Call to Worship

Blessed be the God of autumn ~

The God of fallen leaves ~

Cranberry red, mustard yellow, fiery orange.

The God of wind and rain, of filtered light and early evenings;

The God of all that ends,

The God of all that starts anew.

Unison Prayer

As the leaves lose their green

To display their colorful hues,

May we too lay aside the old,

And be draped with the new;

May God’s vibrant, Holy Spirit

Be seen in our daily lives.  Amen.

Words of Assurance: 1 Corinthians 15:58, Good News Bible

So then, my dear friends, stand firm and steady. Keep busy always in your work for the Lord, since you know that nothing you do in the Lord’s service is ever useless.

Hillsong Worship, “Who You Say I Am”

Scripture Reading: 1 Peter 2:9-10, NIV

You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Sunday Sermon

Who has the right to define us?

God is there from the very beginning. King David writes, “you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”

And then we are born. And for the first five years or so, our family gets to say whatever they want about us, especially because for the first year or so we can’t even talk. We could be a good baby, a cute baby, a fussy baby, a silly baby, a baby who won’t go to sleep, a blessing, a gift, a pain in the butt or all of these things on different days. But once we begin to understand words, the words people use to describe us will begin to sink in.

And then we go to school, and other people begin to define us ~ teachers and classmates. Are we good students or bad? Do we play well with others? Are we respectful or rambunctious? Do we look funny or smell funny or act weird? Are we outgoing or withdrawn? The clothes we wear, the food we eat and the way we play are all under scrutiny, and there’s no escape, except maybe to be home schooled. And the more people say things, the more they stick. So if we’re popular, we start to think we’re something special, and if we’re not, we start to think we’re not. If the noise is too loud, it can even drown out the opinions of the most loving parent.

We enter adulthood with some idea of who we are, or more accurately, we split the difference between who we think we are and who others think we are. And this is where we can really get into trouble. We may have an inflated sense of self or the opposite. We may wrestle with body image and self-esteem. We may think – because other people have told us – “I’m stupid, I’m a loser, I’m never going to amount to anything.” Or we may think, “I can do this. I have everything I need. I am worthy. I am loved.”

Later in life, events can rock our world and shatter our sense of self. We may be diagnosed with an illness, or have a relationship end, or lose a loved one, and suddenly everything is out of wack and we’re asking ourselves who we are all over again, because we’re defining ourselves in relation to our wins and losses. And still there is God, trying to break through the noise; and what is God saying? The same things God’s been saying all along.

“I made you. I love you. You are my children.” And John writes, “every child of God is able to defeat the world.” And then Peter writes about us all together, saying, “you are chosen. You are holy. You are God’s special possession. You have been called out of darkness into light.”

Who has the right to define us? Only God. Hillsong Worship sings, “I am chosen, not forsaken; I am who you say I am. You are for me, not against me; I am who you say I am. Who the Son sets free is free indeed; I’m a child of God, yes I am. In my Father’s house there’s a place for me; I’m a child of God, yes I am.” These words are powerful if we are willing to accept them, to incorporate them, to take them in.

If you had good parents or have good friends now, they’ve probably told you something like, “Who cares about what other people think?” The answer is, “all of us!” But we shouldn’t, unless they are supportive people who love us and whom we love and respect. A healthy self-image comes from a combination of God’s Word and the words of other faithful people. But God, who knit us together in our mothers’ wombs, has the first and final word. We may think we know ourselves; others may think they know us. But God knows us best of all, and always looks at us with love.

As Lauren Daigle sings,

You say I am loved when I can’t feel a thing
You say I am strong when I think I am weak
And You say I am held when I am falling short
And when I don’t belong, oh You say I am Yours
The only thing that matters now is everything You think of me
In You I find my worth, in You I find my identity.

May we find our identity in God, who knew us even before we were formed, and who knows and loves us still. Amen.

Closing Song: Lauren Daigle, “You Say”