Pastor Brodie Kalaman | His Own Image Series | Oct 18, 2020

Welcome to Kelowna Christian Center.

Before we begin, I want to take a moment to invite you to rally some friends together.

Go ahead and share this link on your Facebook page.

Go ahead and text some people and family friends.

Let them know that church is online and get them to join with you and hear the message together so that you can grow together.

We also want to thank you for continuing to give faithfully to KCC.

We know that by you giving through the app or giving on the website or coming into the office and just saying hello and connecting with us and giving at the front desk there, that you're on board with us through this time.

And it's just so much appreciated by us, by our community here, and by our teams to know that you're continuing to support through your giving.

We love you so much.

For all of those of you who are faithfully watching each week online, uh, thank you also for leading from your living room.

I know it's a different place to lead from.

I know many of you are continuing to engage in worship, continuing to amen to the word and engage with this word and write up and text up in the in the comment sections, either on Facebook or wherever you're watching, and just uh showing that you're online.

It's so important.

I know that many people have been dramatically affected by this COVID coaster we've had to go through, but it doesn't stop us as believers, as Christ followers, from continuing to lead well, and to continue to be that and carry that life-giving spirit with us into the world and into our families, into our neighborhoods.

We do believe that we're called to make a difference, and that doesn't stop during this season.

So keep leading, keep leading, even if it's from your living room, keep leading.

For those of you who are coming and joining us on Sundays, it's awesome to have you with us and to come every second week is allowing us to be able to see everyone every few weeks, and we just love seeing people in the room, love seeing our place full of worshipers together.

It's great.

In this series, uh, in his image, created in his image, we're addressing the issue of identity, the elements of identity.

And it's one of the fundamental tasks of living is figuring out why and why we're here and who we are.

It's discovering why God placed us in the place where He's placed us and why on earth and what I'm on earth here to do.

How we see ourselves actually affects our life.

It affects our relationships, our stress levels, it affects our happiness, it determines our success levels and even our connection with God, how we view ourselves and how we believe God views us determines our connection to God.

So how do you see you?

That's the big question.

What is God's true view of you?

And are you living the way God says you're to be living?

And who does God say you are?

In our service before Thanksgiving, we discussed God's true view of you, that you're completely accepted and you're extremely valuable.

And we touched on those two points in 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 8 through 10.

1 Peter 2:8–10

Today we'd like to continue on that series start and affirm that you are, and this is the third point, eternally loved.

Eternally loved.

I am eternally loved.

If you just say that out loud, you need to hear yourself say it.

I am eternally loved.

Believe me, you are lovable.

God's true view of you is that you are lovable.

1 Peter chapter 2, verse 10 affirms this.

1 Peter 2:10

It says, You were not a people, but now you are the people of God.

You are God's people.

This has profound implication.

When you accept Christ into your life, you become part of his family.

And now this family is called the church.

The church is the family of God.

It's the only thing that will go to heaven.

Our people, the family of God, will go to heaven, God's family.

It will last forever.

You are loved, you are made to become a part of his family.

Now, God, he is not ashamed of his family.

Hebrews chapter 2, verse 11 says, both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family.

Hebrews 2:11

So Jesus is not ashamed to call you and get this a brother or a sister.

You are a part of his family.

I'm so grateful that Jesus is not ashamed of us.

Sometimes when I look at the church or the way the church acts at points in time, I cringe a little, but to know that God realizes that we're faulted and that we need help, but he still loves us and he doesn't reject us and he acknowledges us as brothers and sisters makes a huge difference.

Jesus says we are part of his family.

We're a part of his fam.

And this shows us the infinite value and the infinite uh love that God has for us.

Jeremiah chapter 31, verse 3 says this.

Jeremiah 31:3

It says, God has loved you, my people, with an everlasting love.

With unfailing love, he draws you to himself.

Now, no one loves like this.

It's everlasting love.

It's love that literally will last forever, eternal.

It is unfailing love.

This is the kind of love that that um that I would hope was in my heart, but I know it's not in my heart.

I've had people in my life who've loved me and their love has failed me.

And I know that I've loved people and I have failed people.

I know I love my wife and I failed my wife.

I know I love my children and I failed my children.

I know I love my church, and yet at times I failed my church, my community.

And I know that, but God's love is unfailing love.

His love will not fail.

His love never fails.

Can you believe that?

His love does not fail.

And the Bible says he draws you to himself, he pulls you in.

His love will not fail, and he's pulling you in.

He's wanting to keep you close.

That's the kind of love that God has for us.

Not just a verbal love, but a demonstrative love that says, come close to me.

That's what I want.

God wants you to know this love.

But even more than know the love, he wants to experience.

He wants you to feel this love.

This love is not just a knowledge that comes from up here.

It's something that we as people need to realize and recognize in our own heart.

God's love will literally transform you when you feel it.

It turns someone who's hateful, bigoted, racist, evil.

It'll turn them into someone who's kind and generous and loving and sensitive.

When God's love is experienced, it is literally transforming.

And God says, you are lovable.

You are worthy of my love.

You are worth loving.

You are worth me pouring love on you.

That is who you are.

You're created in my image, and I've created you to love you.

It changes you.

If you haven't felt this change in your life, then my guess is that you haven't experienced this love of God.

Because this love of God, if it changes everything it touches.

You can't have someone as big as God come into your life and it not leave you different.

When God injected himself into my heart and exploded inside of me, and his spirit awakened me to life.

It changed my life.

Jesus described it like this: He said, It will change you to the point that your love that used to be just for yourself becomes unselfish.

And he says, This is what will happen.

You will begin to love other people.

Instead, he says, This is actually my commandment.

Go ahead and love another.

Love others.

Love one another just as I loved you.

And you love each other.

And when the world sees your love for each other, they'll say, Wow, you're a Christian.

Because no one else can do that except there is a transforming power in your life called love.

The kind of love that comes from God.

We saw this dramatic effect of love happening in the Apostle Paul, where Paul was a religious zealot, an extremist, who was going from city to city, persecuting Christians, publicly shaming them, some of them pulling them into streets and stoning them in public, killing them in public.

He was on a mission.

And the scripture says that when he encountered the love of God, it literally knocked him off his horse, landed him on the ground, blinded him, blinded him, and God spoke to him.

Why are you persecuting me?

And Paul came to a recognition that God loved him.

And that transformation actually created in him a revelation that caused him to write that love chapter in Corinthians chapter 13, 1 Corinthians 13.

That love chapter.

It transformed Paul from a murderous individual with murder in his heart to someone who is willing to die for others and live his life loving and caring and supporting other people.

Transformative.

God loves us.

We're worthy of his love.

Now, you and I need to understand this love in order to understand ourselves and our own identity.

And so by understanding these loves, we need to love, we need to understand these two characteristics of God's love.

Number one, it is unconditional.

Now, many of you have seen the Hollywood preview of love.

A boyfriend, girlfriend, you've got people who are in love with people, but oftentimes these conditions apply.

I'll love you if, if you do things for me, if you have money, if you have looks, if you have or provide opportunity for me.

It's conditional love.

I'll love you if or I'll love you because, because you're you're someone who sacrificed for me, because you're you've got a job, or because you can forward my career.

I'll love you if or I'll love you because the scripture says that God's love for you is unconditional.

In fact, he loves you not if or because he loves you, period.

He loves you because you're worthy of love.

He loves you in spite of the fact that you don't even love him.

If you're listening today and you're like, well, I don't even love God, that doesn't change God's love for you.

Romans 5.8 says that while you were still a sinner, Christ came and loved you enough to die for you.

While you were still a sinner, Christ loved you.

He came and died for you.

So this is the heart of God is that God loves us even when we don't love ourselves, even when we don't love Him.

God loves us.

It's not conditional love, it's unconditional love.

And secondly, God's love is consistent.

It means that God's love itself isn't fickle, it's not unpredictable.

Some people have said, well, man, I don't know if if, you know, in my life I've experienced love, but it was often inconsistent.

I didn't know if my mom and dad loved me or, you know, loved me or hated me if they were going to hug me or slug me.

You know, I don't, I didn't know that.

Kind of love.

Well, let me tell you today, God's love is consistent love.

You may have grown up that way, but that's not the way God operates with that question in your heart.

Will God love me today?

Yes, he will.

The Bible says that he does not change.

Because I, the Lord, I do not change.

His love for you was there from the beginning till the end.

It's that full measure of love.

It is unconditional, it is consistent, it's everlasting, and it's eternal.

This love that God has for you will last.

Paul's prayer in Ephesians was this prayer for you and for me.

And uh it's my prayer for the church and for our community that we would come to know this love, that we would be rooted, that we would capture this love, we would be established in this love that is deep and wide and tall and rich, that we would understand this love because this love literally allows us to be filled to the fullest measure of love from God.

Love changes us, and God's love for us is what will change us.

So you are lovable, you are eternally loved, and that is who you are.

So when you wake up in the morning, you need to realize you are loved.

You may think no one else loves you, but let me tell you, you are loved.

And you are loved yesterday and you'll be loved tomorrow, and you can rest and you can live secure in the love that God has for you.

Now, why are you eternally loved?

You are eternally loved because God is love.

Psalm 105 says this God's love is eternal, and his faithfulness lasts forever.

God's view of you is not only are you completely accepted, not only are you extremely valuable, but you are eternally loved.

This is incredible.

This is who you are.

This is who God sees you.

This is God's true view of you.

Number four, you are not only those things, but you are totally forgiven.

First Peter chapter 2, verse 10 says this.

1 Peter 2:10

At one time, at one time, you did not know God's mercy, but now you've received this mercy.

You are totally forgiven.

Before you may have been living in guilt, living in shame, living in the pain of things that you've done or the things that were done to you, but now you've received God's mercy and God's grace, and now you're living as someone totally new.

Before God even created you, before you took your first breath, he knew the worst things that you would do.

There's no surprises to God.

And he chose at that point to be willing to forgive, to be able to totally forgive you from the very beginning, while he knew that you would mess up, while he knew what you would do and how long you would do it for, how long you would reject him, how long you would uh uh um violate him and and call his name in vain.

As long as you would do that, the Bible says that you are you are totally forgiven if you choose it.

First John chapter 1, verse 9 says this if you confess your sins, he's faithful and he's just and will forgive you of your sins and purify you from any unrighteousness.

1 John 1:9

The good news that in Christ your sins are literally wiped out.

Literally wiped out.

It's like taking a brush to a chalkboard and washing that chalkboard clean.

You could list all the things you've done wrong, and you're totally forgiven when you approach God and say, Jesus, forgive me.

He's the scripture says he is willing and able to forgive you of every sin.

Now, even seasoned Christians uh question God's ability to totally forgive because we have a difficulty forgiving ourselves.

And we think if it's difficult for us, imagine what God must be experiencing.

But the fact is we're not God.

And the fact is God is his grace, and if we understand it fully, we'll understand that that God doesn't operate the way we operate.

God's grace is greater than our sin.

Where sin abounds, that's where grace abounds, even more so.

Romans 8.1 says that there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

If you're in Christ, there is no condemnation towards you.

Not one grudge God holds against you.

God doesn't hold grudges against you.

He doesn't rehearse your sin.

In fact, the scripture says he releases you from your sin.

So don't think of God as someone who's just constantly reminding and rehearsing your sin.

God releases you from that sin.

You are totally forgiven.

And here's two reasons why you're forgiven.

Number one, it's God's nature to forgive.

It is literally who He is.

He is a forgiving God.

If you ever had that question, man, I've done so many things wrong.

I've I've said sorry before, and then I went back and I did it again.

All that does is expose your sinful nature, the nature of who you are, your need for God.

But each time you do that, you need to realize this is God's role.

He says, I am a forgiving God.

I'm here to forgive.

Isaiah 43, 25 says this: I am the God who forgives your sins.

This is what I do.

I do this because of who I am.

I will not hold your sins against you.

He doesn't put them in front of you, remind you of them.

He releases you from the power of that sin against your life.

Now, if God's forgiven you, you need to forgive yourself.

You need to realize that God doesn't hold these things against you, then you can't hold these things against yourself.

God is a forgiving God.

He wants to forgive.

It's his nature to forgive.

And secondly, Jesus has already paid for your sin completely so that you don't have to pay for them.

I think about it like pre-ordering something in advance where someone goes ahead and orders me a coffee from Starbucks, and I've got that mobile order went through.

And I arrive at the Starbucks, and there's my drink sitting on the counter for Brody.

And it's that Americano with an inch of heavy steamed cream.

It's sitting right there.

And I walk up and I pick it up.

They don't ask me to pay for it because it's already been paid.

It'd be silly to ask to pay for it again.

But the reality is that when it comes to our sin, Jesus has already paid for your sin.

You are already forgiven.

The cross did it all for you.

Not anything you could do, but Jesus did it all for you.

Ephesians chapter 1, verse 7, for by the blood of Christ we're set free.

Ephesians 1:7

Free.

Our sins are forgiven.

How great is the grace of our God.

Imagine that.

How great is the grace of our God that our sins are already forgiven.

We're walking with our future that's already our freedom, already paid for.

We just need to receive it.

So God's true view of you is this is your true identity that you are totally forgiven.

So you are completely accepted.

Completely acceptable.

You are extremely valuable.

You are eternally.

Lovable and you're totally forgiven.

This is what God says about you.

Lastly, today, I want to tell you that you are totally capable.

Totally capable.

Do you know what God says about you?

That you are not incompetent, that you are not someone who's incapable.

You aren't a nobody.

In fact, you are capable to be who God created you to be.

If God's appointed you, he's anointed you, he's equipped you with everything that you need to fulfill the purpose that God has placed in your heart.

Capable.

1 Peter 2.9 says that you are a royal priest, chosen to tell about the wonderful acts of God, who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

He made you his representative.

Now, when I'm in church, people think of me as the preacher, the pastor at Kelowna Christian Center.

They think, you know, you're the priest.

When I look at you, I see a room full of priests.

I see a room full of people who have the who are ministers called of God to be a royal priesthood before the world.

Now, what does a priest do?

A priest represents God to man and man to God.

What an incredible job.

You're the royal priesthood.

You are God's representative here on earth to show him to the world and to show the world to him.

And this is an incredible place that we have, uh our position we have to operate from.

Acts 26, 18 says that this is our job to open eyes and turn them from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God, so that they could receive forgiveness of sin and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.

This is our role to be a priest, to be a representative of heaven on earth.

You are fully capable, you are chosen to do the wonderful acts of God on this earth.

So don't restrict yourself, don't limit yourself, don't put a ceiling, but just say, God, what have you got for me to do today?

I am fully capable.

I am capable of doing whatever you need me to do today.

I think about the role in the Salvation Army where Booth was saying, I'm standing at attention, whatever my duty is today to do, I know I'm called and capable to do it.

That's our heart.

As a church, we we go about planting churches and establishing missions and missionaries around the world, building online platforms to disciples, students, and we're operating as priests, bringing hope to the hopeless, bringing reconciliation to people who are far from God, bringing them close, taking care of the sick, educating the next generation.

We do that, and it's a massive agenda.

We do that because of the call of God on our life to be these representatives of the world in the world.

And it might be a huge agenda and it might seem overwhelming, but the fact is that we've been equipped to do it.

That's why Philippians 4.13 is so relevant that I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

I can do it.

2 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 5 says this, and this is something I put on the wall, put on, put on your mirror, put on in front of you, like on your side table beside your bed.

2 Corinthians 3:5

When you wake up, say the capacity we have, it comes from God.

The capacity, the capability we have, it comes from God.

It's He who has made us capable of serving this new position, this new covenant that we have.

You are completely capable.

And it's not a reason to boast in ourselves, it's to say, we're capable because He's made us capable.

It's important for you to know this because most people live with this uh gnawing sense of insecurity.

We don't feel capable, and we don't feel like we're enough, and we don't feel like we have the ability to do the things that God wants us to do.

We don't feel this way, don't we don't feel secure, we feel insecure.

And we feel this way because of things that people have said to us and old tapes that we replay in our mind.

Instead of believing what God says about us, we believe what other people say about us and those things that they said of us that are not true.

We need to replace those thoughts, we need to replace it with the truth, because the scripture says it's the truth that sets us free.

It's the truth that that makes us capable, sets us free to do the things that God has equipped us to be able to do.

So we have Christ in us.

He has made us capable, and my capacity in myself is limited, but with Christ in me, I can do all things.

I am incredibly capable.

Um I know that there are there have been a lot of studies, and and there's this one study that was conducted, and it only makes sense to me that the earlier that you were rejected, the earliest point in your life that you were rejected, uh you carry that rejection through the years of your life, and you carry it into your development and stages of your personal development.

And even it goes back to this study, goes back to even pre-born babies that were rejected in the womb.

And there's a power to the words that were spoken over these babies, over these children, over these young people.

And the words that were said are curses over a life.

And the scripture says that the tongue has the power to bless or has the power to curse.

And some people have used that, their tongue to curse, and they've they've spoken over people, and they've said things like, You don't matter, you're incapable, you'll never amount to anything, you're not wanted.

Uh those words actually leave a mark on the soul.

And and this curse is established over someone's life when they've heard these words and they register in the heart.

So we go ahead and it's very simple.

We just begin to break and reverse that curse.

And the way we reverse the curse is we allow God's words to trump any other words.

God's words become the primary, become supreme.

And we believe what God says about us.

And so what He says we are, we begin to believe.

And that's why this series has been so important.

And it may seem like we've rushed through this series, but it's because I want you to be able to re-listen to this message.

I want you to be able to hear these words and begin to recite them and meditate on them in your own heart.

That you are capable, that you are fully capable.

You are capable.

And this identity in who you are begins to be determined by God's words and not other people's words.

Like we realize that a large part of how we view ourselves, how uh we see ourselves, how we self-identify, happens based on how people view us, how people who we trust or people who we um who we think are important in our lives, how they view us.

And we begin to base our life up on those people's perspective of us.

And if that's true, and if that's the case, I would recommend that you make Jesus Christ the most important person in your life, and you make his words the most important words that you're listening to in your life.

Care about what he says more about what other people say you are.

It's the fact that he says that you're acceptable, the fact that he says that you're valuable, the fact that he says you're lovable, the fact that he says you're forgiven, the fact that he says you're capable matters more than what other people say.

So take these scriptures, take this message, begin to cut it out around your room, put it on a memo on your phone, and when you're driving in the car, just play it and recite back these scriptures that say who you truly are.

It's God's true view of you that matters.

And this will open your heart and it will it will open your heart to who God has made you to be, but it'll also help you recognize who God created other people to be.

And the way it'll translate in your life is you'll begin to see other people the way God sees them.

Not only were you created in God's image, but God created others in the whole world.

You've got a population of people that were created in God's image with the seed of heaven in their heart.

And if God has helped you awaken to who your potential in Him, your identity in Him, then maybe you can help others find their identity in Christ as well.

So, Father, help me to see the way you see me.

Help me to love me the way you love me.

Help me to recognize and forgive the way you've forgiven me.

Help me to support other people who may be questioning their identity.

Help me to move forward in my faith.

Help me to grow in my identity and be a help to other people.

Help me to make a difference the way you've made a difference in my life.

So I want you before we close to repeat these words out loud.

And I don't, I don't know where you may be sitting right now.

You don't have to say it out loud, too loud, but I want you this to register in your heart as we just close this series up.

I want you to register this because of Jesus.

You can go ahead and say this because of Jesus.

I am completely acceptable.

I am extremely valuable.

I am eternally lovable.

I am completely forgiven, and I am fully capable.

God bless you.

May you walk in this truth that sets you free to live the way God intended you to live.

God bless you, KCC.