The Likeness of God | What Does It Mean to Be Human?

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

Well, good morning, Awakening Church.

I am so honored and thrilled to be back with you.

And I love how it takes a while for you guys to greet each other because that's a sign of a healthy church.

You actually are actually greeting.

You're not just this polite hello, but you're actually speaking to one another and catching up, and I just love to see that.

So how it's, you know, now it is that I've been here a few times, it's starting to feel a little bit like home.

And thanks, Dave, for that warm introduction.

I have Marnie on my slides.

We have my favorite worship people up here.

It's so fun.

And now I get to work with some of the awakening staff, and I got to see them in real life.

And I was just telling Serena that because I see them on Zoom, I'm like, oh, you're really much tinier than you look on Zoom.

I just had everybody in their boxes, so now I've been seeing, okay, now different people have different heights.

So it's been it's been really fun.

So thank you for bringing me back.

And I'd love for us to just pray and go before the Lord and invite him more fully into our time together.

Lord Jesus, thank you for the privilege of opening up your word, of learning from you.

Thank you for your spirit who is already here with us, has been working in our hearts.

And God, I ask that you would just use my words, God, that you would filter them by your spirit and that each person here would hear exactly what it is they need from you.

God, open our ears to hear you, our hearts to absorb what we're hearing and just root it deep into our foundation and give us the courage and the openness and the surrender to hear you and then to live it out.

So, God, we just invite you to work fully in this space and however the way you will work, and just thank you for the privilege of being able to share your word with everyone here.

In Christ's name we pray, amen.

So a few months ago, Pastor Ryan invited me to come preach in this foundation series, and he sent me um, then I was like, okay, sure.

And then he sent me the title of the topic, and it said, What does it mean to be human?

And I was like, whoa, this is like a huge, huge topic.

And then it took me way back to, like, way, way back, to when I was a sophomore in college.

And I took my philosophy 101 class, and the professor opened that class by asking the same question.

He asked, What does it mean for us to be human?

And then we spent the whole semester reading all these philosophers, existentialists and rationalists, and then nihilists.

And nihilists are really, really depressing.

Um, and we kept trying to dig at this question of what does it mean to be human?

So here were some of the answers that came up.

Plato said humans are rational souls, and that it is our ability to reason that sets us apart.

And then Aristotle came along and said humans are unique because we're both rational and social.

We are political creating animals.

And then Descartes, he's the guy who said, I think, therefore I am.

He saw humanness as rooted in our self-awareness and our ability to have self-reflection.

And then Immanuel Kant came along and said, it's because of moral autonomy that we are uniquely able to act in accordance with moral law.

And so all of that is true to a degree, and you can kind of nod, yeah, that makes sense.

But as a Christian, I was like, no, something's missing, something's missing here.

And then finally, after studying all of these people, we had like one week, less than a week, to study two Christian philosophers and theologians.

And St.

Augustine in 400 AD, he integrated theology with Plato, and he argued that humans are made in God's image because of their rational souls and the capacity for love.

And then St.

Thomas Aquinas in the 1200s said, emphasized that humans reflect God's character through reason, free will, and moral agency.

And the critical difference between these Christian philosophers and the secular ones was that they didn't start with what is human.

They started out with God as the creator.

And this is the starting point for the Bible in Genesis 1.

And this is the perspective that gives us the foundation to answer life's most pressing questions.

So lately we've all been inundated with AI, right?

We've been reading, it's all about artificial intelligence, generative, how it's gonna change everything, take our jobs, blah, blah, blah, it's gonna do all the things.

And so it really begs the question, though, over and over, the question keeps being asked if AI can replace us in a lot of our activities or work or make us more efficient or effective, then what is the essence of what we bring, that humans uniquely bring, that non-human entities could never, never create?

So, what's our essential purpose?

And so, in some ways, these verses we're gonna study today in Genesis is what I've called the source code.

And I have to just pause right here about, just at the riskiness of me using the term source code as a polypsci major here in the Silicon Valley with compsci people in the room.

But um, Chat GPT told me that this is an appropriate metaphor, so I'm using it.

So, source code, because God is our creator, the unique, original, first and only programmer for humans, he wrote the source code for humanity.

He provides the operational foundation, the framework, the function of what it means to be human.

He's defining it.

And so let's turn in our Bibles to Genesis 1, 26 to 31, and I'm reading from the New Living Translation.

Then God said, Let us make human beings in our image to be like us.

They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.

So God created human beings in his own image.

In the image of God, he created them.

Male and female, he created them.

Then God blessed them and said, Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and govern it, reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.

And then God said, Look, I have given you every seed-bearing plant throughout the earth and all the fruit trees for your food.

And I've given every green plant as food for all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, and the small animals that scurry along the ground, everything that has life.

And that is what happened.

Then God looked over all he had made, he saw that it was very good.

And then evening passed, morning came, marking the sixth day.

So the text in Genesis 1.6 refers to two similar Hebrew words.

The word translated as image in verse 26a is the Hebrew word salam.

And it connotates the idea of likeness or a shadow or an image or representative figure.

And it's related in the New Testament Greek to the word icon or idol, kind of like a coin that's been stamped with an image.

It's kind of that idea.

Then the second Hebrew word translated in English as likeness is Demut.

And that conveys the idea of an object made that is similar to, uh fashioned as a representative of something else, and it resembles it, but it's not identical to it.

So notice how both words in Genesis 1, image and likeness, they both point to the divine originator of creation.

It's about God, it's not about us.

And these same two words are used later in Genesis 5 to describe Adam when he has a son, Seth.

And it says that Seth was created in his image, in his likeness.

So being made in the image of God is similar to how our children sometimes resemble their parents.

They're not identical to us, but they do resemble us in some ways.

So part of the joy of coming up to awakening is I get to hang out with my good friends Robbie and Brita, and Robbie and I served at our church for years together.

And last night we got to hang out and I got to see their twins who are like beyond adorable.

And so fun to notice how they resemble him or Britta in looks and also in personality.

And of course, they're ridiculously beautiful, like their parents, but it's interesting to see their personalities now.

So one daughter is more chill and easygoing, and she's just so sweet.

And then the other one is more feisty and bold and adventurous.

And if you know Robbie, you may guess which one he may be more similar to, and which one might resemble him a bit more at times, anyway.

I think they they both resemble both parents, but it's this idea that from a biblical perspective, human beings are in some sense both like God and unlike God, the one who made us.

So Old Testament scholar John Golden Gate explains in his commentary on Genesis, he says, God is the Holy One, the supernatural one, the heavenly one, the one who is, was, and is to come, who has no beginning and no end.

Human beings are the opposite of all that.

We are ordinary, earthly, and limited.

We come into being, we live, and we die.

God is in a different league of persons from us, but God is a person like us, not an abstract force or a principle.

So despite the huge difference, Genesis says that we are made in God's image.

Human beings are the kind of entity God would be if God were earthly.

And it is this fact that eventually makes possible, even makes natural, God's incarnation in Christ.

Christ is the perfect original and we are the created reflections of God.

And in our world today, when we often judge people, ourselves included, and we're reduced to our jobs or our political views or socioeconomic status, our age or generation, or our social media brands, apparently people are now brands, that instead God offers us a completely different measure.

As God's image bearers, we have inherent, intrinsic worth, and we're called to contribute goodness to human flourishing, representing the good God that is our creator.

So in Judeo-Christian theology, we use this Latin phrase imagodei, literally just means in the image of God, is a shorthand to describe this biblical truth, that we are God's image bearers.

And this is what distinguishes us from every other earthly creature.

So being created in the image of God is an inherent, inseparable part of being human.

It's not to say that we are God in human form, but rather that we are God like, in the sense that we reflect the image of God in our essence and in our attributes.

So this reality fundamentally shapes who we are and who we are called to be.

So this doctrine of Imago Dei is the reason why we believe in the intrinsic value, the innate worthiness of every human being.

From the womb to the grave, every human, regardless of their stage of development, is an imager of God.

And notice, too, that gender equality here that would have been so totally radically different and unheard of in ancient Eastern patriarchal culture.

So in verse 27, it says, So God created human beings in his own image.

And then he underscores it.

In the image of God, he created them.

And then he highlights it again.

Male and female, he created them.

Genesis emphasizes and explicitly how God created humanity as both male and female.

Imago Dei is gender neutral.

There's no hierarchical distinction between the bearers of the divine image.

Male and female, we are equal in status before God.

And we comprise of the image of God together.

And in fact, both are needed together to fulfill the divine mandate, to multiply and to be responsible over the earth.

So you and I, we matter to God because we were created in his image and we matter to this world.

And yet we look around and we see so much brokenness, and we see how this image of God has been marred and destroyed by just not just our own sin, but also systemic sin and war and oppression and evil and so much brokenness.

So the image of God sometimes is hard to see in people.

But but God still unconditionally loves us.

And as the psalm we read in worship, that who is man that God is mindful of us?

Like he chooses to work through us, through human beings that are deeply flawed images of him.

And so we are at our best humanness when we reflect this image and we partner with what God is doing in the world.

So what are some ways that we bear God's image?

Okay, so I'll go through these are kind of the philosopher's answers, but they come, they help us kind of get a picture of what are the ways that we do reflect Him.

So it's reason, the ability to think and logically process past, present, and future.

Morality that we assess judgment and we know right from wrong.

Agency, that's the ability to exert our desires and wills into action.

It's self-determinism, basically, that we can make things happen, but we're also really limited by our humanness and our lack of control.

And then the relational piece as an imagery of God.

Remember the plural in Genesis 1 when we're reading that?

When God made humans, he uses the plural, let us make humans.

It's the first allusion to the Trinity.

Since God is 311, we just sang about this and praised Him for this, Father, Son, and Spirit.

They are in perfect harmony.

They're in relationship with one another.

And that human humanity expresses God's image best through relationships.

When we relate to one another with love, respect, and care, whether in our families or our churches or workplaces, wherever we are in the community, we are reflecting that relational aspect of God's character.

And then finally, creativity.

God is the original creator, and what an incredible imagination he has.

Like you think about, you know, he could have had just maybe 20 kinds of fish, but if you've been to an aquarium, they're like 2,000 kinds, right?

Like he is extravagant in his imagination and what he has created in nature.

And even people who don't know him still like when they go to a place like a Grand Canyon or they go to nature, there's something in us that responds to that creativity in nature.

Um, and we just kind of recognize that something else, something so much bigger than us, made that possible.

And I used to think that I was a nerdy little kid, and I used to think that I'm not really creative.

I just like books, I'm kind of, you know, I'm not an artist or writer or um musician, and so I thought I'm not really creative, but that was wrong.

Because what I've come to understand is that being made in the image of God, who is the ultimate creator, is that we also have in us this imagination, this ability to create.

Because it's it's built into us as image bearers.

So think about you know, if you plan a meal and you cook it, that's an act of creativity.

If you fix up your house or your car or you fix the plumbing, you're using your creativity in there.

If you're parenting kids, oh my goodness, are you being creative?

Um, if you've ever had to occupy a kid on an airplane for an hour or two, you need to use lots of creativity there.

So everything we do, if you're writing code, if you're doing whatever you're doing your job to problem solve, that's also requires creativity.

We can't help but create because we are co-creators with God, because he put that into us.

And so, of course, though, on the flip side, there's so many ways we are not like God.

To be human is to be finite.

We are limited, we are sinful, we are vulnerable, and we are not in control.

And we all recognize this and we know this innately, that there are limitations to our self-control and to the plans we have, and then the ability to execute them.

Despite all the promises of AI and biohacking, our way to the best life, we see natural disasters like we just had the fires in Southern California where I'm from, and high fires, earthquakes, plane accidents, you name it, crimes, cancers, um, layoffs, these things all remind us of in a how in a heartbeat, everything can change.

We don't have control.

We are um utterly dependent on our God.

So to be human is to be temporary, like the vapor or a fog, as James Ford describes.

We're here for a little bit and then we're gone.

So then how shall we live in that little bit of time?

And I propose that we take seriously our identity as imagers of God and live into that identity.

That the more we we live by God's design in us, the more we become the best flourishing versions of ourselves and in our humanness.

And so there's, I in embracing our identity, there's four areas that I think this shows up in our relationship with creation, in our relationship with ourselves, with God, and with each other.

And each of these four areas would be like a sermon all by itself.

So we're just gonna touch on this and scratch the surface on this.

But as we unpack each one, I've been praying that the Holy Spirit will nudge you towards insight or towards ways that you see, okay, how can I rebuild more of God's image and partner with God in that?

So let's start off first.

Imago Day impacts how we relate to earth and to all creation.

So Genesis 1 gives us this authority structure.

God is the supreme authority in control of all of it, all the earth.

Psalm 24, 1, the earth is the Lord's, everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.

So God then commissions and delegates his authority to us as humans, giving us the responsibility to steward and to care for creation.

So it's like having a trusted administrative admin, right?

Where they get to schedule things for their boss, send out emails, make decisions, make sure stuff is working out.

So they're doing what the boss would do if the boss was the one doing them.

And it's a little bit like that.

So we there's this implied expectation that because humans inherently carry Imago Day, that we would govern the world with love the way God would in our place.

So God invites us to exercise good and ethical stewardship, not to dominate, not to ruin, not to exploit with greed, but to cultivate and manage the world responsibly.

So, how are we doing with that?

Look at our planet and look at what's happening, the climate crisis, and so many things, it's overwhelming and we haven't done the best job.

Um, but and we may individually not be policymakers, we may not be environmental engineers, but we all have a part to play in protecting and caring for the earth as part of God's image in us.

So my mother, who is um lives half the year in Korea and she lives half the year in LA, and every time she comes back to LA, she is appalled by the amount of trash that gets collected and the amount of food waste there is.

And in Korea, they have this very strict uh waste management system that separates them into a whole bunch of different containers.

They and you're limited, household is limited to how much they can put into it.

And if you put like a food scrap into the wrong container, the fine is like$500 or more.

So they've really taken this super seriously because they are a tiny country and they want to make sure their landfills don't fill up.

And so Korea leads the world with almost 0% food waste, they compost 98% of it.

So I was thinking maybe along with K-pop and K drama, we can do like K recycling and K composting, which is really not as shiny as K-Beauty, but I think you know we can learn some things from that.

So something like recycling, yeah, yeah, you're like, yeah, okay.

Or um my husband and I went to Costa Rica last year for our anniversary, and our we paid um in a national park, and they said, Oh, part of this fee, why you're this is so expensive, is because we ask every visitor to plant a tree.

And we need to work on reforestation, so it's just kind of built into the system.

And we were glad to pay it, and it was such a lovely thing.

We got to plant the tree, and it just gave us a little more of that connection to this is God's earth, and we are um asked to take good care of it.

So something like you know, recycling, planting a tree, picking up garbage on a trail, um, or driving a you know, hybrid or electric car.

I mean, they seem like little things, but they can have a big impact.

And more importantly, whatever that thing is, it's the idea of the heart of thinking around, looking around at our creation, going, this is not just for us.

This is for how do we want to steward it the way God would want us to, and we want to manage it in that way.

So the second implication of being an image bearer of God is how we see ourselves.

And if I were to ask you, who are you?

you might respond by giving me your job, title, or um, you know, where you work or what your family is like.

Um, you may be like Pastor Dave last week.

I was watching the sermon, this um, the service, and he went, he's a big Eagles fan.

So he identified himself as an Eagles fan, which a lot of sports fans do.

Um, you know, I think people identify themselves by their ethnicity or race or religion.

I typically say something like, I'm a 1.5 Korean American.

And that short sentence tells you a lot about my life experience.

And these are all parts of who we are, but at our identity, at our core, is not something we create for ourselves.

And it's not a label that the world slaps on us.

It is what our creator has put into us from the beginning.

Our foundational value is that we are created in the image of God with inherent eternal value.

And I recently saw this footage from Martin Luther King's speech in 1967 to a middle school in an inner city black Philadelphia area, and he titled it, What is your life's blueprint?

And he told a group of black teens to believe in themselves and to excel in whatever the Lord Almighty had given them to do.

Here's a little quote from his speech.

Number one in your life's blueprint should be a deep belief in your own dignity, your own worth, and your own somebodyness.

Don't allow anybody to make you feel you are nobody.

Always feel that you count, always feel that you have worth, and always feel that your life has ultimate significance.

And LK, of course, was speaking the concept.

Context, 1960s, a civil rights movement, but he was also a reverend.

And these are based in his belief in the Bible and what the Bible says about us.

And this message that we are somebody's worthy of value still resonates for us today.

I think so many people, especially the younger generation, really wrestle with this question of whether they matter.

And I grew up in an Asian collectivist culture where valued family and community above the individual.

And I think that is great in so many ways, and our hyper-individualistic American culture can learn some things from that.

But one of the impact, negative impacts that it had on me growing up, was that I just felt like I didn't matter.

That my opinions and preferences didn't count, and that my main purpose in life was to study hard, work hard, be successful, and live up to the sacrifices that my immigrant parents made.

And maybe some of you can relate to that.

But growing up, my sense of somebodyess or self-worth was kind of low.

And it took God reminding me over and over the years, through his word, through time with Jesus, through mission trips, through the Holy Spirit just doing a work in me through serving, being part of Christian communities that were speaking truth into my life, that I came to believe it.

That being made in the image of God meant that I mattered to God and that I had something within me that was so valuable for the offer to the world.

So when God made humans in his image, he gave us this intrinsic, implicit value.

You have that in you.

And the echoes of this theme are throughout the scripture, from Genesis 1 all the way to Revelation, and for example, Psalm 139, which, if you struggle with this issue of being worthy, this is a great one to memorize.

Is that we are told we are fearfully and wonderfully made by God from womb to the grave, designed for a divine purpose.

And Ephesians 2.10 affirms this our identity on a purpose.

We are God's masterpiece.

Okay, it's a masterpiece, right?

Not like bland, boring motel art that's not worth very much.

This is a masterpiece.

He's created us anew in Christ Jesus so that we can do the things he planned for us long ago.

And it's so easy for us to lose this reality because we are sinful people living in a broken world with other sinful people.

And our Imago Day can be hidden or marred or cracked or scarred or distorted in some way within us.

But under those layers of sin and brokenness, we have this redeemable character that God wants to work and restore and change.

So I have a coaching client who's a high-level leader, and she's so hard on herself.

She's super high capacity, her bosses love her, but she often feels overwhelmed and is wrestles with imposter syndrome.

She feels like she can't measure up to her impossibly high standards.

Um, and then she's so worried that she's gonna fail and disappoint other people.

And because I work with both Christian and non-Christian leaders, I love that when I get to work with a Christian leader, because then I can invite them to think about and to accept how God has created her to be, to acknowledge the fragility and acknowledge the insecurities and be okay with that.

Because God knows that, God sees that, and he at the same time, he's working in her, he's creating this masterpiece more fully in her, he's shaping her character.

And as she grew in seeing herself and her situation from this foundational truth that she is beloved unconditionally, that it started to be able to release her sense of criticism, self-criticism, release more self-compassion, and just have more freedom and joy in her life.

And it's just been a beautiful thing to see that come across.

And that really starts with understanding our identity.

So bringing the Imago Day more fully into our awareness really helps us become more essentially who we're created to be.

So if you're here today, and maybe you need to be reminded of one of these three fundamental truths from scripture about yourself.

Because God created you in his image, you have inherent worth.

Because Jesus died for you, you have been saved, redeemed, and made new.

Because the Holy Spirit dwells in you, you are empowered to fulfill God's purposes for you.

So I want to ask: are you treating yourself with the same kind of honor and respect and kindness as someone made in the image of God?

And the third piece is our identity as the only creatures made in God's image gives us this unique special relationship with God.

God we know is relational.

I said that's one of his characteristics in his nature, and he desires to be in relationship with us.

For those of you who are raised Catholic, maybe you went to catechism classes when you were a teenager.

I grew up in a Korean Presbyterian church and we learned the Westminster Catechism.

Um, and it's from 1646, and it's still going strong.

And it's a summary of Christian doctrine, but it's formed as a set of spiritual questions with Bible answers.

There's like over a hundred of them.

I only remember the first one.

And the first one I remember from that class is this question Um, what is the chief aim of man?

But the modern version says, What is the chief purpose of humanity?

And the answer remains the same over the centuries: to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.

And I have reflected on this answer so many times throughout the course of the different seasons of my faith, but always wrestled with what does God ask of me?

What does he want from me?

What am I designed to do?

Um, and really, this answers it.

Our primary purpose is not to perform religious acts or to even believe a set of propositions or to prove ourselves worthy of God's love.

No.

Our goal as humans is simply to love, honor, and enjoy our Creator, to delight ourselves in the Lord.

And as St.

Augustine put it so beautifully, we were made for you, God, and our hearts are restless until it finds its rest in you.

We were made to rest in God.

And as creator and created in his image, we are interwoven together with God in a deep connection.

And so the Bible tells us, He is the good shepherd, we are the sheep of his pasture, he is the potter, we are the clay, he is the vine, we are the branches, he's the heavenly father, and we are his beloved children.

We cannot exist apart from God.

The air we breathe, the physical, mental abilities we have, the people in our lives, the food we eat, the resources we enjoy, all of this, as James 1 points out, comes from the hand from our Father of lights, every good and perfect gift.

And so it's in response, in great gratitude to God's abundant goodness and mercy that we choose to participate with Him in shining his light into our world wherever we can, partnering with what His kingdom work is doing to create human flourishing.

That's why Christians throughout history have been the ones to build hospitals and schools and orphanages.

They've been the ones that have worked to rescue people from captivity, from darkness, to bring justice and healing and hope and light.

That is the work of the kingdom.

Philosopher and writer Dallas Willard, in his classic book, Divine Conspiracy, puts it this way.

He says, So when Jesus directs us to pray, Thy kingdom come, we pray for it to take over at all points in the personal, social, and political order where it is now excluded.

On earth as in heaven, with this prayer, we're invoking it.

As in faith, we are acting it into the real world of our daily existence.

This Lord's prayer that we pray sometimes without even thinking through it, Thy kingdom come, thy will be done here on earth as in the heaven.

It's not just about God's kingdom in our hearts or about the spiritual realm.

Of course it is about that.

But it's also about our day-to-day activities.

As those bearing God's image, we are uniquely qualified to bring more of God's kingdom attributes like love, justice, peace, hope, goodness, kindness, all of that into bear in our world, into our areas of influence, wherever that may be, in your families, in your workplaces, in your church, in your communities.

That is what we bring.

So have you been enjoying God and giving him glory?

Have you been participating with him in expanding God's kingdom here in your areas of influence?

And then finally, Imago Day is foundational for how we relate to other people.

This is a toughie.

Our God-given stewardship includes that we care for all creatures, which includes other human beings.

So in our culture, we tend to require people to prove themselves worthy before we give them respect or consideration.

So we tend to judge people quickly.

I think it's like 2.5 seconds or something, our first impression, and then boom, we we categorize them into pieces based on how they look, how they dress, where they live, what they um, what they believe, uh, what kind of jobs they have, where they went to school, or even what they vote who they voted for.

That's a bit sticky too.

Or the choices they've made in their lives.

We make judgments on all of those things, and then we want people to prove themselves worthy of us.

But what if we view people as simply valuable because they're created in the image of God?

And C.S.

Lewis noted, empires rise and fall, great nations come and go, but the man who poured your coffee, that's your barista.

He didn't say barista, but this morning is immortal because his soul is immortal.

If we saw people as inherently valuable, immortal beings, wouldn't we treat them differently?

My husband, Don, is an employment attorney and he often deals with really stressful cases.

So in litigation, basically what happens is people behave at their worst.

So it's not um, so there's a lot of stress, and sometimes he deals with a posting counsel that is misrepresenting facts or they're acting like a jerk or a bully to his clients.

And you know, Don can be competitive and he can get into it, but over the years he's really developed this practice, and I've seen him do this where he reminds himself, he takes a breath and then he reminds himself, okay, this person too in front of me that's acting like a jerk is created by God, even if he's not acting like it.

He's created by God and he's loved by Jesus.

Jesus loves this person too.

I've heard him say this over the years.

We're like, oh, Jesus loves this person too.

Okay, okay.

I also then need to be affected by that.

And it gives him the calmness and it gives him a different perspective to navigate through those situations more wisely.

So when we see people as fellow imagers made by God, it helps us treat them with love and respect.

Um, we can offer grace and compassion, the same grace and compassion that God offers to us constantly with his patience.

And we can choose to accept people for who they are, forgive their sins against us, and become agents of peace and hope and change.

And that's how we live into that Imago Day.

So one of my favorite shows is Ted Lasso.

Other Ted Lasso fans?

Yes, thank you.

Okay, it's worth getting Apple TV just for Ted Lasso, by the way.

Um so it's about Ted, who's an American football coach.

He goes to England to coach a losing soccer team.

Ted doesn't know much about soccer at all, but he knows a lot about people.

He doesn't care about winning or losing, but he says he just wants to love them and he cares deeply about knowing them and helping them become, quote, the best version of themselves, even when they can't see it, when they're working totally opposite it, and they're so far from it.

So he believes that this is who they can become.

And so, what does it look like for you to treat people as if they were made in God's image, to look forward into who they're becoming?

How would it change how you relate to your coworkers or your friends or your spouse or people at this church?

If you aren't sure what that would look like, I have a suggestion.

Thankfully, the Bible shows us a perfect example in Jesus Christ.

In the New Testament, we see echoes of this theme of Imago Dei written in reference to Jesus Christ.

He is the perfect image of God, the clear, visible, unblemished, complete, whole picture representation of the imager of God.

Colossians 1, 15 tells us Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.

He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation.

And verse 19 said, For all God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ.

As Jesus imaged God, we must image Jesus.

And in doing so, we fulfill the purpose for our creation.

It's kind of like these masterpiece paintings that initially have been have so much soot and dirt and have been frayed over time.

And then layer by layer the restorer takes the time to remove the grime, to clean it up, find the right color, put it back in.

This process apparently takes hundreds and hundreds of hours.

So, like this painting, discipleship journey is this process of us being transformed, of God restoring us in Christ, becoming more conformed to his likeness.

It's God patiently removing the layers of damage, life experiences, choices that are things that are marred and scratched, and things that need to be removed from us and bringing into fruition the beauty that he intended from the very beginning when he made us.

And when I say that, it sounds so simple, right?

You know, painting, restore, boom, done.

But we know it's not like that, right?

And I think we make it hard.

It's a messy, complicated process.

And for me, it works a little bit like this.

If I were a painting that was damaged like this, obscured by lots of junk, sometimes I feel like God's using a power sander to just like, whoo, you know, get rid of it.

And it doesn't feel good.

Um, and I don't want to suffer.

But sometimes that's what it takes because there's something deeper.

He wants to go to the layers beneath.

And sometimes it feels like he's using a gentle brush and he's just kind of whisking away the fine dust to see where the cracks are.

And then sometimes it feels like he uses a scalpel and he's targeting very specific sins or attitudes or toxic heart conditions that are keeping me separate from Jesus.

And he wants to surgically remove that and replace that with something new that he's creating in me.

Without death, there can't be a resurrection.

So sometimes some things in us need to die, and we need to let go of it in order to embrace the new thing, the better thing that God has for us.

And it's this gradual lifelong process.

And I think I make it harder sometimes, and maybe you're like this too, where I try to give God advice about how it should go.

And I say to God, okay, let's work on this piece over here, um, and and not over here, because I'm this is not that bad.

I think we we're okay with this here, and I don't want to relinquish control.

And then sometimes I go, I want to tell him what to use.

And I go, okay, God, let's use a little sponge.

Let's just like dab it a little bit, because that's not that painful.

Let's just stay away from all the power tools, because that that's a lot harder.

And I want to give him advice about how to do it, when to do it, and all those things.

But really, ultimately, it's about surrender.

It's about trusting that the God who created us knows best what we need, knows best how to restore us.

Um, and it is this lifelong process, and really the only thing we bring to the table is our marred self.

And that's what we bring to the table.

And we are bring our hearts with a humble recognition that we cannot fix ourselves, we cannot restore ourselves.

Only the Holy Spirit can do that.

Only God can make us who we were meant to be.

And in 2 Corinthians 3.18, it describes this process.

So for all of us who have had that veil removed, we can see and reflect the glory of the Lord.

And the Lord, who is the Spirit, makes us more and more like Him as we are changed into His glorious image.

Did you catch that?

It is the Spirit who makes us more and more like Him.

Um, it's not us.

We just present ourselves and we let go and we trust God to work in us and to change us.

And so, what does it mean to be human?

We are at most human when we are most like Jesus.

To be human is to live as beloved children in the image of God, our Creator, and to become more like Him in every way, and making that the foundation of our identity and of our lives.

And that, if people are so obsessed with living their best life, being their best self, that's it.

That is the abundant life.

That is the life that is truly life and the only life worth chasing.

So I'm gonna invite the worship team back up and we're gonna enter into a time of communion, remembering Christ's love, his sacrifice, his death, burial, and resurrection.

And as we take the bread and um drink the juice, I want to invite you to take this time to reflect in gratitude and in just sober judgment and go ask God, where in me has your image been marred?

Where is it broken?

Where is it I'm like holding on to tight?

I'm not letting you do the restoration work that you want to do in me.

And I've been praying that you would have the courage and the humility and the desire to invite the Spirit to do that work in you.

And if God does point out a sin or something that needs to change in you, then you just confess it.

There's no guilt, shame to come to the table.

You there's only love, acceptance, and grace.

And so you invite God to change you.

You confess it, you let it go, you leave it here, leave it at the table, and you leave in freedom and joy and peace.

So I hope that this time would be a reflection as the worship team leads through some of these songs.

That you just ask Jesus what he needs, what he wants to do, and you give it up.

You make room and you ask him to do what he's going to do in the way he's going to do it, however he wants to, and trust that our creator knows best what um he wants to create in us as his image.

So let's pray.

Lord God, we are so grateful that you've chosen to create us and that you have made us in your image.

It is so marvelous for our minds to even comprehend.

But God, thank you for what you've put inside each of us and the mark of your image.

And God, I pray that during um this time that you would remind us of the things that are blocking and limiting and obscuring that image in us.

God, help us to have the humility and courage to allow you full access to surrender and to trust you to do your work in us.

We want to be more like you, Jesus, and we need your help.

So, Jesus, do your work in us.

We give ourselves to you.

And it's in your powerful, precious name we pray.

Amen.

We hope you are blessed by this message.

Please subscribe to our podcast for access to every episode as they're uploaded.

And hey, we'd love to connect with you.

Take a next step by filling out our virtual connection card at awakeningchurch.com slash card.