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Are You Really You?

Do you ever wonder whether or not you are living the life God designed you to live?  Ever think that just maybe circumstance, or challenge, or other people have unduly pressured you into who you have become?

Whoever you are, you are by choice.  The choices you make, make you.

Your life is unique, original.  You were born with creativity.  The theme of our story is how we become human.  God has designed life so that our experiences challenge our identity.  Life is revealed as we live it, respond to it.

God is the designer, the architect, the provision of our life.  We can only become who He made us to be as we embrace Him.  Without Him at the center of our lives, our living becomes unbalanced, out of sync.

As you discover your God-given identity, you begin to realize that you are God-chosen, God-assigned and God-defined.

You then acquire a God-dominated imagination where His presence captivates your thinking concerning your responses to life.

Fear, doubt and unbelief no longer influence how you choose to live.  God’s life flow through you intensifies and your life is more meaningful, fuller, and powerful than ever.

This is the “You” God had in mind when He designed you.

Your Uniqueness

Unique is defined as “one of a kind, unlike anything else”;  “the only one”; “unequaled”.

God is into uniqueness. 

There are billions of people born on earth, and yet each one distinguishable from the others.

Your purpose is powered by your uniqueness.  Only you can do what you can do like you can do it.

Your success as a person in charge of your destiny begins the moment you acknowledge, embrace and live your uniqueness.

Your uniqueness is your wealth, your strength, your advantage.  Stop asking why you are not like someone else and embrace who you are.

God designed you, equipped you and charged you to live your life, not someone else’s.

Originality and creativity are essential to identity and calling.

Life is, first of all, about who God made you to be and how God designed you to live.

Is your life dominated by God or by fear?

Are you going to live out your God-created, Spirit-anointed, God-assigned, God-defined Identity, or allow the world of circumstance, fear and intimidation to dictate your response to life?

Be unique – be you!

Live Original!

Many people live their lives emulating others.  Some never realize they are created as an “original.”  Born original, we should not live as a ‘copy’ or die as one. 

The beauty of any person’s life is seen as that person embraces fully their ‘originality’.  Your only hope of making a meaningful contribution to life is to live who you really are.

The fact that you were born means God had need of ‘you,’ (the ‘you’ He designed), in the earth.  There will always be some to whom you are sent.  Spend your life with those who celebrate, value, and honor you.  Never allow into your life those who de-value you, disrespect you, or dishonor you.

Someone once said,

Always be where you are.
Where you are determines who you meet. 
Who you meet determines how you think. 
How you think determines what you do. 
What you do determines your destiny.

God’s plan for you is best lived in consecration.  Consecration means “to devote, separate, set-apart.”  The word originally meant “to fill the hand.”

My yielded life fills the hand of God for His Kingdom purposes.  God fills my hand with tools, gifts, talents, abilities and favor necessary to accomplish His will for the ‘original me’.

Live Original!

The Power of Focus

I would challenge you to read Genesis 11, when the people were coming together around the Tower of Babel. 

They were going to build this huge tower into the heavens and they said “let’s make a name for ourselves.  We will have the people of the world come and look at us as the greatest people on the earth.  We’ll build this huge, huge tower called the Tower of Babel.”

The Lord God looked down at them from heaven and this is what He said: “They have one mind.  They have one purpose.  They’ve all set themselves to do this one thing.  If I do not go down and stop this, there is nothing they put their minds to, that they will not be able to accomplish.”

In the very beginning of the Bible, God Almighty is sending a message to us.  You can accomplish anything you want to do, if you can get yourself totally focused.  If you can get yourself totally focused and you can gather a team around you that is like-minded and thus totally focused, there is no limit to what you can do as a group, as a church, as a ministry, and as a people.

For Our Children…

Deuteronomy 6:6-9

 ^6-9 Write these commandments that I’ve given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you and then get them inside your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning to when you fall into bed at night. Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder; inscribe them on the doorposts of your homes and on your city gates.

Longfellow wrote concerning children:

            You are better than all the ballads

            That ever were sung or said;

            For you are living poems,

            And all the rest are dead.

The words “son” and “daughter” are from an original root meaning “to build.”  The Bible instructs us that children are to be regarded as divine gifts, pledges of God’s favor, and as His heritage. The Bible is literally a book about children.  It teaches that all children are received on trust as belonging, first of all, to God.

As His property, but loaned to parents to love and care for, they should be taught that they belong to God as well as to their parents.

It is never too early nor too late to teach children the truths of God’s Word. The first and primary responsibility of parents is to bring their children to Jesus for His blessing and salvation.

Jesus was ever touching and blessing children in the New Testament.  He warned that no one should offend them.  Offend means “cause to stumble.”  It is a betrayal of trust.

In Deuteronomy 6, the word “diligently” is used concerning how children are to be taught.  The word means, “to sharpen” and is associated with sharpening weapons, as arrows and spears, to make them penetrate deep into the flesh of victims.

God’s Word must be driven deep into the soul and spirit of a child by love and modeling of holy living.  Parents are supposed to be the first interpreters of God’s Word to their children. But in almost all the civilized countries of the world, the foundation of home and parenthood are being destroyed.

Love without marriage, marriage without love, easy divorces, abortion, homosexuality and same gender marriages all are attacking the sanctity of the home and marriage as God meant it to be.

Every child comes into the world full of promise and parents are charged with a Godly responsibility to raise that child in the ways of the Lord.

Giving Our All to God…

Read Malachi 1:6-8,11:

In our world today, words such as integrity, honesty, authentic, real and trust have come upon hard times.

Today there is a genuine need for credible and authentic people to arise in every arena of life.

Far too many businesses, institutions and government agencies as well as CEO’s, politicians and church leaders have proven themselves to be fraudulent, not worthy of trust.

There are just too many “phonies” and not enough sincere, real and honorable people whose lives speak of justice and purity.

About 400 years before Jesus was born a prophet named Malachi delivered a stinging indictment of the careless, profane, and haphazard way in which people were serving God.

He begins with the priests and enlarges the scope of his message to include all who worship God in such an unacceptable way.

He classified their worship as indifferent, careless, half-hearted, and said their attitude toward God invited a heap of curses from Him rather than His blessings.

Hear the heartbreak of God in Malachi 1:6 –

“A son honors his father, a servant honors his master.  Where is My honor?  Where is the reverential fear due My name?”

There are four areas in which God calls upon us today to be credible and authentic before Him:

• In our profession
• In our gifts
• In our service
• In our time
  

We should not just give lip service to worshipping God, but let our worship come out of our lives.  The quality of our worship must be reflective of who God is – a great King.

The choice is to give God the first, the best, the purest, the perfect and open yourself up to a blessing

God is a great King and service to Him should not be boring, but a joy and an honor.

Members of the church will sit through 2-hour movies, 2-3 hour baseball, football and soccer games, and often want it to continue.  Those same people complain if the church service is much more than 90 minutes.

We have lost our credibility in worship.  We must become more authentic in the profession of our lips, the use of our gifts, the investment of our service, and the use of our time.

Choosing the Narrow Way

Matthew 7:13-14

¹³Enter through the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and spacious and broad is the way that leads away to destruction, and many are those who are entering through it. ¹⁴But the gate is narrow (contracted by pressure) and the way is straitened and compressed that leads away to life, and few are those who find it.

When the history of our nation in this and the preceding century is read in the centuries to come, it may well say it was one in which –

·        There was great creativity;

·        There was great individualism;

·        There was great freedom;

·        There was great license;

·        It was a time of no limits;

·        It was a time of little discipline;

·        It was a time of great immorality;

·        It was a time of little restraint;

·        It was a time of comfort and ease;

·        It was a time of spend now and let others pay later;

·        It was a time of greed and lust;

·        It was a time of squandered opportunity.

Before us today is an open door to bring a message of hope, healing, and deliverance to a world afflicted by oppression, disease, and addiction.

Today we must have a moral compass to guide us back to the government of God.

That moral compass is red – The Red Letter teachings of Jesus in the New Testament.

·        Be Reconciled;

·        Love Your Enemies;

·        Go The Extra Mile;

·        Be Perfect (Mature);

·        Do Unto Others;

·        Judge Not;

·        Keep Your Word;

·        Deny Yourself;

·        Let Your Light Shine;

·        Feed My Sheep;

·        Ask, Seek, Knock;

·        Be A Servant;

·        Lay Up Treasures.

These commands are the central truths which make up God’s kingdom.

In that kingdom, called the kingdom of Heaven, there is a new way to live in relationship with God.

The “easy way” is broad, spacious, and roomy.  There is plenty of room for diversity of opinions and laxity of morals.

The “broad way” is the way of the unthoughtful, undisciplined, ungodly, carnal, self-indulgent, way of least resistance.  Whatever feels good, do it.

While the broad way and easy way are shallow ways to live, this narrow, straight way is life-changing at the core or essence of your being.

It is not the life that is narrow, but the way that leads to it.

Jesus walked this “way,” but He gained for us “an abundant life.”

The broad, easy way eventually narrows until we are hard-pressed on every side as sin exacts its payment.

The narrow, hard way broadens as we live in the marvelous liberty of the son of God.

Enlarging Your Life

Psalm 18:20-24

²⁰GOD made my life complete
when I placed all the pieces before him.
When I got my act together,
he gave me a fresh start.
²¹Now I’m alert to GOD’s ways;
I don’t take God for granted.
²²Every day I review the ways he works;
I try not to miss a trick.
²³I feel put back together,
and I’m watching my step.
²⁴GOD rewrote the text of my life
when I opened the book of my heart to his eyes.

One of the greatest life principles I have ever learned is:

Nothing can enter my life without first coming through His hands.

God’s hand is always on the control center of our lives provided we are fully surrendered to Him.

No individual in the Bible who ever fully followed Jesus was ever decreased, but was enlarged.

Where is your lack today, your area of barrenness?

As you sing forth God’s praises and worship Him, increase and enlargement will come to you.

As we move into the enlarged life God strips off the chains, bondage and restraints; He equips us, arms us, makes us ready and strengthens our hand.  He makes us loose, pliable, maneuverable and ready.

Prayer & Fasting

Please read Matthew 6:16-18.

¹⁶And whenever you are fasting, do not look gloomy and sour and dreary like the hypocrites, for they put on a dismal countenance, that their fasting may be apparent to and seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full already.

¹⁷But when you fast, perfume your head and wash your face,

¹⁸So that your fasting may not be noticed by men but by your Father, Who sees in secret; and your Father, Who sees in secret, will reward you in the open.

Many years ago a great man of faith was asked, “What do you really think about God?”

His reply – “It matters very little what I think about God, but it matters a great deal what God thinks about me.”

Perhaps a better question for all of us would be – “What does God expect of me?”

Perhaps we should ask ourselves – “Who am I really trying to impress with my faith walk?”

In Matthew 6 Jesus gives us a pattern by which each of us is to live as a child of God – When you give, when you pray, when you fast.  This is how we are to live before God and our fellow man.

God must always be the audience for whom we perform our daily life.  He hates hypocrisy, but loves reality.

To fast is to humble ourselves before God.

To pray is to seek intimacy with God.

To give is to serve others.

To fast is to discipline the desires of our flesh.

The real purpose of our fasting is that we become unselfish.

It implies the giving up of anything which may hinder us in the main business of life, which is that we may be perfected (matured, complete, whole) for His use, to be His instruments, that His purpose for us be fulfilled.

Fasting and prayer bring us to a place that we may be quite willing to undertake any work God may assign us to do.

One thing is very clear – prayer and fasting links us up with, connects us to, and focuses us on the very ministry of Jesus Christ.

Only through prayer and fasting will the ministry and message of Jesus be restored in our lives and to the church.

Being Gay is Not a Gift From God…

Recently, in the Toledo area, billboards carry the message, “Being gay is a gift from God.” 

Being gay is not a gift from God.  In more than 30 years of counseling with people who have chosen the gay lifestyle, not one of them has ever said – “I am delighted to be gay.”  No one has ever said to me, “My gay lifestyle is a gift from God.”  In every case, those engaged in this deviant lifestyle shared with me the pain of their choice, along with the shame and guilt they carry. 

In Romans 1:18-32, God defines for us, what happens when we exchange His truth for a lie.  Paul clearly outlines the unnatural affects of saying “No” to God and thus embracing a life without Him. 

Romans 1:18-32: 

 ^18-23But God’s angry displeasure erupts as acts of human mistrust and wrongdoing and lying accumulate, as people try to put a shroud over truth. But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being. So nobody has a good excuse. What happened was this: People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn’t treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life. They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand.

 ^24-25So God said, in effect, “If that’s what you want, that’s what you get.” It wasn’t long before they were living in a pigpen, smeared with filth, filthy inside and out. And all this because they traded the true God for a fake god, and worshiped the god they made instead of the God who made them—the God we bless, the God who blesses us. Oh, yes!

 ^26-27Worse followed. Refusing to know God, they soon didn’t know how to be human either—women didn’t know how to be women, men didn’t know how to be men. Sexually confused, they abused and defiled one another, women with women, men with men—all lust, no love. And then they paid for it, oh, how they paid for it—emptied of God and love, godless and loveless wretches.

 ^28-32Since they didn’t bother to acknowledge God, God quit bothering them and let them run loose. And then all hell broke loose: rampant evil, grabbing and grasping, vicious backstabbing. They made life hell on earth with their envy, wanton killing, bickering, and cheating. Look at them: mean-spirited, venomous, fork-tongued God-bashers. Bullies, swaggerers, insufferable windbags! They keep inventing new ways of wrecking lives. They ditch their parents when they get in the way. Stupid, slimy, cruel, cold-blooded. And it’s not as if they don’t know better. They know perfectly well they’re spitting in God’s face. And they don’t care—worse, they hand out prizes to those who do the worst things best!

Within every person there is a seed of God and the God-thirst is the most powerful drive in us, stronger than all the drives of sex, power, security and fame put together.  When someone says “No” to God, they will then find something or someone else to worship.  Man always worships something or someone. Who or what he chooses to worship dictates the essence of his life.  We were born to worship and serve the Creator.  No other life will bring fulfillment of purpose.  Choose this day who you will serve- the God of the Bible or the god of this world.  There is hope, help, forgiveness, love, healing, and restoration to all who will simply believe in His name. 

And the greatest thing about sin… there is a cure.