Manage your Image

Introduction

Grace and Peace be multiplied unto you from God our Father, Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To everyone in their respective places, I say God Bless and Keep You. I solicit your prayers tonight as I endeavor to teach with the Bishop present, my preachers know it is one thing to preach in front of your Pastor, Your Teacher, and your Leader so just pray for me. And while you are praying for me, can we thank God for our Leader in the person of Bishop Brandon A. Jacobs.

Listen, I will not be up long… I will teach really quickly for 30 minutes on family and I will usher myself right out of the way. I would that you would stand that we might do our Ephesians Confession.

Ephesians Confession

Ephesians 1:17–21 KJV 1900

17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: 18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, 19 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, 20 Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, 21 Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:

We make this confession because the Word of God is a MYSTERY and to understand the mystery we must have REVELATION.

Scriptures: Genesis 1:26-31 & Psalms 8:1-9

Prayer

Read: Genesis 1:26-31

Genesis 1:26–31 KJV 1900

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. 29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. 30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. 31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Give Subject: Manage your Image

Defining Image

Image is everything.

Has anyone ever heard that saying before?

What does it mean to you?

Does anyone know where it comes from?

In 1989, Andre Agassi a professional Tennis player was posing for an ad campaign for a new line of Canon Camera’s and photography equipment. They were taking advantage of his star power, though limited at the time, to elevate their own status and to showcase their camera’s ability to capture active sports in photography.

The shoot director gave him one line to say into the camera when he pulled up as the nature of the shoot was to have him pull up in a Lamborghini, get out (with shades), and say the three words that Mr. Agassi would live to regret. “Image is everything”

At the time he said it, the words meant very little to him and to most people who helped make the commercial it was just part of an ad campaign. But when the commercial aired, it went viral before their was a such thing as viral. Before long, it was being chanted at his tennis matches and he was hearing it everywhere he went. At first, he fed into the hype but the crowds turned on him as the statement began to be weaponized against him.

At first, he was a rookie tennis player who had some success but never could quite claim a championship victory. At first he was a young rebel trying to make it and part of that was elevating his image to that of a champion. But a championship victory eluded him for three years after the commercial released so for three years he looked like a poser and before long his “image” did not match the audience felt like he had presupposed himself to be.

This leads me to ask the question, are you image conscious?

Do you care what people think about you?

To conclude the story, Mr. Agassi later did an interview where he made it clear that he had come to hate that advertisement because it caused him to have a decline in his public image but more importantly it caused him strife and problems with his self-image.

He allowed other people to taint his view of himself based upon the image that was super-imposed upon him by people who only knew him from a 30 second clip on their TV where he said 3 words.

This leads me to my primary question tonight as we have our conversation as men.

What have we allowed to dictate or change our image?

I ask this because as people, I think many of us have been on both sides of this story where we have had our image tarnished because of someone else’s perspective of us.

But I think many of us are equally guilty of tarnishing someone else’s image because of the perspective we have of them.

And I want to be clear that I am not talking about just good or bad. Because you can have too much but you can also have too little and I think, that depending on the area of your life, we as individuals have some of both.

We often down ourselves in areas of strength and exalt ourselves in areas of weakness because we have been trained and taught that confidence is as arrogance, when the reality is it is okay to have ability but you cannot put your faith in your abilities.

And so tonight I want to talk about managing your image because I think we must possess a healthy understanding of our present image and our called image. Their is a image of where you are presently and no matter how good or bad that image is, you are not yet fully realized into your image of calling. The image to which you are called is critical because it is the God given image and while our current image may not be fully realized unto the day that Christ returns to us… the problem we have is that many of us have a current image that is so jacked up because of the influences of the world.

Put another way, you cannot see the fullness of God’s calling on your life but I fear that our view of the world and the world’s view of us has caused us to accept a calling FAR REMOVED from what is God’s reality.

And so, I want to use the concept of image to talk about family, because many times we relegate the role of the family to something ordained by society or people when the truth is that God created the family unit as a representation of his relationship with people. He has created the family, he has created the man, he has created the woman, he has created the child that we can be an image of not just him but even of his mission, his vision, his goals.

Scripture Study

Genesis 1:26 KJV 1900

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Of all that God made, man are the only ones that are made in his image.

But what does it mean to be made in his image?

That word image comes from the Hebrew selem that is used to refer to something that is carved or hewn out.

What it means is that we are made out of the very essence of God, similar to how a wood carving is not the tree it was carved from but is made of the essence of that tree.

In much this same way, it was God that took the rib of Adam to make Eve, he took part of himself to make us that we would have his very nature.

God does not honor any other part of his creation in such a way that they would live in a way that they (more or less) carry around the essence of God as part of their being.

You are not called to be in the image of God, you are not commanded to be in the image of God, but you are BORN to be in the image of God.

It does not make you God but it means that God cared enough to pour out of his infinite self that he could make you.

But not only does he make you in this way but he does so with the intention of giving you responsibility.

Once again, no other element of creation is given such authority and yet here we see that God trusts his creation (already knowing how it is really going to go) enough to give them authority.

Tell someone, manage your image.

Genesis 1:27–30 KJV 1900

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. 29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. 30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

And so God does just as he said he would do. Now lets talk about what he said and what it means because part of the reason we get lost in our purpose and are unable to clearly walk in our image… is because we do not understand it. But here in verses 26-30, God clearly defines the purpose of his people.

Be Fruitful, what do you think it means?

Parah- Produce an off-spring or harvest; implies abundance (Bear fruit)

Multiply, what do you think it means?

Harbah- To be numerous or increase in quantity (multiply the fruit you bear)

Replenish, what do you think it means?

Male- To Fill up or to Fulfill (Fulfill the purpose of the Earth by filling it up)

What are we filling it up with? God’s Glory

Subdue, what do you think it means?

Kabas- To overcome, conquer, or control (Take control over the Earth)

Are we controlling it for our benefit?

Tell someone, manage your image.

Genesis 1:31 KJV 1900

31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

He makes everything and for the first time and only time, he beholds his finished work as VERY GOOD.

It is important we recognize that God is reflecting on the whole of creation being Very Good, but he only see it as such after he puts man into its place.

Tell someone, manage your image.

Discussion

So lets talk about how the family unit, fits into this image that God has created and imposed upon his people. If image is indeed everything, lets ask this.

What do you think of when you hear that word Family?

Family can be many things, depending on how we elect to define it and view it as a people. Family is first and foremost the calling God places upon us as people that a man shall find a wife and when he does he shall leave the house of his mother and father and shall cleave to his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh (Matthew 19:5. These two, then in fulfillment of the Genesis blessing and responsibility are to be fruitful in producing children that they raise up in the admonition of the Lord.

But even beyond that the family is also the entire body of Christ, for we are called to be as a family.

Romans 12:4–5 KJV 1900

4 For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: 5 So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.

When you read that, it says having many members (not in the same office) but being many are one in the body of Christ.

What does that sound like to you?

So then we must see that the Family at home is part of the foundational teachings of Christ. God did not give us the Church and leave us to it so that we could eventually understand family.

He gave us family first and left us with it so that we could eventually understand the Church. The success and promise of the Church is then (At least partially) predicated on our ability as saints of the most high God to build our individual families.

Let me prove it to you...

Your spousal relationship is a testament to the relationship between Christ and the Church.

Someone tell me how this is so?

Revelation 19:7-9 “7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. 8 And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. 9 And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.”

The Church is indeed the Bride of Christ, for we are called to love, obey, and submit to Christ as he goes forward to prepare the way. Christ is intended to succeed where Adam failed in the mission to be fruitful, multiply, replenish, subdue, and have dominion and as the Bride we are called to be his help-meets in this efforts.

Your parent-child relationship is a testament of the relationship between the Father and his Children.

Someone tell me how this is so?

John 20:17 “17 Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.”

God as the Father in creation has created us and all that we see, he has molded and shapen it that we can be all that he plans and purposes for us to be. This is much like the mission of a parent to a child for which you are responsible but you are also to cultivate independence that they can eventually grow into a be their own person.

And even when you have an adult child it is a testament of the relationship between the Father and the Spirit.

Someone tell me how this is so?

John 14:16 “16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;”

The spirit guides you and leads you along the preset path that you to take that you can fulfill the call and will of the Father to be the Bride that Christ is looking for. It is a cyclical relationship that prepares you as the way is made for you but the Spirit will not actually make you do anything. In much the same way that a parent will not impose their will on an adult child but they will provide guidance to help them make the right choices.

Conclusion

This notion of image is so incredibly important because so many of us have allowed our image to be tainted, we do not believe our image, we do not care about our image. But you have to know that you are made in the image of God and that fact comes with a great deal of responsibility and weight but it also brings with it comfort. You can take comfort that God has created you and he did so with himself in mind. I therefore implore you to manage your image carefully that it continually lines up with what God called you to and what God has called your family to.

As Children of God. It is important that we manage our image. We have to maintain the image God called us to in our heads, we hide it in our hearts, and we live it in our lives.