May
16
Author
David Ash
Your Personal Foundations

Read time: ~ 3mins

In this preach we talked about the fact that all of the subjects in this series are far deeper than we’ll have time to cover. These talks are meant to whet your appetite, to make you want to dig deeper, to search out scripture and to grow in these things.

ONE - Identity Can Determine Destiny
Initially we looked at how our identity can determine our destiny - a huge claim but it seems to bear out. If we get our identity wrong we can end up with wrong priorities, make poor choices and derail our lives and faith.

We looked at the example of Moses’ live and how once he realised his true identity everything changed for him.

Knowing our true identity gives us courage to let go of our past and to walk into the future.

* what part of your past do you need to walk away from?
* when do you find it most difficult to keep your eyes focussed on Jesus?
* what specific step can you take today to move toward your God-given destiny?

Salvation was never meant to be an end but a glorious beginning

“To most people God is an inference, not a reality. He is a deduction from evidence which they consider adequate, but He remains personally unknown to them. To many others, God is only an ideal, another name for goodness or beauty or truth; or He is law or life or the creative impulse part of the phenomena of existence. These many and varied ideas have one thing in common - they do not know God in personal experience. The possibility of intimate acquaintance with Him has not entered their minds. While admitting His existence they do not think of Him as being knowable in the sense that we know things or people.” TOZER - The Pursuit of God

TWO - What is identity & why is it important
We looked at the fact that identity is who we are, shapes the way we think of ourselves and the characteristics that define us / the way we are viewed by the world.

If we agree that we need the esteem of someone we esteem, someone who adores us. Then we realise that God loves us. That the Lord of the universe loves us, isn’t that the most powerful basis for stable identity?

Jesus doesn’t just give us or tell us we have a new name or identity. HE DIED FOR US!

THREE - The Sacred - Secular Lie
We also looked at how our lives can be deeply frustrating if we don’t realise that there is no divide between our sacred and secular lives. That we can and should do “all things to the glory of God” as Paul puts it.

It is not what the person does that determines whether the work is sacred or secular, it is why it’s done. Tozer

Therefore whatever you are doing, if you are doing it for God’s glory and in His strength, it will be like a sweet smelling fragrance to God, it’s all worship, if our attitude is right.

Bonus quote:
“What you do in the present by painting, preaching, singing, sewing, praying, teaching, building hospitals, digging wells, campaigning for justice, writing poems, caring for the needy, loving your neighbor as yourself will last into God's future. These activities are not simply ways of making the present life a little less beastly, a little more bearable, until the day when we leave it behind altogether. They are part of what we may call building for God's kingdom.” NT Wright

Finally we reminded one another that this new identity relates to our daily lives in the following ways:
We are called to treat people as God treats us. This will transform everything if we get our heads around it. This means we should accept one another, show respect to one another (even those we totally disagree with). We are called to show kindness, mercy and forgiveness to one another, even our enemies. We are called to encourage the gifts God has put in each one of us, and help draw them out of one another.

At the end David gave out a handout which will help each person grow in their identity in Christ. It reminds us that:

We are completely accepted, extremely valuable, eternally loved, totally forgiven, fully capable and includes the passages in the bible where these affirmations come from.

Resources
You can print out a version of the handout that was given out on Sunday, or if you want a physical copy then email us and we’ll get one to you...


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Watch the whole service from Sunday 15-May-22


More episodes will be added as we progress through the series. You can watch and listen to other series and talks by visiting our media page: jubilee.org.uk/media 

With thanks to the resources of AW Tozer, Rick Warren, Timothy Keller and Bill Johnson for inspiring this talk with the various talks they have produced on this subject...