What Defines You? 7/16/17 Sermon

Pastor Rob Neuschwander gave a sermon with the main question being "what defines you?" It's a simple yet deep question.

A verse that he focused in on is 

Psalm 109:1-4.

God, whom I praise,
    do not remain silent, for people who are wicked and deceitful have opened their mouths against me; they have spoken against me with lying tongues. With words of hatred they surround me; they attack me without cause. In return for my friendship they accuse me,
    but I am a man of prayer.

What defines you will determine:

1)     What you think about

2)     How you will behave

3)     How you treat others

                           4)     Determine your relationship with God

There is:

Who you are at your core

Who you represent yourself to be

The degree of disparity between these two schemas will determine your integrity

A)    What are you thinking about?

 “Our lives consist of what we are thinking about all day” Emerson

Romans 12:2 

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will

 Ephesians 4:22-24

You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

2 Corinthians 10:5

We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

2 Timothy 1:7

For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.

B)    How you will be behave

2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

Romans 6:6-7

 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

Romans 6:11

 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 2:4-6

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus 

C)     How you will treat others

If self perception is:

1)     Powerless - You will seek to control

2)     Guilt and Shame - You will punish others

3)     Insecure - You will seek control, power ,and image

4)     Failure - You will sabotage success

5)     Poor - Stingy, Greedy, Hoard, Non-Generous

6)     Filled with Grace - You will be Forgiving, let others off the hook

7)     Secure - Image won’t matter, open to life, filled with personal power, little or no need to control others

8)     Forgiven - Merciful, Loving , Kind

D)    How you relate to God

Philippians 3:7-9

But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. 

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