Image is Everything
Tell me if the following saying is familiar to you…
Image is everything! Sound familiar?
OF COURSE IT DOES!!!!
We hear this message EVERY DAY through EVERY POSSIBLE media….RIGHT????
billboards, commercials, TV shows, ads, movies, and popular songs.
Advertising firms spend MILLIONS in Branding and Marketing Campaigns!!!
Their job is to PERSUADE us of ONE THING!!!!
IMAGE IS EVERYTHING…..exp
AND GUESS WHAT??? And we're HOOKED!!! COME ON
We spend thousands to perfect our appearance, buy the latest gadget and drive the BEST car we can AFFORD!
What is the advertisers' goal?
To turn our gaze toward our OWN IMAGE
KNOWING or NOT to actually help YOU and I to EXALT SELF ABOVE God or anyone else.
They persuade us to Value Surface over Substance
To EQUATE Success with Outward Beauty/Status.
They seek to BRAINWASH us to make an Impression and RATHER THAN to express God's truth
To LIVE for OURSELVES, RATHER THAN to LAY DOWN our lives for others.
But BEFORE we scrap IMAGE to something BAD and WORLDLY….
Studying the Scriptures, we quickly discover that image is ACTUALLY IMPORTANT to God as well.
Gen 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Gen 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
YOU and I are made in the image of God HALLELUJAH
AND this is the ONLY IMAGE we need LOOK TO!!!!! COME ON
THIS IMAGE is OUR identity… purpose….joy!
The image we are to look like IS Jesus Christ….AMEN
Scripture states that Jesus IS the EXACT image of God the Father:
Col 1:15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
Christlikeness is our HIGHEST GOAL
What does it mean to be Christlike?
IT MEANS to LOOK/BE more and more like Jesus:
body, soul and spirit, intentions of our heart, attitudes of our minds,the actions and behaviors of our physical body.
IT MEANS to be TRANSFORMED in EVERY AREA of our being into the VERY IMAGE of God
THAT is the GOAL and JOY of every person ever born!
IMMEDIATELY we ask how is this HIGH GOAL to BE LIKE JESUS POSSIBLE????
ONLY by the GRACE of God
ONLY by YIELDING ourselves to the CONTROL of the Holy Spirit!
OUR GOAL is to be CONFORMED COMPLETELY, without delay, to Jesus's image.
But remember, it is the grace, not our own efforts that cause us to REPENT.
The transforming work of the Cross of Jesus is altogether sufficient.
Through the FINISHED work of the Cross, we are TRANSLATED from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of God
A Kingdom of Light/ Liberty and Love:
Col 1:10 That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;
Col 1:11 Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;
Col 1:12 Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:
Col 1:13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
Jesus WALKED in the FULLNESS of the Spirit
Jesus SHOWED the most COMPLETE manner of the Character and Nature of God
Jesus SHOWED the fruit of the Spirit:
Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Gal 5:23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
Gal 5:24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
Gal 5:25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
Gal 5:26 Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.
The WAY to becoming more like Jesus is by our YIELDING to the Holy Spirit
Ask the Holy Spirit to search deep within your heart and mind to EXPOSE ANY and ALL…. Intentions/attitudes/actions that are NOT EXALTING Christ the King!!!!! COME ON
Psa 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
Psa 139:24 And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
The MOMENT sin is revealed, our response is to SWIFLTY confess and repent…PERIOD
WE MUST FORSAKE the sinful behavior
WE MUST YIELD EVERYTHING to HS
1Jn 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
These are THE DAYS to declare the transforming grace of God to a hurting confused world.
As followers of Jesus, we should WALK in abiding peace
Our life should REFLECT the love of Christ!
Why?
WE ARE a city set HIGH on a hill that CANNOT and WILL NOT be HIDDEN! COME ON
Let the RIVER of God's love TRANSFORM YOU into a Christlikeness
Until His GLORY FLOWS from your life
LET THE RIVERS FLOW FROM YOUR BOSSOM TODAY CHURCH!!!
A REFRESHING GRACE and MERCY to ALL those AROUND YOU.
True Christianity is NOT merely what we say but RATHER What we do RATHER Who we are.
LISTEN
You cannot FAKE …FAITH
You cannot FAKE Christlikeness…you shall know them by their fruits
We can't create fake glory of God WITHOUT the REAL Holy Spirit PRESENT COME ON!!!
The image of Christ is everything!
The image of the world is NOTHING
Isa 26:3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.
WHOM DO YOU TRUST IN TODAY SAINTS????
Yourselves OR your Heavenly Father?
WHOM DO YOU LOOK LIKE? PRAY
