The ATL Journals: Part 6- Preacher Hat

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Preaching was one of those things I never thought I’d ever do. Then again, foreign mission work was also something I never thought I’d do either… and yet…..

So in Migowi, Malawi, I was surprised to find out that team Open Road were the teachers and preachers of a two day conference for any pastor within a 40 kilometer radius. Men and their wives rode their bikes to make it before the sun even came up. Talk about humbling…

 

So I prepared my message, sitting on my foam mattress under a blue bug net in a dimly lit room, praying that I would just die and get out of the way so that the Holy Spirit would speak through me. The thing I’d been learning about was the fact that our identities in the Kingdom of God affect EVERYTHING that we do and are… so I did what was in my hand to do.

 

These are my sermon notes (haha… I have sermon notes…):

 

Nothing that I am about to share today is anything new. It has been around since the foundation of the church… but the devil has been sneaky and subtle in trying to keep us blind and deaf to truth.

 

But no more.

 

We are going to expose the lies, and start to peel away at our identity in the Kingdom of God, layer by layer.

 

So why does this even matter? Why is this important for followers of Christ? What difference will this make? Is it narcissistic to think on this? Why do we need to know who we are in the Kingdom?

 

Because you cannot ACT like a Kingdom person unless you KNOW that you are a Kingdom person. You cannot ACT like a child of God, a son or daughter of God, unless you KNOW that you are one. You cannot ACT as an ambassador on behalf of Christ unless you KNOW that you are one. And you cannot ACT like a saint, unless you KNOW that you are one.

 

I believe that if we, as Christ followers and as a Church could really GET this concept, it would turn our lives upside down. And then, it would turn this WORLD upside down.

 

 

So my question is this: WHO ARE YOU?

 

If I meet you right now for the first time, shake your hand, and ask you who you are… and if you answer me, “My name is Peter Piper”… I would say to you, “No. That is your name. That is not who you are.”

 

If I asked you again, and you said to me, “I am an American/Malawian.” …I would say, “No. thats where you are FROM. Thats not who you are.”

 

Suppose you kept trying… “I am a doctor/ farmer/ teacher/ business dude…” …”No, thats what you DO. Not who you ARE.”

 

“…I am a Baptist/ Methodist/ Lutheran/ Non-Denominationalian….”   …Still, “No, thats your religious preference. Not who you are.”

 

2 Corinthians 5:16 says that “we recognize no man by the flesh.”  If you are in Christ, no longer do I recognize you by anything that has to do with the flesh. Now you are defined by the Spirit, and that is how I will identify you.

 

So, you are not your name, your country, your job, or your religious preference. Nor are you what you used to be… a sinner saved by grace. We hear that term thrown around a lot in the church, but I have come to have a problem with it. Because if I ask you who you are, and you reply, “I am a sinner saved by grace…” well then, by golly, you are going to ACT like a sinner.

 

‘People cannot consistently behave in ways that are inconsistent with the way they perceive themselves.’ If you believe you are nothing more than a sinner, then you will act like one. But the truth is, if you are IN Christ, that is a truth of POSITION. Being positioned IN Christ now makes you a saint. And this is true of every follower. Therefore, you are not a sinner trying to become a saint– you are a saint who is becoming like Christ.*

 

That kind of paradigm shift will make all the difference, because as we’ve said already, you will act on what you believe.

 

So many Christians struggle with their day to day behavior because they live in a false perception of who they are. So first we have to choose.

 

 

So if it is the later, that who I AM determines what I DO, then the following is critical for me to know about myself:

 

1) I am God’s kid.  (John 1:12)

2) I am Christ’s friend.  (John 15:15)

3) I’ve been ought with a very high price. I belong to God.  (1 Cor 6:20)

4) God and I have direct access to each other through the Holy Spirit. No more of this priest-sacrificing stuff.  (Eph 2:18)

5) I’m completely free of condemnation.  (Rom 8:12)

6) I’m annointed. I’m established. I’m sealed. Personally by God Himself.  (2 Cor 1:21,22)

7) I’m a citizen of heaven. (Phil 3:20)

Thats one of my favorites, so I’m gonna put it down again.

7) I’m a citizen of heaven. Now. Not when I die. Not when I reach some heavenly super spiritual level. Now. So my passport doesn’t read AMERICA. It reads HEAVEN. I’m not from here….

8) I am seated in the Heavenly realm with Christ. (Eph 2:6)

Thats my other favorite. So I’m putting it down again, too.

8) I am seated with Christ in the Heavenly realm. Now. Not when I die. Not when I reach some super spiritual level. Now. I am not really here… The physical stuff around me is the most tangible, but it doesn’t make it the most REAL.

9) I can approach God with freedom and confidence. (Eph 3:12)

10) I’m new. A brand new creation.

I’m a minister of reconciliation FOR God. On His behalf.

 

Kind of like if I were from America (which I very much am), and the President of the US sent me to Malawi to speak to the President there for him. My US President is sending me to a place of non-citizenship so that I can accomplish something important on his behalf in his name.

 

Same deal. I’m from heaven. I’m God’s ambassador on earth, going to people everywhere where He sends me, doing my best to communicate the message He gave me to communicate to them…. LOVE and reconciliation.

 

 

So, now that I know that this is who I am, I can then act like it. I’m not defined by what anyone else says or thinks about me. My Dad gave me my name.

 

…Maybe all this ‘saint’ talk is tripping you up… “Isn’t a saint one of those stoic characters forever fixed in a statue-like position in the gardens of old churches? With their hands out reached, so that birds can sit on them? Their faces etched in stain glass windows? Isn’t a saint… boring? Isn’t a saint a position that has to be earned over years of following church traditions and climbing your way up the religious ladder?”

 

Not according to grace… which is undoubtedly the greatest moral scandal of all time.

And not according to Emmanuel, God who came to be with us.

(1 Cor 1:2, Eph 1:1, Phil 1:1, Col 1:2)

 

So all this is well and good to hear and know. But then the weight of choice sits on you to apply knowledge to action. Otherwise its in one ear and out the other.

 1) You get to choose whether or not you’ll believe what He has said of you. God is a God of choice. Never forcing.

 2) Understand that Rome wasn’t built in a day. Maturity doesn’t happen instantly. But it does have to happen on purpose. Every day we have to renew our minds, and think on that which is lovely, true, trustworthy, excellent, praiseworthy, noble…

 3) Remain in it. Branches don’t grow if they saw themselves off of the trunk. Remain. Stay. Connect. And you’ll grow.

 

 

In closing… a snid-bit of a story:

    In 1865, on December 18th, slavery in the United States was abolished. 

    On December 19th, 1865, how many slaves still existed in the United States?

        None, in reality. But far too many still lived like slaves. Either they never learned the truth because it was kept from them, or because they chose to live as they had been taught their whole lives, even though they believed they were free.

 

The ones who did begin to live as free men according to the new law, realized that their old masters had no authority over them and did not need to be obeyed.

 

Because now we do not live by the flesh, but by the Spirit. 

 

So who are you?

You can choose to believe it. And act on it.

God has a lot to say about you all throughout that big Book. 

He’s actually pretty madly in love with you… Wants you to know just how HE sees you… and isn’t it true, that who you are in the eyes of your Lover is all that matters?

 **Teaching adapted from Neil T Anderson’s “Victory Over Darkness”