Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign.
[00:00:07] We're gonna jump into the message today, and I want to remind us something that I feel like God's doing in me more and more. And that's just the way we approach the Scriptures.
[00:00:25] And, you know, we don't have.
[00:00:27] We don't have a word problem in our life.
[00:00:31] God already decided that every word that he spoke that it would be sent to fulfill everything he called it to do. And so sometimes we can get used to hearing scriptures, hearing messages, even going to church and not seeing transformation, not seeing the, you know, us becoming more like Jesus as a result.
[00:00:54] And I realized that we have to have a fear of the Lord when we approach the Scriptures as something holy. And the way we do that is with a readiness to take action on what he's saying, with a heart posture of practicing what he's saying to us.
[00:01:14] And when that happens, we tend to have more dependency, more humility, and a readiness to hear and to receive. And so we need that. We need more of that. We need that transformation in our life. And, you know, in the parable of the Word being a seed and different seeds and different soils, you know, the same word in someone's life produced a great harvest, and in other lives didn't produce anything. And that's more connected to us. And I'm reminded how the Bible tells us that when we go to the house of the Lord, that we are to prepare ourselves.
[00:01:59] Think about this. When you show up ready, prayed up, worshiped up, you're not coming here like, as. Like a way of survival. Barely made it from the week just to get in on Sunday and experience another drop of heaven, but you're actually coming with overflow. You've been stewarding the presence of God, stewarding the words of God. There's oil on you. There's a presence of God on you. And you come to the house of God not just ready to receive, but ready to give, ready to share, ready to bless somebody, ready to infuse hope into somebody's life, faith into somebody's life. And that's the power of the gathering.
[00:02:38] You know, the Bible says that when we come together, each one has something to give.
[00:02:44] And obviously that doesn't happen from this stage. That happens in the life of the body. In other words, we're not. We're not by design, meant to be consumers, but we're meant to be distributors. And as we give what we're receiving, it's multiplying.
[00:03:00] And so my desire is that the word of God would bear fruit in our lives and that we would Experience the fear of the Lord as we, as we hear the Scriptures, as we hear the words of God, that they would transform our lives and continue to do that even when you're 10 years in, 15 years, in, 20 years into this Christian life, that we would continue to tremble at the words of Jesus. And so would you bow your heads with me right where you are as we pray.
[00:03:33] Holy Spirit, we just come to you.
[00:03:36] We need you to come with your presence, with your anointing, with your power.
[00:03:41] Would you speak to us? Because faith comes by hearing and hearing from the Word. Let us hear your words transform our lives. We humble ourselves God before your words. We lean in to what you're saying. In Jesus name, Amen.
[00:04:02] Amen. Today I want to briefly share on a topic I called Christ likeness. And the subtitle will be becoming who you were created to be.
[00:04:15] Becoming who you were created to be. And you know, I would say it like this. Christ likeness is the highest expression of, of human potential because it has to do with our original design.
[00:04:36] And you know, when, when I started pastoring in the mid-20s and as God would begin to entrust people into my life, into my space as a leader, I always had this passion to see other people step into their God given potential.
[00:04:58] Some people maybe get excited about crowds, but the more people would come around me, the more fear and weight I would experience.
[00:05:06] In the best version of that, where it's like, wow, these people have such great potential. How do I help them step into all that God has for them? And so that's always been a passion and a burden. And I think every one of us here, in some way, we want to step into our potential, we want to live that out. We want to step into some of the great things that God has for us. And so this is sort of what I want to talk about. And I know the previous time I spoke, I talked about having this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, where he became a bond, servant, right. And he's asking us to live that great life with that attitude, that mindset. And then Vic shared about how sometimes we prioritize activity or ministry or different things we do and not do it out of relationship. And that God prioritizes relationship and out of that flows all of our activity.
[00:06:09] And so I want to build on that because relationship with God does something in us.
[00:06:17] There's a result to a relationship with God. There is a result to abiding in God. There's a result to a fruit, if you will, a visible manifestation of people that abide with him.
[00:06:31] And so that's what we're going to talk about a little bit. But before we do, I just want us to look at this picture from the Old Testament that speaks to God's value. Because as we step out to live out our potential, our calling, our purpose, we need to define success correctly.
[00:06:52] And we need to see the way God sees our life. And I was reading through the Scriptures and I saw this, and I was like, what a picture of the way God sees this. And it's in First Samuel, chapter 16, verse 6.
[00:07:11] And in context, this is a prophet who came to the house of Jesse to anoint the next king. Israel wanted a king.
[00:07:20] They anointed Saul to be a king, and Saul was a king, and God wanted to anoint a new king. And so he sent a prophet to the house of Jesse. And in verse 6, it says, when they entered, he looked at Eliab and thought, surely the Lord's anointed is standing before him.
[00:07:44] You know, he looked at this firstborn in the house of Jesse and was convinced that for sure this is the guy that God is choosing.
[00:07:57] How? How was he convinced? Probably because of his stature, probably because of his strength. Maybe he was a good hunter. Maybe he was a trained, skilled warrior. And he looked authoritative, he looked confident. And so the prophet looked at him and evaluated what he saw and was convinced that this is God's anointed. And verse 7 says, but the Lord said to Samuel, do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. And then he says, for God sees not as man sees, since man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.
[00:08:42] What a sobering thought here, that while the world is celebrating something, it's possible that God has already rejected it.
[00:08:54] And. And he's pointing to a different value system. And he says, actually God sees things differently and God rewards things differently. He says, God sees the heart. And I think our spiritual life in God is connected to more of the secret about our life than the public about our life. And God looks at the secret and rewards it publicly. Isn't that true? And so he says, hey, you. You need to see the way God sees.
[00:09:28] And so I want to jump into Romans chapter 8, verse 29, For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to be like his son.
[00:09:47] Other translations will say, God knew his people beforehand.
[00:09:52] And that thought there is not beforehand, like, you know, in Genesis chapter one from that time on.
[00:10:00] But actually it was in eternity with God beforehand. This was God's eternal plan before the world was created, before Adam and Eve, beforehand, God knew his people and has chosen them for this one call to become like His Son.
[00:10:24] And this points to Genesis 1, which we'll look at in just a moment.
[00:10:29] But this has to do with our original design, that by design we were created to be like Jesus.
[00:10:44] And in Genesis 1:26 it says, Then God said, let us make man in our image and in our likeness.
[00:10:56] And these two words are very similar, but they are slightly different.
[00:11:01] But the point was that man would reflect God, that man would be image bearers of God and they would represent God to the. To the creation, to the world, to the earth.
[00:11:16] That was the original design. And the image of God is, is.
[00:11:23] Is his character, his nature, his authority.
[00:11:29] And it really means a representation that you are a representation of God. Scripture says that we are his ambassadors, that we. We almost like, speak on his behalf on the earth. So we're called to be his representation. And, you know, following those verses, what follows that is be fruitful, multiply and have dominion.
[00:11:55] So it's not separate from doing great things for God and walking in the power of God, but it flows out of that identity, out of that image of God to have dominion, to be fruitful, to multiply. And, and the word likeness is resemblance. It's. It's to actually bear his character. It's holiness, it's.
[00:12:20] It's wisdom, it's compassion, God's creativity. And so that's. The original design of man is actually the way man steps into highest potential of their life, is becoming Christlike.
[00:12:42] He chose us beforehand to become like His Son. What if we measure our life not by the situation we're in right now, what we're going through right now? Because if we do that right now in this room, some of us might be in trouble, some of us might be discouraged, some of us might feel lost.
[00:13:09] But what if we measure our life and the success of our life in. In this way? How am I becoming more like Jesus?
[00:13:20] Because if, if you shift your focus to that kind of perspective, you will be empowered to continuously be sanctified and transformed through every season of your life. And it doesn't matter if you're going through fire, through tribulation, through. Through persecution, through sickness. Whatever season you're going through, you. You have the opportunity to become more and more like Jesus through pain, through rejection, and so on.
[00:13:51] So how am I becoming more like Jesus? What areas of my life am I walking through that are opportunities for me to become more like Jesus?
[00:14:03] And I Want us to look at Luke, chapter 6, verse 40.
[00:14:11] This is a profound statement by actually Jesus.
[00:14:17] And he says, a student is not above the teacher, but everyone, when he has been fully trained, you know, other translations will say perfected or mature, equipped, fully trained will be like his teacher.
[00:14:41] The historic context here is Jesus was known as a rabbi.
[00:14:48] And when people would be disciples of a rabbi, the mission of a disciple wasn't just to know what the teacher knows.
[00:15:00] You know, to get information, to get strategy, to learn how to know, preach, or interpret scriptures. The goal of a disciple was to become like the rabbi.
[00:15:17] And so when a disciple would come into the proximity of a rabbi and commit himself to follow him, what he would do is in that proximity, he would watch how the rabbi responds with compassion.
[00:15:33] He would watch how the rabbi deals with conflict. He would watch how the rabbi would respond to situations. And as he's watching, the way he's listening, the way he's looking and beholding is with his heart posture to keep adjusting.
[00:15:52] And over time, what happens naturally is the disciple becomes like the rabbi.
[00:16:02] And so what Jesus is using here in, in Luke is that everyone who has been fully trained, the result of that is not ministry experience.
[00:16:19] It's not measured by, like, how many churches we planted.
[00:16:23] It's not measured by this visible success that even the church, not just the world, but even the church, would celebrate. Actually being a good disciple. And following Jesus looks like becoming just like him.
[00:16:43] And you know, what if the road to our highest potential doesn't look like the wide road of opportunity?
[00:16:52] What if the road to our greatest joy, peace, happiness, and influence looks narrow?
[00:17:09] And so he says, you call me teacher, rightfully so.
[00:17:15] And the result of you following me is you becoming just like me. When Paul was ministering and serving the churches, he said, I labor until Christ is fully formed in you.
[00:17:35] And so what does that look like?
[00:17:39] Because we can be like, attenders, right? Like, I attend a church.
[00:17:45] Great.
[00:17:49] And I think when we lose humility and reverence to the presence of God in the Scriptures, what happens is we develop this feeling that, like, we arrived and we start to even hear this for someone else more often.
[00:18:15] But I think the idea of discipleship, following the great shepherd, following Jesus, looks like practicing.
[00:18:25] Like, imagine if, like, you actually got off the bleachers, we just had FIFA, right? And, and, and instead of criticizing how Messi missed the shot and the whole thing's rigged and actually went to practice and try to play the game, you would be humbled so fast.
[00:18:42] Wow, this is harder than it looks.
[00:18:45] And I have all this stuff coming up. Why? Because when you practice, it helps you kind of engage with the reality of your humanity, your level of maturity, and how it lines up with who he is.
[00:19:03] And so what it does is it puts us into this place where we're like, holy Spirit, help. I. I need you.
[00:19:10] I think I'm a lot further than I thought I was.
[00:19:15] I need your help. I need your grace. I need your mercy.
[00:19:20] And then that produces hunger to receive his words, to allow his words to confront our life, our character.
[00:19:29] And, you know, the Bible says this.
[00:19:35] In John, chapter 3, verse 21, it says, the one who practices truth comes into the light.
[00:19:51] It's not the one who sings the loudest in a worship set. It's not the one who, you know, maybe has the greatest amount of passion.
[00:20:00] It's actually one who's practicing.
[00:20:03] He's the one walking into the light.
[00:20:07] And that light, it's. It's transforming us.
[00:20:11] And so I want to invite us or challenge us to look at the Scriptures. With that attitude, with that heart posture, how can I practice what you're saying?
[00:20:27] There's this other passage. You've heard me share this many times.
[00:20:31] It's in first John, and it says, he who says that he abides in him ought himself also to walk as he walked.
[00:20:40] In other words, the one who's claiming that he's abiding should live his life as Jesus did.
[00:20:47] That's so confronting. That's so convicting.
[00:20:51] That is, it's so real and not in a condemning way, but in a. In a humbling way where you want to embrace sanctification, you want to embrace this idea of being equipped and prepared and matured by the rabbi.
[00:21:33] You know, when we look at Romans 8 and the progression that is built there, where it talks about how sin separated us from God and then how God defeated death and sin, and we were set free from sin. And now Romans 8, we're born again.
[00:21:49] And it. It says, now there's no more condemnation to those who are in Christ. Talks about being led by the Holy Spirit and all this stuff.
[00:21:59] And Romans chapter 8 ends with a promise.
[00:22:05] And the promise is not like you're going to have all these great things, and I'm going to give you this, and I'm going to give you that, and I'm going to give you that.
[00:22:13] It's less like that.
[00:22:16] It's. It's this promise. He says, nothing.
[00:22:21] I will not allow anything.
[00:22:25] Nothing in hell, nothing in heaven, no situation, no demon, no angel, no person. I will not Allow anyone, anything to separate you from my love.
[00:22:40] That's the promise.
[00:22:43] Why? Because that is what you and I need to become.
[00:22:50] There is, there is no greater power than the power of love.
[00:22:59] Love transforms our life. Love rewires our way of thinking. Love changes our identity.
[00:23:09] Jesus is the manifestation of the love of the Father.
[00:23:14] He doesn't have love. He is love. And the invitation, the provision, the leadership of the Holy Spirit, the result of discipleship is us becoming like Him.
[00:23:33] And we cannot become like him unless we abide in him and remain in his love.
[00:23:43] You know, so we see the result in Galatians that the result of intimacy or in John 15, the result of abiding is bearing fruit. And the fruit is patience and kindness and humility and self control and all of these qualities. And we can look at these qualities as like standards where we can qualify or disqualify ourselves, but it's not the way it's presented. It's just saying that if you live in relationship with me, the result of that, if you stay in my love, the result of that is you're going to become like me.
[00:24:19] And the fruit of the Spirit is what Jesus looks like. He's humble, he's meek, he's patient. He has self control. He loves so purely.
[00:24:31] And, and, and this is the call. If, if we're struggling with like what our calling is and we base on our calling, on like our function and, and, and, and what we're doing or what we're not doing in the room and the way people identify us, we can miss the true purpose of who God called us to be before the foundations of the earth, and it's to become like His Son.
[00:25:00] What if the greatest joy is not in what you do, but in who you are?
[00:25:12] And I'm not in any way minimizing our need for the power of God, for the gifts of the Spirit, for people to encounter the kingdom of God and the authority of heaven.
[00:25:25] But I'm just saying when we make that our focus instead of the primary call, we can miss the whole thing.
[00:25:36] I remember when I got saved and I had a very loving pastor who poured into me. And in many ways I was a disciple. I was his disciple. I, I would follow him everywhere he went. I would, I would be with him. I would serve him. And I didn't have any agenda. Like, I didn't, I didn't want to become a pastor. I didn't, I didn't want to like, learn ministry.
[00:26:01] I just, I just served him.
[00:26:05] And over the years, the result of my Proximity to this person made me realize that I found myself in similar situations, responding the way that he would, responding to challenges, situations, conflict the way that he would. And I realized that's the natural process. That even happens the same way with our kids.
[00:26:29] Our kids, when we do this the right way, our kids are influenced by the way we live. Like, I have a pastor friend of mine that we're hosting right now and he was just sharing last night with our pastoral team that all of his kids are in full time ministry.
[00:26:48] And not because he encouraged them, not because he told them, you know, that that's something you should do. But somehow when they grew up in his house and watched the way he lived his life, they were influenced and impacted by the way he lived, that they started to do what he was doing.
[00:27:10] And so the result of us following Jesus, that's the commitment.
[00:27:16] And the result is we're becoming like Jesus.
[00:27:19] Every day we're becoming more and more like Jesus.
[00:27:24] Amen.
[00:27:26] And the provision to that is the love of God.
[00:27:33] Would you stand to your feet with me?
[00:27:48] I'm going to ask us to, to ask the Holy Spirit what he's saying to us through this message.
[00:27:59] Areas of our life that he wants to speak to, where he wants us to become more like Him.
[00:28:06] I'm going to invite the ministry team to come and we're going to allow you to just respond if you need, if you have need in any area of your life, whether you need healing in your body or just breakthrough in your finances, or you just have need that you want us to partner with, or you just want to be touched by God or filled with the Holy Spirit. It's a time for you. I'm going to invite the ministry team to come forward now. And during this time of worship, I want you to take a moment and ask the Holy Spirit what he's saying to you and then just respond. And you're free to come at any time and receive prayer and ministry in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:28:51] Thank you for joining Kingdom Movement Online. I pray and hope that that sermon impacted you deeply. I would love if you shared this with a few friends and family. And before you go, don't forget to subscribe. See you next week.
