You're Made In God's Image | Ben Foote

All right, hope. How we doing? We good? Nice. Nice. You're really good.

That's awesome. Hey, uh, I'm, my name's Ben. I'm a pastor from out in Colorado.

Um, I've been out here a number of times. I'm a,

I'm a friend of hope and hope's been a really good friend to me.

But I've been out here a number of times to the point where it's like I'm not

even gonna, I'm not gonna introduce myself anymore.

If I haven't met you yet, I would love to meet you.

Come say hi to me after this. But we won't do any intro.

We're just gonna jump in today. Um, actually before we jump in,

I wanna say just a really special welcome for any of you.

If you maybe came to hope for the very first time last weekend for Easter

Services and now you're here for a second time to just give it one more shot.

If that's you, welcome. All right.

If you're the kind of person who's trying to figure out faith,

but you feel kind of behind the ball, you're in the right place. Me too.

I'm trying to figure out faith and I feel like I'm kind of behind the ball all

the time. Um,

you're in the right p place because hope is kind of like an island of misfit

toys for people when it comes to faith. All right? So you're in the right place.

Um, you can feel free to jump into this community.

You can also feel free to kind of chill in the back and not talk to anyone if

that's what you need right now. We just wanna say welcome back and then also an,

an encouragement for if you're one of the like 200 people, which is crazy,

who last week had that conversation with Jesus, where you're like, all right,

I'm done fighting you. I'm ready to follow you. If that's you, that's awesome.

I just wanna encourage you to lean in and keep going.

I prayed that same prayer 15 years ago. Totally changed my life,

but I also know that I prayed that prayer and I was like, all right, Jesus,

I'm ready to follow you. And immediately after that I was like, I don't even,

I don't know what that looks like.

I don't know what I'm supposed to do right now. And if you feel that way,

it's okay. You're actually here at the right time.

'cause that's what this series is all about.

This series is about the foundations of our faith. Alright?

And you hear that title, title and some of you might be going like,

it sounds very scholarly. Is this gonna be boring? Well, no.

I believe that making Jesus boring is like the greatest sin on earth.

It's not gonna be boring. Instead, let me explain what this series is about.

We're gonna kind of do it in a roundabout way, but we'll explain it. All right?

So there are, there are many cultural historians and social scientists,

both people who are Christians and people who are not Christians who believe

that America is currently a post-Christian society.

That's the term for it. And don't freak out.

All it means is a post-Christian society is one that no longer considers

Christianity to be the foundation for its ethics and culture. Okay?

It doesn't mean that Christianity is dying,

it just means it's not the foundation for our culture. And again, that's,

that's fine. We don't need to freak out or get grumpy about that.

We're gonna be just fine. Alright? Some of you now are going like,

well then dude, why are you even bringing it up? , great question.

I'm bringing it up because from my observation, at least,

like living in a post-Christian society, especially for me, like raising,

trying to raise kids in one, from my observation,

my culture feels very foundation list in a lot of ways right now.

Like, like for example,

I see a confusion in my culture as it tries to create moral and ethical

beliefs without using Jesus Christianity or the Bible Prime

example of that is in 2005,

the Supreme Court decided that it's unconstitutional to display the 10

Commandments inside courthouses.

Even though our judicial system largely based on Judeo-Christian ethics,

it's just confusing, right? To, to kind of clear that up for you.

What happened is the Supreme Court,

which is ultimately based on many Christian ethics,

used those ethics to declare that it's unethical to display those ethics inside

the courthouses that uphold those ethics. It's confusing,

it feels foundation less. I see the same like foundation,

less aspect of my culture, like leak into people's personal lives. Okay? If you,

if you get on social media later today, you,

you're gonna see a lot of people who are very vocal about their beliefs,

but they don't have,

they can't give any moral foundation for their beliefs other than just like,

well that's my truth, right? You do you, but that's my truth.

There's no foundation.

This is why so many arguments these days can really be boiled down to full grown

adults going like, yeah, no. Yeah.

And that's it because we don't agree on anything.

We don't agree on what is true, right? Wise and good.

And we got there in kind of a, a roundabout way.

But that's what this series is all about because we're gonna talk about the

foundations of our faith. 'cause there's like,

there's like a few core foundations that you're gonna find at the bottom of

every single story in the Bible.

You're gonna find 'em at the bottom of everything that Jesus taught,

every idea about him, every idea from him. In fact,

these same foundations you'll find at the bottom of every great movie,

in every beautiful novel ever written and every human soul walking around the

planet.

And the fancy like theological terms for these foundations are

creation, fall, redemption, and sanctification. Okay?

But some of those are like $10 words from people who went to Bible college.

And so if we're just gonna use normal language, the foundations for our faith,

and I would argue for understanding just existence, are this,

we are created, we are broken,

we can be fixed, and we are on our way towards something better.

Those four things right there,

I believe that that should shape the way that we view everything.

Like absolutely everything.

The way we view ourselves and other people and the way we view our culture and

our context in our history. Like we're created, we're broken,

but we can be fixed and we're on our way towards something better. And,

and whether you follow Jesus your whole life or you're just checking him out,

I would tell you that these, these four foundations,

I believe they can become steady ground,

a steady foundation for you to stand on while you try to navigate

a foundation list culture.

And so that's what we're gonna talk about for the next four weeks.

We're gonna get started right now.

And I wanna start by talking about our identity. Your identity,

okay? There's this phase of life everyone went through.

It happens when you're pretty young. Um, my kids are 10, nine and six.

And so we've been in this phase for a few years now,

but it's this phase where in your little kid mind something clicks and you tell

yourself maybe if I'm mean to other people,

it will make me feel better, okay? It's just, it's human nature.

It happens to everybody, right? But you're also little, so you're bad at it,

right? You don't know how to really stick it to someone yet.

And so what do you do? You start name calling, right?

Name calling is kind of the first step in our like journey towards learning how

to become mean to one another.

But you're not even good at that yet because you're little.

And so it leads to some pretty hilarious name calling at times.

Like the names that my kids call each other are ridiculous. , right?

And then I'll remember, I'll never forget this story. When I was little,

I was probably like eight years old. Um, I had this neighbor friend,

his name was Jeremy. We didn't play very often. Um,

like I didn't know him too well. He was two years older than me.

And when you're eight, this like, this dude's an adult in my mind. You know,

he's 10, he's like renting cars and stuff. Um, so,

but every now and then the stars would align. I would go play with Jeremy. Okay?

So one day we're in my driveway, we're playing basketball, he beats me.

I know it's crazy to think of someone in my stature losing a basketball game.

Um, but it was an upset and he won. Um, and so I turned to call him a name.

And I remember I wasn't even being like, I didn't feel mean.

It was more just kind of like I was trying to be humorous,

but I call him a name. And here's the name that I called him. Um,

my dad was a cartoonist, okay?

So I grew up watching lots of cartoons and Yosemite,

Sam used to say the word dastardly all the time with

a d dastardly, okay?

Somewhere along the way in my little kid mind that got confused with a very

similar sounding word. And so Jeremy beats me in basketball.

I look at him cucumber, cool. And I'm like, Jeremy,

you are such a fill in the blank. Well, he's an adult, he's 10,

he knows these words. So he cries, he goes home. I'm so confused, okay?

I'm just confused enough to go inside and tell my mom . I was like, mom,

weird thing just happened. I explained the whole situation to her.

She's of course like Benjamin, where did you hear that word? And I'm like, mom,

Looney tunes like chill. It's fine. . I didn't have to wash my mouth out.

I did have to go apologize.

But we learned to call each other names at like a really early age

and now we're adults.

So if we can look back on that and kind of think for just one second on what

we're actually doing to people, when we call them names,

we realize that it's really messed up. 'cause what we're doing is we're saying,

Hey, you're not Jeremy to me, right? You're not this like individual,

you're not this unique valuable person in my life. Instead,

you are just a fill in the blank with whatever term you wanna identify them

with. That we're, what we're doing is we're,

we're taking their true identities and ripping them out and replacing them with

really bad identities. And we start doing this when we're like four years old.

And of course, I'm,

I'm talking about right now like the juvenile form of name calling.

But be honest with yourself.

There are some names that you have been called some ways that you've been

defined and they've stuck around, right?

This stuck around for a really long time. And,

and these definitions of who we are, these bad identities, they're not cute,

they're not funny. And if we're being honest, we've spent a lifetime either A,

trying to prove those names wrong or b,

we just started agreeing with those names. Here's what I mean,

I'll go first. For me,

a name that I took on at a really young age is I am weak.

Okay? For me, I honestly, I really like,

I haven't grown since eighth grade ,

like since eighth grade I've been five, seven and like 135 pounds soaking wet.

And in eighth grade when it feels like all my friends are like, you know,

growing a foot a day and getting buff and growing goatees and stuff,

I was like the kid in the corner who was like,

do you wanna start a punk band with me? That's, that's who I was.

And I was also, you know, bullied and picked on and the whole nine yards.

And so I walked away from my childhood with a name that says I am weak.

I'm 38 years old now and I hate to admit it,

but I still spend a lot of energy trying to prove that name wrong,

trying to prove that I'm not weak. I'm not that eighth grade kid anymore.

Spend a lot of time doing that for me,

I didn't do that in a physical sense for me.

I tried to overcompensate in other areas, right? So for me, I focused on like,

I gotta try to be the funniest person in the room,

or I've gotta be like the smartest or the most creative or the hard,

at least the hardest working person in the room all to prove that I'm not weak.

I'm not that eighth grade kid anymore, right? That's, that's my thing.

What's your thing? I, I don't know your story. You know your story

for you maybe mom and dad or dad didn't stick around. And so you just,

you got this name at a really early age that said, I am unwanted.

You spent the rest of your life trying to prove that that's not true.

Or you just started to agree that you're unwanted. Actually,

think of it now. What is the bad identity that you're carrying around today?

I am what? I am ugly. I am forgettable, right?

I am an easy date. I am annoying or stupid or worthless.

What is your bad identity at the end of the day?

Your identity totally boils down to your answer to this question. Who are you?

Who are you? However you answer that question, that's your identity.

And whatever your identity is,

it will shape the way that you live the rest of your life.

And if we're being honest with ourselves,

a lot of us are living out of really bad identities.

And then you throw in our foundation less cult culture and the fact that it

doesn't really have a good answer for the question, who are you?

And so it's no surprise that a lot of us are looking to successful careers or

political stances or sexual conquest or physical accomplishment to define

who we are and replace our bad identities.

And so what do we do about this problem? Well, this is where the,

the first foundation of our faith in our existence comes into play.

Because when I ask you who are you? Jesus has an answer for that question.

And I'm telling you,

if you let the answer to his question become the foundation for your identity,

honest to God, it could change your entire life.

So what is Jesus's answer to that question?

Well, we actually find it on the very first page of our Bibles, okay?

Like this foundation, this,

this understanding of who we are is so important that it's literally the first

thing you will encounter when you open up a Bible. The,

the first sentence of the Bible,

the first verse of out of over 23,000 verses goes like this.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth,

okay? In the first 10 words of the Bible,

God is trying to communicate to you that God is the creator.

He is the creator. He wants you to know right off the bat,

he created everything. Like everything, okay? He,

he created big stuff like the solar system with all of its planets.

And he created the small stuff like microbiology and DNA and all of that.

And he made, you know, just like the world colorful just because,

and he made caterpillars turn into butterflies just because,

and he gave you taste buds so that you could enjoy pad T just because he loves

you, right? He just created all of this for us.

And one of my personal favorite creations of his as he made this

incredible phenomenon where if you crudely hammer the right type of metal wire

pulled to the right amount of topness, and if,

if you crudely hammer a bunch of those wires at just the right time,

you're listening to Beethoven, right?

Sometimes unfortunately you're also listening to like Taylor Swift and k-pop.

But that doesn't really prove my point right?

Now the point is that God is the creator and the world that he made is,

is magnificent. His works are wonderful. But then the,

the first chapter of Genesis goes a step further, okay?

We're not only told that God is the creator,

but on top of that we're told that God is your creator.

We find that in verse 26 to kind of summarize what happens between the

first verse and verse 26. God spends five days creating everything in the world.

And at the end of every single day he keeps saying that his creation is good,

this is good, this is good. But then after the end of day six,

it's the first time he says that his creation is very good.

And that's because he creates men and women.

Look at this then God said,

let us make man in our image and in our likeness and let them rule over the fish

of the sea and the birds of the air and over the livestock and the earth and all

the creatures that move along the ground. And so then he did it.

God created man in his own image, in the image of God, he created him,

male and female, he created them. And God saw all that he had made.

And it was very good.

Only after creating humanity does God call his work very

good. Like humanity is basically where God really out does himself.

Humans are like his magnum opus,

like the pinnacle of his creative work in God's eyes.

You and I are simply his masterpieces. Why?

Well, because we're the only piece of his work that was created in his own

image. We'll come back to this image of God's stuff. But first,

right off the bat, don't let that pass you by.

That right there gives you a better foundation for your origins than our culture

can right now. 'cause here's the truth, for some of us,

this is a truth we honestly we don't wanna face right now, but we should.

The truth is that if we weren't created, there's no hope. I mean,

there's no hope for literally any like take the word off the front of the

building. There's no hope. Why?

'cause we're all just biological mistakes, right?

We're just accidents kind of stumbling around this globe,

like loving people for,

for no good reason and just like hurting each other for no good reason and

wanting everything to change for no good reason. It sounds harsh,

but it's the truth. If we weren't, weren't created,

who cares about being a good person? Why care about anything for that matter?

Why care about anything from like social justice to recycling? And frankly,

if we weren't created, who cares that you feel worn down and defeated today?

Who? Who cares?

You're a mistake of nature and an impersonal universe doesn't care about

its mistakes and who cares that you feel aimless today you're

an accident. Accidents don't have purpose. So your life has no purpose, right?

So I guess the only thing you can do is kind of stop whining and pull yourself

up by the bootstraps.

Stop feeling sorry for yourself because in this huge cosmic accident called life

stuff just happens sometimes. So get over it.

Now I don't agree with any of those statements I used to,

but I don't agree with them anymore because I started to agree with God in the

first chapter of his words tos.

And so before I become like the most emo episode of Bill Knight,

the science guy ever made,

this is exactly why in the first chapter of the Bible,

God tries to make clear the truth that God is your creator.

This is the first wonderful.

And honestly it's like a relieving truth that you encounter in the Bible.

You were created on purpose. You're not an accident, you're,

you're not a mistake. Instead,

you are one of the masterpieces of the world's greatest artists.

You were created on purpose to ease your mind.

If this is a truth that's not contained in just the first chapter of the Bible,

it works its way throughout the entire book. Like in Isaiah, God tells us,

fear not for I have redeemed you, I have summoned you by name.

You are mine.

You're not lost in a sea of humanity or history. You're not anonymous.

God knows you by name. In Psalm 1 39,

David is reflecting on this idea that we were created on purpose. And he says,

he says for you,

God created my inmost being and you knit me together in my mother's womb.

And I praise you because I'm fearfully and wonderfully made.

And your works are wonderful. I know that full well.

It's this image of of God as the craftsman,

like lovingly sculpting the person that would become you.

Like with your physical features and your dreams and aspirations and your

personality, even your weaknesses through which God would display his strengths.

All of it lovingly knit together in your mother's womb.

You were created on purpose. Okay? You are not a nobody. You're not even just,

you're not even just a somebody.

You are a masterpiece on a first name basis with the creator of the universe.

You were created on purpose.

But then we can't stop there, right? 'cause Genesis keeps going. There's,

there's more to this foundation of our faith.

We weren't just created on purpose, we were also created for a purpose.

And this is where the whole image of God stuff comes into play, okay? To,

to refresh your memories. What we just read in Genesis,

we're told that God created man in his own image, in the image of God,

he created him, male and female, he created them.

So you and I and all of humankind,

we were created in the image of God. What does that even mean? Okay?

Personally,

I am of the opinion that this is one of the most important things you could ever

wrap your mind around. Okay,

you can take long division and how to make your front yard green again or

whatever and move them way down the list of things to learn right now.

Because this image of God's stuff is super important.

So what does it mean to be created in the image of God? Well,

some people will say, oh, well,

that means that humans have inherent value and dignity because they were created

by God. I totally agree and I believe that.

But it doesn't explain the image of God because all things were created by God.

And so all things have inherent value and dignity,

not just humans like the lush green woods of North Carolina or

the majestic mountains of Colorado from back where I live.

Or like the dog waiting for you back at home.

Or God forbid maybe you bought cats or whatever. Like ,

all created things deserve inherent value, dignity, and worth,

because they're all jaw dropping works of the world's greatest artist.

Uh,

another thing that people will say is that being made in the image of God is the

reason that humans have morality, our sense of right and wrong.

And it's the reason that humans have rationality,

our ability to reason things out. Again, I believe that's true,

but it doesn't explain the image of God.

There's morality in the animal kingdom like chimpanzees have been observed,

consoling family members who have lost babies. And there's morality,

there's rules for how animals govern their own families and and tribes.

And they're also rational.

There's a reason that scientists are obsessed with rats.

It's because rats are whip smart and can come up with solutions for problems

pretty easily. And so we're still back at square one.

Like why are humans unique?

What does it mean that we're created in the image of God? And for today,

we're just gonna tackle the most simple understanding of the image of God.

That word image in, in the Hebrew,

it's a Hebrew word em and sem means sculpture.

And so in other words,

to say that human beings are created in the image of God is the same thing as

saying human beings are sculptures that represent God.

What does that mean? Well, I've always loved how this pastor,

I'm not as smart as this,

this pastor named John Piper explains it in a way that I love. He says this,

imagine this. You got this artist like just a normal human artist. And,

and they go and make a sculpture.

And let's say they put this sculpture in a public place like out in Washington

DC or whatever.

Well they make it sure because they want people to look at it and notice it,

but specifically they want people to think about the person that the sculpture

represents. And they want them to think specific things about that person.

That's why they made the sculpture of this person look heroic or look like a

leader or look wise or whatever that is.

And so what God has done is currently in 2024,

he's placed 7.8 billion sculptures of himself on planet

Earth. Why? Well, because like any other artist,

God wants people to look at those sculptures and then think about the person

that the sculpture represents. In other words,

we have a purpose out here as human beings and

our purpose unique amongst the rest of God's creation.

Our purpose is to represent the characteristics of the person whose image

and likeness we were sculpted in. That person would be God.

What is unique about being created in the image of God?

The answer is humans are uniquely created to represent the characteristics

of God to the world around them. Like that is your life's purpose.

Whether you believe it or not, or whether you want to admit it or not,

it's your life's purpose.

You are a sculpture that reflects God and you are to reflect and represent him

well with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength. And,

and through all of your thoughts and actions and words,

you and I are supposed to basically be saying and shouting to the world like

this is kind of, kind of what my God looks like. I'm getting as close as I can.

Like this is who he loves and this is how he loves.

Like this is what he does when the,

when the cards are down and this is how he behaves when things are going well,

like this is kind of what my God looks like. That's our purpose.

This is why I believe that understanding the image of God is like one of the

most important things we could wrap our minds around. 'cause sure,

it's a foundation for our faith. That's true.

It's also a foundation for how you view the purpose of your life.

It's a foundation for how you view the rest of humanity.

It's a foundation for how you treat your friends and family.

It's even a foundation for how you treat your enemies.

Every human being out here on earth, whether they follow Jesus or not,

is an image bearer of God. And they should be treated as such.

That's why like murder, for example, is,

is offensive to the Jesus follower because we're supposed to view it as one

sculpture of God,

like demolishing and turning to rubble another sculpture of God.

Or let's get even closer to home. Let's take gossip for example,

talking trash about someone behind their back.

Jesus followers are supposed to find that as offensive 'cause we're supposed to

view it as one sculpture of God defacing and spraying graffiti all over another

sculpture of God. In fact,

here's a simple way of understanding sin itself.

'cause sin is a word you almost only ever hear in church and sometimes we get

disconnected from it.

A simple way of understanding sin is to view it as anything that misrepresents

the image and likeness and characteristics of the God we were sculpted

to represent Sin is anytime we're being confusing sculptures.

What I,

what I mean by that is if you go to like the Lincoln Memorial in DC you're not

gonna see a statue of Abraham Lincoln like shredding the electric guitar.

That would be confusing, right? People would look at that and go like,

I don't think Abraham Lincoln ever did that.

And in the same way when we belittle our spouses,

when we delete our phone's history to hide our searches,

when when we flip off the car that cut us off,

or when we cut people down to climb the corporate louder ladder,

we're being just confusing sculptures because I don't think Jesus ever did stuff

like that.

And we're supposed to be representing him out here in this cold hard world.

The first foundation to understanding our faith, and again,

I would argue it's the first foundation to understanding our entire existence,

is to understand that we are created. And not just that,

but we are created on purpose and for a purpose.

And our unique purpose is to represent the characteristics of God to

the world around us. Now,

that was a lot in a short amount of time.

And throughout the rest of the series we're gonna talk about the rest of the

foundations, right?

It it's gonna help you make sense of the way you view the world.

Like we're gonna talk about what went went wrong,

like how did we get broken and how does it get fixed and what does it look like

to just kind of trudge on towards perfection for the rest of our lives? Like,

but to end today, to end right now,

all I want to do is take a moment to just remind us of who we truly are.

Okay? One of my favorite descriptions of God is in Psalm three, goes like this,

says you, oh Lord, are a shield about me, my glory.

And you are the lifter of my head. So it's,

it's like this picture of God as a perfect father walking up to his sons and

daughters.

That would be you and me walking up to his kids who have hung their heads in

defeat.

And it's this picture of him placing a finger under your chin and lifting your

chin, lifting your head back to a posture of confidence,

back to a posture of security and back to a posture of true identity.

And so I'm gonna ask that you do something with me right now.

Only if you feel comfortable, you don't have to do this,

but if you feel comfortable,

I'm gonna ask that you close your eyes right now and just bow your head almost

like you're praying, right?

May or maybe just put your head in your hands right now,

like basically take on the posture of defeat.

'cause I, I told you, er, like at the beginning of this thing, we,

we talked about the bad identities that we carry around all the time,

the bad identities we've been carrying around for years.

I want you to think of yours right now.

I I won't leave you in this place for long,

but for now actually think of it and hang your head in defeat.

What name have you been called?

What name have you been calling yourself for far too long now? I am what?

I am weak, stupid, worthless, unimportant, unwanted. I'm a bad mom.

I'm a bad dad. I'm a bad kid. What, what is your bad identity?

And in your head, say it to yourself like you've said a thousand times before.

Let it sink in the fact that you've been carrying that name around for decades.

And now here, here's what I'm gonna do.

I'm Im gonna tell you what God says about you.

That's what you say about yourself right now.

I'm gonna share what God says about you. I'm just gonna walk through our,

our true identities because of what Jesus has accomplished for us.

And when you're ready to just listen to a voice that's louder and stronger

than the one in your head, then just as a small act of faith,

as a small act of telling God like I, I wanna listen to who you say I am,

not who I say I am. As a small act of faith,

you're just going to lift your chins. Lift your heads.

Alright? So here's what God says about you. He says,

because of Jesus, you are treasured and you are valued.

You are not forgettable, you're not overlooked, you're not unwanted.

You are treasured and you are valued.

God says you are here on purpose and you are here for a purpose.

You're not a mistake. You're not some accident of the cosmos,

you're not inconsequential, you're not anonymous.

You are here on purpose and for a purpose. God says,

you are loved, you are not hated. You are not irredeemable.

You are not too far gone. You are loved.

God says that you are worth dying for,

which means you're absolutely not worthless, not in God's eyes.

You are worth a very great price, A price that he paid.

He says you were worth dying for. God says you are forgiven,

dude, you, you are not the sum of every stupid decision you've ever made.

It has no factor in your relationship with your father anymore.

You are forgiven. And then God says you are free.

You don't have to be a slave to the bad identity in your head.

And you don't have to be chained to your family's history.

You don't have to be chained to your successes or your failures. You are free.

Now everybody raise your heads and just look at those words on the screen and

listen to me that like that is absolutely who you are.

That is who you are.

So that is who you are when you're single and lonely and you're eating dinner by

yourself again. And that is who you are when you're,

you're married with kids and you feel claustrophobic.

You haven't had a minute to yourself in weeks.

That is who you are when you get the promotion, that's who you are.

When you get laid off,

that is who you are when you're addicted and afflicted and ashamed.

And that is who you are when you're ignored or abused and refused.

Like that just is who you are. No ifs, ands or buts, end of story.

It's finished.

Whenever we feel stuck in these bad identities that we're living with,

God doesn't call you names. You're doing that to yourself.

He doesn't call you names, he calls you by name.

When we're feeling defeated, completely defeated.

God doesn't put a finger in your chest.

He doesn't say figure it out and buck up and pull yourself up by your

bootstraps. He doesn't put a finger under your chest.

He puts a finger under your chin and he lifts your head back,

back to confidence, back to true identity. And it's God who says,

I will be your confidence and I will be your strength and I will be your

victory. And only I get to tell you who you are.

And God says that you are mine

and you are my masterpiece. And you were lovingly knit together by me.

And you are my son and you are my daughter. And no one takes you from me.

God says,

don't ever forget who I am and don't ever forget who I say that you are.

God is your creator.

He reserves the sole right to tell you who you are and who he says you are is

freedom.

So chins up and head high shoulders back,

eyes on him. Let's pray.

God, first of all, um,

30 years is a long time. I we're thankful for what you're doing here. Um,

I think sometimes we think that you're like infinite. And so 30 years is like,

you know, just a blink of your eye. But no, you're personal, you're relational.

You live with us. That's 30 you years of you weeping. When we have wept,

that's 30 years of you celebrating when we celebrate.

That's 30 years of you walking closely with us when we're in the valley and

celebrating us when we're on top of the mountain. God, we thank you for that.

God, we boldly ask for 30 more. God,

I thank you for this truth that we found today. God, you are our creator. God,

you made every, you're so beautiful. You made all this stuff that's like it,

it feels like whimsical,

almost like stuff that doesn't even really serve a purpose,

but it just brings us joy or it brings the world beauty and God,

you also created us. And your works are wonderful. We know that full well.

God help us to actually maybe think that just about ourselves, maybe once.

Every now and then.

God help us to remember that we were lovingly knit together in our mother's

womb. We are not forgotten. We are not abandoned, we are not anonymous.

We are called by name and we are yours. God.

Let that truth sink down into our hearts in a way that only you can do.

No pastor, no sermon, no song can do it,

but just you let that truth sink down into our hearts. God,

we praise you for it. God I love you for this community.

I love you for this moment. And I pray this in your son's name. Amen.