Identity Theft…Pick-pocketed by the Past
To defend ourselves from being pick-pocketed by the past we need to
Receive God’s love
Confess our sins
Receive God’s forgiveness
Accept God’s Purification
Obey God’s Ways
Slide
Good morning
The Story of Dave
I want to begin this morning with a story about a man named Dave.
This is the story of a man who was a godly man. He was used by God in great ways.
He was someone who helped people when they were down.
He was someone who helped people against those who were trying to hurt them.
He was a man who walked by faith.
One weekend, he found himself home alone. HIs wife was gone for the weekend and the guys he worked with were away on business. He should have been off with them, but he was in a bit of a depression. His relationship with the Lord had not been that good for a while and didn’t feel like doing what he should have been doing in his job.
So he was home for the weekend and on the computer. He saw the wife of one of his buddies on Facebook. Her name was Beth and her husband was on the trip that Dave was supposed to be on. He started chatting with her and they were participating in some “innocent” flirting.
She was a bit scared to be home alone, so Dave went to check on things.
One thing led to another and they ended up having an affair.
Making it personal Question
Maybe you have never been involved in an affair, but have you ever done things in your life that seem to have been defining moments in a negative way in your life?
Things that keep you awake at night thinking if you had only acted different
Things that others won’t let you forget
Things that hold you hostage to that identity
Maybe it is an adulterous affair so now you are Joe, the Adulterer
Maybe it is a DUI you received and now you are Alice the Alcoholic
Maybe it is past drug use and all you hear in your head is that you are Scott the Addict
Maybe your history includes jail time and you feel like you will always be Rick the Felon
Maybe in your past you haven’t always acted they way you should or you have acted up when you shouldn’t be and you got labeled as a loser, a problem kid and now you can’t seem to shake that identity, Bill the loser, Jim – the kid nobody wants in their class, Tony – the class clown, or Dan – the “problem” child.
Now while our past may have included things that contributed to those labels, and
while we still face earthly consequences for sinful actions we have taken,
it is Satan who tries to steal the identity that we can have in Christ and tries to pickpocket us by the past -
By the past sins we have committed
“You can never be a good or godly person considering what you have done.”
By past actions we have taken
By the past identities that we have possessed
And he tries to keep us tied to that identity and away from the identity that God has created us to have in Him.
This could have easily happened to Dave just as it seems to happen to us so often, but it didn’t. I want to read to you what Dave wrote after he was eventually confronted by another friend about what he had done and he realized the wrongness of it.
Turn with me to Psalm 51.
Slide
The story I was telling is really a modern day version of the story of King David and Bathsheba.
King David committed adultery with Bathsheba and had Uriah, her husband, killed.
After David sinned with Bathsheba, he did experience some difficult times, but he also went on to reign and rule Israel and see his kingdom continue in his son Solomon.
How did David overcome this terrible sin to go on to be known as David, “a man after God’s own heart” instead of David, a sinful king?
I believe that Psalm 51 gives us some insight into that. This is what he wrote after he was confronted by Nathan and helps give us some insight on how we might defend ourselves against being pick-pocketed by the past.
Psalm 51:1-14
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.
5 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
6 Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.
7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.
10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you.
14 Save me from bloodguilt, O God, the God who saves me, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
Notice first, right at the beginning of Psalm 51, David says
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love (Psalm 51:1a)
David recognized that unfailing love of God’s and knew that God’s incredible and unfailing love was what he needed and that he could only receive that through God’s mercy and grace.
To avoid being pick-pocketed by the past, we need to…
Receive God’s Love
Slide
We, like David, do not deserve God’s love.
But because God is merciful, He has made his unfailing love available to all who will receive it.
That is what John 3:16 tells us.
John 3:16 - "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
We, need to receive his unfailing love.
Without receiving the love God has made available through His Son, we will never be able to have our identity restored to be the person God created us to be.
We will always be the victim of identity theft.
We receive that love by receiving His Son and we are born into the family of God.
The apostle John tells us in John 1:12 that, “all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God”
Children of God born into his family by receiving His love offered through His Son.
Born Again = New Creation
This is sometimes why you hear Christians say they are “born again.”
They have been spiritually reborn into the family of God.
Now that phrase, ‘born again,’ sometimes gets a bad rap, but all it really means is that you are spiritually reborn as a child of God because you have trusted Jesus as your Savior and now have your identity in Him.
If you don’t receive Him, then you are not “born again,” spiritually reborn, and you will not experience the true identity that God has for you as his child.
When Jesus spoke with Nicodemus in John 3, He said, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." (John 3:3)
Being born again is finding our identity in Christ.
Listen to what Paul says in
2 Corinthians 5:17 - Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
God has an identity in Christ for all of us.
Satan is trying rob us of the identity that God has made available to us in Christ.
But to claim that identity we must receive God’s love by trusting in Jesus as our Savior becoming a new creation with an identity in Him
When we do that, we can overcome the labels that past sins and actions have held us hostage to. As Christ strengthens us and we grow in our identity in Him, people will see that we are a new creation.
This is not something that your parents can do for you.
Salvation comes by grace through faith and a true faith will express itself.
Paul tells us in
Romans 10:9 - That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
You will be saved, you will be that new creation, you will be able to find your true identity in Christ, if you confess your faith that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart the truth that Jesus resurrected from the dead.
Have you ever done that?
Have you ever turned to the Lord and consciously confessed your belief that Jesus is your Lord, that you believe He is God in the flesh and that He died for your sins and defeated death by rising from the dead and received Him as your Savior?
If you haven’t, you are not saved. You are not a new Creation. You are not a Christian.
By definition, a Christian is someone who has received Jesus as their Savior and has become His follower.
If you haven’t done that, you can this morning.
You can get the identity that God has reserved for each of us, an identity in Christ Jesus.
If you are stuck with an identity of past mistakes and sins, then be washed this morning and claim the identity God created you to have in Christ by receiving Him as Savior.
I am going to pause and give opportunity to do that for those here this morning.
Pray
Transition
That sounds all good Scott, but I have received Jesus as my Savior and I still struggle with some sins from my past. I feel guilty. I still feel like my identity is tied to my past even though I have received Jesus as my Savior.
That is because even though our sins have been forgiven and the eternal consequences removed, we still sin and that sin has effects upon our life.
We have to continually deal with sin in our life
so that we continue to grow in our relationship with the Lord
so our identity becomes more and more tied to Him and
less tied to the things we have done.
This process of growing is the sanctification process. It is a maturing process in Christ.
So beyond just receiving Jesus as our Savior, we need to be growing in Him.
Now, I want to talk specifically about a few things that will help us avoid being pick-pocketed by the past, even as Christians.
After receiving Christ as Savior, to continue to avoid being pick-pocketed by the past, we need to
Confess our Sins
Slide
Psalm 51:3-4
3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are proved right when you speak
and justified when you judge.
David recognized that he had sinned so he confessed it to the Lord.
Even though we have been forgiven of all of our sins – past, present and future – in terms of our eternity, we still, even as Christians, need to confess and repent of our sins to experience forgiveness on earth.
In John’s first letter, John writes to Christians and says
“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:8-9)
If we are not confessing and repenting of sin, we are going to continually be burdened by the things we do.
Listen to what David writes in another Psalm
Psalm 32:3-5 says
3 When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Selah
5 Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity.
I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD"--
and you forgave the guilt of my sin.
We need to confess our sins.
We also need to realize that to overcome and defend ourselves of being pickpocketed by the past, we need to
Receive God’s forgiveness
Slide
That last line we just read, Psalm 32:5 says “you forgave the guilt of my sin.”
In Psalm 51:14, David says, “Save me from bloodguilt, O God”
David wants God’s forgiveness and is ready to receive it and be free from the guilt that sin brings.
So often, when we have confessed and repented of sin, we continue to go back and listen to Satan saying, “you don’t deserve forgiveness. You are still the same. You are still an addict or killer or adulterer.” We still feel guilty. We need to receive God’s forgiveness and accept the payment for our sin and claim our identity in Christ.
We need to answer Satan with, “Yes, I did commit that sin, but Christ has paid the penalty for my sin and I have been forgiven.”
We need to know the truth of God’s word and commit to our minds and our hearts.
1 John 1:9
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (from New International Version)
When we don’t receive the forgiveness that we have been given, we continue living like we are that old person and our identity is being pick-pocketed by the past.
Consequences of sin
Now, receiving God’s forgiveness doesn’t mean there are no consequences to our sins and actions. But it is not because of a lack of forgiveness that we face consequences, but it is often because we are being purified.
And if we are going to move beyond who we used to be, and defend ourselves from being pick-pocketed by the past, we need to
Accept God’s Purification
Slide
Psalm 51:7-10
7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins
and blot out all my iniquity.
10 Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
We need to let God purify and cleanse us.
1 John 1:9 says that
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
We are forgiven, but the purifying process is usually a painful process that is often worked through the consequences of our sin to grow us and help us so we don’t do that again.
If we did not face consequences for sin, we would often just do it again. That would not good for us. God wants to grow us and purify us and make us more like His Son.
Listen to what the author of Hebrews says
Hebrews 12:7, 10-11
7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. …10b God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
David’s consequences
When David sinned with Bathsheba and he killed Uriah, who was one of his mighty men, he sought forgiveness and his guilt was removed in that He confessed and repented in faith and trusted the Lord and he would not suffer eternal death, but there were still consequences to his sin.
His child died
Now not every death of or problem with a child is due to the parents sin.
When Jesus was asked about a blind man and whose sin it was that he was like that, Jesus replied, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned…but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” (John 9:3)
But David also realized that this separation from his child by death was not for eternity.
After the boy died David said, “I will go to him, but he will not return to me." (2 Samuel 12:23)
David accepted what the Lord was doing in purifying him.
His Son Rebelled and he was cursed
David faced further consequences when his son Absalom rebelled against David and took the Kingship.
As David fled, a man was cursing him and David said in
2 Samuel 16:10-11
If he is cursing because the LORD said to him, ’Curse David,’ who can ask, ’Why do you do this?’"
11 David then said to Abishai (uh bish ay I) and all his officials, "My son, who is of my own flesh, is trying to take my life. How much more, then, this Benjamite! Leave him alone; let him curse, for the LORD has told him to.
David is accepting of the Lord’s discipline in purifying him. Ultimately he knew that the Lord was in control and would use this disciplining as something that could be beneficial to his future.
2 Samuel 16:12
12 It may be that the LORD will see my distress and repay me with good for the cursing I am receiving today."
In the midst of God purifying us through consequences and discipline, we have got to keep an eternal view of things.
Consequences and pain does not mean that we are not forgiven.
More often the consequences are there to purify us from all unrighteousness so that it might benefit us in the future as the Lord grows us and strengthens us to follow Him.
This leads to the final thing that will help us defend ourselves from being pick-pocketed by the past. And that is we need to
Obey God’s Ways
Slide
Psalm 51:12-13
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will turn back to you.
David asks for the Lord to grant him a willing spirit. A spirit that will guide him and help him to know that the joy of his salvation is found in obeying the Lord helping others to obey.
Our focus does not need to be on the past, but upon the Lord and what He calls us to.
Paul, who had sinned against the Lord by persecuting the church and killing its members, said this in Philippians 3:13b-14 – “one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. “
Conclusion
As we keep our eyes on the goal,
We will better understand the Lord’s love and receive that
We can better see our sin and confess it and receive the forgiveness He gives and accept God’s purification from our sin and unrighteousness
So that we can obey Him as He strengthens us and experience our true identity in Christ.
Paul tells Christians in Romans 12:1-2 to offer themselves to the Lord and to be transformed, to be changed, to find your true identity in Christ as we get our thinking straight in renewing our mind on the Truth of who God is and what He has done for us.
Closing Song
We are going to close in worship this morning by singing a new song called The Stand.
(Worship team come up)
This song is really a recognition that
we can really only stand and find our identity in Christ and
the only thing we can do is give ourselves completely over to Him.
I want to read some of the words to you.
The second verse reads
You stood before my failure
Carried the Cross for my shame
My sin weighed upon Your shoulders
My soul now to stand (I stand in my identity in Christ)
So what can I say
What can I do
But offer this heart O God
Completely to You (I recognize that living this life apart from my identity in Christ is pointless)
The chorus is what I would like our prayer to be this morning.
So I’ll stand
With arms high and heart abandoned
In awe of the One who gave it all
So I’ll stand
My soul Lord to You surrendered
All I am is Yours
It is a recognition that
the Lord is the One who has offered forgiveness through His sacrifice and
that we can only find our true identity in Him as we surrender our life to Him.
Won’t you surrender to him and find your true identity in Him this morning?
Let’s worship and make this our prayer this morning as we sing.
