Do carnivals still have fun house mirrors? When you gaze into one it makes you appear to be 3' wide and 3' tall. Another stretches you out, so that you look like a pro basketball player despite your real height of 5'2". The fun is found in the distortion.
But, in life many people live with a distorted self-image. They do not really see themselves as they are. Some feel constantly inferior, worthless. Others cannot see their flaws and visit hurt and destruction on others unwilling or incapable of seeing what they do.
How do you know yourself?
– Are you a winner or a loser?
– Are you worthy of love and respect?
– Are you convinced you deserve the abuse heaped on you?
– Are you a victim of life’s circumstances?
– Are you confident in the Spirit’s ability to make you ‘more than a conqueror’ ?
Psychologists tell us that we first learn about who we are largely from the words and actions of people of influence
as they relate to us. A child’s self-image is painted by the words and actions of a person of significance. In the Bible, father's often gave their sons a blessing, which was really a vision for their lives in words rich with affirmation.
The principle of blessing is so evident in the ancient story of Jacob, who through deceit stole his father’s blessing. Genesis 27:27-29
"Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the LORD has blessed.
28 May God give you of heaven's dew and of earth's richness --
an abundance of grain and new wine.
29 May nations serve you and peoples bow down to you.
Be lord over your brothers and may the sons of your mother bow down to you.
May those who curse you be cursed and those who bless you be blessed." (NIV)
Many years later we find Jacob passing blessings on to his own sons. Genesis 49 records his words. With powerful words of symbolism, Jacob pictures each of his sons according to the character that they had shown, some being praised and others being rebuked.
In his excellent book, The Blessing, Gary Smalley tells a true story about a guy named Mike. Listen..
Actually this man goes by the handle, “Mean Mike.” His family started calling him this when he was just a toddler. Why “Mean Mike?” Mike had terrific grip as a young child; and if anyone tried to take anything away from him, he would snarl and hang on for dear life. The nickname Mean Mike began as a humorous way to picture his bulldog tenacity in holding on to something.
But the nickname soon became more than that; it became the way that he lived his life. When Mean Mike grew older, he became quite a bully at home and at school. Everyone at home still called him mean and he lived up to the name. When he joined the football team in high school, Mean Mike, was great name for an outstanding linebacker, but it caused havoc in his personal relationships. He was always too tough to get close to anyone. Little by little, always hearing that he was mean burned its way into Mike's character. Today Mean Mike occupies a cell in a state prison in Arizona.
Mike lived out a vision that was spoken to him. In his life, there were tragic results.
As parents, we have the privilege of painting a picture for our kids of what they can become. We create the first self-image that they have. Few things bring me greater distress than hearing a frustrated young parent tell tell a toddler that they are a bother, a burden, or a pain. Those kids absorb a message that says, “I’m not valued. I’m unloved.” America has a whole generation of kids whose parents were so busy trying to buy stuff that the ones they should have treasured most grew up alone, tended by a TV, feeling alone and abandoned.
Parent, let me challenge you this morning to consider . . .
∙ What do your kids see of themselves through your eyes?
∙ When a negative trait shows up in their behavior do you haul out a mental image of the family's loser uncle and berate your child with the words, “you're just like your lazy uncle?”
∙ If your teenager responded honestly, would he tell you that he felt secure and valued more than anything in your life, or would he report that you regarded him as an intrusion on your personal happiness?
The power of words to shape self image are amazing. It isn’t just kids that are effected!
Even for adults, words have impact — building up or destructive! As we become more mature, our self-image becomes more and more internal, the result of how we are evaluating our own thoughts and actions. Some people attempt to ‘create an image’ that is disconnected from their life. Sometimes such actions are just plain funny. The 50 year old guy whose still trying pretend he’s 25 is a cliche and we can smile at his vain attempts to hang onto his sense of manliness.
Much more serious is the hypocrisy practiced by some who claim to be followers of Christ who hide sin-filled lives behind a facade of respectability. Foolishly they crave the approval of other people more than the approval of God. So they will fool some of the people some of the time, deceive themselves, and gradually grow apart from God who sees and knows all! Hypocrisy always produces self-hatred. Why? Because no amount of praise for an external image can overcome our self loathing IF we know we are not who others believe us to be.
The good news is: Change is possible.
We can become authentic, whole people who are the same inside as we are on the outside. But we cannot do this alone. The Bible says that we are broken by sinfulness that goes deeper than what we do. It is who we are! We are born into sin, born with a nature that cannot please God because of sin’s curse.
The only remedy is to be transformed, to experience the forgiveness of Christ and the infusion of the life of the Spirit. This transformation produces a complete Christian. I am not holding out the promise of flawlessness this side of Heaven in that statement. But, we can, we must, become whole people in Christ, growing eveyr more like the One who was Perfection in person!
Our text passage for this morning and the next few weeks is 2 Peter 1:1-11 where God describes His vision for us and tells us what a complete Christian, a mature disciple looks like.
READ
A careful reading of that passage leaves no doubt that we have a role to play in the development of our character. V. 5 directs us to “make every effort.”
V. 10 tells us to “be eager to make your calling sure.”
One author compares the Believer to diamonds:
“ Life here on earth is... the time when God adds new facets to His original flawless diamond- you. The sanctifying miracle of the new birth guarantees the quality of the diamond, but you and I have a most responsible role to play in determining the facets as we willingly submit to the Master Diamond Cutter.”
In our quest for God’s potential in our lives most of us need more motivation and inspiration not more information. Most of us know how to live better than we do. There is a gap between knowing and doing. We are not really ready for more information until we have been moved to assimilate and practice the truths that were taught to us previously.
Our text begins with inspiration. Look at 2 Peter 1: 3 again. RE-READ
Have you moaned about your inability to please God?
Have you surrendered to habits and attitudes that you know are not enriching your life nor pleasing your God excusing them as being ‘just the way I am’?
George Barna studies trends in the church. He writes:
The data portrays a nation that is comfortable with religion but not particularly committed to spiritual growth. "Most people who are aligned with a Christian church really make a rather minimal investment in religious activity. There are those who are completely committed to spiritual growth and invest themselves quite heavily in such development, but they constitute less than one out of every five adults in America. Similarly, relatively few adults have completely negated the role of faith in their lives - again, perhaps one out of five. Most people describe themselves as religious, describe their faith as being very important in their daily life, but make only a half-hearted effort to truly master the foundations of their chosen faith and live a life that is determined by that faith."
Is Christianity incapable of producing real change? Not at all.
Christians have believed a lie that there is no need to change and thus they fail to take hold of the resources that God makes available for genuine change. This allows defeat to govern their minds and acceptance of mediocrity to govern their expectations.
Now is the time to change that.
∙ “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness!”
In God's economy there are no shortages and no limits. You cannot overdraft your account with Him. You never come to Him seeking refreshment only to find the well run dry. Satan will try to convince you to believe that God is stingy, unresponsive, and holding back on you, but I urge you to hold to the Scripture.
Next time you think that you are without the resources you need to live the way God wants you to live, go back to this statement: “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness!”
What motivation does this passage offer to us to encourage us to reach God’s vision for us as His children?
2 Pet. 1:4. “You participate in the divine nature.“
God offers us the privilege of becoming one with Him. Without God, people are lost, searching for purpose and focus for their lives. The emptiness of life directly relates to alienation from God, not from life’s circumstances. Are you one of those people who is always looking over the horizon, sure that ...
“If I were only married.....” “If I only had more money.....”
“If I had a better education...” “If I could move to California....”
“If I were better adjusted psychologically...”
Then, you would be mature, productive, and satisfied?
In fact, you can be happily married, with a master’s degree, a secure income, living in a nice house and still be a person who is empty, who fails to achieve the potential God has put within you.
Only the Spirit of God satisfies the hunger for life with purpose and meaning. Only God can grant us the peace of knowing immortality and He makes those offers to us through Christ Jesus.
[read v.2, 4a]
God says here, “You can become an intimate friend of mine, so close that my nature will be a part of you.” That is exactly what Jesus promised to his disciples in John 14:16-17 where we read, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever -- the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.” {emphasis mine}
You want to live out the destiny your Heavenly Father envisions for you... a spiritually charged individual, a complete Christian?
First step, accept the fact that God's resources for change are fully available to you.
Second step, believe that God will become your intimate friend, living by His Holy Spirit, IN you.
When those things become true for us, changing our thinking, then we will move into genuine holiness!
That is what we find in the next verse- 4 “You escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.”
Our sinful nature hangs heavy on us. We sense that we ought to live better, that we should change, but find ourselves going back to the old ways time after time. God promises to show us the way to escape the moral decay that is strapped to us. He says that through His power and participation in His divine nature, we can find the fascination and struggle with sin lessening as we become people filled with His delightful life.
What a motivation to discipleship! The slavery to the darker side of our nature breaks so that we may live holy lives filled with His brightness.
In this series from this passage, I will lead you on a discovery of discipleship and our responsibility for development of character, step by step.
Let’s quickly review .
1. Ask God to help you see yourself through His eyes. It is important that we understand His vision for our potential. God sees you as an ultimate disciple, filled with life, and powerfully affecting the world of which you are a part.
2. Accept the promise that His resources are yours. You are no longer a victim of your circumstances, held back by regrets, mistakes, and sins. He has given us everything, His words not mine, to be fully alive and godly.
3. Get motivated by His promise to be your intimate friend, to make you a participant in the divine nature.
4. Hang on to the goal of learning to escape the death and decay of sinful ways consistently. Our lives should not be filled with regrets and if onlys. We are privileged by God through Jesus Christ to break free of that pattern into a new life.
