Identity Theft
Galatians 2:20
A heavily booked commercial flight out of Denver was canceled, and a single agent was rebooking a long line of inconvenienced travelers. Suddenly an angry passenger pushed his way to the front and slapped his ticket down on the counter. "I have to be on this flight and it has to be first class!" he insisted. "I’m sorry, sir," the agent replied. "I’ll be happy to help you, but I have to take care of these folks first." The passenger was unimpressed. "Do you have any idea who I am?" he demanded in a voice loud enough for the passengers behind him to hear. Without hesitating, the gate agent smiled and picked up her public-address microphone. "May I have your attention, please?" she broadcast throughout the terminal. "We have a passenger here at the gate who does not know who he is. If anyone can help him find his identity, please come to the gate." As the man retreated, the people in the terminal burst into applause.
Are you the victim of
IDENTITY THEFT?
Experts tell us it could happen to anybody. I know that some of you have encountered charges made to a credit card that you did not make.
Identity Theft is a frightening and overwhelming experience if it does happen to you. You may not know it is happening for months or years!
Identity Theft Facts:
10 million victims in U.S
Victims spend an average of $1,500 and 175 hours to recover Total cost - $50 billion.
IN MANY STATES, IDENTITY THEFT IS
NOT AGAINST THE LAW!!
In Identity-theft cases, the victim often has to prove his or her innocence. This shocks most new identity-theft victims. They naturally expect the police, the credit grantors, the credit-reporting agencies and others in high places to help them. But the victim has to prove his or her innocence!
But there is a more damaging, far more dangerous form of identity theft I want to alert you to today – Spiritual Identity Theft.
Spiritual Identity Theft
occurs when someone tries
to rob you of
who you are in Christ.
It is not always the Devil who does this dirty deed although he loves to see it happen. Remember Satan’s modus operandi:
John 10:10
10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy…
(NIV)
We call ourselves “The Church of God”, not because we are being exclusive. We want people to know that this church belongs to God, not us. We do not go by the name of “Community Church” because we do not belong to this community. This community will not dictate what the direction of this church. We seek to be in the world, not of the world! Sometimes we use the slogan that we are “A Community Church Called to Care”, but this does not mean that the community in which we live called the shots for what we do and who we are. We are God’s property, living in this place, trying to be salt and light to the community in which we live. And we must never forget who we are and to whom we belong!
One of the ways he steals your ID from you is
by reminding you of your past.
2 Corinthians 5:17
“…if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;
the old has gone, the new has come!”
(NIV)
When you came to Jesus and invited Him to come into your life, you became a new creation! The person you used to be is gone! You may be in the same body, but you are brand new. So he next time Satan tries to remind you of you past, just remind him of his future!
How do you protect yourself from Spiritual Identity Theft?
Believe the Word of the Living God!
Some people have bought the lie from Hell:
“I’m just a poor sinner saved by grace!” That all depends on where you place the emphasis. If you are just a poor SINNER saved by grace, that sounds as if Jesus did not do for you what the Bible says he did:
I John 3:5-10
5 But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin.
6 No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.
7 Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.
8 He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.
9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.
10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.
(NIV)
If inviting Jesus into your heart only gave you a new title to add to your resume, ten God sure wasted His demonstration of love in sending Jesus. Jesus did not come just so you could remain in your sins! He came so that you can be saved from your sins!
Matthew 1:21
21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."
(NIV)
In fact, the writer of Hebrews says:
Hebrews 7:25
25 Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.
(NKJ)
The Apostle Paul told the people in Galatia:
Galatians 2:20
20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
(NIV)
Never accept the limitations others want to impose on your life!
Sometimes well-meaning people will try to keep your from doing what you know God has called you to do! Slay those well-intentioned dragons and follow Jesus!
Romns 8:1-4
1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,
2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.
3 For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man,
4 in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.
(NIV)
Do not resurrect what Christ has put in the grave!
Romans 8:10-12
10 But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.
11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.
12 Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation-- but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it.
(NIV)
Are you the victim of Spiritual Identity Theft? Come to Jesus now for a fresh ID!
