What Your Name Is // Priscilla Shirer – Concord Church

hey there I’m Priscilla and today I’m

going to be talking about your identity

in Christ the reason why is because as

we celebrate first lady’s 50th birthday

one of the things that she has always

said to her kids particularly her girls

is remember your worth because you’ll

either live up to or down to whatever

you believe to be true about yourself so

to commemorate her birthday but also to

celebrate our identity in Christ I’m

going to be talking about what it means

to have you yourself and your identity

rooted in him

he’s worthy he’s

[Music]

worthy don’t don’t move too fast from

this right here just just take a minute

for a second to just say thank

you for everything you’ve

done that we’re still in our right Minds

on this 2024 we thank you

Lord that our body bodes could walk us

into this room we thank you Lord for our

children and our grandchildren we thank

you

Lord you are

worthy

[Music]

[Applause]

woo in Jesus name the name that is above

every

name the name at which demons

tremble the name at which every knee

will

bow and every tongue will confess either

now voluntarily or later mandatorily

everybody will

confess that Jesus is who he said he

is and that he has accomplished for us

what he said he would accomplish we

thank you

Father you’re

worthy in Jesus name everybody said

[Music]

amen

you may take your seats if you’re

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

able he’s

worthy babe can you get me some kleenex

out of my purse cuz I’m not I’m not

going to do well up here without some

kleenex you know we always know that God

is present with us but then there are

those times where he is so present that

it’s almost tangible like where the skin

prickles where the hair on the back of

your neck stands up where the your

physical body responds to the fact that

God’s presence is hanging so

heavy this is one of those

moments God is

here and when he comes he comes to

speak and when he speaks he does does

not just speak to be heard he speaks to

be

obeyed and so I’m ready to hear the

voice of

God I want to this morning do a couple

of things before I just briefly pray and

share something with you that I hope

will be a blessing with you in this

sacred holy moment that God has given us

the privilege to be a part of

today the first thing is of

course to honor your first lady and I’m

going to tell you why I told her this

yesterday but I’m going to say it again

that the older and older I get the less

impressed I am with the flashy and the

famous and the more impressed I am with

people who are just plain old Flatout

faithful like they just keep showing up

and doing what God has called them to do

would you thank the Lord that God has

given 50 years to this woman who has

kept showing up for her family and for

this family at Concord

[Applause]

Church I honor

you I honor

you I also can never be in this church

and I’m so grateful to you Pastor Brian

for inviting me and my husband Jerry

Jackson and Jude are here Jackson is

y’all just stand up my boys are here

y’all stand up these are my young men

Jerry my husband of 25 years Jackson

you’re not standing up babe you too babe

Jackson is 21 years old Jude is 15 years

old we’re missing our our middle son

he’s on the basketball team in college

and so it is basketball season so he’s

there still but um it’s always a

pleasure for my family to be able to

serve alongside your family we honor you

girls and Carson and just your entire

family we’re so grateful we consider

Concord to be our family and so it is a

pleasure and a privilege on this special

day to be here and then I can never be

here

without honoring Dr Sheila Bailey I

don’t even know she’s in the room but I

can’t be here without honoring the

living legend that is Dr Sheila Bailey

would you help me to honor

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

her you have such great women among you

and I’m grateful to be a part of this

day Lord we pray that you will open our

spiritual ears now to hear from you

thank you that your word is living and

active and sharper than any two-edged

sword Speak Lord

your sons and your daughters are in the

house to hear you in jesus’ name amen

amen thank

you my siblings and I went to

Duncanville High School right down the

road graduated in them

90s before we went to Duncanville which

was about our freshman year when we

transferred there the four of us went to

a little private school that used to be

right around the corner here in doto it

was called Brook Hollow Christian School

school kindergarten through 8th grade we

all went through bralo Christian school

then transferred to Duncanville for our

freshman year I remember when this

happened um I thought it would be a

great time for a little experiment now

you need to know that of the four of us

I have an older sister named Crystal

then it’s me and then two brothers

Anthony and Jonathan you need to know

that of the four of us I was the one

that gave my parents a run for their

money you know how it’s always one that

you’re wondering if that one is going

turn out okay I was that one for my

parents I was always just mischievous

and just just doing stuff coming up with

stuff this was one of those occasions I

decided that when I transferred out of

Brook Hollow Christian School and went

to Duncanville High School that I would

change my

name I give myself a new name just as an

experiment to see if it would catch on

at this new school at bralo Christian

school there were 13 kids in my class I

was transferring to Duncanville High

School y’all know Duncanville is like a

a whole university in my freshman class

the year I transferred there were 753

students in the Freshman Class not the

high school just my class so I knew that

I’d be amongst hundreds of people I had

never seen before never met before it

would be a great opportunity to

introduce myself by an entirely

different name and just see if it would

catch on my friend Nicole a lifelong

friend we grew up at youth group right

over here at oakcliff Bible Fellowship

Church she’d be in the been in the

Duncanville school districts her entire

life so I knew she would probably be my

major point of contact between me and

everybody else that I’d be meeting so I

told Nicole about my plan I said Nicole

the first week of school when you’re

introducing me around to new friends and

people that I that I’m going to get to

know do not introduce me as Priscilla

introduce me here was my little nickname

DK I picked two initials put them

together and made my nickname DK I said

I want you to introduce me as DK to

everybody that you introduced me to at

school she said girl

what I said it’s just an experiment I

want to see if it is going to catch on

so that first week of school that is

exactly what she did I met everyone they

were told my name was DK and to make a

long story short for the next four years

of my life everybody called me DK all

the students the teachers the counselors

the principls the athletic directors the

coaches everybody called me de K DK was

monogrammed on all my athletic

uniforms to this day if I’m in the

grocery store or the mall or even

comments online and I run into somebody

and somebody says Hey DK I know that

it’s somebody that I knew during that

season of my life because everybody

called me DK most people didn’t even

know my real name was Priscilla they

just called me DK now my parents didn’t

say much about this until one occasion

when during my senior year I got sick at

school and I remember Mom had to come up

to the school to pick me up I had a

fever had a temperature I was laying on

that cot behind the little uh curtain

that was drawn in the nurses station mom

showed up I remember hearing her come in

and I remember her saying to the nurse

I’m here to pick up Priscilla the nurse

said I’m sorry

what I’m here to pick up Priscilla they

talked just a little bit and then

figured out that yeah DK is who I’m here

to pick up Mom rolled her eyes went in

there picked me up

took me home nursed me back to health

and when I felt good enough it was the

first time that my mom made any

statement about this four-year

experiment that I had had going on she

looked at me and she said now Priscilla

you’re a senior which means that in just

a few short months there’s going to be

an important ceremony and at that

ceremony they’re going to hand you a

very important document and she said now

I want you to know your father and I

haven’t bothered you about this little

new name thing you’ve had going on but I

want to be clear when they hand you that

piece of paper there better not be a d

or a

k anywhere on that piece of paper she

said because Priscilla I I don’t care

what other people have called you and I

don’t even care what you call

yourself there’s only one or two me and

your father there’s only a set of

parents who have the right and the

authority to give you your

name only the one who gave you life has

the power to Define

you for just a few moments on this

Sunday morning I came to remind you what

your name

is that it doesn’t matter what everybody

else has called you and it didn’t even

matter what you’ve looked in the mirror

and called yourself there’s only one who

has the right and the authority to give

you your name you need to know that you

are not qualified and named by your past

you are not defined by your behavior 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 and

watered down philosophies of the

craziness and confusion of our current

culture you are who God says you

are he’s given you a name and he says

that you are a chosen race that you are

a royal priesthood that you’re a person

who’s been redeemed and chosen adopted

and qualified you are not a mistake you

are not a liability you are not an

afterthought you have been made in the

very image of an almighty God which

means every aspect every unique aspect

of your physicality and every unique

aspect of your personality both the

strengths and the weaknesses y’all all

of it is a reflection of the creative

genius of An Almighty God and when you

surrender when I Surrender the fullness

of who I am to him he values you and me

enough that he actually takes up

residence in Us in the person of the

Holy Spirit which makes you a temple of

the living and almighty God now that

means that you are an

overcomer that is who you are and it

doesn’t matter what other people call

you it doesn’t matter what you have

called yourself you can only be named by

the one who gave you

life the reason why I thought about this

in conjunction with this particular

Sunday is because as Jerry and I have

had the opportunity to walk in close F

friendship with Brian and Stephanie as

we’ve raised kids together through

Elementary and through Junior High and

high school and now everybody going off

to college one of the things that I most

remember that Stephanie would say over

her children all three of them but

particularly those sweet young women she

would say to them remember your

worth remember your value that she

wanted the entirety of their thinking

and their perspective and mindset to

line up with their value because listen

to me you will either live up to or you

will live down to whatever you believe

to be true about

yourself

so this morning I want to talk to you

about your identity identity is such an

issue of importance in this day and age

y’all and the reason if you aren’t clear

that it is such an issue uh the reason

why you can know that it’s important and

critical is because the enemy is

attacking it left and right he’s going

over time to try to skew it and distort

it to redefine what God has already very

clearly defined so that everybody’s

walking around confused because we do

not have Clarity on who God says that we

are so this theme of identity is

threaded all throughout the Old

Testament and all throughout the New

Testament where God continues to show up

on the landscape of people’s lives just

to remind them who they are in him who

they are in their because of their

relationship with him and this is most

clearly seen with the children of Israel

in the Old Testament because after 400

years of bondage after 400 years of

living under the brutal thumb of pharaoh

and his taskmasters 400 years of slavery

then there are 10 miraculous plagues

where they’re delivered out of Egypt but

it’s going to take 40 years in the

wilderness to get Egypt out of

them because you can come out of Egypt

but if you still think like a slave and

operate like a slave and have the

perspective of the slave then you’ll

still make decisions and choose

relationship ship from a position of

scarcity and lack and

deficiency so it took 40 years in the

wilderness to change their minds to make

sure they knew that before you get to

this land of milk and honey I need to

make sure you thinking right that you

know who you are but the children of

Israel God’s people back then are just

like God’s people today they continue to

be S seduced by the idols of the culture

and Paralyzed by fear of foreign enemies

and lulled to sleep in spiritual apathy

by errant religious philosophies and

institutions they kept forgetting who

they were and because of that God’s

people kept opening thems up to enemy

attack on all sides they would not align

their behavior to make sure it was

congruent with their brand new

identity because idolatry is always a

threat to your

identity so they keep living below their

spiritual means means they’re supposed

to be experiencing abundance but they

keep experiencing so much less just

because they keep forgetting who they

are and never is this more clearly seen

than in the Book of Judges if you have

your copy of the scriptures with you and

you want to turn there with me if you

actually you know still use a old school

Bible with paper Pages like I do or your

iPhone your iPad any manner of eyess

will get you to Judges chapter 6 and let

me just tell you as you turn there that

this book of the Bible is one of the

most clear indictments against the

people of God’s inability to reflect and

live in light of their identity in fact

it is so uh critical and detrimental

throughout this entire book that by the

time you get to the end the last line of

this book will say and everyone was

doing what was right in their own eyes

y’all if that don’t sound like America

in the year 2024 I don’t know what does

and when identity is skewed every body

just starts making up stuff to do making

up ways to behave because they’re no

longer aligning themselves with the

truth and throughout this entire book we

see the people of God they’re living now

in judges they’re in the land of milk

and honey the Wilderness wanderings are

long gone they are now living in the

place that is supposed to represent

abundance but they are not experiencing

the fullness of God because they will

not live in alignment with their new

identity so they’ve opened themselves up

to enemy attack on all sides and when we

meet them in Judges chapter 6 they’ve

been so abused by The midianites Who has

ravaged them for seven consecutive years

that they can’t even enjoy the milk and

honey that they’ve been positioned there

to receive their towns have been burned

down their homes have been pillaged and

destroyed they are now living like

meager slaves on the side of mountains

hiding out in caves for their lives

because they’ve opened themselves up to

enemy attack but everything is about to

change on one day when Yahweh shows up

in the life of one man and reminds him

who he is Judges chapter 6 verse 11 and

12 then the angel of the Lord

came and he sat down under an oak tree

that was in a town called

ofra it belonged to joash the abrite as

his son here he is Gideon

Gideon was beating out wheat in a wine

press in order to save it from those

Doone midianites verse 12 and the angel

of the Lord appeared to him and said let

me tell you who you are he said the Lord

is with you oh Valiant

Warrior these two little simple verses

are getting ready to change the entire

trajectory of one man’s life and the

life of everybody attached to him Gideon

we know his name we know him well

because he’s one of the most famed names

in the Old Testament but he’s known

because he put out that fleece he was

the one that needed a sign from God to

make sure that God was the one who was

speaking to him and we know him because

he’s the one that will go into battle

with a meager Army of 300 against

140,000 midianite soldiers and he’s

going to bring home a victory for the

nation that’s going to change the entire

trajectory of their culture but before

the victory in battle and before he puts

out the fleece before the stuff he’s

famous for we find this man sitting

underneath the shade of an oak tree in

fear and intimidation and insecurity

hiding out in a wine press because he’s

trying to make sure that the midianites

don’t take advantage of him here is

Gideon on this day when he’s sitting in

fear and insecurity and the angel of the

Lord shows up do not miss the power of

this first line

the first line of verse 11 says the

angel of the Lord came oh y’all if I had

time we could just sit right here with

this line for the entire Sunday and you

know what I think I might have time

because it’s second service which means

we ain’t got nowhere to go the angel of

the Lord showed up you need to know that

whenever you see this phrase in the

scriptures the angel of the Lord that

this ain’t no regular Angel this is not

Gabriel or Michael or of those those

angels no this is not just an Angelic

being this is the pre-incarnate Jesus

Christ meaning before he puts on flesh

and shows up in the New Testament he’s

already showing up all throughout the

Old Testament as the angel of the Lord

in the original language the phrase is

MC Yahweh it is translated the angel of

the Lord Israelite Hebrew Scholars call

this the Great presence of Israelite

history this is God himself stepping out

of the landscape of the heavens onto the

landscape of Earth because there’s

something so important so critical so

necessary that he can’t entrust it to

just any old angel he says I need to

come down and take care of this

myself so whenever the angel of the Lord

shows up in the Old Testament you need

to sit on the edge of your seat with

your chin and your hands lean all the

way in to see what is it that moved

Heaven and Earth to make God show up to

come say it

himself and whenever the angel of the

Lord this is a theophany that is a god

sighting whenever the angel of the Lord

showed up in the Old Testament most of

the time y’all he’s showing up to one

individual just to remind them who they

are because this issue of identity is so

important that he himself wants to come

and bear witness to folks that you are

who I say you are you are not your

circumstances you are not your

situations you are not what other folks

have called you you are not even what

you call yourself you are not your past

you are not your behaviors you are not

your deficiencies you are not your

weaknesses God says you are who I say

you

are and so God

came do not let this roll off your

shoulders as if this is no big deal

that the god of the universe would come

see about regular old folks like

us y’all this is God we’re talking

about this is the one who controls the

throws of the universe this is the one

who made sure on this birthday morning

that the sun was positioned in the sky

exactly where it was supposed to be he

is the one that will make sure it stays

at its post all day long till basically

it swaps places with the moon later on

tonight he is the one that will hang

every single star in the sky and when he

do does he will know every single one of

their names and every single one of

their numbers he is the one that is

controlling neighborhoods in the

galaxies that as of yet scientists

haven’t even yet discovered exist he’s

the one taking care of all of that and

in the midst of all of that he’s coming

here on this Sunday morning to come see

about

[Applause]

you and listen to me sometimes for us CH

church folk that been in church a long

time it can start to roll off our

shoulders as casual that the god of the

universe would make time to come see

about

us but what is man that thou are mindful

of him the son of man that you would

even take note of who it is that I am

God has come to see about Gideon and God

has come to see about

you years ago when the boys were little

I remember folding clothes one day

sitting on the edge of the bed it was

morning the Today’s Show was on Campbell

Brown was the roving reporter on The

Today Show at the time that week she was

doing a story on religions of the world

every day a different religion I caught

it on the day she was talking about the

Buddhist faith and I paused because I

didn’t know much about Buddhism I just

want to see what she was going to say I

could see that behind her was one of the

big Buddha statues that stands in Hong

Kong she and her camera crew had

traveled from the studios in New York

halfway across the world to Hong Kong so

that they could do the story in front of

one of these statues she talked about

how long the flight was how long the

drive was to get to the mountain where

this Idol stands how they had to take

all their gear up the side of the

mountain 268 stairs so that they could

be in position for this story the camera

panned and you could see people kneeling

and laying prostrate in front of their

God lowercase G

because Idols have hands but they can’t

do nothing and Idols have eyes but they

can’t see and Idols have ears but they

can’t hear heads but nothing in them to

think

with and yet they travel she explained

halfway across the world saving up a

lifetime’s worth of money if they have

to to be able to at least once in their

life make the pilgrimage so that they

can be on the side of this mountain and

pray to their God lowercase

G and as I watched this story I thought

a couple things to myself but one of

them was if I had to save up a

lifetime’s worth of money and travel

halfway across the world to pray I would

never

pray ain’t nobody got time for

that and while they are traveling across

the world to climb up so that they can

talk to their God our God capital G the

one true and living God he comes

down to talk to

us what mercy and Grace and loving

kindness does he have toward us in that

while we were yet sinners he keeps on

coming down to see about

[Applause]

us and all throughout the Old Testament

the MC Yahweh the angel of the Lord God

himself keeps coming showing up so that

he can remind people of who they are

just like Hagar in Genesis chapter 16

Hagar is sitting in a Wilderness a

desert she’s crying a River of Tears

because she’s been discarded by the

people she was supposed to be able to

trust the people that she was supposed

to be able to rely on they used her and

abused her and discarded her and in

Genesis chapter 16 she has no hope for

her future and she’s sitting in a desert

that is Barren and dry and in the midst

of all of that chaos the mik Yahweh

shows up and says Hagar you are not what

they did to

you you are who I say you

are and maybe you’re not Gideon maybe

it’s not the enemies that have relegated

you to the shade of an oak tree maybe

you’re not Hagar the the the decisions

of other people maybe have not done it

to you maybe you’re Moses and you did it

to

yourself because the truth is in MOS in

Exodus chapter 3 Moses is out there

tending sheep in the middle of the

Wilderness for 40 long years this man’s

not supposed to be a shepherd He was

raised as The Prince of Egypt his job

description his title is supposed to be

better than this but it’s a decision he

made an action he chose a sin that he

committed that put him in this situation

for 40 long years where he’s wandering

around on the backside of the Wilderness

but even there in the situation the

circumstances he created himself one day

a bush starts burning

[Applause]

and he realizes this ain’t no regular

Bush because the bush is burning but

it’s not consumed he takes off his shoes

and realizes this is Holy Ground because

the angel of the Lord is in the bush and

the angel of the Lord says to Moses let

me tell you who you are you are not what

you

did you still are who I say you

are or maybe it’s the fire of trial that

has put you there you just asked the

Hebrew boys they weren’t doing anything

wrong when they were put into the fiery

furnace they were put there for doing

everything right like you you haven’t

been perfect but you’ve been purposeful

and intentional in your marriage in your

parenting on your job in your ministry

but still the fire is Raging all around

you ask the Hebrew boy sometimes he

doesn’t deliver you out of the fire

sometimes the angel of the Lord just

joins you in

it and he makes sure that the SM smell

of the smoke won’t even be on

[Applause]

you and so I say to you today that if

you’re in the fire don’t be discouraged

lift up your eyes to the hills from when

cometh your help your Help Cometh From

The Lord even the fire is not powerful

enough to keep you out of the way of the

Angel of the Lord he’s coming to to

remind you you are not what is happening

to you you are who I say you

are or maybe you’re Hagar and the people

that you were supposed to be able to

trust have done this to you it’s their

choices that have put you in the

situation that you’re in on this Sunday

morning it’s because of what they did

but even there Hagar would you be

reminded on this Sunday morning that God

will meet you even there he will never

leave you nor will he forsake you or

maybe you’re Moses and mo you did it to

yourself you can look back and you y’all

some of us look back and there are whole

seasons of our life we don’t even

recognize the person that was back there

anymore can I get a witness anybody

grateful for the delivering power of God

[Applause]

seriously like you look back on certain

seasons of your life the decisions you

made the relationships you allowed the

paths you walked down the choices that

you allowed the the the the way your

life went and you look back on it and

you realize actually you did it to

yourself you knew when you said that

when you did that when you allowed that

when you commented like that when you

reacted like that you knew when you did

it this one turn out good but we did it

anyway and now we’re like Moses sitting

in that Wilderness be

encouraged the arm of God is not so

short that he cannot

save so if you’re Hagar or the Hebrew

boys or Moses or

Gideon you’re sitting under the shade of

circumstances because the enemy has been

swirling all around you here comes on

one regular ordinary day the angel of

the Lord to a man named Gideon to remind

him who he

is the author of this passage wants to

make sure that you know exactly what

Gideon was doing when the angel of the

Lord showed up he says that the angel of

the Lord came and Gideon was threshing

wheat but he was in a wine

press please don’t miss the detail of

that Discovery he’s threshing wheat but

he’s not on a threshing floor y’all he’s

in a wine press and you need to know

that these two environments are

completely opposed to each other a

threshing floor is on the top of a hill

it’s in an open air setting purposefully

because when you’re threshing wheat the

whole purpose of the threshing process

is to dislodge from the wheat a useless

nutrient called chaff they need to

dislodge all the chaff from the wheat

and when it is dislodged from the wheat

you need to be in an open air setting so

that the wind can drive the chaff

away but here the author wants you to

know that Gideon is not doing this

assignment where he would usually do it

no he is in a wine press which is the

exact opposite of a threshing floor a

wine press was usually in the deep

depression of the rock down at the

bottom in a little Cavern that would be

damp and shaded the right environment

needed for grapes to ripen and harvest

and so he is in a completely different

environment and the reason why he’s

there the last line of verse 11 to save

it from the

midianites he knows that if he threshes

wheat on the top top of that hill and

the wind drives the chaff away the scent

of it will go straight to the midianite

camp and they will know there’s

something to

pillage so he’s

hiding y’all the reason he’s in the wine

press is because he’s currently

operating in fear and insecurity and

intimidation he is in the wine press

because he’s trying not to be

found and in the place where he’s trying

not to be found the angel of the Lord

comes and finds him

and if I can just open up a parenthesis

right here for just a quick second

there’s somebody in this room a mother a

grandmother a father a grandfather you

need to be encouraged because you have a

son or a daughter or a grandchild and

they’re trying not to be

found you’ve been asking God and calling

out to God to open up their eyes so that

they can see him and to redeem their

heart from their life from the pit and

to sever relationships that are driving

them outside of the will of God and

these young folks of ours or your spouse

or your parent doesn’t matter how much

you pray it seems like they’re trying

not to be found their heart is hardened

and their back is turned I want you to

know that even when folks are trying not

to be found the Hound of heaven will

find them wherever they

[Applause]

are he seek seing people that don’t even

want to be found the Book of Judges is a

whole description of folks who have

turned their back on him and still he

comes and sits down underneath this oak

tree and he says to

Gideon the Lord is with you oh Valiant

Warrior he calls

Gideon a

valiant

Warrior

while he is currently operating in

fear while he’s actually in the moment

of threshing wheat in a wine press

because he’s intimidated and insecure je

the pre-incarnate Christ comes himself

to a man who is not behaving in a way

that lines up with his

identity and he says you are not your

behavior oh my gosh somebody in the room

needs to hear this cuz it’s is going to

free you up you are not what you

did you are not what you did last

night you are not what has been done to

you you are not the circumstances that

are swirling around you you still are

who God says you are you can still do

everything that God says that you could

do nothing that is around you or even in

you is powerful enough to Define you

only the one who gave you life has the

power to give you your

name and so he steps up to Gideon and he

says start acting like this start

behaving like this start having a

perspective and a mindset Gideon that

lines up with who I say you are not with

what the midianites are making you feel

you are not your

feelings listen to me can you imagine

how it would change the the actual PR

practical course of Our Lives me and you

if we stopped behaving in a way that

lines up with the way we

feel you don’t have to feel like it to

know it’s

true so instead of waiting for a feeling

we say no he says I’m accepted he says

I’m approved that means this decision

that I’m about to make to say this to

post that to interject that if I’m doing

it for the approval of other people then

I’m not going to do it because I don’t

need their Applause I already have the

Applause of

Heaven it means single woman or single

man it changes the way you date because

you date from a posture of knowing who

God says you

are it changes your everyday practical

choices because you are behaving in a

way that lines up with what God says not

the way you

feel cuz your feelings are up one day

and down the next your feelings are too

dependent on them midianites and those

external circumstances but when you are

anchored by your identity when you

remember your worth when your value is

attached not to the Applause or lack

thereof on social media but it is

attached to the Applause of Heaven it

changes the way you live your

life and for Gideon the Yahweh Yahweh

shows up and says you’re a valiant

Warrior and when you have time brothers

and sisters take an opportunity to read

the rest of chapter 6 and into chapter 7

cuz will find that Gideon the

intimidated and insecure comes out of

the shade of this oak tree after having

a meeting with the the MC Yahweh he

comes out from underneath the shade of

this oak tree and he starts acting like

God is telling the truth and the very

first thing he does is go right to his

father’s

house and he he goes home and he takes

all of the idols that are indicative of

his entire family line and he smashes

all of the idols one by one one he

changes the entire trajectory of his

generational line because he starts

acting like God is telling the truth do

you know how many people are attached to

you getting a hold of your identity do

you know that there are sons and

daughters and grandsons and

granddaughters and great grandchildren

that we may not even lay our eyes on

them walking in Victory and abundance is

attached to whether or not we’ll get our

identity in

view because once we know who God says

we are we can go home and break

generational curses and clear out those

things that need to be clear out so we

can change the course of our family’s

lives and then after he goes home and

deals with that then he steps into

battle 300 against 140,000 midianite

soldiers and he brings home a victory

that changes the

nation If my

people who are called by my name if I

can just give get them to rise up and be

who I’ve called them to be I’ll hear

from heaven and I’ll heal the whole

land the Victory and abundance y’all of

the whole culture is tied to God’s

people believing that God is telling the

truth about who we

are and

so for just a couple minutes on this

Sunday morning I thought I would just

take a

second to remind

you who you

are the Bible says 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 you

have Christ righteousness you are Christ

Ambassador you are completely forgiven

and you you are completely free you are

tenderly loved by God you are the sweet

fragrance of Christ to God you are a

temple in which God dwells you are

blameless and you are Beyond reproach

you are the salt of the earth you are

the light of the world you are a branch

on Christ Vine 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 to the

Lord one spirit with him you are a

member of the body of Christ you are a

saint you are hidden in Christ with God

you are chosen by God You Are Holy and

dearly loved you are a child of light

you are Sanctified you are one of God’s

living stones being built up in Christ

as a spiritual house you are a member of

a chosen race you are a royal priesthood

you are a people for God’s Own

possession you are firmly rooted and you

are being built up in Christ you have

been made complete in Christ you have

not been given a spirit of fear but of

power of love and of a sound mind all

your needs they are met by God you are a

prince or a princess in the kingdom of

God you’ve been bought with a price and

you belong to God you’re adopted as a

child of God you have direct access to

God you cannot be separated from the

love of God you’ve been established

anointed and sealed by God you can be

confident in this that the same God who

started a good work in you he will be

faithful to complete it you are a

citizen of Heaven you are a personal

witness of Christ 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

name in Jesus name

amen