The Image of God

This message was delivered by Sheila Schuller Coleman from the pulpit of the Crystal Cathedral. It was aired during the Hour of Power program on Hong Kong's ATV World Channel on 3 July 2011.

We all want the best life possible. I want the best life possible. I'm going to say it. I do. I want to live the very best life I possibly can.

My father taught me the secret to living the best life possible when I was a teenager, when he taught me the Ten Commandments. And he taught them positively. I didn't see the Commandments as directives that were going to steal my joy and steal my fun as a teenager, but rather I saw them as instructions that would bless my life, that would bring happiness to me, that would bring joy to my life, and protect me from pain and heartache and hardship.

Commandment number two is: "'You shall not make a carved image,' said God, 'or any likeness of anything that is in the heaven above, that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth." In other words God says, "So don't make a carved image or likeness of anything that I have created, and then bow down to it and serve it." This second commandment is really all about not bowing down to any false god. It is about bowing down to the true God. It is about worship.

Today, I want to tell you that I believe the positive interpretation of this commandment is this: Positively reflect on the true image of God so you can positively reflect the true image of God to others. As I reflect on God, as I think about Him, as I pray to Him, as I read His word, as I pray without ceasing, as I reflect on Him, then I can be a positive reflection of Him to others. And that is worship. Think about it. That is worship. Continually reflecting on God and reflecting Him to others. That is worship. It's not as if you come here - or anywhere - on Sunday mornings and sing some praise songs, and go home, and leave the worship behind in the church. That is worship, but that's not all that worship is. Worship is much bigger than that. Worship is how we live our lives. It's a continuous outpouring of who we are, of praise to God wherever we are in multiple ways, as we will see.

What image do you worship? Let's start there, because we all choose to worship different things...things that we deem really important. What drives you? What do you get up for in the morning? What or who do you worry about the most? What or who do you think frequently about? That is what or whom you worship. That's the image that you worship. For some of us, let's be honest, it's our appearance. It's how we look. We want to look good. For some of us, it's so important, but then what happens when your beauty fades? Beauty is a false god. Beauty will mislead you. Beauty will steal your joy if it's too important to you.

And what about success? I wrestle with this one. I'm real honest about that. I wrestle with success. I don't want to be a failure. And I work really, really hard to try to be a success. I put in a lot of effort, and a lot of time. I think a lot about what I'm doing and how I can do it better, because I want to be a success. If I'm not careful, success can become something that I worship, something that becomes too important to me, something that could become even more important to me than God is.

And, what happens when I fail? What happens when you fail? Yes, everybody, even the biggest success in the whole world has had a failure here or there. In fact, most people will say that they've learned more through their failures than through their successes.

So, what happens when you worship success and you face failure in your life? We all have false gods. We need to constantly check ourselves to ascertain which false gods we may be worshipping. It is part of who we are as humans.

We miss out when we don't worship the true God...the great I Am...the Yahweh. He is a liberating God. He is a forgiving God. He is a God who loves you. He's a God who wants you to have the best life possible. He will never leave you or forsake you. He's not going to disappoint you. He's not going to fail you. He's not going to crash down on you just as the money markets and the housing bust have crashed down upon us all. You can trust God. In God, you can trust.

It's so interesting because the Bible is full of stories about how the Israelites wavered in their trust of God. He would call them back, and they'd repent, saying, "We're sorry, God." They'd come to Him and God was always merciful. He always took them back. Then they'd begin to worship another false god. Time after time, they worshipped gods they created with their own hands. In the first message in this series, I mentioned that It's the Creator versus created. We worship the Creator, and only the Creator. Be careful not to worship the created. Even though God created something, it's not to be worshipped. Only God - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit - may be worshipped.

St. Paul, in Romans 1:25, said, "They exchanged the truth about God for a lie. They worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator, who is forever praised." There are two verses in the Psalms, 115:5 and 135:16, which are identical. Let me read them to you: "Not to us, the Lord, not to us, but to Your name we give glory. Why? Because of Your steadfast love and faithfulness. But their idols are silver and gold, made by human hands." Listen to this verse. "They have mouths but cannot speak. They have eyes but cannot see. They have ears but cannot hear. Noses but cannot smell."

What a weak, impotent god that is. Why would the Israelites choose that made-up god over God the Creator? And yet, they did it time after time after time. I find it absolutely heartbreaking to think that people would worship something they made out of their own hands versus the Creator, who created everything!

The prophet Isaiah takes this concept even further. In Isaiah 44, he says this: "All who fashion idols are nothing and the things they delight in do not profit." Then he talks specifically about the ironsmith. "The ironsmith takes a cutting tool and works it over the coals. He fashions it with hammers and works it with his strong arm, then he becomes hungry and his strength fails. He drinks no water and is faint." Isaiah is describing a man who's an idol maker, one who creates a false god out of metal. How weak is this? He becomes faint. He needs water.

Then, in Isaiah, there's a description of a carpenter. "Now he plants a cedar, and the rain nourishes it, and it becomes fuel for a man. He takes part of it and warms himself because he kindles a fire and bakes bread with it, but then he also makes a god and worships it and falls down before it."

To help illustrate this point, imagine this carpenter from Isaiah 44. He's planted a seed. Who made the seed? Did the carpenter make the seed? No but he planted a seed and the rain nourished the cedar seed, and it's grown into this big, tall tree. This tree is only possible through the seed that God created, and the chlorophyll, the sunshine, and everything else that God has created. Then, once the tree grows, the carpenter fells the tree, and he cuts a block of wood. He takes this block of wood, cuts it in half, and places one-half on the fire to cook his food and for warmth. With the other half, he carves an idol and falls before it, saying, "Oh, you're my god. I worship you. I adore you. Save me, protect me, block of wood."

Does that not feel a little silly to you? I guess the first half-block of wood, used to create the fire, is not a god and the other half, carved into an idol, is a god. That's what Isaiah says about the folly of a false god. Be careful whom you worship. Be careful whom you follow. Who is it that has the power to really, truly redeem you, and liberate you, and forgive you, and love you? We must worship God, the Creator, the One who created the rain, the One who created a seed that turned into a cedar tree that provided the wood, the One who created the carpenter, the One who created the metal and the ironsmith.

Isaiah continues, and this we hear the voice of God speaking. Pay close attention because this is God speaking to you, and to me, today. These are the words of the LORD. "'I the LORD, I the God, I the Yahweh, I the great I Am have formed you. You will not be forgotten by me,' says God. 'I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist.'" They're gone. "'Return to Me, says God, for I have redeemed you. So sing, O heavens, for the LORD has done it. Shout, O depths of the earth, break forth into singing, O mountains, O forests, and every tree in it,' thus says the LORD, your redeemer, who formed you from the womb. I am the LORD who made all things. Who, alone, stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself."

That's the God I worship! That's the God I praise. That's the God I bow down before.

This second commandment, "You shall not make a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or the water below the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them." This commandment is all about worship, just like I said earlier. As I reflect on the image of God, then I'm able to reflect Him to others around me - continuously - and that is worship.

Then, it is no mystery who God is. God came to show us who He is when He was born, as Jesus Christ was born, His one and only begotten son. Jesus is the image of God. We know that. It says in John 1:1, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." He, Jesus, the Word "was with God in the beginning and through Him all things were made. Through Jesus, all things were made," this verse says. "Without Him, nothing was made that has been made." Word - Jesus is the word.

So, what is the image of God? The image of God is Jesus. And you and I can be an image bearer of God. You and I can be an image bearer of Jesus. You and I can reflect Jesus. You and I can reflect God. That is worship, as we learn in this commandment.

Hebrews 13:15 says this: "Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually..." - it doesn't say every now and then, or every once in awhile. It says, "...let us continually offer to God a worship of praise, the fruit of lips that openly profess His name." Meaning, we praise the Word. We just said the Word was Jesus, right? We praise the Word with our words.

Say this with me: "I will use my words to praise the Word." Okay? Say it again: "I will use my words to praise the Word." Let's say it one more time: "I will use my words to praise the Word." Praise, worship - it's a commandment and it's right here in Hebrews.

Hebrews 13 continues in verse 16: "And do not forget to do good and to share with others. With such a worship, God is pleased." In other words, worship is praise using our words, using our lips as we do here on Sunday mornings. But it is also our service, our hands, the works of our hands that we do when we help others. That is worship, as well. When we do mission work, when we go on mission trips, and build a house for a family in need, and we serve the hungry - that is also worship.

So, we use our words to praise the Word, but we also use the works of our hands to reflect His handiwork. Say this with me: "I will use the works of my hands to reflect His handiwork." Again, "I will use the works of my hands to reflect His handiwork." Let's say it one more time: "I will use the works of my hands to reflect His handiwork."

So that is worship. Worship is using our words. Worship is using our works, using our hands. Worship is continual, praising Him without ceasing. And the result of worship - there's a benefit - is this: You will live the best life possible if you follow these commandments. We receive this benefit when we worship God with our words and our hands. We become positively transformed by Christ to be positively transforming for Christ. What a wonderful benefit to be positively transformed! To have our lives changed completely...and positively! We live the best life possible when we worship God through our words and helping others.

So, worship, continual worship, means our lives are transformed. Dad would call that transformation a self-image transplant.

Several years ago, a church friend of mine and I shared with each other about how our families were doing, our blessings and our challenges. Jan was a foster mother and had taken into her home babies and children of all ages. She was excited that she and her husband were finally in the process of adopting two of the teenaged children.

Then one morning, I received a phone call, it was about 4 a.m. Jan, only 45 years old, had been rushed to the hospital. At first, they thought it was a stroke, but it turned out to be a brain aneurysm. The damage to her brain was so severe that they said there was no hope. Soon, she would be taken off life support. Jan's husband Larry said, "You know, Jan was a very loving and giving woman," and indeed she was. "She would want her organs to be donated to save others' lives." And so Jan's organs were donated. Somebody got Jan's heart. Somebody got Jan's liver. Somebody got Jan's kidneys. Because of her death, other people had new life.

A year later, we received numerous letters from family members saying, "Thank you for Jan's gift of life." "My mother got Jan's heart." "My sister was saved from the brink of death." We received letters from all the donor recipients.

Jan's story is a metaphor for how it is with Jesus Christ. when I stop and I think about the recipients of Jan's organs, they received organs that were good. They weren't damaged. Yet, before placing Jan's organs into their bodies, the doctors had to remove their own damaged, dying organs to make room for Jan's gift of life.

They were transformed. And we can be transformed. We can receive a self-image transplant, as Dad would say. If you want a self-image transplant today, if you want a heart transplant today, you need to give God permission to remove your old damaged, dying heart, and put in its place, the heart of Jesus Christ.

"It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me," says the scripture. "Put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its Creator," it says in Colossians. In Romans it says, "Do not conform to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."

Today, you can get a heart transplant. You can receive a self-image transplant. Ask Christ to take your old, dying, broken heart. Take it out to make room for the beating, loving, and healthy heart of Jesus Christ.

So say this with me: Christ, live in me. Christ, transform me. Christ, transform others through me. I no longer live. You, Christ, live in me. Amen.