09.02.18 Looking in the Mirror

 

Sermon title: Looking in the Mirror 

Sermon text: James 1:17-27

 

Sermon excerpt: 

When you looked in the mirror getting ready for church this morning, you might have thought, “I’m too fat” or “I’m too thin” or “Great, another pimple or another bad hair day.” You might have looked disheveled and wrinkled, worn and scarred.1

But that’s not really what James wants us to look at. He wants us to look deeper to see the image of God implanted in each one of us; to see ourselves as ones who have been saved by the blood of Jesus; people who are new creations in Christ, brought to new life through God’s word. James says you are a “first fruit,” set aside as someone who belongs to and is dearly loved by God.

But when we forget that, when we forget that we are God’s beloved, we look in the mirror and see a spiritually distorted version of ourselves. We turn away from the mirror in disgust and promptly forget what we’re supposed to look like, what kind of fruit should be growing in our heart.

1 https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=382