(adapted from Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life)
SERIES: “THE GROWTH FACTORS”
TEXT: ROMANS 8:28-29
TITLE: “THE EMULATION FACTOR”
INTRODUCTION: A. Have you ever noticed that the first thing people do when they see a newborn baby is
try to determine which family member the baby resembles?
1. She’s got her mother’s nose and mouth
2. He’s got his father’s forehead and chin
3. Look at those hands! They look just like Grampa Harris’ hands!
4. It’s even been said that couples married for a long time begin to resemble each
other
--Researchers from Yale University studied this phenomenon and determined that
people who live with each other for a long time often begin to unconsciously
mimic each other’s facial expressions.
--This mimicry becomes a form of “facial body-building,” literally shaping the
way we look
B. Who do you resemble?
1. I don’t mean do you look like your mom, dad, grandma, or grandpa
2. I mean spiritually, who do you resemble?
3. Rom. 8:28-29 – “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those
who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God
foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he
might be the firstborn among many brothers.”
--God’s plan has always been to make you like Jesus Christ.
a. His plan from the very beginning has been to make human beings like Himself.
b. God is not promising that you, too, will become a god
c. God doesn’t want you to become a god
--He wants you to become GODLY.
d. Eph. 4:15 – “Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into
him who is the Head, that is, Christ.”
--“God wants us to grow up…like Christ in everything”.
4. Babies are cute but if they remain babies something is very wrong
--God wants us to mature and develop
5. Unfortunately, lots of people grow older but never grow up.
D. There’s a process to grow into becoming like Christ
1. It doesn’t happen overnight
--It’s not like one day all of a sudden – “Presto, chango! Alakazam!” – you’re just
like Jesus.
2. The process of becoming like Jesus is called “discipleship”, and it takes an entire
lifetime.
F. How does God do it? How does God make me like Jesus Christ?
--There are three things God uses to make us like Jesus
1. All three are found in the life of Christ recorded in the Gospels
a. He had trouble in the garden.
b. He had temptation in the desert
c. He had trespasses on the cross.
2. 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.
a. The problem is, these things don’t automatically help you grow.
b. You have to have your heart ready, because if your heart isn’t ready you’re
going to become bitter by these things rather than better by these things.
I. GOD USES TROUBLE TO TEACH US TO TRUST
A. Trouble is not something we look forward too.
--We look at trouble as being unpleasant
1. In the Bible this word “trouble” is often called “trials”
a. “Trials” are situations designed by God to draw us closer to Him.
b. They’re not designed to hurt us; they’re designed to help us.
2. Erroneously, we think we’re in God’s will if things are going well
a. However when things are going well, it doesn’t take any faith and it doesn’t build any character
to function.
b. So God has to bring some things along in our lives to stretch us, to cause us to grow, and these
things are troubles or trials.
3. God wants to build character in you.
a. How does He do it?
b. Rom. 5:3-4 – “…suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.”
4. All kinds of problems are going to come into your life – troubles, trials, difficulties – and you’re
going ask, “Why me Lord? Why is this happening to me?” as if your life is supposed to be a life
of comfort.
a. This is not the place for comfort.
b. This is the place for character development.
5. Please understand this: Every problem has a purpose.
a. I don’t care whether you caused it, somebody else caused it, the devil caused it,
-- every problem has a purpose.
b. And what is that purpose?
--It’s to make me like Jesus Christ; to build character in my life.
B. Jesus went through many troubles and trials in His life
--His greatest was the night before He was crucified.
1. Because He knew what He was going to have to face the next day, the intensity of the turmoil in
His heart was enormous.
a. He was going to take the sin of the world on Him.
b. He was going to die a horrible death by crucifixion, and the real question that night in the Garden
of Gethsemane was, “Would He trust God the Father?”
--Would He trust God to know what’s best for His life, even if it meant an extremely painful death?
2. He took His disciples to a garden, a grove of olive trees, and under the stress of carrying the weight
of the world, He asked His disciples to stay with Him while He prayed.
a. Mk. 14:32 – “3They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Sit here
while I pray.’”
b. The stress and anguish hit Him hard
--Mk. 14:34 – “‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.’’
c. Notice how Jesus responded to this trouble
--Mk. 14:36 – “‘Abba, Father,’ he said, ‘everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me.
Yet not what I will, but what you will.’”
C. If you’re going to become like Jesus, this is the first lesson you’re going to have to learn
--You’ve got to learn to trust God completely even when things look terrible and it appears everything is
falling apart.
1. It’s easy to trust God when everything is going great in your life.
--The real test of your faith is, how do you hang out with God when you don’t feel good? When
everything is going wrong?
2. So, the next time you get into some troubles and you ask, “Why is this happening?” you’ll know
why.
--God is teaching you to trust Him. He’s giving you the opportunity to trust Him.
God uses trouble to teach us to trust
II. GOD USES TEMPTATIONS TO TEACH US TO OBEY
A. It’s important to be real clear about the definition of temptation,
1. Temptations are situations designed by Satan and they’re intended to harm us.
2. God never tempts us to do evil.
a. Temptations are designed by Satan and are intended to hurt us.
b. God never tempts us, but God is able, because of the greatness of His power and His person, to
use Satan’s temptations for good in our lives because temptation always provides a choice.
c. When I choose for God rather than choosing for Satan, Satan’s plan is ruined and I start to grow in
my life.
--Choices are necessary to develop Christ-like character in our lives.
B. Jesus faced temptations.
--He never sinned, but He faced temptations.
1. 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.
--Mt. 4:1 – “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil..”
2. Now, if Jesus faced temptations, guess what?
--You and I are going to face temptations, too.
3. The fact that He faced temptations reminds us of some truths about temptation that help us to get
through it.
a. 1st truth: It’s not a sin to be tempted.
1). Jesus never sinned, yet He was tempted.
2). 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.”
b. 2nd truth: Everyone is tempted in the same ways
--1 Cor. 10:13 – “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.”
C. Rita May Brown: “Lead me not into temptation. I can find it myself.”
1. I’m a casual fisherman. I just go by the bait store, pick up some thing that is still semi-alive, and
sometimes I catch fish and sometimes I don’t. I enjoy it but it’s not a consuming passion in my life.
Compare that to the avid fishermen. They study the seasons, the spawning seasons, the culinary
delights of each different species, whether they strike at a still bait or moving bait, what artificial bait
works best for what species, whether they’re top feeders or bottom feeders, whether they’re shallow
water fish or deep water fish.
2. Satan uses only artificial bait – but it shines and glitters and attracts our attention like nothing else.
3. Tom Ellsworth: “If Satan worked at temptation like I work at fishing, you’d have nothing to worry
about. But I want you to know that he is an avid fisherman for your soul.”
4. Here’s the point. Temptation always tests whether you love God more than the temptation.
a. When you’re tempted by money, you have to evaluate: Do I love God most or do I love money most
in my life?
b. When I’m tempted by a wrong relationship, you have to evaluate: Do I love that person or do I love
God more in my life?
c. When you’re tempted by comfort, you have to evaluate: Do I love comfort more than I love
Christ?
d. Obedience, choosing to say, “yes” to God, is a matter of love.
--The Bible tells us that Jesus said, “If you love Me, obey My commands”.
**God uses trouble to teach us to trust
**God uses temptation to teach us to obey .
III. GOD USES TRESPASSES TO TEACH US TO FORGIVE
A. What is a trespass?
--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 God, then trespasses are situations designed by other
people designed to hurt us.
1. There are people in life who want to hurt you intentionally, and that’s why the Bible says in the
Lord’s Prayer that we’re to pray, “Lord, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who have
trespassed against us.”
2. 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.
a. 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.
b. Why?
--Because it often involves being misunderstood, being criticized, being judged, and being hurt
verbally, emotionally, or physically.
c. These things are not good things. These are evil things, and God is not the author of evil.
1). God does not cause these things.
--God hates sin.
2). But He didn’t even protect His own Son from these things.
a). Jesus was misunderstood and hurt and judged and abused.
b). What makes you think you’re going to be let off the hook?
3. You see, on the cross Jesus Christ not only carried our sins, He also endured enormous abuse
from the people who were right there at the foot of the cross.
--Mt. 27:39-44 – “Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying,
‘You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down
from the cross, if you are the Son of God!’ In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the
law and the elders mocked him. ‘He saved others,’ they said, ‘but he can’t save himself! He’s
the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He
trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, I am the Son of God.’ In
the same way the robbers who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him.”
a. And what was Jesus’ response?
-- Lk. 23:34 – “Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.’”
b. 1 Pet. 2:23 – “When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he
made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.”
c. What was Jesus’ response to the trespasses of other people?
--He yielded His right to get even. He absorbed the hurt. He put up with the pain. He
responded to evil with good.
B. If you’re going to grow up spiritually and if you’re going to become like Jesus Christ, you’re going to
have to learn the same thing.
1. The truth is that 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.
2. And if you’re going to become like Christ, you have to learn to forgive.
CONCLUSION: A. Please know that these three unexpected tools we talked about today are important:
1. God uses trouble to teach us to trust
2. God uses temptation to teach us to obey
3. God uses trespasses to teach us to forgive
4. Why those three things?
--Because we can’t become like Jesus without learning to trust and obey and forgive.
B. Joe was a drunk who was miraculously converted at a Bowery mission. Prior to his
conversion, he had gained the reputation of being a dirty wino for whom their was no
hope, only a miserable existence in the ghetto. But following his conversion to a new life
in Christ, everything changed.
Joe became the most caring person that anyone associated with the mission had ever
known. Joe spent his days and nights hanging out at the mission, doing whatever needed
to be done. There was never anything that he was asked to do that he considered beneath
him. Whether it was cleaning up after some violently sick alcoholic or scrubbing toilets
after careless men left the men’s room filthy, Joe did what was asked with a smile on his
face and seeming gratitude for the chance to help. He could be counted on to feed feeble
men who wandered off the street and into the mission, and to undress and tuck into bed
men who were too out of it to take care of themselves.
One evening, when the director of the mission was delivering his evening evangelistic
message to the usual crowd of still and sullen men with drooped heads, there was one
man who looked up, came down the aisle, and knelt to pray, crying out to God to help
him change.
The repentant drunk kept shouting, “Oh God! Make me like Joe! Make me
like Joe! Make me like Joe!’” The director of the mission leaned over and said to the
man “Son, I think it would be better if you prayed, ‘Make me like Jesus.’”
The man looked up at the director with a questioning look on his face and asked, “Is he
like Joe?”
