Who Am I
Nehemiah 7:17 Monte T. Brown
June 8, 2008 Sunday Morning
Heart O’ the Hills
Prelude
In this confusing world, that we live in it seems that everyone is searching for who they are.
Not sure what they are suppose to be.
Don’t know if they are to be a man or be a woman, questioning their purpose in life, accusing God of making a mistake, all because they refuse to accept the fact that there is someone smarter and greater than they are.
We have those that do not know what they are to be, changing professions, like changing socks.
We have people confessing that they are Christians, those confessing that they believe in many ways to God, confessing that it does not matter what you call God, because God is in you and God is different to each person.
In reality, they really do not know who they are and why they are here on this place, we call earth. Notes form, Thru the Bible with J. Vernon McGee
Illustration
The French Revolution was not a crusade for religious freedom but an effort to replace religion with reason and rationalism.
France, boasting the largest population in Europe, had trouble feeding its masses. Multitudes, including local clergy, lived in direst poverty while royalty and high church officials—cardinals, archbishops, bishops, and abbots—lived richly.
On June 8, 1794, a disciple of Rousseau named Robespierre and the French National Convention formally inaugurated a new religion.
It was a form of deism. The belief that there is a God who having created the universe more or less disappeared.
The Convention ordered people to recognize the existence of a supreme being and the immortality of the soul, but to reject the “superstition” of Christianity.
The seven-day Christian week was exchanged for a ten-day week, and new holidays were commissioned celebrating the great events of the Revolution.
Saints were replaced with political heroes. Churches were designated Temples of Reason.
A statue called the Goddess of Reason was erected in Notre Dame.
The salaries of Catholic clergy were stopped, and priests were forbidden to teach. June 8 became France’s Holy Day, the Festival of the Supreme Being.
The revolutionaries vowed to replace the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost with a new trinity—Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.
It did not work. Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity deteriorated into fear, bloodshed, and the guillotine. The weeks following June 8, 1794 saw the heads of 1,400 people fall like slates from a roof.
Chaos paved the way for Napoleon Bonaparte who, on May 18, 1804, recognized the church once again. He planned to be consecrated by Pope Pius VII.
But at the last moment, the little dictator took the crown from the pope and set it on his own head. Pius excommunicated Napoleon, and Napoleon imprisoned Pius.
Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity proved inadequate gods, as did Rousseau, Robespierre, and the Revolution—and Napoleon himself. In the end, they offered only misery.
Morgan, R. J. (2000, c1997). On this day: 265 amazing and inspiring stories about saints, martyrs & heroes (electronic ed.). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.
Is this not what is happening today?
There are those that feel a need to change the way we worship God.
Change the way we believe and offer up what they call an alternative to worship.
A new way to look at God.
To embrace Mother Nature and look within.
Let’s look at the Word of God and see if we can find the answer to Who Am I?
Scripture
The sons of Azgad, two thousand three hundred and twenty-two; Nehemiah 7:17
Prayer
Introduction
Who in the world was Azgad?
He was a man who was carried away into Babylonian.
During the seventy years plus or minus a few, his family had multiplied.
Now there were 2,322 descendents and each one of them could say, I am related to Azgad.
This was important because and Israelite could be challenged to prove their heritage.
That person could say, Azgad was my great-great-great grandfather. I know who I am.
1. Who Am I? (Admit)
There are people today who say, Well, I think I am a child of God. I think am saved. I hope that I am saved.
In Nehemiah’s time there where 31,089 people in Jerusalem. (Nehemiah 7:8-62)
I was important to know who you where.
Knowing who you where assured you of your inheritance.
Knowing who you where assured your right to be in Jerusalem.
Sin drives us to the place where most people are.
A place where they feel comfortable:
• Lying
• Stealing
• Being disobedient
• Full of pride
• Cheating
• Neglecting God
So what can a person do?
How can you get out of this place?
How can you get better?
Can I give God something nice to make Him forget my sins?
How about going to church.
Teaching a Sunday School class?
I pray all the time!
I am a church member!
I have been baptized!
I have a position in the church?
You cannot work your way to Heaven
Titus 3:5 says; Not by goodworks which we have done…
Admit to God that you are a sinner!
Sin is something in you that God hates.
You cannot hide it from Him.
Sin leads to eternal separation from God to eternity in Hell.
Romans 3:23 says; For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
Romans 6:23 says; For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.
2. Knowing Who You Are (Believe)
As a Christian, you can know who you are.
1 John 5:12 tells us He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
If you have trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, you have Him and you have life.
If you do not believe what He says, then you are calling Him a liar. If you have put your faith in Christ, you have life on the authority of God’s Word.
And God has written it down. The son of Azgad could say, I know who I am. Look here, my name is written down.
Am not sure if a really am a Christian, but I try to live a good life.
You cannot do it on your own!
God has done it all!
It happened at the cross!
God gave his Son to be your savior.
1 Peter 3:18 says; For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God…
God put Jesus on the cross to die for your sins. He took your place.
Romans 5:8 say; But God commended His over toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Jesus paid for all my sins by dying, shedding His blood, and then rising from the grave and going back to heaven.
Believe, God asks you to believe (trust) Him to take away your sins.
Know who you are! God has created you and He loves you.
Believe and tell God that you accept His Son Jesus Christ as your Savior.
John 1:12 says, As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.
3. Living Who You Are (Confess)
As a Christian, you can know who you are. As a Christian, you can say I am a child of God. God is my father.
Confess your sins to Him.
Confess your sins to Him and ask Him to forgive you of your sins.
Romans 10:9-10 says, For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heat that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.
After you have done this, after you have been given eternal life then live who you are.
Confess that the gift of eternal life is yours.
Living who you are, means that you are Christ-like and you know that Acts says; And anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
Invitation
Do you ask, Who Am I?
Then, Admit you are a sinner.
Do you Know Who You Are?
Have you adapted the views of the world?
If you have, then Believe that God is real and that His only begotten son Jesus Christ died for your sins.
Are you Living Who You Are?
Not by the measure of this world, but by the measure of God’s written Word.
Confess your sins and receive eternal life.
Confess your sins and get right with God.
