god's desire from of old and his vision and his goal for the in the new covenant is that my identity might be completely swallowed up in jesus christ and who he is this is the name that shall be called the lord's our righteousness can you imagine

what did he entrusted to him his identity his hope i count all things as lost for the sake of knowing jesus christ my lord he said he had entrusted everything to him and having entrusted everything to him what does he say

time choose to find my all in christ again today and let every temptation and every trial drive me back to find all my identity he has become to me righteousness and wisdom and peace he's everything to me and many of these little

is you know take death seriously but that's not true there are some people who are living who are not going to die you know why because Jesus Christ is coming the only thing certain is we're going to meet Jesus Christ

times when it says that he will delight in me what I see is that's a promise that he can make me delightful and that's his aim to make me delightful to his son Jesus Christ and it just blows my mind to think about it just like that young man waits for God's

the Most High God and I want to talk about maturing in that identity last week I spoke of becoming soldiers for Jesus Christ and conducting ourselves as soldiers and I think it's one important step you can almost think

and look at what Paul says this is the testimony of someone who believes God giveth more grace when the burden grows greater because what Paul says is most gladly therefore will I boast about my weaknesses so that the power of Christ

please man I couldn't be a bond servant of Jesus Christ and yet how often our services in the fear of man there's a verse in Revelation chapter 3 that the Lord put on my heart if you turn there that's that as has relevance to this

I was blessed by something that when I said as we were um singing he said nobody here the only person who's important here is Jesus Christ and it's good to remember as we share the the words hopefully that each of us share we're sharing as

And I want him to be my God, too. I want this greatest blessing in the trial, not that I'm just changed. We can have this attitude. I want to be changed. I want a new identity. I want to be made like Christ, right? That's a good desire. But,

overcoming but that part's a little bit harder for us to recognize for ourselves but also for our kids and um i was thinking that part of the inheritance that we have to own for ourselves as disciples of jesus christ but also to pass down to our children

we want for our church to be unified we really want to realize what it means to be a family here and what it means to be the body of Christ and to be knitted together by the Holy Spirit and we we believe the verses says as the church is

that moment and then I was struck again singing just now what a blessing it is that we have the example of Jesus Christ himself that we have the fullness of deity in human form that we can who we can gaze upon and he told us Jesus himself told us

so I wanted to share briefly just a reflection this week as I was thinking about this first the last verse especially we proclaimed him him whom Paul says he proclaims his Christ in you the hope of glory and christ in us is

I I uh I had a burden on my heart today to speak a little bit about how do we know if we're a Christian does anybody have any I I pulled some nccf kids this week so I have I have a few answers but I thought I might be fun to start with a little a

i wanted to uh mention one of the things that we heard on sunday from brother zack is the uh humility of mind it says um in philippians 2 perhaps we can start there he was mentioning the attitude of jesus christ and how we're commanded to have

have this almost woe is me this surprised attitude and one of the things that's important for us to know as New Covenant Christians is we will be sifted we will be tested and we need not be surprised by that if you turn with me to Hebrews chapter

growing in Christ christlikeness I should also and likewise be growing in my intimacy with my heavenly father and um there's a promise um sand mentioning claiming the promises of God I've started doing that ever since we heard

kindness and truth we have to know that part of his nature and identity but then he goes on to say the lord is his very name is jealous he's a jealous god and that's what james is saying the brother of jesus do you think the scripture speaks to no

today around authenticity if you're being yourself if you're being real then that is the best thing you can possibly do and I've come to see this week as followers of Jesus Christ we are not called to be real we're called to die

verse 28 and 29 to be conformed to the image of jesus christ and also to be fully functioning members of the body of christ so as it relates to our goal we should be perfectly united but there are areas in which we won't be perfectly united namely

utley it doesn't it's not receiving christ and i don't receive a child so that's one way that's wrong right another way that's wrong is i don't receive a child in the child's name because they're small because they're needy

jesus still came to them he appeared on the shore to a bunch of deserting disciples and it spoke to me the kindness and the humility of jesus christ that he was willing to revisit them you would think visiting them in the

be what nearness to jesus christ the great the only gift i want is to be close to him when what are they saying here grant that we might be close to you lord we only want that gift you've just told us it's absolutely impossible and then