Who am I?

CCI Fellowship is starting a new series on identity, emphasizing the importance of understanding who we are in Christ. The speaker refers to 1 Corinthians 15:10 as the foundation for the series, highlighting that our identity is given to us by the grace of God, not because of our own righteousness. The speaker encourages the congregation to embrace their identity as spiritual beings and to let their actions reflect that identity. The message emphasizes the need for a revelation of who we are in Christ and the transformation that comes with accepting our new identity. Welcome to CCI Fellowship's podcast. Thank you for joining us. At CCI Fellowship, we are reaching God, reaching each other, and reaching our community. We pray that this week's message challenges you in your walk with the Lord, causes you to grow in your faith, and encourages you in your love for the Word of God. Alright, open your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. We are going to start a new series on identity. As I was looking through past sermons, I used to say a lot that the thing I preached about most was faith, but as I look through the titles of previous sermons, I have a whole lot that has to do with identity. So this comes not just as something that I think benefits us, this is a topic that is very much on my heart, it is so important. If we don't understand who we are in Christ, it is very hard to understand everything else. If we don't accept who we are in Christ, sometimes we can hear what Scripture says, we can sing songs that talk about our identity, but if we don't receive it, if we don't accept who we are in Christ, we have a hard time accepting everything else that He has for us. So we are going to embark on this journey, it won't be short, there is a lot that we can say about identity, and so much that I told Adriana today, I said, I don't know where to start. I don't know what is a good starting point, because there is so much that can be said about it. So I have decided for today that we will start at the beginning, which is a good place to start. But our verse, I guess we will take this verse as our foundation for the whole series. First Corinthians 15 verse 10 says, But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain, that is the first part of the verse. By the grace of God I am what I am. Those words there preach the whole sermon. We have an identity, and it is given to us by the grace of God. Not because we have earned it, not because we behave righteously, it is by His grace that He has made us who we are. Paul talks a lot about his own identity, he said as far as passion, there was no one that had more passion than I had, more zeal than I had for the things of God, so much so that I persecuted those who were called part of the way. I went after them with zeal, because he was defending who he was and who God was to him against this false teaching that came, until he met the one that he was supposedly being zealous for. He even says, as one born out of time, he said Christ rose from the dead, He appeared to as many as 500 at one time, after His resurrection. And then as one born out of time, He appeared to me, and that phrase one born out of time is actually indicative of a premature or aborted child. He says as one that didn't even make it the whole way, Christ pulled me out and made me new, and gave me life, and I am who I am because of the grace of God. A couple weeks ago when we were talking about 1 Corinthians 14 verse 37, it says if you think you are spiritual, I asked how many here are spiritual? And there were some uncertain faces in the congregation and some that kind of went, I think so. Emmy was brave enough to venture and answer and said, well, I'm trying. And it showed me that this is now the time for this series. We need to know who we are. If you have accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are one who is considered by scripture as spiritual. It's not about, are we trying? Yes, we're trying. We're trying to conform to His image. We are being sanctified day by day. We are growing in His grace and in the knowledge of Him, but we are spiritual. We are spiritual beings. It is not dependent on our behavior, it's dependent on what God has already established. This made me think of a couple that we knew that the wife had gone through some medical things and the chemical balance in her body was so out of whack. And her husband would say, I love you, nothing's wrong, try to reassure her. And she said, but I don't feel that. And they had some very tough times and some long conversations and finally got to the place where they were able to agree, okay, we have to look at things as we know they are, not looking at things as we feel that they are. And there are many days that we do not feel like children of God. There are many days that we feel like we are still children of the devil. Where we get to the end of the day and we look back and we're like, man, there wasn't anything holy about that point in my day. There was nothing holy about my reaction to what that situation was. There was nothing godly that went through my mind in reaction to what happened to me today. But guess what? That doesn't change who God has established that you are. There is what is fixed, what is set in place. And there is what is being developed to conform to what is set in place. We are who we are by the grace of God. But we are continually being transformed, being taken from glory to glory, from faith to faith, being made into the image of Christ. Amen? Let's pray before I get too far. Father, I thank you for this day. I thank you for the identity that you have given us, Father. And I pray, Lord God, that through this series, revelation would come to us. That the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of you would lead to revelation of the knowledge of who you have made us. Father, that we would no longer walk in the futility of our own minds, but that we would be firmly established in who you say we are. So much so that it changes our behavior, that it changes our speech, that it changes our faith, that it changes our trust in you. God, guide us through your word. Holy Spirit, come and teach us. You are our teacher. So we ask you. We present ourselves before you. Your word says in Proverbs, Lord God, that eyes that see and ears that hear are a gift from you. So we pray, Lord God, that you would gift us today with eyes that can see clearly. That you would remove the film, the veil, that which is preventing us from seeing clearly. That you would deliver us from deaf ears. That you would open our hearing, Lord God. That we would hunger for the truth. That we would desire, Lord God, to know these truths. Though Lord God, as was said before, we may have heard these verses before, I pray that they would come alive to us in a new and a fresh way. And that Lord, those that are hearing for the first time, that Father, they would be words of life. Words of hope. Words of joy. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. In 1 Corinthians 3, well, let me read this one first. I told you, there's so much. In regards to being spiritual, I want you to understand this. In verse 13, it says, 1 Corinthians 2, it's just the page before, you didn't see that? It's right there. These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? Who is smarter than God? But we have the mind of Christ. So let me ask my question again. How many in here are spiritual? That's better. That's better. Now you get it. It is what Scripture establishes. The natural man cannot understand the Word of God. Well how does the natural man get saved? Through the revelation of the Holy Spirit. But once there is salvation, that's when everything changes. And we change from a natural man into a spiritual man. We change from viewing the things of God through our natural mind to understanding them through our spiritual mind, which is in our hearts. So we are spiritual. First Corinthians 3, 1-3 says, And I, brethren, could not speak to you as spiritual people, but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food, for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able, for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? He doesn't say in this moment, you are mere men. He says, I wanted to talk to you as spiritual, but you are behaving as though you are still natural. And of course the whole letter goes on, and he speaks to them of some very spiritual things. Things that they would not understand if they had not become spiritual. But he is admonishing them that they change their behavior from the natural behavior to conforming to who they are. Their actions betrayed their identity. Have you ever felt that way in your own life? Have your actions betrayed your identity? Do you know who you are? Well, I know who I am in the natural. I know who my parents are. I know the kind of conduct that they taught us. I know what is expected of us. I know what our last name carries. And I can live up to that reputation, or I can not. But even if I am not living up to that reputation, that is still who I am in the natural. I am still the son of Steve and Patty Matika. I still carry the reputation of that name. That's who I am. So my actions now need to live up to that, need to conform to that. And that's just in the natural, let alone in the spiritual. God has put his name upon us. He has made us a new creation. Second Corinthians 5.17, we all know it. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. Well, what about this? All things have become new. What about that? All things have become new. Well, you know, this has happened in my family for generations. All things have become new. It doesn't have to happen to you. It doesn't have to happen to your kids. You have a new bloodline. You have a new descendants. You have a new heritage. We are new creations. We are new beings. Old things have passed away. Now, let me, let me ask you this. If old things have passed away, was that like, like a one-shot deal? Like, well, when I got saved, I became new, but what happens when I sin afterward? He's made me new from all of those things beforehand, but I became a new creation and oh, oops, I sinned. What happens now? Well, one, you're still a new creation. You're not the old person. That's where the grace of God comes in and His sanctifying work to conform us into His image so that our behavior matches our identity. So where does this all come from? Well, this is the original dilemma. This is what has been attacked from the beginning. This is where everything started, is identity. In Isaiah chapter 14, verse 12 to 14, how you are fallen from heaven, oh Lucifer, son of the morning. How you are cut down to the ground, you who weaken the nations, for you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds and I will be like the Most High. You see, Satan was cast out of heaven because he was not content with his identity. And since he was not content with his identity, he wanted God's identity. But he was also pretty certain that he could never be God, which is why it says, you said I will be like the Most High. So he gets cast down to the earth. Then what happens? Oh, we find Adam and Eve in the garden. What does he do to them? He goes after their identity. In Genesis 3, verse 4 and 5, this is after Satan had come to them and said, did God really say? Is that what he really meant? Verse 4, then the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be open and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. He goes right after their identity. He goes right after who they are. He immediately shows into them a discontentment in their identity. That's all he knew how to do. That's what was in his heart, a discontentment in who he was. And since it didn't work out for him, he thought, well, I'm going to go after these people who are made in the image and the likeness of God. They are the visible representation of the Godhead. Not just the visible representation, but also the character of the Godhead. Peter tells us in 1 Peter 2 that we have been given the opportunity to share in this divine character. He has placed his divine character in us. His divine character was put in Adam and Eve. And because they listened to Satan, who was discontent with his own identity and jealous of the identity that they had, he came to them and said, you know, God just doesn't want you to be like him. They were already like him. And they fell for it. They gave up intimacy with God. They gave up spiritual life. They gave up fellowship with the Father for a lie that said you could be more. They were already everything that God intended them to be. And through Christ, he not only came to bring us back to God, he not only came to forgive our sins, he came to restore to mankind everything that Adam and Eve had before Satan talked to them. Did God really say? He spreads the same question. Did God really say that you're his? Did God really say that you're a child of his? Did God really say that you are his son, that you are his daughter? Did God really say that you could come to him boldly? Did God really say that you could be healed? Did God really say that the power of the Holy Spirit resides in you and works through you? These are all the same lies. It's all the same tactic. But if he can get us doubting what God really said, then he's got an open door now to attack our identity and get us doubting who we are. How many have gone into a situation and felt self-conscious about being in that situation? Don't lie. You all should raise your hand. And if you think that you were not self-conscious going into that, and you were always confident about who you are, then you're probably bordering on pride, which is an issue about how we see ourselves. It's still an identity issue. In Luke chapter 4, moving along, in verse 3 and verse 9, Luke chapter 4, the beginning part of course is Luke's account of Jesus being led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit. For 40 days of prayer and fasting, and at the end of those days when Jesus in his human form was good and weak, good and tired, good and starving, that's when the devil came to him and he said, hey man, if you really are the Son of God, what's he doing? He's questioning his identity. If he started with Adam and Eve messing with their identity and tried to pull the same thing against Jesus, don't you think he will do the same thing against us? He's not smart. His tactics have not changed. Why? Because we're not smart either. He doesn't have to change his tactics because they still work, sadly. But the reason that he doesn't want us to understand who we are in Christ is that his tactics will no longer work against us in that point. Even on my worst day, I never question that God sees me as his Son. Why? Because I'm smarter than everybody else? No. Because the Holy Spirit has brought that revelation to me. When you come to that place where you hear the Spirit relate to you that God says you are my Son, or you are my daughter, what an incredible truth to grab a hold of. And at that point, nobody can tell you anything different. And no matter how much the devil attacks, it doesn't work. Because by the grace of God, we are who we are in Christ. Do you know the difference between conviction and condemnation? The Holy Spirit brings conviction, and conviction leads us to repentance. Conviction leads us to the love of the Father. Conviction leads us to a place where the kindness of God delivers us from those things. Conviction leads us to right relationship. Conviction attacks the action. It attacks what was done. Conviction never attacks identity. Condemnation on the other hand, is all about guilt, and making you feel shame. And what the devil does, is he, jumping off from the action, goes into your identity. You are a terrible person. I can't believe you did that. I can't believe you thought that. What kind of person are you, that you would even consider that? That's no longer dealing with what the sin was. That's dealing with an attempt to break you down, to the place where shame can encapsulate you, trap you in to the place where you say, I can't go back to the Father. I'm too ashamed. He'll never receive me this way. That's not Holy Spirit conviction. That's demonic condemnation. But the end result of that is distance from God. The end result of conviction is closeness with the Father. Remember when the prodigal son got home, stinking and smelling like pigs. Who knows how long his hair was. Who knows how dirty he was. Who knows what was living in his hair. It's a great picture of how sinful we can look when we come to the Father. Anybody itchy? Well Pete doesn't have hair, so. But what did the Father do? He didn't make him go get cleaned up first. He didn't say to him, you are a terrible son. You wasted everything that I gave you. He didn't start to berate him. He didn't start to attack him. He ran and embraced him because of who he was. And when he tried to say, I'll just be something else. The Father said, no, no, no, you're still my son. You see, the Father treated him as what was already established. Not what had happened because of his behavior and bad decisions. Our identity in Christ is already established. And throughout this series, that's what I want us to see. It's what I want us to learn. Because everything else stems from who we believe that we are. Proverbs says, as a man thinks in his heart, so he is. What do you think about yourself? I can guarantee you it's not even close to as magnificent of what God thinks about you. He thinks that you are the best. My uncle would always say, Jesus loves you, but he loves me more. Obviously that's not true. God doesn't have favorites. He loves all of us. And he looks at all of us as righteous. He looks at all of us as his kids. Those who have accepted Christ as their Savior. Whether you just got saved a couple weeks ago, or you have been saved since you were two. We are all his kids. And he sees us through the filter of the sacrifice of Christ. So when Jesus took your sin and put it on him, he took his righteousness and put it on you. So that when we go to the Father, when we, as Hebrews tells us, come boldly to the throne of grace, he doesn't look at us and say, you know what, you're still pretty dirty. I don't know if you can be here right now. Go stop doing that and stop doing that and get that fixed and then you can come to my throne. No. When we come to his throne, obviously he's conscious of the things that we fail him in. As soon as we repent of those things, he forgets them. But no matter what, because of Christ, when he looks at us, he sees Jesus. He sees righteousness. He sees holiness. He sees a new creation. My prayer throughout this series is that we get so clear on who we are in Christ that we understand that we possess more authority because of Christ in us than Satan has ever held throughout time. Satan is powerful. He is powerful. We should not take lightly his power. But he has absolutely no authority. Authority cancels out power every time. And that authority, in the name of Christ, as we prayed earlier for Milagro, and we're waiting to hear that she's alive and well, and we believe it. Because why? We have authority. Well, I don't know. There'll be times throughout this series that some of these thoughts might go through your head. That can't be true. If I believed that, that would be arrogant. I can't be that. After all, Paul said he's the chief of sinners. Yeah, Paul said a whole lot more about who he is in Christ. Remember, we can't take one verse and cancel out all the other ones. We have to take the whole counsel of Scripture. Well, I don't know if I can accept that God sees me that way. I'm still too much of a mess. I can't receive God's grace. I'm not worthy to receive God's grace. I don't know that I can accept that. I'm not saying it. Scripture is saying it. I'm not trying to convince you of some ideal that has no basis to it. I'm going to show you what God's Word says. You can't accept it. Just allow yourself to be taught by the Holy Spirit. Our identity in Christ is not based on the merit of our actions. It's completely based on the firm foundations of His. Amen? Let's stand together. Who are you? Do you know? Are you certain? If you don't know, come talk to us. Ask us. If you don't know, read the Word. The truth of who you are is in the Word. Let the Holy Spirit transform your perspective. Let God remind you and show you who He says you are. So please don't miss any of this series. Please make every effort to be here. If you miss, for whatever reason, things come up, be sure to listen to the recording during the week. I don't want anyone to miss this. It is so vital to a life of victory that He has given us. A life of authority. A life of winning against the devil. Amen? Father, I thank you for this day and this time together. And I pray that as we embark on this series, as I prayed before, that you would give us eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts that are open, Lord God. For your Spirit to write upon them the things that you want us to know. The things you want us to believe. The things that with so much love you desire to pour into us. That we may walk in the fullness of everything done through Christ to make us who we are in you. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you for listening to this week's podcast. If you are ever in the Tegucigalpa area and looking for an English-speaking congregation, please join us on Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m. in the main auditorium of Iglesia CCI in Colonio Trepici, just off Boulevard Sollapa, near Una. If you would like prayer or more information about our church, contact us at fellowship.cci at gmail.com. That's fellowship.cci at gmail.com. Or follow us on social media. And we hope to see you or hear from you soon. Blessings.