Lord, thank you for inviting, encouraging, luring us to this hour of worship today. Speak to us, teach us, heal us, transform us, use us. We want to love you more. Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

To get things started, I’ll need about eight volunteers. [The deacons and elders all go to the front and turn toward the congregation.] Now that’s what I call good deacons and elders. Ladies and gentlemen, as you look at the deacons and elders for today, what do you see? You know what I see? Do you see what I see? I see that God likes variety. Just look at them. Aren’t they something else?

 

Folks, everything in the world God made, and nothing is a copy. You are looking at some originals, right there in front of you. Every one of these persons is an original. 

 

Thank you all. Please sit down now. I promised them that I wouldn’t embarrass them any further. They did great.

 

That’s the message for today. We are all different, and we are all unique. Not only we, as human beings, but they tell me every single animal, every single plant, every single tree, every single sound, every “everything.” Even twins, are not exactly alike, thank heavens. I’m married to one. I know about that. God made every single thing, every single one of us, as originals.

 

Now, I suppose that God could have made us all alike if God had chosen. God could have easily just mass-produced us, so that we all looked alike, and talked the same, and thought the same, and acted the same. But it seems that the Creator of all that is evidently did not want it that way in creation. One of the reasons may be that it seems that an original – wouldn’t you agree – is always worth more than a copy.   That means, I think, that you, being an original, have tremendous value to God. You’re valuable to God, because God says you are valuable. That’s how much you matter to God.

 

You’re more than one in a million. You’re one in six billion. You’re probably even more than that. 

 

That’s the message we’re trying to get across to our eighth graders right now at church camp. We had a camp not too long ago. They laughingly and seriously call it “sex camp.”   That’s a good thing, because it’s an effort to reach eighth graders and try to help eighth graders understand a Christian view of human sexuality. It’s amazing how that voice and that message does not seem to come from many other places.

 

Did you read “Broadway Life” this week? Did you read Hannah Overfelt’s little article? Hannah, eighth grade, bless her. She wrote an article for “Broadway Life” this week. It came to most of your homes. She said, “If you’re going to talk about sex, you might do well do so with the one whose big idea it was in the first place.” Sounds like an eighth grader, doesn’t it? Yeah. But what I love is the way she concluded that article. Did you see it? She said, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” Oh, if we could all just hear that. Oh, if we could all just know that. If we could just be grasped by that notion.

 

That’s why we are starting a new series today. I think it’s so important, that message. I think it’s so important for us to learn. I think it’s so important for us to hear why God formed, why God shaped you the way God did. Genesis 2 says the Creator shaped human beings from the soil of the ground and blew the breath, the spirit of life, into their nostrils, and they became living beings. Key word here: shaped, formed, custom-made. That’s you. There’s nobody else exactly like you.

 

Part of the covenant that we remember here on a number of occasions at Broadway is that we might say something like: 

 

That’s the covenant. That’s the one we remember when people are brought to the community of faith to be blessed. That’s the one we remember when we have our baptisms here. That’s the one we remember when we get together and form a new family in Christian marriage. That’s the covenant we remember when it’s time for one of us to receive the gift of eternal life. We remember. We remember who we are and whose we are.

 

As you know, the implications of that thought, folks, has huge medical, ethical implications. Our whole society and the world struggles with it. Beyond that, however, it means that while there may be accidental parents in this world, there are no accidental children. Did you know that? 

 

Your parents may not have planned you, but God did, according to the Scripture. If that is so, then it really doesn’t matter who your parents are or what they did. Maybe some of you, and I know there are people in this room this day, who lost their parents before they got to know them. There are people in this world, maybe some in this room today, who are orphaned.   There are people in this world who may be adopted. There are people in this room who are adopted. The point is you are not an accident. The point is God was more interested, it seems, in creating you than God was interested in your Mom’s and Dad’s parenting skills or in the circumstance in which your Mom and Dad may have found themselves. 

 

If they happen to be good parents… If they happen to be parents who were capable of offering you developmentally appropriate things… that is a bonus. It is a bonus for you. You are one of the lucky kids. You are one of the fortunate, blessed children in this world. But either way, whether you are blessed or not, God made you you, and with all of your strengths, and with all of your limitations, and with all of your weaknesses, you are what God has made.

 

After God made you, according to the Scriptures, God evidently threw away the mold – just broke it. There is never going to be another creature on this planet like you. That’s amazing. 

 

One of the really interesting questions, folks, that I think God is going to ask you when you get to meet God face to face, and all of you are, as will I, is why? “Why weren’t you just you? Why weren’t you just more like I created you to be? If I had wanted you to be like anybody else, I would have made you like somebody else. But I didn’t. I made you you. You are my beloved, and my favor rests upon you.”

 

So, what’s the problem? Well, the problem is simply this. There are huge numbers of people, maybe even people in this room, who don’t like the way they are. No, they want to be taller or smaller. They want to be lighter or darker. They want to be younger or prettier. They want to be thinner or stronger. They want to be brighter or faster. They want to have more talent, more capability. Why couldn’t I be more like her? Why couldn’t I have been more like him?

 

They go around – and it’s amazing - preparing themselves, competing with one another. Teenagers today are doing some of the most horrendous things for and with each other in their own company trying their darndest to fit in, rather than accepting what God has shaped them, what God has formed them, what God has made them to be.

 

So, what happens? Well, they try to be like somebody else. Truth? Do you want truth today? The truth is if you are not going to be you, quite frankly, you don’t need to be here on planet Earth, because that spot has already been taken by somebody else, folks. If you’re here, it means you have something to contribute. You have something to contribute that I can’t contribute, that no one else on this planet can contribute. You were created to be you. How awesome! How wonderful that thought is.

 

Now, I know that some are thinking, the little wheels are turning, they are saying, “Okay, so I’m unique. So I’m different. So nobody is just like me. So why should I care?” 

 

I’ll give you four reasons. I’ll give you what I think are four good reasons why you ought to care.

 

I think you ought to care, first of all, because to discover how God shaped you and how God formed you gives you a clue as to what God wants you to do with your life.

 

As most of you know, we’ve been doing some construction around here at Broadway for a number of years, which means we’ve been working with builders and architects. Architects have a favorite little saying that most of you know. You know what that is: Form follows function. That means: Tell us what you want to use this building for, and we’ll tell you how best to form or shape or build that building. If you want it to be a school, it needs to be able to do these kinds of things. If you want it to be a cafeteria, then we can create it with these kinds of things. And if it’s going to be a hospital, well, we’re going to make it a whole lot different, you see. Form follows function. Now, everybody knows that is how architecture works.

 

What you may not know is that when it comes to human beings, just the opposite is true. Function follows form. Figure out how God shaped, how God formed you, and then you’ll have a pretty good clue about what you’re supposed to be doing with your life. Function follows form. Figure out how God wired you, and you have a pretty good clue about what God expects of you. Because God, it seems, generally does notgive you all of those wonderful, amazing gifts that God has given you, not to mention that wonderful heart of yours, and all of those incredible varieties of abilities, and that personality that is just yours, and all thosespecialties that are you have, and then just say, “Oh, by the way, I want you to ignore all that. I want you to go over here where you hate it and spend your life doing stuff that you’re really not very good at.” What?

 

I have a good friend in this church. We were having a good time the other day visiting with friends, and I asked him for permission to tell you his story. He tells me that when he was young – he’s in his 70s now – he grew up in Chicago. He wanted, when he was a young man, to go to Iowa State, and he wanted to study forestry. This guy loves plants, and he loves animals, and he loves trees, and he likes birds, and he’s just an outdoor kind of guy. But instead, his father insisted that he go to Brown, back East, because that’s where he went, and that’s where his brother went, and that’s where his father before him went. That was a decision that resulted in my friend flunking out of school and being drafted into the United States Army, and that changed his life forever. All because a father didn’t accept the notion that if you’re pretty good at something, that’s a pretty good indication that is what God put you on this earth to do.

 

Ephesians 2 says, “For it’s by grace that you’ve been saved through faith. This is not something you do on your own. It’s a gift from God, because you are God’s workmanship. You are God’s work of art. You are God’s masterpiece created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God has prepared those things in advance for you and I to do.”

 

Here’s the thing, folks. God doesn’t force anybody to do what God has shaped and formed them to do. You can blow it. You can waste it. You can misuse it. You can reject it. The fact is there’s a ton of folks who you and I know who are doing just that. I find them frustrated, often lonely, self-absorbed, unhappy, doing all kinds of stuff, busy as can be, even depressed, because they are trying to be and do something that they are not, rather than what God created them to be and to do. 

 

Number One: You should care why God shaped you the way God did, because it’s a clue as to what you are supposed to be doing in your life.

 

Number Two: You should care because God equips you – every single one of you – to serve.   You have been put on this earth for a mission, for a purpose. You have something to accomplish. God didn’t just create you. God made you, put you on this earth to make a difference.

 

Jeremiah 1 says, “Before I formed you in the womb, [says the Lord] I knew you. Before you were born, I set you apart, consecrated you. I had holy plans for you.”

 

Folks, every single one of you was made for a mission, a ministry. You were made to do something that no one else on this planet can do. Maybe you’ve missed that mission. Maybe you’ve missed a few years along the way, and if so, welcome to the club. There are more than a few of us around. But if so, here’s what I want you to hear today. I want to ask you to consider starting today. Let’s make the rest of your life the best of your life. Let’s start doing right now with your life what God created, formed, shaped you to do in this life. God’s already equipped you, according to Scripture, with everything you need to accomplish it. You can develop it; just do it in service to God. 

 

Number Three: You should care how and why God formed and shaped you because you are accountable. Did you know that? 

 

The Bible says that we are stewards, and all that means in today’s language is that we are managers. You don’t own anything. You don’t even own yourself. From the Scripture’s point of view, you are a manager. You have been given tasks to do. You have been gifted to do all kinds of things. The resources are available. You have a mission. That mission has been entrusted to you. 

 

One of the questions that I believe we will be asked on the day that we stand before God is: “What did you do with what you were given? What did you do with that talent? What did you do with that time? What did you do with that freedom? What did you do with that health? What did you do with that family, that relationship? What did you do with that education? What did you do with that network? What did you do with that money? What did you do with that personality that I gave you? Did you just do it for you, or did you try to accomplish what I sent you here to do?” 

 

You should care.

 

Number Four: You and I should care, finally, because God formed us and shaped us, according to Scripture, to show the world God’s glory. There’s that word again. It keeps showing up. God’s glory. When you’re doing what God created you to do, and God shaped you to do, and God formed you to do, it not only feels good to you, and that’s a key, by the way, but it also, according to Scripture, makes God smile. Did you know that?

 

Iranius, by the way, is not one of the compounds in chemistry. Iranius was a person. Iranius was a first-century Christian. Right? I don’t know what else Iranius did, but Iranius left us one of the great quotes. If I could ask you to take one phrase home today, it would be this one. Iranius said, “The glory of God is a person, a human being, fully alive.” God loves it when you’re doing what God created you to do in this world. It makes God smile.

 

Point: There’s a bunch of folks out there who don’t believe that. They say that the only people who matter in this world are the really smart people. They say that the only people who matter in this world are the really beautiful people, the really athletic, the really artistic, the really rich, and the rest of you, well, good luck. You know what? That’s the message you’re getting over and over and over again. You know what? That message is wrong. It’s simply flat wrong.

 

Isaiah 43 says, “The Lord says, ‘Bring me all the people who are mine whom I made for my glory’.”

 

Folks, if you are alive today, you are alive to give God glory. It doesn’t matter if you are disabled. It doesn’t matter whether you are sick. It doesn’t matter whether you are aged, or handicapped, or whether you are poor, or whether you’re weak. It doesn’t matter.  You were made for the glory of God. If you are alive today, you were made for that glory. 

 

What is that glory? That glory is just this. Whatever your condition might be, God made you so that God could know you, and love you, and enjoy you wherever you are. Isn’t that amazing? And if that’s true, you see, what that means is that life – all of life - your life, my life, all of life is sacred. Right? Sacred. And that means that you are valuable. You’re valuable because God says you are valuable. 

 

I want you to teach that to your children. I want you to never forget it. Teach it to your grandchildren, because there are lots of voices, lots of voices out there saying who you are and what you are. I’m not hearing this very much.

 

Well, those are the kinds of things we’re going to be dealing with in the series ahead for the next few weeks. We are going to be focusing on what’s going on inside you, rather than on the outside. You and I live in a culture obsessed with what’s going on the outside. We’re spending a gazillion dollars in this culture, not to mention a gazillion hours, trying to get buffed up and looking good, but how little we are spending in terms of time and money on what’s going on, on the inside of us.

 

1 Samuel 16 says, “The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outer appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

 

So, come be with us. Bring a friend. It’s a great time, I think, for this series, because you have some people who are your friends who could maybe use this message. You know who they are. I ask you to consider bringing them with you here to church. May your prayer be that when we get finished with this series, you and I can really, genuinely say and celebrate with St. Paul, “By the grace of God I am who I am.” 

 

Would you pray with me just a moment?

 

Lord, thank you for loving me. Thank you for creating me, and shaping me, and forming me. You tell me that I’m an original. I want to learn to know you and to love you more than I do today. Help me develop what’s on the inside of me, Lord, so that I can live with purpose and serve you better and show the world your glory. Lord, I want my life to bring a smile to your face. Help me make the rest of my life the best of my life. This I humbly and yet boldly pray, in the name of Jesus.

 

And we all say together… “Amen.”

 

 

 

Creating Spirit, thank you for bringing us to be. Thank you for the unique qualities that name and shape each of us. We are amazed by your imagination. Help us to accept, embrace, and celebrate who we are. You have designs on us and for us. May each person be valued as your one-of-a-kind original. Amen.