He Came To Show Us Who We Are Series

He Came To Show Us

Who We Are

I Am Jesus – part eleven

{Note I bought 2 fun house mirrors for this message and had them in the foyer prior to church, for people to look in and laugh at their distorted images. When it came time to preach, I had some guys bring them up front)

13Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. 14But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” 15Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.

16As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. 17And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

1Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. 2After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” 4Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

5Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6“If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you,

and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

7Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” 8Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9“All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” 10Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’” 11Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him. – Matthew 3:13-4:11

Prayer…

NOW – I have been looking forward to the message I am going to share with you this morning for several weeks. It’s the 11th message in our I am Jesus series. AND - it’s the 6th message where we have been looking at the things that Jesus came to do.

UNDERSTAND – 2,000 years ago Jesus (The Son of God, The Word Become Flesh, The Good Shepherd & The King of kings) came to;

• Demonstrate God’s Love

• Seek & Save The Lost

• Replace Rules w/Relationship

• Open our Eyes

• To tell us the truth…

AND – as we will see today… HE –came to show us who we are… THERE – are 5 points in your notes this morning… The first is; .

What We See…

SO – did you take a look at yourself in these mirrors… How did you look? YOU KNOW - I have always thought that these mirrors, were kind of fun…

AND – if you looked in these mirrors, I have some good news for you… “It’s not you – it’s the mirror” it is a distortion of reality… (OKAY – throughout this message, I whenever I say; “It’s not you” - I want you to say, “It’s the mirror” – let’s have a practice run)…

NO YOU – don’t really look that crazy… You’re not that short; you don’t have 2 heads and your arms are not 6 feet long… YOU SEE – these mirrors are curved… AND BASICALLY – when they curve in… you get stretched… when they curved out you get squished… AND – when you have curved in and curved outs… you get squished and stretched.. YEAH - It’s fun to look in these mirrors…

BUT – there is another mirror that is not so fun to look at… LISTEN - I am convinced that most people today have a distorted image of themselves… I am convinced that when most people today look in a mirror, when they look at themselves… they do not see who they really are.

AND – I am also convinced that what they do see… THEY - do not like all that much. I agree with what Brennan Manning who said in the forward of his book, ‘A Glimpse of Jesus’ - that not liking what we see when we look at ourselves… (something that he calls self hatred) is at epidemic proportions in our world…

QUESTION - [Tim, Laurie…] what do you see when you look in the mirror? What do you see when you look at yourself? Chances are that what you see is distorted. (“It’s not you – It’s the mirror)