Who Am I?
Psalm 8:3-4
Intro: Several years ago, Time Magazine featured a story about Peter Sellers, a well-known English actor (prob. best known as Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther movies). The article was about him appearing on the Muppet Show & being interviewed by Kermit The Frog. His interview began with Kermit telling Peter, "Now, just relax & be yourself."
-Peter Sellers responded, "I can’t be myself because I don’t know who I am. The real me doesn’t exist."
-He was probably trying to be funny, because he was a comedian by trade. But on this particular occasion his words were anything but funny. In fact, they were rather sad.
-One of his long time friends, commenting on those words, said, "Poor Peter! The real Peter disappeared a long time ago. What he is now is simply an amalgamation of all the stage & screen characters he has ever played, & now he is frantically trying to unsnarl that mess & find out who he really is."
-We don’t know if Peter Sellers was ever able to unsnarl the mess or not; just six months later he died of a heart attack. But, he certainly wasn’t alone in his feelings. Many people go through life wondering who they are, & what they’re supposed to be doing, & where they’re going.
-In the past few weeks we’ve talked about Who God is and Who Jesus is. Hopefully, you were able to at least think about some of the characteristics of God’s deity and get a better sense of who you’re dealing with. God is all powerful, all knowing, and everywhere present. He is love, eternal, holy, just, merciful, patient, etc. Jesus is God’s Son who came in the flesh as a human. He is everything God the Father is, yet He laid aside the rights and privileges of deity and became fully human, yet without sin. He died a horrible death as a once and for all sacrifice for the sins of all who call on Him in faith. He is now at God the Father’s right hand praying for us, but may not be there long because soon and very soon the Father will say, “Son, it’s time! Go get em!”
-We could spend weeks and weeks talking about the nature of God and Jesus and the Trinity. However, this is intended to be somewhat of an introductory miniseries. Who is God? Who is Jesus? And today, Who am I?
-David was a man in the Bible who loved to worship God wholeheartedly. We don’t know the setting in which he wrote Psalm 8, but maybe one night he was sitting on a hillside somewhere outside of Bethlehem where only the sheep could hear him. As he was jamming on his harp, these words came to him and he began to sing them:
Psalm 8:1-9 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. 2 From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger. 3 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? 5 You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. 6 You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: 7 all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, 8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. 9 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
-As David looked up at the vastness of God’s universe, perhaps he felt his own smallness. So he asks God, “What is man that you are mindful of him?" – that You care about him?” Today I want to focus on the first part of that question: What is man? Who am I? Naturally, this entire message is informed by God’s word, the Bible. That is where we will get the most accurate picture of who God is and who we are (and a lot of other things as well). So, what is man? Who are we?
1. We are created beings fashioned in the image of our Maker
Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. [not physical, but spiritual and in other ways]
Genesis 2:7 the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
Psalm 100:3 Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
-Give to God what is God’s. [Story of Jesus asking whose inscription was on coin.] Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s. Whose image is stamped on you? God’s! Give yourself to God!
2. We have mortal bodies, but are spiritual beings designed to live with God and glorify Him forever
Hebrews 9:27 … it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment
John 14:23 Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
Revelation 4:11 "You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power. For you created everything, and it is for your pleasure that they exist and were created."
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
-These bodies will either die or undergo a tremendous change when Jesus comes back for us. But we won’t be disembodied spirits floating around in space. We will receive new glorified bodies in which we will serve and honor God forever.
1 Corinthians 15:51-52 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed-- 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
3. We are emotional, rational, intentional, self-conscious beings
-We don’t really need Scripture references to prove that we feel, we think, and we choose. We are capable of emotions, thought processes, and possess the ability to make decisions. In addition, we are aware of our own sense of identity and existence. As one philosopher so brilliantly stated the obvious, “I think, therefore I am.”
-Part of being made in God’s image includes these basic human faculties. God feels, thinks, and decisively acts.
4. We are fragile, fallen, sinful beings living in a fallen world
Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
-Man is not inherently good. It seems there are many good people in this world, but I would argue that any goodness a person has must be credited to his or her Maker. Even though it’s marred by sin, God’s image is still in us.
-Yet, when God’s ways are not welcome, man becomes capable of horrendous atrocities. Some have tried in vain to prove that certain people are natural born killers, that something is flawed genetically that makes them bad. There’s a flaw alright. It is called a sinful nature. Without intervention we are naturally selfish and will hurt others to get what we want.
-And as you look at our imperfect world, before we start blaming God for all the bad things that happen, consider the possibility that humankind is not getting better and better, but continues to follow what is self-serving and short-sighted.
Jeremiah 17:9-10 " The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it? I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings.
Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned—
1 John 1:8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
1 John 5:19 We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.
5. We are part of God’s plan and objects of His kindness
Romans 5:8-9 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him!
NLT Colossians 2:13 You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ. He forgave all our sins.
Titus 3:4-6 4 But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior.
Close: Who are we? We are a blessed people, called to do life with God! We don’t deserve His kindness but through brokenness and repentance we receive it by faith in Jesus. We’ve got some serious problems in the human race. Even after we offer ourselves to God and receive His grace and life change, we still may find ourselves battling against our old selfish nature and the ugliness of sin. 1 John 1:9. If we confess our sins…. Maybe that’s a good place for each of us to start today. Lord, forgive me for my bad attitude. Forgive me for my pride and arrogance. I’m sorry for gossiping about other people. I confess and forsake these things, Lord! Thank you for your grace, which (through faith) was enough to make me right with You, and (through faith) is enough to change the way I live.
-Close with Who Am I? Casting Crowns
Portions of msg adapted from Mel Newland, sermoncentral.com
