Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Welcome to the World Changers Church Gold Coast Podcast. Join us as we listen to today's message.
[00:00:06] Good morning.
[00:00:10] Good morning. Good morning. Good morning.
Just look at your neighbor and say good morning.
[00:00:17] Amen.
Oh, man, I forgot how good Fisherman's Friends are.
Those are some minty goodness right there. Praise God.
Well, Father, we just thank you this morning for your presence, for who you are in and around our lives.
We thank you, God, for those that are here with us today, that it's by no coincidence that they're here.
Lord, we thank you for an abundance of things.
Father, we thank you that we almost have more kids than we do adults.
Hallelujah.
And we thank you for the next building that we're about to embark on. Praise the Lord.
Hallelujah. We're going to start praying into that right now in Jesus name. Thank you, Father. Amen.
Or, Lord, miraculously make people smaller, starting with me.
Amen.
All right, so if you're two things, if you're a part of our WhatsApp group, you have the calendar for the year of what God's spoken to us, of what we think and believe that we've received from God about the direction of teaching Invitational teaching on Sunday mornings. We know that at any given moment, God can change our direction based on what's happening in the world. But we believe God's spoken to us about a direction for the believer here at World Changers to when we come back around to Pentecost Sunday next year, that our fire would have been built bigger and that our shadow would stretch out and begin to heal people, and that we would be more than hearers of the Word, but we would be doers of the Word.
So one of the things that God's expressed to me for the next calendar year, from June to June is sonship. Prodigal son return.
And so we believe that all the prodigal sons are going to come back to the house of God.
Amen.
Can you just agree with me right now, in Jesus name, that those that have been abandoned, orphaned, sent out, left out, abused, used, tossed aside, hurt, twisted up, put up, minced up, messed up, cut up, we believe they'll come to the house of God for healing in this next year. Amen.
And that the house of God will not be their place of pain.
And if they are hurt, it will be identified as hurt. Whether it's church hurt, family hurt, or historical hurt, we will see healing in the coming year. Amen. Come on, somebody.
Amen.
So since before Pentecost, we were talking about, we've been Talking about Peter before and after Pentecost and that transition now where we're getting along, Paul's life and Damascus Row. But before we get into all that, I want to just look at identity, A call to sonship.
Now, we're still going to reference that charcoal fire we've been referencing for two weeks. And young adults, you probably have a little bit more insight through your Bible study on past Thursday, and you already know a little bit about this message. So if you're a young adult and would like to be a part of some of the things that are happening in the church, join that group. And you're gonna be, once a month, be let into the insight of the series. Amen.
So I want to start in.
I wanna start at a riverside by that charcoal fire again.
You ever done a barbecue? Not on a flat griddle, but with charcoal?
Yeah. And at first it gets real hot and you're like, how are these little black coals gonna produce heat? And then you keep lighting them and you keep, you know, for some of us, we keep pouring lighter fluid on because it's fun, not because we need to. We just keep gassing it up. And then those coals somehow become these red hot embers that are producing heat without fire. They're burning from the inside.
When you're a son of God, it doesn't matter the circumstance, it doesn't matter whether you're by a seashore or by a river that cool breeze that's blowing on, you cannot put out the burning fire on the inside because you're burning from the inside out.
So the call of God first starts before the movement ever happens.
The call of God starts before one thing ever happens in your life that anyone else can see. It starts burning on the inside.
So we're gonna start with Identity inside this series, the call to sonship. Before God gives an assignment, he gives a name.
Amen.
Look at your neighbor and say, you're a son and daughter of God.
Amen.
Amen.
If you're not, you will be.
So, Jesus, I want to go back to this river. In Matthew, chapter 3, verse 17, where Jesus is 30 years old, he's not preached a sermon. He has not healed one person.
He has not called one disciple.
But by every measure, we see what happens next.
He's done nothing except show up.
And John the Baptist recognizes him.
He follows the procedure. He gets baptized. He comes up out of the water of Jordan, the heaven tears open, and
[00:06:19] the spirit comes down like a dove.
[00:06:21] And the Father spoke over him, and a voice came from heaven and said, this is my son whom I love, and with him I am well pleased.
Two things happened in this moment.
Before he had ever started ministry.
He was given a position, a name, son, and the expression of love before he was ever used.
Amen.
[00:06:53] You keep thinking about what you got
[00:06:55] to do next instead of who you are first.
Amen. Come on, somebody.
[00:07:03] Because we keep going on this rat race of what do I got to do? What do I got to do? Come on. I need to do something. I need to get busy for the Lord. That's because you are caught up in the doing instead of the being.
[00:07:14] Amen.
[00:07:15] What if the whole church body across
[00:07:18] the world got caught up in being a Christian instead of doing Christianity?
Amen.
Come on. I'm going to say come on, somebody a whole lot today.
I'm in my. We have an American back in our house and she's bringing back some Americanisms to me. Amen.
[00:07:37] Yee haw.
[00:07:38] Well, so well pleased, well pleased after. This is my son whom I'm loved. Well pleased.
[00:07:49] Before one miracle, before one convert, before one day in ministry, the Father pleasure
[00:07:57] landed on the son with an empty cv.
[00:08:03] Let that sink in.
An empty cv.
[00:08:09] I am well pleased.
[00:08:11] Can I say to you today, starting
[00:08:13] off, we'll land here again. God is well pleased with you, no matter what you are doing, because he sees who you're about to become.
Amen. Come on, somebody.
Well, thank you. Thank you.
Now watch what happens next, because the order matters. Matthew 4:1.
Then Jesus was led by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
40 days of fasting and then the tempter comes and I want you to hear the first record of his words. In Matthew 4. Three, the tempter came to him and
[00:08:54] said, if you are the son of God, tell these stones to become bread.
[00:09:02] If.
[00:09:04] Did he challenge his ministry?
[00:09:07] Did he challenge his work?
He challenged his sonship.
[00:09:13] See, the enemy will let you go off being busy for the church, not knowing who you are, because you are no threat to him that way.
You running off being busy, you're no threat to the enemy. But you running off being productive, being
[00:09:28] who you are, you gonna mess the enemy up because you're a son or daughter of the Most High.
[00:09:36] Your call first is sonship, to be
[00:09:40] a daughter and a son in whom
[00:09:43] God is well pleased. So isn't it funny that the first thing the enemy challenges is your position with the Father?
[00:09:53] The last word heaven spoke over Jesus was son. The first word hell speaks over him is if I'm going to say that again.
[00:10:02] The first word heaven speaks over him is son.
[00:10:06] The first word hell speaks over him is if.
Do you get me?
[00:10:12] The enemy doesn't open by attacking the mission.
He opens by attacking the identity.
Because he knows something we forget.
If he can unsettle who you are,
[00:10:28] he never has to touch what you're called to do, because the calling falls over on its own.
The enemy doesn't have to touch what you're doing.
[00:10:40] If I could just. If I could just.
[00:10:42] If I could just have that platform.
[00:10:45] If Pastor Kyle just let me preach, if they just let me pray, I know heavens would open and hell about some of us.
[00:10:55] Yeah.
[00:10:55] Okay.
You focus. And guess what you started with.
[00:11:01] If
[00:11:03] your sonship is not tied up in what you're doing, places and opportunities, your sonship is tied up in him and who you are to him.
Amen.
[00:11:16] Come on, somebody.
Last week, we saw the shape of the calling. Six movements that run across the whole scripture. Identity, submission, formation, confirmation, commitment and clarity. Now, if you want me to repeat those, I will. For the next six weeks.
Amen.
Six weeks we're going to talk about six movements. And today it's identity.
And we start where God always starts, not with what he wants you to do, with who he says you are.
Come on, man. I already feel good.
I'm just going to give myself an offering. Hold on, y'. All.
Move it to the other pocket.
[00:12:07] Because underneath the call to preach, to serve, to build, to go, there is a deeper call, the call beneath every
[00:12:13] other call, the call to sonship.
So we have to look at the voice before the work.
We have to look at what's being said. So here's the pattern. And once you see it, you'll see it everywhere. God declares identity there and gives evidence of it every time he speaks.
You know, when the enemy is calling you to do something, you know what it feels like. Let me just give you this example.
God guides.
The enemy drives.
Alex, come here.
So, as a son. This is my son, so this ain't gonna be weird. So when he was little, I walk him around like this.
[00:13:02] Amen.
But if I ever tried to do
[00:13:07] this, he would resist.
[00:13:10] And the reason you're feeling so much resistance and wanting to push back is because it's something that's not guiding you. It's something that's pushing you.
God will guide you.
And so that need to do and to go is because the enemy is saying, you need to do something. You need to hurry up and do something. You need to do something. Because he's worried that in that settling, in that rest, in that still moment, you are going to discover who you are again.
Amen.
And you're just ready to amen what. You're more dangerous when you know who you are.
[00:13:48] Amen.
He spoke well pleased before the work, not because of it.
And he does it with everyone he calls.
You are my child in whom I love and whom I am well pleased.
The first time Jesus ever lays eyes on Peter in John 1:42, he says, and he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, you're Simon, son of John.
You will be called Cephas, which is translated is Peter, which is also translated as the rock.
Dwayne Johnson ain't got nothing on this guy.
This guy has built the church off his shoulders.
[00:14:39] Do you smell? No kidding.
He's called the Rock.
[00:14:47] Before he could ever stand, knowing that he would deny, knowing that he would cut off ears and that he was
[00:14:56] a brutal, sinful man.
[00:14:57] He called him strength before he was ever strong.
[00:15:03] He called him foundation before he was ever built.
[00:15:07] Come on, somebody.
[00:15:10] God is not calling you to become something. He's calling you what you're going to become.
[00:15:17] And that's on him.
Then Peter spends the next three years being anything but the Rock.
I know what that feels like. As a pastor, I believe they're called. We're gonna give them a shot. And then for the next three months, they act crazy.
Just a little confessional moment.
And so did I.
Mama Tina, there for you.
[00:15:48] He was impulsive. He sunk. He swung swords. He denied.
[00:15:54] And Jesus never once takes back the name.
An angel finds Gideon at the threshing, threshing weed in the threshing floor at the bottom of a winepress, hiding in the hole, frightened of his own shadow, and greets him with a straight face. I mean, an angel greets him with a straight face, cowering in a corner, probably curled up in a fetal position.
Judges 6 and 12.
When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, the Lord is with you, mighty warrior.
[00:16:32] How many times you been crying in the shower, crying by your bed, pacing
[00:16:38] your floor at midnight?
And God shows you this.
Amen.
[00:16:44] How many times you've been walking on the beach at sunset or sunrise, talking to the Lord, and he talks to you about strength. He talks to you about who you are. He talks to you about who he is. In the middle of your worst moment, he reminds you of who you are becoming, not what you are in that moment.
That's the call.
[00:17:08] Mighty warrior.
While he was hiding, God names this man inside the moment. Of cowardice.
Well, I don't know if an American can lead a church in Australia.
Well, hello.
[00:17:37] Well, I just don't agree with what he preaches.
[00:17:40] Well, when you get called to this seat and God tells you to lead this church, I will concede.
And you can preach what God's called you to preach. Until then. Thank you, Jer.
[00:17:52] Amen.
[00:17:55] I'm doing what God tells me to do.
Follow that vision together.
Amen.
Jeremiah 1 and 5 says this.
Before I formed you, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you before you were born. I set you apart.
I appointed you as a prophet of the nations.
[00:18:21] He not only knew him, but he talked to him. He set him apart and gave him an office before he was ever born.
[00:18:33] He had to answer it, of course.
[00:18:38] Are you hearing what I'm saying?
God doesn't fate you.
He gives us a path to follow that we choose to follow by our own free will. But once we step into. Into that river, you got a name. You got a purpose. You got power.
You got authority.
[00:18:57] Amen.
Come on, somebody.
[00:19:03] Then God renames Abram, Exalted Father to Abraham, Father of many nations. Genesis 17:5.
While the man has no child, can't have children.
No longer will you be called Abram, Exalted Father.
Your name will be called Abraham, father of many. For I have made you a father of many nations. He was made a father of many nations before he ever had a child.
And then he goes off and try
[00:19:35] and does it his way.
Instead of being that he goes and
[00:19:39] tried to become that.
Do you see the mistake we make in the call all the time?
God says you're called to many nations.
[00:19:49] Well, hallelujah. I'm gonna go everywhere and profess that.
[00:19:51] God says you will be like a warrior.
All these things that people prophesy over you. And you go act out what you think that is.
Let God lead you in what that is. Be a son following a father instead of a son, trying to fulfill a father's will through words you don't even understand yet.
[00:20:11] Amen.
Hallelujah.
So the world runs the opposite way.
[00:20:18] The world says, perform, produce, prove that's
[00:20:22] the system you're coming out of.
[00:20:24] Perform, produce, prove it's a hard system to break.
[00:20:30] And then we'll tell you.
And then we'll tell you who you are, right?
Well, you perform, produce and prove, we're gonna make you vp.
VP of Blahdi Blahdi Blahdi Wing.
Special Operations Director of Blahdi Blahdi Blahdi Wing. And that little title you wear around Like a badge of honor because of all you've done and what you've proven. And then you come into church and it's like, not about what you do.
It's about who you are with him, and he's more than you, and we're lower than them, and we're servant leaders. And you're like, I don't know if I can do that business. People struggle in church.
[00:21:05] Cause it's all about what we do. I said we. I said we.
And then we come here and it's all about who we are and all about who he is and all about how we can serve them.
Them. KPIs don't match.
Amen.
But before we go one step further,
[00:21:28] God speaks a name first, and then you grow into it.
You are not what you do,
[00:21:37] you
[00:21:37] do what you are.
That says a lot about you and what you're doing right now.
Before we go one step further in this series or this series title, when God looks at you, he is not scanning your performance.
He's not speaking over you. What? He's not speaking over you. And if he is speaking over you, what he spoke over his son.
You are loved before you work.
Amen.
[00:22:17] So the reality of the call is that you were adopted, not employed.
Well, I'm a part of the King's
[00:22:27] army as a son, while I'm on
[00:22:33] the mission field doing the work of the Lord, spreading the gospel.
As a son, you talk so much about what you do, you forget who you are. As a son, you are a joint heir with Jesus Christ. Hallelujah.
You inherit all of heaven. I shall supply all your needs according
[00:22:49] to my riches and glory, says the Lord. Philippians 4:19.
[00:22:54] Come on. You have access to the greatest bank account that was ever opened. Its pin number is Jesus. It's passcode is the blood.
[00:23:04] Amen.
Come on, somebody.
But Paul takes it further.
[00:23:11] See, what you missed here is you
[00:23:12] don't know your Bible well enough to know its history. And I say that very comfortably and confidently. But I'm not shaming you.
When Paul wrote in Galatians 4, 4 through 7, he was speaking to a people under Roman law.
So for when us, we say adopted, we think orphan, we think homeless, we think battered, we think dirty little kid in the street, right? No, when he spoke it, he was speaking it as a slave child that was bought.
[00:23:45] Now being all debts paid for the family, all debts settled, case settled.
[00:23:52] And now being equivalent to a son as any other child in that house.
But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those under the law that we might receive adoption to sonship bought out of slavery.
Case settled, debt paid. Now a member of the house equivalent as any bloodborne son.
Paul goes on to say, because you are his sons, God sent the spirit of his son into your hearts. And the spirit who calls out, abba, Father.
Let's go on to the next verse. So you are no longer a slave, but God's child. And since you are his child, God has made also an heir.
[00:24:49] So you didn't just get access to the house, you got access to the inheritance.
That's so good. Praise God. Hallelujah. I'd be coming out of my skin right now like, ah, Man, that's so good.
[00:25:10] I gotta take that in myself for a second. Y' all hold on me and Jesus.
Oh, Lord, I just gotta take that in.
[00:25:18] Just take that in.
[00:25:20] Paul wrote to a Roman world, and Roman adoption was a serious legal act.
His readers know exactly what he was reaching for.
When a Roman father adopted a son, the old life went away. Amen.
[00:25:38] So you are chosen. Debt's gone, new name, full heir irreversible.
[00:25:43] And this is the picture that Paul's painting.
I'm going to say it again. You are chosen.
[00:25:49] Debt's gone, new name, full heir, irreversible.
No wonder you're struggling.
You coming from begging for bread to someone offering you a full buffet.
You went from being, you know, only getting a little bit of water in your hands to every juice box you ever wanted.
[00:26:14] No wonder you struggle with this reality.
[00:26:17] And no wonder you're still trying to prove it. But God said, for you are my son, in whom I love, in whom I am well pleased.
[00:26:25] You are chosen.
[00:26:26] Debt gone, new name, full air, irreversible.
You got to get who you are
[00:26:35] grounded down in you before you take your next step.
Amen.
[00:26:42] Then Paul picks.
[00:26:43] Then we look at Roman Romans 8, 15, and 17. Says it again.
The spirit you receive does not make you slaves.
Adopted, not employed so that you live in fear. Again, rather, the spirit you receive brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, abba, Father.
[00:27:04] The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit
[00:27:08] that we are God's children.
Then it goes on to say this. Now, if we be children, then we are heirs. Heirs of God and coheirs with Christ. And indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
Romans 12:1 2 talks about a living sacrifice.
We don't have to lay our lives down physically.
[00:27:30] We just have to lay our lives
[00:27:31] down and surrender to him.
And I'm not going to say anymore till next sermon.
Amen.
[00:27:40] So if we're not careful, we'll be living in the house, free from debt,
[00:27:46] free with an orphan heart.
See, that's what most mingled scripture. And all this wishy washy stuff that everybody wants to feel.
I gotta feel something.
That's what it gets mingled with.
[00:28:05] Because you got an orphan heart, you're
[00:28:06] still trying to prove you belong.
Got quiet in here.
But here's the danger. You live in the Father's house and still think you're staff.
Jesus told the story about that.
I'm going to take a glass of water. I'm getting in somebody's cookie jar. Praise the Lord.
Luke 15.
The Prodigal Son.
But it's really a story about two lost sons and only one of them ever left home.
Let's look at Luke 15:29.
Here it is.
Look at the older brother. He hears music, finds his brother his home, and a fatted calf is on the fire. And he's furious.
Listen to his complaint.
But he answered his father.
[00:29:05] Look, all these years I've been slaving
[00:29:07] for you and never disobeyed your orders.
Yet you never gave me even a
[00:29:12] young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.
[00:29:18] Not even a pigeon, a lump of coal.
[00:29:22] Can you almost hear it?
I've worked so hard. All these years I've been slaving for you.
He is the heir of the entire state. Never left home.
[00:29:38] And he's been keeping score like a hired hand.
[00:29:44] He wasn't working because he loved his Father. He was working to prove that he was worthy to be there.
[00:29:51] We need to work like we love our Father.
[00:29:55] Not like we're trying to prove that we belong there.
[00:29:58] Come on, somebody in the house, but not at home.
[00:30:07] He was in the house, but not
[00:30:08] at home in it. Serving the Father without enjoying the Father's presence.
And he hears the Father answer in verse 31.
My son, the Father said, you're always with me, and everything I have is yours.
You ever met a Christian get mad about somebody else getting appointed to pray when they've been waiting for years to pray.
They've been praying every Sunday. Lord, Heavenly Father, holy of hosts, surrounded by angels, seraphims and seraphims laced with gold and silver.
[00:30:46] There's no iron in your presence for moth, and rust does not come near you.
[00:30:52] And then here comes John. I don't know if you're John in here, but yes, there is a John. Here comes John, he ain't prayed a day in his life. He's crying and the pastor says, come on up here and pray.
[00:31:03] He stutters the whole way, crying out all places, nose and eyes. Lord, I just love you so much.
[00:31:11] Everybody claps and you're mad because you've been praying all those lofty prayers all those years and never got your shot up front.
Sound familiar?
I'll get there.
That's what an orphan heart looks like.
And you carry it straight into church.
It serves to be seen. It works to be approved. It compares because its worth is found in the performance.
Then every other servant is competition.
It can't celebrate someone else's fatted calf because it's still resenting the goat it never got.
And here's the father's answer. My son, you are always with me and everything I have is yours.
Sounds like Martha and Mary, doesn't it?
Martha's getting mad at Mary because Martha's serving everybody, keeping the house in order,
[00:32:15] getting everything done by perfection.
[00:32:17] And there's Mary, just sitting at his feet, do eyed.
And then she's the one that gets rebuked.
Martha, because she didn't know how to sit at his feet while she served.
Amen.
[00:32:34] Come on, somebody. That's so good.
I'm feeling convicted, condemned. And I don't know if I need to repent or shout. Do both.
It feels good. Repent is not a dirty word. It's just a change of heart and mind.
[00:32:51] Last week I said, if you chase the calling before you've settled the identity, you'll make the calling the thing that proves your worth.
I can't carry that anymore because this is what happens. Ministry from an orphan's heart becomes identity proof.
Ministry has broke me as a pastor because I have these expectations on me.
Everybody walks through the door, where's the pastor? I like to hide. So y' all don't know who I am.
[00:33:22] Well, see the doorman over there? He's the pastor. Really? I met him out in the park.
[00:33:26] Praise the Lord. I don't like looking like the pastor.
[00:33:29] Cause then the moment I become the pastor, there's all these expectations that come on my shoulders from you. He's gotta shake my hand, he's gotta call me. He's gotta be there when I'm sick.
[00:33:38] He's gotta be at the hospital.
[00:33:39] He's gotta marry me, he's gotta bury me. He's gotta help me with my finances. He's gotta be my coach. He's gotta be my life coach. He's gotta be my counselor. He's gotta be my servant. And you know what? Don't let him dare ask me for money.
Paul's.
[00:34:01] That'll be in the giving message way down the line.
And that's all folks.
[00:34:09] Last week. So it drives you to burn out
[00:34:16] trying to prove yourself to everybody.
[00:34:19] I don't believe in burnout. Well, that's good, because you ain't doing nothing.
[00:34:27] When it's hard and to.
That was mean.
[00:34:35] Downright mean, Kyle. Shame on you.
[00:34:38] Tina was not here to tell me that that was mean.
[00:34:45] The orphan works for the father's approval.
[00:34:47] The son works from it.
I'm going to say that again.
The orphan works for the father's approval. The son or daughter works from it.
Same work, different engine, and definitely different oil.
Look at what happens here with the prodigal son. The father runs now the younger son, because he shows us the other version of the same mistake, the same side of the story.
In a far country, starving in a pig pen, he comes to his senses and he writes a speech.
Let's look at Luke 15, 18, 19.
I will set out and go back to my father and say to him, I mean, he probably practiced this with a pig.
Come here, Beulah.
[00:35:44] Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.
[00:35:49] I am no longer worthy to be called your son.
Make me like one of your hired servants.
Practiced it.
[00:35:57] Practiced it on the road.
[00:36:00] Do you see what that is? A job application.
He is not planning to come home as a son. He's decided sonship is forfeited and he settled for employment. I'll work off my debt.
I'll earn my keep. I'm demoted.
I'll be the least in my house.
And plenty of us have prayed that same prayer. God, I know I've blown it.
Just let me serve somewhere.
I don't expect my relationship with you back. I just need to know that I'm in your good graces again.
Can't handle feeling the way I felt.
That's a job application.
Now look at what the father does with that speech. Verse 20.
Father been waiting every day, all day. At the end of the day, looking out at that road. And here's what he says in verse 20.
So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him. He ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
A Middle Eastern patriarch did not run.
Okay.
[00:37:16] What they wear, it would look like this.
[00:37:19] Okay. Cause it's like a skirt down to here.
[00:37:21] He probably Ripped that thing.
I'm preaching. I am preaching. I need to give a visual. I'm not trying to be comedic because I'm about to be hard on him in a minute. All right? So he takes that thing, he grips it, and he goes off on a run.
[00:37:36] Amen.
[00:37:38] Do you understand what he had to do to go off on that run?
He had to break every rule of being a father for a son that had broken the law and run towards him when God sent his son. That was the father running towards you.
He broke everything, including his son, to get to you.
[00:38:07] Come on, somebody.
It was beneath dignity.
[00:38:13] He would have had to tear his robes. The father doesn't care. His son starts the speech.
[00:38:17] Father, I've sinned.
[00:38:20] I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.
[00:38:22] And never gets the hired servant line out.
Look at what he says.
Quick, bring my best robe.
Put it on him.
[00:38:30] Put my ring on his finger. Start a fire. Put my sandal on his feet.
Do you hear me?
Wallowing in slop, lost all of his inheritance, gambling, drinking and everything else.
Comes back ready just to submit as a slave. And he says, build a fire. Put a calf on it. Here's my ring. Here's my robe. Here's my sandals. You are reestablished back in the home, my son.
Did it give him the right to go off and do all that? No. But he came home.
And when you come home, when you repent and turn from what the world has led you in, when you realize what grace has done for you and come home.
[00:39:25] Whoo.
The debt was already settled before he even came home.
[00:39:29] I bet you his father was preparing his own speech.
[00:39:31] When he gets home, I'm gonna throw
[00:39:33] my robe on him.
[00:39:34] I'm gonna give him my sandals. I'm gonna give him my ring.
[00:39:37] I'm gonna find my best calf, and
[00:39:38] we're gonna have a party.
[00:39:39] God, bring him home. God, bring him home. God, bring him home.
The plan of what was gonna happen in the father's heart was already settled before the son ever wrote his speech.
And when Jesus died on the cross, the same thing happened for you.
Quit letting the enemy challenge your identity and making you run from home. Run home.
[00:40:08] Every item in that sentence. The robe, honor restored.
The ring, family seal, authority to act in the father's name restored.
The sandals.
Sons wore sandals. Servants went barefoot.
The boy asked for a job, and the father gave him back his name.
It's the same move Jesus makes with Peter at the charcoal fire.
He doesn't open with an assignment. He opens with a relationship. Do you love me?
[00:40:43] Yes, Lord, I do.
[00:40:46] Do you love me?
[00:40:47] Yes, Lord, I do.
[00:40:50] Do you love me?
[00:40:51] Yes, Lord, I do.
[00:40:54] Then feed and tend to my sheep.
Follow me.
Restoration in the kingdom always runs in that direction. Sonship first, assignment second. Never in reverse.
Quit trying to work for what God has given you.
Grace supplies.
Faith receives.
Let me say something to you. Sons carry calling. Orphans carry burdens.
So why is Identity. Is this good?
Okay. All right. So why is identity in the first six movements of the call?
Because every other movement sits on that floor.
You don't know who you are. You can't do what you're called to do.
You can try.
Heck, you can even try and do what somebody else is called to do. You can even make it just like it. You can even copy their marketing. And guess what? You ain't gonna be able to do it.
If it ain't your business plan, don't try and do it.
Do what God's called you to do. Submission is the next movement. Where we go next week. Sons can surrender because you can hand your will to the Father, your trust.
That's what's holding most of us back.
I remember praying by a tree when my heart was failing me.
Man, I've been in and out of hospital so much.
This is where it gets real. I'm gonna get a little vulnerable. On, boy. I ain't gonna cry. I'm gonna try not to, all right? I'm laying by this tree. My wife, you know, we argued for the 15th umpteenth time, and I was feeling sorry for myself.
[00:42:50] And she's like, you just need to get up on your feet and, you
[00:42:53] know, be a man of God.
[00:42:56] I just can't.
[00:42:58] Sat down by that tree. Cold night. Looked over in the shadows, said, lord, just take me home.
His answer, really?
Well, no, not really.
Didn't think you'd respond to that.
Was that a squirrel?
And then prayed a little further. I said, well, God, what am I supposed to do?
His first response was, get up, got up, Go inside, went inside, get your Bible. Got my Bible.
And I read these verses.
For this is my son, whom I love and am well pleased. He said, you think what you're doing, how your heart's failing you has anything to do with who you are?
You settle who you are, and I'll fix all that that happened. Now they can't figure out what happened in my heart.
They just. You were dehydrated.
Honey, I died and had a heart attack and was raised from the dead. I wasn't dehydrated.
Okay.
Amen.
Well, you were dehydrated. I went into a hospital with. What was it? Right ventricular afibrillation and all that. Kind of crazy. Yeah, my heart was dancing against itself.
You were dehydrated. You know what? I know I settled my identity and it took the weapon of the enemy out of my soul.
He had a hook and an anchor in there because he had challenged. If you are a son.
The moment I settled who I am, my heart healed.
The moment I settled who I am, life changed.
Get that?
Next thing that happens in this modality is formation, the hidden years. Sons can grow in the quiet because hiddenness with the Father isn't rejection, it's raising.
Next place we'll go to is confirmation, commitment and clarity.
Watch how it held for Jesus in Luke 4:1. He went to the wilderness full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. Look at Luke 4 and 14.
He came out.
Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. Go back Luke 4:1.
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left Jordan, was led into the Spirit. He didn't say he was full of power. He had not performed a miracle.
Now, here's the thing that most theologies will argue about is the testing period.
Can I ask you a question?
Who's the youngest member of our church?
There's a baby in here somewhere. Yeah. Not Paddy.
Yeah, we got a baby. Micaiah, would you hand her a set of keys and tell her to drive a car?
No. There's a raising that happens and then say, jojo, who's got the most expensive car in the house? Just think about it. Somebody's got a Bentley, we're believing for it. We're manifesting. No, I'm just kidding.
[00:46:18] Would you hand those keys to Jojo that hasn't drove in two years and
[00:46:22] say, go drive it. He's driven in two years.
I don't know. He's driven in. Not in the last six months. I wouldn't let him drive my truck, nor much less a bicycle. I'm just kidding with you.
I'm kidding with you, son. Y' all were like, you're so mean.
[00:46:37] That's okay. Give him the keys to your car.
All y' all calling me mean. Get your rocks, get ready to throw em. Give him the keys to your car.
Preach.
[00:46:48] Uh huh. You wanna judge me?
I don't even know what time it is. We're gonna finish this message. All right, so here's the thing. Here's the thing we then tell Christians,
[00:47:00] you got everything you need.
[00:47:04] You do.
[00:47:05] Here's the keys to the kingdom.
[00:47:06] Now you just go do.
[00:47:08] That is so backwards.
[00:47:10] Even under the grace theology, you have
[00:47:13] got to learn, you've got to submit, you got to know who you are. It's got to form, it's got to be confirmed, it's got to be commissioned and then released. Amen.
[00:47:28] Oh, my goodness.
[00:47:30] Who does all that?
[00:47:31] The Holy Spirit.
[00:47:32] He went into the wilderness and came out with power.
You're so whining about the trials that you go through, and you don't realize that what the enemy's doing for you is testing the very thing in you and drawing it from without of you. And if you stay in faith in what God has done in you, and that's all you have to do. Stay in faith, believe in grace, Stay in faith, believe in grace. Stay in faith, believe in grace, and that will pour out of you after you come out of that trial.
[00:48:00] Amen.
Three times the enemy threw if you are the Son of God, if you are the Son of God, if you are the Son of God, at him.
And not once did Jesus defend his identity or perform a miracle to prove it.
He stood on the Word and the voice that spoke over him.
Man, I'm so glad I'm done.
Praise the Lord. Thank you, Michelle. You're right on time.
Amen. But in First John 3, one look at this.
The wilderness could not take for him what performance never gave him.
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God.
And that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
That last line in John, making sure you don't read it as poetry, and that that is what we are.
That is what we are, sons and daughters of God.
So let me show you one more thing, and then we'll respond.
Three years after Jordan's baptism, Jesus had preached, healed, been celebrated, been rejected. The cross is now only months from him and the hardest assignment in history.
And on the mountain the Father speaks audibly to him. The second time, Matthew 17:5, while he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them. A voice from the cloud said, this is my son, whom I love. With him I am well pleased. Listen to him. Same words, word for word, from the baptism to the mountain.
And the Father's sentence over the Son has not changed by a syllable before the work. Well pleased in the middle of the work. Well pleased. Your performance in between does not get to edit The Father's sentence over you.
The reason you can leave sin behind is because it doesn't edit the Father's sentence over you. What it does is take you into the if zone.
If I am a son, how could I do this if I was a son, how can I do this if sin takes you into that if place?
That's why you avoid sin.
[00:50:44] Because sin challenges your identity and sin
[00:50:47] challenges your relationship with God.
[00:50:49] The reason you have freedom from sin is because it no longer has dominion over you and you are given an identity that that gave you power over it.
Amen.
And the reason you're able to flee from it is because you run to the Father and the Father runs to you.
Man, this sounds pretty foolproof.
As long as you show up.
Wait a minute.
Did the plan happen before I even showed up?
[00:51:20] For when I.
[00:51:21] When we were yet sinners, he died
[00:51:25] on the cross for us.
The Father's plan, before the son ever came home was, when he gets here, I'm going to do this.
Repentance is not the act of you receiving forgiveness that was given on the cross.
Repentance is the act of you returning back to the forgiveness you already have.
Change your ways, change the way you think and change your heart and everything in your life changes.
You keep trying to earn forgiveness when the debt's paid. You just need to repent, change your mind, change your heart.
Forgiveness and the debt for sin has been paid once and for all. Doesn't give us the right to go sin. It doesn't. It just means if we go out, there's a way back.
Somebody better give the Lord a hand clap of praise.
Here's a question this week. Which voice are you living under?
Because there's a voice that talks to you in ifs.
If you were really called, if God actually loved you, if. If they knew what you were really like. Every if you are in your head has the same author and he hasn't changed his opening line since the garden, the wilderness, and today, if that's what God really said, if you are the son of God, and if you hadn't have messed up so much.
Same author, same opening line.
And there's a voice that talks in declarations. You are my son, you are my daughter, you are loved in whom I'm well pleased.
So maybe you're the sibling that's been in church your whole life and never done a wrong thing. And somebody comes in as a younger brother and just radically gets changed and you see fire in them you ain't seen in years. And instead of being excited.
You start thinking they're going to take my place because you have an orphaned spirit, not the son of adoption and sonship over your life.
We need to celebrate each other's wins.
Amen.
Because if you win, I win.
We win, they win.
Amen.
So no matter who you are or where you're from, what you did last week or last summer, it's time that you stop letting the past determine the present or the future. Because God is not speaking in pretense of what you've done. He's speaking in declarations of who you are.
He's not even speaking in a future state of even what you become.
[00:54:18] What you become is because you decide to.
[00:54:20] But he is speaking as a declaration over your life.
You don't have to earn it.
You just gotta say, lord, I receive.
I receive what grace has given.
You don't have to work for it. You don't have to prove it.
[00:54:40] Does that mean you don't work? No.
[00:54:43] A father that works in the same house, I mean a son that works in the same house, one will serve like a slave, one will serve like a son, but they both serve.
Sonship doesn't remove the work. It just removes the reason for the reason that we do what we do.
We work from love.
Amen.
So, Father, I thank you this morning for the message that we've received about sonship.
Thank you, Jesus.
[00:55:17] Thank you for tuning in to today's message. To connect or find out more, you can reach us online at worldchangers Life. Remember to subscribe for more uplifting messages from our pastoral team. And may you continue to walk in faith and transformation until we meet again.
