WHO AM I?
(ALL my sermon use illustrations found at www.sermoncentral.com and ALL scripture is NIV unless otherwise noted)
** This sermon was preceded by a Special “Who AM I” by Casting Crowns **
Who Am I? For many teenagers, this is a question that is routinely asked. In High School and even in Middle school kids are labeled by the way they dress, Nice clothes - PREPPY, Dark clothes and stuff - GOTH, Athletic clothing - JOCK, hat backwards, shorts worn low and lots of bling-bling - GANGSTER, and the list goes on, But really WHO ARE THEY?
So many today, claim to be Christians, followers of Jesus, but their actions, lack of church attendance, reluctance to be involved with kingdom building, and unwillingness to give back to God one tenth of what He blesses them with, leave people asking, WHO ARE THEY?
A heavily booked commercial flight out of Denver was canceled, and a single agent was re-booking 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 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.
Christians, what is your identity in Christ? Who Are We? I think the Bible tells us who we are. Those of us that have accepted Jesus in the waters of baptism, who have confessed with our mouths and believed in our hearts.
WE ARE UNWORTHY, RESCUED SINNERS!
The song this morning asks, Who Am I that the eyes that see my sin, would look on me with LOVE, and watch me rise again. We are a flower quickly fading, here today and gone tomorrow, a wave tossed in the ocean, and vapor in the wind. AND YET, the Bible tells us, we are RESCUED FROM DARKNESS!
If you have your Bible with you this morning, please turn with me to the Book of Colossians, chapter 1.
Col 1:9-14 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. 10 And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
PRAYER
Those of us that have accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, and CONTINUE to ABIDE in Him are members of God’s household. Eph 2:19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household,
WHO AM I? I am a member of God’s household, and I have citizenship in God’s kingdom and that brings some immediate benefits:
I. WE SHARE IN THE INHERITANCE
In verse 12 Paul says: who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints. WOW, we share in a great inheritance with others and with Christ! You know when we think of inheritance we naturally think of the amount of money someone might leave for us here on earth. Some sort of treasure that we might have to make our earthly lives a little more enjoyable. BUT, the greatest inheritance we have is the name we are given when we accept our Savior and become a member of God’s household.
One of the great preachers of our time is Dr. Fred Craddock. Craddock tells a story about vacationing with his wife one summer in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. One night they found a quiet little restaurant, where they looked forward to a private meal. While they were waiting for their food, they noticed a distinguished looking, white-haired man moving from table to table, visiting with the guests. Craddock leaned over and whispered to his wife, "I hope he doesn’t come over here." He didn’t want anyone intruding on their privacy. But sure enough, the man did come over to their table. "Where you folks from?" he asked in a friendly voice. "Oklahoma," Craddock answered. "Splendid state, I hear, although I’ve never been there," the stranger said. "What do you do for a living?" "I teach homiletics at the graduate seminary of Phillips University," Craddock replied. "Oh, so you teach preachers how to preach, do you? Well, I’ve got a story to tell you." And with that, the gentleman pulled up a chair and sat down at the table with Craddock and his wife.
Dr. Craddock said he groaned inwardly and thought to himself, "Oh, no! Here comes another preacher story! It seems like everybody has at least one." The man stuck out his hand. "I’m Ben Hooper," he said. "I was born not far from here across the mountains. My mother wasn’t married when I was born, so I had a pretty hard time. When I started to school, my classmates had a name for me, and it wasn’t a very nice name. I used to go off by myself at recess and lunch time because the things they said to me cut me so deep. What was worse was going to town on Saturday afternoons and feeling like every eye was burning a hole through me, wondering just who my father was. "When I was about 12 years old, a new preacher came to our church. I would always go in late and slip out early. But one day the preacher said the benediction so fast I got caught and had to walk out with the crowd. I could feel every eye in the church on me. Just about the time I got to the door I felt a big hand on my shoulder. I looked up and the preacher was looking right at me. ‘Who are you, son? Whose boy are you?’ he asked. I felt this big weight coming down on me. It was like a big black cloud. Even the preacher was putting me down. But as he looked down at me, studying my face, he began to smile a big smile of recognition. ‘Wait a minute!’ he said. ‘I know who you are. I see the family resemblance now. You are a child of God.’ With that he slapped me across the rump and said, ‘Boy, you’ve got a great inheritance. Go and claim it.’ The old man looked across the table at Fred Craddock and said, "Those were the most important words anybody ever said to me, and I’ve never forgotten them." With that, he smiled shook hands with Craddock and his wife, and moved on to another table to greet old friends.
And as he walked away, Craddock – a native Tennesseean himself – remembered from his studies of Tennessee history that on two occasions the people of Tennessee had elected to the office of governor men who had been born out of wedlock. One of them was a man named Ben Hooper.
We share in a great inheritance - 2 Cor 5:21 For God took the sinless Christ and poured into him our sins. Then, in exchange, he poured God's goodness into us!
Living Version
II. WE ARE RESCUED FROM DARKNESS
Verse 13 says; For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness, we NO longer have to wander around as if a child afraid of the dark. Jesus has rescued us!
One of the greatest tragedies for people would be to live in darkness when they could live in the light… Rose Crawford had been blind for 50 years. Then she had an operation in an Ontario hospital. She said, “I just can’t believe it,” as the doctor lifted the bandages from her eyes. She wept - when for the 1st time in her life she saw a dazzling and beautiful world of form and color greeted her eyes and she could now see.
The amazing thing about her story, however, was that 20 years of her blindness was unnecessary. She didn’t know that surgical techniques had been developed, and that an operation could have restored her vision at the age of 30.
The Dr. said, “She just figured there was nothing that could be done for her condition. Much of her life could have been different.”
Because of His Amazing Grace we too can say, “I once was blind, BUT now I see.” That is who we are. Children of an ALL knowing, ALL powerful God, who sent His Son to rescue us from darkness and give us a name to share in.
III. MEMBERS OF AN ETERNAL KINGDOM
Col 1:13 For he has rescued us out of the darkness and gloom of Satan's kingdom and brought us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, (Living Version)
Out of Satan’s Kingdom and into the Kingdom of Jesus. A kingdom that has no end, nothing like anything we could experience here on earth. On Wednesday evening we have studied a little about the kingdom of heaven and Hell, not Hades, but the Lake of Fire mentioned in the Book of Revelation. Those who have accepted Jesus and continue to remain in Him will have the Kingdom of God. This identifies us, we are people with direction, knowing where we are headed. We are children that are sure of the return of our Savior to take us to the place He has prepared for us, a place with many rooms, and a place where there will be NO more pain or suffering. Although our lives here are only for a moment, a “vapor in the wind” our lives in God’s Kingdom will be forever. The Bible tells us that after we leave this world, the next thing is judgment, HEB 9:27 “Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.” We who ARE IN CHRIST, know the verdict. INNOCENT, and we are whisked off to God’s eternal kingdom. I CAN’T WAIT.
Dr. W. A Criswell, Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas Texas, said on one occasion on an airplane flight he found himself seated beside a well-known theologian. He desperately wanted to start a conversation and they did get to talk. The man told Dr. Criswell about how he had recently lost his little boy through death. Dr. Criswell listened as he told his story: He said he had come home from school with a fever and we thought it was just one of those childhood things, but it was a very virulent form of meningitis. The doctor said we cannot save your little boy. He’ll die.
And so this seminary professor, loving his son as he did, sat by the bedside to watch this death vigil. It was the middle of the day and the little boy whose strength was going from him and whose vision and brain was getting clouded said, "Daddy, it’s getting dark isn’t it?" The professor said to his son, "Yes son it is getting dark, very dark." Of course it was very dark for him. He said, "Daddy, I guess it’s time for me to go to sleep isn’t it?" He said, "Yes, son, it’s time for you to go to sleep." The professor said the little fellow had a way of fixing his pillow just so, and putting his head on his hands when he slept and he fixed his pillow like that and laid his head on his hands and said, "Good night Daddy. I will see you in the morning." He then closed his eyes in death and stepped over into heaven.
Dr. Criswell said the professor didn’t say anymore after that. He just looked out the window of that airplane for a long time. Then he turned back and he looked at Dr Criswell with the scalding tears coming down his cheeks and he said, "Dr. Criswell, I can hardly wait till the morning."
Eph 5:5-9 You can be sure of this: The Kingdom of Christ and of God will never belong to anyone who is impure or greedy, for a greedy person is really an idol worshiper-he loves and worships the good things of this life more than God. 6 Don't be fooled by those who try to excuse these sins, for the terrible wrath of God is upon all those who do them. 7 Don't even associate with such people. 8 For though once your heart was full of darkness, now it is full of light from the Lord, and your behavior should show it! Living Version
IV. REDEEMED
Who am I? I am the rescued sinner, who now has an inheritance and will live forever in the Kingdom of God, and I HAVE BEEN REDEEMED. I love the old Hymn, “Redeemed - how I love to proclaim it! Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb; Redeemed through His infinite mercy, His child, and forever, I am!” “NOT because of WHO I AM, but because of what you’ve done, Not because of what I’ve done, but because of WHO YOU ARE!” We are redeemed by nothing we do, but by what Jesus did at Calvary.
When I think of the promises of God, I’m reminded of the story of the young man who had a dream to go to America. He scrimped and saved, and did everything in his power to save enough money to buy a ticket on a boat bound for America. The day came when he had precisely the amount of money needed, and he went immediately and purchased that ticket. The ship was to leave the next day, so with great excitement, and with all of his possessions wrapped neatly in a blanket he boarded the ship, and settled down for his great journey. After the first couple of days, the young man had exhausted the meager supply of food that he had been able to scrimp and save in his blanket, and he began to get hungry. He knew that if he could only survive for a few days more, he would enjoy all the riches that America promised.
It was that evening that a steward found him preparing to sleep in a secluded corner on deck. The steward confronted him, accusing him of being a stowaway. Protesting his innocence, the young man produced his ticket. The steward apologized, but then asked "but why are you sleeping here on deck, when you have quarters below"? When the young man replied that he had only enough money for the passage but no room, the steward explained that the room was included in the price of the ticket. As the steward led the astonished young man to his room, they passed the large dining room where a sumptuous meal was being laid out. The young man peeked in and saw that the room was filling with people, and the steward told the young man that he could be seated for dinner in about fifteen minutes, as that was included also.
So many times we understand that we have redemption, and we look forward to the beauty of Heaven, but we are ignorant of so much that is in between. We fail to grasp all that God has prepared for us.
Folks we are redeemed! Those who have accepted Jesus and been baptized have been given so much more then a promise of heaven. We have access to the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus promised us the One that would remind us of everything that Jesus teaches, the comforter and counselor, His Holy Spirit. We are rescued from darkness, given an inheritance, promised the kingdom and redeemed from our lowly place. AND WE ARE:
V. FORGIVEN
We are forgiven of our sins and told in turn to use the power of God’s Holy Spirit to forgive those who have wronged us. That is WHO WE ARE, the forgiven, who in turn must forgive.
Corrie Ten Boom and her family secretly housed Jews in their home during WW II. Their "illegal" activity was discovered, and Corrie and her sister Bessie were sent to the German death camp, Ravensbruck. There Corrie would watch many, including her sister, die.
After the war she returned to Germany to declare the grace of Christ. It was 1947, and I’d come from Holland to defeated Germany with the message that God forgives. It was the truth that they needed most to hear in that bitter, bombed-out land, and I gave them my favorite mental picture. Maybe because the sea is never far from a Hollander’s mind, I liked to think that that’s where forgiven sins were thrown.
"When we confess our sins," I said, "God casts them into the deepest ocean, gone forever. And even though I cannot find a Scripture for it, I believe God then places a sign out there that says, ’NO FISHING ALLOWED.’"
The solemn faces stared back at me, not quite daring to believe. And that’s when I saw him, working his way forward against the others. One moment I saw the overcoat and the brown hat; the next, a blue uniform and a cap with skull and crossbones. It came back with a rush—the huge room with its harsh overhead lights, the pathetic pile of dresses and shoes in the center of the floor, the shame of walking naked past this man. I could see my sister’s frail form ahead of me, ribs sharp beneath the parchment skin. Betsie, how thin you were! That place was Ravensbruck, and the man who was making his way forward had been a guard—one of the most cruel guards. Now he was in front of me, hand thrust out: "A fine message, Fraulein! How good it is to know that, as you say, all our sins are at the bottom of the sea!" And I, who had spoken so glibly of forgiveness, fumbled in my pocketbook rather than take that hand. He would not remember me, of course—how could he remember one prisoner among those thousands of women? But I remembered him. I was face-to-face with one of my captors and my blood seemed to freeze.
"You mentioned Ravensbruck in your talk," he was saying. "I was a guard there." No, he did not remember me. "But since that time," he went on, "I have become a Christian. I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there, but I would like to hear it from your lips as well. Fraulein,"—again the hand came out—"will you forgive me?"
And I stood there—I whose sins had again and again to be forgiven—and could not forgive. Betsie had died in that place. Could he erase her slow terrible death simply for the asking? It could have been many seconds that he stood there—hand held out—but to me it seemed hours as I wrestled with the most difficult thing I had ever had to do.
For I had to do it—I knew that. The message that God forgives has a prior condition: that we forgive those who have injured us. "If you do not forgive men their trespasses," Jesus says, "neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses." And still I stood there with the coldness clutching my heart.
But forgiveness is not an emotion—I knew that too. Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart. "Jesus, help me!" I prayed silently. "I can lift my hand. I can do that much. You supply the feeling." And so woodenly, mechanically, I thrust out my hand into the one stretched out to me. And as I did, an incredible thing took place. The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes.
"I forgive you, brother!" I cried. "With all my heart!" For a long moment we grasped each other’s hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God’s love so intensely, as I did then. But even then, I realized it was not my love. I had tried, and did not have the power. It was the power of the Holy Spirit.
WHO ARE YOU? Are you a rescued sinner? Have you been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb? Are you forgiven and given the power to forgive others through God’s Holy Spirit. Do you need to make that decision this morning?
INVITATION
