Identity Theft Protection

A message by Alan Schism | October 11, 2026 | Luke 20 and Ephesians 1:13-14

In this message, Alan Schism uses the language of cybersecurity to show how to protect your identity in Christ from lies, fear, urgency, and shame. Drawing on Luke 20 and Ephesians 1:13-14, the teaching explains why knowing who you are, and whose you are, protects you better than any firewall. Delivered at The Resting Place Apostolic Family in Tampa, FL, it covers phishing, strong passwords, two-factor authentication, and the seal of the Holy Spirit. Read the full transcript to see why your identity in Christ cannot be stolen when you know the One who gave it.

A PERSONAL THING TO START WITH

A personal thing to start with. This is October 11th today, Sunday, and October 11th, 1981, back in the 1900s. I was at a church potluck, and there was a girl there named Vicki, and I asked her to go out with me that day. That was the first date. Of course, we stayed together, dated for five years, and have been married for 40 years. So this is the 45th anniversary of our first date, and we went to Pizza Hut. Pizza back then was classy. I was trying to step up my game, so I put on one of my better plaids and picked her up, and we went and got pizza at a table with a dark atmosphere and the jukebox. The song came on that night that became our song. It was the theme song to the movie Arthur. [song lyric omitted] And there’s more to that story, but I don’t have time for that. I just want to say I love you, little buck. See you, my girl.

So today, this kind of dropped in my heart. I knew I was going to be speaking, and I remember when he said October 11th, I was like, that’s a good day. So I’m going to put this in my heart. And then I was talking to Mike Souter about the topic, and Deanna preached a couple of weeks ago about are you a prodigal or a performer, and that’s about identity, and I thought, I think we’re on the right track here. So my message is about identity theft protection.

I want to make sure all you hear today is focused on a person, not on principles. Does that make sense? The principles are good, but the principles apart from the person are going to fail. I want to make sure that’s said from the beginning.

Mike Souter was here at the first gathering. He’s an expert on cybersecurity. I talked to him, and I have no idea what he’s talking about. He just says things, and I’m like, well, how do you even do that? He’s really smart. He helps us here at TRP with our firewall and protection. But the message I want to give you is not just going to help you in real life, in your internet stuff. It’s going to be a spiritual application to the more important network. I believe this message and this application will cause your life to change. I really believe that, and I want you to believe that too. You’re going to take this today, and it’s going to change your life. You will not be anxious, fearful, or walking in darkness ever again. Does that sound good? Let’s try it.

If you have any questions or controversy from my message, as always, just email Caleb at TRPfamily.org. It’s just like being under authority like this.

So let’s pray. Thank you, God, for this opportunity. I love these people. I really love these people. What’s on your heart, Father? What’s on your heart, Jesus? What’s on your heart, Holy Spirit? Thank you for your person. Three in one. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

JESUS IS THE ONE THAT CAN TELL YOU YOUR REAL IDENTITY

We’ve been in that 90-day scripture thing, right? I hope you’ve been enjoying it, because it’s all about Jesus. It’s all about scriptures and parallel passages and stories that I’ve known, but I keep getting new stuff. And the beginning of the week was the story of Zacchaeus. You know him, right? [inaudible] All right, let’s stop there for a second. He wanted to get a glimpse of Jesus. This was the head of the tax collectors. It’s like Jeff Bezos, man. He’s ultra rich. He’s got it all. He’s kind of short though, so he climbed up in a tree because he wanted to see Jesus.

So Jesus passed by and said, Zacchaeus, hurry on down. Imagine Jesus saying that. Get out of that tree. I need to talk to you. I must stay at your house today. So he scurried down the tree and found himself face to face with Jesus. And I suggest we also can be face to face with Jesus, that you need to face Jesus.

As Jesus left to go with him, what did the crowd say? He’s going to eat with that crook. They called Zacchaeus a crook. So Zacchaeus was amazed over Jesus’ gracious visit to his home and joyously welcomed Jesus. Zacchaeus stood in front of the Lord and said:

Half of all that I own I will give to the poor, and Lord, if I have cheated anyone, I promise to pay them back four times as much as I stole.

Once he was face to face with Jesus, and Jesus went to his house, he entered into his real identity. And Jesus said:

Your repentance shows that life today has come to you and your household, that you are a true son of Abraham.

I wonder if anybody ever said that to him before. They hated this guy. He was a crook, they said, but Jesus looked past all of them and said, you’re a true son of Abraham. Jesus is the one who can tell you your real identity, and if you listen carefully today, it can’t be taken away from you.

I bear the image of God

The other scripture was at the end of, I think it was yesterday, Luke 20. Jesus is talking to the Pharisees, and they came out of this great plot, the Herodians and the Pharisees. They said, let’s ask a question he’s not going to be able to answer that everybody’s going to be happy about. So they said, should we pay taxes? And Jesus said, well, you tested me. I know who I am. Show me one of the Roman coins. Whose head is on the coin? Whose title is stamped on it? And they answered, Caesar’s. Jesus said:

Precisely. The coin bears the image of the emperor Caesar, and you should give back to Caesar all that belongs to him.

But here’s the key: you bear the image of God. I want you to say that. Say, I bear the image of God. Now say it one more time like you mean it. You should say that the rest of this day. You should say that tonight, tomorrow, every day of your life. It changes the way that you look at everything. I bear the image of God. So you are well equipped to prevent identity theft, and here are the keys: knowing the truth, with a capital T, knowing who you are, employing what God has given you, and having answers for the enemy’s schemes.

IT’S BASED ON LIES, FEAR, URGENCY, DECEPTION

So I asked Mike early in the week, how does identity theft happen? And he says it’s based on lies, fear, urgency, deception. Now, lies and deception are a little bit different. A lie is flat out, it’s not the truth. Deception looks like the truth. It’s just a little bit off.

He also mentioned something called a watering hole. He said a watering hole is a website that you go to quite a bit. You’re used to going to this website. Maybe, he said, Legos or something, trading Legos. But the malware people will slip something into that website that you are so used to going to that you don’t really pay attention to it anymore, and it will infect your computer. So it made me think, this is a watering hole, isn’t it? We’re gathered, drinking of the water of heaven. But we cannot be too casual with this. Do you find yourself in the middle of a worship song thinking about stupid stuff? Like your car, or food, or the weather? And your brain all of a sudden says, what are you doing? Get back to your focus. Because you’re seeing things like, he’s the King of the universe, the one that created everything, and you’re thinking about your car. Now you have to discipline your mind. The watering hole could be so familiar that you stop really thinking about it. You don’t pay attention.

There’s also something called spoofing or phishing. That’s when you throw something out there that’s kind of deceptive, trying to lure somebody in. It may be an email from your boss, or it looks like an email from your boss. But if you know your boss, you’ll notice it doesn’t quite sound like your boss. So we need to know our boss so well that when the email comes, we’re like, he wouldn’t have me buy Walmart gift cards. Coming from me, that will definitely never happen, because I haven’t been to Walmart since 2003. If you know me, we’re not going to go to Walmart to hang out, right?

There’s also allowing false realities to define me. Things aren’t even true, and I start questioning, maybe that is true. All those things are ways that our identities can be stolen.

He gave me some answers as well

He gave me some answers as well. I’m just going to list these, and then we’ll talk about them, because it was cool when he was saying it, I was like, that’s like this, in terms of scriptures. He said the firewall is the point of ingress and egress. It’s where everything comes in and goes out. If that’s strong, you’re protected. And there’s something he didn’t even realize. He calls them blades. A blade will come by when something malicious comes to your firewall and slice it from being able to enter your internet, your website or domain, or your email. And he’s like, I never thought about something that’s cutting it off. It was just a computer term. But the blades stop the falseness from coming in.

Password protection. I learned about password protection. We’re lazy with our passwords, and we keep using the same one over and over again. Each one needs to be unique and special, and there are ways to do that. Two-factor authentication. Man, we’re like, I have to enter my phone number so they can send me a text message. That’s going to take like 15 more seconds of my life to save my whole career or my finances from ruin, right? Antivirus security software. It’s software in your system that warns you when something’s not right. Fraud prevention. He said avoid public Wi-Fi. I’ll tell you why in a little bit. And then I love those alerts on my credit card. He’s like, hey, this is happening, even when I’m spending my money maybe in Oklahoma, and my credit card company’s like, he’s not in Oklahoma, so I can’t buy anything unless I call them and verify that’s really me. So the alerts come on.

WE’RE NOT ALONE IN THIS BATTLE FOR OUR IDENTITIES

Now, there are notable examples in scripture of identity theft. We go back to this young couple named Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. They had it all, fully connected to God. But Satan asked them a question, like, what if that’s not really the whole thing? There’s a piece keeping something from you. And they gave in. You remember God’s question to them afterward? Who told you that? Who told you that? They listened to the wrong source.

Of course, [inaudible] had some struggle with this identity. Abraham, father of faith, pretended he was his wife’s brother so that he wouldn’t get killed. And then his grandson dressed up like his brother and stole his identity. And his dad, Isaac, did not use two-factor authentication for that one, right? The whole nation of Israel suffered from identity theft and crisis. Jonah was subject to a phishing scheme. Get that? And Peter, we could go on and on. So we’re not alone in this battle for our identities.

HOW DOES IT HAPPEN?

So I want to give you some principles. How does it happen? Well, lies. How many lies do you get every single day? Your account has been compromised. Please enter your banking information so that we can protect you. It’s a lie, right? Where do you go when that happens? I go to the source. I go to the website that they’re telling me is giving me this message, and it’s never the case. I go to the source. Your payment has been declined. That’s a lie. It’s trying to trick you into giving up your identity. You have a warrant for your arrest. Have you ever gotten that one? And do you ever think, dang it, I got caught? It’s never that, right? But you’re like, maybe there is. And they need me to buy Walmart gift cards to make it go away. What kind of crazy stuff is that? The FBI running on Walmart gift cards, right? Hostages. We’ve kidnapped your grandmother. You don’t want her to suffer, do you? Walmart gift cards will take care of this. But we believe this stuff.

How about this one? Your relative died, and you have a $10 million inheritance. Yeah, the Nigerian princes, they’ve contacted me quite a bit. And I’ve never been like this. Maybe I should. Maybe a Nigerian prince has adopted me. So it’s stupid stuff, but it’s based on lies, right?

Weaknesses. Your password’s weak. You’re going on sketchy websites you shouldn’t be on in the first place. Maybe your history, there’s compromise in there.

Fear. This is a big one. I’m going to miss out if I don’t click this now. 36 hours to go, I’ve got to click this. You should never click anything that’s telling you it’s urgent. Urgent and important are two different things. If it’s important, yes. If it’s urgent, you’d better step back. Don’t do anything because of urgency. I’m going to lose out on this money, or I’m going to be embarrassed.

And then we have shame. Shame is the thing that speaks to us and says, I am something bad. Guilt might just say, I did something bad, right? We can fix that. But shame says, I am something bad, and that’s a lie as well. Jesus dealt with your past. He shredded the documents, right? It doesn’t affect you anymore.

And then spoofing and phishing. I’ve got to know who the truth is, so that I can recognize when it’s not the truth.

Lack of awareness to detail

And then lack of awareness to detail. You ever hit the wrong key and it goes to the wrong website? There’s a story of this couple, the Gallaghers. They were from Minneapolis, and they were going to go to Florida during the winter. They planned to stay at the same hotel where they spent their honeymoon 20 years earlier. Both husband and wife had hectic schedules, and it was difficult to coordinate their travel schedules. The husband left Minnesota and flew to Florida on Thursday, while his wife planned to fly down the day after. Mr. Gallagher checked into the hotel and decided to send an email to his wife. Now, this was back in 2004, so it wasn’t as common back then. Without realizing his error, he accidentally left out one letter in her email address. He didn’t realize it, so he sent the email.

Meanwhile, in Houston, the recipient of the email was a widow, last name Gallagher. She’d just returned home from her husband’s funeral. He had been a minister of many years, called home to glory following a sudden heart attack. The widow decided to check her email, expecting messages from her relatives and friends. After reading the first message, she fainted. The widow’s son rushed into the room, found his mother on the floor, and saw the computer screen, which read:

To my loving wife. Subject: Arrived. Date: February 5th, 2004. I know you’re surprised to hear from me. It’s amazing. They have computers here now. You can send emails to loved ones. I’ve just arrived and been checked in. Everything has been prepared for your arrival tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing you then. Hope your journey is as uneventful as mine was. Love, Harry. PS. Sure is hot down here.

Now, all of that was true, right? But it wasn’t true for her.

ANOTHER PROBLEM WE FACE IS OPTICAL ILLUSIONS

Here’s the problem we have sometimes. Another problem we face is optical illusions. Your brain can get tricked. It’s scary how your brain can get tricked. I have an example of one that still messes with my brain. How many of you would say square A is darker than square B? Which looks darker to you? Go to the next slide. They’re actually the exact same color. Go back to the first one. Now you know the truth. They still look different, don’t they? It’s called the shadow effect, and it messes with your brain so that you don’t see that correctly. Go back to the second one now. They’re the exact same color. I’ve looked at this all week, and I’m like, how is my brain not seeing that? But it’s true. How much in life are you looking at something that you think is true, and it’s not? So I need discernment. I need to question. I need the truth, because the truth makes me see it clearly. Does that make sense?

Nothing in life is as important as you think it is while you are thinking about it

That’s one example. There’s another illusion I discovered, called a focusing illusion. We should be focused on Jesus, like Zacchaeus was, but we focus on an illusion. See if this makes sense to you. Nothing in life is as important as you think it is while you are thinking about it. Let’s read that again. Nothing in life is as important as you think it is while you’re thinking about it.

What happens is the thing that you’re thinking about dominates your vision. Like my hand covers my whole face. My hand is bigger than the whole world right now, because it’s in my face. If I can put it in perspective, it’s the right size of a hand. So what scares us sometimes is this thing we’re thinking about, the financial thing, the relational thing. The circumstance gets so in our faces that it becomes the most important thing, and that’s an illusion. It’s not the most important thing.

So you have to do a couple of things here. Here’s an example. Let’s say you get 10 constructive criticisms. And no, let’s say you get 10 praises and one constructive criticism. Ten to one. What are you going to focus on? Why did they say that? You had 10 good things. So the human tendency is to focus on negative events, thoughts, and emotions. It’s a tendency. And God gave us a remedy for that. We have to fight. We assign greater importance to things we focus on. That’s the focusing illusion, and we tend to focus on negative things. You see the problem?

So a couple of things you can do. One, same deal: give it time. Step back from it. Go do something different, maybe. If it’s that serious, you need to have a better mindset than a negative view of what’s happening there. Divert your attention and put on a worship song. Say a scripture, to center your soul so that it’s not focused on something that’s not important, and it is focused on who is.

HOW TO PREVENT IDENTITY THEFT?

The first is a strong relationship

All right, so how to prevent identity theft? Well, the first is a strong relationship. Remember the fake email? I’m going to recognize when something’s not true because I know who Jesus is. And Jesus said:

My sheep, my own sheep, hear my voice, and I know each one, and they will follow me.

So you need to know you know his voice. Be confident in that, and you won’t be fooled by another.

Awareness

Awareness. I call it a religious oblivion, the watering hole. We’ve come so often to this that we get so used to it that it becomes mindless religion. Even in a place like this, it can be. It’s just a different form. But we need to be purposeful and conscious of where our thoughts are. Jesus said, quoting from the Old Testament:

These people honor me only with their words, for their hearts are very distant from me. They pretend to worship me, but their worship is nothing more than empty traditions of men.

I don’t want anything like that, right? It’s conscious, every day, every moment, turning my thoughts to him, even in a worship service. And how easy is it to focus on him while the band’s playing and everybody has their hands up? But then you get out there, and the very first thing that goes wrong, what’s your reaction? It should be to turn your face back to him. What do you say? Jesus, let me get this in perspective.

We also need to know the truth

We also need to know the truth, so that the counterfeit websites, messages, and contacts will all be unveiled. Second Corinthians 10:5 says:

We demolish every deceptive fantasy that opposes God and break through every arrogant attitude that is raised in defiance of the true knowledge of God. We capture prisoners of war, every thought, and insist that it bow in obedience to the Anointed One.

I believe this is true. Have you ever been thinking of a song, it’s in your head for some reason, and you turn the radio on, and that song is playing? It will happen. Or you’re thinking of a song and somebody starts singing that song right then. And I mean, what a coincidence, I was just thinking of that song too. All right, so what’s going through the air right now? Some of you just got some text messages. If I had a radio, I could tune it to a frequency that has a signal it could pick up. There are thousands of frequencies in this room right now. I believe your brain, beyond your conscious brain, can actually hear the things in the air. What is Satan called? The prince of the power of the air.

So here’s the deal. Do you ever have a really terrible thought come into your brain? Do you take ownership of that, or do you do like me? Where did that come from? That’s not who I am. But some of us are like, well, I’m a terrible person for having that thought. Now, that’s a bird trying to poop on your head. You’d better just shoo it away. Don’t let it build a nest. That’s not who you are. So if you have a bad thought, it doesn’t make you a bad person. It makes you a person perceiving messages that don’t belong to you. Shoo them on, let them go. They don’t belong. Does that make sense? You’ve got to do that today, because there are some crazy frequencies going on around us.

We need a strong firewall

All right, so that’s how it goes in there. We need a strong firewall, the gatekeeper, the thing that allows things in and out. Jesus said it’s your eye. He said:

The eye is the lamp of the body. So if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light.

But if your eye is bad, do you hear the firewall? If your firewall is bad, everything’s going to get in.

And then Mike talked about a blade defense

And then Mike talked about a blade defense. I remember he talked about those that come slicing to cut off that malicious thing that’s trying to attack my system. And what I think of right there is the sword of the Spirit, which is what? The Word of God. Is that just the Bible? Jesus, right? He is the sword of the Spirit, because he’s the Word of God. How active and powerful is that sword? So that’s where you slice that thing. It’s not going to go any further. You will not enter my system. Hebrews says:

The Word of God is alive and powerful, making it active, operative, energizing, and effective. It’s sharper than any two-edged sword or blade, penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life and the immortal spirit, of joints and marrow, exposing, sifting, analyzing, and judging the very thoughts and purposes of my heart.

Does that make you feel safe? The Word of God. So how does that work? You’d better get the Word inside of you so that the Word comes out, like a blade, to cut away the enemy’s techniques.

Password protection

Password protection. I learned that I’m supposed to salt my hash. It may sound kind of hungry, but salting your hash, so you know your password? Well, you probably need to make it stronger, because there are algorithms that can detect passwords, find the one on that website, and apply it to all the places that you go. Salting your hash is a random sequence of data combined with the user’s password and then run through a hashing function. That’s way beyond my skill set, but basically it is this. You’re setting up an account, and it says enter or make up a password, and it gives the option to choose a strong password. Have you ever clicked on that and seen the random sequence that comes up, and you’re like, I never would have put all that together? That’s the purpose. Nobody could. It’s a secure, unique password that’s very difficult to compromise. So there’s something powerful about that, being intentional with my password, my personal connection with Jesus.

The two factor authentication

The two-factor authentication, this is good. You’ll be fulfilling what the scripture teaches. Jesus says:

Every word may be verified by the testimony of two or three witnesses.

So just as somebody says, the word of the Lord to you is this, you know what I’m going to do with that? Thank you for that word, and then I’m going to say, Lord, I need two or three confirmations of that. I am not going to run off thinking I’m the next savior of the world, right? Just because somebody said something that made them feel good, that messed with my emotions. If God is able to speak to me once, he could confirm that word in ways that nobody else could. A movie line, a song, a lyric, a random stranger in a store says something to you, and you’re like, that’s three times, man, this is something that God is trying to get my attention with. So be careful with that.

Antivirus

Antivirus, man. What is that? That’s the program that protects your whole system. It’s like this. This is not good. There are AI versions that are protecting you right now. On iPhones, there are 20 vicious attempts on my account every single day at least, more than I can even tell. But there’s something that happens inside of us as well. I want to turn on my alerts. Does that make sense? The Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit inside of me.

There was a song back in the 90s or something by a group called the Newsboys, the old group, the Australian guys, right? The song was called “Spirit Thing.” [song lyric omitted] And the more you get to know the Holy Spirit, he can say, there’s something off here, right? There’s something that’s not right. We’re going to cut this one off right here. It might be a financial purchase. So if we’re making a big decision, we’re going to talk to each other, and then we’re going to take some time and ask God, if we’re not supposed to do this, please show us. Make it clear what we’re supposed to do. And the Spirit is so good. He wants to be a part of your life. He wants to help you. He loves you so much.

So Philippians 4:8 says:

Keep your thoughts continually fixed on this and this, on that which is authentic and real.

How often should you do this? Keep your thoughts what? Continually. So maybe most of the day on Sunday? Continually. It means right now.

Honorable and admirable, beautiful and respectful, pure and holy, merciful and kind. And fasten your thoughts on every glorious work of God, praising him always.

Do you check your mail every day? Email? Do you check your mailbox? Some people don’t. They leave their mail in there for days, and that’s liable for somebody to steal it. There are people that go through trash to try to find account information. What a horrible, devious thing to do. But I want to get my mail every day. There are letters. You get me? I want to get my mail every day. I want to check to see what God, what are you saying today? What did you write on my heart today? Check my mail every day.

Why do you avoid public Wi-Fi networks?

Why do you avoid public Wi-Fi networks? Mike will tell you scary stories about how a hacker can actually channel everything in the Wi-Fi through his own website and pick and choose account information, all sorts of things. It’s going to be like, well, it’s just so much more convenient. Well, here’s the spiritual principle: you’re going online through somebody else’s network. You need your own personal network. If this is the only place that you connect with the Lord, you’re on public Wi-Fi. Set me up a VPN, right? I want a personal connection, where I hear him, and he speaks to me.

So I need to be solid on identity

So I need to be solid on identity. Remember we said, I bear the image of God? Here’s what Isaiah says. Nicole brought this up, I think on Tuesday.

Fear not, for I have redeemed you.

This is God speaking in the Old Testament, of all things, right?

I have ransomed you by paying a price instead of leaving you captives. I have called you by your name.

How much more personal could that be? And he says what? You are mine. Let’s change that to, I am his. One, two, three. Do you realize what that means? The King of the universe, the God of all creation, says, I know your name. I called you by your name, and you’re mine. I feel a lot safer with the Father in my corner. So when you walk through the waters, and through the flame, I’m with you, you’re protected. That sounds like pretty good protection.

THE LAST THING IS YOUR IDENTITY

So the last thing is your identity. I’ve got to know who you are. I’ve got a slide of a guy you might recognize here. If you didn’t know him, you would say his name is what? Joel. If you know him, your name is Joel. Why is it pronounced Joel? I’ve got a little secret to tell you. You might not know this. Joel is Hispanic. Yeah. I know you. Joel, are you Hispanic? He knows he is. Did you wake up this morning thinking, am I Hispanic? Do you feel more Hispanic today than yesterday? He says Hispanic, that’s his identity.

I’m not Hispanic. I went to his house, and I was fixing a little thing for him, and he goes, Alan, you want some coffee? I was like, actually, I had some coffee. I have some with me. He goes, Alan, let me make you some coffee. I was like, thank you though, but no, I’ve got coffee. He’s like, I’m not going to stop. You need to take coffee from me. I’m Hispanic. I was like, okay, I’ll take some coffee. It was a good coffee. But half an hour later, he’s like, Alan, you hungry? I said, no, I had a big breakfast, I’m pretty full. Working on a [inaudible] belly, and I’m trying to keep it thinner. And he’s like, Alan, let me make you some food. I was like, I think this is like the coffee thing. So I was like, no, really, I’m good. I’m so kind of full. He goes, Alan, I’m going to make you food. I was like, thank you, Joel. He did just make me a baloney sandwich. He’s cooking up some steak. He’s putting avocado. It’s like a gourmet meal. That’s who he is. It’s not going to change tomorrow. That’s who he is.

So I want you to lock in. It sounds kind of funny, but I am as much belonging to the Lord as Joel is Hispanic. Am I going to be less connected to the Lord tomorrow? No, it’s my identity. It’s who I am. I would remember that. Joel’s Hispanic, the Lord, he’s mine, and I’m his. That’s as deep an identity as you can get.

All right. And I was debating. I thought I’d probably cover Joel first, then Jesus. We’ll end on Jesus, but Joel’s up there too. But think about Jesus’ identity. I don’t think he ever suffered from identity theft. Like the devil tempting him in the wilderness. If you are the Son of God, there wasn’t a question. What a dumb question. But the devil’s going to try to ask you if you are. And you have the Word to respond, even Jesus himself did. Tested by the Pharisees, he said, well, you tested me. I know who I am. I’m so much way above what you’re even asking. And then the night he was betrayed, remember what he did first? Knowing who he was, where he’d come from, and where he was going, he did what? Took a towel. Washed the disciples’ feet.

So at the finish today, you know what LifeLock is? A company that tries to protect your identity. I’ve got a LifeLock for you. Ephesians 1:13-14 says:

Now we have been stamped with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit. He is given to us like an engagement ring, as a first installment of what’s coming. He is our hope-promise of a future inheritance, which seals us until we have all redemption’s promises and experience complete freedom.

You’re sealed, that’s a protection. Back in the old days, a seal was a royal stamp on a document or cargo that meant it was secure, authentic, and tamper-proof. That’s your LifeLock. You’ve been sealed. Say that: I have been sealed. You have to feel that protection.

So, takeaways. We must take truth to heart. We no longer need to live in fear, believing lies tossed about by circumstances, distortions, and counterfeit emotions. We are sealed, safe, secure, special, strong, salty, solid, Spirit-led sons. Stay in this light.

And the verse from today was [song lyric omitted]. It starts with that. It’s a progression, if you didn’t know, in that song. [song lyric omitted] It settles everything. What’s the next step, though? [song lyric omitted] There’s a protection there. If it’s not in the heart of Jesus, it’s got no business messing with you. So you can reject lies. You can reject fear. Anything that wouldn’t mess with Jesus shouldn’t mess with you. And even if it did mess with Jesus, he showed us how to deal with it. The Word, right? How about the Father? This is my Son. He makes me so happy, with the loud voice from heaven. That’s what he’s saying about you, too. This is my son. This is my daughter. I tell that to young people all the time. As a father, I say, man, you really make my heart happy. I’m so proud of you. You need to hear that for you in your life. Whenever a lie comes to try to mess with you, I make the Father’s heart happy, right? I bring joy to his heart. And last one, [song lyric omitted]

So I’ve got something good. I’ve got the answers. I’ve got a relationship. I’ve got a person that takes care of everything. I’ve got a LifeLock, a seal that keeps me safe. I’ve got my identity that’s hidden in Christ. It can’t be separated from him. I’ve got a connection that cannot be disrupted. So I thank you for your time. I hope this helped you. Thank you.

HEAD ON UP TO RECEIVE PRAYER

Come on, let’s thank Alan a little better than that. Wasn’t that so good? Oh no. Would y’all stay with me for a moment? We’re going to have our prayer team come forward. And I think of it this way. Maybe today it’s as simple as needing that two-factor authentication, right? That you know that you’re a son or a daughter of God. But maybe you need someone else to say it to you as well. So they’re here to minister to you, to pray for you. And if you’re here and you need encouragement anyway, you need healing in your body, we have faith for everyone that the Lord is still healing today, that he’s still moving today. So please don’t miss that opportunity and step into whatever he has for you today.

But also, if you don’t know the Father, if you don’t know Jesus today, we’ve declared it all day long that he is God. He died and rose again, paying for your sins, proving he is God, and he’s coming again one day to take us all with him into eternity. And we want you there at the table with us. So today’s your opportunity. If you don’t know the Lord, this team right here wants to introduce you to him. He’s a real person, and he really loves you. He loves you. God’s not mad at you. He’s madly in love with you. You might think you’re worthless, but you’ve been wrong at least once before, right? Jesus thinks you’re to die for. So why not believe him? That’s the call to salvation today. I want you to have that opportunity.

So don’t just rush out the door. Head on up to receive prayer. If you are receiving prayer today for any reason, we want you to get your kiddos first, okay? Get your kids from TRP Kids first. They’ll stay here, don’t worry. They’ll wait for you to get them, and then come back. And the kiddos can see the Lord move as well on your behalf. Amen? Amen.

BLESS YOU AS YOU GO

Wow, today was rich. It was awesome. So thankful to be with you today. I want to close with a benediction. And a benediction is really a sending. It’s a greeting, but it’s a sending one. It’s something that the church has been doing for hundreds of years. This is part of us saying yes to the Word of the Lord when he said, out with the old and in with the ancient. That’s why we’re saying the creeds. This is why we’re continuing to teach the Bible. This is why we’re going this way. And what they would do is they would take actual scriptures and make them a blessing. That’s what a benediction is. It’s a blessing. Bless you as you go. And so that’s what we want to do right now, okay?

So in order to just receive that, maybe just steady yourself, feel your feet beneath you right now. Feel the ground beneath your feet. Maybe close your eyes. Maybe put your hands out like you’re going to receive a gift. Just get into a posture to receive. Alan used Philippians 4:8 today, but I felt like the Lord showed me Philippians 4:7 for our benediction. So this was double confirmed by heaven. Authenticated by heaven. Here we go. It says this. I’m going to say it as a blessing:

May the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

I’m going to read it one time just as it’s written:

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

I bless my brothers and sisters with that today. I thank you, Lord, for your Word. We receive it as a family of faith in Jesus’ name. Amen. Amen, amen, amen. Yeah, come on. Let’s give the Lord a hand. One more. That’s so good. Come receive prayer. Go to connection class. Remember to bring back a can next week. We’ll see you soon.

Transcript of a message by Alan Schism delivered at The Resting Place Apostolic Family | Tampa Bay, FL | trpfamily.org