Imitate God

Ephesians 5:1-2

Brothers and sisters often times in our lives, Follow God. Imitate God and do what he does to the best of your ability. We have all heard this before and if not you are hearing it now. When it comes down to it there has been times is all of our live where we didn’t want to imitate God or strive to live like Christ. We have all had moments where it has seemed like Imitating God felt and seemed like it was the worse thing to do at the moment and time we were living in. Truth be told we have felt this way and we have all wanted to do what we wanted to do say what we wanted to say and live how we wanted to live. And 9/10 we didn’t just feel this way but we actually acted on these things and said what we wanted, did what we wanted and lived how we wanted to live. Truth be told, we sometimes don’t follow or imitate God because we but don’t see the results we want to see or it’s not the way we would have done it. But in imitating God, we must do this daily. It’s not a one time occurence. It’s not just for Sunday and Wednesday’s, but every day.

What do you do church family when it seems like your imitating God is not paying off?

What do you do when it seems like the more your imitate God and the trials and tribulations are still rising?

What do you do when it seems like the more you Imitate the more your situation looks dark and dreary.

What do you when all of these things keep happening Do you Give in or Do you keep imitating God and following his Word.

Brothers and sisters we often find ourselves giving in and up because of our faith. With being an Imitator we have got to have faith. We need faith because things may not always go how we want and the bible tells us the we who are christians will not always have the prettiest life but sometimes we will go through some things, but if we Have faith we will be able to trust and know that God will bring us Out of the situation that we facing. Not only that if he doesn’t bring us out when we deem necessary we also learn in his word that he will get in our situation with us. We must learn to Imitate God through it all.

Brothers and Sisters we must learn how to keep imitating God even when it doesn’t look pleasurable.

Even when it is not the biggest trend even when family and friends are imitating the World and Calling you a Holy Roller, We have to make a decision to stand up and imitate God.

Imitate God Look at somebody and ask them are you Imitating God. Is your Hand still in his Hand. Are you being faithful to him and doing his word.

We see here in our lesson why it is important to Imitate God.

The verse number 1 Starts off with

Ephesians 5:1 NLT

Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children.

As Christians we are called to imitate God. To imitate is follow. We get the word mimic from imitate. This means someone who copies specific characteristics of another person. To imitate God is seeking to be just like Him.

When we talk about imitating God, it is not for us to get the big head. Only God is omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent. Only God is to be worshipped. He alone is King of Kings and Lord of Lord’s.

So what does it mean to imitate God? How can we be like God? What characteristics does he have that we should display. I’m glad you asked. God is faithful, trustworthy, longsuffering, gentle. He displays goodness, mercy, forgiveness and love. He is holy. These are just some of his characteristics that we should display.

The first reason why we must imitate God because we are his Children.

When you are a child of God you must learn how to imitate him.

Children naturally imitate those they see and are around. They imitate in action as well as character. We see little ones wearing their parents shoes or clothes. We see them wanting to eat what their parents are eating. We also see them behaving like their parents, picking up good and bad habits. Growing up I learned at a young age to imitate my father in a lot of things. My father loves to talk and when I was younger in school i found out that I loved to talk as well. Teachers would often tell my parents that I was a good student but I would often talk at times when I Should not have been talking.

There are also certain physical characteristics I have because of my father. I look like him because I have his DNA.

You might think it’s not possible to be like God, but when we accepted Christ, we became his children. (John 1:12 “But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.” We now have his DNA. As we grow, we should look and behave more like God.

A child watches his father walk and talk in order to imitate him. In the same way a child studies his father, we must study God. When we keep our eyes fixed on him, we will know how to respond like him in everything we do.

My question to you today is can others tell that you are a child of God. The text is simple it tells us to Imitate God in everything that you do.

My brothers and sisters we should be imitating God in Everything. In the way that we walk in the way that we talk, In the way that we live we should be Imitating God so that people will know we are his Children. 2 Peter 1:3-4 “By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.”

God gives us everything we need to be like him.

There should be some Resemblance when you are Gods Child.

Children of God have been called to be set apart and be a shining light in this dark world.

The second point i have for you is that not only are we imitating him because we are his children but we are Imitating him because he has called us to love like he loved us. Its right there in the text

Ephesians 5:2 NLT

Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.

Live a life full of love thats the issue with some of the saints today we don’t want to live a life full of love. Too many believers have hatred in their heart they have discord in their heart they have resentment in their heart they have jealously in their heart and do not want to love. But being an imitator of God means we must imitate His love. God Loves everybody. I know that he loves everybody because John 3:16 Tells me he does.

If God can love us through having flaws and character issues, simply we should be able to love others in the midst of what they are facing.

We can’t talk about them but we must love them. John 13:35 “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.””

Dr. King Said The only thing that Can drive out Hate is if we Love each other.

The bible puts it like this Jesus tell his disciples that we must learn to love our neighbor as yourself. and we should love our enemies.

So if we are going to imitate God we must learn to Love others.

Lastly and Im out of here the Bible tells us in the clause B of Ephesians 5:2

Ephesians 5:2 NLT

Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.

My last and Final point is that we are imitating God because of the Sacrifice he made on our behalf.

Brothers and sisters God Sacrificed his son to Die on our behalf. This shows me that We have to learn how to sacrifice things in our life to show our love for God.

The text also says that he sacrificed his life and this was a pleasing aroma to God

Are you sacrificing because you love the Lord or are you sacrificing grudgingly because the Lord knows and depending on how you are sacrificing the Lord can tell and sometimes Believers have an Aroma that stinks in the Nostrils of God. I don’t want my sacrifice to stink in the Nostrils of God.

Romans 12:1 “And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.”

Is there anybody here that Can say I am going to be loving and make be a willing sacrifice for the Lord to have a sweet smelling aroma in his nostrils from me.

As I HASTEN TO my close I just want to let you know to stay strong and imitate God, It may not always feel the Best and look the Best but I guarantee if you continue to Imitate Him you’ll get the best results.

I just need 5 people and ill make 6 who can wave their hand and say I will Imitate God. Even when Life is Lifing I will Imitate God

The old Church would simply Say i will trust in the Lord until I Die.