"We Were Made to be Like Christ"
Sermon Transcript for November 2, 2003By Rev. Dan Sinkhorn
Well, we are about midway through our “40 Days of Purpose”, so I figure it’s probably a good time to stop and look at where we’ve been so far. Now we started out by asking the question, basically, “What on earth am I here for?” We started out by trying to figure out what our purpose is. And then we moved on to examine what those purposes are. In fact, we’ve discovered that there are five purposes. And the first of which is that you were planned for God’s pleasure or that your purpose is to “worship” God in everything that you do. The next week we discovered that you were formed for God’s family; that is you were formed for “fellowship” with other believers, with other followers of Christ. Now today we are going to look at our third purpose, which is found in Romans, Chapter 8:29. It’s also found all over Scripture. So let’s take a look at that now. “For from the very beginning, God decided that those who came to Him, and He knew who would, should become like His Son.” Now see, God’s plan for you has always been that we would be like Jesus Christ. That is that from the very beginning God intended for you to be human beings like Him that you would become in His image. Now, I want to be very clear, he wasn’t saying, God is not saying that you would become gods, but rather that you should become godly. There’s the difference. Our goal in life is to become godly people. And God came as Jesus to show us the way.
Let’s take a look at Ephesians, Chapter 4:15. Read this with me, would you? “God wants us to grow up like Christ in everything.” Now what does it mean to grow up like Christ? Well, to start with let’s agree that babies are cute but if babies stay babies all their lives, it’s tragic. Instead, because there are people who grow older but they don’t grow up, and to grow up in the image of Christ is to become like Christ in the way that you look at things, in the way that your purpose is fulfilled in life. So, you might want to write this down, your third purpose in life is to become like Christ. Look at Colossians, Chapter 1:15. In The Message is says it this way, “We look at the Son and see God’s original purpose in everything.” Now, that is our guide right there, to be like the Son, Jesus Christ. And we need to understand that that’s a process that it doesn’t happen overnight. These guys did not come in here and sing that well because they started this morning. They’ve been working on it for a long time. And it’s the same with your Christian journey. If you are going to become like Christ, then it is going to take time and perseverance. And that process is called “discipleship” or assuming the disciplines of Christ.
So how does God do that? How does God help us to grow spiritually? Well, that’s what we are going to look at today and the answers might surprise you. There are a couple of ways that we know pretty well instinctively. One is that God helps us to grow spiritually by teaching us through His Word. We can learn about God through the Bible. And if you will commit yourself to reading through this Book and studying its words and memorizing its words, you will grow in Christ, you will learn from it how to become more like Christ. You know something that a lot of people find difficult to accept is that reading God’s word changes you. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you get it and therefore you change because you become a brilliant Bible scholar. Reading God’s word changes you! And something that people have often struggled with is those jailhouse conversions that you hear about. You know, whenever you hear about someone becoming a Christian in prison, you’re always a little bit incredulous. But, you know, it’s interesting if you stop and think about the fact that they don’t have a whole lot to do in prison and some people do pick up the Bible and read God’s word and are changed by God’s word. Someday I’d like to tell you about my first funeral as a pastor. It was for a gentleman who died in prison fulfilling a life sentence for murder. And he was a Christian. And they brought him back to his hometown to be buried and everybody remembered him by what he had done. And I had to perform the ceremony for a person who died in Christ. It was challenging! But I believe God’s word changes us if we just get into it and study it.
The other way that we can learn to grow in Christ is to be around Christians. That’s what you learned last week that in fellowship with other Christians you grow in Christ. You become more like Jesus when you follow the example of those who have gone before you and walked with you. You listen and learn from each other. And in fellowship with Christians you grow into the image of Christ.
But the Lord uses more than just the Bible and fellowship in order to teach us His character. Romans Chapter 8:28 says this, “In most things….” Wait a minute, I read that wrong. “In all things God works for the good for those who love Him who have been called according to His purposes.” Yeah, I read that wrong on purpose but that’s because one of the things that we have to learn if we are going to grow into the character that God has intended for us to be like, to be like Christ, then one of the things we have to accept is that God works through all things in order to fulfill His purposes. Remember, that includes the pain and the sorrow. It includes the sadness. It includes our mistakes. It includes the consequences of our sins. God works through all things in order to reveal His purposes in our lives. Now, that doesn’t mean that all things are good. It means that God works through all things. And it doesn’t mean that if you experience these things you automatically grow in character. Your heart has to be right. You have to be ready; otherwise these things may make you bitter rather than better. And so if a prepared heart is what it takes, then maybe before we go any further we should pray and ask God to prepare our hearts. Let’s pray, “Gracious God, soften our hearts now. Open our minds and help us to see how you use all things to fulfill your purposes in our lives. Help us all to hear Your Word clearly and plainly. We pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.”
Now, God uses some unexpected tools in order to shape us into the character of Christ. And I mean they are unexpected if you think that nothing bad happens to good people. First of all, and you might want to write this down, God uses trouble in order to teach us to trust Him. In the Bible that word trouble is often translated into the term “trials”. Now, trials aren’t meant to hurt us really, they are part of God’s plan for stretching us and growing us into the character of Christ. God sometimes allows things to come along in our lives that will seem like trials at the time but when we look back they are the things that molded us and made us more like Christ. Take a look at this passage from Romans, Chapter 5. Paul says, “Trouble produces patience and patience produces character and character produces hope.” You see, God is far more interested in your life and how you live it then in what you do. God is not as interested in your career as God is interested in your character. He is not as interested in your comfort as He is interested in your character. In fact, God’s rules for the development of our character don’t involve either of those things—stuff that we produce or the achievements in our earthly sense of the word or our comfort. God reminds us that the only thing we’ll bring with us when we stand before Him in heaven some day is our character. You won’t be able to bring any of the other stuff with you.
And the truth is, if you don’t understand that, nothing about life will really ever make sense to you. This is the place of character development. You know, one day you will be in a place where there are no problems or no troubles, no trials. It’s called heaven. You will be there for millions and billions of years. Well, this ain’t it. This is earth. This is the place of character development. And if you think that you can make this heaven on earth you are setting yourself up for disappointment. It’s not going to happen. This is the place for character development. There are trials here on earth. One day we will all be together with those saints that we remembered earlier in the service in that place where there is no sorrow or suffering or trial. And for them our arrival will be in a blink of an eye.
You know, Jesus went through many troubles and trials and probably the most significant of His trials was on the night before He was crucified. The intensity of the Lord’s turmoil that night was so enormous that He thought His heart would break. Jesus knew that He was going to bear the weight of the sin of all humankind. He knew that He would die a horrible death—the death of crucifixion. And He understood that by bearing the weight of all the sin of the world, He would experience something He had never experienced before which was separation from the Father. And this weighed very heavily upon Jesus. It was a trial unlike anything we can imagine. And so He went to a place called Gethsemane, it was really an olive grove, to pray. Take a look at this story here in the Gospel of Mark. It says, “They came to a garden called Gethsemane and Jesus said to His disciples, ‘Sit here while I pray’.” See, even Jesus needed friends around Him when He was going through a trial. “The worry in my heart is so great that it almost crushes me.” And that is big time worry! And I know all of us have felt the crushing weight of our worries at times. But I wonder how many of us have responded to it in the way that Jesus does. Look at what He says, “Father, everything is possible for You. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want Your will not mine.” To become like Jesus we have to recognize that it is okay to say to the Lord, to say, “God, I don’t like this. God, I wish you would take it away. And God, I know you have the power to take it away.” If you want to be like Christ, if you want to take on the character of Christ, we have to be willing to say, “Yes, I know that you work all things for the good according to your purposes and that even this is what is best for me.”
These are hard things to accept, so here are a couple of pointers to kind of help us get through this. One thing you might want to consider doing is keeping a spiritual journal. Now I found it interesting in my preparation for today’s message that Moses was commanded to do the same thing. In the Book of Numbers, in Chapter 33 it says, “At the Lord’s direction, Moses kept a written record of their progress.” Now keep in mind that they were “40 Years of Purpose” campaign. You’ve only got to do “40 Days of Purpose”, they did forty years of purpose. And God instructed Moses to write down their progress. You see, a spiritual journey is not a diary. It’s not something you are going to write down, you know, what you did today and where you went. If you were me, it would be really boring anyway. So you want to write down in your spiritual journal, your spiritual progress. You want to look at the life that God has given you today and see where you are fulfilling God’s purposes in your life and where things are being revealed to you as God’s purpose.
The second thing you need to do is remember your reward. When you are going through trials, you should always be mindful of the reward that is to come. Remember, this is earth this is not heaven. Listen to this Scripture from II Corinthians, “Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” You know, when I hear that passage and think along those lines, instantly the image of Marsha Frosche comes to my mind. And Marsha was someone that many of you knew who went home to be with the Lord not too long ago. She seemed far too young for such things. But as she went through her trials with cancer, she told anyone who would listen that she knew the reward that waited for her. She went through her life and death trial constantly focusing on her reward. And just days before she died she said that’s where she expected to be.
Now the second surprising way that God works in our lives to mold our character into the character of Jesus so that we are like God in every way, is that God uses temptations in order to teach us to obey. Now let me be very clear here. God does not create temptations; God uses temptations. Now the creator of temptation is Satan himself--Satan, the commander in chief of the nasty place down below. Satan, the worst spirit of evil of all time is the author of temptation. But God in His amazing power and grace uses those temptations in order to teach us, in order to develop the character of Christ by giving us choices to make, showing us the power of our choices. Jesus faced temptations you know. When Jesus was about 30 and he began His earthly ministry, He was baptized by John and then went into the wilderness for his 40-day testing period. And it says here, in Matthew, Chapter 4, “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit in to the desert to be tempted by the devil.”
Now if Jesus faces temptations, I guess we should be willing to accept that we are going to face temptations too. In fact, the reality that Jesus faced temptations, should remind us about some of the truths about temptation. Remember that it is not a sin to be tempted. It is not a sin to be tempted. Jesus never sinned, but the Bible says very plainly that He was tempted. That should be a great source of comfort to us to know that Jesus was tempted too. The difference between Jesus and us was that Jesus always made the right choice. It is not a sin to be tempted. When Jesus was in the wilderness and confronted by the devil, He rejected that temptation categorically.
And here is another thing to keep in mind. This one was really an eye opener for me. Remember that every one is tempted in the same way. You know, I don’t know about you but sometimes I like thinking that I have been given an extraordinary temptation, that my temptation is better than yours. Well, I like what Rick Warren says about that in The Purpose Driven Life. He says, “If you feel that way you are like the toddler who sticks the green bean up his nose and thinks he invented that.” The reality is that we are all tempted in the same way, that among us in this place are people who know exactly what our temptations are like because they have lived them too. And here’s another thing to remember. Remember that you will never outgrow temptation. Remember that you will never become so wise or so old that you no longer have to deal with temptation. Temptation is a constant part of our lives. And the truth is temptation comes when we least expect it. Temptation is its most powerful when we think we are above and beyond it.
Look at what Jesus did in response to temptation in Chapter 4 of Matthew. He said, “Get out of here Satan”. He knew where temptation came from. The Scriptures say, “Worship only the Lord God and obey only Him.” Jesus confronted his temptation head on. Here are a couple of helps for facing temptation. If you want to make it through the temptations in your life, one of the things you have to do is continuously focus on good thoughts. The Bible talks about this in Philippians, Chapter 4, where it says, “Fix your thoughts on what is true and good and right.” You know what? Temptation starts with getting your attention. You know what gets your attention gets you. So here’s a tip about temptation. When you face temptation, don’t resist. Now let me be very clear because resisting it is engaging it. And that’s like getting in a tug-of-war with the devil himself and you can’t win. Now what you have to do to break away from temptation is to get lost, to drop the rope and walk away from the tug-of-war. I have to illustrate this in a way that relates to me personally. You know, I struggle with my weight and my eating habits. And I have to tell you that there is only one way to resist the temptation to over eat, and that’s get out of the kitchen! If I’m in the kitchen I’m in trouble. The only way to resist that temptation is to get out because temptation, by its very nature, is not something you should try to contend with because the mere fact of contending with it keeps your attention on it. You’ve just got to switch it off and get away. So whatever tempts you, get away from it; get out of the kitchen!
The second tip for dealing with temptation is find a spiritual partner. Now we’ve all agreed that our temptations are the same, that none of us are tempted in a greater way than the other so it shouldn’t be hard to find somebody who understands your temptations. Now I realize that we’re not comfortable sharing those kinds of things but part of the power that is necessary to defeat temptations is found in owning it and fighting it by naming it. You know, the truth is that person, you won’t see their jaw drop too far because they know where you are coming from. They’ve been there. They know your temptations because they’ve experienced them too. Ecclesiastes says, “You are better off to have a friend than to be all alone. If you fall, your friend can help you.” You see, you need friends. Remember back when we were talking about trials? Even Jesus wanted friends around him. So find yourself a spiritual partner to confess your temptations too. Own responsibility for walking away from those temptations! So here’s the question then about temptation, “Are there any temptations that you need to deal with today? Is there anything you are facing right now where God might be using your choices to shape your character into the image of Christ?”
Now, the third surprising way that God grows us into His image is that God uses trespasses in order to teach us to forgive. So what are trespasses? Well, if trials are situations designed by God in order to draw us closer to Him, and if temptations are situations designed by the devil in order to draw us away from God, then I think we could say that trespasses are those ways that other people hurt us. Now I don’t know about you, but this is the toughest thing that we are going to deal with today. I feel that I struggle with this one more than any of the others. As I prepared to bring the message today, I realized that God was convicting me through this one. There are people in this world who want to hurt you. They just delight in hurting. There are people in this world who are just plain mean. And if we are going to be like the Lord Jesus, we are going to have to learn to forgive them, to forfeit our right to get even. Remember Jesus taught us to pray, “Lord, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” You know it’s one thing to handle your trouble, it’s another to work through your temptations, but it is so difficult when people are hurting you to be like Christ and to bear it and to forgive it. And part of the reason is because it almost always results in being misunderstood and being criticized and judged unfairly and being hurt physically, emotionally, and verbally—even abused. Now let me be clear. These are not good things; these are evil, terrible things. And God is not the author of evil. God doesn’t cause these things. In fact, God hates sin. But remember, God didn’t even protect His only Son from experiencing those things. Even Jesus was faced with the horrible trespasses of mean spirited people. You know on the cross Jesus didn’t just bear all the way to our sins, Jesus also experienced trespass in the most intimate and personal way. The Bible tells us in Matthew that people were passing by looking at Jesus on the cross and they shook their heads and hurled insults at Jesus. And the elders made fun of Him. Even the bandits that had been crucified with Him insulted Him in the same way. But what was Jesus’ response? Jesus said, “Father, forgive these people because they don’t know what they are doing.” In I Peter it says, “They called Him every name in the book and He said nothing back.” That really goes against our grain doesn’t it? I told my wife, Laura, the other day as I was finishing up my preparations for this message, that I have to admit that if I were on the cross that day and I were Jesus I’d be real tempted to just hang up there on the cross and say “Don’t you understand what I am doing for you? You know, this is tough. I hope you realize this is really hard. I wish you’d appreciate it!” But that’s not what Jesus did; that’s not what we are to do. We are to forgive the trespasses of others.
Now, if we are going to grow spiritually and to take on the image of Christ then we are going to have to learn this and we are going to have to realize that we are going to get hurt in this world. And we are going to have to own responsibility for the fact that we hurt others, sometimes unintentionally, but we also hurt. Remember, this isn’t heaven. This is the fallen world where the character traits are developed and everybody sins. So you are going to get hurt often in life and you are going to be the author of hurt sometimes. And if you are going to be like Christ you’ve got to be willing to forgive. You must be willing to forgive. And since this is so hard, I’d like to give you a couple of pointers to help you out. Remember that God has forgiven you. The Bible says forgive others just as God forgave you because of Christ. God is never going to ask you to forgive more than you have been forgiven. Remember, God is never going to ask you to forgive more than you have been forgiven. In fact, God will help you recognize that what other people meant for evil, God can make in to something good.
Do you remember the story of Joseph that’s found in Genesis, Chapter 50 or so? And Joseph is the guy with the multi-colored coat and he was favored most among his brothers by his Dad. And it made his brothers pretty upset. So one day they sold Joseph in to slavery and then lied to their father and said he had been eaten by a bear. Joseph ended up in Egypt as a slave and he went through 40 years of pure misery. He was accused of rape falsely. He was thrown in prison. And even throughout all his 40 years of trials and temptations and troubles, Joseph always kept in mind that God knew where he was and that God would do something good with it. That is exactly what happened because eventually Joseph, through God’s grace, was raised to the position of second in command over all of Egypt. And when a terrible famine came, Joseph was responsible for saving two nations—his native country of Israel and also the people of Egypt. In fact when his brothers came from Israel to plead for food, it was him that they asked and they didn’t even know it. And when he revealed who he was, they were afraid for their lives. They knew they had comeuppance on the way. But what did Joseph say in response to them? He said, “You meant to hurt me but God turned your evil into good to save the lives of many people which is being done.” So whom do you need to forgive today? What has happened in your life that requires forgiveness so that you can see what God is going to do to make it good?
So God’s third purpose in your life then is that you should be like Jesus Christ. And if that is true, then you need to be willing to accept that fact that you will go through the things that Jesus has gone through. You will go through a Gethsemane experience where you are faced with terrible trials. And you will learn to trust God and His love. God will take you through the desert like Jesus where you will experience temptation and you will learn to obey him and to do the right thing. And God is going to take you to your cross for a time of trespass where you will learn to forgive and be like Christ. But there is a promise. Look at this verse. Paul says in his letter to Romans, “We go through exactly what Christ goes through.” And here’s the good news, “But if we go through the hard times with Him, then we will certainly go through the good times with Him.” I know a lot of the troubles that you all are experiencing. I know your trials and temptations. I don’t know them all, but I know this for certain—God wants you to respond to them. God wants you to live through them with Him. Allow God to mold your character through these experiences. And what God wants you to do in response, well it’s found in your memory verse for this week. So take a look at it now and read it with me and plan to commit this to memory this week. It’s from Philippians 2:5. Let’s read it together, “Your attitude should be the same as that of Jesus Christ.” Let’s pray. “Heavenly Father, life makes so much more sense when we realize that it is not about our career, it’s not about our comfort; it’s about our character and becoming like Jesus. Help us to use life for the reason that you gave it to us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”
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