INTRO.- Walk in the way of love, one version reads. What is your walk in this world?
II Corinthians 13:5 “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?”
Occasionally, we need to examine our own lives to see if we are truly walking with God. We compare our lives with Scripture to see how we stack up.
ILL.- This last week a former 1962 classmate of mine sent me something interesting via the internet. This is a real test given by Human Relations Departments at many of the major corporations today. And I’m going to give you this test. There are 10 questions and the answers apparently reveal the real you. I have put this test in your mailbox and will email it to you.
1. When do you feel your best...
A) in the morning
B) during the afternoon and early evening
C) late at night
2. You usually walk...
A) fairly fast, with long steps
B) fairly fast, with little steps
C) less fast head up, looking the world in the face
D) less fast, head down
E) very slowly
3. When talking to people you...
A) stand with your arms folded
B) have your hands clasped
C) have one or both your hands on your hips
D) touch or push the person to whom you are talking
E) play with your ear, touch your chin, or smooth your hair
4. When relaxing, you sit with..
A) your knees bent with your legs neatly side by side
B) your legs crossed
C) your legs stretched out or straight
D) one leg curled under you
5. When something really amuses you, you react with...
A) big appreciated laugh
B) a laugh, but not a loud one
C) a quiet chuckle
D) a sheepish smile
6. When you go to a party or social gathering you...
A) make a loud entrance so everyone notices you
B) make a quiet entrance, looking around for someone you know
C) make the quietest entrance, trying to stay unnoticed
7. You’re working very hard, concentrating hard, and you’re interrupted...
A) welcome the break
B) feel extremely irritated
C) vary between these two extremes
8. Which of the following colors do you like most....
A) Red or orange
B) black
C) yellow or light blue
D) green
E) dark blue or purple
F) white
G) brown or gray
9. When you are in bed at night, in those last few moments before going to sleep you are.....
A) stretched out on your back
B) stretched out face down on your stomach
C) on your side, slightly curled
D) with your head on one arm
E) with your head under the covers
10. You often dream that you are...
A) falling
B) fighting or struggling
C) searching for something or somebody
D) flying or floating
E) you usually have dreamless sleep
F) your dreams are always pleasant
POINTS:
1. (a) 2 (b) 4 (c) 6
2. (a) 6 (b) 4 (c) 7 (d) 2 (e) 1
3. (a) 4 (b) 2 (c) 5 (d) 7 (e) 6
4. (a) 4 (b) 6 (c) 2 (d) 1
5. (a) 6 (b) 4 (c) 3 (d) 5 (e) 2
6. (a) 6 (b) 4 (c) 2
7. (a) 6 (b) 2 (c) 4
8. (a) 6 (b) 7 (c) 5 (d) 4 (e) 3 (f) 2 (g) 1
9. (a) 7 (b) 6 (c) 4 (d) 2 (e ) 1
10 (a) 4 (b) 2 (c) 3 (d) 5 (e) 6 (f) 1
Now add up the total number of points.
OVER 60 POINTS: Others see you as someone they should "handle with care." You’re seen as vain, self-centered, and extremely dominant.
51 TO 60 POINTS: Others see you as an exciting, highly volatile, rather impulsive personality, a natural leader, who’s quick to make decisions, though not always the right ones.
41 TO 50 POINTS: Others see you as fresh, lively, charming, amusing, practical, and always interesting, someone who’s constantly in the center of attention, but sufficiently well-balanced not to let it go to their head.
31 TO 40 POINTS: Others see you as sensible, cautious, careful & practical. They see you as clever, gifted, or talented, but modest. Not a person who makes friends too quickly or easily, but someone who’s extremely loyal to friends you do make and who expects the same loyalty in return.
21 TO 30 POINTS: Your friends see you as painstaking and fussy. They see you as very cautious, extremely careful, a slow and steady plodder.
UNDER 21 POINTS: People think you are shy, nervous, and indecisive, someone who needs looking after, who always wants someone else to make the decisions and who doesn’t want to get involved with anyone or anything!
Who is real you and what kind of life you are living? How’s your walk? It matters not what Dr. Phil thinks but it matters a whole lot what God thinks of you.
What is your walk in this world? We realize, Of course, that many people could care less about what God thinks they should do. BUT THAT’S NOT US OR IT SHOULDN’T BE US! What the Lord thinks should always be on our hearts and minds. The person who is a Christian should always seek the Lord’s will in life. God’s will should rightfully be the dominant theme and thinking of our lives!
PROP.- In our text, God gives us some principles of our walk in this world.
1- Imitate God
2- Stay clean
I. IMITATE GOD
1 Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children 2 and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Be imitators of God. How intimidating is that? Someone might as well tell me to go climb Mt. Everest. That would be an impossibility for me, given my age and physical health. I don’t know if I could even make to bottom rung of the ladder, so to speak.
Likewise, when it comes to being like God or imitating God I fall so very short. In fact, most of the time I feel like I have fallen flat on the my face. WHAT ABOUT YOU?
Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”
I am painfully aware of this scriptural truth, aren’t you? If you are not painfully aware of this truth, then you probably think too highly of yourself and you’ll have a harder time imitating God.
Romans 12:3 “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.” Don’t think of yourself more highly than you ought.
The Amplified Bible reads: Don’t have an exaggerated opinion of your own importance.
Well, who would ever do that or be like that? Muhammad Ali, the one time heavyweight boxing champ of the world. “I am the greatest.” But there are probably many others: Donald Trump (I’m smart enough to run for the Presidency) and no telling who else. Many people are TOO sold on themselves!
I Peter 5:5 “God opposes the proud but He gives grace to the humble.”
We will never be what God wants us to be until we admit we are unclean or admit we are not what we should be. God uses broken people. You have to go down before you ever go up. God gives grace to those who are humble. He gives them the grace to change and become like Him.
If God is love and we know He is, then we must also understand that He wants to be like Him and live like Him. Is there anyone better that we could imitate than God or Jesus?
We all may have had our heroes down through the years whom we’ve wanted to be like: Superman or some super athlete, ball player or otherwise. Or maybe we’ve always wanted to be rich and famous or maybe just rich! Yes, probably rich without the fame. But I’d bet there is somebody out there whom you admired greatly and perhaps in some way wanted to be like!
But what should be our ultimate goal in life? Should it not to be to imitate Jesus? To be like God and walk in love?
1 Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children 2 and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
I John 4:7-8 “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
Even though we’ve experienced difficulty and hardship in life, we still believe in the God of love! And He wants us to be like Him and live a life of loving others.
And no one did it better than Jesus! In John 8 the woman was caught in the act of adultery and most of us probably would have been in the stoning group, instead standing along side of Jesus! Most of us are better at stoning than restoring! We are more destructive than constructive. We are more negative than positive, more critical than calming.
Wherever Jesus went, He demonstrated love to hurting, harassed, helpless people! In fact, He demonstrated love to all people, even when they didn’t know they were in trouble. The woman at the well had five men in her life and the man she was living with was not her husband, BUT JESUS STILL DEMONSTRATED LOVE TO HER BY POINTING HER TO DRINK OF THE LIVING WATER!
So how do we live a life of love like Jesus? We think about people. We practice being considerate and thoughtful of people like Jesus did. Jesus was always thinking of others! The only time He wasn’t thinking of others was when He went off by Himself to pray! Otherwise, HE DEMONSTRATED LOVE TO ALL!
Our walk in this world should be, must be a walk of loving others like Jesus. You will never go wrong demonstrating love to others.
II. STAY CLEAN
3 But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.
We live in a very unclean world but we’re supposed to keep ourselves as clean as possible.
ILL.- Someone once said: A ship is safe in the ocean as long as the ocean is not in the ship. And the Christian is safe in the world as long as the world is not in the Christian!
ILL.- Anyone for Pole dancing for Jesus??? A new exercise class, Pole Fitness for Jesus, is inviting Christian women in a small Texas town to spin without sin for the Lord. Churches throughout the United States already host contemporary, even sexy workout classes. You can take jazzercise classes at the First Church of Lombard in Indianapolis, or maybe belly dancing lessons at Trinity Presbyterian in Richmond, VA.
POLE DANCING FOR JESUS?! I’m just not sure what the church is coming to or what some churches are coming to. In the quest for gaining more people, some churches will do almost anything to get them.
3 But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. 8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light
Romans 12:2 “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
James 1:27 “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”
I John 2:15-17 “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.”
ILL.- A man once said to D. L. Moody, “Now that I am converted, must I give up to the world?” “No,” answered the evangelist, “you need not give up the world; if you give a ringing testimony for the Son of God the world will give you up pretty quick. They will not want you around.”
ILL.- TIFTON, GA — The most interesting thing about Tifton is an abandoned Victorian house filled with thousands of bats. Tift County declared the once-elegant house in the town’s historic district off limits after a bat specialist said that maybe 20,000 bats had moved in, apparently for good.
Now, teenagers call it the bat house. People talk about the smell, which is an unholy mix of animal urine and decaying wood. “In the summer, ooh, does that place reek,” said Linda Turner, 69, a retired nurse and neighbor. “You ain’t smelled nothing until you come back here on a hot day.”
Brothers and Sisters, I’m not going to visit that bat house. WHAT A SIGHT AND WHAT A STINK IT MUST BE! Vacant houses get infiltrated with all kinds of creatures and probably not just bats. And many of these creatures make a mess, create a big stink, and eventually ruin that dwelling.
But it doesn’t just happen with vacant houses, it also happens with vacant lives! If a person doesn’t fill their life with good stuff, the bad stuff and sometimes, the evil stuff will move in and take over.
What’s going on in your house? That is, the house you live in, the fleshly body you live in? Who has moved in? Who has taken over your residence and controlling your life? God wants us to stay clean in this world and that will only happen when we let Him move in, that is, when we fill our lives with worship, prayer and service.
Thy word have I hide in my heart that I might not sin against thee! Ps. 119:11. The Bible will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from the Bible!
CONCLUSION-----------------
Did you hear about the homeless man in Brazil who built his own car out of junk? Orismar de Souza is a homeless man in Brazil who decided to build the car using junk, spare parts and a hammer and chisel. Four years later, the "shrimpmobile" has him back on his feet.
Souza, 35, had to panhandle in the Brazilian city of São José de Piranha and go hungry for four months in order to raise the initial $270 he needed for sheet metal, which he cut into shape using a borrowed hammer and chisel. He scrounged a 125cc motorcycle engine, and gathered other junked parts from all over the region.
By December, Souza was able to replace the motorcycle engine’s kickstarter with a car ignition, and add in a gearbox with reverse. The mostly Fiat shrimpmobile can reach 50 mph on the highway, and Souza has been able to use it to find a home and a job in the local sugarcane fields.
While that man built a car out of junk, God builds people out of junk, broken down lives! And God does better work than Dr. Phil and Opra put together! FAR BETTER WORK!
II Corinthians 5:17-18 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.”
God builds broken down people into something special: saved and serving people, but ONLY IF WE LET HIM! He has the power to change our lives, but we are the key. Will we let Him save us, change us and use us?
God wants us to walk with Him in this world.
Steve Shepherd, Jonesboro Christian Church, AR
jonesborochristianchurch@suddelink.net
