you're talking to or what situation you're in now the servant that goes to get so jehoshaphat says i really i don't want to offend you king ahab but i don't really trust that 400 that was a big dog and pony show now i'm using modern-day vernacular but you understand what i'm saying he says let's let's bring this guy and he even tells this is so interesting when you read it king james version shares it in some of the wording that may get lost in there but jehoshaphat tells king ahab you really shouldn't say that because jehoshaphat jehoshaphat told ahab because ahab just said i hate the guy i just don't like him and he says you really shouldn't say that and so the servant goes to get michael and and tells him that all the other prophets have been saying um very nice things to the king so we need you to just go along he said they want you to come and we've already heard from 400 prophets now here comes the peer pressure we've already heard from 400 prophets they've all told the king that he should go to battle and that they're going to have great victory and so you know just won't let you know that ahead of time have you ever noticed something that children do that's quite interesting when they want permission to do something and they go to their mom and they say mom can we go do whatever it is and the mom says i don't know ask your father they go to the father and they say mom said we could go do da da da as long as it's okay with you have you ever noticed that kids do that i know they do because i did it when i was a kid that's not exactly what happened but they know the other parent is more likely to give permission if they think the other parent has so they frame it in a way that kind of puts peer pressure on the other parent uh maybe not peer pressure maybe more like spousal pressure but it's still the same thing in that it's trying to influence the decision in a certain way when this servant came to this prophet he says to him the the other 400 have already said that it's okay okay 400. you're one this is what's happening in our culture today they're wanting you to feel like that you are isolated in your value system the rest of the world all thinks this way but you're the oddball you're the cyclop with one eye in the middle of your head you're some igor because you believe the word of god don't buy into all that we have got to do the same thing that this prophet did he says this i can only say what the lord has shown me i don't know about what you did with 400 prophets i don't know about this alliance now between jehoshaphat and they have i don't know what all you guys have got working what you all got cooking here's the only thing i can tell you i just simply say what the lord has told me to say thank the lord for people like that hallelujah and they just say you can figure it all out you can have all know the nuances of this and that here's what i know i just know i'm going to live by the principles of the word of god hear or israel the lord our god is one as for me and my family we're going to serve the lord hallelujah we're gonna draw a line in the sand and we're gonna make a commitment and we stay on that stay grounded on that that uh is what this particular prophet was doing and there's something powerful the only way you can do that is if you identify with uh not just what's in your own what appears to be in your own personal best interest but what is uh the real truth of god's word so he they bring the uh they bring this prophet in and he tells the king sarcastically yeah go to battle you're going to have a glorious victory okay what do you think we should do you know we've had 400 prophets say this and then this is king jehoshaphat and he asked for you to come and this is what i remember when they do the whole deal what do you say yeah fine whatever you want to go to battle i think you're going to have a glorious victory and the king knows that he's not telling the truth because he's heard his prophecies before and the king says now now tell us the truth you you have to really tell us what the lord has told you be honest michael mcchat tells the king what he saw he saw in a vision all the sheep of israel that were scattered because they had no king and the lord said let each of them go peaceably to their house and ahab turns to jehoshaphat and says see didn't i tell you this guy always prophesies against me he's making it personal when it was basically do you want to hear from god or not we we have to have an identity that says as christians we're not going to just be christians that take the path of least resistance i feel like that as a world we are moving toward a time when you're you're going to have to make a stand as to whether or not you really believe this bible the middle ground is all going to get weeded out you know we talked the other day about uh sod and gomar and lot coming you know with his wife and his daughters out of sodom because of the lord sent angels and told them they got to go assam gemara is going to be destroyed by fire so they go out and the lord told to go to the mountain they don't go to the mountain they say can we go to zord it's got palm trees hey they had palm trees and the bible says it was it had palm trees and it was well watered so they said can we just go to zoar and and the lord said fine let's go to that's not what he told them to do initially though there's a lot of times where the lord will tell you to do something and you'll say oh that's wonderful lord but i'm going to do this is that okay you can see you'll see it with balaam in the bible he eventually he'll just let you do what you want to do it doesn't mean it's god's will it means it's your will and so uh a lot but it was in zor where his wife turns around and looks back on sodom and gomorrah and zoro gives people a false sense of security and zor is where a lot of christianity is especially in america right now they're living in zord they're not where they're supposed to be spiritually on the mountain and yet we look over at sodom and gomorrah and we go oh thank god we're not as wicked as those poor people we're over here in zor but remember this if you don't remember anything else the wicked die in sodom but the righteous die in zore and we are moving at a time i believe with all of my heart that we're moving to a time where zore is gonna get cleaned out and it's gonna boil down to whether or not we really are willing to make the trip to the spiritual mountain see lot didn't want to go up there he's like i'm not a mountain kind of guy i'm you know i'm more of a city guy and i just want to stay down here i'm afraid some beasts will overtake me if i go to the mountain i'm not you know some sort of a cave man i'm not you know some guy that's used to all the mountain living that's not me i'd rather just stay down here and you know in the valley but i'm going to tell you what there's coming a time where you won't mind making the trip after he lost his wife and zord the next morning he got up told his daughters we're going to the mountain why wait until there's a catastrophe for us to become what god has called us to be i say let's take the trip to the mountain and say lord wherever you're at like moses said before they left egypt god if you don't go with us we're not going into the desert but where your spirit leads we will follow oh hallelujah you've got to be willing to make that tough decision and say i'm going to do what the lord has called me to do what the lord has put in my heart and in my spirit and i'm not going to be afraid and i'm not going to be ashamed that's having that identity that master passion so mccain says i saw the lord on a throne with all the host of heaven and he asked who would persuade king ahab to go to battle and he said i saw different ones come forward with different plans but then a spirit stood before him and he said he was a lying spirit and he said i will persuade the king by having all the prophets tell him to go this this prophet this true prophet of god stands before a habit your husband knowing that they can take his life but he just simply says what the lord told him he said i saw it in a vision i knew what was going to happen and he said the lord spoke to me and said they don't have a king and they're like scattered sheep and they're going back to their homes i told them to go peacefully but he said who would persuade the king to do something like this that was not what the lord had instructed and he says i saw these different ones coming and i saw this spirit he said how did you persuade he said i had the prophets tell him to go i mean when zedekiah you remember zedekiah the guy with the little horns the guy who was basically a backslider that had decided that he was more concerned with being politically connected than being spiritually connected zedekiah heard this and he goes over and slaps this prophet and said when did the lord pass me up and start speaking to you i can tell you zedekiah when that happened when you came more concerned about the king's opinion than god's opinion ladies and gentlemen we have got to make sure in these last days i don't know if we've got weeks left days left months left but we've got to make sure that there is something inside of our spirit that is tuned into god that says lord i want to please you more than anything else i've got to please god it's so crucial ahab gets mad he throws him in prison tells the guards don't feed him anything except bread and water till we have a victory of course ahab goes out there disguises himself thinking that would be a defense it was actually the opposite he's killed in battle and it wasn't just his generation it continued down to the next generation it all had happened because king ahab had lost his identity a long time ago he was supposed to be a righteous man and he was not he was supposed to be a king but he wasn't a leader he had no identity because he had sold out you can sell your house you can sell your car but ladies and gentlemen don't ever sell your identity and i want to say this for whatever it's worth because i just feel prompted in the holy ghost to add this just because you've made a mistake don't let that mistake become your identity you are a child of god you can ask god to forgive you and he'll put it under the blood that is not who you are you are a child of god you are a royal priesthood you are a chosen generation and don't let the mistakes define who you are you've got to get an identity that i am the king's kid i have been baptized in the name of jesus christ and you've got to be convinced of that the next chapter tells us about ahab's son a hazy eye who becomes king and he worships baal he falls and he's injured and sends his servants to the temple of baal to find out uh if he will live he's doing the same thing while they're traveling the prophet elijah and god's always going to have a prophet god's always going to have a voice in any generation in any culture if people are hungry god's gonna always have a vessel that he can use and elijah gets word that they're sending these these prophets up there to try to get the word from baal and elijah gets word from from the lord um what's going on and he cuts them off at the pass and he tells them why are you going to the to the temple of belzebub is there not a god in israel no we're just doing we're told he said go tell the king he will not recover he will die so the servants go back and and say to the king and they what the king says what happened well we never got there but we found a guy this guy crossed our paths and uh this is why we're back so fast i mean the kingdom how you already come back i thought you had to go way up there no we well what happened was this guy before we got there we were headed there but this prophet came out and he he told us you know to go back we didn't have to go and he already had a word from the lord and he he told us that you wouldn't recover it wasn't us we just ran into a guy that told us to tell you that the king says what did he look like and they said he was a hairy man he had a garment of leather around his midsection and the king said i know who that is that's elijah the tishbite and he sends 50 men and a captain to go get him and the captain says you want us to go get the man of god he says yes so he says okay so they go to get him elijah's sitting up there on top of the hill and they're like by the order of the king you must come down from that hill and go with us we're going to take you back and elijah says if i am truly a man of god i want fire to come down and consume these men fire comes down and consumes them all i mean elijah knows how to call fire down remember he got that thing going in mount carmel and so fire comes down and consumes all these 50 guys in the captain they all burned to a crisp and so the king's like what happened they're like they all got burned by fire oh you got to be kidding me all right 50 more guys come on guys line up here's what i want you to do i need you all to go down there and get the prophet elijah he's sitting there on the hill tishbite yeah we need you to bring him to us didn't we already sent a search party yeah they didn't make it oh i can hear them all whispering to each other what happened those guys i heard they all burnt to a crisp okay so they all go and they're probably a lot more polite than the first group was you know elijah it'd be nice for you to come down and join us you know we're gonna go back it's just you know a good thing to do show that you're you know concerned about your country and the king and elijah says if i be the man from god let fire come down and consume fire comes down consumes them all again and the captain they're all done word gets back to the king the second group that went and their their toast and he says that's fine we'll get 50 more men the definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over thinking you're going to have a different result right so uh the third group comes and by this time they've become a little wiser and the captain says i know that you are a man of god please do not call fire down and the angel of the lord says to elijah go don't be afraid go with them and there's a couple things that jump out at me from that number one is it was the humility of this man that changed the heart of god the angel convinced the prophet not to call fire down because this captain who i'm sure was a baal worshiper and was not a believer in the god of elijah but he recognized the identity of elijah folks i cannot stress enough the power of identity even people that may not like you they know that you have a walk with god and that's more important than anything else what does it matter to be popular you know whenever they had meaning meaning to believe arsenal's written on the wall there and that big crazy debauchery party whatever belshazzar was throwing and babbling and all of that when they conquered media persia and they they had to saw this hand come out of the wall and write on what the world was going on and who's what what does anything with you parsons mean it they went got daniel you know out they said daniel can you interpret in daniel interprets he says your kingdom has been weighed in the balances and found wanting and they said oh that's beautiful we want to give you a big gold ring we want you to be in the party come here come over here take a drink you know put this on your head put the ring on your finger and put a gold chain around your neck and you know what daniel tells them you can keep all that because tonight your kingdom will be taken from you and that very night the medes and the persians took over babylon here's the point the point is this daniel could have sold his identity to be a part of the crowd and he would have perished with all of the others that night but thank god for somebody that's willing to stand and say that's not who i am that's not what i associate with i am a child of god and if you identify as a child of god ladies and gentlemen you have more power than you realize it is the principle that jesus was teaching his disciples he said whatever you bind on earth is going to be bound in heaven and whatsoever you loose on earth is going to be loosed in heaven you don't have that power unless you identify with jesus christ that's the power of identity that's why the disciples baptized in the name of jesus that's why they prayed for the sick in the name of jesus that's why they preached jesus that's why they cast out devils in jesus because they realized that the power of his identity they did not believe that he was the messiah they'd be in the community they'd be in the jewish hierarchy they didn't believe that jesus was a messiah they thought he was a heretic but the disciples linked themself to the identity of jesus the identity of who jesus was became the identity of who they are that's why there's power in understanding who jesus christ is that's why remission of sins is through his blood our power to live above sin is based in the identity of who jesus christ is and our power to defeat the enemy is in our identity with jesus christ now i got just a couple of minutes let me close with this we've we've started uh a new program that we're starting to do interviews again and we're doing we're calling this the wind in the word the other uh the other day i guess it was yesterday i'm losing track of time because of these crazy landscapers anyways during the day uh yesterday i interviewed um uh pastor joel erschen and it's i think we've released it on youtube and facebook and all that stuff but we're gonna each week have a a new and so we did uh just like a 30 minute interview and we talked a little bit about um different aspects of the season that we're in and if you get a chance uh to look at it i think it'll be beneficial but this one little clip that i just wanted to show you is is when i asked pastor ershen about one of the one of the things even as we're planning this conference is coming up here in a few weeks that that has been so um impactful is that you know we've talked about how we want to have an apostolic environment and have the prophetic winds of god blowing and brother joel orson is always very um he's very important part of that discussion and he makes an emphasis on us uh being committed to the doctrine it'd not just be in the spirit but committed to the doctrine of the word of god and so i asked him a little bit about that because when we talk about the wind and the word we're talking about the spirit and truth the bible said he seeketh the worshipers that worship in spirit and truth and so we talk about for just a moment i want i want you to hear what pastor ursian says about identity you said you know it's important to have uh that doctrinal balance uh with the prophetic wind of god and i wonder if you could talk about that for just a second and how the doctrine the truth of god's word serves as a foundation for the anointing of god's word that's a great that's a great observation and and there is something about the identity of god that really sets the stage for everything it sets the foundation for everything else he said to moses you tell them i am have sent you and that understanding of him being the i am was so necessary to what moses was going to do in bringing the children of israel out of egypt and it really emboldened moses it him understanding who god was took away the insecurity of who he felt he was you know there was something that moses kept saying to god when god would tell him all that he was going to do there in speaking to pharaoh moses would say who am i who am i said that a couple of times who am i and i think that's an interesting question because god's response to it was always i am i am so the the response to our insecurity is always his identity we have to stop worrying about where we may be inadequate and just start looking at the sovereignty the power and that the glory the omnipotence of god and in genesis chapter you know the scripture says god said let there be light the spirit of god moved upon the face of the waters and god said let there be light that word let there be is the word i am it's the same word that he used when he told moses who was sending him into egypt it's the word hayah i am to exist the self-existent one and so when god said let there be light what brought light to the earth was his identity i i am light and then the whole world was illuminated the whole world is not illuminated by the sun the moon and the stars those were created on the fourth day there was light before there were there was a sun or a moon or stars it's the light that shines above the brightness of the sun as it did as saul was riding down the road to damascus it's not the brightness of the sun it's above the brightness of the sun and that that's that's that doctrinal truth the identity of who god is if people can really understand who god is uh as best as we can through the word the revelation of the word it really gives people the wherewithal to let him move in their life it puts everything in perspective if they know who god is it begins to help them know who they are it helps them to know who they're who they're not they're not what the devil has said they are not who the accuser has said they are because the more they understand about who he is uh the more they'll understand who they are and the more his spirit will have opportunity to truly perfect and and perform the work needed in their lives now see to me that's just brilliant he's saying if you if you can wrap yourself in the identity of who jesus is you become stronger in your own identity when you know his identity jesus how much more should all of us that associate with the name of jesus be committed to an apostolic identity that we are his child no matter what may come or go i can be secure in who i am not because of my own ability but because in the fact that he has revealed himself to us that's why the apostles had that's why the post-apostolic fathers had something others didn't have because they embraced the identity let's stand to our feet once you have that revelation you can join me in making this declaration today i am stepping across the line i am tired of waffling and i'm finished with wavering i've made my choice the verdict is in and my decision is irrevocable i'm going god's way and there's no turning back i will spend the rest of my life serving god's purposes with god's people on god's planet to god's glory i will use my life to celebrate his presence cultivate his character participate in his family demonstrate his love and communicate his word since my past has been forgiven and i've been baptized in his name i refuse to waste any more time on shallow living petty thinking trivial talking thoughtless doing useless regretting hurtful resentment or faithless worrying instead i will magnify god grow to maturity serve in ministry and fulfill my mission in the membership of his family because this life is preparation for the next i will value worship over wealth we over me character over comfort service over status people over possessions positions or pleasures i know what matters most and i will give it all i've got i'll do the best i can with what i have for jesus christ today i won't be captivated by culture manipulated by critics motivated by praise frustrated by problems debilitated by frustration or intimidated by the enemy i am a child of god i have his name i belong to him [Applause] when times get tough and i get tired i won't back up back off back down back out or backslide i'll keep moving forward by god's grace i'm blood washed water baptized and spirit-filled so i cannot be bought i will not compromise and i shall not quit until i finish the race i am a trophy of god's grace so i will be gracious to everyone grateful for every day and generous with everything that god has entrusted to me to my lord and savior jesus christ i say however whenever wherever and whatever you ask me to do my answer in advance is yes wherever you lead and whatever the cost i'm ready anytime anywhere anyway whatever it takes lord whatever it takes i want to be used by you in such a way that on that final day i will hear you say well done thou good and faithful servant come on in and let the eternal party begin that's who we are east wind we are the apostolics of this day would you lift your hands right now and would you declare unto the lord your identity in him oh thank you jesus thank you jesus in the name of jesus christ thank you jesus thank you jesus we choose you lord we choose your way we are passionate god about the cause of christ we seek first the kingdom of god above everything else lord i'm not going to live with regrets or questions lord i live with the joy of a new opportunity to bless the lord oh my soul i live in the confidence hallelujah that i am your child lord i identify with you lord [Music] [Applause] hallelujah if you're comfortable doing this if you're not it's okay but if you're comfortable i wonder right now if you could just pray for your neighbor maybe some of you want to step across the aisle but i believe what we were talking about when we were receiving communion that it's so critical that we come together as a body of christ and i wonder right now if we could just pray for one another i'm so thankful that i identify with you as my brothers and sisters would you begin to pray for one another right now would you just pray and link link your spirits link your prayers together right now in the name of jesus i thank you for it lord i pray for my brother and sister in the name of jesus you

Channel: Eastwind Pentecostal Church of Palm Bay, Florida

Views: 479

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: first, pentecostal, apostolic, sermon, pastor, david, myers, palm bay, melbourne, brevard, county, florida, upci, upc, bishop, j., e., jackson, ellis, Eastwind, Eastwind church

Id: -8yAJXq9L6w

Length: 58min 9sec (3489 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 03 2021