CREATED TO BECOME LIKE CHRIST
The 3rd Purpose of Your Life
The Purpose Driven Life – Part 4 of 7
• Everybody needs a purpose and that’s why we’re spending 40 Days of Purpose, looking at God’s 5 main purposes for our lives.
• Let’s just quickly review what we have looked at, First, You Were Planned for God’s Pleasure. Our first purpose is to get to know and love God. That’s called what?…Worship.
• Next we talked about how You Were Formed for God’s Family. God wants us to learn to love other people and get along in His family, and the Bible calls that what?…Fellowship.
• Today we look at the third purpose that God put you on this planet for, and we find it in Romans 8:29 and many other verses. Look there on your outline, “For from the very beginning God decided that those who came to Him – and He knew who would – should become like His Son”. God’s plan from the very beginning has been to make human beings like Himself. And so here we have God’s third purpose for your life, to make you like Jesus Christ.
• That doesn’t mean you’ll ever be a god – not even if you were a doctor. He wants you to become godly. He wants you to develop His character, the way He thinks, the way He acts, the way He feels, His values, His moral character. God wants to make you and me like Himself, and that’s God’s third plan for putting us on this planet, to make us like Jesus.
• Look at the next verse, Eph. 4:15, let’s read it aloud, “God wants us to grow up…like Christ in everything”. Now what does it mean to grow up? It means to be like Christ. God’s will for you and me is that we grow up.
• Numbers of our families have all recently been blessed with the addition of little babies. Our middle daughter Gabrielle and her husband Scott are due to have their second child in May. And babies sure are cute; we just love those helpless, dependent little souls so much. And we get so excited when they say GOO GOO or GA GA and smile. Meaningless sounds, but we love them…for a while, because we know and expect that they will grow up. But if at 5 or 10 years of age that child is still just saying GOO GOO and GA GA, it’s tragic. Every parent here today understands this point. You would be concerned if your child didn’t grow and develop.
• God wants us to mature and develop. So what does spiritual maturity look like? Just take a long look at Jesus Christ. Unfortunately a lot of people grow older but never grow up.
• So please underscore this point on your outline, my third purpose in life is to become like Christ. God gave us a model of what He wants us to grow up like.
• Now there’s a process. This doesn’t happen overnight. It’s not like one day all the sudden – ZAP – you’re just like Jesus. It’s a process, and this process is called “discipleship”, and it takes an entire lifetime. It’s going to take the rest of our life for God to build into you and me the character qualities of Jesus Christ.
So today we’re going to look at “How God does that”. How he helps us grow spiritually. How He makes us like Jesus Christ.
• We already are familiar with a couple of ways. We know He uses the Bible. It takes truth to transform us. If you really want to grow up spiritually, you’ve got to get into this Book. The more you get into it, the more you’re going to grow. You need to read it and study it and memorize it and meditate on it and think about it and apply it in your life, because it takes truth to transform us.
• And secondly, He uses people, - that’s why last week we talked about fellowship, that when we learn from each other – that’s how we grow and we develop. No child grows up all by itself. That’s why God places children in families where they can receive care, attention, nurture, and instruction. And in the same way, every one of us needs care spiritually. People grow best when they are connected in meaningful relationships with others. And the more you get together with other Christians, and interact with them, the more spiritually mature you’re going to become. That’s the value of the small groups – your spiritual family.
Listen to this email from sent by a member at Saddleback church to Rick Warren:
“Dear Pastor Rick,
We’re a group of members who have gone to Saddleback for many years, but we convinced ourselves we didn’t need a small group because we’re all active in various ministries and felt too busy. About a year ago after feeling much guilt, we half-heartedly decided to form a group that would meet once every three weeks. Well, you guessed what happened. We fizzled. Then came 40 Days and we all recommitted to meet every week during the campaign. We’ve now had three meetings and I can tell you this has been an unbelievable experience. For me personally, I can’t imagine a week without our small group now. I have such a desire, not a burden, to be there and to discuss the daily readings. Our children have even gotten into it. They baby-sit for another group that meets at the same time as our group. This has given them a chance to serve others. Just wanted you to know the difference the weekly meetings has made in my life. Please pray that once we finish the 40 Days our group will continue with the same passion and enthusiasm.”
• So we need fellowship with other believers for our growth and maturity.
• But God uses more than the Bible and He uses more than fellowship. And this morning we’re going to look at three unexpected tools God uses.
• Let’s look at this next verse, Romans 8:28…”In most things God works for the good”, Oh, I read it wrong, “In all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purposes”.
• Now what is His purpose? Remember the first verse? What does it say? His purpose is to make us like Christ. And here the word tells us that God uses all things to do that. Does that include bad things? Painful things? Does it even include mistakes we make from sinning? Yes, it does. In all things God works for the good of those who love Him. It doesn’t say all things are good because there’s a lot of bad in the world, but in all things God is at work to make me like Christ.
We will see how God used three very unexpected tools in the life of Jesus.
• He had trouble in the garden.
• He had temptation in the desert, and
• He had trespasses on the cross.
• And if you’re going to grow to be like Jesus Christ, God’s going to take you through these same experiences. One at a time.
• Now the problem is these things don’t automatically help you grow. You have to have a heart that’s responsive to God, because if it’s not, rather than make you better, these things will make you bitter.
1. GOD USES TROUBLE TO TEACH US TO TRUST HIM.
• Now in the Bible this word “trouble” is often called “trials”, and “trials” are situations designed by God to draw us closer to Him.
• They’re not designed to hurt us; they’re designed to help us. If things only go great in your life you’re never going to need much faith and there will be little to build your character.
• So God has allows some things to come into our life to stretch us, to cause us to grow, and these are called troubles or trials.
• God wants to build character in you. How does He do it? Look at Romans 5:3-4 “…trouble produces patience, and patience produces character, and character produces hope”.
• God is far more interested in your life, in what you are, than in what you do, your career, your job, your activities. Why? Because you’re not going to take those activities to heaven with you, but you are going to take your character. That’s what’s going to last.
• And so God says that the goal of this life is character formation, not your career or your own personal comfort. Now until we understand this life isn’t going to make much sense.
• All kinds of problems are going to come into your life, troubles, trials, difficulties, and you’re going to ask “Why me Lord? Why is this happening to me?” as if your life is supposed to be a life of comfort. Well it’s not. The goal of life is not comfort. This is not heaven.
• One day you and I are going to be in a place with no problems, no trials. Isn’t that going to be great?! And we’re going to spend eternity there, so this is not heaven. And if you keep thinking you’re going to have heaven on earth, you’re going to be very disappointed. This is not the place for comfort. This is the place for character formation and development.
• The old Negro Spiritual understood this truth – “This world is not my home, I’m just a passin’ through. If heaven’s not my home, Oh Lord, what would I do?”
• And it takes troubles to produce patience, patience produces character, and character produces hope. You can write this down in your outline…every problem has a purpose. It doesn’t matter whether you caused it, somebody else caused it, the devil caused it, every problem has a purpose. And what is that purpose? It’s to make me like Jesus Christ, to build His character in my life.
• You know Jesus went through many troubles and trials in His life, but His greatest was the night before He was crucified. He knew what He was going to have to face the next day and the intensity of that turmoil in His heart was enormous.
• He was going to take the sin of the world on Him. He was going to die a horrible death by crucifixion, and the real question would be “Would He trust God?” Would He trust God to know what’s best for His life, even if it meant an extremely painful death?
• And that’s what He had to struggle with. So He went to a place called Gethsemane. He took with Him His disciples and asked them to stay with Him while He prayed under the stress of carrying the weight of this world’s sin.
• And notice what it says there, “They came to a garden called Gethsemane and Jesus said to His disciples, ‘sit here while I pray’” (Mark 14:32). You see, even Jesus needed friends when He went through troubles. That’s why you and I need a small group. That’s why we need fellowship.
• Nobody is supposed to go through the troubles of life alone. Even Jesus needed friends. He says, “Would you guys just hang out with me while I go pray here.” The stress and anguish came over Him, and He said, “The worry in My heart is so great that it almost crushes Me” (Mark 14:34). This is major trouble He’s going through. Luke tells us that He was under such pressure that even His sweat was bloody.
• Have you ever felt like that - like you couldn’t make it another day?. And notice how Jesus responded to trouble in the next verse “’Father’ He said, ‘everything is possible for You. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet, I want Your will, not Mine!’” (Mark 14:36).
• Now, if we’re going to become like Jesus, then this is the first lesson we’re going to have to learn. When you go through trouble, it’s OK to say to God, “God I don’t like this”, “God I want you to take it away”, “God I know it’s possible for you to take it away”.
• He said “I know everything is possible with You. Yet, this is what’s best for me. Your will be done in my life”. He surrendered to God’s plan. He says, “Whatever fulfills Your purpose in my life”.
• So here’s the first point. If you’re going to become like Jesus Christ, you’ve got to learn to trust God completely, even when things look like they are falling apart, “I don’t understand it, I’m dying, I’m sinking, I’m going under the water here”. You’re going to have to learn to trust God completely just the way Jesus did.
• God uses trouble to teach us to trust Him. It’s easy to trust God when everything is going great in your life. The real test of faith is “How do you hang out with God when it seems like everything in your life is unraveling or coming apart at the seams?
Let me make a couple of suggestions that will help you along when you go through troubles. Some of you may be in troubles right now.
• Number one, keep a spiritual journal. In Numbers 33:2 it says, “At the Lord’s direction, Moses kept a written record of their progress”. God told Moses to keep this spiritual journal during their 40 years of wandering in the wilderness.
• Now a spiritual journal is not a diary. In a diary you might write: “Dear Diary, I went to the grocery store today and I saw a really handsome man”. No, the difference between a diary and a journal is that a diary is a recording of the events in your life. A journal is a recording of the lessons and insights learned in your life. That’s the difference. “What did I learn today?”
• Nobody really cares about what you did today, nor will they care 10 years from now. But what you learn today is truly something worth looking back on and passing on.
• Encounter with patient in hospital – experience of presence of God and Jesus – wants to write it down for his 3-year-old son to learn from one day.
• A couple of other values of having a journal. 1. it helps you see your progress. And that’s an encouragement when you get discouraged. 2. And even more than that, you could pass it on as a spiritual heritage to the next generation and to others.
• The second suggestion - remember the reward. In eternity God is going to reward your character development. The Bible says this “Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” (2Cor. 4:17).
• Paul says, “You know what, what we’re going through isn’t going to last, and even if it lasted a lifetime, that’s nothing compared to the number of years you’re going to spend in eternity.” The Message paraphrases it this way: “These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times and the lavish celebration prepared for us.”
There is a second surprising way that God works in our lives to make us look more like Jesus.
2. GOD USES OUR TEMPTATIONS TO TEACH US TO OBEY HIM.
• Now it’s important to be real clear about the definition of temptation, what we’re talking about.
• Temptations are situations designed by Satan and they’re intended to harm us. God never tempts us to do evil. The Bible is very clear about that. They are designed by Satan, intended to hurt us.
• God never tempts us, but because of the greatness of His power and who He is, God is able to use Satan’s temptations for good in our lives because temptation always provides a choice. And when I choose for God rather than choosing for Satan, Satan’s plan is ruined and I start to grow in my life. And choices are needed to develop character in our lives.
• Jesus faced temptations. He never sinned, but He faced temptations. Right after He was baptized at the very beginning of his public ministry at the age of 30, He went through an intense 40-day period of temptation out in the desert. Look at what the Bible has to say in Mat. 4:1, “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil”.
• Now, if Jesus faced temptations, guess what? You and I are going to face temptations, too. In fact, the fact that He faced temptations reminds us of some truths about temptation that help us to get through it, some things to remember.
1. 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. It’s not a sin to be tempted.
2. Everyone is tempted in the same ways. The Bible says we’re all tempted in the same common ways. Sometimes we think that no one else has ever been tempted with the things that cross our path – WRONG! We’re all alike. We’ve all faced the same thing. And God is able to help us through these temptations.
• It’s important to remember that you’ll never in this life outgrow temptation. You never get to a point in your life where you become so spiritual or so old, that you’re not tempted anymore. We all are tempted throughout all of our lives.
• But it’s also important to remember that Jesus teaches us in His experience that every temptation is an opportunity to do good, to make the right choice. It’s a stepping stone toward being more like Jesus. Notice what He did when he was tempted, Mat. 4:10, Jesus said “’Get out of here, Satan’. ‘The scriptures say, worship only the Lord God. Obey only Him’”. He confronted the temptation.
• Here’s the point. Temptation always tests whether you love God more than the temptation. That’s what’s happening when you’re tempted. It’s always a test of what do I love the most in my life.
• That’s true for all temptations – whether it is money, wrong relationships, sex, substances, food, our own comfort – whatever. The issue always is, do I love this thing, this behavior, this feeling, this person more than I love God?
• Obedience…choosing to say, “yes” to God…is a matter of love. It’s not a matter of duty. The Bible tells us that Jesus said, “If you love Me, obey My command”.
Now let’s look at a couple of practical things to do when we face temptation.
• Keep focused on good thoughts. The Bible talks about this in Phil. 4:8 when it says, “Fix your thoughts on what is true and good and right”. Temptation always starts with getting your attention, and when it gets your attention, it gets you. If you focus on the temptation, inevitably you’re going to go down the road, and you’re going to get caught up in that temptation.
• You cannot keep the thought of succumbing to a temptation and the thought of obeying God at the same time in your mind. Once you turn your thoughts and focus on something positive, obeying God, what is good, right, true, those things that God would have us think about, then all of a sudden you’ve pushed out the temptation.
• Here’s a tip about temptation. When you’re tempted, don’t resist it. Because as you’re resisting it, guess what you’re doing? You’re just thinking about the temptation! You’re getting into a spiritual tug-of-war with Satan, and he always wins! Don’t resist it, just drop the rope and walk a different direction and think about something different. So fix your mind on “whatever’s good, whatever’s right, whatever’s true”. If you’ll take a verse like this and let it turn your mind from what’s wrong to what’s right, you’ll find that the temptation starts to drop away. You refocus on something else. You keep focused on good thoughts.
• Get a spiritual partner. I know none of us like to talk about our temptations, but one of the ways to defeat them is to be open about them, to bring them out into the light. Get a spiritual partner, someone who can help you. Hopefully that can be your spouse – if not, ask God for another friend of your gender. 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 many of us, we go through life, and we have a temptation that’s been overwhelming in your life, it might be new and it might be lifelong. But the truth is, it’s something you’ve faced alone all your life. And this step is saying, “Go tell someone else about this”. They’re not going to drop their jaw too far, because guess what? They’ve faced the same kind of temptation as you.
• The best place to look for this spiritual partner is in your small group, somebody that you trust. The Apostle Paul, who had to deal with temptations just like you and me, tells us the names of some of the spiritual partners in his life, guys named Barnabus and Mark and Apollos and Timothy and Epaphrus and Titus. All people he brought into his life.
• And one of the reasons he was able to live such a great life of faith is that he wasn’t afraid to have partners who he walked through life with.
Here’s a question for you. What temptation are you facing right now and how could God use that temptation as you choose to obey Him as an opportunity for you to grow in character?
God wants to make you like Jesus Christ. It’s the third purpose that He put you on this planet for. He wants to build your character now so you can be rewarded in eternity. This life is not what it’s all about. This is preparation for eternity. And so God uses trouble to teach us trust, He uses temptation to teach us to obey.
3. GOD USES TRESPASSES TO TEACH US TO FORGIVE.
• Now what in the world are trespasses?
• Well, if trials are situations designed by God to draw us closer to Him and temptations are situations designed by the devil to draw us away from Him, from God, then trespasses are situations designed by other people to hurt us.
• Yes, there are people in life who want to hurt you intentionally, and that’s why Jesus taught us to pray, “and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who have trespassed against us”.
• Now this is the tough one. It’s one thing to handle trouble and it’s another thing to handle temptation. But the most difficult tool of all that God uses in our lives to make us like Christ is this one.
• And bearing the hurt of other people without retaliation is, without a doubt, the most important and the most difficult step in becoming like Jesus Christ because it often involves being misunderstood, being criticized, being judged, being hurt physically or emotionally or verbally, it may involve abuse.
• Now let me be real clear…these are not good things. These are evil things, and God is not the author of evil. God does not cause these things. God hates sin.
• But He didn’t even protect His own Son from these things. Even His own Son was misunderstood and hurt and judged and abused, and so what makes you think you’re going to be let off the hook?
• You see, on the cross Jesus Christ not only carried our sins, He also endured enormous abuse from the people who were right there. Notice this first verse, Mat. 27:39-44, it says “The people passing by (looking at Jesus on the cross) 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 these people, because they don’t know what they are doing’”. In 1 Pet. 2:23 it says this “They called Him every name in the book and He said nothing back. He suffered in silence, intent to let God set things right”. What did Jesus do?
• What was His response to trespasses? He yielded His right to get even. He absorbed the hurt. He put up with the pain. He responded to evil with good. That’s what Jesus did.
And, if you and I are going to grow up spiritually and if we’re going to become like Jesus Christ, we’re going to have to learn the same thing.
• The truth is in life you’re going to be hurt. This is not heaven. This is a fallen world. Everybody sins. You hurt other people. Other people hurt you. We hurt each other intentionally and unintentionally. You’re going to be hurt often in life.
• And if you’re going to become like Christ, you have to learn to forgive.
• You say, “Well, how do you do that?” Well, how can you learn to forgive if you’ve never been hurt? You can’t! You can’t learn to forgive unless somebody’s hurt you.
• Forgiveness is one of the primary qualities of God and God wants you to learn to become like Him. So there are hurts that are allowed in your life in order to make you like Jesus.
Now again, this is the toughest one, so let me give you two tips. Two little helps for when people harm you intentionally or unintentionally.
Remember that God has forgiven you. The Bible says “Forgive others, just as God forgave you because of Christ” (Eph. 4:32). God will never ask you to forgive anybody more than you’ve already been forgiven by Him.
Remember God is in control. When you’re being hurt by somebody else, yes, they may mean it for bad, but God will use it for good in your life.
• In fact that’s the very thing Joseph back in the OT said. Do you remember Joseph was betrayed by his own brothers - they sold him into slavery and then lied to their dad and said, “Oh, he was killed by a bear”. Talk about a dysfunctional family!
• And yet God had a plan in it all, and as he was taken to Egypt and went through all kinds of things - falsely accused of rape, thrown into prison…the first 40 years of Joseph’s life went down, down, down. He had no idea why things were going wrong in his life. And yet he trusted God the whole time.
• He maintained a forgiving spirit. And God knew exactly where he was and had him exactly where He wanted him to be and over time raised him up to be second in command only under Pharaoh. And it was his plan that saved two nations, Egypt and Israel, from starvation when the famines came. You read that story.
• And later the brothers come to this man, not realizing it was Joseph, and they went to ask for food to take back to their home. And when Joseph reveals who he is, they are afraid he is going to kill them. And yet he says this, there on your outline, “You meant to hurt me, but God turned your evil into good to save the lives of many people, which is being done” (Gen. 50:20). Would you circle the phrase “save the lives”? He said “You meant it to hurt me but God turned it into good to save the lives of many people”.
Listen to this portion of a letter from a 17-year-old young woman. She grew up in church. She tells of how her neighbor across the street abused her for years. Sexual abuse. And she kept it a secret. This neighbor was finally caught for the rape of another woman and was put in prison and she was called to testify in court about her experience, as a young teenager.
“..by allowing God to take control and lift the burden of my hurt from my heart, God gave me strength. Today I can truthfully say that because of the trials I’ve faced, I’ve been made stronger. Recently I read a book called Where is God When It Hurts? and there was a sentence that I’ve found to be true. It says this, “Faith in God offers no assurance against tragedy, but in every case suffering offers an opportunity for us to display God’s work”.
That is spiritual maturity! For a 17 year old - and many adults who are 40, 50, 60, 70 years old don’t even have! God uses trouble to teach us to trust, and God uses temptation to teach us to obey, and God uses trespasses to teach us to forgive, because we can’t become like Jesus without learning to trust and obey and forgive.
Now I am absolutely convinced of two things: Your greatest testimony as a believer is how you handle hurt. How do you respond when other people hurt you? Do you respond like Jesus did? The second thing I’m convinced of is that you are most like Christ when you suffer in order to save others. Who is there in your life that you need to forgive?
God’s third purpose for your life is to make you like Jesus Christ. And if that’s true, then He’s going to take you through everything Jesus went through. Why would He exempt you?
• That means He’s going to take you through a Gethsemane, an experience of trouble, where you learn to trust His love.
• He’s going to take you through a desert, an experience of temptation, where you learn to obey Him and do the right thing.
• And He’s going to take you to the cross, a time of trespass, where you learn to forgive. But there is a promise. Look at these last verses on your outline. “We go through exactly what Christ goes through”. Here’s the good news, “But if we go through the hard times with Him, then we’re certainly going to go through the good times with Him” (Rom. 8:17).
Now, I don’t know what you’re going through these days. But I do know how God wants you to respond to it, regardless of what you’re going through. I am confident of how God wants you to respond. It’s the last verse on your outline. Let’s read it together. This is this week’s memory verse. Read it with me. “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5).
Let’s bow our heads.
Dear Father, life makes so much more sense when we realize that it’s not about our career, our job, the various activities to which we give ourselves, it’s not about our comfort, it’s all about character and becoming like Jesus. Help us to use life for the reason You gave it to us.
Now as you pray I invite you to say,
Dear God, I want to grow in character. I want to become who You made me to be. Thank you for the model of Jesus. I want to become more like Jesus in the way I think and the way I feel and the way I act. And if that means taking me through troubled times, then I say “I want Your will for my life”. And if that means going through a wilderness of temptation, please give me the strength to make the right choices. And if that means I must endure the hurts of other people, then teach me to forgive as much as You have forgiven me.
If you’ve never opened your life to Jesus Christ, say,
Jesus, I can’t live like you unless I know you. So I want to get to know You today. As much as I know how I want to ask You to come into my life and heart. In Your name I pray, Amen.
