Self-image? How many times have those words assailed our culture? Promises of a better you; promises to improve your self-image. This is all a gigantic, titanic, tsunamic lie.
You cannot become a better you by trying to fix yourself. All the options our culture offers to a better you always end up the same way: by eventually offering you an alternative option to the option of a better you. When you try something man-made long enough to fix your self-image problem, you eventually get tired and try something else.
Don’t misunderstand me: the problem of self-image is a true problem. But the problem is resolved not by promises of self-help, but by the promises of God.
In worship, you become a better self. Why—because you look to God. When looking to God you understand yourself. When looking to God and His Holiness you look to self and realize that the self is in deep need of surgery; and you realize that the only way to develop a healthy view of self and image is to realize that the value of self and image does not come from what you do, but from what God has done in you through His Son Jesus Christ.
Worship is here to fix your self-image problem, because the problem is the self. By the time this covenant renewal service is concluded we pray that your self-image problem will be fixed, because you will have confessed to your God that sin has done damage to your image, and realized that the problem with your self is that you look too much to your own interests and not the interest of others. Your image of self is only healthy when you have a healthy image of your need for God. I know I am not going to make a million dollar with that message, but I guarantee you, that’s the only way to view yourself accurately this morning.
So, come and worship and bow down and let us look to our Triune God to shape us that we might view ourselves more accurately before God and man.