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You Were Made for Something Great

by Johnson Bowie
In the beginning, God created…
Sermon Notes

Emancipating Greatness
Genesis 1:27 NLT
So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of
God he created them; male and female he created them.
Psalm 139:13-18 TPT
You formed my innermost being, shaping my delicate inside and my
intricate outside, and wove them all together in my mother’s womb. I
thank you, God, for making me so mysteriously complex! Everything
you do is marvelously breathtaking. It simply amazes me to think
about it! How thoroughly you know me, Lord! You even formed every
bone in my body when you created me in the secret place, carefully,
skillfully shaping me from nothing to something. You saw who you
created me to be before I became me! Before I’d ever seen the light
of day, the number of days you planned for me were already
recorded in your book. Every single moment you are thinking of me!
How precious and wonderful to consider that you cherish me
constantly in your every thought! O God, your desires toward me are
more than the grains of sand on every shore! When I awake each
morning, you’re still with me.
Genesis 9:6 NIV
“Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed;
for in the image of God has God made mankind.”
“You should do good to and pay honor and reverence to man, who is
made in the image of God … minister food to the hungry, drink to the
thirsty, clothing to the naked, hospitality to the stranger, and
necessary things to the prisoner; and that is what will be regarded as
truly bestowed upon God.” – Clement of Rome, 1st Century A.D.
Genesis 1:28 NLT
Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the
earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the
sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”
IMAGE = Tselem, Hebrew; Eikon, Greek
Daniel 3:1 NIV
King Nebuchadnezzar made an image [TSELEM] of gold, sixty cubits
high and six cubits wide, and set it up on the plain of Dura in the
province of Babylon.
2 Corinthians 4:7 NIV
But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this allsurpassing power is from God and not from us.
We were made to shine God’s image so that others would see us and
remember who the King is!
Colossians 1:15 NLT
Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before
anything was created and is supreme over all creation …
“Some people read the Bible as though all the important stuff runs
from Genesis 3 (where humans fall into sin) to Revelation 20 (John’s
vision of the last judgment where humans are judged). They tend to
reduce the biblical story to God’s attempt to deal with individuals’
guilt so that when they die and face their own individual “last
judgment”, they can go to heaven. But this ignores the way the
Bible actually begins and ends. The Bible begins with God taking
great care to create the physical world as His cosmic sanctuary or
temple to become what we might call a “theater of his glory.” This
is a world he calls “good” over and over at the beginning of the Bible
in Genesis 1. The Bible then ends with Revelation 21-22, with God
“making all things new” (21:5). It ends with God’s good creation
made new, with creation reaching its intended destiny and flourishing
with abundant life.” – Andy Johnson
Jesus came so we could bear God’s image again!
Romans 8:29-30 NIV
For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to
the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many
brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those
he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
2 Corinthians 3:17-18 NLT
For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there
is freedom. So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and
reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes
us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious
image.
Jesus came to EMANCIPATE GOD’S GREATNESS IN US!
Emancipation: to free from restraint, control, or the power of another;
especially: to free from bondage.
Emancipating Greatness is about getting what God put IN you OUT
of you!
“Dreadful will be the day when the world becomes contented, when
one great universal satisfaction spreads itself over the world. Sad will
be the day for every man when he becomes absolutely contented
with the life that he is living, with the thoughts that he is thinking, with
the deeds that he is doing, when there is not forever beating at the
doors of his soul some great desire to do something larger which he
knows that he was meant and made to do because he is a child of
God.” – Phillips Brooks
Ephesians 2:10 NLT
For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ
Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
Ephesians 4:1 NIV
… I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.
“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.”
— C.S. Lewis
I BELIEVE A GREAT GOD MADE ME FOR GREAT THINGS!

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