Like Father, Like Children

Me

Every child is an unintentional impressionist, imitating their parents without even trying

Let me read that again,

Every child is an unintentional impressionist, imitating their parents without even trying

One of the things that I love now, is the Cubs

Baseball is my favorite sport, and it’s my favorite sport to play too

I still really love playing catch, or going to batting cages to see if I can keep up with the 70mph cages

But what made me fall in love with baseball?

My dad, it was sitting and listening to the cubs on 720 WGN with Pat Hughes and Ron Santo with dad,

While mom would shop in some horrifying store like TJ Maxx or Marshalls

It was watching my Dad play slow-pitch softball growing up

It was the memories of going over early before baseball games and dad helping me warm up,

And I remember one time in particular, him teaching me how to correctly track down fly balls in the outfield

That became my calling card, I always felt that I was exceptional at OF defense, I instinctively knew based on how that bat hit the ball, where it was going to land

So I was not the fastest kid, but made up for lack of speed with skill, and so rarely would you get extra bases off me, even if I was not able to catch the ball

In my mind, that was all Dad, that was the family resemblance in many ways, Newberry was good at baseball

And just another funny thing, I bat lefty, but I’m right handed, and that is because, when I watched Dad, and he taught me how to bat, it’s opposite in your view

So I went up there and mimicked Dad, and ended up a lefty, but I thought I was simply doing what dad did

There are things that I am not happy to pick up, but certainly bear a family resemblance in

My dad can be a stubborn bulldog, set in his ways,

I can give into that black and white thinking myself

It’s not bad in some areas, but when you are a pastor, black and white thinking manifests as viewing principals more important than people

I’ve often been annoyed or frustrated with people because they get in the way of what I think is important

That is something I’ve had to work on, to not default to that base either/or, black/white thinking, but realize it can be ‘both/and’

And if I zoom out, the Newberry name down in TN where my Dad comes from, is pretty much wiped out from numerous choices

Some from black lung, lung cancer from smoking, overdose, alcoholism, etc

That is not a family resemblance I wish to emulate!

Such an odd thing isn’t it, our family resemblance brings some of the greatest things, and sometimes some of the darkest

It’s not just a me thing, at least hopefully, I think you might understand this as well

We

We all have traits from our family that we love and hate

I’m sure there are just as many that we want to lose

Here is the question for us today, what does the Bible have to say about it?

To put it plainly, If we are a part of God’s family, if we are God’s children, what resemblance should we show?

Perhaps even more difficult, what about a lack of resemblance?

When at home with your spouse, your parents, your kids,

How well do you forgive? How sarcastic and annoyed do you get when asked to serve?

When at school or the workplace, do you have integrity when no one is around?

Do you cut corners? Do you do your full job, or just phone it in?

When interacting online, are we as gracious and compassionate? Or are we snarky?

Do we speak as we would across the table at starbucks with the person, or is there disdain, and maybe even hatred for this person for what they post online

In private, are there things we won’t let God touch, or things we try to keep secret?

Of course there are secret sins that hide in the dark

But what about dictating that God can’t do certain things with you, go certain places, call you change jobs, or even give up comfort, status and dreams

If God asked you to, would you move to the bad side of town, to the schools that don’t rank well?

All just so that you could have the chance to show these neighbors your care?

The struggle we all struggle with is that we can often see the disconnect of what we should do, and what we choose to do

So when we know we are not resembling our family name of Christian very well

We should ask, what is the expectation, and what does God want us to pursue?

The good news here is that we are not the first, nor the last Christians to struggle with family resemblance

John speaks straight to it for us, how to live differently as God’s children, marked by righteousness and love

God

Stay with the Truth (v.24-27)

The thing we have to do is to remain in the truth

In the 1300’s the church debated questions that later got caricatured into the phrase, “How many angels can dance on the head of a pin.”

It all stemmed from wondering about the nature of angels, can they take up the same space as each other, are they limited like humans, etc

No one actually asked that question of angels on pins, but it became a bit of a jab of the church wasting time on small things while forgetting the important things!

It has lasted so long that we still use it today as a diss for something unimportant

Which is why John is not giving us a new command

What we are to do is remain in Jesus — stay focused on the beauty and power of the gospel instead of being sidetracked by distractions

Jesus promised us eternal life, and our enemies want us to forget the main thing

If you and I don’t keep our eyes focused on Jesus, it becomes easier to lose focus of the big things

When we remain in Jesus and seek after him, it draws us closer to him

If we want to be people who are faithful, it means that we need to stay faithful to the truth, regardless of its popularity

That is why, if we are to bear the resemblance of God’s children, we will remain with Jesus and grow in him.

If we want to bear the family resemblance, we must remain in Jesus so that our lives reflect his — full of righteousness and love.

Live with Confidence (v.28-3:3)

There is a part of faith that we participate in as well, we don’t simply sit back and do nothing

If we keep abiding in Jesus, we will be found to have confidence, that is we won’t be ashamed when he appears

We want to be righteous, meaning, to do right,

Which is what John says in v. 29, everyone who does what is right shows that they are God’s children

One of the many reasons the love of Jesus is so spectacular is that it makes us into children of God

We were children of wrath, destined to have God’s judgment come against us for the sin we have done

Yet with the love of Christ, when we respond and repent, we are adopted as children of God!

We have changed families, and the world doesn’t even know who we are anymore, because the world doesn’t know Jesus

If you remember Pete Vienne who has spoken a few times here at church, he shared his testimony at our revival meeting one year

He used to drink and party with his friends, but when he had that experience with Jesus, drinking was no longer a desire he had

So he didn’t change his personality, but his friends started to drop him like a rock, all because he wouldn’t party and get drunk with them anymore

That’s what John is describing here, it is the change of family name and status

That when your old friends see you, they don’t even recognize you

It is not based on anything that we have done, it is God who made the first move in sending Jesus, we simply responded to the grace

That means that we live with confidence that we are not going to be disowned as God’s kids

Our relationship is not shallow, we don’t have to keep looking over our shoulder wondering if this is the last strike, if God is going to kick us to the curb

Since God wants us to be his kids, we are,

We are blessed by, and anchored by His love

It transforms us enough by his love that we are able to follow him, and we desire to transform others through the power of relationship

I hope you’ve experienced this type of unshakable love in your life, particularly thru mentors, parents, pastors, etc

I hope you have people that when you get caught in your darkness, or in the times that you are not really in it for God,

For me it was the love of these people that sustained, challenged me, and reminded me of being part of God’s family

From things like being caught in pornography, or cheating in Honors English, to simply wasting to much time on video games

It reminds us that since we are God’s children, we live differently, with lives full of righteousness and love

Reject Sin’s Rule (v. 3:4-10)

The final way we can strive to help show the family resemblance, is to stop working for the enemy

When you and I sin we are not doing something that is simply ‘not good’, but something that is innately ‘not God’

We are choosing in that moment to build the kingdom of Satan rather than God’s kingdom

Sometimes we don’t fully understand the incredible change that comes with being part of God’s family, and we try to go back

The Israelites did this, God delivered them by the 10 plagues, through the Red Sea, and then they woke up the next morning to complain how they missed the food of Egypt, where they were slaves!

CS Lewis said this in his book The Weight of Glory

It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak.

We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us,

Like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

Just because we have been adopted into God’s family, and are his children, does not mean that all our ties that have caused trouble are gone

We will walk ourselves back into the sins we loved, because of pleasure and stress relief

We lock ourselves in the cages of our sin, and the door is unlocked, we just don’t realize it

We are simultaneously now children of the Great King of the Universe, but also children who grew up in the slums,

It takes time for our bad habits and beliefs to be broken by God’s love

The difference here is how we act, the child of God who strives to honor Jesus, but stumbles here or there is not the problem

The one who is told they are God’s child, but then uses the estate and resources they have to help fund the mafia family they left, that person is the problem

That person is the type of sinner that John is speaking of here!

Our Savior, King, and brother Jesus came to save us, redeem us, and to destroy the Devil’s works in us, and in the world

Since we are part of a new family, we have a new seed that dwells within us, and that seed will bear fruit to show if it is true or not

Jesus uses multiple parables of the gospel as a seed in our hearts

Mark 4:14–20 CSB

14 The sower sows the word. 15 Some are like the word sown on the path. When they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word sown in them. 16 And others are like seed sown on rocky ground. When they hear the word, immediately they receive it with joy. 17 But they have no root; they are short-lived. When distress or persecution comes because of the word, they immediately fall away. 18 Others are like seed sown among thorns; these are the ones who hear the word, 19 but the worries of this age, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. 20 And those like seed sown on good ground hear the word, welcome it, and produce fruit thirty, sixty, and a hundred times what was sown.”

The question we often ask, is something like, ‘well which of these examples is the point of salvation?’

That is an interesting discussion, but I think the point here, if we want the family resemblance of Jesus, is:

How do I become like the good ground with a rich harvest?

We cannot behave ourselves into the family of God, but once we are a part of it, our actions should show it!

Since if you are God’s child, you’ll live differently with righteousness and love

So while we can’t earn God’s love, or standing, we can see if we are faking it, saying the right things, sounding spiritual in our prayers, but our hearts are far from God

Ultimately, we will bear fruit if we claim to be of Christ, but the question is, will it be 100 fold, or wilt and die just as quickly as it sprouted up

If we are God’s children, we are going to show the family resemblance of righteousness and love

Are you doing that?

You

So this week, I hope we want to be people that are more like Jesus each and every day

So we have two questions to ask ourselves

What is the righteous thing to do (that is the right thing, the integrity based thing) ?

What is the loving thing to do?

Then do both!

So if you have a fight at home with your spouse

Maybe the right thing is to be not try prove your point, but humble your ego

The loving thing is to let your spouse speak first, and express their frustrations, then do both

You have a big project at work, and you are struggling to meet the deadlines

Do you cut corners to get it done, and turn it in half-heartedly done?

Or do you go to your boss, because you care about your coworkers and those impacted by your project and admit mismanagement of your time, and so the project is not where it needs to be?

You have an acquaintance being bullied at school, you don’t know them super well, but you’ve gone to school with them since young

Do you go and reach out to them, sit down and eat lunch with them, even if you might get ridiculed for it by others later? Even if it cost you popularity points?

Do you show love to that person that God made in his image, but a bunch of immature high schoolers think they can be the arbiters of coolness, say isn’t worthy of attention?

You know, if you don’t know Jesus, you should try these things as best you can anyways, and see what type of life that brings you to

But I would love to have you join us as a brother or sister today, one who fully joins the faith, and worships Jesus as our Savior and King!

If you want that, you simply have to ask Jesus to come and forgive you of your sins, that is your selfishness, your shortcomings, the things you are not very proud of

Then he will forgive you and he adopts you as his child!

Just say a prayer with me really quick if you would like to have that reality in your life

Father, I know I’ve sinned and gone my own way. But today I believe Jesus died for my sins and rose again to give me life.

I ask You to forgive me, make me clean, and bring me into Your family. From this day on, I want to follow You as Your child, living with righteousness and with love. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

This is where that idea hits the road, that being God’s children, we should live differently, driven by righteous living, and great love

We

So take a moment with me to consider what it might look like if we did this type of living

What if our church was a church known for doing upright living, and downright loving

What if you went to your school cafeteria and sought the outcast, and the neglected

You never know the pain and deep valleys that isolation brings to others, nor the incredible life giving nature love and kindness can bring to that barren land

What would happen to your marriage if you led with wanting to the right thing by God, and your spouse, and then wanting to love your spouse with the love of Christ?

Would your ego take a hit, would you be gentler with your voice, would you be more gracious with your expectations?

What would change in your workplace if you led with righteous living and love for your coworkers, and managers, and yes even the board of your company?

How would it change the culture of your team and campus, if people were focused on treating people as people, and not simply tools to get a project done and to help you get a paycheck?

How would it change how your coworkers talked and spoke to each other if you always sought to be a person of integrity,

Even owning up when you messed up,

But you were also the person that was always giving grace when it was least deserved, but most needed?

Here’s the thing, we have the ability to bear the family resemblance of Jesus out into the world, we have the expectation, that calling, and we have the ability

So this week, let us be people that are full of Christ, proudly showing off our reality, of people that have been saved from ourselves, and adopted into the family of God

So that we are people who have lives that are full of righteousness and love

Not because those we come across deserve it, or ask for it, but because we didn’t deserve it, and we received it!

Benediction

May you go this week as children of God, loved and chosen by the Father.

Abiding in Christ, staying rooted in His truth, and walking within the confidence of His love for you.

And may the Spirit of God empower you to live differently with righteousness and with love, so that the family resemblance of our Father is seen in you, and thru your actions

May the peace of God guard your hearts and minds as you seek to follow him with your whole heart, mind, soul, and strength.

Amen.