Living As New World People/ Part 1 Of Identity Check Series

We're going to begin a brand new series this morning called Identity Check. Really what this is all about is going back and touching base with who God says you and I are supposed to be. Who are we supposed to be? How are we supposed to be living? Where are we headed? Those kinds of things. An identity check. Going back, touching home plate again, so to speak.

So I'm excited about this brand new series, and I would encourage you to be prayerful about it as you come each week as long as it lasts. We're going to be going through the book of 1 Peter. So I would ask you to go ahead and begin to read the book of 1 Peter. Read it all the way through. It's a short book. You can do that. As we go through the book, my prayer is that God would cause that book to go through us. Can I get an amen? I believe he can.

If you have your Bible, I want you to open with me today to the book of Revelation, chapter 21. Go to Revelation, chapter 21. In verse 5 it reads, "And he who was seated on the throne said, 'Behold, I am making all things new.' Also he said, 'Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.'"

Now I don't know about you, but when I read that, I understand there is a newness that is going to come one day at the second coming of Christ. There is coming a day that God is going to at the second coming make all things new. The good news is he said that is trustworthy and it is true. Write it down. Count on it.

Here is the better news. We don't have to wait on the future somewhere way off because the future has been brought into your life and my life as Christ-followers because of the power of the Holy Spirit living on the inside of you and because of the resurrection of Jesus. Because of that resurrection of Jesus, the creation door, the new creation has swung open. The future of the kingdom is now leaking into your life and into my life. In other words, the future is secure there, and the future is on the inside.

I want you to understand that you and I have never been called to live a life that is out of sight and out of mind. The future is not out of sight, and it's certainly not out of mind because it's on the inside of us. The Bible said the kingdom of God is within us, that Jesus lives on the inside of us by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The book of Acts tells us around chapter 2 that after they had received the Holy Spirit, after the ascension, Jesus received from the Father this Holy Spirit that he now poured out on the disciples. This part of the future poured into the now. If the world needs anything today, they need to see the children of God living like the children of God, rising up and having an identity check in our lives to make sure everything is in order, to make sure there is not anything you need to add to your life or anything you need to take away from your life.

Now it's been said that confession is good for the soul, so hold onto your hat. I have a confession today. Ready? My garage at home is a disaster. Now I don't think you understand. I don't think you understand that my garage is an absolute disaster. I'm in charge of the garage. My wife is in charge of the house. It's fine. But if you go into my garage and you get ready to open the door, you're going to have to bump the door a little hard to push some of the junk out of the way. You've never had a room like that, have you? My garage is absolutely, positively destroyed.

It wasn't always like that. In fact, it was a selling point when Amy and I first bought the home. When we first got there, the guy had built this two-car garage with the proverbial "man cave" (what I'm wanting to make it in the future) up top. He had already pulled all the permits. He had done all the wiring, the foundation. He had built it. Siding, paint, everything. Garage cleaned. Everything neat, swept out. Not now.

You think I'm kidding you. Confession is good for the soul, but I'm telling you, you can take a quarter and you can flip it, and if you hit concrete I'll give you some money. I'm telling you Hoarders needs to be calling me for a show. It's bad, man. It's just one of those things. I had it all clean and in order, and then one day I brought some stuff home and just kind of threw it in there. Have you ever done that? Then the next time you throw something else in there. You go, "Well, I'll get to it. It's just the garage. That's the way we treat it. It's not really our house. Nobody comes out here." Before long, it's just stuff everywhere.