A. In the 1957 comedy film, called “The Delicate Delinquent,” Jerry Lewis played the typical inept young man that he always played.
1. In this silly film, he tried but failed to be a juvenile delinquent.
2. In the film, there is a powerful scene where Lewis is talking to his best friend, whom he really looked up to.
3. Lewis said, “When I try to be bad, I’m good. When I try to be good, I’m bad. When I was a kid, I was a jerk. When I was a teenager, I was stupid. Now I’m a man and I’m empty. I know two things about me. One: I’m nothing. And two: I want to be something.”
B. Max Lucado opens his chapter on the promise we are going to explore today by telling this story:
1. One day Max went with a film crew and began setting up to shoot a video in front of the Alamo.
2. As the crew of four worked to set up the lights and cameras, Max sat on the bench in front of the Alamo, trying to think through what he wanted to say for the video.
3. As people passed by, some of them began to stop and stare.
4. The people began to ask each other, “Who is that guy?” and “What are they filming?”
5. Finally, one woman shouted this question toward Max, “Hey, are you somebody important?”
C. If someone else hasn’t asked us that question “Are you somebody important?” or made their personal declaration “You aren’t anybody important!”, all of us have certainly asked ourselves? “Am I somebody important?”
1. It’s easy to feel anything but important, isn’t it?
2. It’s hard to measure up to the expectations of the world, let alone the expectations of family and friends.
3. And of course, some of us don’t need the evaluation of others to make us wonder about ourselves, because we can be our own worst enemy.
D. If you find yourself struggling with the question “Am I somebody important?,” then please be assured you are not alone – most people struggle with the question of self-image and self-worth.
1. This is certainly something I have had to wrestle with and have had to come to grips with throughout all the stages of my life.
2. I remember trying to figure out some of this stuff in elementary school.
a. I wasn’t the biggest or the strongest or the fastest.
b. I certainly wasn’t the smartest, I was a very average student who got mostly “C”s.
c. Then my dad died when I was in the 5th grade, so I was a little lost…
3. About a year later, my mom began dating a guy named Hugh Grimsley, and he began bringing us to the Church of Christ.
a. Later, they got married and we moved from the city out to Fayetteville, where the rich folks lived.
b. Problem was…we weren’t rich…8 kids, one painter - paper hanger and a stay-at-home mom who tried to bring in a little extra through Amway.
c. Then, the next summer, on July 31, 1974, I gave my life to Christ and was baptized at Camp Hunt, and that helped a lot in giving me a sense of identity and self-worth, but there was still a lot for me to figure out.
4. In junior high, I began to do better in school, made some pretty good friends, and started to have some success in little league baseball, and Camp Hunt continued to be a blessing.
5. But then it was time for high school and I was looking for my place to belong.
a. I tried soccer as a freshman, then moved on to football as a sophomore (5’7’’ and 135 lbs doesn’t work too well), so as a junior, I returned to my childhood game of baseball.
b. Along the way, I found music and by my senior year that was my most satisfying place of belonging – choir, singing groups, and musicals.
6. Then I went to a small junior college and I found a place to belong in sports and music, but guess what, I was never the best or at the top.
a. No matter how hard I worked, there were always those who were bigger and better, more talented, and much better looking!
7. Finally, when I was at Harding the whole search for self-image and self-worth came to a head.
a. I found myself at a much bigger school and I really felt like a small fish in a big pond.
b. Everywhere I looked and according to every measurement, I didn’t seem to measure up.
c. Others were more wealthy, were more athletic, were better students, were better looking, and even were more spiritual.
d. My “Aha” moment came one sunny day when I realized that God loved me as I was and that all God expected me to be is the best version of me – the best version of how God created me to be.
8. That understanding has served me well over the years, but now even as an adult in his late 50s, I still have to remind myself of that truth and that promise from God.
a. At times the evil one still tries to attack me with questions of self-worth by tempting me to compare myself against the rich and famous, or compare myself with the bold and beautiful, or to measure myself against the successful preachers with their big churches.
b. Guess what? There’s always going to be people with more and bigger and better.
c. There are always others with more influence, more opportunities, more letters before or after their names, more books published, etc. – and so self-worth better not be based on comparing ourselves to others.
9. That’s probably much more than you ever wanted to know about me, but it’s so easy to look at others and think that they never have doubts or struggles of their own, but they do. And I do!
E. Here’s the important promise from God that each of us must believe and receive: You are somebody important! That is God’s promise to every single one of us.
1. You might be wondering, I’ve read the Bible from cover to cover and I don’t remember reading that promise.
2. God’s promise to us that we are somebody important isn’t so much stated in those words, but it is implied in God’s actions toward us from beginning to end.
3. The fact that each of us is somebody important and special begins with our very creation.
4. We, human beings, are created by God, in God’s image, for God’s glory.
F. Look at what God said in Genesis 1:26: Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, according to our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.”
1. Embedded in those words is a most wonderful truth and promise: We are special. We are important. We are valuable to God.
2. God created us, humans, to be more like Him than anything else He made.
3. God didn’t declare: “Let’s make oceans in our image” or “Let’s make birds in our likeness.”
4. It is true that the heavens declare the glory of God, but they are not made in the image of God.
5. Rocks aren’t made in God’s image. Trees aren’t. Even cats and dogs aren’t (sorry animal lovers), but we, human beings, are made in God’s image.
G. And there is no exception to this promise.
1. Every man and woman, born or preborn, rich or poor, urban, suburban or rural, is made in the image of God.
2. Some people resist that truth and some people suppress it, but other people embrace it and enhance it and are transformed by it.
3. But all people are made in God’s image and are meant to find joy and well-being because of it.
H. Sadly and tragically, sin has distorted God’s image in us, but it has not destroyed it.
1. To one degree or another, sin has tainted our moral purity, and polluted and warped our minds.
2. But we must not think for a moment that God has rescinded His promise or changed His plan.
3. God still creates people in His image and has created us to be in relationship with Him so that we might reflect His glory.
I. God’s desire for all of us is that we know and believe that God created us in His image and that we will allow God to do His ongoing work of shaping us more and more into His image.
1. The more we fellowship with God, read His Word, obey His commands, and seek to understand and reflect His character, the more something and someone wonderful will emerge.
2. As we allow God to do His ongoing recreation of us, more and more of God comes out of us.
3. We will more regularly say the things God would say and do the things that God would do.
4. We will more regularly love and forgive as God loves and forgives.
5. And people begin to take notice and say, “You remind me of our Heavenly Father!”
J. The apostle Paul talked about this transformation process in some of his letters.
1. In his letter to the Colossians, he wrote: 9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self. You are being renewed in knowledge according to the image of your Creator.” (Col. 3:9-10)
a. Notice that this process involves the putting off of the old self and putting on the new self.
b. And notice that this renewing process brings us in line with the image of our Creator.
c. God’s goal for us is for us to grow into His image, just what we are meant to be.
2. In Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, he wrote: We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit. (2 Cor. 3:18)
a. Paul declares that looking into the mirror of the Word of God causes us to see God’s glory and be transformed into His image.
b. This process is empowered and enabled by the Spirit of God.
K. Pop psychology is wrong when it tells us to look inside ourselves to find our value in ourselves.
1. The magazines are wrong when they suggest that we are only as good as we are thin, muscular, or pimple-free.
2. The advertisers mislead us when they imply that our value increases as our stamina, intelligence, or net worth grows.
3. Even religious leaders get it wrong, when they urge us to grade our value according to our church attendance, good works, or spiritual disciplines.
4. According to the Bible, you and I are valuable and special simply because God made us in his image – period!
5. God cherishes us because we bear a resemblance to Him.
6. And God knows that we will flourish best as we relish in the value God gives us, as we dwell in relationship with God, and as we live our role as an image bearer of God.
7. If each of us will lay hold of this promise, then we will spare ourselves a world of confusion and fear and pain.
8. Can you imagine how much sadness would evaporate if every person on planet earth simply chose to believe this truth: I am made in God’s image for God’s glory?
L. Unfortunately, the work of the enemy of our souls, and the resulting mindset of the world, keeps us from knowing and believing God’s truth and God’s promise.
1. We are conditioned to believe that we are unworthy, or that we have to earn our worthiness.
2. But I want you to think about what every parent and grandparent believes and feels toward their offspring.
3. When a baby is growing in their mother’s womb, what kinds of things are being felt and thought by mom and dad, and grandma and grandpa?
4. Are they thinking, “I hope the baby earns my love and I hope they earn their self-worth!”?
a. You know that’s the last thing from the mind of every parent and grandparent.
5. Parents and grandparents love and value their babies before they are even born.
a. They have never seen him or her, and yet they love him or her.
b. The baby has done nothing to earn their love and value, yet they have it.
c. Parents and grandparents would do literally anything for those precious little ones.
6. Why is that? Because those little ones carry a part of the parent and grandparent.
M. Now let’s apply that same understanding to God our heavenly parent.
1. Why does God love every one of us with an everlasting love?
2. It has nothing to do with us, but has everything to do with whose we are.
3. We are God’s offspring. We carry a part of God in us.
4. God made us in His image and He stamped His name on our hearts.
N. Someone may have mistreated you or someone may have called you a lost cause.
1. Someone may have branded you as a failure or dismissed you as insignificant.
2. But don’t listen to them, because they don’t know what they are talking about.
3. We are made in God’s image and therefore we have a divine spark in us.
4. When any of us turn toward God, and begin trusting in Him and His promises, then God blows on that holy ember, and it grows into a flame.
5. Are any of us perfect? No, but we are being made perfect, little by little, day by day.
6. God made us and owns us and has an inexplicable love for us.
7. And God’s love does not depend on us, rather it is based on Him.
8. We are God’s idea. We are made in God’s image. We are God’s children.
9. We are somebody important because God says so.
O. And guess, what? Our value in God’s eyes can never change.
1. Consider this illustration: here is a $20 bill.
2. Let me ask you: how many of you watching me today would like this $20 bill?
a. But before I give it to you, you need to know some things about this $20 bill.
b. Would you still want it if I tell you that it has been crumpled and is wrinkled?
c. Would you still want it if I tell you that it has been dropped on the ground and stepped on?
d. Would you still want it if I tell you that it accidently fell into the toilet, but I have washed it and dried it?
e. Why would you still want it after it has been crumpled, wrinkled, stepped on and ended up in a toilet?
f. The answer is because it is still a $20 bill.
g. The identity of a $20 bill is inherent in it and it cannot change.
h. See, this is a very important lesson for us - no matter what happens to money it does not change its identity or decrease its value – a $20 bill is always a $20 bill.
3. The same thing is true about us and our value.
a. Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt either by the decisions we make, or the circumstances that come our way, or what others do to us.
b. And because of those things we may feel as though we are worthless.
c. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, we will never lose our value.
d. Dirty or clean, crumpled or creased, we are still priceless to God who made us and loves us.
e. Our worth comes not in what we do or who we know, or what has happened to us, but by who we are and whose we are.
P. We are God’s creation, made in His image, and we are valued because of Him.
1. We were conceived by God before we were ever conceived by our parents.
2. We were loved in heaven before we were even known on earth.
3. We are not an accident, or a random fluke of genetics or evolution.
4. We aren’t defined by the number of pounds we weigh, the number of followers we have on Instagram, by the car we drive or the clothes we wear.
5. We are made by God in God’s image and He loves us.
6. He values us enough to make us in His image, and He values us enough to purchase us by the blood of His Son, Jesus.
7. See, in God’s estimation, you and I are worth dying for. He died for us because He values us that much.
8. Will you and will I allow that truth to define the way we see ourselves?
Q. And then, once we have a handle on that for ourselves, will we allow that truth to define the way we see other people?
1. Every person you and I encounter is a person who is created by God to bear His image, and for that reason they deserve to be treated with dignity and respect; to be valued and loved.
2. Can you imagine the impact that this promise would have on our world if it was embraced?
3. If every person in the world believed the promise that everyone is somebody important because they are created in God’s image, can you imagine how that would change the world?
4. Can you imagine the civility it would cause?
5. Can you imagine the kindness it would foster?
6. Racism and hatred cannot flourish when people believe that their neighbor bears God’s image.
7. Will a man abuse a woman or a woman a man, if they understand he or she bears the stamp of God and is loved and valued by God?
8. Will a boss neglect or exploit an employee if they believe the employee is God’s creation?
9. Will any of us write off as worthless the indigent, the mentally ill, the inmate on death row, or the refugee, if we truly believe that every human being is God’s creation? And God don’t make no junk! Right?!
10. How would this promise impact peoples’ opinions about abortion and euthanasia?
R. Max Lucado concludes the chapter on this promise saying that children have a tendency to say, “Look at me!”
1. When on the tricycle, they say, “Look at me go.” When on the trampoline, “Look at me bounce.” When on the swing set, “Look at me swing.”
a. Such behavior is acceptable for children.
2. Sadly, many of us adults spend our grown-up years saying the same, “Look at me!”
a. “Look at me drive this fancy car!” “Look at me make money!” “Look at me wear expensive or provocative clothing!” “Look at me flex my muscles or use big words.”
3. Isn’t it time for us to grow up and understand where our real value comes from?
4. God created us with value and wants us to live a life that says, “Look at God.” “Look at the value God gives me.” “Look at the love God has for me.” “I am God’s child and He says I am somebody, no matter what.”
5. That promise needs to be embedded in our minds and on our hearts.
S. Norman Vincent Peale, the best-selling author of old, told about an experience he had in Hong Kong, as he came upon a tattoo studio on a twisted little street.
1. In the window were displayed quite an assortment of the tattoos that were available – flags, anchors, mermaids, and so many others.
2. But one tattoo that had three small words, really hit him hard with sadness – it read: Born to Lose.
3. Peale went into the shop and asked the tattoo artist if anyone really has those sad words tattooed on their body.
4. The tattoo artist said, “Yes, sometimes.”
5. Peale replied, “I just can’t believe that anyone in his right mind would do that.”
6. The Chinese man simply tapped his forehead and said in broken English, “Before tattoo on body, tattoo in mind.”
T. I hope and pray that all of us will remove any “tattoos” from our mind that are false and don’t belong there, and replace them with the truthful promises of God.
1. And one of the most important promises that we need to imprint on our mind and heart is the promise that “I am somebody important to God.”
2. “I am made in God’s image for God’s glory.”
3. “I have permanent value that can never change, because I am God’s creation and God’s child, and God loves me with an unconditional and an ever-lasting love.”
U. That’s God’s promise and it is a foundation and an anchor for our souls – Believe it! Embrace it! Bask in it!
1. And let’s let it change us and change our world!
2. Here’s an assignment I want to give and I hope each of us will do it this week.
a. Write this promise (“I am somebody important to God”) on a piece of paper and put it someplace you will see it every day (on you mirror, dresser, or desk).
b. Pray that promise into your mind and heart.
c. Meditate on it.
d. Give thanks for it.
e. And share it with others – this promise is true for you and is true for everyone else.
Resources:
Unshakable Hope, Max Lucado, Thomas Nelson, 2018
