Who Am I?

Welcome Back!

Welcome back to the Anchor everyone!

Who here has seen or made a Rube Goldberg machine before? What are some characteristics of one of those machines?

Complex, well-crafted designed.

Guess what guys, the Bible says the same about you!

We are going to be starting a series called: Identity, answering the question: Who am I?

If someone were to ask you the question: “Who are you?” What sort of things would you say? Think about the question for a few seconds. Don’t answer now, you’ll have time to chat in small groups. But think deeply, how would you describe yourself?

God wants you to know who you are. And guess what! He shows us who we are in His word!

I’m going to ask God to show us!

Prayer

Genesis 1:26–27 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.

We are made in the IMAGE OF GOD

Who’s image are we made in?

What do you guys think that means? We are a reflection of who God is. Made to resemble Him.

There is something about us that is different than the animals. And what separates us is being made in whose image?

The image of God.

Genesis 2:5–7 ESV

When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

Guess what God formed us intricately, just like that youtuber made the Swish machine!

I want to show you guys a photo of someone special to me!

This is a photo of my son!

I want you to picture him in your mind as I read this next passage.

Psalm 139:13–16 ESV

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

We are FEARFULLY AND WONDERFULLY MADE

Fearfully and wonderfully made! You are fearfully and wonderfully made!

God created you and molded you! He looks at you in love. Just like how I look at the ultrasound of my son in love.

We were Created to be WITH GOD

But something happened. We decided as humanity that we would rather be like god without God. We broke relationship with Him, and wronged Him. We believed a lie, out of a desire to live for ourselves rather then for God.

That’s why every one of us is out for our own wants and desires.

Genesis 3:8 ESV

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

We hide from God still!

Genesis 3:22–24 ESV

Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

God sent humanity out of his presence in love! But the story is not over.

God sent His son Jesus to pay the price for our wrongs, to take on the punishment we deserve: death. Jesus took on separation from His Father for us. He took on all the wrongs we ever did and died in our place.

Imagine me sending my son to die for someone who wronged me. That’s what God did for all of us.

But guess what, Jesus rose from the grave. He is alive today, and whoever believes in Him, and turns to Him seeking forgiveness: will be made new!

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

For all of us here who are in Christ: we will be reunited to God. Living with Him forever.

Revelation 21:3 ESV

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

Are you in Christ?

Our first Identity word is this:

Created!

Next week I’ll ask again what our identity words are, and if you can remember them you can get some candy each time!

So what is the first identity word?

Created! Created by God!

I want to share with you guys a really cool video I found about being fearfully and wonderfully made. Think about your own life when watching this!