Seeking A Better Portrait

Seeking a Better Portrait

Acts 17:24-28

Online Sermon: http://www.mckeesfamily.com/?page_id=3567

We have been created in the image of God and given specific spiritual gifts to become and serve as the person God has designed us to be! While we know this to be true, many Christians either do not know or do not appreciate the portrait God has assigned to them because they are too busy envying the worldly portraits of others. When depression sets in because expectations are not met, many Christians become willing to do anything it takes to obtain the optimal portrait; including seeking the advice from the world and sinning against God. While everyone since Adam was created with a marred image of God, we as Christians are not meant to look and act like this world who have painted themselves with the green of envy, blue of dissatisfaction and black of sin! If this describes you then please do not loose hope for those who choose to confess and rely on the red blood of Christ for redemption will have their sins cleansed as white as snow and will feel inexpressible joy as they seek and find the glorious portrait God created them to have!

ILLUSTRATION

Supplies: To do this illustration you will need bristol boards, paint brushes, five colors of paint, blind folds and a silly, painters outfit.

The goal of this illustration is to teach how important it is to seek, find and embrace the portrait that God has for one’s life. To help get volunteers the pastor should dress up in a very silly painter’s outfit. To start off ask for children to volunteer for the blind portrait painting challenge. The paint used in this challenge has be water based so that no staining of clothes happens. Since the challenge is quite difficult and to encourage intergenerational relationship building, have each child choose an adult partner. The “team” of two are then to choose which of them will be the guide and which one will be the painter. The guide’s job is to be the “eyes” of their partner who is to be blindfolded while painting. Each team can choose either one or several of the five different colors: green, blue, black, red or white to paint something that makes them happy. The contestants will be given five minutes to complete their painting. Upon completion each of the paintings will be held up to the congregation and they will get a chance to guess what the painting represents. Those of whose painting are correctly identified will get a nicer gift than those whose paintings cannot be identified.

PAINTING OUR PORTRAIT

To a certain extent everyone gets to decide what kind of portrait they want to paint of themselves. There are some things in life that are beyond our control such as height, skin, hair and eye color that are generally inherited from our parents. Danny DeVito can’t do much about his height of under five feet tall. And while you can dye your hair the new hair that grows out will always revert to its original color. Like genetics many of our experiences are beyond our control for they tend to happen by chance (Ecclesiastes 9:11) and are a by-product of living in a fallen world. For example: when, living during a world war or a time of peace, and where, living in a poor country like Hatti or a rich country like Canada; has a dramatic affect what portrait one can paint! While many things are beyond our control having the ability to make our own choices means we have the freedom to paint much of what goes onto our canvass of life!

To create the best life portrait possible, one should seek and follow the advice of our Creator! Listen to what Paul has to say about God our Creator:

24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And He is not served by human hands, as if He needed anything. Rather, He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man He made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in Him we live and move and have our being.’ r As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are His offspring.’

Acts 17:24-28, NIV

As the offspring of He who is the life and breath of all things created both seen and unseen, we are to seek the advice on how to live our lives from our Creator. With the spiritual gifts we have received we are to fulfill the divine role assigned to each of us. This is accomplished by allowing our footsteps in life to be guided by God’s holy word (Psalms 119:133) and by keeping in step with the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:25). Those who have faith in the atoning sacrifice of Christ (John 3:16) will not only know the truth and be set free (John 8:31-32) from the bondage of sin (Romans 8:19-22) but will also be born again (Galatians 3:26) and will feel inexpressible joy (1 Peter 1:8-9) of realizing the glorious riches of their inheritance in Christ (Ephesians 1:7)! Even though we know all of this to be true the follow section will explain how people tend to use the green, blue and black colors to paint with and in doing so create a worldly portrait of a life full of sadness and sin.