The Self-Portrait and Self-Esteem (1 Peter 2:9-10) Today I'd like to share the grace of God under the title of "The Self-Portrait and Self-Esteem." People have their own self-portrait in their hearts consciously or unconsciously. They call it a self-portrait; a housewife has her own as a housewife and a merchant as a merchant. I also have my own as a pastor in my heart. According to their self-portrait, people are encouraged or discouraged in their self-esteem. 1. The wounded self-esteem What a wonderful self-portrait Adam and Eve each had before their fall! As they were created according to the image of God, they might raise up their shoulders in pride with their brilliant self-portrait. However, after they rebelled against God by taking the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, they were suddenly aware of their nakedness. Their previous glory left them and their whole nakedness was exposed before them. Their stripped self-portrait and their self-esteem were terribly hurt by this. They were totally upset. Genesis 3:7 says, "Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves." As their self-portrait was distorted, they tried hard to cover it up, but to no avail. The leaves of fig tree are big and wide so they picked them up and made skirts with them. Unfortunately, they did not last long. They became wrinkled and cracked at the sunlight. Thus they hid themselves behind a tree because they could not show up with their embarrassing nakedness. As God was walking in the Garden he called out, "Adam, Adam, where are you?" Adam replied, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid." God asked him, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?" When their self-portrait was twisted and self-esteem wounded, they became mean and nasty. Those with a wounded pride can lose their dignity. They easily call names at people and may resort to force and become mean. As Adam had a distorted self-portrait and lost his pride, he became so mean that he blamed God for taking the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil saying, "The woman you put here with me?she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it." Unashamedly he blamed God and his woman for his wrongdoing. When people are hurt in their pride, they tend to blame somebody else to protect their crushed self-esteem. Husbands blame their wives and vice versa. They also lay blame to their friends or neighbors. Furthermore, this blame goes even to their country or president! By transferring the blame to others, they try to keep their pride, but a deteriorated pride is hard to restore. If their pride is hurt, what happens? Anthrophobia follows after their pride is wounded and seriously leads to social withdrawal. Their fear caused Adam and Eve to hide from God among the tree. Those who hurt in their self-esteem begin to avoid human contact because of anthrophobia. Timidity and secludedness will accompany them. Genesis 3:10 says, "He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid." He feared God because of his nakedness. If not, he would have not been afraid. Therefore, our lost self-portrait and wounded pride will make us withdraw ourselves from others. We will make excuses and transfer the blame to others. Genesis 3:12-13 says, "The man said, "The woman you put here with me?she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it." Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." No one claimed his/her responsibility. When our self-portrait is unclothed by our sins and our pride is wounded, we will go astray without knowing where we came from, why we are here and where we are going to. It is typical of human nature that when our self-esteem is hurt, we struggle hard to hide ourselves. We seek to escape from blame and try to explain ourselves. 2. Jesus who was crucified on the cross How can we restore our naked self-portrait and wounded self-esteem? We should know that Jesus came to the earth to be crucified on the cross on behalf of us. The Lord, the Son of God, was born as a son of man and this means he came from the highest to the lowest. Worse still, he belonged to human race after the original depravity. Mankind had become sinful, filthy, horrible, and deserved abandonment. He came to humanity while they were dead spiritually, full of corruption, dishonesty, misdeeds and a foul aroma. Jesus became one of us; it is an inexpressible sacrifice of the Son of God. Romans 8:3 says, "God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh." Philippians 2:6-8 says, "Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death?even death on a cross!" The Lord came and lived as a servant on the earth. Furthermore, he had to be regarded as one of the most hideous criminals to be crucified on the cross. Why did he submit to that destiny? He volunteered to do it to restore our old self-portrait. Jesus carried the naked self-portrait of human beings and miserably low self-esteem of humanity instead of men. In order to restore our distorted state, low self-esteem, and broken and lost beings, the Lord let his self-portrait be twisted. His self-esteem was relegated to that of the most horrifying criminal. Jesus totally gave himself up. He carried humankind degraded by sin and took their character that was stained with iniquities. He hugged their sickened heart and body and bore their cursed life. He then died for the sake of those despaired humans due to death and destruction. The deeper our pride is hurt, the meaner we become both in language and actions. However, Jesus kept his dignity to the end. Even in the extremely hurtful situation on the cross, the Lord prayed for the sinners until the end, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."(Lk. 23:34) He also forgave the sin of one repented criminal and led him to paradise. The Bible says, "A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of."(Lk. 6:45) Isaiah 53:7-11 says, "He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand. After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities." Today Jesus is satisfied when he sees you who are born again through his suffering. After delivered a child, women greatly rejoice over their new born baby as they first hug it into their bosom. With the same feeling you can understand Jesus' heart. He willingly let his soul be lonely beyond description. He carried the most extreme pain that any human being had ever experienced. If he had not wanted it, he would not have been on the cross at all. Only by his Word, he made the dead Lazarus come alive even when there was a foul aroma because he had been there four days. Jesus calmed the stormy seas. If he had said to the one who tried to arrest him, "I command you to go away from me!", all the people around him would have collapsed right away. However, the Lord quietly committed himself to them without any resistance because of his earnest desire to save you and me. His great love towards us and wish to restore our self-portrait and self-esteem as the children of God drove him to take our broken, distorted and crushed pride on himself. We should give thanks to God all the time since his free gift given to us by faith changes our destiny. The Lord already carried away our old self and clothes us with a new creation. We must remember his grace through 1 Corinthians 1:28-30, "God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things?and the things that are not?to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God?that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption." God calls you into the bosom of Jesus. What did Jesus give to us as he came from God to be united with us? Jesus has become for us wisdom from God. He gives us a divine wisdom to discern everything of the world and to realize eternity, righteousness to make us clean without sin, holiness to set us free from iniquities, and grace to save us. Please repeat after me, "Jesus has become for us wisdom, righteousness, holiness and redemption." I wish in the name of the Lord that you may be clothed with the redemption of Jesus. If you realize and dream and believe and confess this with your mouth, all of these will be yours. How thankful we are to live with Jesus who clothes us with a new creation! 3. Jesus who clothes us with a new creation Jesus makes us a new creation. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!" No more an old creature. You are no more an old creature like Adam and Eve that was sinful, filthy, miserable and forsaken, but a new creation. You have become the children of God who can live forever with God and the Holy Spirit. The Lord makes you and me a new creation to live with a glorious self-portrait and high self-esteem as children of God. The Bible shows us a Samaritan woman. In Samaria at noon she came to draw water alone. Most of the women drew water in the morning. This woman had a wounded self-esteem and suffered from anthrophobia so that she took a water jar on her head to draw water. At that time Jesus sat down by the well all alone without his disciples who had gone to the town to buy food. He saw her there, but she didn't even look at him because she was used to people's disregard and contempt. Jesus said to her, “Woman, will you give me a drink?" She was so surprised and wondered how this Jew could ask her for a drink and said, "Who are you and why are you asking me for a drink? Even Samaritan men will not ask me any favors. You are a Jew so then how could you ask me such favor?" Jesus smiled at this and said, "If you knew who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him for water. Whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst and the water will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” Then the woman laughed at this and said, "Are you mocking me? You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?" Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst." "Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water." He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back." "I have no husband," she replied. Jesus nodded his head and said to her, "You are right. Now you have no husband. You have had five husbands, and the sixth man you now have is not your husband." "How do you know me? Now you are a prophet! You Jews claim that we must worship in Jerusalem, but our ancestors worshiped on this mountain. However, you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”"Jesus said, "Neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth." "It is so complicated! When Messiah comes, he will explain everything to us." "I, the one speaking to you?I am he." Therefore, this Samaritan woman was wholly changed through conversation with Jesus since she realized that Messiah, the Son of God, treated her with respect and listened to her to the end. Her self-portrait was transformed! "I am no more a forsaken woman. I have the Messiah who recognizes me and accepts me as I am." As her lost self-esteem was restored, her previous anthrophobia was gone! She left her water jar behind and ran to the town and said to the people, "Listen to me! There is the Messiah by the well. He told me everything I ever did. Come." The woman who had come to the well at noontime to avoid the people became an evangelist to preach Jesus to them. Her anthrophobia was completely gone. Through conversation with Jesus her distorted self-portrait was fixed and pride was revived. You know, when the devil comes, he strips people wholly naked. By stripping them he twisted their self-portrait and threw down their pride into the ground to make them nasty and mean. When Adam and Eve were deceived by the devil, what was his first act? He exposed their nakedness and hurt their pride and destroyed it. However, God did not cast out Adam and Eve with the temporary skirts of fig leaves. When they were expelled from the Garden of Eden, God killed an animal and clothed them with its skin in order for them to go away with a minimal pride. The devil strips us while God clothes us. Even today the devil ravages us and strips us naked through people's words and behavior. Let us find out what kind of self-portrait God has given to us. Let's read together 1 Peter 2:9-10 to know how God makes us when we come before him. "But 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." Please repeat after me, "I am a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession. Once I had not received mercy, but now I have received mercy." What a difference! You have been changed so greatly. Therefore you should have that kind of self-esteem and pride. You must express your confidence before God. When you recognize yourself as wonderful, you will not treat other people so cruelly but respectfully. If you regard yourself as a hooligan or a disabled person, you will treat others in the same manner. Those who have a distorted self-portrait have no pride or happiness. Their self-esteem and self-portrait should be changed first. Where can they be changed? Under the cross will they be different. God recognizes you as his children. How wonderful you are! And Jesus loves you so much that he sacrificed his body and shed his blood to save you. How precious and priceless you are! As you come under the cross of Jesus and lay down your heavy burden, you will have noble pride and self-portrait so that your words and thinking and actions will be changed accordingly. When your inner person is changed, your outer person cannot but be transformed. It will be quite a different person from being wholly naked to being clothed with a holy redemption. When Adam and Eve were naked, they condemned each other and blamed God for their sins. However when we become a new creation in Jesus Christ, we can speak only noble words as a noble person and live according to our new stature as children of God. A wonderful transformation will happen to a new person. If we keep our self-portrait of heaven in our hearts just like an ID card, we will have noble pride and be able to overcome our sense of inferiority, defeat, and despair so that we can walk with God. "I cannot come before God. I am afraid of him." You should not say that. By the blood of Jesus we have become the children of God and begin to think, speak, and act accordingly. Thus we can live with the confident self-portrait to live with God. After the ascension of Jesus Christ, at the Pentecost, 120 changed people gathered to give birth to the Early Church. One changed man named Paul distinguished himself in evangelizing the whole Gentile world by the gospel of Christ. As John Wesley was changed, the Methodism followed. The transformation of John Calvin made Swiss into the Presbyterian country. We should imagine and dream and believe and confess with our mouth the self-portrait of a new creation. When our self-esteem wounded by sin and iniquities is healed and our fear is overcome, we will be made whole and have a positive and happy personality. Therefore you should receive new judgment before God. You are no more a miserable person. You are a precious child of God. You are not a despised person. You receive God's respect. You are no more a pauper. You already have the treasure of heaven in you. Your destiny should be trusted to Providence. The world chooses the ablest man, but God chooses a man by grace. If we always cherish the self-portrait of heaven as a child of God, we can overcome all the despair and frustration to walk with God. From now on your self-portrait will not be distorted. Your self-esteem will not be crushed. I wish in the name of the Lord that even though you are nobody right now, you have the self-portrait of a child of God so that you can live with confidence overcoming inferiority complex and frustration to walk with God. I eagerly pray for you. Dear heavenly Father, you have chosen us who are filthy, miserable, despised, and forsaken as your child and made us to live a noble life. We give thanks to you. Because of our ancestor's sin we become naked and cannot cover ourselves with the skirts made of leaves from a fig tree. However the Lord has clothed us with garments of skin. In the beginning it was garments of skin but now God clothes us with the skin of Jesus. We thank you that we can live with the name, righteousness, holiness, health, blessings of Jesus and be clothed with the heaven of Jesus. Father God, let us be the believers who live with the positive self-portrait and the glorious self-esteem. In Jesus' name Amen.