Become Like Jesus

INTRO

Welcome to Wednesday’s, I’m so glad you’re here! If we haven’t met yet my name is [Name Slate] and I’m the Student Pastor here! I love hanging with y’all every week this is such a joy for me to get to be here with you!

Series Recap – What is a Christian?

These past 5 weeks we’ve been asking the question, What does it mean to be a Christian? At the beginning we learned a lot about what do followers of Jesus believe, what do they not believe but for last week and this week the focus is on what do we DO as followers of Jesus. The spoiler alert is that last week we learned that being with Jesus is at the core of what a Christian is. It’s the first step we take and it’s the step we keep coming back to. Tonight we’ll continue that conversation.

Remember last week we talked about aura or presence? Like I think we all have people in our life that when we’re in their presence, we start to change our attitude and the way we act. Have you ever been around someone who inspires you?

[SP NOTE: Story – a person in your life whose presence changes your attitude and inspires you, (aura is a term they might be more familiar with for the presence that a person gives off.]

I have a friend whose presence, or aura, inspires me. His name is Reagan, him and I have been friends for years and there’s just something about him that anytime we hang out he inspires me! One time we were grabbing coffee and anytime bros are catching up in college it’s to talk about girls hahaha. And we had a moment in the conversation that I’ll never forget, Reagan starts talking about how much he cares about those who don’t know Jesus and I was reminded how much that really matters and the fact that I just wanted to talk about the latest girl I had a crush on convicted and inspired me that I want to focus on more than just what’s right in front of me or my own stuff and remember my purpose on this Earth.

There was just something about his presence that the more time I spent with him it changed me as a person. I think many of you have someone like that in your life.

Last week we focused on how Jesus’ presence was everything, that being with Him is the ultimate goal. But like my friend Reagan, when we’re in Jesus’ presence we start to change.

For us to know that after we have been with Jesus the purpose you should find, the destination at the end of the journey, is that you would become like Jesus. We are being spiritual formed to be like Jesus.

Spiritual formation isn’t just a Christian thing, it’s a human thing. We’re all being formed. Just like we all have a source, we all are being formed. The question isn’t, are you being formed? It’s who or what are you being formed into?

Everyone is a product of spiritual formation, your parents, your small group leader, me. But also so is Justin Beiber, Michelle Obama, Mr. Beast, LeBron James. Everyone’s spirit has been formed over a long period of time through the combination of family patterns, childhood wounds, education, habits, decisions, relationships, environments. They’re all becoming someone and you’re becoming someone.

The question is: “Who am I becoming?”

On top of that… what is my part in my own spiritual formation? We can easily get lost on the journey that we lose sight that being with Jesus is the beginning of this and get lost in the doing of things for Jesus that we think we play a part in our salvation. Our part in spiritual formation isn’t to save ourselves but to surrender.

And maybe you’re new to following Jesus, you’ve just surrendered your life to Jesus. And maybe you’re asking yourself the question what do I do now?

TRUTH

Jesus even tells us this, let’s read it in Matthew 11:28-30 :

Matthew 11:28–30 MSG

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

So Jesus makes the process really clear for us: “Be with Jesus -> Become Like Jesus”

He says if you’re searching for more, if you’re burned out, or tired, you need more rest in your life… come to me. Be with Me.

Then he says a profound thing, “I’ll show you how”… Jesus wants to show us how to live life. He’s given us directions and clarity on what to do… but sometimes I look around and notice that there might be some Christians who believe in Jesus but they don’t look like, sound like, or live like Jesus.

My hope for you is that if you’re coming here every week is that you would learn what Jesus has to teach us on how to live a life like Him. Jesus wants to teach us how and has given us everything we need to become like Him.

At the end of that scripture Jesus even says a bold statement, He says “Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

If you’re anything like me, you would love to know how to live freely and lightly. But it honestly sounds like an impossible task. I carry so much anxiety, fear and insecurity that I would love to learn how Jesus does it but it doesn’t seem possible. It’s honestly like running a marathon. Let me offer an analogy: Let’s say you’re out of shape, overweight and asthmatic, but you decide you want to run a marathon. How do you do it? Do you buy a pair of HOKA’s, walk outside and just try very hard to run 26.2 miles? Of course not, it’s not going to work. Why? Because you’re not currently the kind of person that it’s possible to run 26.2 miles.

So how do you do it?

But just because it’s impossible right now doesn’t make it impossible for everyone. There are people who can get up and run 26.2 miles. The difference between them and the average person is training. You can train to become the kind of person that running 26.2 miles is possible for.

Similarly, we can train to become like Jesus. It’s a long and slow process but it is possible.

So, how? How do we train to become like Jesus? As the great theologian Allen Iverson once said, we’re talking about practice.

Sermon Illustration: Like running, there are tools and practices to follow in order to become a runner that can run farther and faster.

This time last year I was getting ready to go to Guatemala for our mission trip that we take with some of our high schoolers at Braselton. This was going to be the second time I led this trip and if there’s one thing I remembered from the first year I led it, it was that we would hike up a volcano at the end of the week. Yeah it’s as awesome as it sounds. Except I had one problem… I struggled the whole way up the last time, I was SO out of shape, I almost passed out. I realized if I was going to go up that volcano again, I would have to train in order to do it without any struggle.

So, in February my wife and I decided we would start running together, we did Couch to 5K. It was a SLOW process. It took a lot of practice. The first week was as simple as run for about a minute at a time then walk for a minute and a half. Alternate doing that for 20 minutes. We literally worked our way up to being able to run for 30 minutes straight, which is about how much you need to do in order to run a 5K.

These are my HOKA’s, they’re pretty worn out because since February I’ve started running consistently. Your tools that you use in your practices will get worn out when you use them consistently, they’re real life evidence that you’re actually practicing. If you’re reading your Bible daily it will get worn out, if you’re writing in a journal daily it will get worn out. There will be evidence that you’ve practiced.

So when it came time for us to go up the volcano again this past June I was a little nervous honestly, but as we started going I noticed that we would pass areas that the year before were hard for me that weren’t hard anymore. It was still challenging, but it was easier and lighter than the year before.

There are practices as followers of Jesus that if we are consistent with them, we become more like Jesus each day.

It can be easy to identify practices for other areas of life. If I want to become a runner, I run as a practice. If I want to become a basketball player, I should practice getting some shots up. If I want to become a guitar player, I should practice guitar.

For followers of Jesus what are the practices that help us become more like Jesus?

I believe a spiritual practice we should begin with is Sabbath. We’ve talked a good bit about Sabbath from time to time, but let me tell you about it again. Sabbath is an entire day of your week set aside to not only stop and rest but also delight in and worship the God who made you to be with himself. Students you need rest especially as we’re back in the swing of things with school, it’s so important that you would take a day and say, school is not my God, my sport is not my God. I have one God and today I’m going to rest. I like to think of Sabbath as a day to not be productive, because I’m surrendering to God and trusting Him to be producing things for me that I would normally.

SP NOTE (This is a great chance for you to share about the spiritual practices that you have in your life. Where has God been at work in your life lately? I’ll share some principles but feel as much freedom as possible to make it your own. Share a story about your own practices.)

Application

Some things I do is I set aside time in the mornings to be with God, I like to practice solitude where I’m alone with God. And I also practice generosity, my wife and I have a part of our budget setup to pay for other people’s meal when we go out. We don’t do it every time, but about once or twice a month we pre-decide to be generous.

But the one I want to encourage you with today is service.

Because Jesus said it this way:

Mark 10:45 NIV

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

If I’m honest, service is not part of my default. I have to practice it in order for it to be a more common part of my life. I serve here on Wednesday’s because I believe God has asked me to first and foremost, but then I start to notice it’s not just about me it’s about you! I love getting to serve you!

I think if you serve someone you’ll start to feel the same way, that it’s not about you but the people you serve. Some ways you can do this are by volunteering at a local non-profit, connecting with that student that’s an outcast at your school, or by doing your chores that your parents have asked you to do.

There’s so many ways to serve, but it’s all over Jesus’ life to serve. That’s one of the last things Jesus does. Toward the end of his life on Earth, Jesus takes the place as a servant and insists on washing his followers feet. This was a much more common practice than we would do today, but I’d imagine it was not a glamorous thing to do. But he was their leader and took the place of a servant. And he said this after he washed their feet:

John 13:15 NIV

I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.

You will be blessed if you do the practices that Jesus invites us to do. Let’s pray.