Created to Become Like Christ

I don’t know if you’ve been counting but we’ve tuned into “Ron’s Search for Purpose” four times now, and in my opinion Ron is making some progress. Today, unlike the three previous weeks, he wasn’t injured physically. plus he seems to be learning some important truths. For example, a couple weeks ago, with Jeremy’s help, Ron learned about our first purpose in life which to love God, and another word for that is what? Worship!

Then, last week, by trial and error, actually more errors than trials, Ron learned about our second purpose in life, and what is that? Fellowship!

Okay-you’re doing great. You’re obviously learning as much as Ron! One more question-a great definition for fellowship is loving who? God’s family! Very good!

Now, Ron learned something else last week. He figured out that one way to experience true fellowship would be for him to do his part in the local church, to partner with other Christians and use his unique giftedness to help his church family do what God calls it to do. And, at the end of that disastrous small group meeting, Ron was told that he had the gift of administration-although, as Jeremy pointed out, he needed to learn to use it with a little grace.

As we have just seen, this week Ron discovered his third purpose in life, which is to become like Jesus. He hasn’t quite figured out how to do that, but he knows he’s supposed to. And he is correct. As Romans 8:29 says, “…from the very beginning God decided that those who came to Him – and He knew who would – should become like his Son.” The problem is many Christians don’t do that. They accept Jesus as Savior but that’s as far as they go. They never work at growing spiritually, and instead they remain “babes in Christ…” – “spiritually underdeveloped.” Well, this doesn’t please our Heavenly Father, because as Ephesians 4:15 says, “God wants us to grow up.like Christ in everything.” You know, when I think of immature believers I remember that humorous old Amy Grant song, “Fat Baby.” Do you recall the lyrics:

Have you ever known a Christian like that? Someone who had been a believer for years but was still just a “big baby Christian?” Maybe you can look back and see a time in your own life when you were like that. Well, the tragic truth is this song describes many Christians, because in essence they have remained “baby believers” most of their spiritual lives. Now, it is always sad, when, due to some accident or birth defect, an individual’s BODY grows to adulthood while their MIND remains in the infant stage. I’m sure you’ve seen people like this-adults who have to be cared for all their lives just like over-sized infants-and situations like this are INDEED very tragic. But I think it is even MORE tragic when this happens to someone spiritually-when someone never grows beyond spiritual infanthood-and I say this is sad-not only because when we fail to grow, we miss out on the abundant life Jesus promised but also because the people in our fallen world need Christians to mature. They need to see Jesus living in and through you and me. They need us to be His hands and feet. In short, they need more of us to fulfill this third purpose where we strive to become more like our Master and Redeemer. As Tony Campolo has said, “There are too many believers in this world and not enough disciples.”

Well, to remind you of this fact go ahead and fill in the first blank on your outlines. “My 3rd Purpose in life is to: BECOME LIKE CHRIST.”

In other words, each of us are called by God to grow up-such that we become more and more like His Son. Now, I want to point out another thing that Ron learned in this week’s episode and it is this: being a disciple of Jesus-becoming LIKE our Lord-doesn’t happen overnight. Remember? He couldn’t change his name to JESUS CHRIST and expect to instantly become like Jesus because it doesn’t work that way. There are no shortcuts to spiritual maturity. No-genuine discipleship is a life-long process. The Bible pictures it as a marathon-not a sprint, a journey-not an arrival. As Eugene Peterson says, becoming like Jesus is the result of “a long obedience in the same direction.” In fact, the Greek word for DISCIPLE means, “learner” not “expert” because the truth is we are ALWAYS learning more about what it means to become like Jesus. We don’t stop working to fulfil this third purpose until we get to heaven.

Well, today we’re going to look at HOW God helps us to move along in this life-long process….how He helps us to grow spiritually mature. And God DOES help us. Jerry Bridges puts it this way: “It is God Himself Who initiates and superintends our spiritual growth.”

Think of our Heavenly Father as the Architect/Construction Foreman of our lives, supervising every detail of the building up of our faith-because that is what He is. Now, if I were to ask you to list some things that God USES to help us grow to become like Jesus I imagine you’d cite things like Bible study and Fellowshiping with other Christians. And if you did-you would be correct. God uses both of those “tools” extensively. But He uses MORE than that to transform us such that we learn to THINK like Jesus…and ACT like Jesus and VALUE the things He VALUES….and LOVE people the way He LOVES them. The fact is God uses EVERYTHING to conform us to the image of His Son such that as our memory verse for this week says, “our attitude…[becomes] the same as that of Christ Jesus.”

Philippians 2:5.

Do you remember the words of Romans 8:28? Let’s see…how does it go? “In SOME things God works…” No-of course not. It says, “In ALL THINGS God works for the good for those who love Him, who have been called according to His PURPOSE.” This verse and others like it help us to see that in His great sovereignty, our Heavenly Father is able to use ALL our experiences-good and bad-to help us to fulfil this third purpose. And this morning I want us to look at three of these things-three unexpected things-that God uses to build us-shape us-conform us-into the image of His Son. And the first is this.

1. God uses TROUBLE to teach us to TRUST Him.

Now, this is a hard lesson for us to accept because when God allows trials to come-especially the unfair ones that we endure at no fault of our own-well from our perspective it is hard for us to see how they can benefit us. Already in this 40 Day Study, two people have contacted me and said in essence,

“Mark, if God has a purpose for my life-why are things so tough? If God loves me, why have I had to endure such unfairness in life?”

Now, these are good questions. And one thing I usually tell people when they ask about a specific trial that they’ve had to endure is this: “I don’t’ know. I don’t know exactly WHY this has happened to you. I don’t know all the reasons for the inequities of life.” And no human being does. In fact, any one who says that they have it all figured out is either lying or bragging.

We can’t possibly know WHY everything happens because our minds are too small and our perspective is too limited to know. But I HAVE learned to trust in the One Who DOES know.

When tough times come my way I’ve learned to put my trust in my all-powerful Heavenly Father, Who loves me and knows all things-including what is best for me.

This week Sue and I started watching the WWII saga, Band of Brothers, which follows the true story of one platoon of airborne rangers through the entire war. In the opening segment, the unit is at boot camp and their C. O. “guides” them through all kinds of trials. For example, he has them run three miles up Mt. Currahee and three miles back all the time-even with all their gear on-and forget running shoes-they run in their combat boots. Well, they hate him for this and wonder why he is so cruel-but as I watched I thought, “He’s not really being cruel. No, he’s preparing them for battle.” You see, he knows they will have to run up hundreds of hills while under enemy fire and so running up and down Mr. Curahee-while it may be incredibly painful in the present…is actually good for them in the long run.

Well, that’s the way it is with our Heavenly Father. He allows us to go through tough times because from His eternal perspective He knows they benefit us in some way. God knows that enduring tough, unfair times is actually in our best interest because often that is the only way we can learn certain vital eternal truths that HELP us to become more like Jesus. Jerry Bridges writes, “The development of a beautiful Christlike character will not occur in our lives without adversity….the only way Christlike character is developed is in the crucible of real-life experience.” And he is right. You see if we are to become like Christ, we will have to go through the same things He did…and Jesus endured incredible adversity and unfairness.

The truth is great Christians-maturing believers-the most Christlike people-always graduate from the school of conflict, never the school of convenience. In fact, I don’t know of any hero of the faith mentioned in the Bible who did not go through tough times-everyone from Job to Joseph. And-as Joseph and his hero peers learned, God can take what people meant for bad-even what satan meant for evil-and use it for our good by drawing us closer to Him.

I like the Joni Eareckson Tada quote that Warren cited on day 25. She said, “When life is rosy we may slide by without knowing about Jesus, with imitating Him and quoting Him and speaking of Him. But only in suffering will we KNOW Jesus.”

And maturing believers understand this-so they see PAINFUL PROBLEMS in a different light.

Philip Yancey refers to what he calls “two-handed faith” or “ambidextrous faith” in which he welcomes pleasures in the right hand and welcomes affliction in the left convinced that both would serve God’s design for him. Well, we must learn to think this way. We must learn to as James says, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1:2-4)

When TROUBLES come to life we must remember verses like this and trust God-trust that He is working even in calamity for our good…trust that He sees all our lives at the same time both where we are now on the path to spiritual maturity as well as the finished product decades further down the road. We need to understand that with God in control there is no such thing as pain without purpose-that everything that comes our way comes with His permission every problem…every trial…is “Father-filtered.” A few years ago the CCM group NEWSONG recorded the following song based on this truth. I’ve asked Aaron to share it with us. Watch the words on the screen as he sings.

TRUST HIS HEART – Solo…Aaron Hoogerwerf

Now, let me give you a couple tips to help you take advantage of this tool that God uses to help us become like Jesus.

A. First, keep a spiritual JOURNAL.

In essence God told Moses to do this in Numbers 33:2 where it says, “At the Lord’s command, Moses kept a written record of their progress.” And I believe we will benefit from this discipline as well. Now, when I say keep a spiritual journal, I’m not talking about a diary. You see, a diary is where you record WHAT HAPPENS every day like, “Dear Diary, Today I went to the grocery story. Then I went to the bank. Then I went home. Then I went to sleep.” No-a diary is recording the EVENTS of your life whereas a journal is for recording the INSIGHTS of your life-the things you have LEARNED, the progress you have made as you went through tough times.

Now, you don’t have to write in your journal every day but I would advise that you do so at least once a week-and even more frequently when you are going through a particularly painful time. Just stop and write down the things you have learned-the insights you have gleaned from the experience-the prayers God has answered and the ways He has answered them. This is important to do because when NEW trials come we can open our journals and read about PAST trials-and that will help us recall how God helped us to endure as well as the lessons He taught us. This also helps develop our trust in God in the PRESENT because it reminds us that He was faithful to help us in the PAST. We can read about our past experience and see that He did indeed work in it for our good.

And you know-the best JOURNAL to read in tough times is the Bible, because as I said, God inspired people like Job and Joseph…to chronicle their own experiences. We can read them and see more proof that God IS to be trusted-that He ALWAYS comes through. Our own personal Journals also help us to see that we are indeed making progress as disciples. You see most of us forget what we used to be like and journals are a way of showing-that we are indeed learning and maturing. This knowledge helps us to keep on keeping on.

You know, I read through some of my old sermons from twenty years ago and am embarrassed.

I think, “I said THAT? I can’t believe those listened!” or “I talked THAT long? I can’t believe they stayed!” I learn that I’ve made progress as a preacher. I’ve still got a long way to go but I’m not where I used to be! And a journal helps us to see this as well-so keep one.

B. A second thing to do in tough times is to keep your eye on the REWARD.

You see, from our limited perspective it can seem as if trials and tribulations go on forever. But they don’t. Remember, as I told you a couple months ago, this life and everything in it is temporary. Someday we will live eternally in Heaven with God and when we do all this will seem like nothing. This week Good Morning America has been featuring the comeback of that famous Welsh singer, TOM JONES and Thursday he sang his first hit live on TV, “It’s Not Unusual.”

Aaron’s going to come and sing it now-just kidding!!!

Anyhow, as Mr. Jones began to sing, Charlie Gibson commented that this song was first recorded in 1964-40 years ago-and when he said that I thought, “40 Years? That’s impossible. It can’t have been that long ago!” But, it was that long ago-those 40 years have flashed by and even now the trials I endured within those 4 decades time period seem like nothing. Well, that’s a tiny glimpse of the way it will be in heaven. As 2 Cor. 4:17 says, “Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all….” This verse reminds us that when we receive our eternal reward, the WORST troubles of life will seem to be “light and momentary.”

When we go through the unfair times-the agonizing times-the fear-filled times-of life, we need to keep our eye on eternity and on the eternal reward that is laid up for us there in that wonderful place where there will be no more sorrow, nor partings, nor death for the old things will have passed away like the vapor they really are. And then, a second “tool” God uses to help us fulfill this third purpose is this…

2. He uses TEMPTATION to teach us to OBEY.

Now, let’s be clear on a few things.

A. First, God does not tempt us.

Our loving Heavenly Father doesn’t try to trick us into sinning. As James 1:13 says, “When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’ For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone.”

Only satan tempts-and he does so in order to harm us. But our omnipotent God can take the temptations we face and “re-wire” them such that instead of hurting us, they help us to be more like Jesus. I say this because temptation always provides us with a CHOICE. I love how Warren put it in Thursday’s devotional. He said, “On the path to spiritual maturity, even temptation becomes a STEPPING-STONE rather than a STUMBLING BLOCK when you realize that it is just as much an occasion to do the RIGHT thing as it is to do the WRONG thing…that every temptation is an opportunity to do good.”

When we choose to OBEY God rather than to sin, satan’s plan is ruined and we start to grow to be more Christ-like because that is what Jesus did when He was tempted. In Matthew 4:10 we see Jesus’ response to a choice temptation provided when He said, “Get out of here, satan. The Scriptures says worship only the Lord God. OBEY HIM.” We temptation then gives us a chance to do just that-to choose to say no to satan and yes to God-and every time we say yes to God, we become a little more godly.

A second thing I want to point out is this…

B. It is not a sin to be tempted. Martin Luther used to say,

“You can’t keep the birds from flying over your head, but you can keep them from building a nest in your hair.”—if you have enough hair for them to build a nest in, that is. The truth Luther was getting at is that it’s not a sin to be tempted. The sin comes when we “let the birds build a nest in our hair”-when allow those tempting thoughts to come to rest in our minds such that we act on them…and choose to disobey God.

C. Third, we must remember that everyone is tempted in the same way that we are.

1 Cor. 10:13 says,”No temptation has seized you except what is COMMON to man.” This is important to remember because one of the ways that satan tricks us into sinning is by making us feel like our temptation is bigger than anyone else’s that no one has gone through a temptation as powerful as the one we are going through so its understandable if we give in. Well, this is a lie of the devil because everyone is tempted in the same way. Other people just like you and me have chosen to obey God in these times, so it IS possible for us to say “no” to sin. If they did it, we can do it. God helped them to face that temptation and He will help us as well.

D. Another thing to remember is that temptations always test our love for God.

You see, in essence temptations are always an assay of what we love the most in life. When we’re tempted by money, it’s a question of what do I love most: God or money. When we’re tempted by a wrong relationship, it’s a question of whether we love this other person more than we love God-and so on. So, the truth is obedience-choosing to say, “yes” to God-is a matter of love. Remember, Jesus said, “If you love Me, obey My command.”

Now, here are THREE things you can do to win against temptation.

1. First, keep away from THINGS that are sure to tempt you.

This last week was Daniel’s fall break. He had about five days without classes. He couldn’t come home because of Cross Country practice so he decided he would use all that spare time to work on term papers that were due a few weeks later. That way he would have them out of the way and would be able to concentrate on his finals. When we called to see how he was doing, he told us he was making good progress and he said the reason he was able to was because he made it so that he couldn’t be tempted to watch TV or play NINTENDO. I asked him how he did this and he told me he put his TV and NINTENDO in the closet. Then, he chained the doors shut and pad-locked it with his room-mate’s lock so he couldn’t get in even if he wanted to.

Well, if we want to avoid temptation we must embrace this same principle. We must do all we can to put distance between ourselves and the places and people and things that we know will tempt us to disobey God.

2. Second, we must keep our minds focused on the RIGHT things.

This is what Paul was talking about in Philippians 4:8 when he says, “Fix your thoughts on what is true and good and right.” You see, temptation always starts with getting our attention, and when it succeeds we have lost because the more we focus on the temptation, the more likely we are to act on it. So, when you’re tempted, don’t resist it because when we resist we’re really just thinking more focused thoughts about the temptation! In essence we’re getting into a spiritual tug-of-war with satan, and he usually wins. The best thing to do is just stop resisting…you know, “drop the rope,” walk in a different direction, and think about something different. Follow Paul’s advice here in Philippians. “…whatever is good, whatever is right, whatever is true…think on THESE THINGS.”

3. A third thing that helps us deal with temptation is to get a SPIRITUAL PARTNER.

I know none of us like to talk about our temptations due to the fact that they are often embarrassing-but the truth is one of the ways to defeat them is to be open about them, to bring them out into the light. And that’s where a spiritual partner comes in. The Bible tells us in Eccl. 4:9-10, “You’re better off to have a friend than to be all alone.If you fall, your friend can help you up.” So, when we are tempted the best thing we can do is tell someone, and remember, they’re not going to be shocked because as I said earlier they’ve faced that same temptation themselves. They can tell us how they were able to overcome it PLUS they can hold us accountable in our own struggles.

This week I read about a HORSE PULL in Canada in which one horse pulled 9,000 pounds and another pulled 8,000 pounds. Now, together you would expect them to be able to pull 17,000 pounds right? Well that’s not what happened. When teamed together, they pulled 30,000 pounds! The reason they were able to do this is found in the principle of synergism and basically synergism means that separate agents working TOGETHER have a greater total effect than the sum of the INDIVIDUAL agents. In short, much more can be done in a TEAM effort than can be accomplished SOLO.

Well, this is why spiritual partnering is so effective. You see, together we can win struggles with temptations that we cannot win alone. We can “pull” more together than alone. Howard Hendricks, has studied 246 instances of once godly men who have experienced moral failure and he has found only one common factor. Not one of those 246 men had accountable relationships with other men. So to win against temptation find someone of the same gender to be your spiritual partner-an accountability partner. Teaming up with this person will help you both to learn to obey God much more quickly than either of you would have done alone.

Okay let’s review…God uses…trouble to teach us to trust and temptation to teach us to obey-and a third unexpected tool that God uses to help us become like Jesus is this….

3. He uses TRESPASSES to teach us to FORGIVE.

Trespasses is kind of a “King James word”…but basically they are situations designed by other people to hurt us. This is what Jesus was referring to in the Lord’s prayer when He said we should pray, “…Forgive us our TRESPASSES as we forgive those who TRESPASS against us.” Now this is hard. It is hard to forgive the people who make it their goal in life to hurt us. Our natural inclination is to try and hurt them back. But if we are to become LIKE Jesus we cannot do this-because when people hurt Him He did not retaliate. Matthew 27:39-44 chronicles Jesus’ crucifixion and it says, “The people passing by shook their heads and hurled insults at Jesus and the elders made fun of Him. Even the bandits who had been crucified with Him insulted Him in the same way.”

And what was His response? Look at the next verse: “Jesus said, ‘Father forgive them because they don’t know what they are doing.” 1 Peter 2:23 says, “When they hurled their insults at Him, He did not retaliate; when He suffered, He made no threats.” When Jesus was abused by others He forgave. He yielded His right to get even. He absorbed the hurt. And if we are going to become like Him we must do the same thing. We must learn to forgive those who trespass against us. Now, here are four quick things to remember that I think will help.

1. First, remember that UNFORGIVENESS is bad for us.

The truth is people who refuse to forgive and instead focus on getting even turn into bitter, angry, vengeful people-very UNChristlike people. In essence they become like their enemies-their sinful attitudes change them such that they become like the people who have wronged them. They become psychological hostages to their own hate. This is what Proverbs 23:7 is getting at when it says, “As a man thinks within himself, so he is.” Lee Strobel says people who refuse to forgive… “…don’t hold a grudge as much as the grudge holds them.” And that is so true. I’ve seen it happen over and over again.

2. Second, remember, unforgiveness hurts our RELATIONSHIP with God.

You see when we refuse to forgive those who have wronged us we sin-because God has commanded us to forgive. In Matthew 6:14-15 Jesus said, “…if you forgive men when they sin against you, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”

Years ago Randall O’Brian led a revival here at RBC and he shared this illustration.

When a door is closed from one side it is closed from the other side as well. He pointed to this obvious truth to help us see that when we close the “door” of our lives so that forgiveness can’t get out to others…e are also closing the “door” from the other side so God’s forgiveness can’t get in to us. When we refuse to forgive we sin and put ourselves at enmity with God. We close Him out.

3. Third, remember we will never have to forgive others more than God has already FORGIVEN us.

As Ephesians 4:32 says, “Forgive others, just as God forgave you because of Christ.” And remember, since He is our Heavenly Father then, as His children we should emulate Him. We should do all we can to bear the family likeness, which includes forgiving the way He forgives. As Jesus said, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be seen as sons of your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:45) A. M. Hunter once said, “To return evil for good is the devil’s way; to return good for good is man’s; to return good for evil is God’s.” And we are to be like God.

4. Finally, Remember that God is always in CONTROL.

When you’re being hurt by someone else-they may mean it for bad but God is sovereign and if you let Him, He will use that experience for your good. He will allow nothing into your life that is not for Your good or His glory. He is pulling the shots-not your enemies. As Paul says in Romans 8:31, “If God is for us, who can be against us!”

Invitation:

As we sing our closing song, I would urge each of us to re-commit ourselves as disciples of Jesus-students of Christlikeness. Pray your own version of my prayer. And…if you have a public response to make, please make it now by coming forward and sharing it with me whether it is to share your decision to accept Jesus as Savior and Lord…or to join our church family. Won’t you come as we stand now and sing?