Created to Influence: Made In The Image of God

Introduction

How do you define leadership?

Are leaders born or made?

Are all people called to be leaders and influencers in some capacity?

Definition of Leadership

Leadership is not. . .

About qualities or personality.

About Charisma.

Leadership is. . .

Work, hard work.

A Responsibility rather than a rank, position, or privilege.

A healthy desire to develop influence.

To Know We Have Leadership Potential, We Must Believe God’s Truth

We struggle to believe we are called to be leaders and influencers for Christ because we often forget who we are and who God made us to be.

Truth is essential to defining and determining our perspective.

What we believe about our essence determines our ethics and the way we live our lives.

Knowing that our identity is based on being made in God’s image and being unified with Christ are foundational to seeing the leadership potential we have.

There are four reasons from Scripture that demonstrate that God has made us to be influencers and that we all have leadership potential. . .

First, we are created in the image of God.

Second, we have been given the gifts of freedom, relationships, and creativity.

Third, we are called to be disciples.

Fourth, as disciples, we are called to make disciples by joining in God’s mission.

Key Point: We are created in the image of God, and as humans, we are the crown of God’s creation. Therefore, we must know we are created to influence.

Made In The Image of God

The truth of being made in God’s image is the most profound wonder about our existence as humans.

The yearning to know what cannot be known, to comprehend the Incomprehensible, to touch and taste the Unapproachable, arises from the image of God in the nature of man.5

A. W. Tozer

What does it mean to be made in the image of God?

Genesis 1:26–28 ESV

Then 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 birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

We can understand being made in God’s image in that we are both connected to God and made to be a reflection of God.

The Hebrew word for “image” used in Genesis 1 is tselem and refers to a concrete statue or idol set up in a temple.

In the Ancient Near East, kings would set up idols and statues in conquered areas.

The physical statue represented the king’s authority and reign over that region and would be used to point people to praise the king.

Similarly, the author of Genesis helps us see that by being made in God’s image, we are God’s statues placed in the temple of Eden to represent God’s rule and reign over the whole earth.

We are connected to God in that we represent him and we are made to reflect his attributes, rule, and reign on the earth.

The connection between being made in God’s image and ruling and reigning is seen in the next verse as God commands man and woman in Gen. 1:28 to have dominion over all creation and subdue it.

We God’s physical representatives who are created to extend his rule and reign over all the earth.

Being in God’s image encompasses our entire being as humans and is not simply “an attribute” we possess but instead it makes up our essence.

Out identity and status in being God’s image cannot change based on our function or quality of life.

To cease to be God’s image would mean we would cease to exist as humans.

In summary, being made in God’s image means that we are connected to God and a reflection of God’s glory, attributes, rule, and reign.

Four Truths About Being Made In God’s Image

1. Good

Genesis 1:31 ESV

And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

2. Unique

Psalm 8:4–5 ESV

what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.

3. Male and Female

Genesis 1:27 ESV

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

4. Points to Jesus

Colossians 1:15 ESV

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

The Imago Dei and Leadership

1. We were made to represent and imitate God.

We were made to rule like God.

We were made to love like God.

We were made to influence and point people to God.

Moses wrote Genesis along with the rest of the law after the wilderness wanderings right before entering the promise land.

The people needed to be reminded of their identity and purpose so that they could exhibit leadership and influence when they entered the promise land.

2. We were not made to represent ourselves or imitate the world.

Sin has affected our ability to rightly portray God’s image.

God’s image has not been damaged or marred by sin, rather we as people have been damaged by sin.

Our special connection to relate with and represent God has been badly damaged and we no longer reflect his likeness and attributes like we were created to.

Instead of believing God’s truth we have succumbed to Satan’s temptations.

If we are not leading and influencing people to follow Jesus, we are rejecting and denying the very essence of our being and the reason God created us.

I believe that one reason why the church of God at this present moment has so little influence over the world is because the world has so much influence over the church.

Charles Spurgeon

3. We Must Trust in Christ.

Jesus is the perfect image of God.

Jesus Christ is the ultimate Leader.

By trusting in him, we are renewed as persons in his image. . .

2 Corinthians 3:18 ESV

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

Colossians 3:10 ESV

and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

and can be rightly connected with him and reflect his likeness through putting on the new nature which is created after the likeness of God (Ephesians 4:24).

Leadership begins at the feet of Jesus.

Response

Three ways we must respond tonight if we are going to be the leaders God has made us to be. . . we must Know. . . Sit. . . and Step Up!

Know Who You Are.

Know who God made you to be and who you are in Christ. . . . Find your identity in being made in God’s image.

Sit at the Feet of Jesus.

To lead and influence the way we were created, we must sit at the feet of Jesus by humbling ourselves and trusting in him.

Step up and Start Influencing and Leading People to Jesus.