Pastor Malachi Maillot | His Own Image Series | Oct 25, 2020

Well, welcome to our online service.

Welcome to KCC.

Thank you for joining us.

My name is Malachi.

I'm one of the pastors here at Kelowna Christian Center.

This month, Pastor Brody's been leading us through a series called His Own Image.

We've been talking about identity, and what's important about that is when we begin to understand who we are and who we were designed to be, we can then function properly in our design.

In Genesis 127, it says that God created man, God created us in his own image.

We are created to bear the image of God.

Our identity comes from him.

And in reality, I think we I think as humans, we we tend to stray away from this.

We actually often draw our identity from other things, uh from our jobs, how much money I have, the clothes I wear, the friends I'm around, uh, the car I drive, how many Instagram followers I have, my family, and and even now to this day and age where sexuality has become an identity, and we actually stray away from the one true source that we need to draw from.

Uh this morning I want to jump into a story in the Bible.

It's from Genesis, it's in fifth gen chapter 15, uh verses one to five.

Genesis 15 · chapter mention

And in this passage, there's a man called Abram, and he's later on known as Abraham.

Uh, if you've ever heard that song in Sunday school, like uh Father Abraham had many sons, many sons had father.

That's the guy, right?

And so Abram is having this conversation with God.

And before this conversation actually happened, uh God tells Abraham something, he promises Abram something, and he says to him in Genesis 12, uh verses two, it says, I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.

But Abram, he he actually looks at the situation and and he doesn't quite see what God's trying to get him to see.

He's he's essentially looking into this proverbial mirror, and and all he can see is is his shortcomings and and how he's not enough and how the promise isn't gonna happen.

And so in chapter 15, indeed, one of my firstborn is the heir of is in my house is my heir.

And behold, the word of the Lord came to him saying, This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.

Then he brought him outside and said, Look up.

Come out of your tent and look up.

Look now toward heaven and count the stars if you were able to count them.

And he said to him, So shall your descendants be.

And this morning, if you're taking notes, uh the title of this message is very simple.

It's simply this look up.

Let's pray together.

Father God, I just I just thank you for this time.

I thank you for this, um, I thank you for technology and in in and that we can meet online, God, that even through a pandemic, God, that we can we can still gather together and we can still hear from your word and we can still worship together.

So, Father, I pray today that even though we're watching online, that your word remains true and your your your spirit would be with us today, God.

I I pray that today we would grow and grow, grow deeper in relationship with you, Father, and we thank you in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, have you ever have you ever done something kind of silly?

Or have you ever done something and like immediately regretted it?

And afterwards you had to ask yourself the question, why did I do that?

I think I've done this like a lot of times in my life, but uh, it's like this like face palm moment, right?

We're like, oh, oh my gosh, why did I do that?

Uh a number of years ago, I was with a friend, uh, his name is Jeremiah.

We called him Cubby, and uh he was like my best friend growing up.

I've told quite a bit of stories about him actually in our church.

Uh, but we were hunting squirrels, and uh, and we were about 15 at the time, and I had a slingshot, and my ammo was marbles.

I had like this bag of marbles in my pocket, and uh, my friend Cubby he had a pellet gun.

It was actually my pellet gun, and it was a very unique pellet gun.

It was like this little handgun, it had a little hand pump, and it was really, really loud when you like pumped it, it had makes this like really big squeaking noise, okay?

And so we're back in the back of our property, and we're we're trying to find these squirrels, and we haven't seen anything, and and I'm starting to get bored.

And so, if you if you if you have any uh children and they're they're boys, you know that when when boys get bored, right, they they start to do things that are not the best, they do something stupid often.

And so I'm getting bored, and I and I turn to my friend Cubby, and and of course I have this marble loaded into my slingshot already.

And so I don't know what I was thinking in this moment, but I started to pull the the slingshot back, and and I aim my slingshot at my friend's feet, who's like 25 we 25 feet away from me, and he's just walking, he's not done anything to me to upset me, like he's just like minding his own business, he's looking for animals to shoot, and I have this marble loaded up in my slingshot aimed at his feet, and I say, Hey Cub, you better run.

And of and of course he kind of just completely ignores me, like he doesn't he doesn't believe that I'm gonna shoot him.

Uh and and so I start counting down.

I say ten, and I'm like, I have this thing fully loaded, right?

Ten, nine.

He's like, dude, stop, stop.

You're not gonna shoot me.

Like, just just stop what you're doing.

And then he continues to just walk around and pay no attention to me.

Eight, seven, six, right?

I have this thing loaded.

Seriously, dude, like you're not gonna shoot me.

Like, just just stop.

And five, four, and then on three, it's almost as if my like my brain cognitivity just went from like ten to zero, and I just I just re I just decided to release the marble.

I released the slingshot, aimed at his ankles, and and the sound that these these these two objects make, his ankle and the marble, it was like two rocks hitting each other, right?

It's like smack! And and immediately, as soon as I hit him in the ankles, I started sprinting.

I was running as fast as I could because uh cubby was a pretty big guy, and he was very fast, and uh and he would always usually beat me in in any sort of like physical like wrestling match.

And so I'm running.

I am running for my life.

And and as soon as that that marble hit his ankle, I was I was gone.

And uh because the the sound I heard next was was was this awful scream and then anger, and then followed by that sound, there was a sound of my my pellet gun actually uh pumping, and it's like and then that and after that sound, there's crashes of bushes, and then after that sound, there's actually pellets whizzing by my body because he was shooting at me.

And in this moment, as I'm running through the bushes, I think I ran like a kilometer away from him, and he finally calmed down enough, and he had this like big bruise on his leg, and it was so stupid.

But I was in this moment, I was thinking to myself, like, why did I do that?

Why did I do that?

What was the reason that drew me to do that?

And and and honestly, I can say to this day that I still don't know why I did that.

But this got me thinking.

This story got me thinking to ask a question.

Why do we do the things that we do?

Why do we act the way that we act?

Why do we react to certain things?

Why do we think the way that we think?

Why does do I why do I have a certain thinking pattern?

Why do I do stupid things without thinking?

Right?

Why do I believe things or why do I behave a certain way?

And it's actually really interesting the way that our brain works.

And the way that our brain develops.

Uh, especially when we're children, we we all have this thing, we all have a cell in our brain that's called a mirror neuron.

A mirror neuron.

Mirror neurons are basically uh they're a group of neurons that activate when we perform an action, or more importantly, when we see an action performed.

Essentially, a mirror neuron are responsible for maybe when you see someone yawning, then you want to yawn.

It causes you to want to mirror that that action that someone's doing, or mirror neurons also act when someone's crying or sad.

And so what happens is we in turn feel sad.

We have empathy for that person.

That's where we build and we we learn how to have empathy.

And the same thing happens when when we're smiling or laughing, or when someone else is smiling or laughing, then laughter is contagious, the happiness is contagious.

And so this is actually really important for us uh to know, and especially as parents, if you're a parent, to filter what your kids are watching, right?

Or what video games they're playing, or if they have a if they have a cell phone, what they're consuming visually on their cell phone, uh, as well as you know, watching what you do or say around your kids.

Or they might end up like me shooting their friend in the ankle with a marble, right?

Um, but but this is really important for us to understand, not just as you know, people who are parents, and and it's not just important for when people are kids or when we're kids, but the development process continues as we grow older.

And my point is my point is this that we imitate what we see.

What we see, we imitate, right?

Our experiences shape who we are and and and what we do.

The good ones, the bad ones, you know, other people's opinions shape us, the people that we hang around uh shape us, our upbringing, all of it, right?

And essentially, we're all looking into a proverbial mirror, right?

We're imitating something that we see.

And and this draws us to our next question.

Um, which mirror are you looking at?

Which mirror in your life are you looking at?

Which mirror are we imitating?

Which mirror are you drawing your identity from?

Is it the rear view mirror?

There's many mirrors.

Is it the rearview mirror where it's the mirror of your past, the mirror of you know past mistakes or shame?

Or is it the mirror of uh other people's opinions where uh you're just trying to impress other people?

Or is it the mirror of you know Instagram, right?

Uh the mirror of comparing yourself to others.

There is a mirror that we are all looking at.

And when we look at these mirrors and we we we start to imitate them, we start to draw our identity from them, and our life becomes shaped by what we see.

And and we end up, what happens is we end up forgetting what we really look like, what we were designed to look like.

We forget our original design.

And and what happens is we actually end up bearing an image we were never supposed to bear.

Because when we go back to this uh this theme verse in Genesis 1, 27, we go back to the very beginning of the Bible, it says in verse 27, so God created man in his own image.

We were created to bear the image of God, to bear the likeness of God.

Humanity bears the image of a creator, right?

It's just like when you see an iPhone.

Uh, you know it's an iPhone, you know, I have an Apple product here, you can see the stamp, but you know it's an iPhone or an Apple product because of its specific design, right?

When the way it functions.

And uh and James, I want to kind of jump into this.

James paints a really interesting picture in James uh, chapter one, verse 22 to 25.

And it says this in James 1, 22 to 25.

Obey the word of God.

If you hear only and do not act, you are fooling yourself.

Anyone who hears the word of God and does not obey it is like a man looking at his face in a mirror.

And after he sees himself and goes away, he forgets what he looks like.

And in verse 25, it says, But the one who keeps looking into God's perfect law, into God's mirror, essentially, does not forget it and will do what it says and be happy as he does it.

God's word makes men free.

And I want to read this in verse 23, just one more time, just so you can catch it.

Anyone who hears the word of God does not obey it, is like a man looking at his face in the mirror, and after he sees himself, goes away and forgets what he looks like.

And at first, when I read this, I was like, well, and and maybe you're maybe you're thinking the same thing when you read this.

Like, how could how could someone forget what they look like?

Like, that's that's impossible, especially in our culture today.

Like, we have mirrors literally everywhere.

Like we have mirrors in the palm of our hand, 24-7, our cell phones.

We are like the selfie generation, right?

And and and you know, we have rear view mirrors in our car, we have like different kinds of mirrors in our car, we have I have a I have an awesome mirror at our house, like I look at it every day before I leave, make sure I'm I'm dressed okay or like my hair is all right.

We have mirrors in the bathrooms.

We literally have mirrors everywhere, and it's it's almost impossible for us in this generation and in our world, in our culture, to forget what we look like physically, right?

But if you go with me for a second, in James's day, you know, there was no cell phones.

And and uh and uh and mirrors, like the glass that mirrors were, the the actual glass was really rare.

Okay, and and especially um James is talking to the majority of people, right?

And if you were the majority, you probably didn't have a mirror in your house.

And and so only the well-off or the rich people would have a mirror in their house.

And so the odd time that someone might walk by or or be at someone's you know mansion for the day, or so I don't know how what what what uh exact timing they would see themselves in a mirror, but maybe they saw themselves in a mirror.

And for for for most people in James's day, it would be like looking at themselves for the first time.

And you think about that for a minute, like what would you do if you saw yourself for the very first time in a mirror and you'd never seen yourself before?

It would be incredible.

It would probably be like a mind-boggling moment.

And you would probably look really, really closely at this mirror, right?

You would investigate, you would examine yourself.

You know, if I saw myself for the first time in a mirror, I would probably tell myself, man, hey, like I gotta go to the gym.

Like, you're putting on some pounds here working in an office, okay?

You gotta go to the gym.

Or like, man, I gotta shave.

Like, I can't believe you guys let me walk around like this, right?

But my point is, my point is that that people in James' day had moments of clarity.

They had moments of clarity where they would see a mirror and they would see themselves for the very first time.

And and you know, not having constant access to a mirror, they would then, you know, walk away from the mirror and forget what they looked like.

And so these moments of clarity, maybe you've experienced something like this before where you had a moment of clarity and you saw yourself in this like proverbial mirror, right?

And you saw yourself for the first time, you know, like who you really are in Christ, right?

Like I'm you see yourself in that mirror and like, wow, I'm saved by grace.

Like, what I'm forgiven.

Jesus really loves me.

I'm his affection.

My identity comes from him, like nothing else matters.

And and and we have that moment of clarity, right?

And we get excited and we start saying, like, man, I need to change the world.

Like everyone needs to hear this truth that I know right now.

I need to tell every single person on this planet what I'm experiencing right now.

Like Jesus loves you so much, and we have these moments of clarity, but then we we walk away from the mirror, right?

And and after our moment of clarity, we're we're we're standing there like that's you know, that's who I am.

Like I'm a I'm a child of God.

That's that's who I wait, who who am I?

And we forget and we we get lost in the everyday of, you know, I gotta go to school, I have so much work to do, I'm tired, I'm busy, uh, you know, I got the kids today, and life comes at us and and and bills pile up, and we we start to look at all these other different mirrors that are around us.

We have Instagram and the TV and and other people like telling us what to think and the in the news, telling us how to vote, and and and we look at all these other mirrors and we we begin to forget what we look like.

And we for we forget who we really are and who we were meant to be and who we were designed to be.

And then we look at the mirror again, right?

We have this moment of clarity, and the fog lifts, and wow, God is so amazing, everything is is is so clear.

Maybe it was like a church service for you, maybe it was a youth camp, maybe it was a uh a church conference, maybe it was in your own home, and you had that moment of clarity, but then again, life happens and happens over and over, and we start to look at these societal and cultural mirrors around us, and we forget who we were made to be, and we forget what we're we're actually supposed to look like.

So if we jump back into this story that I read at the beginning in Genesis 15, I just wanna I just want to pull something out of this that I think is really important uh today in verse one to five.

And Abram is sitting in his tent, right?

He's sitting in his tent and he's he's having this conversation with God.

And he's and he's got a bit of an attitude towards God in this moment, right?

Because God says to him, Hey, do not be afraid, Abram.

I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.

Like that's a really encouraging statement that God says to Abraham, and and and this actually triggers Abram in a different way.

Like, like now he's thinking about that promise that God made to him in chapter 12, and and he where God said to Abram, I will make you a father of many nations, I will bless you.

Like you're gonna have many descendants.

Like, and Abraham's sitting here in his four walls, right, of his tent, and and he's thinking of all the things that haven't happened, and all that, all the parts of that promise that haven't happened.

And he's sitting here 80, 85 years old, he has no children, right?

He has no heir, he has a wife that's barren, she can't have kids.

And when you see Abram's response to God, you can see and sense the tone of like frustration, right?

Abram says back to God, Lord, like what will you give me?

Seeing that I am childless and the heir of my house is Elizar of Damascus, like like who he wasn't his son.

And so he's like, What are you doing, God?

Right?

And then Abraham goes on to say in verse three, he says, Look, you have given me no offspring.

Not one born in my house is my heir.

And now my the point is this that uh, you know, I don't think that I don't think that in this point there might in James' day, but I don't know if uh if if Abraham necessarily had a mirror in his tent.

But what Abraham's doing, or sorry, Abram's doing is he's looking at his circumstances and he's looking at the situation, and his eyes are focused on the wrong mirror in this moment.

And the only thing he can see is all of his shortcomings, right?

Got him.

I'm 85.

How am I supposed to have children, right?

You you're t you're telling me I'm gonna be the father of many nations.

That's not gonna happen.

I'm 85.

Like, I don't even know how long I have to live right now.

And when's this promise gonna happen that you you you made me, right?

When is this gonna happen?

Sarah can't have kids.

How am I supposed to be the father of many?

How am I supposed to do it, right?

And he's got his hands raised and he's staring at this situation, saying, I can't do this, God.

I'm incapable.

Like this is impossible.

And then God does something.

He he says to Abram, hey, come outside for a moment.

I want to show you something.

And he and he brings Abram out of his tent, right?

And he says, Hey, look out.

Change your perspective.

Try counting the stars.

And Adam, uh, or sorry, Abram at that moment, I imagine that he probably was like, Well, God said count the stars, so I guess I'll count the stars.

And he's he's sitting up at the he's looking up at the sky and he's like, one, two, you know, 103, 1004, 100,000 and five, right?

Like, like how long did it take Abram to realize that this was an impossible task, right?

You can't count the number of stars in the sky, in the galaxy.

And and you know, for me, I asked the question, like, what number did he reach before he realized that God was trying to show him something?

Right?

See, Abraham, Abram's mirror was the four walls of his tent.

His perspective was small, right?

It it was on his circumstances, his focus was on the circumstances and the situation.

He was looking into the mirror of God, I'm not enough.

Right?

I'm incapable.

I don't add up.

And so God brings him outside and gives him a new perspective, a new image, uh, a new mirror, if you will, to look at.

One that's limited by four walls, one that's not limited by human hands, one that's not limited by uh perspective or human perspective, and one that's certainly not limited by an opinion.

He says, Look up, count the stars.

That's how big my plans are for you.

Like, I am not nearly done yet with you, Abram.

My plans are not limited by your age or your situation.

Abraham, don't you see it?

Look up.

And then God even goes so further, so much further to uh he gives Abraham a new name, a new identity, and he calls him Abraham, the father, like that's literally what the name means, father of many nations.

So I want to ask you today, like, which mirror are you looking at?

Are you like Abram, where you're stuck in the four walls of your own perspective of yourself, where you're just focusing on how uh how fall, how short you fall from the opinions of others, or or or you just don't add up?

Um are you focusing on what you can't do?

Are you focusing on like how bad 2020 has been?

Are you focusing on on you just you know you just can't seem to get past those old habits?

Or are you focusing on what others think of you?

Are you focusing on the the issues and and the problems that are like right in front of you?

Are you just focusing on the wrong mirror?

And I think God right now is saying um through this that, hey, get out of your tent, get out of the perspective of small, get out of the perspective of those four walls, get out of that perspective of looking at those other mirrors that you shouldn't be looking at, and look up to my perspective.

Did you know that God's word is a mirror for who you really are?

Did you know that?

When we look into his mirror, we when we read about what he says about us, we start to see how he sees us.

And and from there, when we actually start to understand that and we start to draw on God's mirror for us, our thinking begins to change, our thought process begins to change, our perspective and our view of ourselves begins to change.

When we look into God's mirror, we start to see differently.

Instead of seeing rejection, we see exception, right?

In Romans 17, death, it says that death ruled like a king because Adam had sinned, but not, but that cannot compare with what Jesus Christ has done.

God has been so kind to us and he has accepted us because of Jesus.

Instead of worthlessness and and and feeling like we're never enough, right, we see that we are extremely valuable.

Isaiah 43, 4 says, Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you, I will give people in exchange for you and nations in exchange for your life.

Instead of feeling like you aren't worth loving and and and you fall short of God's love that you see in the Bible when you read it, you are eternally loved.

In 1 John 4 10, it says, In this is love.

Not that we love God first, but He first loved us and sent His Son to be perpetuation for our sins, to pay for our sins.

Right?

Instead of feeling like I can't be forgiven for what I'm done, uh for what I've done, I'm just covered in shame and mistakes, and I'm just staring at that rear view mirror uh uh that's behind me in my past.

You can see when you when you turn to God's mirror that you are fully forgiven.

In in 1 John uh 1 9, it says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us of our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

And in Romans 8 1, it says, Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Jesus.

Instead of feeling like Abram, right, where you you can't see past your circumstances or your you might feel like you're stuck in that tent, and you're staring at all the reasons why you can't.

And you're staring at all the reasons why you feel like, man, I'm not enough.

God is saying today, hey, come outside for a moment and and look up to the stars.

Your capability doesn't come from you, it comes from me, right?

In 2 Corinthians 10, sorry, 12 verse 10, it says, that is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weakness, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.

For when I am weak, I am strong.

And Philippians 4 13 says this.

It says, I can do all this.

It also says in another translation, I can do all these things, I can do all the hard things through him who gives me strength, through Christ who strengthens me.

When we turn our attention from all these mirrors, there's so many mirrors to look at in our culture.

But when we turn from the mirrors of culture and society and we turn to God's mirror, we look up to God's mirror.

Our confidence can change, our life will change, our thinking will change, our lifestyle can change.

And this morning, I just want to leave you with that.

And I want to encourage you to look up.

Can I pray for you?

Father God, I just thank you so much for this time that we have together this morning.

And God, I just pray right now that even as as people are watching online, God, that your spirit would be with them right now.

God, that your presence is here.

God, you would just take us out of our four walls where we where our perspective is small, where we think that we have our confidence in ourselves.

But God, would we would we look up to you?

God, would we come out of our tent and look up to you, God, and see how big and how immense and how amazing you are and how big your plans are for us, God, that we would begin to look up and we would look into God's word about what you say about us, God, that we would draw truth from your word.

And that would that would feed our identity in you, God, that it would strengthen us, God.

And I just thank you so much for your word.

I thank you so much for your son, Jesus, that he has fully forgiven us, that he through him we are fully forgiven.

We are eternally loved, and we are capable in him to do all things.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Well, thank you so much for being with us on our online service.

Uh, I pray that you have a good rest of your day, and I pray that that blessed you today.

Uh, like and share and comment to a friend, and God bless you.