Have you met my father?
I don’t know if any of you here have ever met my father. He is the kind of guy though that once you have met him you would not forget him. He is an incredible guy actually. He is from the old school.- he is one of those dads that provided and still provides for me and brothers and sisters. . He says that sometimes I remind him so much of him in looks and in mannerisms. I don’t think so but I think that we all go through that. Try so hard not to be like our folks, but in the end turn out just like them in some ways.
I hope that you meet my dad one morning. He comes to all the services quite regularly. In fact some have said that he is part of the furniture here. So if you have not bumped into him here yet, I suggest you come to the front after the service and meet him here at the rail. He is here waiting for you, because he is your father too. Each one of us my brothers and sisters, act like our heavenly father on occasion, we do things just like he does them, maybe not as well but almost exactly as he does them. He is our father so it is only natural that we have some of his traits and habits.
Illustration
How clearly do we identify that we are Gods children and as such carry Him with us just as we carry our physical parents?
A man boarded a plan one morning and sat down next to a gent on his way to Durban on business. They exchanged names and started some idle chit chat. The man turned to the gent and said “Do you know who I am?”
“No” said the Gent “I am afraid I don’t.”
“Surely you know my father?”
“Sorry said the gent I don’t know him either. Who are you?”
“Well” said the man – “My name is Joe and you wouldn’t know me But I am one of God’s Sons and brother of Jesus Christ.”
So real was this mans belief – that he knew his dad was God the Father and his Brother was Jesus Christ.
Explanatory Link
All this talk about fathers and brothers and sisters and family. Well the sermon this morning is entitled “like father like son”. I mean that completely in the non sexist way that could very well be like father like daughter. But whatever way you look at it, one thing is for sure. We all have some of our biological parent’s traits mannerisms looks and even habits.
Do we believe this though about our heavenly father. In our first reading we learn why we can be assure of the fact that we are like God. We were made in his image. In fact that is one of our greatest purposes in life. To live in Gods image is one of the primary reasons God created us (SERMON NOTE 1). – What a privilege!
Christ as an Example
So strong is Gods desire that we be like him that he sent the best possible example of himself to earth, to show us exactly what Gods image was all about.
Yes we can quickly come to the conclusion that if God wants us to be like him, we need to be like Christ. We need to be Christlike. Col 1:15 says to us that if we want to see the purpose of everything he created we need to look at Christ. (SERMON NOTE 2)
Character Building
But that’s going to be tough don’t you think. To be Christlike? I mean Christ was perfect????
God did not us on the earth to live lives of comfort and luxury; he put us here to ensure that our characters are built and we improve as people and be ready for service in heaven. He wants us to move from as far away from being like Christ to as close as we can be to being like Christ. You see it’s about our characters. He moulds our character to image his own. That is our purpose -that is why we were made!
See God is just like us dads. “That will teach him, that’ll make a man out of him. That will teach him some character.” Only thing is God wants us to improve, he wants something better for us, he wants us to become Christlike. He wants us to improve because of his enormous love that he has for us.
Improve Example
Kevin my son was playing out in his sand pit the other day. I was playing with him and decided to go in and get some ice cream. When I returned, he had a mouthful of sand. Where I intended to put a treat, he had put dirt.
Did I love him with dirt in his mouth? Of course, was I going to allow him to keep the dirt in his mouth? Of course not.
I loved him right where he was, but I refused to leave him there. I carried him over to the outside tap and washed out his mouth. Why? Because I love him.
God does the same thing for us. He holds us under the water. “Spit out the
dirt, Son/daughter” our Father urges. “I’ve got something better for you.” And so he cleanses us of filth: immorality, dishonesty, prejudice, bitterness, greed. We don’t enjoy the cleansing; sometimes we even opt for the dirt over the ice cream.
God has a better offer. He wants us to be just like Jesus. That is what he created us to do!
HOW?
The Holy Spirit
Fortunately God has not left us in the lurch. Our father understands how difficult it is to be like Christ. John 15:26 and many other scriptures make constant reference to a helper that God will send to help and guide us in our growth and development towards Christ likeness. We know that the helper is the Holy Spirit. God has sent us a helper in the form of the Holy Spirit. (SERMON NOTE 3).
God has made it the Holy Spirits responsibility to ensure that we grow to Christlike ness. It is not anything to do with our own will power or new years resolutions or our best intentions. 2 Cor 3:18 tells us that it is the spirit within us that ensures we become more and more like Christ. (SERMON NOTE 4)
The spirit within in us. Not our motives or ideas or intentions. The Apostle Paul had only the best intentions, but remember what happened to him. He said that what he really wants to do he just could not get right. And that which he really did not desire to do he did. So we can not rely on ourselves to get this growth towards Christ right.
The Holy Spirit is what we have to be open to and rely on to ensure that at all times and under every situation we are growing more like Christ. It may be a flash and a bang, or it may be as 1 King 19:12 describes it as a gentle whisper. (SERMON NOTE 5)But which ever way the Spirit guides us, it would be useless if we are not open to his guidance.
Co-Operation with the Spirit
We have to act first. At least 8 times in the New Testament the scriptures tell us the we have to make every effort in our growth toward becoming like Jesus. We have to make every effort. For you see by us making the effort first the Lord identifies that we have faith. We act first by doing three things.
Eph 4:22-24 tells us how we do this.
Did you notice - We choose to change the way we act (Eph 4:22)(SERMON NOTE 6a), the way we think (Eph 4:23) )(SERMON NOTE 6b), and finally we replace our old selves with the personality of Christ (Eph 4:24) (SERMON NOTE 6c)
The Gift of Help
Once we begin this journey God pours out the blessing in aiding us fulfill our purpose to be Christlike, to be like father like son.
We have the Word of truth (SERMON NOTE 7a) of god that provides us with the truth we need to grow. Through study and prayer we can discover and build new foundations of ideas and ideals based on the truth of Gods word.
He surrounds us with people and fellow believers (SERMON NOTE 7b) who can build us and show us the way to be Christlike. God works through people. Through people we can see other images of Him. Remember it is not only us who are made in His image. Our brothers and sisters are all also all being transformed by the spirit and through them we can see qualities of God that aid us in our journey.
And then finally God makes sure that we get to see him working in both the good and bad circumstances (SERMON NOTE 7c) of our lives to build on that faith that he identified at the beginning of the process. And as that faith grows, the more me start doing Eph 4:22,23 and 24 and the more blessings in aiding us to grow towards Christ. And over and over again the process (SERMON 8) continues. We are all work in progress. And this process will continue right through our lives. And finally we will be ready for the highest calling. To serve with our Father in the heavens.
Conclusion
He wants to make us like himself before he takes us to heaven. This is our greatest privilege our immediate responsibility and our ultimate destiny.
Be like him. Like Father Like Son.
