Priscilla Shirer comforts us with a message about our identity in God. As an overcomer and child of God, we must remember we are who God says we are. In the midst of our circumstances and situations, a simple reminder that God Loves YOU is essential. Thank you for partnering with Social Dallas! To GIVE Online- head to our website: www.socialdallas.online/give Make sure to LIKE and SUBSCRIBE! Also follow us on all Social Media: Instagram: www.instagram.com/social_dallas
some of you know that I grew up right
here in the Dallas Fort Worth area still
live just you know around the corner a
little bit from here still attend attend
the exact same church that my parents
started when I was one year old and so
Dallas is my home I went to Duncanville
High School graduated from there you
know in the 1900s way back in the
day I was of the four of us the
mischievous child I was the one that
gave my parents a run for their money
you know how it’s all always that one
that you’re wondering whether or not
they going to turn out okay I was that
one for my parents I was always getting
into something always being a little
mischievous and one of the most
mischievous things I ever did was when I
was going into high school at
Duncanville from kindergarten to 8th
grade my siblings and I went to this
little private school that was around
the corner from our house in doto but um
for freshman year we transferred over to
Duncanville and I thought this would be
a wonderful opportunity to just take on
a little
experiment my class at the little
private school there were about 13 kids
in my class when I transferred to
Duncanville High School I went from a
class of 13 to a class of
753 that’s not the high school
population that was just the freshman
class was 753 students so it was a
complete culture shock to me and a great
opportunity to experiment I thought when
I transferred to Duncanville I would
just give myself a new name that I would
introduce myself as this new name I just
picked two initials put them together DK
I decided my new nickname was going to
be DK and the experiment was going to be
that when I went to this new school I
would introduce myself by this new name
just to see if it would catch on I had
one friend Nicole that had grown up in
the Duncanville school school district
so she already knew all these people she
and I were in youth group together at
oiff Bible Fellowship Church our church
on the other side of town and so I knew
I’d probably be hanging out with Nicole
I let her in on my experiment I said now
Nicole when we go to school first day
first week of school and you’re
introducing me around do not call me
Priscilla just introduce me as DK she
said girl what I said it’s just an
experiment I just want to see if it’s
going to catch on and to make a long
story short y’all for the next four
years of my life everybody called me DK
everybody in my that were my peer group
there at Duncanville the teacher ERS the
counselors the principals everybody even
people in different high schools as we
connected with them at football games on
the Friday nights and all that everybody
just just thought my name was DK very
few people if any at all even knew that
my name was actually Priscilla they
called me DK to this day if I run across
somebody in the mall or the grocery
store or somebody comments on social
media and says hey DK I know that it’s
somebody that I knew during that season
of my life those four years because
everybody called me DK my parents really
didn’t give me a hard time about it they
were a little bit annoyed you know when
my athletic uniforms were monogrammed
with dck on them except Priscilla but
they didn’t say much about it but it all
came to a head on one day when I got
sick at school I had a temperature I was
in the nurses station laying behind a
little drape they had drawn there I
remember laying on a little cot and they
had to call my mom to come pick me up
from school because of my fever
and I remember hearing my mom come into
the nursing station and say to the nurse
there I am here to pick up Priscilla the
nurse said
who I’m here to pick up Priscilla I
heard them going back and forth just for
a second when the nurse said well we
have a dck here and Mom said that’s her
give me that girl and let me take her
home went home mom kind of nursed me
back to health and then when I felt
better I will never forget my mother
looking at me squarely in my eyes and
saying now Priscilla I have not minded
your father and I have not minded this
whole little experiment that you’ve
taken on the last few years but she said
I do want to be clear about something it
was my senior year at the time she said
I want to be clear about the fact that
in a few months there’s going to be a
ceremony a graduation and at that
ceremony they’re going to hand you a
very important document and she said let
me be clear when they hand you that
diploma there better not be a d or a k
anywhere on that piece of paper and she
said to me the reason why is because I I
really don’t care what other people call
you I don’t care how many other people
call you that and I don’t even care
Priscilla what you call yourself there’s
only one or two me and your father who
have the right and the authority to give
you your name you are not what other
people call you you are not even what
you’ve called
yourself only the one who created you
has the right and the author authority
to identify you so for a few minutes
this morning I just came to remind you
what your name is I came to remind you
who you are listen to me brothers and
sisters you are not defined by your past
you are not defined by your behaviors
you are not defined by your failures you
are not defined by your struggles you
are not defined by your feelings you are
not defined by your circumstances you
are not defined by the here today gone
tomorrow false ideologies and water down
philosophies of our current culture you
are who God says you
are it don’t matter what other folks
have been calling you and it doesn’t
even matter what you’ve chosen to call
yourself there’s only one who has the
authority to identify you and it’s the
one who gave life to you others aren’t
qualified to to name you circumstances
aren’t powerful enough to Define you
your story may have hurt you but it does
not shape the totality of who you are
you are who God says you are and he says
you’re a chosen race you’re a royal
priesthood you’re a person who has been
redeemed and chosen adopted and
qualified you are not a mistake you are
not an afterthought you are not a
liability you are a temple of the holy
spirit of God and the value he has
placed on you means you are
enough God loves Dallas yes God loves
you he made you in His image both
physically and in your personality the
strengths and the weaknesses all of it
is an expression of the creative genius
of almighty God and when you surrender
your whole self fully and completely to
him him he loves and Val values you
enough that he actually takes up
residence in you he makes you his
dwelling place so you become a temple of
almighty God and that means you’re an
overcomer that’s who you are I don’t
know who has lied to you up until this
point but it is important that you and I
get our identity in him in full View and
the reason why y’all is because whether
or not you walk in Victory is directly
correlated to what you believe to be
true about yourself you will either live
up to or you will live down to whatever
you believe to be true about yourself so
I want to talk to you about your
identity identity is critical in fact
it’s one of the major themes that you’ll
see all throughout the Old Testament and
all throughout the New Testament you see
this theme of identity that keeps coming
up over and over again God showing up to
get people’s identity re-calibrated so
that they will begin to live according
and in alignment with what he is said to
be true about them one of the most
notable places that we see this in
scripture the most notable relationship
where we can see him recalibrating
people’s identity is with the children
of Israel throughout the Old Testament
because after 400 years of slavery in
Egypt under Pharaoh they had developed
the mindset and perspective of living
like slaves and so even after 10
miraculous plagues and guiding them
miraculously through the Wilderness in
fact those 40 years were about their
identity in the wilderness because he
had freed them from Egypt but it would
take 40 Years of wilderness wondering
wonderings to make sure that Egypt was
now out of them they had been freed out
of Egypt but Egypt needed to be detached
from them because what good is it to be
legally free if you still living like a
slave what good is it to be free free
when you’re still thinking like and
operating like and deciding like and
reacting like and relating to other
people like you are not free making
decisions out of scarcity and lack and
fear and intimidation and so Yahweh
spends 40 years re-calibrating their
identity reminding them you are who I
say you are you ain’t this you’re this
start acting like this so the children
of Israel they come out of wilderness
one W ings they come into the promised
land and the Book of Judges is where you
and I are going to meet them today in
Judges chapter 6 if you have your copy
of the script you know if you still use
a old school paper Bible like I do you
can flip over to Judges chapter 6 or
your iPhone your iPad any manner of
iness will get you there and let me tell
you while you’re turning there the
Judges chapter 6 is all about the
children of Israel being or the Book of
Judges is being already in Canaan they
already come out of Egypt now they’ve
already been through the Wilderness they
are now in the land flowing with milk
and honey but while they are there
idolatry is introduced to the children
of Israel idolatry is always a threat to
your identity it will always begin to
make you question whether or not he is
who he says he is and that you are who
God says you are the whole Book of
Judges it’s not about the children of
Israel turning their backs completely on
the one true God it is about the people
of God stationing their worship of Idols
alongside their worship of the one true
God and listen to me it’s this duplicity
of the people of God that caused such a
Decay throughout the society in the Book
of Judges that by the time you get to
the last line of the Book of Judges if
you were to read it you’ll see the last
line says everybody was doing what was
right in their own eyes y’all if that
don’t sound like America in the year
2023 I don’t know what does because when
your identity is d distorted truth is
distorted and the entire culture
decays and so they open themselves up to
enemy attack the Book of Judges is them
living in the land of promise but still
still experiencing and exposing
themselves to enemy attack on all sides
they have been ravaged by the midianites
who have come to them seven consecutive
years pillaging their towns burning down
their homes they’ve had to escape their
cities for fear running in fear from
enemies and live on the side of
mountains and in caves so that they can
hide themselves from the approaching and
marauding enemies and because their
identity is not in view they expose
themselves to enemy attack but
everything is about to change on one day
when God comes to remind one person of
who they really are Judges 6: 11 and 12
then the angel of the Lord came and he
sat down under this oak tree that was in
a town called ofra which belonged to
joash the
abrite as his son
Gideon was beating out wheat in a wine
press in order to save it from those
midianites verse 12 and the angel of the
Lord appeared to him and said to him the
Lord is with you oh Valiant Warrior
these are our two verses this morning
where we’re just going to spend a little
time because the angel of the Lord shows
up in the of national Calamity and Chaos
that is written about all throughout the
Book of Judges he shows up into the
experience of one man named Gideon to
remind him who he really is to call out
of him the behaviors the actions the
choices that should have been instilled
in him because his identity was in Clear
View he says to him you are a valiant
Warrior the angel of the Lord shows up
for this one p purpose to remind one
person who they really are the whole
nation is in Decay but he doesn’t show
up on a national level he doesn’t show
up on a communal level he shows up to
one person that’s how critical this
issue of identity was that the angel of
the Lord showed up to one individual to
remind him about his identity let me
tell you why this Sunday morning is so
important let me tell you why the reason
why you fought through all that traffic
this morning but the Lord still made it
to where you could get in this room and
that you could sit in these seats let me
tell you why teenager that you were
frustrated this morning that your mama
and then woke you up and made you come
to church let me tell you the reason why
is not so that you could just sit in a
building on a Sunday morning it’s
because the angel of the lord The Hound
of Heaven came looking for you this
morning to remind one person you brother
or sister have your spiritual ears whole
open to hear God say you are who I say
you are now act like that not the way
you feel not what has happened to you
not your past behaviors don’t align with
that align your whole self with who I
have declared you to be the angel of the
Lord he comes to tell one person who he
is the Angel of the Lord anytime you see
this phrase you need to know what’s
happening Scholars call uh this the
great presence capital g capital P the
Great great presence of Israelite
history because whenever you see the
phrase the angel of the Lord in the Old
Testament you need to know this ain’t no
regular Angel we’re not talking about
Gabriel and Michael and them the angel
of the Lord was the pre-incarnate Jesus
Christ that basically before Jesus put
on flesh and came in the New Testament
he was already already showing up in the
Old Testament it’s called a theophany a
god appearance when God himself would
step out of Heaven onto the landscape of
Earth and he would intervene with the
regular details of a regular ordinary
life so that he could shift the
trajectory not only of that life but of
everything and everybody attached to
that life so the angel of the Lord kept
showing up over and over and over again
and if I had time this morning y’all
we’d spend a whole hour just talking
about the angel of the Lord because you
need to know that the fact that the god
of the universe would step onto the
landscape of earth that is never
something that we should hear and let it
roll off our shoulders as if it’s no big
deal because this is God we’re talking
about the one who right now while we’re
sitting in this room is controlling the
throws of the entire universe the one
who while we’re sitting right here in
this room he’s the one that made sure
that the sun rose this morning and he’s
going to hold it in place all day long
till it swaps places with the moon later
on tonight this is God we’re talking
about the one who’s going to hang every
single star in the sky and he’s going to
know every single one of their names
tonight and every single one of their
numbers this is God we’re talking about
the one who’s controlling the throws of
the galaxies and neighborhoods in the
galaxies that scientists don’t even yet
know exist he’s the one controlling all
of that and in the midst of all of that
he stopped by on this Sunday morning to
come see about
you that’s a big
deal that we serve a god
that great who is also that
good that that he cares that much about
you that that that he made sure on the
calendar of your life you were here and
I got to be here on this Sunday morning
so that he could move Heaven and Earth
to just whisper to your heart I got
you the angel of the Lord kept showing
up all throughout the Old Testament just
like this for one person on a regular
ordinary day just to say I got you just
to remind them who they were Genesis
chapter 16 there’s a lady named Hagar
Hagar has a past she’s been misused and
abused by people she was supposed to be
able to
trust Abraham and Sarah and then they
discard her they discard her out into a
Wilderness with her newborn son the
baby’s crying she has no food for the
baby her entire future is in Jeopardy
she is crying a river of tears that has
blurred her vision so that she can
barely see what’s in front of her and in
the midst of her Devastation and in the
midst of her fear and her concern about
her future after being misused and
abused by people she was supposed to be
able to trust the angel of the Lord
shows up in Genesis chapter 16 and says
to Hagar let me tell you who you are you
are not what they did to you it happened
but that does not define you you still
are Hagar who I say you are so maybe
you’re like Gideon that the midianites
the enemy the circumstances of your life
have closed in on you and you find
yourself sitting in a situation that
that is because of the results of the
circumstances that are around you or
maybe you’re like Hagar that really it’s
not your circumstances that have done it
to you it’s other folk that have done it
to you that people you were supposed to
be able to trust the folks you were
supposed to be able to rely on they’ve
betrayed you they’ve abandoned you and
they’ve set you on a path the likes of
which you can’t even believe leave
whether you’re Gideon or whether you’re
Hagar this morning the angel of the Lord
has come looking for you he can find you
wherever you are or maybe you’re not
Gideon or Hagar maybe you’re Moses
because in Exodus chapter 3 he’s sitting
in a desert of his own making he did it
to
himself for Moses it was not that the
circumstances did it and it wasn’t
really that other folks did it it’s
because he made a choice he made a
decision out of sin and anger he made a
choice that put him into this desert
where now he is tending sheep for 40
young long years Moses had been raised
as The Prince of Egypt so shepherding is
a job that is so below his pay grade and
beneath his educational level but while
he is in that desert of his own making
one day a bush starts burning and the
bush is burning but it’s not consumed so
he sees something Supernatural in the
bush and when he stops by to see about
this bush he realizes that the of the
Lord is there and the angel of the Lord
has shown up in Moses’s circumstances to
remind him you are not what has happened
to you you are not what you did you are
not your behaviors you still are Moses
exactly who I say you are and the
reality is that some of us aren’t Gideon
circumstances didn’t do it to us some of
us aren’t Hagar other folks didn’t do it
to us the reality is if we had time for
Testimony service most of us would
recognize we did it to our ourselves
because we can look back and realize
there’s a decision we made that put us
in this desert there’s a choice we made
there’s a relationship we allow there’s
a path we walk down I don’t know about
y’all but there’s a whole season of my
life I look back on and I don’t even
recognize that crazy person back there
anybody can I get a
witness where you look back and you
realize you can’t believe you made those
choices or walked with those people or
allowed that path or chose and made
those kinds of decisions and you re
recognize had it not been for the grace
of God had it not been for the goodness
of God delivering us when we were not in
our right minds and setting us on a
brand new path reminding us that we are
not what we
did we are who God says we are so he
showed up for Moses and he shows up for
you he shows up for Hagar and he shows
up for you and he shows up for
Gideon and he says Gideon you’re a
valiant Warrior now the author of Judges
chap 6: 11 and 12 wants you to know
exactly what Gideon was doing when the
angel of the Lord showed up it says he’s
beating out wheat but he’s doing it in a
wine press now the reason why that is
critical because you need to know that
where grapes were pressed to make wine
and where wheat was threshed to prepare
for Harvest were two completely
different environments threshing wheat
always took place on the top of a
hillside in the open air and the reason
why they needed the open air on the top
of a hillside where the draft would be
heavy is because when you would beat out
wheat it would dislodge this useless
nutrient called chaff they needed the
wind to drive the chaff away you’ll see
that figuratively all throughout the Old
Testament the tra chaff being driven
Away by the wind wine getting pressed
happened in a completely different
environment they didn’t want open air
they needed it to be shaded and damp to
make sure it was the right environment
for the grapes to produce what they
wanted it to produce so that would
happened at the bottom of a hillside in
a depression on the side of a rock in a
shaded damp environment these two things
happen in completely different Dynamics
but what we find is them overlapping
with Gideon Gideon is doing what should
be done down up high he’s doing it down
low the reason why he is not threshing
wheat on a Hilltop where it would be
more convenient and easy and helpful to
get that chaff D driven away the reason
why he’s in the depression of a rock
doing it is because if the wind drove
the chaff away then that chaff the scent
of it would be delivered right to the
midianites and the midianites would know
there was a
harvest so he’s trying the end of verse
11 says to save it from the midianites
he doesn’t want them to know there’s a
harvest and so y’all he is in the Deep
oppression of a rock doing this more
timeconsuming tedious inconvenient job
he’s willing to do it in that
environment because he’s hiding he’s
trying to make sure that he hides from
these enemies he’s walking in fear and
insecurity and he’s hiding in this deep
depression of a rock he’s hiding he’s
trying not to be
found and in this position where he’s
trying not to be found the angel of the
Lord comes and finds him
yeah the reason why this is good news is
because I need you to know that there
are some people in your life your
teenager your young adult child your
spouse your parent and your heart has
been broken for them because they’ve
been trying not to be found they’ve been
running from the arm of God you’ve been
asking God to bring them into
relationship with himself and they just
running they just are rebelling their
heart is hard they’re stiff necked
they’re refusing to come into
relationship with him I need you to know
today that even for your loved ones that
are trying not to be found the angel of
the Lord can still come and find
them and aren’t we glad about it that
that the Hound of Heaven keeps coming to
look for us because we’ve all had those
seasons of our life where honestly we
were trying not to be found we were
trying to avoid the voice of God avoid
the conviction of God go in a different
direction act like we didn’t feel the
poking and the prodding of God’s spirit
in some area of our life and the reality
is we have testimony that had it not
been for the goodness of God the Hound
of Heaven that would not let us go that
kept looking for us aren’t we grateful
for his grace and
mercy so he finds Gideon and he finds up
even when we’re trying not to be found
and he steps into this scenario where
Gideon is listen he’s currently
operating in fear and
insecurity the whole reason he’s in the
wine press is because he’s currently
operating and acting out of fear
insecurity and
intimidation and even though he’s
behaving that way God steps in and says
you are not your
behavior somebody needs to hear that
this
morning what you did last night doesn’t
Define you
today you are not what has happened to
you you are not the circumstances that
are surrounding your life right now they
are not powerful enough to Define you
you still are who God says you are God
shows up to a man who is insecure and
operating In Fear And he
says you’re a valiant
Warrior he speaks to him according to
the truth of his identity not the
current circumstances of his
reality he says you are this now act
like
that I do have three sons 21 19 and 15
years old I drive my kids bananas I
think that’s a mark of a good
mother is that they ought to be sick of
you because you know you have
rules you have things you want them to
incorporate into their life that they
don’t value and you say things to them
that they get tired of hearing mama say
over and over and over again since they
were very little I have said pretty much
the same thing to my boys most every day
I make them stand in front of me when
they were at home the older two were in
college down when they were at home I’d
make them stand right in front of me and
i’ make them look me in my eyes and they
would have the nerve to sometimes slump
their shoulders over and sometimes they
would look at me and if they were real
bold and Brazen they might actually roll
their eyes not
today and I would say to those boys no
no no look at me and listen to me and I
would look them squarely in their eyes
and I would say you are a man of
integrity honesty and character you will
love the Lord your God with all your
heart with all your soul and with all
your strength you will put on the full
armor of God so that you can stand firm
against the schemes of the enemy you are
a leader you are not a follower you are
the head you are not the tail you are
above you are not beneath and the
Praises of God will always be in your
mouth and you will rise up and be a
mighty warrior in the kingdom of God or
I will spank
[Music]
you they’ kind of go oh man I still text
it to my boys a lot throughout the week
I will text it to them I’ll say say this
out loud today and I don’t know whether
they do or not but I’m going to text it
to them I’m going to keep feeding it to
them and I knew it was getting into them
because every now and then when I will
say it to them I would tell them you
finish it what what what’s the rest of
this statement and they go I’m a man of
integrity character and honesty I will
love the Lord my God with all my heart
and all my strength but even with the
attitude what it tells me is that you’re
hearing me and it’s getting in
you the reason why I have made it my
business to say this to my boys is not
because their behavior always lines up
with it it’s because I’m trying to get
them to behave in a way that lines up
with their identity this is who I say
you are God says you are now act like
that think like that react like that
make decisions like
that can you think of how our lives
would be
transformed if we started acting not
according to the way we
feel but according to what God says is
true can you imagine what relationships
we wouldn’t even
entertain if we believed what God said
to be true about us can you imagine how
your reaction to that coworker would be
completely different you would restrain
yourself cuz you know this is who I am
can you imagine how more much more we
would refuse to do things for the
approval of other people that their
Applause or their like or their comment
isn’t actually uh important to us that’s
inconsequential to us because I don’t
need your approval the scripture says
I’m already approved that I’m already
accepted that I’m already enough that
I’m already valued I don’t need your
Applause God has already applauded for
me it changes and transforms the
entirety of our life where we stop
operating just based on the way we feel
in the moment and reacting based on that
and instead we remind ourselves this is
who I am so I’m going to rise to that
standard and behave like that it’ll
transform your life not only will it
transform your life but if you read
throughout the rest of Judges chapter 6
then you will see that immediately after
Gideon hears from God that he is a
valiant Warrior he immediately goes back
home to his father’s house and he goes
into this house that he’s been afraid to
interact with in previous chapters he
goes back to his father’s home he grabs
all of the idols that were in their home
and he breaks them one by one over his
knee changing the trajectory of idolatry
through the course of his entire family
in fact the entire family and the entire
generational line connected to it is
completely transformed because one
person gets a hold of their
identity do you know that there are
people attached to you who are waiting
for you to get your identity in view do
you realize that your sons and your
daughters your grandsons and your
granddaughters our great grandchildren
that we have not even laid eyes on that
the trajectory of their lives is
attached to us Gideon getting our
identity in view so that we can go home
and say this is who we were but this is
not who we are anymore that we’re
breaking generational curses and
Shifting the trajectory of our entire
family lines because we going to start
living up to the standard of who God
says we
are and then after he transforms his
whole family Gideon goes into battle
with this is what he’s most notable for
this is probably why you know Gideon
because with an army of 300 a little
meager Army army they go up against
140,000 midianite soldiers and they
bring home a victory and the entire
trajectory of the nation is completely
turned around because this one guy has
recalibrated his identity your family is
not the only thing attached to you
there’s a whole Community attached to
you y’all there’s a whole National
crisis that we are living in right now
that is attached to the people of God
rising up and being who God has called
us to be if we would just show up with
our full identity in view who knows how
the school district attached to you is
going to change how the work environment
attached to you is going to change how
your neighborhood is going to change
your community group is going to change
the city the state the whole nation
transformed because God’s people
remembered who they
were and so for just a few moments at
the close of this message I thought I’d
just take a couple minutes to remind you
brothers and sisters who you
are you are a child of God you have
peace with God the Holy Spirit lives in
you you have access to God’s wisdom you
are helped by God you are reconciled to
God you are not condemned by God you are
justified by God you have Christ
righteousness you are Christ Ambassador
you are completely forgiven and you are
completely free there is therefore no
condemnation for those of us who are in
Christ Jesus you are blameless and
Beyond reproach you are the salt of the
earth and you are the light of the world
you are Christ friend you are chosen by
Christ to bear fruit you are a joint air
with Christ sharing in his inheritance
you are united with the Lord you are
members of Christ’s body you are hidden
in Christ with God you are a child of
light You Are Holy and you share in
God’s Heavenly calling you are a member
of a chosen race you’re a royal
priesthood you’re a holy nation you’re a
people for God’s Own possession created
to sing the Praises of God you have been
born of God and the evil one can’t even
touch you you’ve been rescued by God
you’ve been made complete in Christ you
have not been given a spirit of fear
but of power and of love and of a sound
mind you have been given access to great
and precious Privileges and Promises by
God your needs are met by God you have
been sought with a price you’ve been
adopted into the family of God you have
direct access to God through the Holy
Spirit you cannot be separated from the
love of God you are a citizen of Heaven
you’ve been established anointed and
sealed by God you can be confident in
this that the good work he’s started in
you he will bring to completion you are
God’s workmanship you are seated with
Christ in Heavenly places and you can do
all things through Christ who gives you
strength in Jesus mighty name come on
church say
amen amen amen
amen you are who God says you
are act like
that Lord Jesus would you help us to get
our identity in view Every Lie of the
enemy that has tried to convince us
otherwise I pray that you would quiet
that voice and that your voice would be
loud in our ears this week and then give
us the courage and the boldness to
behave in a way to think in a way to
choose and make decisions in a way that
lines up with who you say we are in
Jesus name amen
[Applause]
am
would you stand to your feet all over
this place
today can you show your appreciation to
Priscilla Shire for that
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
word hear me when I tell
you all of us need to be
reminded of who we
are whether you’re just new to this
thing called
Christianity whether you haven’t even
surrendered your life to him or whether
you’ve been walking with the Lord for
years every single one of us need to be
reminded this is who I
am I’m not my mistakes I’m not my
circumstances I am who God says that I
am I’m just going to ask in this moment
this is such a necessary word for us
right now but I’m ask every head be
bowed and eyes be closed there’s some of
you
who you’ve been in the wine
press you didn’t want to be
found but God orchestrated and ordained
this moment for you to hear this message
today it’s time to stop
running because your father’s found
you and he’s not declaring over you all
your mistakes and all the things that
you’ve done he’s declaring over you who
you truly
are and so in this moment with heads
bound and eyes closed all over this
opera house I want to give somebody even
if it’s just one person here me one
person would be worth
it God got a hold of Gideon and a nation
was
transformed so even if it’s just one
today the things that are connected to
you it would be so worth it but if you
hear today and you say Pastor Robert I
need to surrender my life to this
savior his name is Jesus
I’m tired of doing life on my own I’m
tired of being defined by my
behavior this is the beauty of the
Gospel the gospel is not do do do do do
so you can become something no the
gospel says it has been done and because
of what Jesus did his finished work on
the
cross you have a new
identity now come into alignment with it
so what heads bowed and eyes closed
today if you’ve never surrendered your
life to Jesus Jesus or maybe there’s a
season you were walking with God but
your heart’s gotten cold and you’ve
drawn away and even now you hear your
father saying come back home if that’s
you would you do me a favor would you
just lift up your hand just high enough
and long enough to where I could see it
today I want to give you an opportunity
to respond thank you thank you I see
those hands all over this place today
thank you God anybody else I’m looking
up in the balcony sections thank you
yeah thank you for responding for when
God speaks to you Hallelujah I want us
to pray this prayer we’re going to pray
it as one big family after we pray this
prayer if you want personal prayer our
prayer team is just going to hang out
here in the front and we’d be happy to
pray with you but I want you to make
this declaration
today in fact let’s all do it we’ll say
it as one big family but especially
those of you who responded would you say
this from your heart say
Jesus I need
you thank you so much for being willing
to find
me even though I was
hiding Jesus I
know I cannot do
life without you I need
you forgive me of my
sin make me brand
new Jesus today I confess with my mouth
and I believe in my heart that you are
the son of God
you died for me and you’re coming back
for me but until that
day I will walk in my
true
identity in Jesus name amen amen amen if
you meant what you prayed would you give
Jesus praise today oh come on you could
do a little bit better than
that I see some people that are about to
walk in their true identity you might
have to reintroduce yourself to some
people because they knew you who you
were they don’t know you who you’re
going to be