Northside Church - Sydney
Guest Speaker// Mike Hardie: I am who I AM says I am
You're listening to another great message from Northside Community Church. Hey, it's great to be with you here tonight and just as we start this message I just want to say a word of prayer because what we're going to talk about tonight, hopefully the truth of what we're going to talk about tonight is going to be liberating, that's the point of God's word to us, that it liberates us, sets us free, enables and empowers us to be the people that God's called us to be and that we know once we've decided to follow Jesus that we're meant to be but so often there's a gap between where we are and who we are and who God's called us to be and hopefully tonight is just part of the process of closing that gap a little more so let's just pray. Father, I just thank you that every single person in this room you have a plan and a purpose for. You love every person here, you care about the details of our lives, you know our struggles, you know our pain, you know our victories, you know everything about us and Lord I pray that over the next few minutes as I share that you'll speak through me and that ultimately we will walk away from here tonight with a greater vision of who you are and what you say about us and that we will be able to engage in the world around about us in the way that you've called us to. We ask this in your mighty name. Amen. I'm going to do a weird thing and move this on that side. Is that all right? I don't know why but that's the first time in my life I realized it feels weird on that side so no offence to whoever set that up. It's a great good good job. It's just something we're going into my body didn't feel right. I need everyone to stand up with me for a moment. I know you just got settled and I want you to participate in me with saying a phrase that's actually on the screen. I am who I am says I am and I want you to say it with as much passion on a Sunday night as is possible on a Sunday night when you're standing and you don't want to do what the guy that you barely know other than a brief interview where he's tried to sound better than he probably is is telling you to say. I want to start after the count of three because I want this in your vocab when you leave here tonight. I want you saying it over supper in random ways. I want you sending text messages to one another, Facebooking it, Twittering it. Does anyone care about Google Plus? Whatever you would do that maybe do something with that. Instagram it you could do that you could take a photo right now and you could put that up there. But I want this phrase to be lodged. It's good to see him. Is that why he came to me for wisdom? I'm addicted to social media. I want this phrase to be so lodged in your brain that during the week when you confront a challenge or a problem or an obstacle you can declare this phrase. I am who I am says I am. Now after the count of three I want you to all say it together right? One, two, three. I am who I am. Wow that was really nice. There was almost harmony in that. That was probably the nicest together spoken word I've ever heard. There you go. We're going to say it one more time. This time we're going to say it with grunt, with norshaw passion. Is this norshaw? I forget where I am. Crows nest. How many people actually live in crows nest here? All right. Out of the count of three. Here we go. And this time we're going to take it up. If that was a seven out of ten we're going to take it to a nine. Here we go. One, two, three. Wonderful. You may be seated. I am who I am says I am. I'm going to explain the phrases we go on in the next few minutes but I want to I want to tell you a story before we look at some scripture that kind of illustrates why what we're about to talk about is so important. When I was in year five I was a relatively confident young kid and I thought I love sport. I could do sport pretty well. I used to get ribbons and awards and trophies for things. I wasn't the best but I wasn't at the bottom of the rung of the skill level either. I was pretty good. I used to get the encouragement award from McDonald's at soccer. I thought that meant I was the best player but I realized it was the encouragement award to keep having a go. Anyway so but I was pretty confident. I didn't think anything bad about myself and then I went away to a camp or a school excursion and it was actually not far from here in the pitwater kind of area and we're away on this excursion and there was a girl that I liked. There was a few girls that I liked but this particular girl was the girl that I most liked out of the girls that I liked and we were away and one morning we got up and we're all sitting at the breakfast table and I was in year 5 and you're excited because you're away from home and it's like you know I'm a big person and you know it's like being away on a camp even though it was just overnight and I'm at the breakfast table and this girl who I just think is amazing walks in and just lights up the room and I'm like oh yeah that's an adult reflection on a junior kid's kind of experience but I'm sitting there and she walks up and there was a seat next to me and I thought she's going to sit next to me and she didn't she walked right around the other side that's all right so I could see her and she walked around the other side I don't even know why she said it but out of her mouth came the words you are so skinny she didn't say that forceful I'm just trying to add emphasis for the pain that I felt after that because that's the way I heard it and I went well if I'm so skinny is what I'm thinking in my head why didn't you sit down next to me because there's plenty of room and the weirdest thing is when she said that phrase she laughed and a couple other kids laughed and I laughed because that's what you do when you're in an awkward situation but in my head I went what am I I didn't even thought about it before I had never stopped to think and my skin and is is that a bad thing or is that a good thing I don't know but all I know is those words would affect me until I finished high school I know you find it hard to believe because you're looking at me going what a muscle tank standing in front of us today um and the weird thing is I was a skinny little kid I was skinny until about two years ago when something strange happened in my metabolism and it started to shift and all of a sudden I went from skinny to thinking I probably need to do more running and the strange thing is why can't you just be in between that why can't you just get that perfect I look like the guys in the magazine the strange thing is for years after that comment I loved summertime but I never wanted to go in the pool at summertime because I thought other people would think you're so skinny and that was a bad thing the funny thing is I've seen photos since I was a skinny kid but I was kind of no it was nothing bad people even told me there was nothing bad about it and yet it still impacted me now I've forgiven that girl um that happened a few weeks ago and um after 15 years of therapy and I'm just kidding about that but there are some things that are very hard to forgive not because you don't want to forgive the person but because the words have power and I realized that the way that we view ourselves can affect the way we act who I am determines what I do identity precedes action the way you look at yourself or view yourself will affect the way you walk down the street the way you engage people tonight whether you do engage or you don't engage how you'll go to work tomorrow whether you'll ask that girl out or you'll ask that guy out whether you'll go for that job opportunity or you won't go for that job opportunity and let it pass you by because you were afraid to say something or put your hand up so many things are impacted on in our life because of the way we view ourselves and one of the things that is really profound in scripture is the book of Ephesians in the New Testament the Apostle Paul writes this letter to this church in Ephesus and there's a fascinating thing that I hadn't seen for many years about the book but the first three chapters excuse me for the spit that just went out then the first three chapters of the book of Ephesians is Paul laying down a theology about who God is and who we are and he lays this out in profound form and then the next three chapters chapters four to six is so much about the practical application theology precedes action understanding of the way things are precedes activity and action I'm wondering if Paul was onto something there is there a reason why he didn't start off the first few chapters telling us all these things we needed to do but instead he starts telling us a whole lot about who God is and he starts telling us about who we are in the eyes of God and then he says so you now as God's children should no longer live as children of darkness but live as children of light wow now because you understand who God is and because of what he says about you this is how you should live so on the slide you're going to see here how you see yourself affects everything if you see yourself a skinny and you think that's a negative thing I know every girl in the place is going I'm tired of you skinny this was society tells us man that's awesome but not if you're a boy and you want to be a man and you think that being strong and tough and you know your favorite tv show is incredible Hulk and Batman and all of those shows okay you don't want to be skinny because that in our culture and society may represent weakness I didn't want to be that I wanted to be like my dad I wanted to be strong and now all of a sudden I'm thinking somebody else has taught me how I am and now I'm seeing myself that way and that's affecting the way I'm acting have you seen yourself as a loser in life and you go around saying that all the time I'm a loser the reality is you probably act like a loser if you walk around and you say I'm such a sinner all the time and every day you get up and you do something wrong you go man I'm just such a sinner I'm scar mom evil I'm nothing guess what you're going to do throughout the day sin do evil because that's the way you see yourself that's what you think you do because that's your identity and unfortunately as much as there's many verses where Paul and others acknowledge the fact that they are sinners and they are sinful there's a whole another aspect to following Jesus which is that when you begin to follow Jesus you get a new identity now the interesting thing is if you start seeing yourself as a fool you act like a fool but if you see yourself as a wise person because God calls you to be a wise person and says you are to be wise you'll probably start acting wise if you see yourself as a winner you'll probably act and go for things like a winner would if you see and you see the extreme examples of this of people that have an overestimation of themselves or an underestimation and and the challenge is to get the appropriate view or the right view of ourselves you've seen people that they think they're so good I'm such a winner there was a famous actor on a tv show with three blokes who loved that phrase a whole lot winning everything in his life apparently was winning he had the wrong view of himself I think because he wasn't winning a whole lot well maybe he is I don't know it's up for debate if you see yourself as a saint because scripture tells us the law tells us that we are saints you'll probably act like what a saint does and thinks how I see God affects how I trust what he says now in this phrase I am who I am says I am the this kind of loaded phrase and I want this to be in your vocab because when we actually unpack the phrase I am I'm saying I am Mike Hardy I am who I am the great I am you know what what in the book of Exodus in the Old Testament there's a story of Moses who's the the guy who's called by God to liberate Israel from slavery in Egypt and he has this encounter with God where God says to him you are Moses and you will be a rescuer of my people I'm calling you to go and lead my people out of slavery and oppression and Moses is freaking out because he thinks he's a nobody he thinks he's a murderer he thinks he's a wanderer he thinks he's a shepherd God sees him as a leader and with God with him and on his side he can do great things but he doesn't realize this yet so when he's having this dialogue with God in Exodus chapter 3 he's discussing it all out with God and he's saying well let's just say I go to the people of Israel or I go to Moses or I go to Pharaoh that is I say hey you should let all of us million Israelites go and leave and you know go out and worship out in the desert for a while what if they say well who who sent you who are you and the Bible says that God says to him the answer is tell them I am who I am oh thanks for that that's a great phrase I mean I'm gonna look really wise saying that hey who sent you Mike oh I am who I am who is I am I am he he is all right he just I don't know why he calls himself I am because he is I'm confused it's a weird phrase but the phrase I am the great I am is a phrase that symbolizes or explains the fact that you cannot contain who God is you can't summarize or break it down into any other format other than he is who he is he is the great God the creator of the universe Yahweh leader Lord King that there's so many names for him this is how great he is and he's saying to Moses it's who I am that gives you the authority to go and do what I've called you to do and now I'm telling you who you are your new identity is found in me now go and then there's ongoing debate happens you can read about it later in Exodus chapter three in Exodus chapter four but for our purposes tonight I'm using the phrase I am to symbolize God who he is in relationship to us and the challenge for you is to come to terms with the fact that you are who God says that you are and most of us struggle with this because we don't know who God is and so the challenge is to actually get to know this God which is why I said Paul starts off in the book of Ephesians the first three chapters who is this great marvelous God this great father of all creation who has blessed us in the heavenlies with every spiritual blessing he's a generous father he's a generous God he's an equipping God oh the more you get to know this God the more you'll see him for who he is and how he is and that will affect the way you trust what he says about you now you know this is true because all of us have friends who when they say certain things it has meaning or power to us if my friend Matt says I'm going to pick you up at 7 p.m. he will be there at five minutes to seven and if he's not there at five minutes to seven I would have got a text at 10 minutes to seven to say he's running one minute late okay I know that because I know him really well but when someone I don't know says to me hey I'll pick you up at seven there's a sense of anxiety in that if I need to get somewhere as to well I don't really know you that well so do I go out early or do I just sit inside and get ready late because you're probably going to be late see because there's a lack of relationship and knowledge about the person it affects my ability to trust what they say does that make sense so with God the closer and the more we get to know him the more our trust is established and the more we can trust what he says about us and the way things are so the reality is how you view God affects how you trust what he says about you now in my life I've learned over many years to trust who God says about me because he's proven faithful in so many ways he's demonstrated his life and his sacrifice through his son coming into this world he's demonstrated his commitment to me by giving him giving me his spirit as he does all those who follow him he's proven faithful in so many areas of my life and the more I get to know him in the word and through my own experience with him the more I trust and the more I believe what he says about me next thought I want to throw at you is this who I am determines what I do your identity precedes your action now as I said in Ephesians the first three chapters is the theology the identity the idea and the next three chapters is about the practice the way we are to live out this identity about who God is and who he says we are but I want to go to chapter 2 verse 10 which kind of does both all in the one verse and if there's a verse that you would memorize I challenge you to memorize this verse Ephesians chapter 2 verse 10 when I was going through my first year at Bible college in 1993 I know you're looking at me thinking you couldn't possibly be that old in 1993 I was challenged in one of my first classes to memorize this passage of scripture and I want you to look at the makeup of this verse possible rights and tells us for we are God what's it say workmanship the niv translation and some others say we are his masterpiece that's an identity that's a declaration that's a statement about who we are and the way God sees us some of us struggle with that because like now on the scum on the sinner no your God's masterpiece that's reality for we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus because of what Christ has done he's created us and he's given us a new identity to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do wow identity proceeds action God tells us who we are now he's got things for us to do we're going to change this world and we're going to bring God's renewing power and love and grace and hope and justice and peace to this world why because we have an identity we're the people of God we're the masterpiece we're the workmanship we're not the cocky arrogant hey we've got it all together people we are the people that were broken and messed up and not very perfect at all and God has graciously restored us forgiven us is healing us and setting us up as his masterpiece to represent himself to the world around about us that's pretty spectacular and how do we feel about that honored because we know we don't deserve it we know that we weren't royalty now he calls us royalty wow now think about this for a moment you grow up like all of a twist a poor little boy and orphan and all of a sudden royalty comes along and invites you into the palace wow identity change you still see yourself the way you all saw yourself but now you've got these new clothes now when you walk down the street people see you a new way but you still got your memory of how you used to be and this is where the process of us becoming who God says we are kicks in i am who i am says i am is a process it's a process now i want to show you another example of how this works out in our Matthew chapter five verses 14 to 16 one of my favorite passages in all scripture Jesus is doing some teaching on a mountain and he's telling his disciples he's giving them a history lesson he's giving them an identity lesson and he's telling them look at the words you are the light of the world do you know what's weird about this they're under Roman occupation they live in a world where they don't feel like they're living in the promised land where everything's working out rosy and they're leading and they're the light and he comes to these people confused wondering what's God's plan for my life is God going to rescue us is he going to set up his kingdom on earth how's it all going to work and then he says to them you are the light of the world you the one's oppressed the one's struggling this is who i say you are do you realize who you are well they didn't because they'd forgotten that right back in the beginning of genesis chapter 12 and chapter 15 Abraham was called by God blessed by God to be the father of many nations so that the nations of the world will be blessed through him and it's the promise that was for the nation of Israel that through God's chosen people not they're the only ones that God cares about but that through his chosen people for a purpose they will be used as a light to the world you can read about it through the prophets of the Old Testament he's an identity but so often they forgot who they were and they saw themselves in the light of what people said about them you read the story of you know Caleb and Joshua when the spies went into the land to spy out the land that God had for them they came back and we felt like grasshoppers in the in the sight of these people in this land that God's told us is ours well that's how they saw them too because their identity was small and weak and they didn't realize who they were because they'd forgotten who he is they'd forgotten the great i am that my challenge to you is when you realize that you are the light of the world that affects the way you go to work tomorrow Jesus says a city on a hill cannot be hidden but so often we're hidden neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl instead they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house in the same way let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your father in heaven identity proceeds action wow when you realize who you are to affect what you do when you realize and you actually i want to say yeah i really am a lot of the world plumb works gonna be pretty exciting tomorrow morning isn't it because you're gonna get up you're gonna be like whoo i get to go in to a place where not everybody likes Jesus and when not everyone wants to come to our church and i get to be the light of God in that place i get to bring the kingdom of God into the place where i work tomorrow i get to love the annoying guy the annoying lady i get to respond with grace and love when that guy abuses me again whoo yeah see work just became exciting you got a really boring job not now you you're doing some boring activities but now you got a new identity which affects the way you think and act and behave in every aspect at your workplace does that make sense wow if we could get this this would change a whole lot of things and my challenge to you is that we need to do an identity check when i was um a young lad probably uh i was in high school my primary school was probably the same year i got my feelings hurt um i had another identity thing going on and the interesting thing is that we lived near a park and they were developing uh all new ovals and so they had a whole lot of uh dirt that was it was all in all these mounds everywhere and as a young boy it's like heaps of fun to go and play in dirt with rocks so we went up we were building these little kind of army bases and things that boys do got all the girls looking like that's why would you do that that's weird um anyway we're building these bases and these other kids decided to move into our country um as we saw it in that little area and so they moved in the area and they were building a base too and wasn't that long before someone threw the first bomb or stone and i don't remember whether it was us or them i'm just going to say them and so they threw it and we felt injustice so we needed to defend ourselves so we picked up some rocks and threw rocks back and before we knew it it was a full blown rock fight going on and at some point i realized this is getting out of hand we have to do something we got to stop this so i stood up in front of these other kids i'd never met before and said stop throwing rocks my dad's the mayor now my dad wasn't the mayor my dad was more appropriately a paramedic that would have been more handy to declare at that moment hey if we get hurt my dad can come and help us you get a rock in your head it's gonna be all right but i didn't and for some strange reason straight out of my mouth came the words my dad's the mayor now what is that all about i'll say that so yeah i know you already think i'm a bit weird well i was a pretty weird kid i said that because i thought there's authority if i say they should have respect for the mayor who i thought was in charge of everything i thought that and that if they realized who i was they would stop i don't even remember whether it stopped i just remember saying the phrase and it stuck with me because i realized if i could go through my day declaring my father is the creator of all the universe stop that injustice stop that oppression i bring peace in his name i bring love and grace and hope in his name i mean that affects everything and that means that the way i go to work or the way i engage my community this week totally changes because i'm not tucked away in the back of the community i get to actually walk through the streets of the community the gods planted me in and i get to say well this is your area this is our area and i'm called to love and serve and engage these people in your name and it changes everything now i want to finish by saying this if you would if you would own who god says you are and the way you find out is you get your bible you go home you start in the new testament and you just start reading through it every single time you see a verse like in matthew five you are the light of the world you highlight that and you start praying that and declaring that over your life and you say i am the light of the world i'm not the only light of the world i'm part of the light of the world and you think what's the implication of that you start reading i'm a saint what does that mean well saints don't sin cool tomorrow i'm not obligated to sin i'm a wise person so i don't have to make that foolish financial decision anymore because god's called me to be the light of the world and light of the world people don't do that so i want to challenge you with this thought you got one life you got one chance with this life to do the good works that god's prepared in advance for you to do and that depends upon whether or not you're going to believe what god says about you there are men here and you're totally disengaged with the call of god and the ministry that god has for you in this world and the mission that he has for you because you see yourself in a light of previous sin or shame i'm sick and tired of meeting guys in my church not sick and tired of the men but sick and tired of meeting men who are completely almost debilitated unable to engage and what god has for them because they held secret shame that i don't tell anyone about and they see themselves a second rate and they see me as the professional christian and they want to pay me to do the work of god and you couldn't get further from the plan of god the plan of god is that my role is to encourage them as well as be what god's called enemy to discover who god says i am to receive what he's done for me to let go of the stuff and go and be who god's called me to be and if you could believe that by faith it'll change the way you do marriage it'll change the way you manage your finances it'll change the way you do every single thing in your life because you when you realize you're a man or woman of god you ask yourself well what does a man or woman of god do when you realize you're a son or a daughter of the most high god it changes the way you think about yourself it changes the way you relate to others because now you're an ambassador of him can i ask you to bow your heads with me please as we close tonight i want to give you a moment to reflect and even ask yourself the questions after the service why am i disengaged why am i so crazy when i come to church why do i struggle to really let loosen sing why do i feel the way i feel what do i feel like well god could use him but he couldn't use me because at some point along the way you've believed the lie you've believed that it might not be your skinny but you might have believed something else that's got embedded in your brain and it's time for god to renew you to set you free to liberate your thinking and for you to have your mind renewed in such a way that it transforms the way you live your life so much so that in 12 months from now the pastors and the leaders at this church should be stressed for the reason that they're saying we have so many people engaged in mission and ministry we didn't even know how to do this whole thing with it so many people wanted to be involved so many people saying look what's happening in my workplace because you changed the way you saw yourself there's no such thing as professional Christians it's the priesthood of all believers that's who god calls us a royal priesthood and when he hung on that cross and when he overcame sin and death by the power of his resurrection he made a way for new creation to begin for a new start for a new revelation and so now you can go back to that struggling relationship to that friendship to that challenge or that problem that you're trying to deal with at the moment with new eyes with a new mentality that says I am who I am says I am and so I'm going to deal with this in the light of who he is and what he says about me if you're here tonight and you say oh man that is totally my life and I want to change my identity the way I view myself tonight would you just lift your hand up just know I'm looking around just say I'm one of those people you may have been a Christian for years yeah for every one of those people lifting their hands at the moment I want you to know that God sees that hand raised and he's seeing a heart that's hungry to say I want to become who you've called me to be but I want to know who you really are so I can trust what you say about me so I can do the good works that you prepared in advance for me to do Father God I pray for every single person in this place that you will graciously as you do come into our hearts and minds and speak truth and life and wisdom into our situation in our life. Lord I pray in the name of Jesus that every negative thought every negative words spoken over the hearts and lives of people in this room will fall to the ground and that we will rise up and cast off those things and take hold of the truth that you say about us and that we will begin reflecting and confessing and declaring our lives the reality of how you see us and that we'll begin acting by faith in the light of that and perhaps one day we will truly begin to be and operate it normally the way you say we are. Lord I pray you set people free tonight in this place in the name of Jesus. Amen.