A New Identity Series

My sermon illustration experts at McDonald’s were asking whether I had been including them in any of my sermons recently, so I decided to ask them this question. If a random person on the street walked up to you and asked, “Who are you? Tell me about yourself,” what are the identifiers you would use to describe yourself?

One of them immediately responded that they’d make sure this stranger knew that they were packing. But then they gave me a list of ways they identify themselves- things like name, character, where they live, church they attend, their job, what high school they attended, their political leanings, who they’re related to.

In recent years, the world has emphasized your identity being wrapped up in who you find attractive or what are your preferred pronouns (that list has now grown to over 90 options as of last year). It seems we’ve reached a point where it really comes down to I get to define myself in whatever way I desire and you have to affirm me for it.

Maybe it’s time we shift our perspective on this. What if who we are is more than what I think I am at any given moment? What would happen if we all acknowledged we have a Creator who loves and cares about us? What if we stopped trying to define ourselves and look to how God perceives us.

I think David may have been pondering this very line of thinking as he wrote Psalm 8 (read vss 3-4). Picture with me, if you will, David as a shepherd boy. He’s corralled the sheep into their pen and has settled in for the night, laying in the pen entrance to protect the sheep. As he stares up at the sky, he begins to marvel at the grandeur of creation. He gets caught up in the beauty of the heavens as the sun sets and the moon and stars appear. Wow! It’s beautiful!

But then he gets struck by the thought- what is man? We’re tiny, our lives are short, if you compare us to all the wonderful things I’m looking at in the sky right now, we’re rather insignificant. Yet, God is mindful of us, He cares for us- why? I believe that Genesis 1 was on David’s mind as he continues to write (read vss 5-8). God made mankind just a little lower than the heavenly beings. He gave us dominion over all of creation- including the livestock, beasts of the field, birds of the air, and creatures of the sea. All that is left to say is, “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”

Let’s take a closer look at the account of human creation so we can better understand who we are from God’s perspective. The first thing we see is that we are made in the image of God (read Gen 1:27).

What does it mean to be made in the image of God? I think that word “image” can get us confused. We hear that word and think of something visual, the appearance, how it looks. Yet, if you were to look to your left and to your right, you’ll see that we each have our own unique image. Plus some of us are males and others are females. How can we all be in the image of God when we don’t look the same?

If my father were to walk through these doors right now, you would know who he is, even if you’ve never seen him before. How? There are enough similarities in our physical appearances that he can’t deny me. It goes even deeper than that. There are times when I realize I have various mannerisms that I would attribute to my father. He also passed along one of his best qualities- his sense of humor.

In the same way, we can see God in people- they have the ability to reason, to choose a course of action. But it goes beyond that. My daughters got involved in a college campus ministry at IUK and meet for Bible study each week. This Wednesday, I received a text from Elizabeth, showing me the discussion questions that their group was about to discuss and asking me if that wasn’t something like what I was preparing to preach about soon. The questions- How do you introduce yourself to others? What do you want them to know about you that would help them identify you? Mind you, I had just had my conversation with the folks at McDonald’s that morning.

As they had a similar discussion to what I had that morning, their leader pointed out two facts that I want to share with you now. Every human being is made in the image of God, not every human being becomes a child of God. Our actions reveal our Father (read John 13:35). When people see you, do they see God? Not only are you made in His image, you are His child.