Identity Theft

A New Sermon Series: By Jim Burgin, pastor

We all know what it feels like to be misunderstood, and/or misrepresented by someone. We’ve probably had times when someone else had an image of us which we couldn’t live up to.  If we took a poll of our congregation, we would discover a larger percentage of us have been affected by identity theft than any of us would imagine.  Consider these facts:

• • 1 in 15 people in the United States have been victims of identity theft;
  • 16 million people were affected just last year, and the numbers are increasing;
  • there is a new victim of identity theft every 6 seconds. Wow!

Once, when I was in college, I received a phone call from a debt collector. It seems that someone named James Burgin had not paid their debts, and now the collectors were coming after me. It took some effort and quite a bit of persuasion to convince the people that it was someone else with my name, and that I was innocent. And that happened to me long before the advent of the internet and social media. Whew!

When the Lord walked this earth – from the very beginning, his identity was stolen or distorted in so many ways. Some did so intentionally, perhaps maliciously.  Others  just had their vision clouded. Still others remade the Lord into their own image or used his words to further their own agenda. Some even made him small enough that he could fit in their pocket.  The question naturally follows, “Who is Jesus really?”

For the next seven weeks, we will examine that question in our weekly messages.

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Here is the Message Plan for the next seven weeks

• July 14th – “The Bread of Life” (John 6:35);
• July 21st – “Light of the World” (John 8:12-20);
• July 28th – “Gate” (John 10: 1, 7-10);
• August 4th – “Good Shepherd” (John 10: 1-6, 11-18)
• August 11th – “Resurrection and the Life” (John 11: 17-27);
• August 18th – “Way, Truth, Life” (John 14: 1-6);
• August 25th – “True Vine” (John 15:5)