Who is Your Tupos?

Who is Worthy of Imitation?

Begin the time by welcoming students back and starting with an activity to wake them up.

Now last night, we kicked off our time by laying the foundation for this weekend. Setting the tone for what we want to seek after and accomplish.

now can anyone tell me what it was that we talked about last night? What was our Big Picture Idea last night?

Give students time to answer. add a pause. then continue

So, now that we have this foundation set - we need to start building the structure, building the framework of which we Tupos in. that’s why this morning we are going to look at Who is Your Tupos for our Big Picture Idea. But before we look at who is a Tupos in your life, I want us to look at the things that make someone worthy of imitation, or in a catchy term, the things that make someone a tupos. To do that, we’re going to look at a couple examples in scripture and in real life.

To do this, I want you guys to open your bibles to 2 places. Philippians 3:17 & 2 Thessalonians 3:1-16. These are the passages you guys can write down in your booklets on session 2.

- So here’s the thing that we’re going to do - here’s how were going to answer our Big Picture Idea of Who is Your Tupos and Who is Worthy of Imitation.

We are going to look at a place in John were Jesus gives the disciples a Tupos Call to Action, just like we talked about last night.

Then we are going to look at the qualities that 2 Thessalonians 3:1-16 say are worthy of Imitation

Lastly, we are going to talk about how all these things apply in your life and how to find a tupos in your life and how to be a tupos to someone else

So - lets all take a big deep breath, exhale, and lets getting ready to dive in.

Pray before diving in

The first example I want us to look is the example of Jesus.

In very, very simple terms Jesus is the one we want to ultimately be imitating.

Because when we look at it, and we go back to the end goal that we talked about last night in Philippians 3:12-17, our end goal should be the glory of Christ and there’s no better way to do that than to set our sights on Him and follow in his likeness.

Now we will never be perfect like Christ was while we are on this side of heaven, but we can strive to imitate Him in ALL things through ALL circumstances.

Thankfully for us - Jesus gave and example to follow after, to be a tupos in, in John 13:13-15 which say this of the words of Jesus,

John 13:13–15 NASB95

13 “You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. 14 “If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 “For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you.

What Jesus is calling his disciples to do here is to follow in his example of serving one another.

discipling one another

loving one another

walking through the mud of life with one another

caring for one another

praying for one another

calling out sin in one another

forgiving one another

and so many more things that we could be here all day talking about.

this was Jesus’ call to his disciples - to literally humble and lower themselves to serve one another.

Jesus was calling his disciples to be a Tupos of Him.

Jesus gave the perfect:

an example to be imitated

and called his disciples to be:

of men worthy of imitation

Pause

But what are the exact things that we see in people today that make them worthy men of imitation?

what are the things that we need to look for in followers of Christ that clearly show they are a tupos?

Because what’s a Tupos?

an example to be imitated

of men worthy of imitation

Well, thats where we are going to look at 2 Thessalonians 3:1-9 and see some of those examples that are of a Tupos.

So flip on over to 2 Thessalonians 3:1-9 and lets read it.

2 Thessalonians 3:1–9 NASB95

1 Finally, brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord will spread rapidly and be glorified, just as it did also with you; 2 and that we will be rescued from perverse and evil men; for not all have faith. 3 But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one. 4 We have confidence in the Lord concerning you, that you are doing and will continue to do what we command. 5 May the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the steadfastness of Christ. 6 Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from every brother who leads an unruly life and not according to the tradition which you received from us. 7 For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example, because we did not act in an undisciplined manner among you, 8 nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it, but with labor and hardship we kept working night and day so that we would not be a burden to any of you; 9 not because we do not have the right to this, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you, so that you would follow our example.

What I want us to do is to look at verse 9 then work backwards because when you study the greek in verse 9, you see that the word Model translated into the greek is…

**Allow students to guess and answer**

Correct! The Greek word is Tupos - and Tupos means to…

**Allow students to answer**

an example to be imitated

of men worthy of imitation

and what we see at the end of verse 9 is Paul wrapping up this paragraph of exhortation of what he was wanting to be a tupos of to the church in thesolinica.

And those things are this:

Verse 1, a Tupos is someone who Prays for the Gospel to be spread.

This means that they have a heart for evangelism and for seeing the Gospel spread throughout the world

It means that they know that prayer of this matter is the most important thing so they have centered their lives for it

A Tupos is someone who prays for the spreading of the Gospel

Someone who has an example that is worthy of being imitated, or in the translation in this passage, modeled after, in how they pray for the spreading of the Gospel

Pause

Verse 3, A Tupos is someone who has faith in a faithful God for protection and strength from the evil one

this means they have a well-rounded understanding of the war that is taking place between our spirit and our flesh

they not just know about the enemy that is trying to come and steal, kill, and destroy, but they acknowledge him and put their faith in the faithful and sovereign God

A Tupos is someone who lives life not in fear of the enemy, but through faith of our faithful God.

they’re someone who has an example that is worthy of being modeled after in how to resist the enemy and trust in the faithfulness of God.

Pause

Verse 4, A Tupos is someone who has confidence in God about you & discipling you.

It means that not only do they have a heart for the gospel being spread, but they have a heart for walking through the next step of discipleship with those that they either lead to Christ, or that God places in their lives to disciple.

it is a confidence that they have no doubt or question about and they have a peace that surpasses understanding.

Pause

A Tupos is someone who has a Heart for discipling and is confident in those they are discipling

it’s someone who has an example of that is worthy of being modeled after in how they disciple their brothers and sisters in Christ.

Pause

Girl’s these are just a few of the things that make someone worthy of imitation or modeling after. When asking yourself the question, Who is Your Tupos, these are the things, as Paul says in Philippians 3:17 that we are to observe to affirm that they are walking in the ways that are of Christ.

and this acutally leads us to our second point of,

Who is Your Tupos?

Because, here’s the thing; Everyone has a Tupos.

Whether you want to admit it or not, there is someone other than you that you are always looking to imitate or model after.

so that’s why I ask the Question, Who is your Tupos?

Is your Tupos someone who is a follower of Christ imitating heavenly things,

Or is your Tupos someone who is imitating the worldly things?

Because here is a hard truth that we have to swallow.

I have to make the decision to believe for myself what is worthy of imitation and what is not.

Likewise, you have to make the decision to believe for yourself what is worthy of your imitation and what is not.

you cannot make that decision for me and i cannot make that decision for you

Now you might be asking me, “if I have to make this decision for myself, why are you standing up there talking about who is worthy of being a tupos?”

That’s a great question. Here’s my answer:

the reason why is because we don’t just randomly decide what we believe is true and not. We, as we get older and smarter, begin to realize that God created us in a way where we are able to think for ourselves and make our own decisions. Both inside of God’s will and outside of God’s will. But here’s the catch. There is only one ultimate, absolute truth about life and that absolute truth is the living and active word of God and that is what I believe. But i can’t make you believe that, you have to believe that for yourself.

To really, truly and deeply dive into everything that God has for you this weekend, you have to believe that Christ is the one that God sent to be his one and only son to die on the cross for our sins and rose again 3 days later to redeem us from our sin, restore us to a holy relationship with God, and give us the gift of the Holy Spirit AND the body of Christ to be imitator of Him so that we could walk in accordance to His will.

TO really dig in this weekend, we have to align our hearts and will with the heart and will of God and what He says is worthy of imitation.

heres the thing, I believe this, and believe that God’s word is true and directly from him, i believe that the principles we are looking at this weekend of who we should imitate and model our lives that we have seen in scripture are the ones that we need to follow.

I don’t just believe this because I’m taking God at his word, but because i’ve seen this to be true in my life and i’ve seen his faithfulness in this. I’ve seen His faithfulness in the Tupos’s he’s placed in my life. But i’ve also seen the other side of the road where I’ve thought that people i looked up too who were people who followed the ways of this world were “tupos’s” to me, i thought they were worthy of my imitation because i was deceived by the evil one. But you cant just take my word for it, you have to dig into scripture yourself and see that this is true for yourself.

Guy’s not only have I seen both sides of a heavenly Tupos and a Worldly Tupos in ministry, but i’ve also experienced it first hand myself when I was your age (which was not too long ago) and I wish i had someone in my life sit me down and explain the importance of who influences my life to me.

I’m not saying that if i would of had someone who sat me down and walked me through what we’re walking you guys through this weekend that i would have been perfect, not made any mistakes, and avoided all the hurt i inflicted on myself and others by the choices I made. No, i still would have made mistakes because I am a sinful Human begin who makes mistakes - But i would have had a better understanding of my worth and value as a person but also had a deeper understanding of the importance of who I allow to influence my life and the decisions i make.

Because as the saying goes - if you want to see who you are going to be 5 years from now. Look at who your friends are.

But let’s make that saying a bit more relevant to you guys in a day and age where we have this thing called social media at our finger tips where there are millions of things buying for our attention and wanting us to see them as worthy of imitation.

If you want to see the image you want to portray 5 years from now - take a close look at your following list. Because that is most likely who you will want to become like because that is what you are CONSTANTLY looking at.

Pause

With all of that, I want to ask you a question that I don’t want you to answer now, but I do want you to honestly answer in your small groups and that is this:

Identify people in your life who you think are worthy of your imitation

Ask yourself if they have the characteristics and qualities of what we’ve looked at in scripture, or do they have the qualities of someone who walks in the ways of this world.

Now, we’ve spent a heavy amount of time digging into what scripture lays out is someone who is worthy of imitation because they are imitators of Christ. But what is are the characteristics of someone who is an imitator of this world?

Well, to list a few, those things are this,

People of this world indulge theirselves in things like:

Pornography

Drinking

lying about the truth

full of anger

gossips

rude and cruel about people they call their “friends”

Have sex with their boyfriend/girlfriend

Partake in illegal drugs

disobey those who are in authority of them

and this is just to name a few.

these are the characteristics and qualities of people who live a worldly lifestyle.

They have the imprints of this fallen and broken world instead of the imprints of Christ.

Pause

Now remind yourself of the 2 list of qualities of a follower of Christ Tupos that we’ve looked at in Philippians 4 and 2 Thessalonians 3.

What were those things?

someone who prays for the spreading of the Gospel

someone who lives life not in fear of the enemy, but through faith of our faithful God.

someone who has a Heart for discipling and is confident in those they are discipling

someone who rejoiced in the Lord

someone who lets their gentle spirit be known

someone who is anxious for nothing

someone who is dwelling on the heavenly things

someone who acknowledges the realities of life with Christ

And what this all really comes down to is this

Ie you really want to dig in and find your tupos and be a tupos to someone, you first have to start by

acknowledging the realities of your life

walk through those realities of life with Christ

Walk through those same realities of life with Tupos’s who also walk with Christ as they acknowledge the realities of Christ.

Because here’s the thing, whether you know it or not, people are always watching you.

For example, the staff impersonation challenge you guys just did, while i’m so excited to see what videos yall came up with, i’m also a bit scared to see just how closely you guys have been watching us and we don’t even realize it.

and guess what, one day you will be in a place similar to the place i’m in now where you will have the next generation of christ followers looking up to you and looking to you to be their Tupos and they walk through the realities of their own life.

All of this leads us to our last point for this session and that is this:

Who Are You Being a Tupos To?

Each and everyone of us will leave some sort of an imprint.

it is up to us to decide what type of imprint we leave.

and when you really look at it, at the end of the day we only have the choice of leaving 2 imprints and those imprints are this

an imprint of this world

an imprint of Christ

Pause

To share a quick story, as I was finalizing my messages for this weekend, I was texting a friend about how they could be praying for while i was with you guys this weekend. While i shared some prayer requests with her, I shared another one with her a few moments later as I was actually looking over my notes for this message.

Now while i somewhat sarcastically said i needed prayers for a certain thing that i was going to have to mention because it grosses me out, i made the comment of sorts that why couldn’t scripture used a different illustration than this one. And after i sent that text, i knew that my chances of reciving a theologically correct response as to why that was the particular illustration used was more likley than a comment playing off of my somewhat sarcastice prayer request.

and sure enough, my guess was right, she told me why and explained it too me. Now while i was thankful she took that moment to point me back to the heart of Jesus when i wasn’t maybe being as serious about it as i should have been, that’s the type of friend she is and she is always going to take the opportunity to point you back to the heart of Jesus. That is one of the many imprints of her life. And i’m thankful that she in one of my Tupos’s and I can imitate that.

Now, I share all of that with you because I want to end our time before we head to worship and small groups with asking you guys a question that you’ll answer later,

is your stamp you are leaving on life one that is worthy of being imitated

why or why not?

Close out in prayer and transition into worship