The Search for Self-worth - Session 1

The Search for Self-worth

Malcolm Smith

10-26-10

First Session

Salvation is a day-to-day process. He puts us back together. We’ve been taken out of the darkness, now He’s taking the darkness out of us. My whole relationships change when I realize I am unconditionally loved.

What does it look like to be whole? Jesus came to save us and restore us to what the first Adam had, and could’ve had..?

Why did God create us in the first place? He freely chose to make us, not out of need, but out of love. He created us to love us. I was created to live in a relationship with God. I can image Him as I get to know Him.

He loves me, pours His love out on me, fills me up, I pour out into others, and so He, through me, loves creation. A human that does not know in their deepest part that they are unconditionally loved is the definition of dysfunctional

God is love, the source- not something He has as an appendage. This is the way He is- it is the essence of His being-covenant love-committed (limited) love. God has chosen to limit His love to you. He loves me not because of who I am, but because of who He is. God’s love springs forth spontaneously-it’s a love without cause. You’ll never truly love God until you realize He loves you. Its gift love-not earned. God’s love is not an emotion, but it is emotional. God is not cosmic charity. His is an infinite emotionalism-He delights in you.

God uses pet names for us. The baby is loved because it exists. Take that to limitlessness. As much as we awake and don’t even question whether we are deserving of air, so we should know love.

That’s how man was intended to know his identity: I know who I am- I am made in the image of my Creator, He loves me limitlessly, and I can respond to that love in obedience and relationship- here is my worth. Here is my significance.

We are made to receive our sense of identity from a voice outside of ourselves; from our Creator. We try to find our significance in our work. But its not how close to perfect the toilet is getting cleaned, it’s who is doing it.

If God thus loves me, then I can afford to have no secrets. Every person here has been made in the image of God. No such thing as mere mortal. I look at you as bearing the signature of God, and so I deal gently with you. Loving out of the fact that we are both loved by God.  

Religion assumes we are separated from God. But, In Him we live and move and have our being.

Rom. 1:25- exchanging the truth for the lie. The lie of being “our own man”.

Man felt guilty, afraid, lonely, and inadequate. Thank God. Turn back to God. But sin addles our brain. When He believed the lie, not only did He not feel like God, He felt less than a man. He was ashamed of his shame. If it’s true that I’m supposed to be ‘god’, self-sufficient, than we feel ashamed that we’re not.

Naked means to be under scrutiny. They were nude and fine with it until the fall. Then they became naked. God made man in His image, so we did the same to God. Adam saw himself as unlovable, so He thought that God couldn’t love imperfect people. They’d lost the meaning of being a person.

When I respond in thankfulness, I start to become a person. God’s love is not an optional extra, it’s our fuel. Adam declared our independence from God. Rom. 1:23 We sought after love from other created beings. They don’t have any to give; at least not the unconditional kind.

Give because we have received from the only source. Not because they have gave to us, but because of that^^^^. Not looking to others to get our self-worth, they can’t fill out our ‘price tag’.