That's Not My Name // Identity Theft // The Blueprint with Dr. Dharius Daniels

Well, what's up everybody? Welcome to the blueprint. And this is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. I want you to put some fire in the chat. And I want those that are with us live tonight. Come on, clap your hands.

All ye people. Come on. As we as we give praise to a God who always causes us to triumph. If you're tapped in for the first time, uh we want you to know we're so grateful to have you here with us. Here's what we believe. We believe there are three ways you can live your life.

Culture's way, which is the way of the world. Uh church's way, which is the way of religion. And the king's way, which is the way of the rabbi. The way of Jesus. And uh we believe that the way of Jesus is not just right, it is better. It is superior. is not just righteous, it's wise.

It's not just good and godly. It makes good sense. And we believe the Bible is the blueprint to the king's way. We believe that. And so this is why we call this the blueprint Bible study. And uh but we understand to experience God's best, to be God's best, and to have God's best flow through us, it requires more than just principles.

It requires power. It requires presence, which means it requires prayer. So, we don't just teach about a God at Blueprint. We make space for people to encounter that God through the ministry of prayer. And we have prayer requests that come in each week. We actually have a blueprint um prayer team that prays weekly over the requests.

These requests come in to our team. Our team redacts the names, sends the requests out to everyone that is a part of the blueprint prayer team and uh that team prays over these requests on a weekly basis. And uh Dr. Dudley gathers with the blueprint prayer team once a month for the purpose of impartation, encouragement, and corporate and collaborative prayer.

So two things. If there's something you're believing God for and you want us to intercede on your behalf to add our faith to yours, we want you to send that request in to that address that is on the screen. And also, let me just pause here. Uh, and also if you are a person, listen to me, who has been called to the ministry of intercession.

Now, listen to me. Every believer has a responsibility to intercede. But every believer, here's the way uh God says in Isaiah, every believer is not a watchman. >> He says in Isaiah, I have set watchman. >> I have set I have positioned people with a passion for prayer, with a gifting, with a spiritual gift mix that is necessary for intercession.

That that could be a mercy gift where a person has empathy. That could be a discerning of spirits gift where people can discern this is not life. This is the enemy. It could be the gift of faith where people pray bold and audacious prayer. So he gives them a even if the ministry of intercession isn't a spiritual gift.

He gives people spiritual gift mixes that make them well suited to be what's called a watchman. And uh here's here's what happens. Now I'm speaking I don't know. I'm just in a season I'm getting older. So and I got this revelation that disciplem requires a degree of kind directness.

And so here's what happens when people become a part of prayer teams. very often it's because they have um excitement about being a part of a team that prays but they don't have an assignment to intercession >> because when you have the assignment and the calling is what creates your consistency cuz those who are called to the ministry of intercession have a unique prayer stamina.

Now, all of us should cultivate and grow our prayer stamina. But when you've been called to the ministry of intercession, they watchmen. And a watchman would stay on that watchtowwer and they watch all night. Did you hear what I said? They wouldn't move. They wouldn't remove themselves from the tower until their shift ended. >> And when a person is called to the ministry of intercession, there's a unique spiritual stamina that they have.

And I think it is so important for me to like highlight this because we want to invite those of you who actually have that calling because here's what I'm going to say too. A calling not only gives you competence, it not only brings with a degree of clarity.

A calling brings with it a grace that conditions you for what the calling requires. >> Am I making sense? It gives you the like the conditioning. you got the the the the spiritual stamina to handle what comes with saying yes to that office, saying yes to that ministry.

And so if you sense kind of that call, I heard this quote actually today, earlier today where it revolutionized me. And uh for those of you that are part of the change church family, you know, I just started a series on prayer kind of unloading to our church uh some fresh mana that God has been feeding me over the past few months about this subject.

And I heard this amazing quote rock me. says, "Every Christian that genuinely loves people the way God instructs Christians to love people should have a desire for those people to experience more than you're capable of giving them. And the way you give them more than what you're capable of giving them is to engage in the loving act of intercession. because now you're going to the one >> who can give them what you can't on their behalf. >> This is an important ministry.

And uh so as we as we um as we build this man, we're looking for people who who are actually committed to to pray uh who get the emails and pray over the prayers and who show up for the um the monthly meetings. And so we're praying today for Marquita Value.

We want you to know we got your requests in Chelsea Garrett. We got your requests in Deborah Williams for your physical healing. We got your request and Kelly Carroll that God's going to give you strength and perseverance. Maya Bell that he's going to give you wisdom and guidance and Christina Clay that Gyra my God would supply all of your needs.

So, Father, we just lift up to you today every single request. We lay claim to your promise. We lay claim to your promise. We believe it to be true. We pray engaging in an act of faith as if we are convinced because we are that you are telling the truth.

And you said we do not have because we do not ask. You said, "Ask and it'll be given. Seek and we'll find. Knock and the door shall be open." You said, "If my people which are called by my name would humble themselves, and pray, seek my face, turn from their wicked ways, then you will hear from heaven, forgive sin, and heal the land."

I pray for that. We pray now confidently. We we say yes to your invitation to call on your name. And I lift up to you every single request represented not only on these prayer request cards but in the hearts of men and women who are tuned in right now.

Somebody needs you to be Gyra to make provision. And I pray that the God who turned salt water into sweet water, the God who sent mana from heaven, the God who made quailes fall, the God who has supplied the needs of his people in scripture would supply the needs of your people today.

Father, may they receive not just provision, but may they see receive the gift of peace, knowing that you will supply all of the need. May they rest in the comfort that comes with that revelation. And some need you to be healer. We believe you still are Rafa. You are the God that can heal every disease.

Not just relationally, not just emotionally, but yes, even physically. You made these bodies. And we pray, Father, for supernatural miraculous intervention that we might testify that you still heal the sick. You still uh open blind eyes. You still regulate organs and numbers and counts. I just thank you for that.

That your blood can regulate any blood disorder and blood pressure and blood diseases. We just we thank you for that, Father, that you're the great physician and that you can write a prescription that not just arrests the symptoms, but you can write a prescription that heals the sickness, every need.

We pray that you would meet for your glory in your timing and for the good of your people. We lift them up to you now in Jesus name. Amen. Come on, drop some fire in the chat. Clap your hands in the room, man. Super grateful to be here.

And I want to thank you for tapping in and your patience. You know, some people tap out when it comes to to prayer so they get they just I just need the word. So they get revelation, education, and information and never application because God has set it up so that we are so dependent on him that you can't even do what he teach you without him. >> Not only does he teach you, not only does he teach us, then he requires us to depend on him to put into practice what we heard.

And so we just believe, man, prayer changes things. And we're excited. I'm again in a series today um that I'm going to be in the next several weeks. We're going to be in the book of Ephesians. So, we're going to be taking a pseudo quasi um um expositional journey through the book of Ephesians.

And I want to spend um these next several weeks talking to you about something that's been on my heart for a while. I actually wanted to write my last book about this. My last book, Your Purpose Was Calling, is calling was supposed to be called Who Do You Think You Are.

So instead of a book on purpose, it was supposed to be a book on identity. And um and I and I want to have a conversation over the next several weeks because uh from my life personally and from my seat pastorally, I see this issue of identity is is an sometimes an undiagnosed challenge for people.

Did you hear what I'm saying? Like when you don't know who you are, you don't know who you're supposed to be with. >> Yeah. When you don't know, like so you can't even pick right if you don't see you right. >> Like so much hinges on this. And so the book of Ephesians is an incredibly rich book.

Uh some people have called it the Judges of the New Testament because it is in some sense about possession. Just like the book of Judges kind of marks a period in Israel's history when they possessed what had been promised. Um the book of Ephesians is almost like a New Testament iteration of that where all of these things that Jesus, our Joshua, provides to us by leading us into the promised land of salvation are things that now that we're actually in the land, we're saved, we got to possess.

And uh Ephesians kind of speaks to that. And so we're just going to cover two verses in our time together. Uh verses 1-2. And it reads, this is just a greeting. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God to God's holy people in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus.

Grace and peace to you from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Um I I want to talk from this subject in our first lesson in this series very simply. That's not my name. That's not my name. Um, I want to start with an axiom that if you've been in our ecosystem, you've heard me regularly repeat.

How far you go and how much you grow is not just determined by how you see God is equally impacted by how you see you. How far you go, how much you grow is not just determined by how you see God. It is equally impacted by how you see you.

A sage named Solomon put it this way in Proverbs. He says, King James puts it this way, as a man thinkketh >> in his heart, so is he. >> A way of seeing that is you will always behave in a way that is consistent with how you see yourself.

So the enemy, the enemy who understands this doesn't have to disrupt my behavior just by attempting to influence my behavior. The enemy influences my behavior by robbing me of my identity. >> This is this is a plot and a ploy and a scheme of Satan. not only to dilute and destroy the way that we see God, but also how we see us.

Listen to me. The enemy was the first individual to engage in identity theft. >> Yes, sir. I remember recently I remember not well maybe a couple years ago I got this letter and uh it was a letter from like a judgment or collection company or yeah collections. It's like um they they bullies too.

They was like it was it was aggressive. I'm looking at the letter it was something like I'm like what is this? I pay my bills. This is what what is this? I have no idea what this is. And we did some research and it was like a phone bill that hadn't been paid.

And I'm like, this is crazy because it was a phone bill with a company that I don't have a phone with. I've got two phones. One is like a general phone and then I have one phone that only my wife, my kids, my dad, and maybe a friend or two have, and that's it.

Because when I'm Sabbath and vacation and and so anyway, I know the phones I got. >> So, first of all, I'm having to explain this to my wife. I don't have another phone, you know. So, I'm having this place. And so, yeah. So, we we did some digging and it was like we were able to find out like so through some relations we had, we were able to find out that this was actually a instore application that somebody did in New York.

And basically what they did is somehow they got access to information or whatever and they were able to get and they're probably doing it with a number of people phones I guess in people's names used the phones and then when the service got cut off they got somebody else phone.

And so I was now in my mind if you're that creative you just should have started a business and sold something and paid your own phone bill. That's I mean all that work you put in to do all that work you put in to do that but but here here's here's what here's what was interesting right here's what's interesting I became a victim of identity theft and uh what happened with me personally is something that happens to millions of people around the globe because identity theft is when someone inappropriately acquires access to aspects of your personal information and misuses it for personal gain. >> And when they steal your information, they don't just rob you of your information if it goes unchecked.

Some people have used identity theft to rob people of income. >> So, you don't get to watch this. You don't get to experience the resources that you work for. >> Some people have have have used identity theft not just to rob people of income, but to rob people of access.

People have been locked out of their own social media accounts. So you so so act so so people stay locked out of something they have a right to. This is legitimately mine. But because somebody has stolen my identity, now I'm locked out of what I got a right to. and and and and not only does it rob of income, not only does it rob of access, identity theft also robs of emotions >> because it steals your peace.

See, when I got that little letter and I found out what was happening, I was aggravated. >> There was a lot of emotions I was feeling at that moment. The joy of the Lord at that moment was not dominant. >> I felt I felt a lot of a a lot of different emotions.

So I was robbed of emotional resources that uh are are um gerine to a person whose soul should be prospering. And I'm arguing that just like this is the case naturally, this is also the case spiritually. The enemy uses identity theft to rob us of resources that heaven wants to give. lock us out of spaces that God wants to walk us into and to steal joy that God wants us to experience.

And so when I say spiritual identity theft, here's what I mean. It's not that the enemy has taken uh information, it means that he has taken our sense of awareness or alignment with who we are currently called to be. So my question to us isn't do you know who you were. >> My question is do you know who you are? >> Because what the enemy wants to take is awareness of or alignment with some of us, right?

Some of us know what it's like to feel like I've lost me. Not that I don't know where I am, but I but I I feel like watch this. Not not that I don't know where I am. I'm in my house. I'm in a chair. Like, but but I'm trying to regain who I am. >> That's awareness.

And then there are times where we are clear on who we are to be in this season. And the frustration is I can't align my life with who I know I am. >> So, the enemy is not just after awareness. He's also after alignment when you get awareness. >> And that both of these realities fit within the context of what I'm calling identity theft.

The enemy wants to use other influences to usher us to a point and a place where we look in the mirror and we can't remember who we used to be or we don't know who we're supposed to be. And if you've ever been there, I got good news.

You're not the only one. There is an abundance of this existing in the life of believers who are in one of the most influential cities in the ancient world, a part of the Roman Empire called Ephesus. It's actually the fourth largest city in the Roman Empire. It was one of the seven home to uh one of the pagan temples that was one of the seven wonders of the world.

It's a major commercial hub. It was a center of magical arts and occult practices and it was saturated with competing identity claims. Therefore, when Christians or when people in this context became Christians, it actually created confusion because they understood who they used to be. They understood how they used to live.

They understood what they used to do. But now they were having to relearn a new way of living in a context where very few people were actually living that way. >> So they had become new, but they had to resist the urge to stay normal. And let's be honest, that is not just a struggle for people that were in Ephesus.

That is a struggle for many of us in our current era. We are in a era, ladies and gentlemen, where if we're honest, God, who moves us from faith to faith and from glory to glory, often is wrestling with the tension in us. Lord, I want to be new and I want to feel normal >> at the same time.

Oh my god. >> Did you hear what I just said? Yeah. I want to be new and I want to feel normal at the same time. So, they're wrestling with this tension because what's right doesn't feel right. >> What's new doesn't feel normal. And and this this speaks to something.

This speaks to something. And I was on a call with someone recently and uh it really helped me as a pastor. Their honesty really helped me as a pastor. They were honest about where they were in their spiritual journey. And it was a surprise to them, but it wasn't a surprise to me because what they were experiencing is relatively normal for someone who takes a spiritual journey seriously.

Your spiritual evolution triggers satanic attacks. >> That's I could take you all throughout scripture and I can show you. But I can show you the Bible says I can take you to where like we look at like David's first anointing in 1st Samuel 16. It's like, "Oh my god, he got anointed.

He's so greasy with oil, etc." I can take you to because he got anointed three times and I can take you to one of his anointings and the Bible says when he got anointed, the Philistines rose up against him. >> So spiritual ex spiritual advancement triggers satanic opposition. >> It's a trigger, right?

Particularly when your advancement, your evolution, your growth now makes you a contributor to God's agenda and not just a consumer of it. Now you step into a different degree of spiritual aggression when it comes to warfare because you've moved from just changing your life to being a conduit that God uses to change other people's lives.

Now you become a threat. You become when you get saved, you're just a nuisance. When you start being used, you become a threat to Satan. >> When you get saved, you're just aggravated because that's a life he lost. But when you when you say yes to God, now you become a threat because now you become an instrument that God uses as a kingdom asset to now change other people's lives.

And that triggers a different degree of aggression. So I was and it was like I was walking this person through on how to say yes, but I realized as this person was talking to me, I didn't equip or properly prepare the person for what come with a yes.

Am I making sense? So here here here is here's the claim I'm making, guys. Your spiritual development and my spiritual development brings with it a degree of disruption. I I want to normalize this. This was very disruptive for the individuals in Ephesus. They're they're new, but they want to feel normal.

They're called, but they're confused. So, in the first portion of this letter, what Paul addresses is identity. I'm I'm I'm going to show you I'm going to show you like this sequence that even Watchman talks about in a book he wrote. I'm going to show you this sequence in Ephesians that's all about identity and then flowing into activity.

I'm going to show you. I'm going to show you as we walk through Ephesus where in one chapter he reminds them that they're seated with Christ in heavenly places. >> And then I'm I'm going to take you as he progresses there to Ephesians 4 what he tells them because you're seated in Ephesians 4.

Now walk >> worthy of the vocation which you're called. Because if you don't know how you're seated, you won't be able to walk. >> And then as you're walking, you're going to run into satanic opposition. So in Ephesians 6, he tells them, "Now stand, >> sit, walk, and stand."

So, so, so Paul's very like intentional in this epistle. And I think there's some some insight that he offers believers here that can aid and assist you and I as we wrestle with the tension of being called to something new, but fighting the temptation to want to be normal. >> Cuz maybe your issue isn't salvation.

Maybe maybe your issue is so maybe the issue is you're watching this, you're already saved. So maybe that's not your tension. But maybe God who is progressively sanctifying you, maybe it's not salvation, it's sanctification. He's progressively sanctifying you and making you new and taking you from faith to faith, from glory to glory.

Meaning, they're going to be different iterations and expressions of you. And each time God walks you and I into a different iteration or expression of us, we might deal with the tension of being called to new, but fighting the need to want to be normal. And if that's the case, Ephesians offers some insight for us.

Watch what the writer says here. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ. Did y'all hear what I just said? Paul, this is verse one, an apostle of Jesus Christ. All right, I'm gonna say it again. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ. See, before Paul talks to them about their identity, >> he models something about his own. >> He's teaching in the greeting, >> the greeting of the letter itself.

We're spending this entire lesson talking about the greeting because the greeting is gold. There's some gold in this greeting. He is modeling something for them. And Paul, this is something spiritual leadership has to wrap their head around. Paul understood the importance of not just preaching a message. Like if you're going to change help change people's life, you got to be a model. >> Like he's really consistent with that.

Follow me as I follow Christ. And I love how he models being a model because he doesn't present himself as Jesus. He just presents himself as an example of what it looks like to follow him. Right? I think he models a degree of vulnerability and transparency that a lot of us as spiritual leaders, we would not do what he wrote in Rome.

I wouldn't write to people I'm leading. The good that I want to do, I don't want to do. Like that's I'm that's kind of that's a lot. Paul, you said a lot there. Watch this, pastor. Why is him saying apostle so so important? One, I'm not going to bother this, but for Paul, this is a function. >> Paul and apostle. >> So for him, this is not an identity, it's a function.

I'll leave that alone. You got it? You catch it? Okay. Okay. Yeah. It's like, hey, this this is what I do. It's not my name. >> This is the I am an apostoal. I'm a scent one. This is this Paul is Paul. Okay. Yeah. Paul is the aposto.

The apostoalos is not Paul. >> Okay. Anyway, I'mma leave that alone. Okay. No. Paul and Apostle, not the Apostle Paul, Paul and Apostle. Anyway, here here's what I want you to see. This is important. Not just because like the profoundity of what said is connected to where he was when he said it. >> This is what's called a prison epistle. >> Yes, sir. >> Which means it's a letter Paul writes when he's imprisoned.

Now we see Paul if you if you read Acts you'll see various visits missionary various visits to Ephesus like on his missionary journey like you you even say yeah so so he has some he has had some presence in Ephesus but when he writes this he's not in Ephesus >> he's in prison >> that's that's some that's powerful there right so so watch this he is he is in prison now So he doesn't use his external circumstances as an excuse to abandon his God-given assignment. >> Come on here.

This is actually one of the places where faithful faithfulness is actually revealed when it's hard. >> Yes, sir. >> That's where faithfulness is revealed. Faithfulness is revealed in adversity. Faithfulness is revealed in fatigue. Faithfulness is revealed in frustration. Faithfulness is revealed in offense. Faithfulness is revealed. Watch this.

Faithful, excuse me, reveals whether or not you will make your calling subject to your conditions. >> Jesus, he is writing to try to set people free while he is imprisoned. >> Watch this. So, he's in a Roman prison, but watch what he says, guys. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus.

He doesn't say Paul, a prisoner of Rome. >> I got to go. >> Did you see this? He doesn't say Paul, a prisoner of Rome. That's his condition. >> But he doesn't allow his condition to claim his name. IT'S LIKE PAUL IS TEACHING THEM in the greeting. Where I am >> is not who I am. >> Did you hear?

Somebody put that in the chat. Where I am is not who I am. He did not allow his condition to claim him. >> He's in prison and he says Paul an apostle. It's like he's saying, uh, this adversity doesn't have the authority to name me. >> I'm not going to allow adversity to name me.

This is important. His greeting alone is teaching the believers at Ephesus, you cannot let life label you. Now, I want to give you I want to give you to me a very clear Old Testament example of this. It's in Genesis 35. So, there's a man named Jacob whose wife Rachel is giving birth to a child.

It's actually um going to be Jacob's youngest child. And it was a very troubled pregnancy. I think it's a pregnancy that cost her a life, didn't it? Didn't she pass away giving birth to elder? Do you remember? Did Rachel pass away when she gave birth? Somebody. Did Rachel pass away?

When she gave birth to Benjamin? Well, it was a troubled pregnancy. Somebody, she did. Okay. Yeah. So, it's a trouble pregnancy here. Here's what happens, though. When she's giving birth, she's giving birth to something that's taking life from her. >> So, when she names the child, >> she names him Ben Oni.

Ben meaning son. >> Benoni, son of my sorrow. That's what she names it. Jacob, who's the father, walks in the room and says, "What? What's your name?" >> They said, "Benoni, son of my sorrow." He said, "No, no. I can't let my son >> live his life with that label. >> She's naming him in pain.

Yep. Cuz pain will make you call some things the wrong thing. >> Am I making sense? Like when when when we're in pain, we we'll look at a we'll call something a break up. And then once you get out of the pain and then you look at you look at it, Kickard says life live forward.

You see it backwards. When you look at it in another season, you was like that was a breakthrough. >> When you're in it, you'll be like, man, that's rejection. And then God takes you to another season and gives you clarity on it. be like, "Oh, that was actually protection."

Cuz you got to be careful what you call it while you're in it. >> Cuz pain will make us name things. And so Jacob walks in and said, "What's your name?" They said, "Benonai." He said, "Mm, >> his name shall not be Benoni. His name shall be Benjamin.

He is not son of my sorrow. He is son of my right hand." It's a metaphor, a picture, a shadow of what our heavenly father >> wants to do for you and I once we become his children >> because he knows you've had some Rachelike experiences >> that have labeled you and you're walking around in an identity that is inconsistent with his intention for your life.

So when you become a new creature, he gives you a new name. I'm I'm still in I'm still in Ephesians. I'm still in Ephesians. Did you hear what I said? When you become a new creature, he gives you a new name. I'm still in Ephesians here. What do you mean?

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will OF GOD TO GOD'S HOLY PEOPLE. >> In Ephesus, one translation says to the saints. >> Do you understand? of these people were reared and raised in an area where there's all sorts of occult practices. If I start naming to you some of the wild stuff that was going on in Ephesus, you would be like, "Wow."

Like it it was wild. And and these people were raised and reared in that environment. And Paul writes to him and says, "To the saints, to some people who were probably stumbling on their spiritual journey." And he says, "To the faithful Because when you become a new creature, >> when you get born again, >> come on.

When come on, Benjamin. When you get born, your heavenly father walks in the room and say, "I don't care what they called you until this moment." When you come through the spiritual womb of God, being born again, he says, "You may have been Ben Oni before I walked in the room, but now that I've walked in the room, you Benjamin.

You may have been called sinner. before I walked in the room. Now you're a saint >> because when I become a new creature, he gives me a new name. Now when he says, watch this, are y'all okay? When he says to God's holy people in Ephesus or the saints in Ephesus, this is important.

It is positional and prophetic. Let's have a let's have a little brief conversation before I wrap up on on positional. TZ, is this good to you? >> It's good to me. Here it is. I'm having a time. Here it is. Here it is. Positional. So, you'll find in the New Testament language like this in Christ.

If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. You're seated with Christ in heavenly places. So, so it talks about it's really there's this concept and I think Paul uses the word in Romans. He uses the word imputed righteousness. >> Got me? So there there's a word he uses in Romans 1:11 called imparted and then there's a word imputed. >> And this this imputed, it's almost like the word he uses for justification.

It's got roots actually like in the legal realm. It speaks to like a declaration. >> So like when the Bible says I've been justified, it is a record has been expuned legally. >> A declaration has been made that I'm not guilty. >> The evidence to convict me has been washed away >> by the blood.

Are y'all hearing what I'm saying? Thi this is this this is even seen when uh Peter cuts off the soldier's ear. >> That's a crime. >> But Jesus >> Tess puts the ear back on the man. >> He erases the evidence. >> You understand what I'm saying? Yeah.

So it is this it is this this idea that okay my heavenly father the righteous judge now has declared me not guilty and imputed to me positionally his righteousness. >> So now I'm declared righteous because of my faith in what Christ did. >> So now God treats me like Christ.

So I'm in Christ. >> Amen. >> Amen. So, so even in uh um what we would call theories of atonement >> like at onement what God did to atone to make us one with him there's something called substitutionary theory of atonement >> where Christ I feel this >> is my substitute >> hallelujah >> it is the principle of representation you see I suffered because of what Adam did in the garden, >> right?

And I'm not even going to bother this, but the the Bible suggests that I was in Adam. You know how I know? Cuz the Bible says Levi paid tithe, didn't it? >> Y'all all right? >> Through who? Ab when Abraham paid them to MelzDC. cuz Levi was in Abraham. >> So I was in Adam, >> so I suffer because of it. >> But Paul says in Romans, by one man's disobedience, >> many became sinners. >> But by one man's obedience, what?

Many became righteous. Principle of representation. Yes. >> So, I suffered because of Adam, but I'm saved because of Jesus. >> God looked Come on. Are you hearing what I'm saying? He looked at what Jesus did. And when I when I put my faith in the atoning work of Jesus, now God legally declares me as what Jesus is, righteous before him. >> I'm in Christ. >> You got me?

I'm in him. positionally. But here here's what sanctification does. Just because I'm righteous positionally doesn't mean I'm living right experientially. >> So sanctification, >> you got me? And this is where Ephesians comes in. There's been righteousness deposited in my spiritual bank account. And sanctification helps me withdraw >> the righteousness that's been deposited in my spiritual bank account into my day-to-day living.

So experientially I become what I already am positionally. >> Got me? I said you got me. All right. This this is so positionally I'm a saint. Experientially >> sometimes we don't act saintish >> and sanctification. spiritual growth, spiritual formation >> is what makes me more experientially and practically what I am positionally.

So when I say he says we're saints, it's it's positional, right? And my growth and my formation makes it experiential, but it is not. So this is why it's more than just positional only. It's also prophetic. He's saying this is what you are positionally, but this is what you're also going to be experientially >> as you continue to grow on the journey. >> Hallelujah.

Like, and this is this is important, guys, because even in e even in um man, I don't have time. I could do a whole thing. I could do a whole thing on this, guys. I could do a whole thing on this because it's like you guys do know that one of the words phrases Paul uses to describe the holy are y'all bored with this cuz I'm having a time.

One one of the words Paul uses to describe the Holy Spirit, he used the word spirit of adoption, does he not? >> Yeah. And so he uses this adoption analogy to describe those of us who are not Jews being uh what he calls engrafted, >> come on, onto the tree or the commonwealth of Israel. >> So the the the me being born again moves me from a creature creator relationship to a father-son relationship. >> So some people will say we all God's children.

No, we're not. We're all God's creation. We are God's creation. >> No, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's the spirit of God that actually provokes and equips you to call him Abba. >> So, so when I am born again, it shifts from a creature creator relationship to a father-son relationship.

Those who are led by the spirit of God are what? Are the sons of God. >> Am I in the book? Okay. SO WHEN A child is adopted into a family, they are family positionally. Once the adoption is finalized, >> they family. >> Are you here? >> Once that legal documentation is finalized, they family. >> But they don't look like the family yet.

They're not acting like the family yet. >> They're not behaving like the family yet >> because positionally they've been adopted, >> but practically and experientially they've got to live into that identity. >> When we get saved, we in the family. And now God's like, now that you're in the family, >> let me teach you >> how this family behaves. >> Let me teach you what you no longer No, no, no, no, no.

You're not on the street. And boy, if I had time, >> Jesus in Matthew 6, you're not on the street anymore. You're not a Gentile. You don't have to seek after these things. When you weren't in this family, you had to figure out what you're going to eat, where you going to sleep, what you're going to wear, what you're going to do.

He says all these things Gentiles do have to seek after cuz they got to look at look after themselves. Cuz when you're an orphan, you got to look after yourself. But you've been so conditioned to looking out for yourself that even when you come into my family, you engage in the same behavior you used to engage in, but you don't have to now.

And Jesus is telling people in Matthew, you don't have to do that. >> What word does he use? Says, he says, for your heavenly father, You got a father now >> and I got to teach you how to live like you got a father. >> So these people in Ephesus have been adopted into the family. >> They they family.

They've been adopted into the family positionally. So the the name change is positional and is prophetic in the sense that the longer you stay in the family, >> the more likely you are to behave like and even start looking like >> you belong. I have friends who've adopted and after a while >> y'all y'all aren't talking to me. after a while like some people who don't even may not even know the child was adopted are like walking up and say he look just like your daddy.

So, it's prophetic in the sense >> that Paul is saying, "Hey, as you experience the sanctifying work of the spirit, you're going to start looking like the family you've been adopted into." See, prophetic tradition, I mean, uh, there's this Hebrew tradition, we see it where like there's this use of the changing of names as prophetic indicators of character changes. like one of one of the like you'll see like um um you'll see this with Abram whose name is changed to Abraham, right?

Sarai whose name is changed to Sarah. And I think one of one of the most obvious indicators of this is Jacob >> because Jacob's name means trickster, suppler, scammer >> to Israel, >> prince of God, >> prince with God. Pretty significant change, right? So it is positional and it's prophetic saints faithful.

If I keep telling you who you are, you're going to become what I tell you. If I keep telling you who you are, you're going to become what I tell you. If I keep telling you who you are, I'm going to be you're going to become what I tell you.

If I keep telling you what you are, you're going to become what I tell you. And I and I gotta keep telling you who you are because Ephesus keeps telling you who you're not. And because they not gonna stop talking to you about you, I'm not going to stop talking about you.

So I'm going to use this whole book to tell you who you are. And I'mma tell you you salt. I'mma tell you you light. I'mma tell you you chosen. I'mma tell you you royal. I'mma tell you you beloved. I'mma tell you you selected and elected and predestined. I'mma tell you that you're the apple of my eye.

I'm gonna keep telling you who you are. Salt of the earth and light of the world. I'm gonna keep telling you who you are because Ephesus keeps telling you who you are. And you are going to behave in a way that is consistent with the way you see yourself.

And the way you see yourself is largely going to be determined by who or what you give the authority to name you. He says, "You saints and you faithful with your inconsistent self practically. I'mma call you faithful >> until you become it >> with with your conditional con commitment having self.

I'mma call you faithful. This is why I love the Bible. I love the Bible because you even look at a book of the Bible like Hosea. >> Come on here, just read it. >> Anybody that's complaining about your calling, read his >> and I promise you, you'll stop complaining about your calling. >> You don't want Hosea's calling.

Read it. >> MY GOD, I don't want that calling, Lord. No. >> Because he's saying, "Hey, Goomer, Israel. Goomer's you. >> I'm Hosea. >> Israel, you for the streets. >> Every idol, >> ambition, and success and like every you for whatever that's you. >> And I I run out and get you. >> I buy you back.

Yes. >> And I don't need you. >> And people looking at me wondering why I'm with you. >> And people are telling me who you were. >> Yes. >> And who you are. >> And then you prove them right. >> And I come and get you and bring you back.

That's believers in Ephesus. And Paul says, "Holy or saints, >> faithful I'm done test because if I keep telling you who you are, eventually you're going to become experientially with what I'm declaring practically. And here's what he says to them, to the saints, to the faithful, grace and peace. >> This isn't a pleasantry like church people turn everything into into pleasantries.

How you doing? Blessed and highly favored. Just now we just robbed rob the words of the richness of their meaning. Grace and peace. We turn into a pleas. This isn't a pleasantry. It's a prayer. How do you know? Cuz he says grace and peace to you where? From God our father and from who?

The Lord Jesus Christ. I am praying. That's what he said. I am praying that in the midst of all that you're experiencing in your spiritual journey in Ephesus that you experience it's in your bank account but I'm praying that there is an experience in your life of unearned undeserved unexplainable favor >> to you and in the midst of all of the internal and external confusion you're dealing with.

My prayer is that you not only experience grace, but that you experience peace. Now, he's writing in the Greek here, but he is a Hebrew, right? Hebrew of Hebrews. He's a Pharisee from the tribe of Benjamin, right? So, his concept of peace is not Greco Roman. His concept of peace is Hebrew.

It's Hebraic. So his concept of peace even though he uses a Greek word his concept of peace is shalom which is not an just an emotion it's a condition it is the opposite of fragmentation is wholeness nothing missing nothing broken he says in the midst of all of this I want you to experience grace and I want you to experience erience peace because grace and peace come when you and I get a revelation of our identity.

God won't favor who I'm pretending to be. And until you and I are who we're called to be, you won't experience peace. And you ought to thank God for that because if God were not to give you consternation when you're out of alignment, you never get in alignment. >> She says, "No, I can't let you have peace when you're out of place, >> cuz I got to use that to get you in place. >> But when there is an awareness of who you are and an alignment with who you are, you experience grace and you experience peace.

If you want that, say, "I want it." >> I want it. >> Our journey on the book of throughout the book of Ephesians is going to help us experience this. He's going to give us um I can't wait. He's going to he's he's going to give us some some insight.

There are some prayers that he prayed for believers in Ephesus. And I believe some of these prayers are going to reveal and expose the heart of the father uh for us. Um there is a very clear conversation in chapter six he has with them on spiritual warfare and uh using because he's in Roman prison.

And so he's probably looking at he's such a genius. He's probably looking at Roman guards and then looking at what's on their armor and drawing a connection to the spiritual armor that believers need to wear. So when he's writing about a breastplate of righteousness, he's probably looking at a Roman guard who's got a breastplate on helmet of salvation, the sword of the spirit.

He's probably looking at the sandals that had spikes on the bottom of them. So, we're going to go on this journey together. And um if there's a you that you lost that God wants you to refind, I'm praying that that happens. But if there's a you that you lost that God wants you to leave, I'm praying that happens, too.

I believe God's going to bring us into greater awareness and greater alignment with who he's called us to be. And that's going to be my prayer for us over these next several weeks. I want to thank you for joining us today. I want to pray us out uh in just a second.

They're going to put Lord thirds on the screen now which ways to give we so back to the field that we're uh harvesting from. I heard a quote recently by Tim Keller and uh man it's such a profound quote and uh he said that our resources flow effortlessly to whatever is our God.

Such a profound such a profound thought. And um today we we give we sew into God's work uh because it's not it's not about our resources is about what those resources reveal. One the resources reveal you're first and the resources reveal you're my source that I will give you what I can see because I believe you return to me what I can't.

So as we give tonight, we give with that in mind. Let me pray for us. Father, thank you for this journey that we are beginning where you are increasing our awareness. For some of us, you're bringing us into alignment. And for others of us, you're anchoring us. Maybe we're aware or aligned, but we we need to be anchored in who you've called, crafted, and commissioned us to be in this season.

And we pray for your grace to be with us on this journey. That you would give us the clarity we need and the courage we need, even the community that we need to to step authentically with integrity into the version of us you have called us to before you ask us the question that answers yes.

We thank you for hearing this prayer and honoring this petition. Bless your people until we meet again in Jesus name. Amen. And amen. Take care. See you next time.