What’s the first thing you do when you get up in the morning?
Whatever it is, it’s probably the same thing every day. Everybody seems to have their own morning rituals to get them going.
Maybe you have to have a cup of coffee before you can do anything.
Maybe you make your bed as soon as you get out of it, or you jump right into the shower.
Some of you may start getting yourself ready for morning the night before
I put coffee & water in my coffee maker on Friday night so that in the morning, all either me or my wife has to do is flip the switch
But some part of everybody’s morning ritual is coming face to face with the mirror.
Most of us probably get our first look at ourselves while we’re still pretty scary looking. Our eyes have that bleary, dazed look
Our hair is sticking out in strange places, Normally clean-shaven guys have some scruffy overnight growth of beards to deal with.
Facing our mirrors first thing in the morning is NOT that pleasant an experience.
Mirrors are very honest little things. They don’t compromise.
They don’t gloss over our defects and tell us we’re better-looking than we really are.
They show us every wart, wrinkle, gray hair & zit. In fact, the better the mirror, the more flaws we see.
So why do we all have mirrors in our bathrooms?
Because as unpleasant as it may be to confront our own faces first thing in the morning, --- if we don’t take a look at ourselves, and make some major adjustments, the rest of the world is going to see that morning face!
So we figure, it’s better to “face” the truth, so we can make the changes we think are necessary to make ourselves presentable to the rest of the world.
“Mirror, Mirror on the Wall!” Does anybody know where that saying comes from? (ANSWER: Snow White).
The wicked witch in that story sure liked it when the mirror told her that she was the fairest. But when it told her that she wasn’t ... then she got very angry and very jealous.
That’s the thing about GOOD mirrors, they always tell us the truth, even if we don’t like what we see!
Mirrors let us know the real self or person we are.
-------------ILLUSTRATION: The Gorilla
A man was looking for a job and he noticed that there was an opening at the local zoo. He inquired about the job and discovered that the zoo had a very unusual position that they wanted to fill.
Apparently their gorilla had died, and until they could get a new one, they needed someone to dress up in a gorilla suit and act like a gorilla for a few days.
He was to just sit, eat and sleep. His identity would be kept a secret, of course.
Thanks to a very fine gorilla suit, no one would be the wiser.
The zoo offered good pay for this job, so the man decided to do it. He tried on the suit and sure enough, he looked just like a gorilla.
They led him to the cage; he took a position at the back of the cage and pretended to sleep.
But after a while, he got tired of sitting, so he walked around a little bit, jumped up and down and tried a few gorilla noises.
The people who were watching him seemed to really like that. When he would move or jump around, they would clap and cheer and throw him peanuts. And the man loved peanuts.
So he jumped around some more and tried climbing a tree. That seemed to really get the crowd excited. They threw more peanuts.
Playing to the crowd, he grabbed a vine and swung from one side of the cage to the other. The people loved it and threw more peanuts.
Wow, this is great, he thought. He swung higher and the crowd grew bigger. He continued to swing on the vine, getting higher and higher—and then all of a sudden, the vine broke!
He swung up and out of the cage, landing in the lion’s cage that was next door. He panicked. There was a huge lion not twenty feet away, and it looked very hungry.
So the man in the gorilla suit started jumping up and down, screaming and yelling, “Help, help! Get me out of here! I’m not really a gorilla! I’m a man in a gorilla suit! Heeelllp!”
The lion quickly pounced on the man, held him down and said, “Will you SHUT UP! You’re going to get both of us fired!”
-------------
Tonight we’re going to examine the subject of who you really are. We’re talking about “The Mirror- An Accurate Reflection of the Real You.”
Are you like this man pretending to be something you’re not? Or have you been deceiving yourself for long that you actually believe that you’re something else?
Who are you really? What do you see when you look into the mirror?
Have you ever seen your reflection in a spoon? It’s kind of funky, right?
What about seeing your reflection in a window? That’s pretty dim, too.
While, there are certain things we won’t know until we get to heaven, like whether or not Adam and Eve had belly buttons, one thing we can know is who we are and what we look like.
Now, mirrors in James’ day probably were made of highly polished metal and you couldn’t see a very accurate reflection of yourself, it was kind of like looking into a spoon.
But in today’s age, we have mirrors that very much display what we really look like. (Show full length mirror) Like this mirror, for instance.
If you look in this mirror, you can see yourself and what you look like.
But if a mirror is going to work properly, it must be a proper mirror.
Have you ever been to a funhouse that had distorted mirrors? They don’t really show us how we are do they?
When we read the Bible, or hear a sermon, we’re supposed to see OURSELVES in it.
Often we’ll hear a sermon and think “Boy, I wish so-and-so could hear THIS! THEY really need it.”
But the funny thing is, God in His power didn’t see fit to make sure so-and-so was here, but YOU’RE here. So maybe the message isn’t really for so-and-so. Maybe it’s for YOU!
Without a doubt, one of the most important reasons we are to read and study and understand the Scriptures is to see the dirt on our faces – or the poppy seeds in our teeth.
Because if we don’t know they’re there, we’ll never get rid of them.
And the point of this whole mirror analogy is to illustrate the command in these verses:
1. Remember What You Look Like
James 1: 21-24 “21 So get rid of every filthy habit and all wicked conduct. Submit to God and accept the word that he plants in your hearts, which is able to save you. 22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.”
How can that be? How can somebody look in the mirror and see themselves, and then walk away and forget what he looks like?
I mean, you look in a mirror, walk away, then you’re like, “Wait a minute? Am I bald? Am I fat? Am I short? Do I have blue eyes? Am I missing teeth? Do I have a zit on my nose? What do I look like?”
That’s absurd. But is it really?
What about the girl who is 5’7”, blonde hair, blue eyes, beautiful girl that weighs 90 pounds.
She looks in the mirror and she sees that same 5’7”, blonde haired, blue eyed, beautiful girl who weighs 90 pounds, but as soon as she steps away from that mirror and gets around her friends, she believes she’s fat.
She can never exercise enough or eat too little.
No matter what she sees in the mirror, no matter that her friends tell her that she’s beautiful, she still believes she’s fat.
So…it’s possible to look in the mirror and then forget what you look like.
There are two reasons that this can happen.
One- you don’t believe the mirror is an accurate reflection of who you are. You don’t trust the mirror. Have you ever been to a fun house at a carnival or fair and walked through the hall of mirrors?
You have certain mirrors there that are designed to make you look funny. You can stand in front of one mirror and look all muscular and big like Arnold Schwarzeneggar.
You can stand in front of another and look extremely short and fat. You can stand in front of yet another and be ten feet tall and skinny as a rail.
These mirrors are NOT an accurate reflection of who you are. So you can walk away from these mirrors and forget what you looked like in them.
Why? Because you don’t trust them. You don’t trust the mirror.
The second reason you can look in a mirror and forget what you look like is
2. Realize that sometimes you have a problem to fix.
It’s true, we have zits that need taken care of, teeth that need flossed, or hair that needs combed, but sometimes it’s beneath the surface upon what we see is where the real problem lies.
Like our 5’7” beautiful blonde friend.
She has a problem. The enemy is deceiving her into believing that she doesn’t look like what the mirror says she looks like.
We know that the mirror we’re to look in to see the real us, is the Word of God. But let me ask you something…
Do you trust the mirror? Or do you walk away from it thinking you’re not worthy?
Do you look at the Word that says you can do all things through Christ and then walk away thinking that you could never be good enough?
Do you look at the Word that says you have an anointing from the holy one and can know all things --- and then walk away thinking that you will never get an A in Chemistry?
If you do, then there’s a reason. Either you don’t trust the mirror or you’re being deceived.
How many of you trust that the Word of God is an accurate reflection of the real you? Ok, then you trust the mirror in this case.
Well, how is that you can see yourself in the Word and then walk away and act totally different than who you are?
You’re being deceived. You’re letting the enemy pull the wool over your eyes.
You can look at the Word and find that you are the redeemed. You are redeemed
Wait a minute... I was supposed to show you something about mirrors today. I’ll be right back!
{Leave and put a big blotch on your face! Bring 4 different mirrors with you. ACT LIKE NOTHING IS WRONG!}
MIRROR #1 A PIECE OF ALUMINUM FOIL
This mirror is like the mirror of the world.
This world doesn’t really have a clear view of right and wrong. It’s blurry.
MIRROR #2 A MIRROR COVERED UP WITH STICKERS
This mirror is the reflection you get from your friends.
Man, it looks good. It’s pretty. But it doesn’t do much good.
Because it’s covered up with words, and so when others tell you how good you are or how bad you are, it won’t be accurate!
You will will reflect to you what they say about you.
MIRROR #3 A MIRROR THAT IS BROKEN
This is the mirror of churchy type religion.
Religion that makes a lot of good claims, and does contain some bits and pieces of that sound like truth, like if you go to church a lot, it will make God happy and He will leave you alone.
HOWEVER,-- it is cracked up and incapable of revealing the full truth.
MIRROR #4 A GOOD MIRROR, BUT SMALL.
{Put this one up on the wall}
This is a good mirror. This represents the Bible, God’s Word.
James tells us that it gives a perfect reflection and can show us our strengths and our weaknesses.
The only problem is, for the mirror to work, we have to get close to it!
(Try looking at yourself from a distance. Then move closer.
Notice the spot and then wipe it off!)
3. Don’t walke away without taking care of business
A forgetful hearer is someone who sees themselves in God’s Mirror, but then goes away and does nothing about it. That’s silly isn’t it? If you see the problem, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!
Well, if we want to know who we really are, what mirror do we look in? We have to look to the Word as a mirror to show us who we really are.
Look at the Word to find the real you, then boldly declare that that is who you are.
---------ILLUSTRATION: Twenty Dollars
A well known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $20 bill. In the room of 200, he asked, "Who would like this $20 bill?"
Hands started going up. He said, "I am going to give this $20 to one of you but first, let me do this."
He proceeded to crumple the dollar bill up. He then asked, "Who still wants it?" Still the hands were up in the air.
"Well," he replied, "What if I do this?" And he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe.
He picked it up, now all crumpled and dirty.
"Now who still wants it?" Still the hands went into the air.
"My friends, you have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value.
It was still worth $20.
Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way.
We feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value in God’s eyes.
To Him, dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless to Him.
----------------
WHEN WE LOOK INTO THE MIRROR OF GOD’S WORD, WHAT DO WE SEE?
1. We see our flaws. We see that we are sinners.
2. We also see that Jesus Christ died for our sins.
3. We see that by believing in Jesus Christ, we can be changed forever.
--------ILLUSTRATION: SELF-DECEPTION
A school teacher lost her life savings in a business scheme that had been elaborately explained by a swindler.
When her investment disappeared and her dream was shattered, she went to the Better Business Bureau.
"Why on earth didn’t you come to us first?" the official asked. "Didn’t you know about the Better Business Bureau?"
"Oh, yes," said the lady sadly. "I’ve always known about you. But I didn’t come because I was afraid you’d tell me not to go through with the business deal."
----------
The folly of our human nature is that even though we know where the answers lie--God’s Word--we don’t turn there for fear of what it will say.
E. W. Kenyon says “The reason that the majority of Christians are weak, though they are earnest, yet they are weak, is because they have never dared to make a bold confession of what they are in Christ.”
An radio preacher told about an African tribal chief who was presented with a mirror by a visitor.
He peered curiously into the glass and commented on the ugliness of the person he saw.
When he realized he was looking at himself, he became enraged and smashed the mirror on a rock.
The apostle James described God’s Word as a mirror in which we can see ourselves reflected (1:23-24).
It shows us that although we were created to reflect God’s character, in our fallen condition we are spiritually ugly and marred by sin.
But when we put our faith in Jesus Christ, we are spiritually reborn (John 3:3-8).
Then, as we look into God’s Word, we see ourselves as God sees us—our ugliness has been transformed into the beauty of Christ’s likeness.
And we grow in His likeness from that point on.
CONCLUSION
What do you see as you look into the mirror of Scripture?
Do you hesitate to read the Bible because it shows you the ugly appearance of your unbelief?
Or do you read it gratefully, seeing yourself as God the Father sees you—as His spiritually reborn child, who is becoming more and more like His beloved Son?
Practice with me. Say this:
I am a new creation in Christ Jesus.
My spirit is created in the image and likeness of God.
I am complete in Christ Jesus.
I am righteous in Christ Jesus.
I have right standing with God just like I’d never done anything wrong.
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
I am God’s child through Christ.
There is no lack for my God supplies all my needs, in every area of life, according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
I have the mind of Christ.
I have an anointing from the Holy One and I know all things.
I will look in the mirror, the Word of God, and see an accurate reflection of myself,
and I will never forget who I am or what I look like.
THE BIBLE IS UNLIKE ANY OTHER MIRROR, because it can actually change us! -II Corinthians 3:18
GOD’S MIRROR CAN MAKE US BEAUTIFUL on the inside!
---------ILLUSTRATION: The Mirror
Author Robert Fulghum tells this story of one of his professors, a wise man whose name was Alexander Papaderos:
At the last session on the last morning of a two week seminar on Greek culture, Dr. Papaderos turned and made the ritual gesture: "Are there any questions?"
Quiet quilted the room. These two weeks had generated enough questions for a lifetime, but for now, there was only silence.
"No questions?" Papaderos swept the room with his eyes. So, I asked.
"Dr. Papaderos, what is the meaning of life?"
The usual laughter followed, and people stirred to go.
Papaderos held up his hand and stilled the room and looked at me for a long time, asking with his eyes if I was serious and seeing from my eyes that I was.
"I will answer your question."
Taking his wallet out of his hip pocket, he fished into a leather billfold and brought out a very small round mirror, about the size of a quarter. And what he said went something like this:
"When I was a small child, during the war, we were very poor and we lived in a remote village. One day, on the road, I found the broken pieces of a mirror. A German motorcycle had been wrecked in that place.
"I tried to find all the pieces and put them together, but it was not possible, so I kept only the largest piece. This one. And by scratching it on a stone, I made it round. I began to play with it as a toy and became fascinated by the fact that I could reflect light into dark places where the sun would never shine in deep holes and crevices and dark closets.
It became a game for me to get light into the most inaccessible places I could find.
"I kept the little mirror, and as I went about my growing up, I would take it out in idle moments and continue the challenge of the game.
As I became a man, I grew to understand that this was not just a child’s game but a metaphor for what I might do with my life. I came to understand that I am not the light or the source of light.
But light truth, understanding, knowl¬edge is there, and it will only shine in many dark places if I reflect it.
"I am a fragment of a mirror whose whole design and shape I do not know.
Nevertheless, with what I have I can reflect light into the dark places of this world into the black places in the hearts of men and change some things in some people.
Perhaps others may see and do likewise. This is what I am about. This is the meaning of life."
And then he took his small mirror and, holding it carefully, caught the bright rays of daylight streaming through the window and reflected them onto my face and onto my hands folded on the desk.
Jesus said, "I am the light of the world" (John 9:5), and as his followers, we are to be like that little mirror, reflecting the light of Christ into the dark corners of the world.
That is the meaning of the Christian life. "Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven" (Matthew 5:16).
---------
What type of mirror are you?
The broken one? Believing half truths and trying to patch your image together?
The mirror filled with stickers of sayings representing other people’s words form who you think you are?
Are you the aluminum foil type, where people just can quite get a clear picture of you or what you represent?
Or does your life represent the small mirror? Where you know God, but you keep your distance for fear of what you will find up close?
I would encourage you to become like the full length mirror here…where people can see you for who you are.
It’s the only way you will get an accurate picture of what you look like and what others see of you.
