[music] [music] [music] [music] [music] Hey, Rock Church, give the Lord
a hand. [Applause] What's up? Can I have everybody stand up. We want to welcome all of our
campus, microsites. God bless you, happy
Thanksgiving, happy Thanksgiving. There are many things we are
thankful for and I and my family thankful for and we are thankful
for you. Thank you for coming to church
today and thank you for praying for our family. My mother is in hospice and at
my sister's house a couple of weeks. And we are with her day and
night. And if you don't know what
hospice is, you go through chemotherapy, which is actually
rat poison and it's horrible and they stopped it and no medicine
and just keeping her comfortable. And the last few days she's been
stronger and doing good, but it's an up and down roller
coaster and what we are dealing with, appreciate you praying for
us and it's been amazing. Hard but amazing. And I want to speak on behalf
all other people dealing with a similar thing, I know I am not
the only one. And God knows who are going
through and people from the church support as well, amen. It's one reason to take care of
your kids when they are young so they can take care of you when
you get old. You do not want to get old by
yourself. I firmly believe and my sister
and I have been on this every day, all the siblings back east
and came and went, and she would be dead if our family wasn't
there. And hospitals do what they do,
they got a lot of people. Only your family can take care
of you. And if you know somebody who is
sick, if anything you can do for them, do it. Be a blessing, amen. Lord, thank you so much for your
goodness, thank you for our church. Thank you for being family to us
and being support to us. And thank you for my family. Brothers and sisters and
relatives and in-laws everybody around us to support my mother,
and we pray You heal her. We pray very specifically and
clearly that we want You to heal her and give her another run of
healthy living and enjoy her great-grandkids and grandkids
and family and thank You for her 80 years of life. And thank You for today. Today I pray that You transform
our hearts today, teach us something new. Challenge us to be different, to
be better in Jesus' name, amen. Say hello to somebody near you
and give them a hug and tell them God loves them, something
good. Hey, if you have a Bible on the
count of three lift your Bible and say word. One, two... Keep you on your toes. One, two, three, word. Very good, turn to Exodus 3,
second book of the Bible, third chapter and we will be in a few
minutes chapter 3 verse 13, in a few minutes, second book of the
Bible, Exodus chapter 3. A while back my wife and I were
at a restaurant. And we were sitting there eating
and someone sitting near us was from the church, came over and
we prayed and took a picture and they left. The waiter is from the church,
took a picture, prayed and went about and did his job. And the water guy from the
church, prayed and took a picture. Then the manager came over and
prayed and took a picture. And by the way, if you see me
out please come and say hi, I love people and my wife, she's
more quiet and I like to talk to everybody and come up and get a
hug or picture, or pray, it don't matter. And a couple a few tables and
over and don't go to church or knows and came over as we were
leaving and said, excuse me, and I am expecting the same thing
and he goes, who are you. And I said, how do you answer
that question? So I said, my name is miles. And he said, that don't tell me
anything, and I am a pastor of the church... Everyone say.
I am. Say, I have. Say, I will. One more time. And say it a bunch of times. Say, I am. Say, I have. Say, I will. Satan's number one battle in
your life is in your thoughts. It's a spiritual battle. But it's in your thoughts. And his number one topic about
your thoughts is who are you? It's your identity. It's I am, what you have or
don't have, and what you will or won't do. I am. I have. I will. It's very important for you to
know who you are in Christ. I am not talking about your
physical who you are. If you want to know who you are
physically, you look in a mirror. If you want to know who you are
spiritually, which is what we are talking about, you look at
the Bible, the Bible will tell you who you are. The Bible says you are made in
God's image to reflect the glory of God and love of God and to
rule and have dominion over the earth the way that God would and
encourage and co-exist with other people and that's your
purpose. And to glorify God in all the
earth. The devil understands that, and
if you understand your identity in Christ, you understand your
identity in Christ. And understand what you have
because of who you are and understand what you do because
of what you have. That's who you are. You are not just a Christian
that goes to church, but you are a Christian with a relationship
with God and access to glorify the kingdom. Are you following what I saying. That's who you are. The problem is that the devil
convinced many believers, that you are less than, you not who I
am, you are not. The devil convinced you, I have
not and cannot. And there are many Christians
that God has given you an incredible title, relationship,
position in heaven, that we will talk about next week. Your actual position in heaven
spiritually as a believer you are seated at the right hand of
the father, the father is right here, he's not way up there. Spiritually you are right here
next to the father in Christ. And talk about that next week
and that you have access to the throne of God. But the devil convinced you, you
are way down here hiding under a rock and that your prayers will
never be answered. And that you are less than and
you should be happy with whatever you get. I am not saying don't be
thankful for what God gives you. If you answer one prayer a week,
I will be happy. No, God says I want you to cry
out to me every day and expect miracles in life every day. The devil redefine who you are
contrary to what this says. And in that redefinition he will
imprison you because you let him and believe it. He will imprison you in that
false identification of who you are, and since I am in prison in
this less than category of what God says, because I believe the
Bible and not the devil and why you need to read the Bible every
day and talk with people that pray life into you and not
death. You can watch death all day
long, if you watch the news, it's garbage. I don't care what side, CNN or
fox side, it doesn't matter, it's all garbage. If you let that stuff fill your
head, fill your head, and it's us and them and all of this
division in our culture. And God says all of that is from
the devil. Speak life. Speak life.
And to know who you are. And if you read this book, and
believe what God said instead of what your critics say. Because if you believe what your
critics say, he has a strong hold and in bondage, you are
telling yourself a lie over and over again what you are not. You are telling yourself a lie
what you do not have, and you are telling yourself a life what
you never can do. Some of us, and deal with this,
before I open my eyes I am hearing in my head what I am
not. What will never happen. Don't get out of bed. The day is already so bad it's
not worth getting out of bed. Just about every day. And remember we talked about,
you have to get up mad at the devil. You have to get up jacked up. And remember, we talked, let's
go devil. We have to fight. It is a battle, we are in a war. How many kingdoms in the
spiritual world. And there is the kingdom of -- Say God. Kingdom of what, and you have to
fight. Now look at today who God is,
why? Because we were made in the
image of God and if we understand who God is, we
understand how we are supposed to be. You are not supposed to create
your own image. Sorry. You can do your own hair. God gave you creativity and do
your hair and mascara, what you want to do. And God created you and the
reason we have Life Class and R-group, so you understand how
God designed you. Take the pressure off. Don't try to create a human. God created you. That's a big deal. So when Moses in this story is
going to ask God, who are you? God is going to answer him and
guess what God will say. Say I am.
Say I have. And say I will. That's what God is going to tell
him. He's going to say I am. I have and I will. Why is that important? If you know who God is, you were
made in the image of God and know how you are supposed to be. The devil wants you to worship
him and be negative and liar and tear people down. And devil wants you to be one of
his kids and God says I want you to be my daughter or son and be
like me. Read the story. Chapter 3, there is 2 million or
so Jews in captivity in Egypt and Moses is 80 years old, it
took God 80 years to prepare Moses. How many under 40? Raise your hand. When you are young, you are
ready to go, God took 80 years. The brother had to get a cane in
order to be ready. Take your time. Slow it down. And Moses out there and getting
the sheep and he's out there trying to find the sheep and
sees this burning bush. The bush is on fire but not
consumed. And goes to the bush and the
bush starts to talk to him. Which is a miracle of itself,
that fire would talk to you. And another miracle that you
talk back to the fire. So Moses having this
conversation and God says and I will paraphrase until verse 13,
look, my people are in bondage, in Egypt and I hear the cries of
my people and send you to deliver them. And Moses is a murderer and
orphan and fugitive running for 40 years, killed the guy 40
years previous. He's just a shepherd and trying
to pass his days along. And Moses, I have something
bigger than you can ask or imagine. You go back and deliver the
people that you just came from. And you go back to the most
powerful nation in the world, the most advanced nation in the
world and deliver them. And Moses had five excuses, and
not get into those, and said, who am I. And don't worry, I am with you,
and don't worry about it. And that is important, if you
ever feel you are not adequate to do what God called you to do,
you are not. Because it's not you doing it. It's God doing it. It really is. When people get saved, I don't
save them. It's God saving them. There are some of you God
speaking to your life right now and tripping out. You are thinking he's talking to
me. I don't know you, I don't know
your business. The Holy Spirit is doing it and
have faith in the role. And he said, Moses who am I? And he said, Moses you are my
guy. I will be with you, I got your
back, don't worry about it. And then asked another question,
Moses said who I am. And then he said, who you are? They are going to ask me, and
when I tell the Jews that you sent me, who are you. Everybody say I am. Say I have.
Say I will. When we understand that that's
how God answered Moses. When you understand who God is,
then we can understand who we are. And hopefully in this process,
here's my hope in this process, we will do a whole five-week
series on this topic. That your mind be renewed and
you start thinking about yourself accurately. When you look yourself in the
mirror and you see that your hair does this and you want it
to do this. And you trust the mirror, that
tells you that your hair is going this way and you want it
to go. And when goes all the way and
want it one way, and you trust what the mirror is telling you
and comb it, amen. How many you looked in a mirror
this morning before church. Some of you like I am cute, I
don't need to look in a mirror. Y'all are lying. How many of you looked in the
mirror. How many never look in a mirror? How many not look in a mirror. God bless you. You look in the mirror, you
trust the mirror. Trust the mirror and trust what
it says, look at what God says in chapter 3, verse 13, it
says... Say, I am. I have, and I will. And God said... he's the ultimate I am. Everyone say I have. Say, I will. Everyone say, I am. Say, I have. Say, I will. Here's what God said, here's my
name. Number one in your notes, your
identity is your name. In this context it's your name,
the name that God has given you, it is I am. God's name is I am. What does that mean? I always was. I had no beginning. It's very important to
understand God is not dependent on anything or anyone to exist. His character, his value, his
power, his ability, his love for you is not dependent on anything
other than himself and it is unchanging. He always was, I will get to
that in a minute. Because he had no beginning. He's the uncaused cause, he's
the beginningless beginner, he is now and always will be. And you might say how does God
not have a beginning, because everything has to have a
beginning. The reason that you know that
everything has to have a beginning, because science tells
us that everything has a beginning. Science is the study of natural
things. Science doesn't cause things to
happen. It tells you how they happened. It's very important for you to
understand. So when you look at chemistry,
math, biology, they are telling you how things function. We observe it, we test it and
let me say here's how it functions. Here's how it functions and
predict, that's what science does. It doesn't make it happen or
create it, it tells you what is already created. But one thing that science tells
you that everything has a beginning. Nothing can cause anything to
happen. Something had to start it. And now give you an example. If you look at the universe,
imagine the universe is a big basketball and this is the
universe. Everything we know to exist is
in this basketball. And this basketball is expanding
at the speed of light. The Bible says that God
stretches out the heavens like a curtain. And science observes that the
universe is expanding at the speed of light. Bible said it before science
discovered it that the universe is doing that at the speed of
light, that's a bad brother right there. Can I get amen. Everything in the universe is
understood through scientific theories. And we understand it and don't
know but understand it's there and science tells us that. And everything in the universe,
science makes us believe that everything has a beginning. How can God be beginningless? Who made God, here's the trick,
God says that nothing made me. I was. And the rules of the basketball
dictate nothing can always be. Here's the thing, God exists
outside of the universe. He created the universe, he
created time. But he exists outside and a
whole different rule set that we don't understand, and it's
called the kingdom of God. And why we have to pray and help
to understand how things work in the kingdom of God and not the
kingdom of man. In the kingdom of God you serve
and it's opposite. In the kingdom of man, you hate
your enemy and in the kingdom of God, you love your enemies. And in the kingdom of God I had
no beginning, that means I will never leave you. That means you can't shake me. You can't destroy me. You can't minimize me, the
critics of your enemies can't destroy me, they can't minimize
me. They can't get rid of me. You will never be alone. When the devil tells you are
alone, my name is you are not alone. You understand. The devil wants you to believe
you are alone. That's not who you are. You are a child, ambassador of a
king, who always was and is and will be. You are an eternal being in an
eternal relationship. By the way, some of you might
not have a relationship with God, and give you that
opportunity to have a relationship with God. Because he loves you so much and
patiently waiting to establish an eternal, unending
relationship. Look -- amen, give the Lord a
hand. Amen.
Come on. [Applause] I am.
Number 2. Number 2, your authority. What comes with your identity. Is authority. I have. The resources that you have
access to. Every single one of your names
in the spiritual comes with authority. Resources. You are never resourceless. You are never empty handed. You are never powerless. You are the complete opposite. What makes people anxious is
they feel like they don't have something and they feel
powerless. And there is so much
uncertainty. When you have complete
certainty. When I do funerals I don't know
how people do death without God. How do you do death without God? You have zero certainty. Because you haven't died and
don't know what is on the other side. You have hope. Because Jesus died and rose he
gave us certainty because I died and rose and you believe in me,
you will die and rise. As a matter of fact his
resurrection is a first fruit, a deposit on your resurrection. Look in the Bible, chapter 3
verse 16... What do you have? You have the presence of God. I am there with you. God is there with every single
one of you. And some of you, why hasn't he
fixed my problem? Because God is not about fixing
problems but about making people holy. And it's much more difficult, I
shouldn't say difficult, it's an obstacle for him to fix the
problem if you are not giving the problem to him, on his
terms. Accepting responsibility that
you created. Confessing the problem. Walking away from the problem. Stop sleeping with the problem. Stop smoking the problem. Are you getting what I am
saying? God just fix it. I want to do what I want. But you fix it. God says, that's not the kind of
relationship this is. You have the presence of God,
you know what comes with the presence of God? Everything God. The Bible says Ephesians 1:3,
all the places in the heavenly places are available to you. A friend of mine had a dream and
in the dream Jesus was standing in front of a vault of money and
money is a metaphor for good things, and nothing else. And line of people walking up to
Christ and when got to Jesus and said how much do you want. And the first dude, for real? How about 100 grand, no problem
I have that in my pocket, boom. And the guy walks away. And the next guy, 250. No problem, here's 250. And on and on and everyone came
up with their number. And my friend, in the dream and
walking up and thinking what am I going to say. And gets to the front of the
line and Jesus says to my friend, what do you want, he
goes, I want it all. You know what God says? Ask for it all. Because if you got it all, this
is how good God is, and God the God of cattle on 1,000 hills,
metaphor for all resources and if he has it all, more for me. In other words, I can go to God
and say, give me all, and he gives me all and you can come
next after me and say God give me all and he gives all to you. And next person says the same
thing and the same thing. And the devil says, God doesn't
love you that much, you are really not his child. Therefore you really don't have
access, you really don't have favor. So just ask for a little bit. And you come up to God because
you are not sure who you are in his eyes. You have adopted the devil's
definition of who you are. Because of how people treated
you. And people's treatment of you
puts you in prison in a false identity about who you are
instead of who the Bible says you are. And you come to God and you are
less than and that he's not loving and forgiving, and God,
can I have this, and that's all you want. No, God has given you the
presence and with that comes all of his power and love and
wisdom. Waiting for you to access by
faith and here's a perfect prayer. God I am a prideful person and
lustful person and guilty, I am so sorry, can you love me? That's all I need. If you come to God thinking you
are going to earn a blessing because of how good you say you
are. That's the opposite. Think about this. You know God, I am a really good
dude and you know I am serving in ministry. Can you just give me this in
exchange. God is like, that's not how we
play homie, it's not how we do thing. All of that stuff you said that
you do, I did it. You helped the lady across the
street. That was me. You know you didn't want to do
that. And the only reason you did it
because you saw the cute girl in the car in the front of row and
walk in front and give high-sign. Come on. God knows everything. And what you have he told the
Israelites, you know your pain. I'm right there. You have my compassion. You have my attention. You have my presence. Authority. Number 3 is activity. I will. The responsibility associated
with your name and resources. My brother and sisters, God has
not blessed you for stuff for you. I am not saying that you can't
enjoy your house and money and family, absolutely enjoy it. But open your hands and say God
how do you want me to enjoy it? Hoard for myself or share, of
course share, with how I say and when I say and who. Because the devil will tell you
only those people that deserve it. Do you think you deserve God's
love? The answer is no. The Bible says that all have
sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But that God so loved us that he
gave us his son and who believe in him, not perish and have
eternal life. Jesus who had no sin died for
sinners. Look at what God says to Moses
in verse 17... What does this tell us about
God? That God is a God of redemptive
promises. What does that mean? That God is a God who saves
people. Forgives people. Encourages people. Delivers people. God is a God who understands
what you go through and has ways and means to save you, not for
yourself but for himself. That he would deliver you. Why is that important to you and
me? Because every title he gives
you, he will talk about over the next few weeks. Every I am statement about you,
and ever I have statement and I will statement, is not only
about your position and relationship with God and what
he's given you, but how he wants to glorify himself and fill his
redemptive promises through you. And in other words, we lay down
our lives for our brothers and sisters like he did for us. The devil will tell you the
opposite, because you are a poor beggar, you need to hold on to
everything you have. Because you may not get another
chance. That is not the gospel. And that is not the heart of
God. The heart of God is that I am
eternal, I own everything you can imagine and then even more. And I love you. And I want to pass it through
you. And let me tell you, it will be
so much more enjoyable to pass it through you, than for you to
hold on to it, because if you hold on to it, you probably get
what you hold on it. And if you let it pass on,
goodness will pass on more than you can imagine. And these are words of speaking
life and things and opportunities. However God wants to shower his
hope and love through you. We need to reflect that part of
God. And so when we read the Bible
about who we are. We are eternal. We have the presence of God. And we are here to fulfill the
redemptive promises of God. That people would know him and
walk in the power of his love. There are some of you in here
right now that you have been beat down with lies about who
you are not, what you never will have, and what never can do. My prayer the next few weeks
that God renew your mind. And you would say to yourself
over and over again, I am. I have. And I will. But there are some of you in
here never asked Christ to be your Savior. You are trying to work out
pleasing God in your own strength. Let me tell you something, you
are wasting your energy. It's by faith we were saved. By faith. The Bible says that the
righteous man will walk by faith. Say I am a sinner. The Bible says we all have
sinned, doesn't mean you are a criminal but flawed. And the Bible says that the
penalty for sin is death. Physical and spiritual death. Physical death is in a box and
spiritual death you are eternally separated from God. And the Bible says all have
fallen short, and that Jesus Christ who existed outside of
the basketball, in eternity, John 17, he says, father glorify
me with the glory we had before the basketball, the heavens and
the earth. They existed before the
basketball. Jesus didn't come on the scene
when he was born on Mary. He was in the scene on the Old
Testament and on the scene before the Old Testament was
written. He died and rose from the dead. And the Bible says if you
confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in
your heart that God raised him from the dead. You will get a new name, saved,
born again child of God. You will have something you
didn't have five minutes ago. The presence of God living in
you. And God will impose on your life
something you need to do. Obey him. Obey him. Let him work out his salvation
through your life and whatever role you would play. In all the campuses I ask you to
bow your heads and ask you to close your eyes. And I want you to think about
your life and who you are. I want you to think about the
all the lies that you are told who you are. All the bad words. The critical descriptions. The things that you were told
you would never do, never be. Yet inside of you burning
something telling you more to life than what you have. And you don't believe the lies,
that God has more for you and that is the truth. If you realize you are sinner,
the Bible says all have sinned and ask Christ to be your
Savior. And pray this in the privacy of
your heart and pray by faith and God knows and He's visited you
and knows your pain. He knows your struggles. In the privacy of your heart,
pray, dear God, I believe that I am a sinner. I believe Jesus loves me. I believe He died and rose from
the dead for my sin. Jesus, please forgive me of my
sin. Come live in my heart. And be my Savior. Help me understand my new
identity. Help me understand who I am,
what I have and what I am supposed to do. Thank You God. If God spoke to you during that sermon and you feel like you want to ask Christ to be your savior, it's as simple as A-B-C. Admit and accept that you are a sinner. The Bible says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Believe in your heart that Jesus Christ is Lord, that He died for your sin and rose from the dead. Then, confess yourself a sinner and say, "Jesus, please forgive me of my sin." If you would like to ask Jesus Christ to be your savior, just look at me right now and pray this prayer with me in the privacy of your heart knowing that God knows you and loves you very much. Say, "Dear God, I believe that I am sinner. I know the penalty of my sin is death. I don't want to die and go to Hell. I believe that Jesus Christ is Lord that He died and rose from the dead for my sin. I confess myself a sinner and ask Him to forgive me of my sin. Jesus, please forgive me of my sin, and fill me with the spirit of God. In Jesus name, amen." If you prayed that prayer, if you just asked Christ to be your savior, we want to know. We want to email you some resources. If you just prayed that prayer with me to accept Jesus as your savior, Click on the link that just appeared. We want to send you some free resources. God bless you and we will see you in Heaven.
