This review contains sixteen mini-sermons of each of the messages in the “Your Identity In Christ” series.

Often when something arises that poses a threat to us in some way, we have a tendency to react rather than respond.  Our “knee-jerk” reactions usually bring regret rather than resolution.  “Holding Your Peace” builds on a previous message entitled, “The Battle Is The Lord’s”.  We continue to examine what it means to wait inwardly on the Lord and allow Him to fight our battles by learning to ‘hold our peace’.  Moses told the children of Israel, ‘Do not be afraid, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord’.  What great advice for us today!

This sermon examines the practical application of turning our battles over to God and allowing Him to fight them for us. A graphic illustration of this is found in the story of Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles.  He is faced with a seemingly invincible enemy army.  He didn’t know what to do, but as he sought the Lord, Jehoshaphat is told that the battle he is to fight is not his, but God’s. Jehoshaphat believed God and sent the praise team out ahead of the troops.  The enemy army turned on itself and was completely destroyed.  The Bible tells us to be anxious for nothing and to cast all our cares upon Jesus.  When you don’t know what to do, do what Jehoshaphat did - seek the Lord and allow Him to fight your battles.

The Apostle Peter said that as living stones, we should offer up spiritual sacrifices.  Paul said in Romans that we should present our bodies as a living sacrifice.  A sacrifice will always cost you something.  When you apply these verses to the topic of praise and worship, you realize that tradition can create a comfort zone for worship that keeps us from abandonment and giving our all.  In examining King David, a man known for his heart after God, he worshiped the Lord with all of his might.  He abandoned himself in praise before the Lord and later stated he would behave even more undignified than this.  Like David, we should let our heart for God be manifested in our praise and worship and cultivate a greater sense of freedom knowing that we are worshiping before an audience of One!

Jesus says in the Bible that God is searching for people to worship Him in Spirit and in Truth.  He also says that true worshippers must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth.  In this sermon we examine the elements of worship as revealed in scripture.  We are also challenged to see if our own worship experience lines up with the Biblical models of worship.

While the Apostle Paul was thankful for the care and financial support given to him by the Philippian church, he reminded them that his material needs were not his main focus.  Paul had learned to be content (satisfied to the point of not being disturbed or disquieted) in all circumstances.  Whether he was poor or rich, hungry or full, in want or in plenty, he had learned to become “self-sufficient” in Christ’s sufficiency.  Paul had walked through the process of learning that he could do all things through Christ who strengthened him.

Life often stares us in the face.  Our circumstances seemingly declare our imperfections, our lack, our inability and insufficiency.  If we walked by sight alone and not by faith, depression and defeatism would be justified.  The good news is that the Word of God does not portray us as depressed and defeated.  On the contrary, in Colossians, chapter two, we are declared complete in Him!  The word “complete” means full, perfect, sated.  By embracing what God says about us rather than leaning on our experience, we are given opportunity to walk in true faith.  Through God’s perfect provision in the atonement, we are most certainly complete in Jesus Christ!

The basic foundation of the Christian faith is our inability to save ourselves.  To become a Christian, one needs to admit their failure and acknowledge their need for a Savior.  In this sermon we look at one of the spiritual meanings of Jesus’ offensive statement, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.”  He went on to say, “The words I speak to you are spirit and they are life.”  Abiding in Christ and living in dependency on Him is how we “feed on Him”.

Paul makes it clear that as Christians, we have died with Christ, and tells us to count it as done.  It is our death in Christ that allows us to live in Christ.  Because we can now live by faith in the Son of God, we can say with Paul, “When I sin, it is no longer I who do it, but the sin that dwells in me.” Though we admit our sin, we no longer have identity with it. Paul handled the grace of God in the same fashion when speaking of his labor to the other apostles, “Yet not I but the grace of God which is with me.”  He was consistent with his declaration that, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”

The scriptures declare that as children of God He has given us the victory! We are now "More than conquerors"! When you think of a conqueror, you don't readily see a picture of a victim in your mind. Though most of us have been legitimate victims at one time or another, we should never allow this to become our identity! The Book of Romans tells us, "If God be for us, who can be against us?" And if God is FOR us, though our circumstances may look unconquerable, we are able to stand firm by resisting the "victim" mentality, rejecting the lies of the "accuser" (the devil), and believing the truth that nothing can seperate us from His love!

Upon learning that we are “children of God”, it is important to take the next step in realizing there are responsibilities that come with that privilege.  The scripture declares in the Book of Philippians that, “it is God who works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure”.  God graciously works everything in us to please Him – it then becomes our responsibility to work it out in what we do and how we live.  Our lives are a living, breathing letter of the work of Christ and are “read” by all men.  Therefore, it’s important that we learn to trust God on a daily basis to help us walk worthy of our calling as His children.  Our light will then shine for all the world to see.

Our heavenly Father’s plan for His children is to see us grow in our identity in Christ and mature in Him so that our behavior will reflect our relationship with God, our Abba or Daddy.  The scriptures teach that we have the treasure of Jesus Christ in earthen vessels.  God knows when we as “vessels” are weak and loves us in spite of our sinful behavior. If we have been born of God, we have been born into His family.  Our identity is no longer “a sinner saved by grace”, but we have now become saints who sin at times.  As one person said, “Our bad times don’t have to define who we are.”  Amen! And remember...though we aren’t yet what we are going to be, we can be grateful to God that we are not what we were!

This sermon begins with a moving recording of David Gibbs relaying the story behind Francis Scott Key’s writing of the Star Spangled Banner.  A brief history is also reviewed of the Christian roots of the Founding Fathers of America – roots, which for the most part, have been deleted from our children’s text books. Following this is a strong exhortation to be actively involved in the political process of the United States of America.

This sermon is a response to the anointing moving through those who prayed for one of our members. There are times that the church body needs to be a family, but there are also times when the family takes up their spiritual weapons and becomes the army of God.  A family nurtures – an army fights.  If we are trying to be a family when we should be fighting like an army, something is bound to “fall through the cracks”.  At the same time, if we’re acting like an army when we need to be a family, again, something or someone will suffer.

The scriptures teach us that if we have been “buried” with Christ, then we shall also be raised with Him.  Baptism in water is a very practical way to symbolically “bury” the “old man” which has been crucified in Christ, and then to be “raised up” into new life.  Aren’t you glad we don’t have to be put into a grave, covered with dirt and dug back up again to experience this spiritual death and resurrection!

Using an outline from Chip Ingram, I review four roles of fathers: leader,
priest, teacher, lover. This sermon is a challenge to fathers to take ownership of the spiritual and natural atmosphere of their homes. It’s standard procedure that men in their vocations have objectives and strategies for their businesses. How much more should they do the same thing for their families? Personal testimonies given through my children show the value of a father fulfilling these roles. In retrospect, it is clear that fatherly perfection was not required.

In chapter three of the book of Hebrews, the writer refers to the provocation in the wilderness as being a time when the children of Israel did not mix faith with the Word they heard, and therefore disobeyed because of unbelief.  Even though God had already promised Israel the Promised Land, they didn’t believe God would actually give it to them, but rather believed they would somehow have to possess on their own.  That job suddenly looked too big for them in their own eyes.  They became discouraged, which led to unbelief, and their unbelief led to disobedience.  In the same way, God has given us eternal salvation, not through what we can do or not do, but through faith in Jesus Christ. Trying to earn it ourselves is unbelief in the provision of God.  We must believe it and receive it by faith.

Jesus proclaimed while dying on the cross, “It Is Finished”.  This first of two sermons on the finished work of Christ, examines the truth that what Jesus accomplished on the cross is all we will ever need for eternal salvation.  Our human nature wants to work for, earn or in some way pay for our salvation, but God only makes it available to us as a gift!  Our part is simply to believe and receive His gift.  When we depart in any fashion in our belief that salvation is a gift, we have then stepped back into the Old Covenant and find ourselves once again subject to the Law.  By doing this, we have departed from the faith that accesses the grace of God in salvation.