Title: Who Am I – 6
“You Are Somebody Special to God – 2”
Text: I Peter 2:9-10
Last week I started preaching on the subject that “You Are Somebody Special to God.” It was a very encouraging message to everyone that hears it. We all need to know from time to time that we are special. It is time that we discover, as believers, who the Bible says we are.
Have you ever felt like a failure in life? Have you ever experienced insecurity? Some are insecure about your appearance, your abilities, your personality, your life? Have you ever felt unloved and worthless? Have you ever said the following words: “I am not attractive. I can’t do all the things that person can do. I am not good enough. Nothing good ever happens in my life. I am a failure.”
If your mind is filled with thoughts of worthlessness, shame, embarrassment and low self-esteem, then it is time this morning to get rid of that insecurity. Some may ask; “how do I get rid of insecurity that has been there my whole life?” If you have ever felt that way, you need to listen to the messages for the next few weeks, because the only way that we can get rid of those feelings is by realizing that YOU are God’s most prized-possession! If God had to choose the finest thing that He has ever created – He would choose you! You are somebody special to God. Jesus said that we are to love one another even as we love ourselves. If you don’t like YOU, how are you ever going to like someone else?
In order to experience all that God has for us, we need to understand who the Lord says we are. Last week we first discovered that the Bible says:
WE ARE CROWNED WITH GLORY AND HONOR
WE ARE THE OBJECT OF HIS AFFECTION
Today, we are going to continue talking about this subject. “You Are Somebody Special to God.”
WE ARE A NEW CREATION
Most of us have heard this statement before. It is very common to state that we are New Creation in religious circles. I want to remind us this morning that as soon as we accepted Jesus Christ into our lives that we are new creation. Even if you have born again for 50 years, you are not an old man any longer; you are a brand new creation.
II Corinthians 5:17; “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”
Understanding this one truth is a necessity. Once you come to Jesus, once you make Him the Lord of your life, then you become a new creation. Your past is forgiven. The literal Greek tells us that you are a “New species of being that never existed before.”
One of the most famous illustrations of becoming a new creation is Saul of Tarsus on the Road to Damascus. When he met Jesus, his life was forever changed. He became a new creation. Saul died on that road and a new man began to live. If you could classify sinners, Paul was the worst one out there, yet He was able to overcome His past. If he didn’t get anything else down He was able to forget his past and move on with his future because he understood that he was a brand new creation.
Philippians 3:13-14; “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
This is a very powerful Scripture. But there are a few words added it by the translators that make this Scripture sound slightly different. Anytime you see words in italics, that means it was added in by translators to help us understand it more. However, if we take out these italics, then we can truly understand what Paul was trying to say. Listen to it without the added words.
Philippians 3:13-14; “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended but one thing, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before.”
Paul was saying, if I can’t grasp any other thing out there, I have understood one principle and that is forgetting those things which are behind. Paul had to forget those things. He would not have made it as a Christian if he wasn’t able to realize that he was a new creation. Some of you have been saved for years and you are still classifying yourself as a sinner saved by grace. If you have been saved by grace, then that means you’re not a sinner. God wants you to know and understand that you are a brand new creation.
Your old life has been done away with now and a new life has now sprung forth. It is time that we, as believers, start walking in newness of life. Don’t focus on your past. As long as you are looking behind you, you will never be able to move forward. God wants us moving forward.
London businessman Lindsay Clegg told the story of a warehouse property he was selling. The building had been empty for months and needed repairs. Vandals had damaged the doors, smashed the windows, and strewn trash around the interior. As he showed a prospective buyer the property, Clegg took pains to say that he would replace the broken windows, bring in a crew to correct any structural damage, and clean out the garbage. “Forget about the repairs,” the buyer said. “When I buy this place, I'm going to build something completely different. I don't want the building; I want the site.”
Compared with the renovation God has in mind, our efforts to improve our own lives are as trivial as sweeping a warehouse slated for the wrecking ball. When we become God's, the old life is over (2 Cor. 5:17). He makes all things new. All he wants is the site and the permission to build.
This little illustration leads us into our next point:
WE ARE HIS MASTERPIECE
We are a work in progress. God sees such potential in all of us.
Ephesians 2:10; “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”
Do you see this? What a statement! The Creator of the Universe has declared us to be His masterpiece. When artists begin to paint, they don’t just start slapping paint onto a canvas. They plan. What is the background going to look like? What will the focal point of the masterpiece be? What details will be in the painting? A masterpiece is painted by an artist who is an expert. They are a highly skilled visionary that knows exactly what they want out of that painting.
You are a masterpiece! You were born into the good life that God planned for you long ago. God has great plans in store for you. Listen to the Psalmist:
Psalm 139:13-18; “You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous – how well I know it. 15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. 16 You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in Your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. 17 How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! 18 I can’t even count them; they outnumbered the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!” (NLT)
This Scripture explains very well of the thoughts that God has concerning us. As we said last week, we are the object of His affection, but we are also His masterpiece. We are the only thing that He created that He took special time to mold us with His own hands. Everything else He spoke into existence, but not us. We were too special; He had to make sure that we turned out perfectly.
We are His masterpiece. We are a painting that He has already painted, but hasn’t painted yet. I know some of you are scratching your heads, thinking, man this Pastor has lost his marbles. No, I said it right, we are a painting that He has already painted, but He hasn’t painted it yet. I read something this past week that explained it perfectly. Anyone remember paint by number set? What is always on the box lid? It is a picture of the finished painting.
Before you were ever born, God painted a picture of your life, just like the top of that box. Your life is like a canvas, and He has given you all the tools and all the colors and all the instructions (The Word) and all the things that you will ever need to accomplish the things that He has set before you. He knows the end from the beginning. Once you leave your Mother’s womb He is there, helping you walk through each stage of your life to bring you to the place He has already planned for you to be.
He created the painting, but He has given you the brush. You always hold the brush. You always decide what you are going to do with your life. Some of us decide to go with God’s plan and others of us try things on our own and every time we do the same thing and that is mess up the painting. We mess up our painting with disobedience, foolishness, pride, doing things our own way. We can mess up the painting or the life that God has given us or we can follow God’s instructions through His Word and take the brush in our hands and follow the outline that God has given us. The choice is always up to you.
You are a masterpiece. You are still in the process of being completed and you will be in that process until we go from this life to the next. What are you going to do with the brush that you have been given?
