BORN IDENITY

(Jesus came to tell us who we really were.)

 There is a series of action films about a man called Jason Bourne who has a serious case of amnesia and has lost his identity.  (This is not a movie review or promotion, I’m just using this Hollywood portrayal as a backdrop to my message.)  As the movie progresses he slowly comes to realize that he was trained by a secret sub-military group of the government to be a super spy.  This agency, unknown to the general public and even some of the military was called “Treadstone”.  It was a Black Opps, highly secretive branch of the CIA, designed to condition or brainwash soldiers to think like mechanical weapons and do things they were not humanly designed to do.  As his memory slowly returns he is torn between what he was programmed to be and what his heart wanted to become.

Video clip from movie…

Jason Bourne played by Matt Damon has little flashbacks of his perverted training and can’t quite figure out why he is able to disarm a violent attacker.  He sees short images of people’s faces but can’t quite place who they are.  The more he learns about his mental programming the more he dislikes the person he has become.

In today’s world we have much the same struggle.  Humanity was designed to be in fellowship with God and yet someone intervened and began to train us to think another way.  God was the creator of all that we see but a secret group of God’s enemies got a hold of humanity and diverted our initial purpose.  Today many people dislike what they have become.

When God determined to make mankind He carefully made a plan.  He made a home for him and then made resources for him to work with in the Garden of Eden.  After this, He created a complimentary partner so they could learn to work in harmony and cooperation as they cared for all the rest of creation.  Soon after mankind’s beginning, things began to fall apart.  Mankind was being conditioned and persuaded to be unwilling to see themselves as the creation of God and instead was being persuaded to choose to turn to outside voices to get their direction.  

This force at work in the earth was trying to divert mankind’s affection for their creator.  This force caused man to forget God’s plan for his glorious creation.  In mankind’s willingness to believe a voice other than his creator, this force kept presenting a case for self-direction, self-protection and self-preservation, which ultimately ends in self-destruction.  Mankind slowly slipped into an amnesia like state and forgot the awesome gifts that God had bestowed upon man.

Today we see this lived out in the lives of people through a lack of conscience toward others.  We overlook those who struggle around us while we continue on in our pursuit of material lives.  We see the harm done to weak people throughout the world and conclude it’s none of our business.  We lash out at others and take advantage of someone’s crisis.  We tolerate the idea that the innocent are just in the way and so aborting them is the more humane thing to do even if it requires horrific acts of violence done to them.  We can’t figure out why we do these things and we know somehow it’s wrong and yet we continue because it’s what we do.

We like Jason Bourne feel helpless and trapped in our identity.  Watch this clip and hear the message.  (“I don’t have a choice”.)

The truth is that we have all been brainwashed by our culture and our world to believe things about others and ourselves that aren’t true.  We feel an initial tug on our hearts that tells us it is a wrong perspective and this is called our conscience that God placed in our hearts.  Sadly the more we live this way the stronger our amnesia toward the truth becomes.

Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.  (Rom 2:14-15)

Some of you have been through the truth project as part of one of our “Life Group” gatherings.  This is an attempt to introduce to you the lengths at which our world has caused you to have amnesia regarding God’s plan for you.  This entire year’s focus of teaching has been about “Truth” because God was trying to get you to consider that maybe you’ve forgotten or maybe even never heard of what God says is true.  We’ve challenged what ABC, CBS, Fox, Jerry Springer, Oprah, CNN and even some particular agencies of the US Government say is true.

God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? (NO!) Does he promise and not fulfill? (NO!)  (Nu 23:19)

God can’t lie.  Only mankind and God’s archenemy can lie.  If God would lie He would self-destruct because it isn’t in His character.  God’s church is called to be a source of truth as it presents the Bible.  Where do you get your life information from if not the Bible?

We are in the Christmas season.  Jesus came as a baby, not to stay a cute infant, but to grow to live among mankind to reveal God’s real purpose for you and I.  Man had lost sight of the design and had been reprogrammed like Jason Bourne to be violent to himself and others.  Jesus calls us to be reborn in order to acquire a new identity.  Who you really, are when you become a Christ follower, is an essential part of the Christmas story.  This Christmas, don’t just trim the tree and exchange presents.   Investigate God’s original design and compare it to how your life is being lived.

CFC has developed a tool to help remind you of God’s original plan.  It is a reminder to all, what God says about who you are, if you have been reborn spiritually by the power of the Holy Spirit.  It is intended to help you work through the amnesia that we have all acquired and undo the brainwashing that we’ve received by living according to the dictates of this world which operates according to God’s enemy’s plan.

Pick up one of these brochures called “Seeing Things From God’s Perspective” back on the table under the LCD screen and begin to speak to your mind what God says, until you begin to regain your re-born identity.  

Notes from Pastor Pasch’s December 7th message, to get a free CD of the complete message, contact Christ’s Family Church at (651) 437.2340.