Best Church in Norris City for families | Identity Theft
Hey, good morning everybody. It’s good to see everybody this morning. Hey man, everybody doing good? Praise God, it’s a good day. Enjoy being in the house of the Lord. Uh, I just liked church. Is that okay? People say, you know, you’re addicted to church. Yeah, now I am. I like it. I like God’s people too, by the way. How many hours you’d love the church? Not People. So I’m glad. I don’t believe that can happen for praise. God. Let’s, uh, I want to open up this morning. We prayed for the, uh, Best Church in Norris City for families the team this morning and the first service and I just would like to unite all of our prayers and faith. I’m over this trip. You know, we just had a group come back from India just was it just two weeks ago? No longer than that. Hasn’t? No. Okay. Best Church in Norris City for families Let’s just pray.
Dazzling brilliance going on. Let’s just pray for this because you know what? Best Church in Norris City for families I learned something at a conference a couple of weeks ago that we have no right to something that we don’t pray about. Is that not true? I mean, we have the right of prayer and it gives us ownership when we pray, so let’s get, let’s pray for the people and the in the trip. Father, in the name of Jesus. Father, we just thank you for this group that’s going. Father, we thank you for the vessels that have set aside this time to go minister in and to advance the kingdom in your name. Father, we thank you for protection about them. We thank you that their bodies are healthy and whole. Father, spiritual protection over their lives. That favor they’ll find that wherever they go. And father we thank you for the miracles, the salvation, the healings, deliverances, all the things that are going to take place this week. We thank you father, that is true you by you in for you and we thank you for these things. Best Church in Norris City for families In Jesus’ name. Amen. Amen. I’m excited to hear what they’re going to come back with and what they’re going to say. Excuse me. This morning’s message. If you had to give it a title, we’re going to talk about identity theft, identity theft, and that, uh, I did some research on this and we’re going to look into this a little bit further, that if you have your bibles, turn to Galatians chapter four, verse six. Police.
I made all my mistakes in the first service. So this one should go pretty good. Okay. Got The kinks worked out and what chokes didn’t work and you know, that kind of thing. Galatians four, Galatians chapter four, verse six. And as I was studying this, you know this, Best Church in Norris City for families some of us have been in church a while. Okay? We’ve been, we’ve gone to church for a lot of years in our lives and it’s just, we do the church thing sometimes and it’s good to go back and I love the song. We sang in praise and worship about the blood.
Awesome song that’s altar call music to me, because when you stay the blood and know what it gives you, it just refreshes you and just like, wow, the blood is still what it’s all about. Not just to get saved with, but to be empowered with right what Jesus did for you and I, and so this first has to do with just that, that access we now have to the father about sun ship being sons and daughters of God and it says, and because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his son into our hearts crying, Abba, father. We have a father. Best Church in Norris City for families Amen. He’s God’s not angry with me. He treats me like a son. He treats you like a daughter. That’s how he rolls with assess how he works with us and as much as I realized at one time I needed him. He wanted me.
He wanted you, amen, and the blood of Jesus did that for us. Therefore you are no longer a slave, Best Church in Norris City for families but a son and emphasis on then an heir through God. So we have an inheritance. We had this, all this stuff that God provided for us, but the amplified Bible, I really liked the way it expounds on it and it says in God because you really like that word. Really. That’s where we used a really know God’s saying, really, really, truly, this is from the heart. We are his sons. God sent the Holy Spirit into a holy spirit of his son, into our hearts, crying, Abba, father. Therefore you are no longer slaves are bond servants, but a son. Best Church in Norris City for families They’ll follow the progression and if a son then it follows that you are an error by the aid of God through Christ. Praise God, so it wasn’t just about sun ship and becoming children of God.
Now it just goes to follow that. We now have the inheritance. We have what we need in our lives. God’s provided so much for us. Is that not true, but it’s our responsibility to inherited. That’s where the rubber kind of begins to come in, doesn’t it? And See, and sometimes when people don’t receive things from God, then God really didn’t mean for them to have that. That’s not true. He, he meant for all of us to have it. We are all a part of the children and sons and daughters and children of God. It’s for us, Best Church in Norris City for families but we had to connect with that or we’re not going to receive it, but the downside is, or the other side of the coin is there is an enemy that wants to steal from us. In John Ten, 10 is a verse that we’re going to read. We’ve heard this in church and preached a lot, but it’s absolutely true.
The thief comes only in order to steal, kill, and destroy. If you wonder how he operates, how he rose, how he works, he wants to steal. Amen. That’s what he does and how he knows he’s pretty good at it. He knows you and I. He knows how to take or try to begin to take things from us. He’s. He’s had a long time to do this. I used to work it out yc Harrisburg, and we had a kid come in one time and he was bragging how good the thief he was and I was looking around where we were at. I said, you can’t be that good. You’re in here. Well, and then all of a sudden you want to change the story. If you’re that good, why did you get caught? Best Church in Norris City for families You know, so anyway, this is the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy the amplified version. It says, the thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy, and Jesus says this, I came that they might have an enjoy life to overflow and I think that’s where we can measure ourselves. That how much are we really enjoying life? I think that’s a way we can measure just how much of an overflow or how much the life of God is really working in us. How many know sometimes life can get hard, it can get tough. I mean there’s things on jobs, there’s pressures, there’s aches, pains, there’s husbands, wives, there’s, there’s children, there’s all kinds of stuff that come in and come towards us and we don’t really enjoy life as much as we should.
I can become disconnected from. Best Church in Norris City for families This is what’s been provided. The conference we were in just a week ago or so, Chris Hodge, the pastor of a church around 22,000 people. He said, sometimes you need a breath of fresh air.
Eat a breath of fresh air to revive and stir up the life that’s been given to us. Is that not true? So I began to look at this information about, you know, our information being stolen, identity theft. I went on some websites, found some interesting numbers. If you’re a numbers person, you can write these down if you want to. Is said that in 2012, 12 million people were victims of identity theft. 12 million. Okay. To the tune of $21,000,000,000, Best Church in Norris City for families that’s a lot of money. It’s a lot of dough. Okay. I’ll because someone has a flashback, that’s all because someone got just a little bit of a piece of information from you and we’re able to drain your accounts. We’re able to go and open accounts in your name by taking just a little bit of information from you. I personally know at least three people who’ve been affected by identity theft and it took a long time to get their name accounts everything back like it was supposed to.
You see? So we can’t afford to let this information of this word get away from us. It is truly what it says. It says what it means. It means what it this is it. Now, one in 40 children will have their identity stolen from them where an adult opens an account with their social security number and begins to rob from children as well. I thought that was huge. I’ve never heard of that before, but all these websites said the same thing and that was the villages about protecting your information. It’s yours, it’s you. It’s how you identify yourself and if someone takes that, they begin to wreak havoc in your life. Well, that’s no different spiritually. If the enemy can get certain pieces of information from you that he just won’t steal in one area, he’ll do what he’ll still in a bunch of areas.
Is that not true? And it’s not just that our piece gets taken from us. What? What’s left in place if peace is gone is chaos. So we’ve had our piece taken from us that opens the door for chaos, fear and everything else to enter in. Is that not true? If he steals our joy, that means we’re going to be weak. Is that not true? So what we find out is we have to be careful about our information and make sure we hang onto it. I reached in my pocket a couple days ago and I pulled out some ids. These are legal. Well, sorry. Two of them are legal. Ids. One’s a Sam’s card.
Hey. Okay. But I mean those. The picture on the back of the Samskara does not exactly high definition. It’s a little. It’s a little fuzzy. Okay. That’s that. That’s me and. But what does this give me? Authorization to do shop in Sam’s Club. Right. Follow the follow the progression where I have authority now to go in and shop in Sam’s. Okay. Let’s do away with that one third service. We not get that one. That wasn’t there yet. I have a ID card and also have a driver’s license. Your driver’s license is a valid id. Okay. It’s been given to you. You have access to one when you’re 15. Man, this is the piece of plastic you want. Is that? Not sure. I tried to remember if they had plastic and these were plastic. When I got my driver’s license, I don’t know, they weren’t, didn’t even have plastic back then and I don’t, it’s been a while. Okay.
I think it was a card with plastic a overt when len. Yeah, there you go. Okay. And so you, you got this thing and this authorized you to drive legally on, you know, with, you know, with your car and all. So I was coming out of Harrisburg this morning, uh, at a fairly good rate of speed and no seatbelt and I looked to my left and there’s someone there who I would have probably had to hand this to him if he had pulled me over and I prayed for grace and mercy. Man, you can go into recession session quick. Would you see I didn’t mean father, I’m sorry. And so I’ve got this legal id here and it is a legal form of identification. It has a picture on it now. I don’t know too many people. Best Church in Norris City for families How many likes their driver’s license picture? You do it.
It ain’t, it ain’t pretty, but it’s me. Okay. And I thought about putting it up on the screen. I realized that that’s really too much information they’re willing to put out and plus the picture would be kind of rough anyway, but whether I like it or not, Best Church in Norris City for families this picture is made and it would be ridiculous for me to go around and show someone Ted’s Id to somebody and say, this is me. We don’t really kind of favor a whole lot. We don’t look alike, but so many times we try to find our identification from people and they just don’t have the authorization to give us our identity. They don’t have it. You know, they’ve not been authorized, but the god, our creator, our designer, the one who knew us, informed us in fashion, descend the wound, has the authority to give us our identity. Best Church in Norris City for families Is that not true?
He has the authority to do so because he designed us. Now, if you, if you have trouble with your DVD player at home, don’t call me to ask me how to fix it because I don’t know. I didn’t design it. I didn’t create it. I will refer you back to the handbook that will have all the troubleshooting in the back, right? That nobody reads and there’s usually a number that you call and they’ll help walk you through the equipment failure and what will they walk you through the lists of troubleshooting on the back of the page. Is it plugged in? Is it turned on? Why? Because they have knowledge of how they’re designed, how it works, and who better to know how to fix us than God himself. Best Church in Norris City for families I’m just a firm believer that were at different levels of, okay, we’ve all got something we’re not okay with. We’re not good with. We’ve got something that’s just not right inside of us. Is that not true? We’ve got something that needs to be fixed a bit. Who better than to know how to fix that thing? God himself, he knows what we need to be fixed and made right and to be whole and healthy. Is that not true? So I can’t go to somebody looking for them to give me something.
Now they can encourage me. They can give me a word of knowledge. They can prophesy something from from God. Yes, absolutely. But as far as my value goes, who does that have to come from? The one authorized to give us our value. Do you understand what I mean? It mean I’m perfect. Doesn’t mean I do everything right, but it means my value in his eyes never changes.
You see, I can change my appearance to some point, but this is still me. I mean, I’ll act like I’m supposed to, but this is who I am. God called me. He loved me. He took care of me. He changed me. He’s empowered me. All these things are now available to me because I’m an air of, of, of, of the throne, of God, of everything God’s done for me, but stealing a peace, joy, authority, destiny. He would love to steal these things from us. He does it through pressure. He does it through thoughts. Best Church in Norris City for families He does it through people. You can be having a good day and someone will drop a comment in your ear and how many no’s that can change quickly is that you want. I mean, you’re doing fine. You and God are hanging out, having a good day and all of a sudden someone Bam,
spins your head around and all of a sudden we turn loose. Of what God has given me, so this identity that we’ve been given is so important that we know that we, our son and daughter of God, this is going to get tested. It’s going to be they tested Jesus with it. They asked him who he thought he was. Is that not true? You say, okay, the word identity, this identity. What does it mean to have an identity? The word identity means to make or to be the same. Okay. We’re all being conformed to the likeness and image of Christ. That’s where we’re headed. We’re headed towards becoming more Christ like to unite, to combine or to connect to considered the same effect. Okay? Best Church in Norris City for families That’s what it means to have an identity. I have to identify with this word whether I feel like it where the my mind agrees with it. This is what it says, and we hear this from our pulpit, from our pastor. This is who we are. This as simple and I have to change and by faith except my identity.
I’m not sure I didn’t write it. God did okay, and that’s something we have to hang on. Wiki. That’s the basics of what we cannot afford to let go of. We’re sensing daughters of God and sometimes it’s word connect. There’s times I’m not going to feel connected to God. You mean by being field field connected. How many likes it when you just feel and got you. I mean you just know you’re in the presence of God and it’s just working and you just enjoy the dinners times. There’s a disconnect you want. I’m talking about and we by faith still have to keep doing what we know to do. There is a connection that we still have to maintain and we do this by faith. It’s God who gives me my identity. Best Church in Norris City for families It’s God who qualifies me. That’s who I’ve got to agree with or we can agree with a lot of reports. There’s a lot of people will say things about us and I can agree with them or I can agree with this work. Well, who do you think you are praying for that? What do you mean you’re believing God for this and that? Well, God told me I could and you know, you’ll make some people really insecure by being confident in the word of God.
Church people, even you, be confident in walking what God’s called you to walk in and some people aren’t going to be good with that. Sometimes they’re in your family, sometimes they’re closer to you. You talked about what we prayed for so and so at church, we prayed for this person. We’re doing this, and it’s like you’re believing God for what? Because God said I could. Is that not true? But there’s a disconnect and they oftentimes this begins to happen in our lives. Now, Jesus real. You don’t have to turn there. Let me just flip over here real quick. Luke chapter four. I didn’t say this in the first service, but Jesus, let’s just take him, for example, Best Church in Norris City for families sometime in Jesus’s life up to age 30. I daresay he read his Bible or studied the word. I think it would be more like Torah. Okay, but he studied the word, and somewhere in his life he had to have read Isaiah 61.
It says where the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me and somewhere in his life he had to say, that’s me, right? Because he gets into the synagogue and he reads this list of the things he was going to do. He said, the spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach the Gospel to the poor, to proclaim the release to the captives, to recover the sight to the blind, to set free those who are downtrodden, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord. Somewhere in his life. He had to read that verse in Isaiah and said, I’m going to do that. That’s me. And so what the relationship is is Jesus all the time called God. Father drove people crazy. He said, my father. Well, I see my father do I do, and it just drove religious people crazy. What do you mean you’re calling him father?
Just because he had a relationship and his relationship with his father, he empowered him to go do what he was going to go do. So that’s the link for us is that my relationship with my father empowers me to go do what I do. Apart from the vine, we can do nothing. So Best Church in Norris City for families in the vine we can accomplish. Is that not true? So Jesus makes this statement when he gets baptized, his father in heaven says, this is my beloved son, in whom I’m well pleased. He didn’t call him the lamb of God. He didn’t call him the Messiah, the Emmanuelle, all those titles, we know him by. He referred to him as his relationship, his relationship with his son.
That’s got to put some stuff in you. When you hear your father stamp your approval as being a son. Oh, and by the way, I’m well pleased with how important is that? He goes out into the wilderness and the first question he hears is, what if you be the son of God questioning his relationship with his father? Are you really the son of God? Well, I hear stuff like that too. When I don’t do right. I thought Christians didn’t act that way. Well, sometimes we do. If he buys, Best Church in Norris City for families even seen your temper tantrum in Walmart parking lot, you don’t deny. Let’s just repent and go on. Right. You know we don’t walk on water. We have fights with our wives in the parking lot on the way in. Not a long time. We didn’t drive together today, so
no,
you slap your kid in the backseat on the way and Bam. Okay. Sometimes we don’t act like the identity that Christ has called us to be. Hello? Let’s get real. Sometimes I don’t act that way. Sometimes I don’t have the thoughts I’m supposed to have. Sometimes I don’t have the attitudes I’m supposed to have. Best Church in Norris City for families That doesn’t take away my identity,
you see,
but because of access, I have favor. I have forgiveness that is given to me, but you know, sometimes we get disconnected from this. It sounds good to talk Bible and. But sometimes we do get disconnected and this disconnections are deadly. Best Church in Norris City for families A disconnection from the word of God where the word just doesn’t have the effect that used to. Sometimes you aren’t talking about it. It does seem like it’s hard to study, hard to read and what you’re reading doesn’t really seem to connect to you.
Crickets. Okay. I mean, there’s Times I’ve done this, I’ve read the word and I thought, I just don’t seem to get what’s in there like I used to and sometimes there can be a disconnect. You don’t think the enemy wants to rob you of the word of God. He wants to steal that. He wants to rob that from you. He wants you to begin to consider that it doesn’t really work or work for you and there’s a disconnect. Disconnects are painful. We’re disconnected in our marriages, we’re disconnected in our relationships. It can get very lonely and there’s people who come to church every week. You come in and set in the praise and the worship and in the word and they feel so disconnected. They feel isolated. Don’t feel like there where everybody else is at. Everybody else’s more spiritual than I am. There seem to be so connected to everything in the presence of God. Best Church in Norris City for families Me Not so much. I don’t seem to feel that, but there’s pain in the place of disconnect. There’s loneliness and isolation. There can be a loss of value when you feel disconnected.
Loss of value. Disconnections also opened the door for rejections. If you’re already in a place of feeling disconnected, the simplest words, all of a sudden now bring rejection. You understand what I’m talking about? There’s not the security that we’ve had, but the good thing is is that really the disconnects are on our end because in Hebrews chapter 13, verse five, this is the verse I quote to myself a lot. God says, I will never leave you nor forsake you. Best Church in Norris City for families I’ll never leave, which means I’ll never depart. I’m not forsake, which means I’ll never reject you. That’s a promise to me when I don’t just feel all those goosebumps and all that stuff. God, you said You’d never leave the disconnects on my end. What do I need to do to make sure I get reconnected to you?
That’s one of the reasons why I’ve learned that when I read my Bible, Best Church in Norris City for families I’ve learned to read and put myself into it. Put your name and in the word when God’s saying something about a promise, that’s me. That’s you. Amen. I am more than a conqueror. That’s me. I’m not praying that for someone else that’s not for someone else to be edified with. That’s to edify myself. I am more than a conquer last year. I don’t feel like it. We’re not going to go buy that already. How up and down or emotions, they’re horrible. You can’t trust them unless they’d been brought in line with the word of God. The second thing about this id is this is a valid id. It’s not expired. No, it’s not expired. And when you go in and get one of these, they’ll give you a piece of paper and they’ll have your information on this piece of paper and they’ll always ask you, is that information correct?
And if you don’t read it, you just whatever. And then they want you to sign your full name in this box, about that long. Make sure you stay inside the box. Now is like the driver’s license. Police going to come and get me or what? I mean, I don’t understand, Best Church in Norris City for families but they want to put your little name right in here. This is a valid license and the word valid. I like this word valid. It means an approved agreement, contract or seal. In other words, if I operate my vehicle like the law says so I can keep this. Amen. If they pull you over and asks you for one of these and you don’t have a valid license, they’ll take you someplace and discuss it further with you. Okay? But you have to have a valid license. This means that I have an agreement, a contract or approval or a seal. In other words, God is the one that validates us. This goes back to your identity. He’s the one that gives me my validation
and again, if I’m looking for people to validate me, it doesn’t work too well. How many those have you ever looked for? Somewhere inside of a. somewhere we’re looking for a compliment. We really just need someone to compliment us. Owners, a state trooper and crown high. There’s realize that, okay, you can explain this. Bear and I can. Okay, there’s a valid license and what happens is you’re looking for that approval. You’re looking for someone just to compliment you and they’re just nowhere to be found. The more you look for a compliment, the less they come. You know what I’m talking about and this needs someone to hear from God, give me something. It’s fleeting. Best Church in Norris City for families It’s not a solid place to live and operate from when we’re looking for the approval or praise of men you see, and if that’s all the validation I’m looking for, I’m always gonna live in this place of inconsistency because the only one who can validate me as the one who signed the contract, the one who issued the license. Here’s, here’s what, here’s what. What’s. What’s painful is that anytime I don’t have confidence in an area, then I have an insecurity,
and insecurity is, is a, is a fear factor, and when I lose my confidence, and this is one of the things I can tell about how well I’m believing God to do something, is if my confidence begins to get shaken. I understand confidence sometimes more than new faith because confidence is that security, Best Church in Norris City for families that, that assurity, that, that God’s word is true in this area, and when my confidence begins to waver, I know I need to go back and reestablish and get my word back.
I’m talking about if you’ve ever played sports and lost your confidence in your shot or your swing or something like this, man, all the other gifts start falling away quick. The Bible says, what? Cast not away your confidence because it has a reward. So I have to maintain my confidence knowing that the one, how many contract or agreement with knows what he’s talking about. Um, a confidence cannot be found in the praise or attention of people and we all have it inside of us where we need to be connected to someone. If Best Church in Norris City for families someone connected to us, God establishes established us this way, but I can’t. They can’t be my source. Husbands, your wives can’t be your source of your confidence.
Same Way. Vice versa. People cannot be that source of confidence for me because when they’re not confident, they don’t have it to give. I was talking to Jay and I were talking to a girl who had gone through some abuse problems and some issues and so we were talking to her about her abuse and her father is actually passed on and she, her unforgiveness was towards her mother because your mother knew about the abuse but didn’t do anything about it, and so we began to talk with her for a few weeks and she began to share with us about her life and that family dynamic thing, all that going on, and I said, you know, listen, your mom could not affirm you or love you the way you need it because she didn’t have it to give you. See, that’s the whole point. Sometimes we’re looking for something from someone who just doesn’t have it and they were rejected and we don’t feel close. We Best Church in Norris City for families feel like we’re something wrong with us. Our self image goes down. Condemnation comes in. All these things began to snowball because we can’t get the affirmation we’re looking for and sometimes people just don’t have it to give. They don’t know how to love you the way you need to be loved.
No, I’m talking about, but God knows how to love me. You know God knows how to talk to you. Some people don’t know how to talk to you, right? Some people talk to you and you get mad. You ever had that happen? Someone tells you something, you just get mad and then someone else tells you. I say, okay, Best Church in Norris City for families you know your, your head that happen. Your wife can tell you do something and you just get mad that somebody else can tell you that. Okay? It’s just a thought. Okay? Just playing around, running around again. Okay.
In closing, what I want us to do is to realize that these places of disconnection, where the word I feel disconnected from the word, I feel disconnected from the presence of God. I feel disconnected even from from church people just there’s something in the way. There’s something that has caused me to have a separation or not feeling attached to this, to this, this body or people, pastors. It could be anything but disconnects are painful in this morning. If there’s an area of disconnect for you this morning, then we want to pray with you. We want to minister to you. We want to help you get through that place of disconnect and by faith. Walk in, walk in a connection, Best Church in Norris City for families a connection place. When we’re disconnected, we don’t receive well. It’s hard. Life gets very hard in the place of the disconnect, so we want to help you reconnect to who you are because who you are and what you do for God are connected. They’re connected. Also, we will help you reconnect to maybe a destiny. Maybe you are disconnected from a dream. You’re disconnected from a vision you had or something God’s called you thought God called you to do something and that seems so far away.
You’re so disconnected from that. We’d like to pray with you for that, and secondly that God gave this to me. This week has to do with fear and it seems like all of a sudden fear just hits you today. We would call them anxiety attacks. All of a sudden you’re just. Things aren’t well. All of a sudden there’s this, Best Church in Norris City for families this anxiousness and hits you and it even has even gone into. You feel it physically upset your stomach. You just don’t. Something’s not white, I just. What? What is this? And you have to fight to get through that to restore your peace and your joy. It comes on suddenly. It’s the only way I can really explain it. So those two areas this morning, if there’s an area of disconnect, and there’s also this, this, these attacks of fear hitting you, we’d like to minister to you.Best Church in Norris City for families