Painting God’s Masterpiece
Scriptures: Genesis 2:7; Ephesians 2:10; Proverbs 23:7; 29:18
Introduction:
I have titled this series “Painting God’s Masterpiece.” My older brother Barry preached a sermon titled “Re-painting Your Canvas” and the idea for this sermon series is based on his original sermon. The foundational Scriptures for this message are found in the books of Genesis and Ephesians. Genesis 2:7 says: “Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being (soul).” Ephesians 2:10 states: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” Before I go into the heart of this message, I want to focus your minds on three things from these verses. These three things will follow us throughout this series and I want to you to be listening for them in the weeks to come. The first thing I want you to notice and remember is that God made man. With other things that He created, He spoke them into being, but with man, He fashioned us (made/formed) us with His hands. The second point is that God made us after His image – meaning that we have some of His qualities within us and that when people see us, they should see Him. The third point is that when God made us, we were considered to be His workmanship. Please note that the Greek work for “workmanship” has the connotation “work of art”. So when God created us, we became His work of art. Please keep these three points in your thoughts as continue through this series as we will be building upon and elaborating on these points.
As I was working on this message, I was reminded of the instructions God gave me when He told me to start this Church. He instructed me to establish a place, a Church, where people are taught to develop and have their own personal relationship with Him. I was not to start this Church and have each of you so focused on me that you only felt connected to God is I was your intermediary. I was to point you to God and give you whatever tools I had to help you achieve that goal of having a personal relationship with Him. When we started I had an idea of why this was important, but the fullness of this request is really starting to hit home. We (Christians) are in a battle for our identity and we are suffering from a real identity crisis. Not only do we not fully accept who we are, but our identity is being tested daily by the society that believes whatever the majority accepts and believes is what everyone should do. Christians are becoming more and more confused as to whom they are and it is because of the lack of relationship they have with their Father. We do not identify with Him and if we do not identify with Him we cannot operate in those things which He has given us. This message in its entirety will focus on our identity crisis – just in a different way than you might expect. To establish where we are going in this series, let me quickly give you an illustration that will explain the title of this series “Painting God’s Masterpiece.”
Many of you are familiar with the painting “The Mona Lisa” which was painted by Leonardo da Vinci. What you may not know is that he started working on the painting in 1503 and after lingering on it for four years, left it unfinished. When he finally started working on it again in around 1516, he worked on it for another three years before completing the painting in 1519. So if you count the years that it took him to complete the painting it would be 16 years. If you count only the years that he worked on it, it would equal seven years. So let work with the seven years. As he was working on what would become one of his masterpieces, he was very meticulous. He had an image in his head that he was trying to capture on the canvas. After four years of focus, he took a break. Maybe he was just tired of working on the same painting, but before we accept that as a possibility, let me tell you a little more about him. Although he is recognized today as one of the best painters to ever live, here is what many do not know about him. Leonardo was also a scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, sculptor, architect, musician, and writer. He had all of these other interests besides painting. He was so smart that he actually conceptualized a helicopter, a tank, solar power and a calculator and again he lived in the 16th century. I do not think he grew tired, I believe that he could not get what he envisioned in his mind to the canvas so he took a break until he could het it right. Imagine taking a seven year break from working on a project. Someone with his talents and gifts would not settle for just anything, it had to be perfect, it had to be right. My point with the history on his painting of the Mona Lisa is that he did not sit down and crank this out over a period of months. He put meticulous effort into this paint and he took his time because he wanted to make sure he captured on the canvas the image that he had in his head. Now consider this point. God made us in His image. We start out as a blank canvas with an image from God on it. However, we are required to finish the painting, to turn the image that we see imprinted on the canvas (which is our lives) into a reality. Sometimes, like Leonardo, we paint for years before we get the image right and sometimes there are those who never get it right. But let me share a dream that I had with you.
I went to bed the other night thinking about this sermon and what God was telling me. Early the next morning I had a dream. In the dream I was talking to some family members and looking at a picture of my father when he was younger. In the picture with my father were my mother and some other people that I did not recognize. As I stared at the photo remembering that my father was not in heaven with God, he suddenly appeared next to me. So I looked at him, he was younger and had a longer than I remember dark black hair. He smiled at me and I told him that he looked good. Because I knew he was already in heaven, I asked him if he missed us – his children. His answer surprised me. This is what he said with a bright smile on his face, “Rodney, I do not miss any of you and you know what, I do not miss the old me either.” After he said that he smiled and disappeared and I woke up crying. In the dream my father did not miss the man he was on earth – the one who sometimes doubted what God was doing in his life. He did not miss that man of the flesh who was accustomed to missing the mark, being sick and not ever really getting to that image that God had of him. He missed none of that because where he was now, he knew exactly who he was. As I laid there in bed thinking about the dream God spoke the following in my spirit. He said, “When people get here in my presence, they know who they are, they do not have an identity crisis for they see exactly who they are in Me.” After He spoke this to me I thought how we should live here on earth. We do not need to wonder who we are or what God will do for us. That is why Jesus was sent so that we could know who we are and we would not have to wonder about what God has done within us. We would not have to worry about the image that He has imprinted for us to fulfill. Leonardo was extremely meticulous in everything he did, especially as he painted the Mona Lisa. Now if he was that meticulous, think about how meticulous God was when He created you and me. Think about the fact that we are “His workmanship” or “His work of art.” He has given us everything we need to conform to the image that was His original intention. We should not wait until we get to heaven to realize our real identity and what it means to carry His image within us. When we begin to recognize this, then we can begin the process of bringing God’s image of us to the canvas of our life. So if our lives represent a canvas where God has placed an image for us to bring to life, how do we do that? How important is the image? Again, let’s go back to the basics.
I. The Power of an Image
When God created man, He had an image in His mind as to what man would look like and ultimately become. The Bible tells us that we were created in His image. Having an image of something is a powerful thing as it brings about hope, something I will get to later in the series. Let me give you an example of an image, one that we can all understand. I have had the opportunity to help my wife paint rooms in our home on several occasions. I do not get to do it often because I do not do it right as I am too messy. After allowing me several tryouts, she now prefers to do it herself because she would have to redo what I did anyway, which is fine with me since I hate painting. But here’s my point, my wife when she looks at a room, she visualizes what the room should look like and the color she wants. Once she has this image, she goes to the supply store and buys a board, or piece of sheet rock, so she can test the paint out before she puts it on the wall in the house. This process allows her to see if the paint, after it is to the actual wall, will look like what is in her mind – what she has envisioned. This is not a simple process and I just sit back and watch as she brings in pint after pint after pint of test paint to see if it will work. I do not give an opinion because remember, the image is in her head, not mine, so since I cannot know what she is trying to accomplish, my opinions does not get her closer to her goal. Even when she asks my opinion I do not have one, because I recognize that the image is in her head, not mine. You see, for me oftentimes the shades look the same, but she can see the subtle differences and she knows exactly what color she wants on the wall. How does she know this? She knows this because she has already painted the room in her mind and the image that is in her mind is what she is now trying to bring into reality in the room that she is painting. Now I on the other hand am not so talented. I can see in my mind what I want, but I cannot see the big picture when it comes to painting. For example, when I decided to paint my office I “thought” I wanted a deep blue. Without any help from Nikki, I went to the paint store and purchased a pint of the blue paint that I “thought” I wanted on my office walls. When I test painted my wall, I liked the color – although it was bright – I still liked it. When Nikki got home, I proudly asked her what she thought. Now remember, it was my office and I was taking charge – I was going to paint it the color I wanted. I was very pleased with myself that I followed her lead and “tested” the color. When I saw it on the wall, I was happy. So here I am, presenting it to my beautiful wife. Nikki looked at the color, smiled, and said that the color would be great if my office was a child’s room. She did not ridicule me or anything, but for those of you who have been in my office recently, you know that it is painted a nice hunter green that I also picked out because I did not want a child’s room for an office. When I had an image of the blue in my mind, I was not visualizing a child’s room; I was seeing a business office. When Nikki saw the blue, the image that presented in her mind was a child’s room and it did not take much for her to get that image into my head so my office is now painted a nice, non-child-like hunter green.
All of us have experienced imagery at some time in our life. Maybe it was when you changed the furniture around in the room until it reflected what you saw in your mind. Maybe it was when you brought your perfect house because it had every thing that you had imagined. Maybe it was when you finished college and got your first job in the field that you envisioned working in. Maybe it was when you passed the test because you could see yourself getting an “A”. Whatever your example was, it started with an image that you had in your mind and you worked to bring that image to life. Whatever image you have captured in your mind is what you will focus on bringing to reality, both good and bad. My focus with this series is to help us see the image that God saw when He created us so that if we can see this image, we will start painting this image on our canvas versus the other one we are currently painting. This is why the image that we have within our spirits and our minds is so vitally important.
Let me give you another example from Scripture pertaining to the image. Remember, the image that a person fulfills is not the outward/physical image, but the image that they have internal. Think about how we always talk about what is in a person’s heart. That is where the images are birth, nurtured and developed. A person will fulfill that which their hearts are focused on. Turn to Proverbs chapter twenty-three and verse seven.
Proverbs 23:7 says “For as he thinks within himself, so he is. He says to you, ‘Eat and drink!’ But his heart is not with you.” We often read this verse and think about the power of “me”. But the verse can be applied that way, but when you read the verses before it, Solomon was actually giving a warning. We need to see and understand this verse in its entirety. In the first six verses he speaks about a person who was invited to a nice meal with a ruler – a man of influence. He states that the person who goes to this meal should be cautious and be guarded about what they eat because this ruler could be setting them up for something in the future. As the invited person sits there and sees the riches of the ruler, Solomon says the person should not desire what the ruler has and their quest for riches. This request seems out of line with what is written in these verses – but think about what is being said. If the person who was invited to the meal begins to wish they had what the ruler had, this image now becomes a part of them. When that image – being rich and having plenty – becomes a part of them, they begin to do things to fulfill that image – to bring that image into a reality. In this case, if the person begins to desire what the ruler has and not fully realizing what is in the heart of the ruler – which is the point of this Scripture – the ruler using that image could get them into a situation they could not get out of. How many times have we sinned because the image we had before us was the wrong image? In the closing of the verse seven Solomon expresses why the person should be cautious and it is because the ruler’s heart was not with him. Even though the ruler invited the person to dinner and laid out a nice feast, the ruler had another motive for the invitation. If the person took the bait, began to desire what the ruler had, the ruler could make any false promise to them to get them to do things they normally would not do. This is what the trap was all about. The image of having what the ruler had and it being promised to the person would cause them to consider doing things that before that dinner they would not have thought of. So Solomon was advising that we should be weary and cautious when those of influence invite us to their table because it does not mean there heart is aligned with us and if their heart is not aligned to us, then they art not aligned to us for what is in their hearts is what they are.
So when you read the first line in verse seven, you can see that it is speaking about the image that a person is seeing internally. The word “thinks” carries the meaning of “to estimate, to reckon, to act as a gate keeper.” If you think about the latter, the image that we see in our minds should act as a gatekeeper for us. Remember, people will fulfill what they imagine – they will bring the image into reality. If I imagine myself robbing a bank, the longer I dwell on the imagine, the stronger the image becomes, the more likely I am to try and do it. However, if I imagine being in jail, my reputation ruin, my family loss, then this image acts as a gatekeeper to keep me in check. The problem we face in our world is that the images that people are imagining are not designed to be a gatekeeper, but to be a gate opener. Let me take you to one additional Scripture that bears this out before I close part one.
Proverbs 29:18 says “Where there is no vision, the people are restrained. But happy is he who keeps the law.” If you look up the word “vision” in the Hebrew dictionary you will find that it’s talking about a revelation. So this verse is saying that without a vision of God’s word, His revelation, we are unstrained. We are unrestrained because the image we see is not the image that God sees so therefore we are focusing on the wrong things. God’s word will provide images that will protect us while our images will open the flood gates to sin.
Let me use this analogy. Before they came out with GPS devices and directions through the internet such as MapQuest, if you were taking a trip, you’d often get a map to plot out the directions. You start with where you are and you traced your map to the location where you were going. Sometimes if you were traveling across states you needed more than one map and when you got to a city, you needed yet another map. The whole purpose of the maps was to get you to the location that you had imagined and purposed yourself going. Without the maps, you would have been lost and possibly never getting to the place you wanted to go.
This is how we should see God’s Word. It is His revelation – His road map – for us to get us to the image that He had originally designed us to fulfill. Without God’s revelation we perish because we do not get to our destination – we become lost. Without a regular map for your road trip, you may have supposed to have been going north on I-35 yet you were going east on I-435. Both have 35 in them, but you’re not on the road to your destination. Without the map you are not “restrained” from going where you did not want to go. The map acts as a restraint to get you to the place you want to go without you getting lost. This is what this verse is talking about. Without God’s revelation, we are unrestrained because we are not following His roadmap to our final destination. We are just wondering around. His revelation, His road map, keeps us from getting lost. “Where there is no vision, the people are restrained. But happy is he who keeps the law.” Where there is no map, we are lost. But happy is the man who has a map and can get to his destination.
This is why we need to have the image that God wants us to have. In the weeks to come, we will examine why having the right image is important who is influencing what we are seeing. May God bless and keep you is my prayer.
