Be Like Mike

Be Like Mike

1 John 3: 1-3 (NLT)

Intro: Play you tube video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0AGiq9j_Ak

. How many remember that commercial on TV?

. All the kids and half the adults wanted to be like Mike didn’t they?

. Michael Jordan was probably the first to be labeled a super star.

. They named drinks after him and Nike made a bazillion dollars selling Tennis Shoes that had his name on them.

We all want to be someone in life don’t we?

. I was listening to a couple talk last Sunday and they were talking about some friends who lived in Belize and jetted off to New York to shop and did this and that on their private jet and it seems that was what defined those people.

. They had made it, they had become the people that others dream about.

. While they may not have the athletic ability of Michael Jordan, they have achieved the monetary equivalent of him.

. We all want to be somebody.

. We all have a hope that one day we will win the lottery or become like the people we talk about.

. Our scripture this morning talks about who we are and what we will become in the future and it tells us what we should be doing to set ourselves apart from other people.

. We are back in 1 John this morning.

. If you will remember back, John was warning his readers and us about anti-Christ’s and apostate teaching.

. He was encouraging them to stay true to what they had been taught. Don’t let the winds of change blow your beliefs here and there.

They had been taught the truth and they were to hold on to that truth.

. He goes on in our scripture to tell them that they are different, they are set apart. They are special, just as many feel Michael Jordan was.

. While Michael Jordan’s athletic ability may be special, Christians have much more to boast about.

. Lets read our scripture this morning.

. 1 John 3: 1-3

. 1See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him.

2Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is.

3And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure.

. The first reason we are special is because:

. We Are Not The Same As The Rest Of The World

. Look at verse 1 again.

. 1See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him.

. God loves us so much that he calls us his children.

. He does this because He adopted us into his family when were saved.

. My best friend’s daughter and her husband adopted a little girl from China.

. The things they had to do and go through to adopt this little girl was astounding.

. It took three years and thousands of dollars to adopt this baby. I believe that she was six months old when they got her.

. When they first saw her and took her, she was like all the other babies there in China.

. But she is 5 now and other than her appearance, you could never tell that she was born in China.

. She is a different person now than she would have been if they had not adopted her.

. She has a brother and she is as much a sister to him as any that could have been born from his mother.

. She is the typical 5year old all American girl.

. All because she was adopted into this particular family.

. That’s what happens when we are adopted into the family of God.

. It doesn’t matter who we were or where we come from, we are now God’s children.

. My friends daughter made their adopted child part of their family by all she did to adopt her.

. God did the same. In order to adopt us, He came and died on a cross so that we could be forgiven our transgressions against our father and be adopted into the family.

. Look at Romans 8: 14- 17,a

. 14For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.