Zach Reed: If you would all turn in your Bibles real quick, turn in your Bibles to Psalms 139. Psalm 139, verses 14 through 16 is kind of the main thought here. The title of this workshop here is this 20-minute section is Fearfully and Wonderfully Made.

And we're talking about godly self-acceptance. Before we get into it, let's open up with a word of prayer. Lord, thank you so much for the opportunity to be able to preach.

I just am overwhelmed with this opportunity. I just thank you. I ask that you would fill with your spirit right now.

I have nothing to offer, but we do know what the truth in your word. And we ask that you would use this time to challenge each one of us about how we view ourselves and how you view us. And that, Lord, we would be impacted by this.

That it would change our whole perspective on our lives. And, Lord, give us the tools for our future. In your name, amen.

Sorry for being emotional. I talked with my brother just a minute ago. He's actually in this session over here.

When I first came to Bible College, I was here for one year, and I was done. And I had no intentions on being in Bible College and being in the ministry. I was planning on being in politics.

And when I came to Bible College, the Lord so broke me, and I surrendered. And it was just thinking the fact that now both of us are preaching in a session for the Youth Summit here. and just a little overwhelmed realizing just seven, eight years ago, I was in nowhere planning on this direction for my life.

And I'm overwhelmed by the goodness of the Lord. So, godly self-acceptance. I don't know about you, but it's not something I necessarily have heard preached on many times.

I've heard it once or twice. But it's a topic that, as I started thinking about that, do I really struggle with self-acceptance? And I think all of us do.

Every single person struggles with self-acceptance at one point or another. It might not be every area of your life, but we all have areas in our life where there is something that we struggle about, about our makeup, who we are. And I want to first go through some truths about God in us and how he's created us.

Then I want to talk about, you see on your sheets, 10 unchangeables. And let me preface this with some of the material I'm using is not my own. I'm borrowing it from somebody else.

So before you think of me getting all kinds of good ideas and stuff like that, I'm using somebody else's material. But it's impacting, it's truths from the word. So, but here at the Thee Generation Youth Summit, we call it Cold Clash Plus, the Thee Generation Youth Summit, we are challenging young people to no longer be the me generation, focused on ourselves.

But we're challenging them to be about him, the Thee Generation. And honestly, if you do not accept how God has created you, you will never fully be able to be a part of the Thee Generation. because you will always be focused on you and how you, that thing in your life, whatever it is, and we'll talk about the 10 unchangeables that really touch the areas in your life that maybe you struggle with.

But if you never come to acceptance of who God has made you, you will struggle to be truly a part of the V generation. So the truth about who we are. Let's read Psalm 139, 14 through 16.

Verse 14 says, none of them. Each one of you, each one of us, in the sight of God, is fearfully and wonderfully made. God has created you special.

I don't mean this in a funny way, but God has created you uniquely. And there's only one of you on the earth. And God created you with a specific purpose and there's no mistake about who you are, where you were born.

God has a specific and perfect design for you. The psalmist says, first off, I will praise thee. We'll talk about this at the end of this message, but I will praise thee because of how you have created me.

When you were in the womb, as the psalmist David is saying, When you were in your mother's womb, God knew exactly how you were going to be created. He knew everything about how he was forming. Nobody else could see how you were being formed in that womb.

Only God. As God was creating you there, as the psalmist uses the pictures of that, there in the lowest parts of the earth, as God was creating you there in your mother's womb, he knew every substance that he was using to create who you are. and it was fearfully and wonderfully done.

If you don't understand that truth about what God is creating in you or how God created you, you will struggle with who you are. Can you turn, well, we all know, but I'll just turn real quickly to Genesis chapter 1. Genesis chapter 1.

God says this in verse 26 and 27. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image.

In the image of God created he him. Male and female created he them.

you're created in his image Jeremiah real quickly you don't necessarily have to turn there but I would challenge you even to write these verses down and look at them later Jeremiah 1.5 God says this to Jeremiah before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee and ordained thee a prophet unto the nations not only Did God know exactly how he was going to be creating you in the womb?

He created you in his image, but he's creating you with a purpose. He knew you, and he's got a specific plan for you, and that's why he created you the way he did. But sometimes we look at how we are, and we struggle because we start comparing ourselves amongst ourselves.

we're told you're not to compare yourselves amongst yourselves but we do that we start looking at other people and we start thinking oh i'm not like this or i'm not like that and we become dissatisfied and we feel inferior and we feel inferior because we start changing we start comparing what somebody else has called the 10 unchangeables so i'm gonna i'm gonna go through the 10 unchangeables things about you that God created you cannot change no matter how much you try you cannot change them

okay first one number one parents you cannot change your parents now as I'm going through these you might not struggle with all these but you know some of these like parents and It doesn't necessarily struggle with my self-acceptance, but some it is.

I was talking with my wife a little bit just even about that. Her dad's unsaved and grew up in a baby Christian home. And she said, yeah, there was a time where I struggled with self-acceptance about who my parents were.

I don't know how it might be in your life. Maybe your parents are new Christians, and they don't understand everything. And they're growing still.

Maybe they can be angry. Or they can be passive. Maybe your dad is just passive and he doesn't do anything.

You can be frustrated about that. God, why did you give me the dad I have? Maybe your dad is no longer here.

And you can be frustrated. God, why don't I have a dad? I don't know what it is.

Your mom. Maybe it's something about your mom. You're just, why do I have the mom I have?

Why, you know, whatever. And you're questioning God about, why do I have to have the parents I have? You cannot change that.

God gave you the parents he gave you for a reason and for a purpose. And when you chafe at what God has given you, you'll never accept yourself. You'll always be struggling with that.

Second unchangeable. When you were born in history. I don't know how many would struggle with this, but why did I have to be, it's probably more for young people, being involved in politics, being conservative politics, we talked a lot about the Reagan era and all that stuff.

It could be easy to think, well, why couldn't I have been born then, a couple years ago, when they had it so great in politics? Why couldn't I have been born, I don't know, 1800s? Why couldn't I have been born, you know, this or that?

Couldn't I have been born in the Bible? I don't know what you, but every, you know, there can be that thing, there can be, some people might struggle with, why did I have to be born at the time I was born? You can't change that.

God's the one that made you at that time. So you're going to have to come to grips with it. Third one, people groups.

Why did I have to be born in the people group I was in? Most of us are probably Caucasian, but not everybody. And, you know, it could be a challenge.

Well, first off, why did I have to be born white? You know, I love sports. I could be like, why couldn't I have been born a black man?

Man, they can jump and run and dunk, and I can't do that. That's right. Why couldn't I have been born that way?

I could struggle. I mean, you can. If you get involved in sports and stuff like that, you see that.

You get out there and play. I had a guy I played basketball with, and man, he'd come through the lane, and he played when he was in his freshman year in high school. He played in the same league as Dwayne Wade did in Dwayne Wade's senior year of high school.

So we were just playing pickup ball. He came flying through the lane, and he had kind of cradled the ball, was going in for a layup, and I got all ball, slammed it, never even phased him, and he just went all the way in and finished it. You can look at that and go, man, why couldn't I have been that?

Or maybe it was some other people, whatever it might be, why couldn't I have been something else? Why did I have to be born the way I was born? You know, no, I'll wait on that one.

Fourth one, nationality. All of us are blessed, or most all of us are blessed to be Americans. But even still, it could be, why couldn't I have been from another country?

Why'd I have to be an American? Why couldn't I have been from some other country, Australia? Man, that's cool.

I like Australia. Why couldn't I have been from Australia? They have a really cool accent.

Why couldn't I have been that? I don't know. But God made you an American for a reason.

He has a purpose for that. Fifth, now we're getting into maybe some more nitty-gritty ones, ones that might touch more home. Fifth one, your gender.

That's unchangeable. In today's day and age, everybody's so messed up with wanting to change their gender. You know, I don't know if I've heard as much with older girls, but when the girls are younger, sometimes they're like, man, why couldn't I have, I want to be a boy.

It's like they get to do all these cool things. Or sometimes with girls, I mean with boys, Maybe there's that struggle with, hey, I would rather have been a girl. I don't know.

But you cannot change your gender. That's who God has created you for. And it's probably, in this setting, it's probably more girls that would struggle, wishing they could have done other things.

Maybe not, but it's accepting who God has created you as a woman and loving it. Sixth unchangeable, your birth order. where you were born in your family.

Maybe you were the youngest. Maybe you're the middle one. I don't know.

Maybe you're the oldest. Sometimes being the oldest, like I remember thinking this, I'm the oldest boy in my family. And I thought, why in the world do I have to be the oldest?

Because all the responsibility comes on me. And like if something goes wrong, they look to the oldest. I was like, why?

I was like, I don't understand. My dad was like, I expect you. And I'm like, but why do I have to be?

but that's what God created me to be the oldest boy in my family. I don't know what birth order you're in but you cannot change your birth order. Number seven, you'll love this one.

Brothers and sisters, you cannot change who your brothers and sisters are. I'm going to keep on moving quickly because I'm looking at my time and I'm running out. Number eight, this is probably going to touch everybody, physical features.

Number eight, physical features. You cannot change your physical features.

I'll tell you this I always struggled with my feet I have wide feet and I always struggled with them it was hard to find shoes and people sometimes would make fun of them hey you got flippers on there and they would say stuff I have an older sister she had more of a pointy nose and people would make fun of her nose and oh ouch that hurts they would do stuff and that can be really hard to accept your nose, your ears what color hair

you have what kind of hair, is it curly, is it straight, you know, whatever it might be, we all, there can be things about our physical future and you can go, why do I have to have this?

Why couldn't I have had something else? And the world is always going to tell you, this is the ideal. You know, for a while, it's blonde hair, maybe with highlights in it, kind of curly, with a beard, you know, for the guys, maybe not for the girls, but for the guys.

I'm just thinking what I'm thinking. But, you know, like, you kind of got these ideals, like you have the beach bum look, and everybody's like, man, that's kind of cool, but I have straight hair. There's no way I'm getting curly, you know.

And you can be very much, like, frustrated, like, why can't I have that? Not accepting who God's made you. But maybe that's not totally it, but there are probably things.

If I asked everybody, if I had everybody close their eyes and not look around, and I asked everybody, raise your hand if there is something that you do not like about who you are. I'm sure everybody would probably raise their hand and say, there's something about me. Maybe I have a mole here and I just hate it.

Or maybe I have this or that. God made you that way for a reason, and that's accepting that. Okay, number nine, mental capacities.

Why does that person have to be smarter than me? Why is that person more talented than me? Why is that person more athletic than me?

I want to be better than, you know. And there's all kinds of things that we can, like under mental capacities, that we can be frustrated like, why couldn't I have had that? Why does that person come in and they don't study for a test at all and they come in and ace it and I spend three hours studying for that and I still get a C, maybe a C plus?

And you're just frustrated because it's like, why can't I be like that? It's probably among siblings. Growing up in a family where he's homeschooled, you would see that where this younger sibling, man, they were just smart as a tack.

The other one, they struggled a little bit. But God had different things where that sibling excelled at things that the other one didn't. God's created you for a purpose, specifically.

And he's got something for you. Okay, moving on. The last one.

Number 10, aging and death. Probably at your age, you're not going to think about it as much. But you can't change how you age.

You can't change when you die. That's in God's hands. That's an unchangeable thing, accepting that about your life.

Once you're dead, you've got to accept it anyway, so I don't think we have to worry about that. All right, let me just give you a couple points. Outward beauty does not relate to inward happiness.

Okay? Write down this verse by that. Isaiah 53.2.

Isaiah 53.2 is talking about when Jesus came on this earth, there was nothing comely or beautiful about him. But yet the inward beauty, nobody could stay away from Jesus. There was nothing, if you looked upon Jesus, there would be nothing about you that would necessarily draw you because of his physical features.

But it was the inward that drew you to him. God's basis for true happiness get a chance to look at these Matthew 5, 3-12 blessed are you, blessed are they blessed are the meek blessed means happy happy are those that are meek happy are the humble, happy are the merciful happy are the peacemakers that's the basis of God's true happiness, it's the inward okay God's design. Now I'm going to fly through this.

First you have to detect any area where you are ungrateful to God about how he created you. Number two, you need to thank God. Thankfulness is the opposite of bitterness.

Bitterness is saying, God, I don't like what you did. Thankfulness is saying, God, I accept what you did. So, thanking God for how he has made you.

And number three, put yourself back in God's hands. He is creating you. I didn't read, where is it, Ephesians chapter 2.10, but you are his handiwork.

He is the master craftsman. He is the master potter. And he is molding you into a masterpiece the way he has you specifically.

put yourself back on. So if there's an area and you say, I know, I know, I've always struggled, always struggled with my hands. Or I've always struggled with my hair.

Or I've always struggled, why did I have to be born when I was born? You need to go before God and you say, God, first off, thank you. I will praise you.

because I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. Thank you for giving me the feet I have. Thank you for giving me the parents I have.

Thank you for the brothers and sisters I have. Thank you for the mental capacity you've given me. Be specific.

The devil wants you not to be specific. He wants you to generalize. Be specific.

Go before God and say, God, you made me this way, and I've always struggled with it. But you did it with a purpose, and I don't understand what it is right in this moment, but I'm going to thank you for that. And then say, God, I'm actively putting myself back in your hands.

You craft, you mold me to be exactly the man or woman of God that you want me to be. You know, honestly, I have watched, and I probably see it more with girls than necessarily with guys, but I have watched young people who have outward beauty, but because the inward is not right, they are absolutely ugly. But I've watched people who do not have necessarily physical features that are like, whoa, but because they have the inward right, it's like, wow, that is one beautiful person.

Amy Carmichael you probably have heard this story but I remember reading this story about her as a young girl she would stand up and look into the mirror and say why do I have brown eyes she wanted to change her eyes she couldn't stand it and she tried everything to change the color of her eyes she wanted blue eyes obviously you can't change the color of your eyes well down the road in her life God called her to India and she was able to be

used of God because she had brown eyes and they don't have brown eyes they don't have blue eyes in India they have brown eyes and she realized God created me fearfully and wonderfully with brown eyes so that I could reach a people God has a purpose like I read about Jeremiah 1.5 God has a purpose He has formed you in the womb for a purpose and He is calling you and created you specifically for that calling detect what it is that you are ungrateful about

thank God for it and put yourself back in His hands you are fearfully and wonderfully made let's close in prayer Lord I thank you so much for each one of these people here I thank you how how you've created I can't even fully go into just the intricacies of what you want to do in our lives but I ask that you would take the action steps that we've given today to use that for throughout their life anytime they're struggling with whatever it is about them

that they would go back to this truth and realize I am fearfully and wonderfully made where they thank you for it Lord we thank you we praise you for how good of God you are in your name amen