Imago Dei

Q4: How and why did God create us?

A: God created us male and female in his own image to know him, love him, live with him, and glorify him. And it is right that we who were created by God should live to his glory.

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I have a hard and fast rule this time of year. No Christmas before Thanksgiving. We cant talk about Christmas until after thanksgiving. No Christmas lights, no interior Christmas decorations, no Christmas movies, no Christmas music until after Thanksgiving.

But i’m going to break my own rule tonight.

Who here has the seen the VeggieTales Movie the Toy that Saved Christmas?

BuzzSaw Louie is this action figure toy that has a working BuzzSaw in his arm. And when you pressed the button nose, he would say things like “Billy has more toys than you” or “Christmas is when you get stuff”. What a completely impractical toy for a bunch of vegetable children. I mean a buzzsaw? And he has lies built into him about the purpose and why behind Christmas.

As the movies goes BuzzSaw Louie kind of has the realization that he doesn’t know WHY he was created. Understandable. He lies about Christmas and has a working buzzsaw in his arm. Hard to look at that and be like, “yup. I see the purpose there.”

But let me mention another toy with a purpose problem really quick:

His name is Buzz Lightyear.

In the first Toy Story movie (which came out 25 years ago this week) Buzz Lightyear thinks he’s a real astronaut and a part of Space Command. He’s trying to defeat Emperor Zurg. He doesn’t understand that it isn’t his identity, and that in reality he is a toy.

[Watch clip from Toy Story (2:00 long) ]

The purpose of this series is to establish a foundation for our faith that is solid like Bedrock.

I would argue that a key component of a Bedrock faith is knowing your purpose in life.

So I wonder if there is someone in this room right now who feels like BuzzSaw Louie. There are parts of you that don’t seem to make sense. There are lies that you have been believing about what your purpose is.

And I wonder if there is someone in this room who is acting like Buzz Lightyear - not understanding the way you were made and what that means for your life.

I want to talk about how and why God created you.

I want to help you answer the question of “Why did God make me? What am I here for? What is my purpose?”

So in order to begin to form an answer to those questions, let’s first look at HOW God made us, then we’ll look at three reasons WHY he made us.

Imago Dei

The first thing I want us to see tonight is how did God create you. In what shape did he make you?

Genesis 1:27 CSB

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

We see on page one of our Bibles that God made you in the image of God. You are not like the animals, you are different.

God spoke everything we see into being. He said, let there be light and BAM light.

He spoke the oceans and the sky into being. He spoke the plants and the animals into being.

But not you.

God actually got down into the dirt and made humanity with his hands. And he breathed life into that first human, Adam. He made us in his very own image.

The trouble comes when we see parts of us that God made and say why would God make me like this. And we start to internalize lies about us.

We cannot allow ourselves to becomes BuzzSaw Louie’s

This means a few important things for you.

It means you have value. Your worth is not found in what you can do, it’s found in who you are. There is nothing and no one who can take that value from you.

[$20 bill illustration]

Nothing said about you, nothing you do to yourself, nothing done to you can take away the value that has been given to you by God when he made you in his very own image because your worth is not determined by that. Just like the value of this money is backed by the government, your worth is backed by God himself.

It means you’re not a mistake. I don’t know who needs to hear that right now. But this is for you. You are not a mistake. You were made in God’s image.

You might wish you looked different or talked different or had different circumstances dealt to you. But God knew what he was doing when he made you.

God made you in his very own image.

How God made you is the vital first step to understand WHY God made you because your purpose comes out of HOW you were made.

This was Buzz Lightyear’s mistake. He didn’t understand HOW he had been made so he couldn’t get a grasp on WHY he was made.

So if you’ve ever asked the question, Why am I here? What is my purpose? I have three pieces of an answer for you to begin the journey of discovering your purpose.

To Know God

God created you to know him. That’s important. We need to know who it is that made us. We can learn more of who God is the more time we spend with him.

John 10:1–5 CSB

“Truly I tell you, anyone who doesn’t enter the sheep pen by the gate but climbs in some other way is a thief and a robber. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought all his own outside, he goes ahead of them. The sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will never follow a stranger; instead they will run away from him, because they don’t know the voice of strangers.”

It’s so important that we know God’s voice. We were created to know God’s voice. It’s why God’s Word is everything to us. God has revealed Himself. He made Himself able to be known in this book.

But i want to go one step deeper.

Not only is knowing God part of your purpose, but you are also known by God.

“What matters supremely, therefore, is not, in the last analysis, the fact that I know God, but the larger fact which underlies it—the fact that He knows me. I am graven on the palms of His hands. I am never out of His mind. All my knowledge of Him depends on His sustained initiative in knowing me. I know Him because He first knew me, and continues to know me. He knows me as a friend, one who loves me; and there is no moment when His eye is off me, or His attention distracted from me, and no moment, therefore, when his care falters.” -J.I. Packer

Not only do the sheep know the voice of their shepherd, but the Shepherd knows every sheep.

To Love God

Connected with knowing God is loving God.

1 John 4:7–10 CSB

Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him. Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

1 John 4:19 CSB

We love because he first loved us.

God created you with the purpose of loving him but you are only able to fulfill your purpose because God loved you first.

That means you are the most human, the most yourself, when you love God and realize that God love you.

Here’s a very simple application point:

If you’ve ever wondered what does God want me to do?

Find what makes you love God more, and do more of that!

Bring God Glory

This is the last part of our purpose.

You were created to glorify God.

Glorifying God means that you make a bid deal about how big of a deal God is.

When we worship God - that’s what we’re doing.

When we read God’s word - that’s what we’re doing.

When we share the Gospel - that’s what we’re doing.

But you can bring God glory through non-spiritual things too.

You can bring God glory by the effort you put into school.

You can bring God glory by the way you play basketball.

You can bring God glory by the way you love your friends.

God created you to bring glory to Himself.

Conclusion

You don’t have to live like Buzzsaw Louie anymore.

You don’t have parts of you that don’t fit, you’re not a mistake.

You don’t have to keep believing lies about how and why God created you.

God created you in his own image.

You don’t have to live like Buzz Lightyear anymore. You can be certain of your purpose here on earth.

You were created to Know God and to be Known by God.

You were created to Love God and be Loved by God.

You were created to Bring God Glory.