Painting God’s Masterpiece
Scripture: Genesis 1:3; 2:7; Ephesians 1:22-23; 2:10; Colossians 2:9-10;
Introduction:
Last week I introduced this message with an example of how important images are. I stressed the fact that we live by the fulfillment of images – meaning that the image we see in our minds is what we will attempt to bring into reality. However, the problem we face today is that some of the images we are focusing on are not the images that God desires for us to bring into reality. I told you on last Sunday that we were in an identity crisis as Christians. We often identify ourselves based on some position we hold on a job or what profession we have entered into for a career. When people ask us what we do for a living, we often tell them about our jobs. When asked this question I told you that I have never heard anyone answer that question with “I serve God” unless they were in full time ministry. And often those in full time ministry identify themselves by their position they hold within the Church. “I am Pastor so and so from……” or “I am a Missionary based in Africa”. So even people in full time ministry often identify themselves with the position they hold versus just being a servant of God. Remember what I shared with you from Proverbs 23:7 that what is on the inside of us (the image we see) is what we will bring to reality. I close the message with Proverbs 29:18 which tells us that without a revelation (vision) from God we are unrestrained (we perish). To give you the appropriate image, I used the example of the old maps we had to use before we got MapQuest or GPS devices. Remember, maps are used to restrain us from getting lost while traveling from one point to another. So last we I focused on the fact that all of us live by images and often times it is not the image that God has for us. Because we live by images – and often times the wrong ones, this morning we will examine some images that we must see in order to move closer towards the image that God has of us.
Some of you may be wondering why I have this blank canvas before me. As I work through the rest of this series, I will gradually be drawing an image on this canvas. This act will reflect what we are doing in our lives. Remember I told you last week that our lives represent a blank canvas when we were born. God had an image of what He wanted us to become, but it is up to each of us to bring that image into reality with our lives. I am not an artist by any stretch of the imagination, but I will attempt through this message of bringing the image from my mind into reality on this canvas. At the conclusion of the series, hopefully you will recognize the image and my point will be made with this series. Now why am I doing this? God made us in His image and gave His Son as an example for us to follow. In order for us to do this, we must see the image God has given us. As I work on this picture during this series, I am representing what we should be doing in this life – working on bringing God’s image of us into a reality. I am starting with a blank sheet just like we all have when we were born into this world. Each experience in our lives are like paint strokes on a canvas – they develop into an image. It is up to us to take those experiences and let the image of Christ come through. We will start this morning in the book of Genesis.
I. What We Must See
Last week I told you that when Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa he started with an image in his mind. He saw the painting and he took his time to ensure that the painting accurately reflected what was in his mind. He worked, for seven years, until the image in his mind was caught in the painting. When God made man, He also took His time and made sure it was right. Why? Because we were being made in His image. Let’s examine more closely what God did when He created us. I touched on this last week, but I want to make sure we get this today.
In the first chapter of Genesis, the writer records the God-head working during creation. When you study creation closely, you will find that They did not “make” everything the same way. For example, Genesis 1:3 says “Then God said, ‘Let there be light’ and there was light.” Notice that God spoke and the light appeared. For a majority of the creation, God spoke it and it came into being. The sun; the moon; land fit for habitation; the solar system; vegetation; fruit trees; stars; and other living creatures. All of these things were created by God speaking them into being. Now let’s examine what happened when God made man. Remember our foundational Scripture from Ephesians 2:10 which states: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” We are His workmanship – His work of art. If God had just spoken us into being, it would not take a lot of work, as a matter of fact, it would have taken but a few seconds – as long as it took to speak the words. But He wanted us, you and me, to be something special so He took the time to make us with His hands. Genesis 1:26-28 records the following: “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” How did God do this? Look at Genesis 2:7 which we also read last week. It states “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 (or soul). The Hebrew word for the word “formed” means to press, mould, work with, fashion and shape like a potter. Isaiah captured this right when he said “…O, Lord, You are our Father, we are the clay, and You our potter; and all of us are the work of Your hand.” (Isaiah 64:8) Based on this Scripture, we know that God did not speak man into existence; He took the time and made us with His hands. He shaped up. How did He know what we should look like? How did He know not to make us with elephant ears and tiger claws? Because He made us in His image and He was very specific in how He did it. Are you starting to see this now? We are not mistakes!!!! We may fail from time to time, but we are not mistakes. We may not look like someone else, but our lives are not mistakes. Because He formed us specifically, He desires to have a very special relationship with us. He made us in His image, yet that is not what we see – we are seeing something different. God spoke other things into being but when it came to man, He got personally involved. He, as we often say, “got in and got His hands dirty. Let me use this analogy about the specificity that God used in making us.
I have had times when I have been sick and Nikki has offered to make me something to eat. While I was lying in bed or sitting in my chair, she would ask if I was hungry and needed her to fix me something. When I asked her to make me a sandwich she would do so. Notice I did not do anything but speak the request but it was fulfilled without me doing anything with my hands. Now whatever she brings me, I am grateful and eat it. I do not pull the sandwich apart and ask for more mustard, I just eat the sandwich even if it was not made the way I would have made it. But, if I am feeling fine and I decide to make my own sandwich, I make it to my specifications. I know exactly what kind of bread I want; how much meat and side items I want. I know how much mustard, mayo and ketchup I want on the sandwich because I see the sandwich in my head based on what I know that I like. When I am making the sandwich, I am doing so based on the image that I have in my mind and when I am finished, it is a perfect sandwich – for me. My point here is that whenever you want something done specifically to your specification, often times you must do it yourself with your own hands. God wanted man made a certain way – in His image, and because of this, He took the time to form man, to mould man into the image He had of him.
I know some of you bible scholars are saying that He could have easily just spoke the words and man would have existed exactly the way God had envisioned him and you would be absolutely right. So if that is correct, why did God not do it that way? I believe it is because of “relationship.” He wanted a relationship with His work of art so even though He could have spoken man into being He chose to form man with His Own hands which greatly attached Him to us. Consider when God made Eve. Why did He cause Adam to fall asleep and then formed Eve with one of Adam’s ribs? It was because of relationship. Adam gives us the answer in Genesis 2:23 when he said “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman because she was taken out of man.” God wanted an immediately relationship between Adam and Eve and what better way to get that than making Eve from a part of Adam. Within Eve was a part of Adam so there was a sharing, a bond within them. Now I want you to look at this closely. After God formed man, what did He do? Genesis 2:7 says that “He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being, (a living soul).” Remember that God is a Spirit but we are flesh and blood. So if God formed us and we were flesh and blood, how could He be a part of us? He gave us part of Himself. When He breathed into us the breath of life, we became a living soul. God gave us of His own Spirit. Do you see that? We do not find that He breathed life into anything else that He created – just us. Other species have life within them, but they do not have a soul – that which came from God. It is not our physical bodies that will end up in heaven or hell, but our souls – that part of us that came from God, which will have an immortal body. So God’s formation of us has always been about a relationship – His relationship to and with us. He made us in His image and after He did that, He breathed into us part of Himself and man became a living soul. That is what separates us from all other living things. We were handmade and God placed within us part of Himself that completed us being made in His image. After Jesus death and resurrection, that image that He had of us from the beginning has been completed. Turn to Colossians 2:9-10.
II. Nothing Lacking Within Us
Often times when we think of being in the image of someone else, we think about the differences. When someone tells us that we look like someone or act like someone, we think about the similarities as well as the differences. When we think about the image that God has of us, our mind tend to concentrate on our failures and lacking, but God has dealt with that. Have you ever thought long and hard about what it means to be made in God’s image? What does it really mean to be in the image of someone else? Well first you may look like them, physically or in how you act. People often tell one another that they look like other family members. I look more like my mother while one of my brothers looks more like my father. In both cases, what we look like reflect our parents so we are linked to them by our physical image. Then there are the mannerisms. Sometimes we may “remind” someone of someone else by the way we act. This can be despite you knowing the person you are being compared to. However, what I am talking about is when you act like and take on the mannerisms of the people you grew up with, as in taking on their weird habits or mannerisms. For example, when I was growing up, my father would wash the car on Saturdays before Church. I did not understand this as our Church was located off a dirt road – but that was his habit. Whenever we went on a trip, he could not leave on a trip with a dirty car. Now the car could be filthy by the time we arrived, but when we started out, it had to have a full tank of gas and it had to be clean. I do not know when it happened or how, but whenever we are going on a trip, I have the car cleaned and we must start out with a full tank of gas. And what is so weird is that this does not apply when I am traveling in my company vehicle, it is only when I am taking a personal trip. This “trait” or mannerism came from being around my father. Well the same applies to when we hang out with God – we begin to take on His mannerisms. It is impossible to have a relationship with someone or with God is you do not spend time with them. Relationship is based on time spent together.
Colossians 2:9-10 says “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority.” After Jesus was resurrected, He was the fullness of the Godhead. The word complete in verse ten which applies to us is the same word as being “full” in verse nine. Can you see this image? We are full – there is no more that can be added to us. What happens when you put more into something after it is full? It overflows and spills out. When something is full, nothing more can be added. Well the image that God has for us, He has given us everything we need to come into that image. We are complete in Christ and there is nothing more that can be added. Now here is something I really want to you to get an image of. Ephesians 1:22-23 says “And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” Now here is what we need to visualize. Jesus is the head and the Church is the body – am I correct on this based on what we have read? Now if Jesus is the head and we are the body, it means that we are subject to the head. When the head goes somewhere – where does the body go? The body goes wherever the head goes. As a matter of fact, the head can only go where the body takes its but the head controls the body. So Jesus is the head and He goes where we take Him. So, wherever Jesus goes, we go with Him because He is the head and we are the body. But it gets better. Ephesians 1:22 says that all things are put into subjection to Him. What things are in subjection to Him as the head? All things! So Jesus is the head and we are the body. When all things were placed in subjection to Him, where were those things placed according to Ephesians 1:22? They were placed under His feet. Soooooo, if Jesus is the head, and we are the body, those things that have been placed under subjection to Him have also been placed under subjection to us because we are His body. We represent those “feet” in Ephesians 1:22. Until we begin to get a visual of this, we will never walk in what God has given us. Jesus is the head and we are the body. Where the head goes, the body goes. What is in subjection to the head is also in subjection to the body. If Jesus is the head and we are the body, unless we have been decapitated we go where the head goes. If Jesus, as the head, is over all and rules with authority, so are we as the body. Are you starting to see this? We are not weaklings spiritually and we must start seeing ourselves as God sees us if we are truly going to operate as His body. We have got to latch hold of the image.
God made us in His image and gave us everything we need to fulfill that image. Being made in His image means that we have physical characteristics similar to Him, but most important, we have spiritual characteristics that are exactly His if we choose to understand, develop and walk in them. We have the ability to act as He acts. We have the ability to speak as He speaks; to call those things that are not as though they were. This has been granted to us as His children. The problem is not God, it is us. We do not see ourselves in His image. We do not see in ourselves what God sees and therein lies the problem. God has sent Jesus and given us His Word so that we will understand our true image. He has given us an example and told us verbally who we are, but we are not accepting it. God is like a director making a movie. I do not know a lot about making movies, but let me give you a quick view of what I “think” I know. The director understands the story; he sees it; know how it should play out and what needs to be done so that the audience will get it. Although he knows what should be done, the others that will make the movie with him do not. So to tell the story and get everyone to understand it, he has a story board developed that walks everyone through the story so they now begin to get a mental image of what the movie will be about and how it needs to be made. So the story board allows everyone else to see what the director sees and then together they can work to make the movie a reality.
Well God is like that director. He knows the story line and He knows what He wants and how the story should unfold. But, just like the director, He has to get everyone else to see what He sees so that what He sees can become a reality. So what did God do? He gave us a story board – which is His Word. The Old Testament gives us a glimpse of the whole story – but it was not the completed story board. To complete the story board, God sent a real life example to play out what was on the story board – Jesus Christ. So first He told us what our image should be and because we could not see it clearly, He gave us a physical example that we could not ignore. Jesus is the living manifestation of the image that God sees in us and what He desire for us to become. After giving us Christ, He then gives us the New Testament so that those of us who were not alive when Christ walked the earth in physical form would have a record, a map, to help guide us into becoming the image that God has of us.
So this morning I want you to understand that our work is not done – we have not gotten to the image that God has of us. In order to get there, we must change the image. We must see something different from what we are currently looking at. We must change the picture. When I am sitting in my recliner watching TV, when something is on that I do not want to see, I change the channel. I keep changing the channel until I find something that I want to see. It drives my family crazy because I hate commercials, but eventually I find something I want to see. Spiritually, we need to start changing some channels and keep changing them until the image that God has of us comes before our face. If you are watching the same show; the same dead image of despair, hurt and pain; and you have not changed the channel because you’re waiting for the picture to change on its own, you need to get up and change it. Stop waiting! Get out of your chair, grab the remote and change the picture. The image will not change on its own – we must do something to change it. Change that image that keeps you stuck where you are spiritually. Start seeing yourself as God sees you and you will begin to live up to that new image.
For part three of this series next week, please ask yourselves this question: “Will what has been be what shall be?” Next week we I will focus on “living in the land of WERE.” May God bless and keep you is my prayer.
