Sermon Tone Analysis

SEEING YOURSELF AS GOD SEES YOU

from Seeing Through God’s Eyes

Part 1 of 2

* **15 April 2007**                                *

/       /

/      “Your eyes are windows into your body.

If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light.”

/Matt.

6:22 (Mes)

/ /

/      “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe.”  /Eph.

1:18-19 (NIV)

/ /

 

*HOW GOD SEES ME BECAUSE OF HIS GRACE*

 

*1.

GOD SEES ME ______________________________________________*

/       “Jesus treated us much better than we deserve.

He made us acceptable to God and gave us the hope of eternal life.”

/Titus 3:7 (CEV)

 

/      “God saved us – not because we were good enough to be saved but because of His kindness and grace – by washing away our sins ...  all because of what Jesus Christ our Savior did, so that He could declare us good in God’s eyes.”

/Titus 3:5-7a (LB)

 

/      “You have been chosen by God Himself.”

/1 Pet.  2:9 (LB)

/ /

 

*2.

GOD SEES ME AS ______________________________________________*

      “/Look at the birds.

They don’t need to plant or harvest or put food in barns because God feeds them.

And you are far more valuable to Him than any birds!”/

Luke 12:24 (NLT)

/ /

/      “You belong to God…” /1 John 4:4 (NIV)

 

      /“You have been bought and paid for by Christ, so you belong to Him...”  1/ Cor.  7:23 (LB)

/ /

/“God says, ‘You are precious to //Me.//’”

Isa/.

43:4 (GN)

 

* *

 

 

\\ SEEING YOURSELF AS GOD SEES YOU

Part 1 of 2

*                                                                 **15 April, 2007**                                                     *2113 words

* *

* *

Last Sunday, Easter Sunday, we talked about how God can transform our lives; but only when we open our *mind* to *His power*; when we open our *heart *to *His Grace* and when we open our *life* to *His Love*.

The question is: Why would we want to do that?

By way of an answer, both today and over the next few weeks we’re going to reflect on seeing life from God’s point of view.

In Matthew’s gospel we find these words: /“Your eyes are windows into your body.

If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief your body fills up with light.”

(Matt 6.22) /He’s not talking about physical eyes and physical light.

He’s talking about *spiritua*l insight.

He’s talking about seeing in a new way, spiritually.

The apostle Paul calls it: seeing with the eyes of your heart;  seeing from God’s perspective.

In fact, Paul prays this prayer for us in Eph.1 /“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened / /in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints and His incomparable great power for us who believe.”  /

 

As we begin to reflect on Seeing Life From God’s Point of View, let’s start by considering yourself as God sees you.

That’s so important because the Bible says, /“As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.”  /If you see yourself as a hopeless case you’re going to live life as a hopeless case.

If you see yourself as a victim, you’re going to let other people victimize you all your life.

If you see yourself as not too creative, you’re unlikely to create anything.

If you see yourself as a failure in life, you’re going to be failure.

Scripture says that our beliefs determine our behaviour.

The way we think determines the way we act.

And what we see comes out in our lifestyle.

The problem is a lot of stuff you believe is not true.

So you’re acting on false or inaccurate information about yourself.

I remember when I was little often being taken to the carnival in Kelvin Hall in Glasgow, always just after New Year and in the fun house they had these kind of wavy mirrors.

Q: When you look at those mirrors as you look at the image of yourself, the image is distorted because it’s not a perfect mirror; it’s an imperfect mirror.

When you were growing up the adults around you were the mirrors of your life.

They reflected back to you how you began to see yourself.

The problem is there are no perfect adults so as a result all the images that you got of yourself even from people who loved you were distorted.

We all grow up with an inaccurate picture of ourselves because some adult tells you something as a kid and you think, “This is an adult, he~/she must know.”

And you tend to believe it whether it was right or wrong, said in anger, said in jest, said in hurtfulness.

You internalized it, stored  it in your memory and you’ve operated on that for years and years.

And it’s false.

So you have to start seeing from God’s point of view.

Because we all grow up with these distorted images that we get from our parents, our peers, from other people.

I bet you some of you can remember things that were said to you twenty or thirty years ago like:  “You’re never going to amount to anything…” and you just took it in and you’ve been acting on that information for a long, long time.

Everybody has wounds.

Everybody has emotional scars.

Everybody in this church.

Everybody has emotional scars.

So how do you get rid of them?

How do you deal with the past?

*The antidote is to learn to see your life, learn to see yourself, from God’s point of view.*

This service and next week’s may be one of the most important services in your entire life.

If you really grasp what it means to see yourself as God sees you, it’ll change your life.

Jesus said, /“You know the truth and the truth will set you free.”

/So when we learn to see ourselves the way God truly sees us it makes all the difference in the world.

Both today and next Sunday I’d like to tell you of God’s view of you;  five things that God says about you because of His grace.

If you have accepted Jesus Christ into your life, you’ve accepted His grace and God says I see you very, very differently than the way you see yourself.

How does God view you? 

 

*1.

God says I see you as acceptable.*

Titus 3:7 says this /“Jesus treated us much better than we deserve.

He made us acceptable to God and He gave us the hope of eternal life.”

/The most hurtful thing in life is rejection.

When you’re rejected by a parent, a spouse, a former spouse, a boyfriend, a girlfriend, a teacher, when you’re rejected nothing hurts you more than rejection.

So as a result we spend most of our lives doing everything we can to avoid rejection.

We want acceptance more than anything else in life.

We want acceptance from our parents.

We want acceptance from our peers.

We want acceptance from our neighbors.

We want acceptance from people we respect, people we envy.

We want acceptance from people we don’t even like!

We buy things we don’t need with money we don’t have to impress people we don’t even know.

Why?

Because this power to be accepted is so profound it drives everything in your life, so much of it.

It drives the kind of clothes you wear, the kind of car you drive, the kind of house you buy, the career you choose.

So many of your decisions in life you’re not aware are really based on this desire for approval.

The desire to be accepted.

To be recognized, to be significant.

We want to be accepted and we want to be loved, we want people to see our value.

God says this was settled a long time ago.

Titus 3:5-7 /“God saved us, not because we were good enough to be saved but because of His kindness and grace by washing away our sins.