How Do You Identify? Intro

Intro:

One student started college classes this week and was asked, “What are your pronouns?”

A question that the smartest brains in the world would have been confused by 100 years ago

Options for answers are:

He/ Him

She/ Her

They/ them

Zi/ Zer

Per/ per

ve/ ver

People seeing the absurdity have started identifying as dogs, cats, cars,

Prop: Live In Line w/ your original design

Need:

Who are you

Where are you from

What is your purpose

To whom you are accountable

How are you to live

Thesis: 3 facts about who you are

Outline

You are Made in God’s Image

Gen 1:26 “Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness;

Here is what it means to be an image bearer

Attributes - we are to faintly resemble the communicable attributes of God.

Reverence - Just as sinful men make images of their gods, that they might worship a visual expression of their idols, so also the true God makes images of Himself to multiply the worship of Himself.

Relationship -

Gen 1:26 “Let Us make man in Our image

God is DIVERSITY in UNITY, He is 3 in 1, 3 persons 1 Essence, Father, Son and HS are all completely and totally the 1 true God

Gen 1:27 “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

Man is UNIFIED in humanity but is diverse in Gender - WE REFLECT HIS DIVERSITY IN UNITY

Rule - mans job is to make the invisible kings rule, visible to creation

Morality -

Ecclesiastes 7:29 that God made men upright

Gen 1:31 “God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”

God made man originally righteous

Col 3:10 “and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him—”

Eph 4:23-24 “and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.”

So the believer who is being renewed into the image of God is specifically representing God in KNOWLEDGE, RIGHTOUSNESS & HOLINESS

Illus:

When Brooke and I were dating she would always want a picture of her to be in my background

I was super zealous and had verses and what not typically but if I left my phone around her, I’d come back to a knew background of her.

That picture symbolized HER territory to everyone who say it. When they saw this picture, they knew who she was.

In the same way, God’s image bearers represent God to the world.

Application:

When you live in line with these realities, you fulfill God’s purposes which is your greatest good

Do you EVEN want to represent God?

You have Marred God’s Image

The moral aspect of our representation of God was lost in the fall

We have marred God’s Image through sin

God made man to reflect His perfect knowledge rightousness and holiness but that is not true of the majority of man and even some of you tonight

KNOWLEDGE Eph 4:17 “So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind,”

RIGHTEOUS Rom 3:10 “as it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one;”

HOLINESS Isa 64:6 “For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.”

Man, by his rebellion and disobedience, has marred the image of God in him, and brought upon himself the wrath and curse of God

In the ancient world, a king or a ruler would place an image or idol of himself in his realm to symbolize his sovereignty there. When others saw the image, they knew who had control. Likewise, God’s image bearers represent God in the world.

But what would a King do to those who make a mockery of His image, who graffitti his face and attempt ultimatley to tear down his statue and put up their own?

He would punish them, and so God will punish those who were made in His image but marred His image and promoted themselves over him

Application:

Believer - when you recognize that sin is marring God’s image who you claim to love, why would you willingly do it?

You must Mend God’s Image

The only way to mend the image of God is through faith in Jesus Christ, the image of God

2 Cor 4.4 “in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

Col 1.15 “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.”

Heb 1.3 “And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,”

Jesus Christ in the perfect image of God.

In order to mend or restore us back to the full image of God and to relationship with himself, the father sent His son to be represent God & Humanity. Jesus was the God Man - He made the invisible God visible.

He did what Adam and all of humanity was meant to do

He displayed God perfectly, he obeyed God perfectly and yet he died as if He lived like you or me

So that if we would turn away from our sin, surrender our life to Him - we would not just be saved from wrath BUT sanctified

"Jesus, as the perfect representation of God, restores us to the image of God by his death and resurrection, which grants us the newness of life." - John Calvin

You can live in line with your original design through the gospel of Jesus Christ

You know often my Dad would leave a list of chores on the kitchen counter for the siblings to do and we had to have them done by the time he got home. Often I would forget to do it, bc call of duty was a thing. I remember hearing the door open and my dad getting home and my stomach would drop because I didn’t do what he WANTED ME TO DO, which meant I was in trouble.

But I would come downstairs and he’d investigate to find everything completed. Then he’d take me out to dinner.

Come to find out that as I was getting to a new prestige and trying to unlock the gold camo on my Scar-H, my brother was doing my job.

My brother not only did his chores BUT also mine, so that I would not only escape punishment but get rewarded for obedience.

Jesus Christ - did the job that mankind failed to do, represent God & then he took their punishment for disobedience. SO that if you would repent and believe in Him, you are rewarded as if his work was yours and you are forgiven as if your sin was His.

Then from their you are REBORN and on a path of progressive sanctification - meaning for the rest of your life you will grow to become more and more like Jesus who is the image of God and therefore you will MEND God’s Image in your life.

Conclusion:

KNOW - that the world is going to constantly undermine the fact that you were made in God’s image & tell you that your identity is in your, gender, sexuality, popularity, appearance - the world hates God and anyone who represents Him

Through evolution

Transgenderism

Homosexuality

Abortion

YOU MUST KNOW that you’re intended to represent God - your identity is not exlsuive from the reality that you bear God’s image

THINK - about the way in which you can grow into God’s Image.

What aspects of your life are there that still don’t reflect God?

FEEL - The weight of marring the image of God

DO - what it takes to represent God in a world that hates Him.

Evangelize

Reject Lies

Live pure

Walk in line with God’s design