Reborn Identity | 06/28/2026

Amen.

You guys feel the presence of God in here?

Our time.

We've just been spending time on the presence, so I won't be before you very long.

Can I get 10 minutes?

Raise your hand if I can get 10 minutes.

10, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100.

We got about two hours, Pastor David.

Let's go.

I count it a privilege and an honor to be here.

I've been in ministry for all my life.

My mother's here.

I did not know she was coming.

And I've been holding my emotions in.

And I'll swoop them back in.

See, I'm doing better.

Khalid's known me a long time.

He knows I'm a crybaby.

Pastor David and make and my wife surprised me.

But anyway, I've been in ministry for a very long time.

But, and I've preached.

I've preached all my life, but preaching under the calling and assignment of a pastor.

This is my very first time.

Pastor David said something that almost made me cry again.

And it's the Lord's been reminding me that I am stepping into calling.

I love worship leading.

I've been doing it my whole life.

I love playing instruments.

I've been doing it my whole life.

But, and I've been worship pastor for a very long time, but stepping into the calling of just this level of pastoring where we're this close with the sheep and being given this honor and opportunity by Pastor Dave.

First of all, can we give it up for our amazing pastors?

Hey, yo!

No! Yo! Can I get a little bit more because there's no stage, just a little bit more.

Pastor David and Pastor Catherine, man, if I could tell you the journey I've been on with them.

I've been traveling with Catherine, Pastor Catherine, doing worship for like almost 15 years now.

Just a long time.

I we talked about me coming to Noonan, Georgia.

Didn't know I was gonna find my wife here in Georgia.

Found my wife, ended up moving here.

I'm gonna be honest with you.

I was going somewhere totally different.

I was getting ready to take a job at a totally different place.

God put Pastor David in my face in a loving way and said, No, you're stepping in a callie.

You're not gonna go back to what you're comfortable with.

You're gonna step into your calling.

And I'm telling you, having a man and woman of God who snatched you out of, I wasn't in some sinful path, a path like leading to destruction.

I but oh my god, that's a whole nother message.

I I wasn't, I just I wasn't on a sinful path.

I wasn't out sinning and all these things.

I was simply not in the will of God.

And sometimes that can be just as dangerous as me going out sinning and all these things.

But to have a man or woman of God who come and say, hey, we believe in what God has called you to, and we're going to help push you into that.

I um I just I appreciate our pastor so much.

And Dr.

Randy doesn't know, I haven't known him a long time, but he's one of my heroes now, one of the most intelligent men I've ever met.

But theology matched with anointing?

Oh my gosh.

Anyway, thank you guys.

I uh I'm I promise I won't be super long.

We've got till 4th of July to the cookout.

That's the next thing we have.

There's no service on Wednesday, so I can preach through that time.

Yeah, yeah.

Just call your jobs, tell them you're at church.

As you can see, I've got behind me reborn, not Star Wars.

That does look like Star Wars.

But guess what?

It's not Star Wars.

Can you say reborn identity?

One more time, say reborn identity.

One of I I've had the privilege again of traveling all over the United States, really all over the world, and seeing what the Lord is doing in the body of Christ.

But one of the biggest concerns I've had, even with myself over the years, is that the body of Christ, we we have amazing meetings.

God moves in many ways, but there are so many of us who are lacking one thing, and that is our identity.

Can you say identity?

Now look, I'm from old school.

Look at your neighbor and say identity.

Do we have any 80s, 90s babies in the room?

80s, 90s, we're telling our age.

80s, 90s.

Rod just looked at me like, come on, bruh.

Have anybody remember the movie Born Identity?

That was my movie.

Uh the the movie Born Identity, it's about this character named Jason Bourne.

And so Jason Bourne was literally this walking weapon.

He was somebody who could he could fight.

They would send him to handle assignments that the average person couldn't do.

But here's the crazy thing about Jason Bourne.

With all the giftings and things that he had inside of him, he didn't know who he was.

He had amnesia.

He couldn't remember who he was.

While I was doing this, the Lord showed me who the real Jason Bourne was.

Let me see if I could do this real quick.

Not that one.

The real, the real.

The real.

Come on.

Come on.

But then, but then the Lord was like, Well, that's not go too far.

That's like, oh, the real.

There we go.

There we go.

There we go.

There we go.

Yeah.

I had to.

The walking.

It's like Pastor David knows who he is, I promise.

Anyway, let's go back.

Don't look.

The reborn identity.

So now that I've gotten that out of the way, I had to get him.

The body of Christ.

There are so many of us who are walking around with spiritual amnesia.

And there are so many of us who we come to church every week.

We read our Bibles.

We pray to the Lord, but we don't know who we are.

Today I come to simply remind you as a body of Christ of your identity in Him.

Amen.

Second Corinthians 5, verse 17.

2 Corinthians 5:17

It simply reads, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

The old has passed away, and behold, the new has come.

I'm going to say that again.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

The old has passed away.

Behold, the new has come.

Let me put this idea before you.

The enemy attacks identity before destiny.

But God restores identity before the assignment.

I'm going to say that one more time.

The enemy attacks your identity before your destiny.

But God restores your identity before assignment.

Now let's ask the question: why in the world would the enemy attack my identity?

Well, it's a simple answer there.

I'm a preacher's kid.

I was born into ministry.

My mom has been in, she's a pastor, prophetess.

Shout out to women pastors.

For those who are trying to take them down, I don't care if you're looking at me right now.

I believe in woman pastors.

Anyway, I'm telling you, I almost got Jason Bourne just in.

My God.

My father, he passed away about seven years ago.

A pastor my entire life.

I was born into ministry.

I grew up, my dad had a master's in theology, a doctorate in ministry.

I grew up reading the word of God.

I was also a PK.

I'm gonna be honest.

PKs, we don't have the best uh reputation.

I was in church doing the Lord's work and out of church doing stuff I had no business doing.

But I knew how to do church.

I knew what it meant to be a Christian, I knew what it meant to be a believer, but I was frailing in my identity in Christ.

So here's the thing.

I was leading worship.

I was coming into the room and I was watching God do miracles, signs, and wonders.

I was watching people get healed, people coming up, Garner.

Man, worship was amazing today.

Not realizing I still didn't know who I was.

You see, here's the thing.

The enemy will allow us as believers to walk this walk, to walk our Christian walks, to go through the motions as long as we don't know who we are.

What does it mean if we don't know who we are?

It means that we're not taking the territory that the Lord has called us to take.

Identity is a real thing.

What does identity bring?

What does identity do for us?

Well, me myself, identity brought a confidence in me that I didn't know I needed.

You see, I would walk in the room as a worship leader, I will walk in the room as the pastor's kid, I will walk in the room as the anointed musician, but I would never walk in the room as the son of God.

Understanding that I am the son of God, that I am a joint, I am getting so ahead of myself.

Understanding that I am one of the sons of God, I'm a joint heir with Jesus.

Understanding that I am royalty, that when I walk into the room, the King of Kings listens to my voice.

That's a difference between just walking in.

I've been in so many meetings where so many people have lost identity.

One more time, can you say identity?

So the enemy wants to remind us constantly of our past.

Many of us, when I was telling Pastor David, I love our church.

You know, the first thing I got when I came to Generations was everybody's testimony.

I met Tyler.

Yeah, uh, my testimony is this, this, this, this, and I met Elizabeth.

I wrote a book about my testimony.

Would you like to read it?

So many other people, hearing of their testimonies, hearing of what the Lord has done.

I love testimonies, but some of us, our testimony stays attached to who we are still today.

2 Corinthians 5 17 saying, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has passed away.

Behold, the new has come.

It means that when we came to Christ and got our identity in Christ, he erased who we were.

He erased that person we were.

We have to get away from those old mindsets of who we were.

I'd like to put this idea before you.

Salvation is not behavior modification.

Salvation didn't come so, oh, you know what?

God is saying, oh, okay, I'm gonna take this person and I'm gonna just switch a few things around and modify it.

No, salvation's not behavior modification.

Salvation is identity transformation.

Sons and daughters, this morning, I simply want to remind you that you are new creatures.

The person you were in the past, you are not that person anymore.

The things you used to do, you aren't those things anymore.

I don't care if you did something yesterday, if you came here today and laid it before the Lord, it's gone.

You're new.

One more time, can you say identity?

There are Christians who have been saved, who have been filled with the Spirit, who have been touched by God, called by heaven, but they still don't know who they are.

When we don't know who we are, what do we do?

We live beneath our calling.

I'm preaching to myself.

Again, I'm 38 years old, got married in February of this year, been doing worship, and I'm not saying that worship was not, worship's always going to be a part of my calling.

But when I was when I was offered a job as a worship pastor at another church, I took it quickly.

Well, yeah, I'm used to doing this.

It took somebody saying, uh, or my pastor saying, This is what you're called to do.

But because I was still walking in that path of who am I God?

Who am I God?

It I almost fell beneath my calling.

People who don't know who they are, they live trapped by old labels.

They live imprisoned by old mindsets, they live identified by old failures.

Here's my favorite line.

But when Jesus saves you, he does not simply improve your old identity, he makes a brand new one.

Is anybody thankful this morning for brand new identity?

You are not just forgiven.

You are not just no, you are not just forgiven, you are reborn.

You are not what happened to you, you are not what they called you, you are not your addiction, your past addiction, you are not your shame, you are not your past.

If you are in Christ, you are a new creation.

Can you say new creation?

The enemy understands something that we believers forget.

If he can confuse your identity, then he can control he can influence your behavior.

I'm gonna say that one more time.

If the enemy can confuse your identity, he can influence your behavior.

Many times I know a lot of us we pray for our prodigal sons and daughters, and we pray for for lost ones to come in, but even a lot of us in the body of Christ, we don't realize that because we're confused in our identity in Christ, and listen, I'm not talking about a bunch of us going out and sinning.

I'm talking about simply not understanding who you are as a son and daughter of God.

When he can confuse our identity, he can confuse our behavior.

I love the testimony my sister Gepam gave about when the when she got healed, she ran after somebody.

Now, what does that look like in if we're confusing our identity?

Well, maybe God will heal me.

Well, maybe if I pray for this person, they'll be healed.

No, walking identity and says, I'm a son and daughter of God.

When I call on my father and ask things in the will of my father, he moves on my behalf.

One more time, can you say identity?

I keep saying one more time, but just one, yeah, it's one more time means like a thousand.

If someone believes they are rejected, they will live rejected.

Let's think about our mindsets here.

Let's think about how the mind works.

The things we believe, that's what controls us.

If someone believes they are worthless, they'll live a worth, they'll live as if they are worthless.

If someone believes they are bound, they will stay in chains even when the prison door is open.

But when the revelation of identity comes, everything changes.

This is why salvation isn't just about going to heaven.

Salvation is about coming, but some about becoming someone new.

Jesus did not come simply to keep you out of hell, he came to restore your identity as a son or daughter of God.

My first point here, you can be reborn.

Say this with me.

You can be reborn, but still think like the old you.

I'm gonna go to Romans 12, verse 2.

Romans 12:2

It says, Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

I'm gonna read it one more time.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Now, at this point in scripture, we're in Romans, Paul was writing to the church there in Rome.

There was a lot of identity issues there because of what Rome was trying to push on the church at that time.

Now we're talking about Jews and Gentiles all in one area, but having just confusion about what they need to serve when it comes to Rome.

At that time in Rome, after I did a little bit of research, I realized sexual perversion was huge in Rome at that time.

And it was almost you were made to feel shameful if you weren't participating in what was going on in the culture.

We're talking about a culture that was even there were people who part who participated in the culture who knew it was wrong.

That sounds like something today, right?

Paul was saying to the church of Rome, listen, I know what's going on around you, I know the things you see, I know what culture is making look okay, but don't be conformed to this.

Don't live by what the world is doing.

I come to tell you today how how do we become uh or walk in our identity?

Don't be conformed to the world.

What does that mean?

I'm gonna touch it.

Some of us, some of us need to get off of social media.

Listen, I believe in the good things that social media does.

I believe that social media is an avenue to reach people.

I believe it's a way to stay in contact.

But what I can't stand about social media is the way it controls society.

I'm gonna be straight up with you.

I didn't wear, I'm about to tell them myself, I don't used to wear big t-shirts.

It's a trend.

I'm gonna keep wearing my big t-shirts because I wouldn't like the way they like.

But somebody got up one day and said, you know what?

I think I'm gonna wear it.

First of all, we were doing this back in the 90s.

Let them know, Pastor David.

Somebody got up and said, I'm gonna wear a big t-shirt.

They're wearing a bad baggy jeans and all that stuff.

I'm gonna wear it and see how many people follow me.

Somebody got on social media, put it on, and the rest of the world was like, I'm gonna start doing that too.

Now there's nothing wrong with trends.

I'm not saying anything like that.

But let's talk about young women going on social media trying to figure out the way that they should look in their outer appearance so that other men would be attracted to them.

Let's talk about men who don't understand who they are, who go to social media to say, well, if I act like this person, maybe people will accept me.

Let's talk about just the the if we really, if you break down, if you really break down, I've done so much research on this.

If you really break down who owns social media, and you start to see the people that are influencing all of it, it'll start to change your mind.

We're talking about being not conform to the world.

Paul was writing to the Christians in Rome.

The church in Rome was dealing with the pressure from the culture, and Paul said this: do not be conform.

The Greek word means to be pressed into a mode or to take an outward pattern.

Paul is saying, don't let the culture around you shape your thinking, values, priority, or identity.

Ask yourself this this morning, church.

What around us is conforming us.

If I say music right now, some of us are gonna start to cringe.

Don't don't touch my music, don't touch my Beyoncé.

I'm gonna be honest, that's like one of the only artists I know right now because I don't listen to secular music.

But don't touch whatever secular music we're listening to.

Here we go.

Don't touch our movies.

It's okay if me as a Christian believer sits and watches an entire performance of witchcraft on a movie.

It's okay because I'm protected.

I can watch it.

My eye gates don't matter.

It's okay if if if I as a Christian sit down, oh I'm in the movie theaters.

Oh, there's a scene that's coming that's a little sketchy.

Oh, they're doing things that I don't believe as a believer, but I'm protected by the blood of Jesus.

I'm gonna watch it and it won't affect me.

But then I get home and start to wonder why I'm looking at my wife differently.

I get home and start to wonder.

Why the things I've been listening to, I can't get out of my head.

I get home and start to wonder why does it feel like a dark presence in here?

Paul is saying, don't let the culture around you shape your thinking values or your identity.

Be transformed, which is metamorpho.

I'm not gonna get too deep.

Pastor David told me not to.

I'm sorry, Pastor David.

I'm sitting here with Greek words.

I'm like, but anyway.

But be transformed, which it's metamorphosis, it's metamorpho literally comes from metamorphosis, which means to be changed from the inside out.

When we are truly formed in our identity, when we truly allow the Lord and the Holy Spirit to work on us in our identity, we are transformed from the inside out.

What does that mean?

Whatever's on the inside is going to come to the outside and it's going to look completely different.

One more time, can you say identity?

Your mind has to be renewed.

Let's talk about one of the things I love about our church is Pastor David constantly encourages us to stay in the word of God.

You want to talk about renewing your mind.

Don't be conformed to the world.

Don't allow those things of the world to get into your mind and then renew it with the word of God.

The word of God literally has transformed my life.

One more time, can you say identity?

Your spirit can be reborn while your thinking is still imprisoned.

Some believers are still condemned, they still think dirty, they still think abandoned, they still think hopeless, even after Jesus made them new.

Israel is an example.

God delivered them from Egypt in one night, but Egypt stayed in their mind for years.

They were physically free but mentally enslaved.

Many Christians were living the same way.

We're saved externally, but we're enslaved internally.

The enemy bel loves believers who know church language but do not know kingdom identity.

Because if you do not know who you are, you will keep returning to what God has delivered you from.

Again, if you do not know who you are, you'll keep returning to what God has delivered you from.

You can take the slave out of Egypt, but it takes revelation to take Egypt out of the slave.

Your old identity is dead.

Is anybody getting this this morning?

It's very simple, but I believe that there's something that God wants to put in each and every one of us to understand that when we walk truly in our identity, that's when cities are transformed.

Christians, sons and daughters of God who walk in the identity of being sons and daughters of God, of being as being joint heirs with Jesus, when we walk in that, that's when our families come to Christ.

That's when we say nations turn back to Jesus.

Amen?

Your old identity is dead.

Galatians 2 verse 20.

Galatians 2:20

I've been crucified with Christ.

It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

In the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

One of the greatest struggles believers face is continuing to identify with something God says died.

Can you imagine something dying in your life and you continuing to go back to visit it as is as if it's still alive?

The old you was crucified with Christ.

That means your old label died, your old shame died, your old condemnation died.

The enemy tries to keep resurrecting what Jesus buried.

Some people still introduce themselves by their trauma.

I am broken, I'm angry, I'm this, I'm that.

God is saying to you today, sons and daughters, you are his children.

You are not your past.

You are not who you used to be.

The mistakes you made, the sins you you indulged in, you are not those things anymore.

Today, from this straight day forth, I don't care what you've done in the past, I don't care if you did something a few minutes ago.

God is getting your attention and saying, walk in the identity I have given you.

You are my son, you are my daughter, you are a new creation, the old is passed away.

You are new.

It means you don't everything about you, it hasn't existed before.

Those things may describe what happened to you, but it does not define who you are.

Because when Jesus changes your identity, your past loses authority over your future.

My third point, you are a son, not a slave.

For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry.

Abba Father.

When Pastor David, does any was anybody here when Pastor David preached on God being a father last week?

Abba Father.

It blew my mind.

And I'm sitting there like, he's stepping right into what the Lord's been speaking to me.

We've been called out of slavery, out of the spirit of an orphan.

Right now I break the spirit of an orphan over every person who's here right now.

I break those thoughts that make you think that you don't have a father.

I break those thoughts that make you think that you're alone.

I break those thoughts that make you think that nobody hears you.

And this morning I speak the spirit of adoption over you, and I remind you that you are a son or a daughter of Christ.

We're no longer slaves, we are children.

Servants work for acceptance, a son works from acceptance.

A servant is afraid of being rejected.

A son understands his he belongs.

One of the most powerful things about the prodigal son is when he was sitting there with, I believe, the pigs eating from them and realized, wait, even my servant, the servants have better at my father's house.

But then to run down that road and see the father was already waiting for him.

Some of you think that I've done too much, I've got too much in my past.

How could I walk in this identity that you're talking about?

And God's been waiting for you this entire time, saying, if you only knew the amazing things I had for you.

Some of you, God's about to blow your mind when you simply understand that you are his son, you are his daughter.

Walk in that identity.

What does that mean, Garner?

Walk in the confidence the Father has given you.

Now, when I walk into the room, when I lead worship, when I go places to minister, I walk in saying, you know what?

My father is with me and has given me the confidence to know that when I call on him, he's going to move on my behalf.

This morning, I simply want to remind you of your identity.

One of the most powerful, this is I'll end on this.

One of the most powerful moments that the Lord was showing me of identity is when before Jesus did any type of miracle, he was being baptized.

God opens the heaven and says, This is my son, and whom I am well pleased.

Before he went and laid hands on anything, before he did any miracles, God spoke identity over him.

Hey, all of you, I want you to know this is my son.

Could you stand with me?

This morning I feel the father speaking over you.

This is my son.

This is my daughter in whom I am well pleased.

I am not disappointed in them.

I don't hold anything from their Passover.

Him.

This is my son.

This is my daughter in whom I am well pleased.

And I hear the Father saying, walk in your identity as a son or daughter of God.

Walk in the confidence and knowing that when you call on your father, he moves on your behalf.

Walk in the confidence of knowing that when you go to heal the sick, when you go to raise the dead, when you go to call things out in his name, he's there with you and moving on your behalf.

My friends, my family, I simply come to remind you this morning of your identity in him.

If we can get that ministry movie music playing, please.

Heavenly Father, we come to you this morning.

Breaking off the old identity, the identity that says that we're worthless, the identity that says that we have no place with you.

We break off that old identity.

We break off the old identity of sin.

The things that we did before that we've already come to you about.

We break off that identity.

And this morning I speak the identity of sons and daughters over this household.

I speak the identity that as they go and pray, they'll know that they're coming to the Father.

Not some God who's off in the distance, who doesn't care what his children are saying, but they're coming to the Father.

For those here that have been struggling with thoughts of their past, God, thoughts of did God really forgive me?

Did um do I really have the Holy Spirit?

I just speak that identity over them that lets them know they are forgiven.

I ask that you would fill this room, that even throughout the rest of our days, you would fill and touch the hearts of these people, and that you would show them truly who their identity is.

And I pray more than anything that as I the revelation of identity comes over them, that they will have a confidence like never before, that they will understand I truly am a son or daughter of God, that when I ask for bread, he won't give me a stone.

That when I call on his name as my father, I'll have a father, that he moves on my behalf.

If there's any prayer you need this morning, maybe you didn't come up for healing.

Maybe you just want to pray with someone and say, Hey, you know what?

I've been struggling with this mindset, and I really want to understand identity from the Father's heart.

Whatever prayer you need, we just want to connect with you.

Our ministry team just wants to connect with you and let you know you are loved.

Father God, we thank you for identity.

Even when we didn't deserve it, God, even when our destinies were heading in a different direction, you stopped us in our path and said, No.

You just don't know who you are.

So I'm gonna tell you, you're my son, you're my daughter.

This is what I've called you to.

We thank you for identity.

And I pray for those, even those today who you're not living in sin.

You've been doing this Christian walk, but God wants to take you deeper in identity, deeper in this confidence of knowing who you are.

God, we thank you.

We thank you for the service.

We ask that you would be with us as we continue through the rest of this week.

Let this message of identity just continue to touch our hearts, God.

We love you.

And we thank you.

If you've got prayer again, you can come forward.

If not, um, we just ask that you would be mindful of our ministry going on, and we love you, and we will see you next Saturday for our Fourth of July cookout.

Amen.

God bless you.

Jesus No, I am not here to stay.