Restored, Week 1: Insecurity

Join us this week as we start our brand new series, Restored. We all want healthy, dynamic relationships.  However, some of us never seem to find health. We need to be RESTORED.  This unique series will require us to take a good look inside.  A look that may uncover areas we aren’t proud of.  A look that will help bring us back to a state of health.  A look that will bring us back to a former position.  Finally a look that will help us regain that which was lost.  As a result, we will be Restored. (Hosea 6:2) (NLT) In just a short time he will restore us, so that we may live in his presence. Title of Message: Insecurity   (Proverbs 4:23) (GN) Be careful how you think; your life is shaped by your thoughts.    Deceptive Definitions:   1. We let culture define who we are. 2. We let our past define who we are.   (Romans 12:3) Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.   Don’t have an unhealthy view of yourself, but rather be set free of the wrong view and let God give you right thinking by being assured of who He is and what He believes about you. You’ll never be right until you can see right.   How can I see right?   (Judges 6:11) The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites.   (Judges 6:12) When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”   (Judges 6:13) “But sir,” Gideon replied, “if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian.”   (Judges 6:14) The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”   (Judges 6:15) “But Lord,” Gideon asked, “how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”   (Judges 6:16) The Lord answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together.”   (Judges 6:24)...So Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and called it The Lord is Peace.   To Overcome Insecurity:   1.    See God correctly.   Your relationship with God can be no better than your view of God.    (Psalm 59:10 LB) My God is changeless in his love for me…   (Isaiah 38:16) (NLT) Lord, your discipline is good, for it leads to life and health. You restore my health and allow me to live!   2.    See myself the way God sees me. (1 Peter 2:9) (TLB) But you are not like that, for you have been chosen by God himself—you are priests of the King, you are holy and pure, you are God’s very own—all this so that you may show to others how God called you out of the (Winepress) darkness into his wonderful light.   3. Get around people who see me the way God sees me.   (Proverbs 27:17) (NKJV) As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.   Right relationships help us define who we are and what we become.