Readings: Psalm 139, John 1: 12-13
This is the final talk in our mini series on serving – how we use our gifts in church. If you’ve not heard the others I do encourage you to listen – they are on our YouTube channel. This is effectively the 3rd and final part, of one 2 week long sermon! And today I want us to think about who we are and who God has made us to be. What is our identity. On Sunday I quoted this Danish proverb that says:
Who you are is God’s gift to you, what you do with yourself is your gift to God.
Who we are is God’s gift to us. So what does that mean for each of us?
Let’s look some of at those lines from Psalm 139. It’s such a beautiful Psalm. The first few lines talk about how God is with us and knows us deeply:
O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely.
Psalm 139: 1-4
God knows us inside and out, knows our thoughts, I mean knows the words we are going to say before we even say them! and not in a weird creepy way but from a place of love and total acceptance.
and then the Psalmist goes on: vs 13-14:
For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
We are fearfully and wonderfully made. I love these lines.
You know I sometimes hear people in Christian circles say ‘more of you God, and less of me’ but I think that takes away from who God has made us – surely if we are wonderfully made by God, it should be more of you God AND more of me as you have made me to be? As Gen 1 says humanity was made in the image of God. We are all different, unique and yet we are all fearfully and wonderfully made, and we are all made in God’s image. That’s quite something isn’t it?
We have to learn to love the person we are, who God has made us. And that isn’t easy, we compare ourselves to others, we tear ourselves down, criticise ourselves, we want to be like others. But that is the work of the enemy who wants us to believe we are not enough, not worthy, that there is something wrong with us, or that we need to be better.
And there is nothing wrong with wanting to grow as a person, indeed in Christians circles we often talk about ‘formation’, being formed by God through experience and learning, but not so much that we are trying to be what we are not meant to be. God knows every part of us, knows what we think, knows our inner monologue and still loves us and wants us to be part of God’s kingdom, adopts us as children, I mean that’s quite something right!? even with our failings and foibles, God still wants us.
We are adopted as children of God John 1 says:
But to all who received him [Jesus], who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
John 1: 12-13)
We are all precious children of God.
If we look at those few verses from Ps 139 again but now in the Message version, they say this:
Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out, you formed me in my mother’s womb.I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvellously made! I worship in adoration—what a creation!You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something.Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you,The days of my life all prepared before I’d even lived one day.
Psalm 139: 13-16 MSG
Isn’t that beautiful. how I was sculpted from nothing into something
and God goes on sculpting us throughout our lives. Moulding us, kneading us, sometimes it’s painful! but we are hopefully being formed more and more into the likeness of Christ.
I don’t know if you’ve heard of Nick Vujicic, he’s an author and motivational speaker, and he was born with a rare disorder, which means he has no legs or arms. And he says:
From before you were born you were created the way you are because God wanted one like you! ‘I know for certain God does not make mistakes, but he does make miracles, I am one, you are too.
Nick Vujicic
And for Nick, it was from a place of accepting himself, his body as it is, as God had made him, that he was able to step into his calling, to share the gospel, to inspire people with his life and tell people about Jesus.
I wonder how many of us can truly say that about ourselves – that we actually believe that we are marvellously made? Do you think of yourself that way – like a work of art, carefully sculpted and created?
It wasn’t easy for Nick and I am sure for some of us it is not easy to see ourselves as sculpted by God, when our bodies are not working as they should, and I’ve been talking a lot about serving these last 2 weeks because that has been the focus of our series, but even if we can’t serve, or we feel we have nothing to offer we are still created in God’s image, loved and precious. We don’t earn our way into God’s love or to being a child of God, that’s a given, it’s a free gift before we ‘do’ anything at all.
That’s the first thing we all need to know and step into – that we are loved and precious and wonderfully made because of Jesus.
Ans then when we can embrace who we are it is so much easier, it’s natural even, to step into that and to serve from that place of who we are. I talked a lot on Sunday about us being a team, one body with many parts Paul says, where every part is needed. There is something for us all.
There are two great days in a person’s life – the day we are born and the day we discover why.
William Barclay, minister, professor, theologian
Being the person God has made us to be, sharing of our gifts and talents, helps us to feel fulfilled, to have purpose and reason in life.
And I’ve talked a lot about being someone who serves in church again because that’s our focus but we are all kingdom bringers just by being people of faith wherever we are and with whomever we see. Perhaps for some of us our purpose is to just be a person of faith. to Just ‘be’.
So whoever we are, let’s spend some time, seeking God and praying about how and why we are made, how God sees us, and perhaps how we might serve God in Christ’s church here are St Edward’s.
Amen.
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