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00:00 know my name is Julia and you know that I'm here uh because I am a mother. So we
00:07 have to begin with that I am a mother because I have a daughter. So it's
00:14 because of her that I am here today. So I have her to thank for this. So this is
00:19 my daughter Andrea when she was a baby on the left and a picture of her a
00:25 little older as a toddler on the right. So that is the first identity
00:32 that we see. Here's a picture of
00:38 Jeff and me with Andrea and her husband Austin in Hawaii last Christmas. So now
00:45 you can see what we are as a family. And that's not the full story though. As you
00:52 heard from Yian in my introduction, there's more to the story. Andrea is
00:57 about to have a baby. And I mean about to have a baby. In fact, I told Yian you
01:04 might have to change my introduction at the last minute because we might have
01:10 this grandson. But as of this morning, she is still uh not given birth. So we
01:17 are about to have our first grandson and his name will be Archer and we are very
01:25 excited about that. So that's my second identity is
01:31 grandmother.
01:37 One more thing I have to tell you before I change slides is the picture of Andrea in the black dress. That black dress is
01:44 all her. Do you know what I'm saying? She's She's
01:50 that big. Archer is a very very big, healthy baby boy. Very big. That dress
01:56 is not Well, you get the idea.
02:02 So that's where it begins. I'm a mother about to be a grandmother. But before
02:07 that, where is the first identity here on earth for me is I was a daughter. So
02:14 we start with that because that's really who I am. My parents
02:23 had a baby and this was their fourth child and they named her Julia and that
02:30 is my identity as their daughter. And this is an important place to start
02:36 because my name is written on a birth certificate recorded in the government
02:43 in Pennsylvania, United States of America, and it says Julia. And it says
02:49 that Gordon Shaw and Jean Shaw were my parents and are my parents.
02:55 And that leads me into what I'm going to talk about today because I don't have any choice in that, do I? And that's not
03:01 going to change. Whatever happens, if I was happy as a child or if I was
03:07 rebellious as a teenager, Gordon Shaw and Jean Shaw are still written on my
03:13 birth certificate, aren't they? And I am still their daughter. This identity does
03:18 not change. And it goes into the government roles in Pennsylvania. And it
03:23 will be there, I imagine, for uh eternity. And that is something that I
03:30 cannot change. And you can see where I'm going with this because we're going to talk about our identity in Christ. So
03:37 this is where we begin. Now my mother was an author. My parents
03:44 are still living. By the way, they're 90 and still living. But my mother's not
03:49 writing anymore. So when I say was, she was an author. And when I was growing
03:55 up, I fell asleep to the sound of the clicketity clickity click of the typewriter most every night. And my
04:03 mother wrote several books that are used were used at the time for women's
04:10 devotions. Now, in my late 20s, it was very popular
04:15 for churches to have women's retreats and all of the women would come together
04:20 and study a book and they would have a speaker very similar to what we do here
04:25 and what we do. We just had one recently. In fact, the women had a speaker right here and it was
04:32 phenomenal. Well, my mother did that. She was a speaker and the greater love
04:37 book and the second cup of coffee book especially um got her a lot of invitations to
04:43 churches to speak and she became rather well known in the Christian circles that
04:50 the where my family lived. So people would meet me at different events and
04:56 places and they would say you're Jean Shaw's daughter.
05:02 And I heard that a lot. And at that age in my life at that time, I didn't like
05:08 it. I didn't like it. It caused me to be angry. And I heard it over and over
05:15 again because they no longer were thinking of me. They were thinking of
05:21 her and the book. And they would look at me and say, "You're Jean Shaw's daughter."
05:29 and I would just burn because of my pride because of my pride and that is
05:35 sin took over my heart. I didn't want to be known as her daughter. I wanted to be
05:42 me. I wanted to be known as Julia. And I was proud of my mother and I was
05:49 proud of the books that she wrote. Yes. But I wanted to be known as me. I wanted
05:55 my own identity. And because of the pride in my heart, I missed a lot of
06:02 opportunities to accept those kind words from people and say, "Yes, I am Jean
06:08 Shaw's daughter." And take it as a compliment for what it was. But I missed
06:13 that because the pride in my heart and the stubbornness in my heart caused me
06:19 to not like to hear those words, "You're Jean Shaw's daughter." over and over
06:24 again. Well, I'm glad to say that I have been forgiven for my pride and I've made
06:32 peace with that time in my life and I can look back now and see
06:38 that it really was an honor to have a mother who was well known and it didn't
06:44 change my identity at all. And now we have a message from my mother.
06:53 Good morning, First Baptist Church, Subonia. Greetings from Bowwin, Missouri, and a
07:01 happy Mother's Day to you. I am Jean Shaw, and I am Julia Stillwell's mother.
07:09 Julia was a surprise and she has always been very surprising, very creative, and
07:16 it was a joy to have as a child.
07:28 Thank you. So, we have family identity. Again, the greeting from my mother is a
07:36 reminder that it is because of my mother that I'm here and she chose they my
07:42 parents chose my name and I have identity in the family. I have a place in the family. Our ultimate identity is
07:49 found in being a child of God. And that is what we are. And that is what we sang
07:55 today. And that was our scripture is we are children of God. And I want you to
08:00 really claim that today while we talk about other kinds of identity. Now I well I want to go back to this
08:08 first verse of our text to to get us started. See what great
08:14 love the father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God.
08:21 This is just an amazing verse and it's an amazing thought that he calls us children and that is the beginning of
08:29 our identity is that we have identity as a family.
08:36 Now if we are looking at identity as errors and how God sees us, we really
08:44 have to begin by understanding grace because that is the next part of being
08:49 an heir of a loving father is understanding
08:54 grace. So I have a story for you of how I came to understand grace in a way that I
09:01 never had before. About 7 years ago or so,
09:07 we found that my uncle Mark in this picture was dying. My uncle Mark was
09:13 dying and he knew he was dying and the family was preparing for this. Now, I
09:18 didn't know him at all. I really didn't I really didn't know him. He had been um
09:29 hosted my family on events when my family was when I was very young. My
09:34 older siblings knew him very well, but I didn't. And then when I was an adult, my
09:40 parents encouraged me to get to know him and make the trip up to New York and
09:45 visit him, at least call him, at least send a card. But I did not. I'm not
09:51 proud of that. In fact, I stand here today and I had a lot of guilt because I didn't know my uncle Mark and he was
09:60 dying and now it was too late. But I was just a little kid when my family visited. So that was my excuse.
10:10 So in Amsterdam, New York, my family had visited. I had not. And the years went
10:16 by and because of my place in the family, we
10:22 were told that we would receive a gift. He had written his will and in his
10:30 estate we would all receive a gift. And we were shocked. Well, I was shocked. I
10:38 didn't even know this man. Who am I to get a gift from you? I don't deserve
10:43 this. I haven't done anything and you're going to give me a gift or I'm going to
10:49 receive a gift when he dies. I was shocked and the guilt was even worse. I
10:55 felt terrible that he had listed me in his will to receive a gift and I had not
11:02 been a good niece. I had not been um very attentive to even send a
11:09 birthday card through the years. And that made me feel very guilty and sad. I
11:15 knew about my uncle Mark. I knew that he loved his church and I knew that he was
11:21 a founding member of his church. I knew that he loved the Lord. I knew that he
11:27 loved Jesus Christ. And I knew that he loved God's people. I knew he was the
11:34 choir director of his church. And I knew he loved music.
11:40 But I knew these things because my mother told me about her brother.
11:45 I didn't know him, but I heard these great stories about my uncle Mark and
11:50 how he loved the Lord and how he loved music.
11:56 My gift that I was going to receive was undeserved,
12:01 but other people did deserve this gift. My brothers who were older had a
12:06 relationship with our uncle Mark and they had kept up with him through the years and they had visited him and I
12:13 thought they deserve a gift. They should be in the will if he chooses to give
12:19 them money that would make sense but not me. It didn't make sense. I
12:25 didn't deserve it. But it was too late. You see the gift could not be earned. I
12:33 couldn't suddenly love him more or be a better niece or go visit him and get
12:39 more money. On the other hand, because I wasn't a good niece and I wasn't attentive to our
12:47 relationship, I didn't get less. I would get the same gift as my brother and my
12:54 other siblings and everyone in the family. didn't make sense to me this
12:60 undeserved gift, but it helped me understand
13:06 grace. You see, this is a picture of the newspaper clipping of my uncle's
13:12 obituary. My name is written there. My name is there. Me, little old me, is
13:20 listed in the newspaper. Just like my name is written in the
13:26 government records for the state of New York that I would be his heir and receive this gift.
13:33 So keep this in mind as we look at how our name is written in the book of life
13:39 with our loving God. So just because who I am, I would get a
13:44 gift. Just because my parents had me and just
13:50 because my mother happens to be his sister, I get a gift. I didn't do
13:58 anything, did I? Not a thing. All I did was be born and I got this gift.
14:07 Now, all I had to do was accept it. I got some paperwork from the attorneys
14:15 that were handling his estate, and they had me to give my correct address.
14:24 It's all I had to do to accept the gift. I didn't have to say
14:30 anything. I didn't have to do anything. I didn't even have to go to the memorial service. I would still get the gift. All
14:38 I had to do was give them my correct address so that I could get this gift.
14:44 Just accept it. That's it. It's all I had to do. Well, he died and we went to
14:51 the memorial service in New York and it was uh an amazing trip. You see, the
14:59 flight to New York and the lodging there was all paid for by the estate. That was
15:06 part of his plan that all of us could come to the memorial service.
15:12 So that was paid for. Flying to New York again, I had overwhelming sadness and
15:18 guilt because I never took the trip when he was alive. Why didn't I? Upstate New
15:25 York is beautiful country. Mountains and lakes and it's just gorgeous. I never
15:31 went and now I was going. Why? Because he paid for all of us to go to his memorial
15:39 service in New York. It was a wonderful service because it was a celebration of
15:44 his life. Because he was the music director of his church. You can imagine we sang the most
15:52 wonderful hymns because he knew he was dying. He had time to prepare and he
15:58 chose his favorite hymns for everyone to sing. The choir sang and there was even
16:05 a gospel message. It was a powerful service as we celebrated his life.
16:12 But then the most amazing thing happened. People wanted to run up and meet me. Me who they never had met
16:20 before because they heard about me from my uncle. Who am I? I'm nothing. I'm the
16:28 little niece that never visited him. But they knew him and they wanted to
16:33 meet me. Again, I was so humbled by this. These wonderful people are the
16:40 ones that were his friends. They were his life group. They had studied the
16:45 Bible with him, laughed with him, cried with him, and ultimately they were the
16:52 ones who cared for him in his dying days. They were his family. yet they
16:59 wanted to meet me. So I was overwhelmed again by grace and
17:06 what this meant that just because I am my parents' daughter, I have a place in
17:13 the front row in this memorial service that I don't deserve but I didn't earn
17:20 but there I was. So this is what we see in my story about
17:28 being an error. It is undeserved. My gift was undeserved. It could not be
17:36 earned. Nothing I could do to get more money or as rotten as I was as a child,
17:43 I didn't get less. It was received because of my identity, my place in the
17:50 family just by being born. It was secure. Nothing can ever change in this.
17:58 It's written in the government records in the state of New York. And there's one more thing I didn't tell you. When
18:05 we received our gifts, after the courts had distributed the estate,
18:13 we found that the gift that we all got from my uncle was rather large.
18:19 We had no idea. He lived very humbly, serving the church, very humbly all of
18:27 the years that I knew him in the same house. And yet, he had saved a lot of money. And we all got a rather large
18:35 gift. And again, that guilt was so strong that I didn't deserve it. Now, I
18:42 had a secret. I had a debt. I had a huge debt. You see, when I started my
18:49 doctoral work, I took out a student loan and then another and then another and I
18:56 had a huge debt from my doctoral work and when I
19:02 completed the program, the debt started to acrue interest and it was even
19:09 getting larger. I don't know how I was going to pay it. I can't tell you that I had a plan.
19:17 I I don't know what I was going to do, but I felt a lot of shame about that
19:23 debt. Nobody knew. And I didn't want anyone to know. It was
19:28 a secret. So, it had power over me. And this is what sin does. It has power over
19:34 us and it cripples us because we're scared. What if someone found out my
19:39 secret? the shame that I had this huge debt. Well, we found out when we all got our
19:47 inheritance from my uncle that it was rather large, as I said, and it was large enough to cover my student loans.
19:56 All of it. All I had to do was write one check
20:01 and it was done. I was free. I was in shock because I had been so
20:07 worried for so long and been so guilty and so full of shame for so long and all
20:13 of a sudden I was free. No more fear and no more shame.
20:20 The debt was completely paid. So do you think after that I walked around in fear
20:26 being careful that no one knew about my debts, never mentioning my student
20:32 loans? Of course not. It was in the past. It was gone. It was forgiven. The
20:38 debt was paid. No one needed to worry about it anymore. I didn't need to worry
20:43 at night. How am I going to pay? And I didn't need to be afraid. What if someone finds out? Fear and shame were
20:51 gone completely because of grace.
21:01 So this is how we look at our grace that we receive as an heir of God. My story
21:09 was a human story. It was a a story with human
21:15 aspects that don't completely translate to what God has done for us because
21:20 God's love for us is so much bigger. But so many things about my story are
21:26 the same. So let's review this. My inheritance as an heir, as a child of
21:35 God, is received because of my identity. God put my name on the book.
21:43 It is my place in God's family that is the reason I have it. Just like it was
21:49 my place in the family that was the reason that I received an inheritance. It is completely undeserved.
21:56 We don't deserve God's grace. There's nothing that I could do that I could get more
22:03 because God's love is total and covers us. And there's nothing that I could be
22:08 so rotten that I would be loved less because God decided that my name is in
22:14 the book. It is completely covering me in every way. No, no more or
22:22 no less. It's secure. It can never change. Just like the government records in New York, in the United States of
22:29 America, my name is written in the book of life and it's secure. And that's not
22:34 going to go away if I suddenly have a bad day or if I suddenly feel guilt and
22:40 shame or if I get angry. It's not going to go away. My debt is paid. All of my
22:47 sin is forgiven. Do you realize how big that is? All of it. Before the beginning
22:54 of time, God knew my name. As the children sang, before I knit you together in your
23:02 mother's womb, I knew you. Before I was that little kid who wasn't a very good
23:08 niece, God knew my name and he knew my name was written in the book. My sins
23:14 are forgiven. No more fear and shame. So that will be my conclusion is moving
23:22 forward we shouldn't have any fear and shame as we as we're our sins are
23:28 forgiven. Now we sang this song who you say I am and I asked Michelle if we
23:35 could sing this song because this was very powerful to me as I was writing
23:40 this message for you today. I love this song and I hope that you listen to these
23:46 words. But I want to just point out a few lines to you that really tell the
23:52 story of God's grace and our place. Of course, the title, Who You Say I Am. Did
23:60 you notice the title of the song? It isn't who I say I am, who I think I am,
24:07 or my parents think I'm pretty good, or Mr. Stillwell thinks
24:14 that I'm pretty nice. No, the song title is who you say I am.
24:22 Remember that you're a child of God because he says it because he looks at you and says you are my child. He says
24:31 it. We don't say it. That doesn't make it real. God says it. The opening line,
24:38 who am I that the highest king would welcome me? Just like my story. Who am I
24:44 that people at the memorial would want to meet me? I'm really nothing but
24:50 because of what God did. Because of Jesus Christ, I am a child of the king
24:55 and I am somebody. The other line I want to point out is in my father's house
25:01 there's a place for me. I'm a child of God. Yes, I am for sure forever. The
25:09 place for me is in heaven. There's a place there that God has for me
25:16 in the future. So, I'm a child of God here on earth preparing to serve God for
25:23 eternity in heaven.
25:29 Now, those are all important parts of how we are as an air and grace. But now
25:36 I want to turn attention for a moment to mistaken identity because the way the
25:42 scripture is presented it makes a reference to how the world
25:47 sees us. So let's look at that. The end of verse one says
25:55 the reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. You see the
26:00 scripture tells us not everyone will understand this. Not everyone will know
26:07 we are children of God. Not everyone will understand grace because the world
26:13 doesn't know him and the world doesn't see us this way and we can't expect
26:19 that. So we should be prepared that the world will not see us this way. Well,
26:25 how does the world see our identity? This is a good question. When you meet
26:31 someone at any age, when you meet someone, what might you say? What might
26:38 your question be to their identity? The first time you meet someone when they
26:43 visit the church, especially if it more if it's a man than a woman, what might
26:49 you say?
26:54 No idea. You might say, "What do you do?" Right?
26:60 Nod your heads. What do you do? Right? Because that's how the world sees us.
27:06 What do you do? In other words, what have you done? What do you do? In fact,
27:13 we are so tied into our career identity that that is how we see everyone. What
27:21 do you do? What have you done? In fact, if you meet a small child, you might ask
27:28 them what. Now, this time you can you can answer. What might you ask a small
27:34 child exactly? What are you going to be when
27:39 you grow up? What would you like to be? Again, we're already tying them into
27:45 identity. Now, if you meet a young person like the boy with the messenger
27:51 bag on the bottom left, what might you say to him at that age?
27:58 Are you in university? What are you studying?
28:04 What do you hope to do with your degree? What are you hoping to be? Again, we are
28:10 so tied to our identity as the world sees us.
28:16 What do you do? In other words, what have you done? And there's the fear and there is the
28:25 shame because we all have a past and we have all done things that we regret. And
28:31 everyone's done some things they hope that people don't ever find out because it's part of the human condition.
28:38 This is so complete and thorough in this culture as well as in the United States
28:43 that when you meet someone older, say the gentleman on the end with the
28:48 cane, what would you say to him if he if he walked into the church and you were
28:53 meeting him for the first time? You would say what?
28:59 Are you retired? And what did you do? Again, we are so
29:05 tied to that that even beyond the world of work, we're still tied to what did
29:11 you do? What have you done? And it's a little different with women because
29:18 women don't identify first with career. Women identify first with relationships.
29:25 Women are more likely to tell you about their family. And how does that look? You meet me for
29:32 the first time. uh two and a half years ago when we came to this church. And you
29:38 might say, "What does your husband do?"
29:45 So there is what it's like to be a woman in case you didn't know. And there's nothing wrong with that. I'm not saying
29:52 this at all critically. This is how we relate to each other. What do you do?
29:58 What have you done? And then tell me about your family. Do you have children?
30:04 Do you have grandchildren? These are all normal questions. But even when you
30:09 start with the question of family for women, you're going to get to the question of the husband or some kind of
30:19 career angle. If the woman is single, you're going to get to the question of career because this is how the world
30:26 sees us. Again, nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong. Don't be afraid to go ask
30:32 people today, what do you do? Because uh that's okay. It's culturally
30:39 acceptable. It's friendly. But remember, that's not really our ultimate identity,
30:46 is it? Not really. Now, when I met Mr. Stillwell
30:55 and we had our first date, Mr. Stillwell told me about his job. Of
31:03 course, on our first date, we exchanged stories. What do you do? And I told him
31:10 what I did, and he told me what he did. Jeff was working for a company at the
31:16 time that held the patent for paper straws.
31:22 They had developed this spiral winding technique that is still used today
31:30 and it is now being used in many other applications.
31:35 And as Jeff was telling me about his company, he told me he was in sales in
31:41 this company. And what he sold were very sophisticated
31:47 wrapped rolled paper linings that went inside generators and compressors and
31:55 motors. Very, very sophisticated, but based on the same original premise,
32:02 which is the spiral wrapped paper. These were precision instruments, many used by
32:08 the military and used by large companies. And Jeff was selling these
32:14 paper rolled linings to large companies and the military as I said in China and
32:22 India. And he told me about his work. And I was fascinated by this because I
32:28 really liked Jeff. So I liked hearing about this identity.
32:33 And he told me about these amazing paper wrapped tubes that are in these
32:40 machines. Very, very sophisticated and precise.
32:45 And some of these machines, he told me, are as big as a room. So this is the
32:52 kind of work that he was doing. Well, I was thrilled and I couldn't get enough
32:58 of his stories about his identity and his work. And obviously I was falling in
33:04 love with him in the process. So my friends would ask me, "Tell us
33:11 about this new man that you're dating. Tell us about this." And my friends and
33:18 family would say, "What what was their question? Thank you. What does he do?" And I would
33:26 say, well, he's in sales internationally, travels a lot to China
33:33 and India and other countries. What does he sell? You said sales. We
33:41 need to know what does he sell? Well, it's a very sophisticated paper
33:48 lining that's coil wrapped that is used in these machines in compressors. And my
33:55 friend's faces glazed over.
34:01 What are you talking about? What? Because when I say it, it doesn't make any sense.
34:09 What? He what? And they would continue to ask me,
34:14 "What does he sell?" And I would say, "Straws." Straws.
34:22 Yes, Jeff sells straws. Okay, that's good because that's really all they
34:28 wanted was a simple answer, a simple identity. Julia has met a man that she
34:34 really likes. He sells straws. So, there you have part of the problem
34:40 with the mistaken identity. as the world sees us. We're just not that interested
34:45 in everything about every detail about your career because there's so much more
34:51 to you than that, isn't there? So why is the way the world sees us so unsatisfying?
34:57 First of all, the sad fact is your career identity is temporary.
35:04 You could lose your job. If you go around saying you're a teacher, but then
35:09 you lose your teaching job, then what are you? A nothing,
35:15 or are you always going to say, "Well, I used to be a teacher, but now I have a job at a store,
35:21 but I really used to be a teacher." It's very temporary, isn't it? And if
35:26 you've ever met someone who's been fired, you know how painful it is when you ask them, "What do you do?" and they
35:33 can't answer you. Some of you in here have experienced this. I have. And I
35:40 know the shame and pain when people would ask me, "What do you do?
35:48 I don't have a job right now." And then the look on their face as they pied you.
35:55 The second reason the way the world sees us is unsatisfying is our past haunts us
36:01 and our hurts hold us back. Just like my debt that I was carrying, I
36:08 was so scared someone would find out my secret. I was so ashamed of that. My
36:14 past was holding me back and it was haunting me every minute of every day.
36:20 Our hurts hold us back. Our sin holds us back. Because if we carry it and we don't let
36:28 it go to be forgiven, we carry that shame and it restricts what we can do.
36:34 We can't be powerful in the kingdom if we're still carrying that debt. We can't
36:39 be effective in the kingdom. And without Christ, we have no hope and
36:48 no peace. Now, this piece of paper doesn't look like much. I'm sorry. It's
36:53 not a very fancy document but unfortunately they don't make them
36:58 pretty for PowerPoint slides but this is my certificate
37:04 that I was given and my license was added to be an administrator and at the
37:11 time that I was getting doing my graduate work we had to take some very
37:18 very difficult tests uh hours and hours of essay writing. And
37:25 our professors told us, "When you study and you do this and you
37:31 pass, you will have a lifetime license. No one can ever take it away from you."
37:39 Isn't that great? And you can always remember that. So
37:44 your hard work is worth it. It will pay off in the end. And they told us that
37:50 over and over because the the studying was so hard. So I did study very hard
37:57 and I did pass and I received this license added to my teacher certificate
38:05 and it says lifetime on it. And right after that, some very bad
38:12 things happened in my life. And I found myself very scared and alone and living
38:19 in a motel, fearing for my life. And I
38:24 didn't sit there in that hotel room scared for my future in my life and say,
38:31 "But I've got a lifetime certificate. I feel great because no one can take
38:38 that away from me. I studied and I passed my comprehensive exams and that
38:46 didn't give me any comfort at all. As I was scared and alone,
38:52 I didn't take comfort from the world's identity at all. I took comfort from the
38:57 fact that I am a child of God. And I heard God say to me, "You are my child.
39:03 I look at you and I see Christ and his dying work on the cross and his
39:10 resurrection. I see that. So I look at you and you are perfect when I look at
39:16 you because of Jesus Christ. You are my child. I said so that is who you really
39:22 are. Not your circumstances that brought you in this bad place today. Not even
39:28 your teaching certificate or your administrative license. That's not really who I was or who I am. God said,
39:37 "You are who I say you are, and I say you are my child."
39:43 So, we've talked about family identity, identity as an error, which is how God
39:50 sees us. And then we talked about mistaken identity, which is how the world sees us. And our ultimate identity
39:58 is being a child of God.
40:04 So let's go back to the text and read this last part again. Dear friends, now
40:10 we are children of God. What we will be has not yet been made known. But we know
40:15 that when Christ appears, we shall be like him. For we shall see him as he is.
40:21 All who have this hope in him purify themselves just as he is pure. I love
40:28 the way this is written because it says now we are children. Not maybe,
40:35 not if you feel like it, not if you're having a good day, not if you had
40:40 Christian parents. No, we are children of God. And when and we know that when
40:47 Christ appears, we shall be like him. Not hopefully I will be like him. Maybe
40:55 but we will be like him. That's the assurance of being a child of God.
41:03 So I want to ask you a question. Where is your identity?
41:09 Are you a child of the king?
41:15 Are you can you say that? If you are thinking I'm not sure about that. Those
41:22 words don't sound like I don't know how I feel about those words. I'm not sure.
41:27 Then I want to tell you accept the gift. That's all you have to do. All you have
41:33 to do is accept it. It's been done. The work of Jesus Christ has been done. Your
41:39 debt is paid. It's done. And it's permanent. All you have to do
41:45 is accept it. Now, we're going to sing this song again
41:51 before the throne of God above. And we sang it earlier. I want to just point
41:57 out to you two lines that are really powerful in this song.
42:04 My name is graven on his hands. My name is written on his heart. I know that
42:12 while in heaven he stands, no tongue can bid me then depart. What those words
42:18 mean is no one can do or say anything that takes me out of God's presence. My
42:26 name is written on his hands and on his heart just like my name was written in
42:32 the government records for my other stories. And the other line I want to
42:38 point out to you, because the sinless savior died, my sinful soul is counted
42:45 free. Not because I did anything right, but
42:51 because Jesus died, I'm free. God the just is satisfied to look on him and
42:58 pardon me. We serve a God of justice. There has to be justice. My debt had to
43:03 be paid and it was. And that is why God can look on me and see me sinless. So I
43:12 just want to ask you one more time, where is your identity? Are you a child of the king? And I like
43:20 that. I like to hear the yeses. Praise God. If you are, the privilege of being
43:26 his child must propel us to live up to this high calling. So live in hope and
43:33 purity.
43:42 Thank you, Sister Julia. Church, shall we stand and let's sing the song again before the throne of God above.
