Sermon Central
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You Are Somebody Special To God Series
Contributed by Troy Campbell on Nov 8, 2011 (message contributor)
Summary: Have you ever felt like a failure in life? Have you ever experienced insecurity? Some are insecure about your appearance, your abilities, your personality, your life? Have you ever felt unloved and worthless? Have you ever said the following words: “I
Title: Who Am I – 6
“You Are Somebody Special to God – 2”
Text: I Peter 2:9-10
Last week I started preaching on the subject that “You Are Somebody Special to God.” It was a very encouraging message to everyone that hears it. We all need to know from time to time that we are special. It is time that we discover, as believers, who the Bible says we are.
Have you ever felt like a failure in life? Have you ever experienced insecurity? Some are insecure about your appearance, your abilities, your personality, your life? Have you ever felt unloved and worthless? Have you ever said the following words: “I am not attractive. I can’t do all the things that person can do. I am not good enough. Nothing good ever happens in my life. I am a failure.”
If your mind is filled with thoughts of worthlessness, shame, embarrassment and low self-esteem, then it is time this morning to get rid of that insecurity. Some may ask; “how do I get rid of insecurity that has been there my whole life?” If you have ever felt that way, you need to listen to the messages for the next few weeks, because the only way that we can get rid of those feelings is by realizing that YOU are God’s most prized-possession! If God had to choose the finest thing that He has ever created – He would choose you! You are somebody special to God. Jesus said that we are to love one another even as we love ourselves. If you don’t like YOU, how are you ever going to like someone else?
In order to experience all that God has for us, we need to understand who the Lord says we are. Last week we first discovered that the Bible says:
WE ARE CROWNED WITH GLORY AND HONOR
WE ARE THE OBJECT OF HIS AFFECTION
Today, we are going to continue talking about this subject. “You Are Somebody Special to God.”
WE ARE A NEW CREATION
Most of us have heard this statement before. It is very common to state that we are New Creation in religious circles. I want to remind us this morning that as soon as we accepted Jesus Christ into our lives that we are new creation. Even if you have born again for 50 years, you are not an old man any longer; you are a brand new creation.
II Corinthians 5:17; “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”
Understanding this one truth is a necessity. Once you come to Jesus, once you make Him the Lord of your life, then you become a new creation. Your past is forgiven. The literal Greek tells us that you are a “New species of being that never existed before.”
One of the most famous illustrations of becoming a new creation is Saul of Tarsus on the Road to Damascus. When he met Jesus, his life was forever changed. He became a new creation. Saul died on that road and a new man began to live. If you could classify sinners, Paul was the worst one out there, yet He was able to overcome His past. If he didn’t get anything else down He was able to forget his past and move on with his future because he understood that he was a brand new creation.
Philippians 3:13-14; “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
This is a very powerful Scripture. But there are a few words added it by the translators that make this Scripture sound slightly different. Anytime you see words in italics, that means it was added in by translators to help us understand it more. However, if we take out these italics, then we can truly understand what Paul was trying to say. Listen to it without the added words.
Philippians 3:13-14; “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended but one thing, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before.”
Paul was saying, if I can’t grasp any other thing out there, I have understood one principle and that is forgetting those things which are behind. Paul had to forget those things. He would not have made it as a Christian if he wasn’t able to realize that he was a new creation. Some of you have been saved for years and you are still classifying yourself as a sinner saved by grace. If you have been saved by grace, then that means you’re not a sinner. God wants you to know and understand that you are a brand new creation.
