Become Like Jesus Philippians 2:1-13. Why am I here? So far we have discovered that our purpose is to know and love God and to

Transcription

1 Become Like Jesus Philippians 2:1-13 Why Am I Here? God made us to love us and that means we have purpose and value. Why am I here? So far we have discovered that our purpose is to know and love God and to know and love God s family. But we will not be able to love God or love others fully unless we assume the third reason for being: to Become Like Jesus. What was Jesus like? (Read Text) Paul reminds us, From the very beginning God decided that those who came to Him should become like His Son (Rm.8:29). Notice it s not His plan B. It was from the very beginning. God announced at creation, Let us make man in our image (Gn.1:27). From the very beginning God s original plan has been to make people in His image. He wants you to become like Him, having his characteristics, moral attributes, and values, seeing, feeling, and acting as he does. But when sin entered in, that image was distorted and we need to learn what it is to have and exhibit God s image. God wants us to grow up like Christ in everything (Eph.4:15). This doesn t just automatically happen; you ve accepted Jesus as your Savior and bam you re thinking and acting and feeling like Jesus. No, discipleship is a process of becoming like Jesus. The wonderful thing is that we are not called to somehow make this happen on our own. God uses many ways to help us grow up spiritually. Some ways are apparent to us. God uses the Bible to teach us the truth of who God is, of how much God loves us and of how we are to live a godly life. So we need to read, study, and apply God s word to our lives AND we need to be in conversation with God in prayer. We can t become like Jesus if we never talk with him. We also need each other. You can t grow to maturity on your own. That s why being a part of the family of God is important. But God uses some unexpected things in our lives too. As favorite verse of many says, In all things God works for the good of those who love Him who have been called according to 1

2 His purpose (Rm.8:28). God works in all things according to His purpose. That includes bad things, painful things, mistakes, the sins that other people commit against you, and even the sins you commit. There s a lot in life that s not good. But God can and does use everything for good if we give them to Him. God also uses unexpected tools. Let s look at three. Unexpected tool #1: God uses trouble to teach us to trust Him. Anytime we re going through trouble we should treat it as a test. God is trying to teach us to trust Him. Troubles in the Bible are often called trials. Paul shares, We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. (Rm.5:3-4). The goal of life is character. We put a lot of emphasis on career; but you don t take your career into heaven. God is far more interested in what you are than what you do. Troubles in life produce character. It s easy to trust God when everything s going your way. But, when everything falls apart in your life health, finances, relationships, whatever that s the moment when God says, Are you going to trust Me? God can use every situation in life to teach us and bless us if we let him. Even the worst problems God will use for good to make us like Jesus. So every time you re in a troubling time and start to say, Why is this happening to me? remember, God uses troubles to teach us to trust him. Allow me to offer two helps to keep you focused through the troubling times. First: Keep a spiritual journal. Write down what you learn about God, life, relationships, and yourself as you are becoming like Jesus. Moses did this: At the Lord s direction Moses kept a written record of their progress (Nu.33:2). When you are going through difficult times, you will have a written record to review how God has been faithful in the past and how you have grown. Second: Remember the reward. Paul reminds us, Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all (2 Cor.4:17). Our earthly life is 2

3 preparation for eternity. God uses troubles to build right character in us for heaven and to teach us to trust him for now. Unexpected tool #2: God uses temptation to teach us to obey. What are temptations? Temptations are situations designed by Satan to harm us. God never tempts us; the Bible is very clear about this. But God is able to use the temptations that Satan intends for harm to do good in our lives. How? Every temptation provides an opportunity to make choices: a bad choice to follow the temptation or a good choice to follow God. Character is built on making choices. When you and I face temptations we re not alone. Satan tries to harm everyone; he even tempted Jesus. And those temptations are not new. Paul writes, No temptation has seized you except what is common to [everyone]. We are all tempted by the same things. But there s more. God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will provide a way out so that you can stand up under it (1Cor.10:13). God is with us in the temptation and provides the means to make the right choice to walk away from it. Those means are drawn from our first two purposes for life. First: Keep your thoughts focused on God. The Bible says, Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. (Ph.4:8). What is true good and right? God is. When we keep our mind on God, desiring to do everything as an act of worship to him, then it isn t hard at all to walk away from temptation. Second: Get a spiritual partner. Solomon wrote of that value, Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. (Eccl.4:9-10). Some of you face a temptation that s been a part of your life for many years and you wonder if you ll ever escape it. You need a spiritual partner, some other person you can talk with about that temptation. I know even saying that scares you to death. You re going to find out that the temptation isn t nearly as 3

4 big when you can bring it out in the open and talk to somebody else about it. Temptation is always an opportunity to make a right choice, a stepping stone towards growth in our lives. Every time you defeat a temptation you re choosing to grow more like Jesus. Unexpected tool #3: God uses trespasses to teach us to forgive. Trials are situations God works in to draw us closer to God and temptations are situations the devil uses to draw us away from God. Trespasses are situations used by other people to hurt us. Because everybody sins, we hurt each other, sometimes intentionally, sometimes unintentionally. But we re going to be hurt. The Bible calls those hurts trespasses. That s why in the Lord s Prayer it says we are to forgive others their trespasses against us. It s the hardest thing to do and yet we have to learn to do it in order to become like Jesus. It s hard because it hurts. It hurts to be misunderstood, criticized, or judged unfairly. It feels awful when we are hurt with words or abused emotionally, verbally, and even physically. But even in the hurt God has a greater purpose if you learn to forgive. On the cross Jesus not only carried our sins but He carried all of the abuse that s ever been done in the world. Imagine this with me for a moment: while Jesus was dying on the cross, the people around Him made fun of Him, laughed at Him, scorned Him, ridiculed Him, spit in His face. People passing by shook their heads and hurled insults at Jesus [this is a dying man and they re hurling insults at Him]. The elders made fun of Him. Even the bandits who had been crucified with Him insulted Him in the same way. He endured the hurt of the onlookers. What was Jesus response Jesus said, Father, forgive these people because they don t know what they re doing. He yielded His right to get even. He responded to evil with good. He forgave. It s the most difficult thing of all in the steps to maturity, but if you re going to become like Jesus Christ you re going to have to learn to forgive the people who ve hurt you. How can we? Two helps: 1. Remember how much God has forgiven you. Paul reminds us, Forgive 4

5 others just as God forgave you because of Christ (Eph.4:32). God will never ask you to forgive anybody else more than He s already forgiven you. 2. Remember, God is in control. Yes those people may mean to hurt you. But even that is only allowed by God because He s going to bring good out of it if you give it to Him. Paul reminds us that, together with Christ we are heirs of God s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering. (Rm.8:17). I don t know what you re going through right now. But I do know how God wants you to respond regardless of what it is. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus (Phil.2:5). God wants you to be like Jesus. Prayer: Dear Father, life makes so much more sense when we realize it s about becoming like Jesus. Help us to use life for the reason you gave it to us to grow into the character of Jesus. We want to grow up to become who you made us to be. We want to become more like Jesus in the way we think, the way we feel, and the way we act. If that means taking us through troubled times, then we say like Jesus, Your will be done in my life. Give us the strength to make the right choices. And teach us to forgive as much as you have forgiven us. Jesus, we want you in our life. We want to know you. We want to follow you. In your name we pray. Amen. 5