Yesterday, Today, and Forever
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· 26 viewsWe're created in the image of God, but that image gets hidden. God wants it revealed to the world
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Introduction
Introduction
8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
Body
Body
The Lord our God is eternal, and He changes not!
We are created beings. We have a beginning, we exist presently, and we have an eternal future
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.
God’s image is indelibly stamped on each of us at our creation
But unlike God, we do change
We end up vastly different creatures than we were when we began
We progress through the the same time frame that we perceive God passing through, although that perception is very misleading.
We see God as having a yesterday, today, and a future, but He’s not stuck to the time line as we are
It’s a perception we have of God and it’s how He interacts with us in His creation.
Yesterday
Yesterday
We begin
We’re all born into this world, exactly the same way
Different nations, different cultures, different socioeconomic strata, different geography, different families, different family structures, but same basic biology; male or female, all born as babies, hardwired with basic personality and gifts and talents that our Creator endowed us with.
We grow, and we change
We all develop a relationship with our caregiver(s), whether loving, neglectful, or abusive.
This relationship with our caregivers, no matter how hard we try in later years, forms a significant part of who we are, and who we become.
Parents be warned!
Children, this is not an excuse!
We develop relationships with other family members and some outside our family circle
We go through some type of formal education culminating, we hope, in a High School Diploma.
We grow up
We graduate, get a job and/or attend college
Maybe some of us join the military
We get married, start a career, have kids, raise a family
These experiences, and the relationships we cultivate, good, bad, and indifferent, mold us and shape us as individuals and, to a large degree, determine who we become later.
All of us have pleasant, good memories of our past
All of us have bitter, disappointing memories of our past
Concerning these, we always seem to remember the good times, but we are most affected by the bad
Things that happened to us
Parents / caregivers who failed us or let us down, or even actively hurt us
Friends and relatives we trusted who betrayed us
Wrongs we suffered at the hands of those who should have known better
Wounds, hurts, bitterness, unforgiveness, anger
Things we did ourselves
Said things we regret saying
Engaged in activities we regret doing
Got involved with people we wish we’d never have met
Failures. Regrets. People we betrayed, disappointed, let down.
7 For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; But his heart is not with thee.
Today
Today
We bring all of this with us into the present.
Two images
How God sees us
How we see ourselves
How we see Ourselves
How we see Ourselves
Our self-image is a conglomeration of all of our past, rolled up into one, easy, simple picture of ourselves.
Unfortunately, as eluded to earlier, we give some parts of our past more weight than others
The negative experiences we have are given much more weight toward this self-image
This self-image is NOT reality, but it becomes OUR reality.
We begin to believe that bad is all that’s going to come our way
Every negative experience reaffirms and reinforces our poor self-image
Every positive experience is a fluke, or its hiding an even greater negative experience
It’s important that we possess the correct self-image.
This self-image affects everything we do, how we conduct ourselves, enters into our relationships and becomes, ultimately, a self-fulfilling prophesy.
How God sees us
How God sees us
God sees us in an entirely different light
Remember that God created us!
God doesn’t see the same image we see
This does not mean He doesn’t see our faults and shortcomings — He does.
Our faults and our shortcomings are not who we are.
But God created us to be victorious. To live from victory to victory! To look and speak and act and think like He does.
This is the image in God’s mind of us.
Our old self-image is a process of self loathing. self hate. Perpetrating against ourselves what we perceive the world has done against us.
The world hates you and seeks at every opportunity to destroy you. One way to accomplish this is to destroy God’s image in you.
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.
Originally, God’s image was indelibly stamped on every human being
After the fall, that image became shattered, marred, distorted, but still there.
Since then, our enemy has convinced many, and has tried to convince you, that that’s not true, and you don’t matter.
You’re broken and irredeemable and that’s just the way it is!
Every bad thing that has happened is because you deserve it!
I mean, let’s face it…that’s just WHO YOU ARE!
The enemy hates you and he wants you to think God hates you and he wants you to hate yourself
36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
We need to love that which God loves, and hate that which God hates.
Are we to actually love ourselves?!!?!
We’ve talked about hating the things God hates. We can only do that because we first love the things God loves!
God loves you!
It’s God desire that we fulfill His image of who we are, not ours. But how???
Transformation. Become a new creature in Christ.
Love
Forever
Forever
In This Life
In This Life
We have two possible outcomes sometime in the future:
The enemy succeeds in completely covering up the image of God in us.
Jesus succeeds in restoring His image in us.
In Eternity
In Eternity
Ultimately
We end up forever separated from the presence of Jesus
We end up forever in the presence of Jesus