What God Says About Your Identity

What God Says About Your Identity

Scripture: Deut. 28:1-14; 2 Cor. 5:20; Rom. 8:35-37; 2 Tim. 3:17

Introduction

I started this series with this end in mind. I wanted you to know that you are not just some “poor human” existing here on earth waiting to die and go to heaven to get your reward. You are not just a "nobody" who exists in obscurity. I wanted you to know from Scripture that you are somebody, that God has placed within you the ability and resources that you need to accomplish His will here on earth. In the first three messages I focused on the dominion that we have been given as Children of God. This morning I will close this series by walking you through a few Scriptures that speaks directly to your identity. I pray that you will prayerfully consider what the Word of God says about you verses what you have always been told. You must decide if you believe the Word of God as it applies to you. There are some people who read the Bible and view it as if they are reading a novel. The things that happened were one time events that applied only to those people in the Bible. When they read the New Testament they do not believe that God is speaking to them individually but that it is just a story of history. I believe that since God does not change (Malachi 3:6) and what He has stated in His Word applies to each of us today as it did for those during the time it was written. Based on this belief, I share with you what he has said about you, me and all those who accept Him through His Son Jesus Christ.

I. The Head and Not The Tail

“The Lord shall make you the head and not the tail, and you shall be above and you shall not be underneath, if you will listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, which I charge you today, to observe them carefully.” Deut. 28:13

“And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs and now all the promises God gave to him belong to you.” Gal. 3:29

The above verse from Deuteronomy come towards the end of a whole list of blessings found in the Deuteronomy 28:1-14 that God told the Children of Israel would be theirs if they kept His commandments. The second verse found in Galatians 3:29 confirm that as believers in Christ, we become eligible for all of the promises God gave to Abraham. This morning I want to look at the promise found in the 13th verse. In this verse God tells the people that they would be the head and not the tail. I want you to think about the difference between the head and the tail on an animal. The head is the key to what the body does. The head enables the rest of the body to operate. The head makes the decisions and takes the lead in everything that goes on with the body. The tail is the posterior part of an animal’s body. It follows the head wherever it takes the body. The tail does not make any decision about what the body does; it just goes where the rest of the body goes which is controlled by the head. With that image, think about what God was telling the Children of Israel as part of the promise He made to Abraham which also applies to us. He was telling them that if they were obedient, Israel would be an independent power and leader among nations. What this meant was they would not be dependent on any other nation to lead them or to give them guidance. They would be in the driver’s seat, not in the back seat. They would be the one in control because they were walking with God in obedience to His commandments.

Now think about that example in reference to driving a car. If you are behind the wheel, you control where the car goes. If you want to turn left, you can. If you want to turn right or make a u-turn, you can. This is not so if you are riding in the back seat. If you are riding in the back, you go wherever the person sitting behind the wheel takes you. Even if you were a back seat driver, you still had no “real” control over where the car went. Before you were saved, Satan was behind the wheel and you went according to where he led you. When you got saved, Jesus kicked Satan out of the front seat, out of the car, and placed you behind the wheel. Not only did He give you the driver’s manual (His Word) so you could learn to drive the car, He left us an instructor to make sure we would not do it badly (the Holy Spirit). Jesus put us in the driver’s seat. We are now in control and we get to decide where the car goes. Satan is on the outside of the car running beside us trying to get us to open the door and let him back in. Don’t do it! Remember the words of the old song that says “Don’t let the devil ride, you let him ride, he’ll want to drive, don’t let him ride.” God has placed us in control. God has established us so that we take the leadership position in the world; we do not have to be followers. It is our responsibility to establish the path for others who do not know Christ so that they may find Him through the example that they see in each of us. God has not made you the tail. He has not placed you in the back seat of the car. You have accepted Christ and you are in the driver’s seat – START DRIVING!!!!! Turn with me to 2 Corinthians 5:20.