Introduction
Video Ill.: Imperfections by Matthew West
In our world today, our identities are in crisis. Everyone around us tries to tell us who we are, what we should do, and who we should be.
What do we believe? Who do we support? Are we Republican or Democrat? Male or female? What religion, ethnicity, or race are we? Who are we? In what is our identity found?
Value of a Person
Source: C. William Pollard, The Soul of the Firm (Zondervan, 2000)
https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2000/december/12759.html
Copied from Preaching Today
What is the value of a person? Can we measure this value by a paycheck, a retirement benefit, or a stock option?
Christian author William Pollard tells the story that “Some years ago I purchased a Hummel Christmas plate for my wife, Judy. The price was $21.95. It was the first Christmas plate produced by the famous German firm, and the store clerk assured me it would increase in value. Recently Judy and I attended an antique auction and were surprised to see a Hummel Christmas plate just like ours being sold for more than $1,000. What was it about the plate that caused this remarkable growth in value? Its substance had not changed, and it was not more beautiful. It had not changed size. But it was in greater demand. The original mold had been broken. Now only a limited number of plates were available, with no opportunity for replacement. All of these factors had contributed to an increased value.
So it is with humanity: there is only one mold per person and no opportunity for replacement.
But that’s not the way the world views humanity. The world today devalues people. People are disposable. There are people who are less important, less influential, less valuable than the rest of the population. Why else do we have such a push in our world for abortions?
This morning, as we continue our search for identity, we can have hope that we were each wonderfully and uniquely made.
Last week, we discovered that the beginning of our true identity is found in the fact that we were made in God’s image. Mankind is the only part of creation that has been made with the qualities of God Himself! We were given a purpose. We build relationships. We love and are loved.
Because we are made in God’s image, we are special and unique in God’s eyes. We are important to Him. The wonder of God’s creation is in each of us!
As we begin, the marvel of creation is us!
David, in Psalm 139, tells an amazing story of God and His relationship with us. He begins by declaring how wonderful God truly is! God is everywhere. He’s in everything. He is everything!
But despite how amazing and wonderful God is, He hasn’t forgotten about little ol’ you and me. As a matter of fact, David says that God has searched us, and knows us intimately. It’s not like all of the friends on Facebook that we “know”.
God knows our thoughts. God knows our desires. God knows what we are going to say before we even know ourselves.
God knows us.
It is in this setting, that David writes, starting at verse 13:
13 For You created my inmost being;
You knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from You
when I was made in the secret place.
|| When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
Your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
Before one of them came to be.
(Psalm 139, NIV1984)
George A. F. Knight
The Daily Study Bible Series, Psalms Vol. 2
Westminster John Knox Press, 1983
p. 324
[David] declares in a telling pictorial manner that man is not God, he is but a part of created matter — and yet! every ligament, every tissue, every blood-vessel in his body, the hundred billion neurons or nerve cells inside his skull, its chemical reactions that take as little time as one millionth of a second to act, all these marvels are listed in the master plan or diagram or on the drawing board that God had before Him, and on which He designed the various components He needed to create me.
God was intimately involved in making us, in forming us, in creating us!
If we ever needed a sense of value and identity, right there it is! The creator of the universe carefully, methodically, and miraculously made you and made me — the marvel of His creation!
2. So this morning, we need to understand our individual unique design.
You see, each one of us, by God’s design, is uniquely crafted.
Boy with Rare Disease and Rare Gift Declares God's Goodness
Source: AnsonHui.com (Accessed 3/24); Julie Jordan, "Music as the No.1 Medicine (Part 2)," The Epoch Times (10-14-10)
https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2011/january/3011011.html
Copied from Preaching Today
Anson Hui is Nineteen-years-old. At the age of three, he was diagnosed with Glycogen Storage Disease (GSD), meaning his body can't break down or store sugars. He requires frequent daytime feedings (drinking raw cornstarch), and nighttime feedings through a pump that hooks into a surgically implanted tube to his stomach. At the age of five, he experienced developmental delays that doctors feared were connected to autism. At that point in his life, he couldn't speak sentences with more than three syllables. He also became a target for school-yard bullies. No wonder that Anson often asked, "Why did God put me here?"
However, Anson also discovered that he had a gift. He said, "While everyone else was busy talking, I listened and listened to all the sounds around me." His listening skills helped him develop another gift—perfect or absolute pitch. Anson discovered that he could memorize and then master complex piano pieces (such as Mozart's Concerto in D Minor) with astounding speed and proficiency. Anson has won numerous awards and even performed in Carnegie Hall. Anson's trials and his gifts have led him to declare his deep faith in the living God: "I can't decide many things that God has already planned, but I can still choose to work on my dream because I still have workable hands and a body to do it. I believe every single life is unique and special. Each has its own mission and purpose."
In 2016 he received more difficult news. An MRI revealed a benign tumor around his liver, which could lead to a liver transplant, a tricky procedure for any GSD patient. But once again, Anson finds solace in God's faithfulness. In a recent interview Anson said,
“I know [there's] always a reason for God to give me a special body and talent. My dream is to be a tool of God … so in the end, I can hand in a beautiful [report] to my Lord in heaven with honor. And the most important thing is—I will never regret this journey on earth.”
Nineteen-year-old Anson Hui has given concerts in Europe, Asia and North American. Anson recently won the gold medal from the AADGT International Young Gifted Musicians Festival and performed in New York Carnegie Hall in March 2017.
He had a daily g-tube internal feeding for 15 years and traveled over 60 cities in 20 countries, with all his feeding equipment. He had a liver transplant from an anonymous living donor back in May, 2016, which inspired his change from music to medicine. He is currently a 3rd year student in the Laboratory Medicine Pathbiology Specialist Program at the University of Toronto.?
I can fairly confidently say today that none of us deal with challenges in our lives quite like that of young Anson. But just like Anson, we have our own unique and special gifts that God has given to us.
What are those gifts? Just think about your life. What is it that comes easy to you that is difficult for others? What do we enjoy? At what do we thrive?
These are gifts from God!
They are what make us us!
God gave these things to us — and they are core to our identity!
When we can see what God has given to us, we find happiness, joy, and contentment.
Because you see, we understand and embrace that our worth comes from God’s creation — what God has given to us — how God has made us — and not worldly standards.
Study Reveals Children Struggle with Deep Unhappiness
Source: Matthew Hussey Tweet, "The Web is quietly creating a generation of miserable kids," The Next Web
https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2016/march/5030716.html
Copied from Preaching Today
A new study published in the UK reveals that children are struggling with low self-esteem, loneliness, or deep levels of unhappiness. A free, private counseling hotline for children and teens up to the age of 19, said it was contacted 35,244 times in the last year by children struggling with how to be happy. In the organization's 30-year history, general unhappiness is only a recent trend. Previously, self-harm and eating disorders were among the most common causes for children to contact the helpline. But today, unhappiness is strongly connected with the drive to keep up one's image on social media. One expert noted, "It is clear that the pressure to keep up with friends and have the perfect life online is adding to the sadness that many young people feel on a daily basis."
There are over 20 major sites, with new ones popping up each day, that cater exclusively for people sharing content with each other. This has led to a spike in what psychologists call social comparison, or estimating how worthwhile we are based on how we think we stack up against other people's online profile.
For example, the magazine Elle explored a trend of young school girls creating private "real" accounts of themselves as a way of expressing their true identity separately from the one they portray online. In a recent survey conducted by the Girl Scouts, nearly 74 percent of girls agreed that other girls tried to make themselves look "cooler than they are" on social networking sites.
When our image and identity is based on what is going on in the world, and not on who God has made us to be, we will always find ourselves falling short. It is one of the lies that Satan tells us to distract us from the good things that God has done for us, that God can do through us, who God is to us!
Our life is a tapestry being woven together by God. Understanding that God sees the big picture, helps us to trust Him in all that we do.
I like a poem written by J.B. Hernley called “The Weaver”.
The Weaver by J.B. Hernley
By David Haun
Copied from Sermon Central
My life is but a weaving between my Lord and me,
I may not choose the colors, He knows what they should be.
For He can view the pattern upon the upper side,
While I can see it only on this, the under side.
"Sometimes He weaveth sorrow, which seems strange to me;
But I will trust His judgment and work as faithfully;
’Tis He who fills the shuttle, He knows just what is best,
So I shall weave in earnest and leave with Him the rest.
Not til the loom is silent and the shuttles cease to fly
Shall God unroll the canvas and explain the reason why --
The dark threads are as needful in the weaver’s skillful hand
As the threads of gold and silver in the pattern he has planned.
3. Last week, we shared that God has given mankind a purpose. This morning, we need to embrace our purpose!
You see, God has a specific plan for each one of us.
There’s a master plan that only He knows.
For Israel, that plan was to bring through them the Messiah, who would save the world. But it wasn’t an easy journey to get to that point.
Throughout the Old Testament, Israel would go through circular cycles of following God, abandoning God, following God, abandoning God. It was a never-ending pendulum, swinging back and forth.
All the while, God was keeping His eye on them, making sure that they would eventually be able to fulfill His purpose.
One such time was the Babylonian captivity. The Israelites had gone so far away from God that God allowed them to be carried off into slavery. Yet God was still with them. God still had a purpose for them.
And God promised that they would fulfill that purpose.
Jeremiah writes in a letter to the captives in Babylon relaying the words of God spoken to him, in Jeremiah 29. God tells them to prosper and increase in number while they are in captivity. They were to seek God. They were to listen to only God.
And then God tells them this, starting at verse 10:
10 This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. 12 Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will || gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.” (Jeremiah 29, NIV1984)
“I know the plans I have for you,” God declares.
First that means that God knows me!
And God has plans for me!
You and I are important to God! We are special. We are unique. And, we have a place and purpose in God’s plans!
The Amazing Providence of God
By David Parks
Copied from Sermon Central
In the late 1800’s a member of Britain’s Parliament went to Scotland to make a speech. He got off the train in Edinburgh, and then took a carriage south toward his destination. Unfortunately, the carriage became stuck in deep mud. A local farm boy came to the rescue with his team of work horses. In his gratitude, the politician offered a reward, but the boy refused, saying he wanted nothing.
"Well,” persisted the legislator, "Is there anything I can do for you? What would you like to do with yourself when you grow up?"
"I’d like to become a doctor" the young man replied.
The Member of Parliament promised to do what he could, and in fact secured admission to the university for the young man.
During World War 2 more than 50 years later, Winston Churchill lay dangerously ill in Morocco, suffering from pneumonia. A new wonder drug was administered to him, penicillin, which had been discovered by Sir Alexander Fleming, the Scottish farm boy of so long before. And the politician who had sponsored him to the university? He was Randolph Churchill, the father of Winston.
The providence of God is often dumbfounding to us. We shake our heads in amazement at the fantastic "coincidences" that we see in this world. Many of these things may actually be God working out His divine will right before our eyes. We can never tell how God may choose to execute His plans.
The patriarch Joseph was sold into slavery by his own brothers, was unjustly cast into prison by his Egyptian slave-owner, then was abandoned by a high official. Finally, he was extracted from prison and elevated to a position of great power in Egypt. When his brothers came to Egypt to buy grain to feed their starving families, Joseph had the power to wreak a terrible vengeance on them. They realized this and begged him for mercy. Joseph pointed out to them that all those things had come about through the providence of God in order to save many lives during the terrible famine.
"You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives" (Genesis 50:20 NIV).
God still works in this world, and most of us can look back at times in our lives when He was bringing about some great thing for us. Sometimes the things we have complained about the loudest turn out to be great blessings to us. Sometimes a "chance" good deed we do has far-reaching effects. The providence of God is real, and we can never know when we are participating in His plan.
"In the same way, good deeds are obvious, and even those that are not cannot be hidden" (1 Timothy 5:25 NIV).
Let’s continue to do those good deeds and keep marveling at the providence of God working in our world!
4. Finally, we must live wonderfully in our broken world.
Despite our imperfections, we were wonderfully made.
Despite our failures, God still has a plan for our lives.
You see, our imperfections do not diminish God’s craftsmanship.
Consider Paul.
Paul originally was someone who, though zealous for God, was persecuting God’s followers. Paul was misguided, thinking he was doing God’s will for His life, all the while hurting the very God he professed to serve.
Paul finally found his purpose, though, on the road to Damascus. God revealed the correct path on which Paul needed to be.
Paul changed. Paul became one of the most influential preachers in all of history.
Yet, Paul was handicapped by God, he says, to keep him humble.
In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul writes:
7 To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in || insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12, NIV1984)
Our imperfections, our hardships, our persecutions, our difficulties, our weaknesses do not minimize what God can and will do in our lives.
These are God’s design and plan for our lives. These are God’s fingerprints on our lives. As Paul said, we must delight in the design and plan that God has for our lives.
Conclusion
This morning, we must embrace the identity that God has given to us — we are uniquely, wonderfully, and fearfully made.
That means that each one of us bears God’s fingerprints on our lives, because God formed us, made us, created us in His image for His good works, for His pleasure, for His plan.
There’s meaning to our lives, not because of the measure of the world, but because God knew us, knit us, wove us, made us, even before the world ever knew us.
There’s something powerful and wonderful in knowing and living as God’s unique and special creation! What a powerful identity we truly have been given!
This morning, I challenge you to live confidently today, knowing every one of us were wonderfully and fearfully made by God.
To give us a chance to think about and apply that image to our lives, I want to close with a thoughtful video called Fearfully Made, produced by Church Fuel.
Video Ill.: Fearfully Made - Church Fuel
