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CREATED TO BECOME LIKE CHRIST (03.14.04)
(40 Days of Purpose – week four)

Week One: “Planned for God's Pleasure.”
Our first purpose is to get to know and love God. That's called what?…Worship.

Week Two: “We 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're going to look at the third purpose of “what on earth we're here for”.

“For from the very beginning God decided that those who came to Him – and He knew who would – should become like His Son”. Romans 8:29

God's plan has always been to make us (those who are His children) like Jesus. He's not saying we're going to be a god. We will never be a god. Men, our wives may think we're a god, but we'll never be a god. He wants us to become GODLY; to develop His character, think the way He thinks, act the way He acts, feel the way He feels, value what He values, etc. God wants to make us like Himself.

“God wants us to grow up…like Christ in everything.” Ephesians 4:15

What does it mean to grow up? It means to be like Christ. God's will for us to grow up. Babies are cute, but if babies stay babies, it's tragic. God wants us to mature and develop. What does spiritual maturity look like? Just take a long look at Jesus.

A lot of people grow older but never grow up. Our third purpose in life is to BECOME LIKE CHRIST. Jesus is the model.

Becoming like Jesus doesn't happen overnight. In fact, to become like Jesus takes a lifetime process known as “discipleship.”

How does God do it? How does God help us grow spiritually? There are a couple of ways we know right off the bat.
1. HE USES THE BIBLE. It takes truth to transform us. The more we get into the Truth contained in the Word, the more we're going to grow.
2. HE ALSO USES PEOPLE, and that's why we talked about fellowship last week.

But God uses more than the Bible and fellowship to help us mature. It's some of these other things I want to look at today.

“In all things God works for the good for those who love Him, who have been called according to His purposes.” Romans 8:28.

Does that include bad things? Painful things? Does it even include mistakes we make from sinning? Yes. It doesn't say all things are good, because they aren't. But God can use them to make us like Jesus.

Today I want to look at three unlikely tools God uses to make us like Jesus. In fact, God used them on Jesus.
1. He faced TROUBLE in the garden.
2. He faced TEMPTATION in the desert, and
3. He faced TRESPASSES on the cross.

If we're going to become like Jesus, God's going to take us through the same experiences Jesus went through.

These things don't automatically help us grow. We have to have our heart ready. If our heart isn't ready we'll become bitter rather than better by these things.
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GOD USES TROUBLE TO TEACH US TO TRUST HIM. In the Bible the word “trouble” is often called “trials”, and “trials” are situations allowed and designed by God to draw us closer to Him. They're designed not to hurt but to help us. It doesn't take any faith or character to live when everything is rosy. So, God has things come our way to stretch us and cause us to grow.

“…TROUBLE produces patience, and patience produces character, and character produces hope”.
Romans 5:3-4

God is far more interested in what we are than in what we do. He's more interested in what we are, our CHARACTER, than He is in what we do, our CAREER. WHY? Because we're taking our character to heaven with us, not our career. The goal of life is character, not our career; the goal of life is character, not our comfort. Until we understand this, life won't make sense. All kinds of problems are going to come our way – troubles, trials, difficulties – and we may say “Why me Lord? Why is this happening to me?” as if our life is supposed to be a life of comfort. It's not!
If we keep thinking we're supposed to have heaven on earth, we're going to be very disappointed. This is not the place for comfort. This is the place for character development.

Do you believe every problem has a purpose? Whether you caused it, somebody else caused it, the devil caused it; every problem does have a purpose. “What is that purpose?” To make us like Jesus; to build character into our life.

Jesus went through many troubles and trials in His life; probably the greatest being the night before He was crucified.
He was about to take the sin of the world on Himself. 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?

It's important to notice that Jesus took His disciples with Him when He went to Gethsemane as He was carrying the weight of the world.
“They came to a garden called Gethsemane and Jesus said to His disciples, ‘Sit here while I pray'.” Mark 14:32

Even Jesus needed friends when He went through troubles. That's why we need small groups. That's why we need fellowship. We aren't supposed to go through the troubles of life alone.

“The sorrow in My heart is so great that it almost crushes Me.” Mark 14:34

Talk about major trouble! Some of you know what that's like; that feeling of not knowing how you'll make it another day.

Notice how Jesus responded:
“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

If we're going to become like Jesus, this is the first lesson we're going to have to learn. It's okay to say:
- “God I don't like this!”
- “God I want you to take this away!”
- “God I know it's possible for You to fix my problems!”

Jesus prayed, “I know everything is possible with You, Father. Yet, Your will be done in my life.” Jesus surrendered to God's plan.

Here's the point: If we're going to become like Jesus, we've got to learn to trust God completely, even when things look horrible. God uses troubles to teach us to trust Him. The real test of our faith is in how we do when we don't feel good.
God sometimes even takes away our feelings in order to teach us to have faith.

A couple of things to possibly do during the tough times… KEEP A SPIRITUAL JOURNAL.

“At the Lord's direction, Moses kept a written record of their progress.” Numbers 33:2

A DIARY is a recording of the events in your life. A JOURNAL is a recording of the lessons and insights learned in life. What we learn today is something worth looking back on and passing on as a spiritual heritage.

A journal also helps us see our progress. Most of us don't realize how much we've grown and changed until we get a glimpse back at the way we were; we forget what we used to be like. “Look, I am making progress. I am more like Jesus than I used to be.”

Another thing to do in tough times… REMEMBER THE REWARD.

“Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” 2Corinthians 4:17

The Message paraphrase says:
“These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times and the lavish celebration prepared for us.”

Sara Grove wrote a song about troubles making us more like Jesus:

“In Your hands the pain and hurt look LESS LIKE SCARS and more like character; LESS LIKE A PRISON, more like my room; LESS LIKE A CASKET, more like a womb; LESS LIKE DYING, more like transcending; LESS LIKE FEAR, LESS LIKE AN ENDING. And in Your hands the pain and hurt look LESS LIKE SCARS and more like character.”

God uses trouble to teach us to trust Him.
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A second way God works in our lives to make us more like Jesus; GOD USES OUR TEMPTATIONS TO TEACH US TO OBEY.

Temptations are situations designed by Satan and are intended to harm us. God never tempts us to do evil. God is able, however, to use Satan's temptations for good in our lives because temptation always provides a choice. And when we choose for God rather than for Satan, Satan's plan is ruined and we grow in our life. 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 in the desert.

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.” Matthew 4:1

If Jesus faced temptations, you and I are going to face temptations too.

Some things to remember about temptation:
1. It is not a sin to be tempted.
2. Everyone is tempted in the same ways. Satan would have us believe our temptations are worse: “Wow, I'm really a bad person.”
3. You'll never outgrow temptation.
4. It's also important to remember that every temptation is an opportunity to do good, to make the right choice and become more like Jesus.

“Get out of here, Satan. The scriptures say, worship only the Lord God. Obey only Him.'” Matthew 4:10

Temptation tests whether we love God more than the temptation. It's a test of what we love most in life. Money, a wrong relationship, comfort, our reputation, et.al. all can be used to tempt us.

Two helps with temptation:
When tempted, KEEP FOCUSED ON GOOD THOUGHTS.

“Fix your thoughts on what is true and good and right.” Philippians 4:8

Temptation always starts with getting our attention, and when it gets our attention, it gets us.

Two thoughts that cannot coexist in our mind: thoughts of SUCCUMBING to temptation and thoughts of OBEYING God.

When tempted, don't resist it. Why? Because as we're resisting, we're thinking about the temptation!
We get into a spiritual tug-of-war with Satan, and he always wins! Don't resist; drop the rope.

A second help, 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.

“You're better off to have a friend than to be all alone…If you fall, your friend can help you up.” Ecclesiastes 4:9-10
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What temptation are you maybe facing right now, and how could God use that temptation as an opportunity to grow in character?

God wants to make us like Jesus. It's the third purpose that He put us on this planet for. He wants to prepare us for eternity. This life is not what it's all about. This is preparation for eternity. And so today we've looked at two of the ways God uses. God uses TROUBLE TO TEACH US TO TRUST, and God uses TEMPTATION TO TEACH US TO OBEY.
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Number three: GOD USES TRESPASSES TO TEACH US TO FORGIVE.

What are trespasses? Trials are situations designed by God to draw us closer to Him; temptations are situations designed by the devil to draw us away from God; trespasses are situations designed by other people to hurt us.

Bearing the hurt of other people without retaliation is, without a doubt, the most important and the most difficult step in becoming like Jesus; it often involves being misunderstood, criticized, judged, hurt physically, emotionally or verbally, it may involve abuse.

These are evil things, and God does not cause these things. God hates sin. But He didn't even protect His own Son from these things. What makes us think we're going to be let off the hook?

On the cross Jesus not only carried our sins, He also endured enormous abuse from the people who were there.
“The people passing by 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.” Matthew 27:39-44

What was Jesus response?
‘Father, forgive these people, because they don't know what they are doing.'” Luke 23:34

Jesus yielded His right to get even. He absorbed the hurt. He responded to evil with good.

The truth is in life we'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.
If we're going to become like Jesus, we have to learn to forgive.

Two tips when people hurt us:
1. REMEMBER ~ GOD HAS FORGIVEN ME.
“Forgive others, just as God forgave you because of Christ.” Ephesians 4:32

God will never ask you to forgive anybody more than you've already been forgiven by Him.

2. REMEMBER ~ GOD IS IN CONTROL.

Remember Joseph? His brothers hated him and sold him into slavery. In Egypt he was falsely accused of rape and thrown into prison. He had no idea why things were going wrong in his life. God knew exactly where Joseph was and had him exactly where He wanted him to be so that He could save two nations, Egypt and Israel, from starvation when the famines came.

“You meant to hurt me, but God turned your evil into good to save the lives of many people, which is being done.” Genesis 50:20

“Faith in God offers no assurance against tragedy, but in every case suffering offers an opportunity for us to display God's work.”
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God uses TROUBLE to teach us to trust, TEMPTATION to teach us to obey, and TRESPASSES to teach us to forgive, because we can't become like Jesus without learning to TRUST and OBEY and FORGIVE.

God's third purpose for our life is to make us like Jesus. And if that's true, then He's going to take us through everything Jesus went through. Why would He exempt us?

That means He's going to take us through a Gethsemane, an experience of TROUBLE, where we learn to TRUST His love.
He's going to take us through a desert, an experience of TEMPTATION, where we learn to OBEY Him and do the right thing.
He's going to take us to the cross, a time of TRESPASS, where we learn to FORGIVE.

But there is a promise. Look at these last verses on your outline.

“We go through exactly what Christ goes through. But if we go through the hard times with Him, then we're certainly going to go through the good times with Him.” Romans 8:17

No matter what you may be going through today, one thing I know:

“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 2:5

Prayer

Father, life makes so much more sense when we realize that it's not about our career, 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.

Pray with me:

“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.

“If that means taking me through troubled times, then I say, ‘I want Your will for my life.'

“If that means going through a wilderness of temptation, please give me the strength to make the right choices.

“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, you may want to pray something like this:
“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.”