God Made You Special

Ryan Benson

Sermon • Submitted 4 months ago • Presented 4 months ago

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Intro

What makes something rare? Have you ever wondered that?

-Here: Gold, YANGTZE FINLESS PORPOISE (river dolphin <1000)

-Minecraft: Dragon Egg (when you defeat the ender dragon end of game), Nether Star (legendary item when you defeat the wither)

It means that there aren’t many of its kind and its hard to find… And isn’t this true: the rarer something is the more valuable it is

You know, there are 7.88 Billion people in the world (world bank) but guess what? There’s only one of YOU.

YOU have your own personality

YOU have your own life experience and choices

YOU have your own interests and things you like to do

Out of the billions of people now, the billions of people that have come before you, and the billions of those that will come after you, YOU will be the only YOU here on the earth

You’d think that with so many people, God would just not care about YOU. But that’s not true, because there’s only ONE YOU! Today I want to explore what makes YOU special in God’s eyes, okay?

1. You’re Special b/c You’re Made in God’s Image

One of the reasons that you’re special is found in Genesis 1:26–27 “Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.” So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”

When I make something in my own image, I’m creating something that is like me: super AWESOME, super HANDSOME, super COOL!

In that case it would be Ryan-like…

“You have qualities that are like your parents”

—

BUT what the Bible says here, is that God made us, you and me, in his image — that’s what makes us spacial, that we are God-like, with limitations, of course.

Think about it, out of all the creatures God made, the dolphins, the snails, the cats, and the dogs, we have intelligence, just like him

Cats are intellegent, and they think too, but our ability to think and to innovate and to create is SO MUCH better than a cat’s ability to think and innovate! Have you seen CATS create spaceships and go to the moon? I haven’t!

But you are intelligent and creative and innovative and, in God’s eyes, you’re special because you’re just like him

We also have a moral nature, just like him

Unlike other created things, we have the ability to show kindness and compassion and to live holy and to be happy and to be prayerful… There’s a capacity in us to choose to live good and do good to others…

We also have an ability to rule, just like him

God rules over angels and demons, our world and the heavenly world we cannot see. He’s the King of the Universe, the Bible says that Jesus “holds up the whole world by the power of his word.”

When we take care of what we have and clean our rooms and brush our teeth and we defend our friends from bullies and take care of those around us, using our power to help others, like God would… we reflect God well in the world

That’s why when people “hate themselves” or are jealous of others and not grateful for who they are, it makes God sad…because he cares for them and made them special and unique, just like him

That’s also why it’s important we live in unity with one another. We all have different races and faces and shapes and sizes, but we all have a uniqueness, a God-likeness that when we all get together, we reflect God to the world!

2. You’re Special b/c God Loves You

To be honest, I’m not sure why God loves us so much. But he does. You know what the Bible says? “There’s no greater love than a man to die for his friends (John 15:13). And what did Jesus do for us? Die on the cross for our sins. God loved us so much and he proved it to you and to me by sending his son to earth.

Ephesians 1:4–6 “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son.”

I can’t explain why God loved you, but He’s loved you even while we were thoughts in his mind, before the creation of the world

We would think that God is so busy, right? He’s just a God in the sky, waiting to punish me until I do something bad… But that’s NOT GOD.

What the bible teaches about God is that he loves you, and wants to coach you to live like him: the way we were designed for!

I’m Special To God, So What?

When you know that you’re special to God, you think about yourself differently

I remember my first year in highschool doing an interview with the Principle. He asked me “tell me about yourself” And me as a shy 9th grader said “I’m just an average boy getting through life…” And I remember he looked me in the eyes and said “You’re not an average kid, you’re made in God’s image and he loves you and has great plans in store for you.”

That really shaped me and changed the way that I thought about myself and it got me wondering who God was and what God had in store for me!

When you know that you’re special to God, you don’t have to try so hard to be liked by people anymore

We spend so much of our time trying to please others, worried about what our friends think about us. Are we doing the right things and wearing the right things. Am I cool? Am I liked by others… And it can get wearisome/tiring

But when we know that we are special to God, we get released from the burden of trying to please people all the time and just spend our energy living for God and doing what he tells us to do

Maybe people have said stuff to you… that you weren’t good enough or cool enough or pretty enough… But what is God telling you today?

That YOU ARE Good enough

That YOU ARE loved

That YOU ARE cared for

That YOU ARE special…

If you want a deeper relationship with God, the starting place is accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior. God loved you so much and thought you were special that He sent His son Jesus to die on the cross for your sins. Then, he rose up from the dead and now is cheering you on, wanting to live in our hearts so we are never alone!

If that’s you, and you want to know Jesus and his love more, pray this with me: Dear Jesus,

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