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Welcome to the Bridge Church VB Podcast, your weekly source for uplifting and transformative Sunday messages! Each episode features insightful, practical teachings rooted in Scripture, designed to inspire and guide you on your spiritual journey. Led by our passionate Lead Pastors, Archie and Tangie Callahan, we strive to create a welcoming environment that encourages individuals from all walks of life to connect with the person, power, and purpose of Jesus Christ.
In this podcast, we delve into relevant themes and timeless biblical truths that speak to the challenges and joys of everyday living. Whether you’re commuting, exercising, or simply seeking encouragement, our messages aim to empower you to grow in faith and discover your unique purpose.
Join our vibrant community of believers as we explore how to apply God’s Word in practical ways, fostering a deeper connection with Him and one another. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to enrich your life through these dynamic teachings. Connect with us and find out more at www.bridgechurch.tv!
Somebody's been lying to you about who you are and you believed it your whole life.
That somebody is God's chief adversary, the devil, and he is a thief.
He is also your chief adversary.
1 Peter 5, eight says, be alert and be of sober mind.
Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.
The cure for overcoming the devil is found in 1 Peter 5, 9.
Peter says, resist him, standing firm in your faith.
Tangled is about a baby who was stolen by Mother Gothel because she discovered that Rapunzel had healing, magical hair and raised her as another person.
Rapunzel was robbed of her identity on that night of her first birthday.
At her core, Gothel represents possessiveness disguised as love.
She does not value Rapunzel for who she is.
She values what Rapunzel can provide for her.
Her motherly language is deliberately controlling.
She manipulates Rapunzel.
She uses fear, guilt,
mockery, and occasional affection to convince Rapunzel that the outside world is too dangerous and that only Gothel can protect her.
She is manipulator.
She's a master at it.
She's very selfish and controlling.
See, the Bible says in John 10, 10, the thief comes to kill, steal, and destroy.
I have come that you may have life and have it to the full.
See, the devil, your adversary, he wants to steal your identity.
He kills your hope and destroys your future.
He is a thief.
He is a destroyer.
Like Mother Gothel, the enemy traps us.
Mother Gothel trapped Rapunzel in a tower in order to use the power of her hair for her own selfish desire to stay young.
She steals her identity.
She kills her hope and seeks to destroy her future as a queen.
How did she steal her identity?
through the lies that she told Rapunzel.
And she lied to her repeatedly, one after another.
Rapunzel's identity was stolen by lies.
You don't have to be trapped in a tower to lose your identity.
Sometimes it's stolen one lie at a time.
The devil is a great manipulator and he seeks to control our lives through the lies that he gives us.
Every time Rapunzel wants to leave the tower and see the floating lights, Gothel fills her mind with fear.
Did you know the Bible says God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a power, love, and a sound mind.
She tells Rapunzel, the world is dangerous.
People will hurt you.
You are too naive.
You need me.
She mixes just enough concern with enough criticism and fear that Rapunzel begins to believe the cage is love.
That is how the enemy often works.
Jesus said in John 8, 844, that the devil is a liar and he's the father of lies.
Satan does not always arrive announcing, I want to destroy your life.
Often the lies sound protective.
They sound like this.
Don't forgive them.
You're only protecting yourself.
Hold on to that secret sin.
It has given you relief.
Stay isolated.
Nobody would understand you anyway.
You're too broken to be used by God.
God is withholding something good from you.
They are all lies.
The enemy takes a cage and calls it safety.
He takes bondage and calls it freedom.
He takes shame and calls it humility.
He takes fear and calls it wisdom.
but is still a lie.
See, Satan is a liar.
One translation of the Bible says that lying is his native language.
He cannot tell the truth.
Bill Johnson once said, when you believe a lie, you empower the liar.
Every time we believe one of Satan's lies, we empower the liar.
Jesus said, you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.
The question is not simply what voices am I hearing?
The question is, which voice is shaping my decisions?
The voice of fear and accusation or the voice of our heavenly father who tells us the truth in love.
The light of God's word always exposes the lie and the darkness that has held us in the tower of death.
I believe today God's word, which is light, is going to expose the lie in our lives.
You don't have to live bound by fear.
You don't have to live in the cage of dread.
You do not have to live in the tower of torment.
God can set you free by the light that he brings to your soul.
The Bible is so true.
It says, as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.
So I believe today we can escape the tower of manipulation, the tower of lies, the tower of control, the tower of fear, but we have to walk in the light of God's word.
Rapunzel was not just locked up in a tower.
She was locked out of her identity.
Then the light came and a song exploded in her heart.
In the Bible, light and darkness is a metaphor.
Light is revelation.
It's truth.
It's knowledge.
It's understanding.
Rapunzel did not live in the light.
She lived in the darkness.
And darkness is a metaphor of ignorance, lies, and lack of understanding.
The light did not make Rapunzel a princess.
The light revealed that she had been one all along.
And the truth of God does not create your worth.
It reveals the identity grace has already given you in Christ.
See, the enemy may try to name you by your fear, by your failure, your past, your addiction, or the words others have spoken over your life.
But when the light of God's truth shines, you begin to see what was there all along.
You're not what the liar called you.
You are who the Father says you are.
From the very beginning, God the Father said, let there be light.
Light gives us revelation of the Father and of ourselves.
Ephesians chapter number five, verse eight says, for you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.
Live as children of the light.
How many of you know when you believe a lie, you live in darkness?
1 Peter 2.9 says, but you are a chosen people.
You are a royal priesthood.
You're a holy nation.
God's special possession.
How many of you know God loves you?
You're his possession that you may declare the praises of him who have called you out of darkness into his wonderful, glorious, marvelous light.
God takes us out of darkness and he puts us into the light of his word.
We are his creation.
First John chapter one, verses five through seven says, this is the message we have heard from him and declare to you, God is light.
In him, there is no darkness at all.
If we claim we have fellowship with him and yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, his son, purifies us from all darkness.
I believe, just like Rapunzel, sometimes we exist in darkness.
We believe a lie.
The master manipulator, the devil himself, manipulates us into believing that darkness is the truth.
And God's word breaks forth and light reveals our identity.
That's what happened to Rapunzel.
Light revealed her identity, but truth restored it.
I want to say that one more time.
Light revealed her identity, but truth restored it.
The discovery of truth leads to self-discovery.
Rapunzel had magical hair, a mother who loved her, and a stolen identity.
She didn't even know it.
However, Rapunzel learns her identity, and now it is restored to her.
Her identity was not newly created in that moment.
She had always been the king and queen's daughter.
But the truth restored her ability to see it, to receive it, and to live from the identity that was concealed from her by Mother Gothel.
Rapunzel spent 18 years in a tower believing a lie was love.
Mother Gothel gave Rapunzel a false identity.
She called herself mother, but she was really a captor.
She called the tower home, but it was really a prison.
She called Rapunzel weak and helpless, but Rapunzel was actually the daughter of the king.
The lie did not change who Rapunzel was.
It only kept her from knowing who she was.
The enemy cannot erase what God has declared over your life.
Let me say that one more time.
The enemy cannot erase what God has declared over your life, but he will try to hide it beneath fear, shame, sin.
pain and the labels of other people.
He will try to make you live in a prison when through Christ you have been made a child of God.
See Romans chapter eight says this in verse 14, for those who are led by the spirit of God are the children of God.
The spirit you receive does not make you slaves so that you live in fear again.
Rather, the spirit you receive brought about your adoption to sonship.
And by him we cry, Abba, Father.
Did you know God is our Father?
The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.
You have been made new.
You have an identity in Christ.
2 Corinthians 5.17 says, If any man or any person be in Christ, he is a new creation.
The old is gone.
Behold, all things become new.
When Rapunzel saw the sun on the cloth, truth connected the dots.
She saw the symbol in the kingdom.
She saw it in her own paintings.
She remembered what she had seen.
And suddenly the lie lost its power.
When you really see the truth, lies lose their power.
She was not Mother Gothel's possession.
She was the king's daughter.
Can I tell you today, you are God's child.
And somebody needs to hear this today.
You're not the name your past gave you.
You're not the shame that the enemy keeps repeating over you.
You are not fear that has kept you in a tower.
If...
If you are in Christ, let me say that one more time.
If you are in Christ, you are a child of the King.
Truth does not merely inform you.
Truth restores you to the identity God intended you to walk in.
Truth restored Rapunzel's identity because it revealed that she belongs to the king and she belonged to the king all along.
However, before she could be truly free, she had to be made new in the attitude of her mind.
Ephesians 4, 23 and 24 says, "'Be made new in the attitude of your minds "'and put on the new self, "'created to be like God "'in true righteousness and holiness.'"
See, the tower had shaped how she thought.
Gothel's lies had shaped how she saw herself.
But when truth was revealed, her mind was renewed and she could finally live according to her identity.
See, the enemy may not be able to change who you are in Christ, but he will try to shape how you think about who you are in Christ.
When our minds are renewed, truth is revealed.
is evident.
Our lives begin to align with the identity of God, the identity that he has always given us.
Ultimately, Rapunzel was restored to her family.
She had been a daughter of a king and a daughter of a queen her entire life, but it was concealed behind lies, deception, and manipulation.
But light and truth broke her into a new reality and she became free, restored to the castle, restored to the king and the queen.
She saw who she was when she looked into her mom's face.
Can I tell you, when we look into God's face and we behold him like King David said daily, we begin to realize who we are and whose we are.
You don't have to be trapped in a tower and lose your identity.
You don't have to be trapped in sin and lose your identity.
Sometimes it's stolen one lie at a time.
Jesus said, I have come to give you life and life more abundantly today.
You can be identified not by your past, not by your struggle, not by your sin, not by your addiction, but you can be identified with Christ and receive all
his purpose and his goodness in your life by coming to him and receiving light and receiving the truth of his word and receiving the gospel today that Jesus came and took our place on the cross he was crucified he died he was buried but on the third day he was resurrected so that you
could be God's child.
I wanna pray with you today.
I believe God is restoring your identity in Christ.
Let's pray.
Lord, I just thank you for each person in here today.
I just thank you for your goodness and your mercy.
I pray that great grace would abound.
And for those who are held captive by lies and manipulation, domination, control, I just pray that that would be broken today in the mighty name of Jesus.
Amen.