A. Our mission as children of God and disciples of Jesus Christ is to behold and to reflect our God.
1. Let’s begin with two illustrations – one about beholding and the other about reflecting.
B. We are all familiar with the saying: “You Are What You Eat.”
1. I like this meme: “They say you are what you eat, but I don’t remember eating a heaping helping of awesome!”
2. When we use that phrase “You Are What You Eat” we are saying that it is important to eat good food in order to be healthy and fit.
C. And in a similar way, we become what we look at and listen to, or whom we look at and listen to.
1. That is to say, we emulate or become like the people (and things) we most admire.
2. In other words, we become what or whom we worship.
a. Psalm 115:8: Those who make them (idols) are just like them, as are all who trust in them.
3. The English word “worship” is derived from an Old English word that means “worthiness or worth-ship” which is to give worth to something.
4. To worship something is to see worth in that person or object.
5. But there is a reciprocal nature to worship in that the person or thing we worship shapes and affects us.
6. Over time, we become like the things or individuals we worship.
D. Nathaniel Hawthorne illustrated this principle in a powerful, symbolic short story called “The Great Stone Face.”
1. The picture you see on the screen is a photo of the Great Stone Face, or Old Man of the Mountain as it looked for centuries in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, unfortunately, it collapsed on May 3, 2003, so it no longer looks this way.
2. Hawthorne tells the story of a young man named Ernest who grew up in a small, rural town.
a. On a mountain near the town, formed out of a cluster of rock, was the likeness of a giant man, a Great Stone Face.
b. For countless centuries, this Great Stone Face had overlooked the valley like a benevolent guardian.
c. Everyone looked up to this Great Stone Face. Its “expression was at once grand and sweet, as if it were the glow of a vast, warm heart.”
3. Local legend claimed that one day, the Great Stone Face would visit the people in the form of a man.
a. When he appeared, the townsfolk would recognize him as “the greatest and noblest person of his time.”
4. Young Ernest longed to meet this noble person and eagerly anticipated his arrival.
a. While waiting for this person to appear, Ernest spent much of his time pondering about and learning from the Great Stone Face.
b. Studying its greatness, Ernest was filled with wisdom and sympathies beyond that of any of his peers.
5. In time, Ernest became a preacher and encountered several individuals who were rumored to have the likeness of the Great Stone Face: a merchant, a general, a politician, and a poet.
a. But each of them had flaws in their nature that put them at odds with the perceived character of Great Stone Face.
b. Ernest began to doubt that he would ever see the Great Stone Face personified.
6. Many years passed, then Ernest was asked to deliver one of his sermons at the base of the Great Stone Face.
a. Let’s conclude the story with Hawthorne’s own words: Ernest began to speak, giving to the people of what was in his heart and mind. His words had power, because they accorded with his thoughts; and his thoughts had reality and depth, because they harmonized with the life which he had always lived. It was not mere breath that this preacher uttered; they were the words of life, because a life of good deeds and holy love was melted into them. Pearls, pure and rich, had been dissolved into this precious draught…At that moment, in sympathy with a thought which he was about to utter, the face of Ernest assumed a grandeur of expression, so imbued with benevolence, that [someone in the crowd], by an irresistible impulse, threw his arms aloft and shouted, “Behold! Behold! Ernest is himself the likeness of the Great Stone Face!”
b. Ernest’s beholding of the Great Stone Face had resulted in his becoming like the Great Stone Face.
E. Thus far in our sermon series “It’s All About God – Living A God-Centered Life,” we have been seeking to get a clearer picture of our God, who is truly the greatest of “Stone Faces”
1. We have been attempting to behold God’s glory and holiness, to understand God’s eternal and unchanging nature, and to grasp the fact that God is love.
2. We have been focused on beholding God, so that we might properly emulate and reflect God.
F. Now let’s consider the second illustration – this one is about reflecting our God.
1. G. R. Tweed had been hiding on the island of Guam for nearly three years.
a. In 1941, when the Japanese occupied the island, Tweed ducked into the thick tropical brush.
b. Survival hadn’t been easy, but he preferred the swamp to a POW camp.
2. Late in the day of July 10, 1944, Tweed spotted a friendly vessel passing by the island and determined that this might be his only chance for escape.
a. He scurried up a hill and positioned himself on a cliff.
b. Reaching into his pack, he pulled out a small mirror.
c. At 6:20 PM, he began sending signals using the mirror to bounce the sun’s rays in the direction of the ship.
d. The signal he sent was 3 short flashes, 3 long flashes, 3 short flashes again.
e. Dot-dot-dot, dash-dash-dash, dot-dot-dot – S.O.S.
3. The signal caught the eye of a sailor on board the USS McCall.
a. A rescue party boarded a motorized dinghy and slipped into the cove, and Tweed was rescued.
G. G. R. Tweed was glad to have that mirror, was glad he knew how to use it, and was glad the mirror had cooperated.
1. Max Lucado suggests some interesting thoughts – please play along for a minute: What if the mirror had not cooperated?
2. Suppose the mirror had resisted and pushed its own agenda.
3. Rather than reflect a message from the sun, suppose the mirror had opted to send its own.
4. After all, three years in isolation would have anyone starved for attention, right?
5. Rather than sending an SOS, the mirror could have sent an LAM – look at me!
a. An egotistical mirror? Why not?
6. A crazier thought might be an insecure mirror.
a. “I’m afraid I might blow it. What if I send a dash when I’m supposed to send a dot? Besides have you seen the blemishes on my surface?”
b. Self-doubt can really paralyze a mirror.
7. And so can self-pity.
a. “I’ve been crammed down in that pack and lugged through the jungle for 3 years, and now all of a sudden I’m expected to face the bright sun and perform a crucial service!? No way. I’m staying in the pack. You’re not getting any reflection out of me.”
8. Good thing Tweed’s mirror didn’t have the self-centered attitude: It’s all about me!
9. Unfortunately, as God’s mirrors, we sometimes get lost in the “It’s all about me” syndrome.
H. In many respects, we can boil down the job description God has for us to these words: Behold and Reflect God’s Glory.
1. Let’s return to our Scripture reading for today, but let’s look at it in the English Revised Version: But we all, with unveiled face reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit. (2 Cor. 3:18)
2. You might be thinking, “Wait a minute, that’s not how the passage sounded when we read it before the sermon from the Christian Standard Bible.”
3. If that’s what you are thinking, then you get an “A+ (plus).”
4. The Christian Standard Bible says: We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.
5. That’s interesting, isn’t it?
a. One translation says, “looking as in a mirror” and the other says, “reflecting as a mirror.”
b. One involves beholding and the other reflecting; one is contemplation and the other is refraction.
6. So, which one is the right understanding and translation? The answer is both.
a. The verb used in the verse can be translated either way, and when we look through a variety of the translations we see a good representation of both.
b. Translations that go with “looking” or “beholding” include RSV, KJV, CSB, and NASB.
c. Translations that go with “reflecting” include Jerusalem Bible, English Revised Version, Good News Translation, NET Bible, and The Living Bible.
7. But we might ask, “Which meaning did Paul intend?”
a. In the context of the passage, Paul paralleled our Christian experience to the Mount Sinai experience of Moses.
b. After Moses beheld the glory of God, his face reflected the glory of God.
c. Upon beholding God, Moses could not help but reflecting God.
d. The brightness that Moses saw was the brightness he became.
e. His beholding led to his becoming and thus reflecting.
8. So, which meaning did Paul have in mind? Perhaps both.
a. Did Paul mean “beholding as in a mirror”? Yes.
b. Did Paul mean “reflecting like a mirror”? Yes.
c. Could it be that the Holy Spirit intentionally selected a verb that would remind us to do both? To behold God so intently that we can’t help but reflect Him? Absolutely.
9. That’s why I really like the way the New Living Translation renders the verse: So all of us who have had that veil removed 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. (2 Cor. 3:18)
I. What does it mean to behold your face in a mirror?
1. Is beholding a quick glace or a casual look?
a. No. To behold is to study, to stare, to examine and to contemplate.
2. The same is true when we talk about beholding God, right?
a. Beholding God is no side look or occasional glace, rather it is a focused stare with serious pondering.
3. And that is what we have been doing up until this point in this sermon series.
a. We have camped at the foot of Mount Sinai and have beheld the glory of God.
b. We have been gazing at and pondering God’s love, His holiness, and His eternal and unchanging nature.
4. And why have we been doing all this beholding? We have been beholding so that we will be transformed into His likeness and can do some reflecting.
5. It’s God’s desire and plan that as we behold God’s glory, like Moses did, that we will then reflect it?
6. God’s plan and our calling is to be mirrors in God’s hand to reflect God’s glory in all we do.
7. Paul wrote: “Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Cor. 10:31)
J. Today’s sermon launches us into the second half of our sermon series.
1. We are shifting from beholding to reflecting.
2. We are moving from seeing God completely to reflecting God clearly.
3. We are transitioning from God-centered thinking and understanding to God-centered living.
K. In the rest of the sermons from the series, we will be exploring how to make it all about God in our every day lives.
1. We will learn how our message and our salvation is all about Him.
2. We will learn how our bodies and our struggles are all about Him, and about how even all our success is about Him.
L. God is the sun, and we are the moon.
1. He’s the light; we are the mirrors.
2. He’s the power source; we are just the conduits.
3. We rest in His pack and await His call, but when He takes us into His hands, we do His work.
4. We must not resist His call or hinder His use of us.
5. It’s not about us; it’s all about Him.
6. It’s about us saying and living the truths of the hymn: “Have Thine Own Way, Lord.”
M. “Have Thine Own Way, Lord” is a Christian hymn with lyrics by Adelaide Pollard and music by George Stebbins.
1. In 1902, Adelaide Pollard was hoping to go to Africa as a missionary, but found herself unable to raise the needed funds to make the journey.
2. Greatly discouraged, she attended a prayer service one evening and as she sat there, she overheard someone pray: “It really doesn't matter what you do with us, Lord, just have your own way with our lives.”
3. That caused Pollard to think of the story of the potter from Jeremiah 18:3.
4. After returning home that evening, she wrote all four stanzas before retiring for the night.
5. Here’s what Adelaide Pollard wrote:
1. Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Thou art the Potter, I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after Thy will; While I am waiting, yielded and still.
2. Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Search me and try me, Master, today!
Whiter than snow, Lord, wash me just now, As in Thy presence humbly I bow.
3. Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Wounded and weary, help me, I pray!
Power, all power, surely is Thine! Touch me and heal me, Savior divine.
4. Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Hold o’er my being absolute sway!
Fill with Thy Spirit ’till all shall see Christ only, always, living in me.
N. This last verse of the song expresses our theme for today: Fill with Thy Spirit ‘till all shall see Christ only, always, living in me – that’s our goal!
1. Beholding and becoming, and then reflecting – that’s God’s plan and God’s will for us.
2. Let’s be committed to doing all we can to see God clearly, and yield ourselves completely, so that we might reflect God accurately.
3. Tweed’s use of a mirror led to his rescue; may God’s use of us lead to many more rescues.
4. Do you need to receive God’s rescue today?
a. Do you need to confess your faith in Jesus, repent and turn to God, and be buried with Christ in baptism?
b. We would love to help someone do that today!
5. Or do you need to let God have His own way with you in some way?
a. Do you need to allow God the Potter to do His molding and shaping of you?
b. Do you need to let God have control of something you have been trying to control?
c. Do you need to stop doing something you know you shouldn’t be doing, or start doing something you should be doing?
6. If you need to respond to God’s invitation today, then come as we stand and sing.
Resources:
• It’s Not About Me, Max Lucado, Thomas Nelson, 2004.
