Imitating
With All Your Heart • Sermon • Submitted
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Good morning First United Methodist,
I am so happy that you are here this morning. I would like to invite you to turn in your Bibles to . As you are doing that I would to ask you how many of you have played the game, “Simon Said.”
OK, lets stand for a moment and play a quick game.
The rules are if I say Simon Says then you do it, but if I don’t say Simon says, You don’t do it. Ready, lets all stand.
Simon says put your hands in the air.
Simon says put your hands over your eyes.
Put your hand on your ears.
Simon didn’t says it.
OK you can sit down now.
I remember as a child, I loved the game of Simon says, it I could be Simon.
I know I like to have people follow me, model me, follow me. But I would don’t think I could ever say what Paul did hear. Paul did not say just watch me, but he said, Imitate me. Does not that sound a little over the top. As I read that, I found myself asking, why would Paul write that? It does not sound at all humble, and lowly like Paul tells us we should live our lives.
Let’s just dig in and see if we can understand why he wrote this. Look at
Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do.
Philippians 3:17
Here he says follow my example as well as made us a model. Really, that sounds bold, even arrogent
and conceded of Paul don’t you think. But maybe the translator got it wrong, let’s look at another translation.
Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.
Maybe it not just the translation, maybe the word has another meaning. Lets look at the word in the Greek, the language the New Testament was written in.
συμμιμητής , οῦ m one who joins in following the example of another
OK. Clearly Paul was telling them to follow his example, to model their lives after him, to imitate him, but we might forgive this arrogent, if he only said it this one time. But look at
Follow my example, just like I follow Christ’s.
Also look at
Practice these things: whatever you learned, received, heard, or saw in us. The God of peace will be with you.
and then He tells Timothy to do the same thing.
Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young. Instead, set an example for the believers through your speech, behavior, love, faith, and by being sexually pure.
In the same way, women who are servants in the church should be dignified and not gossip. They should be sober and faithful in everything they do.
It is clean that Paul set himself up as the example to follow. Maybe Paul understood that people learn better by imitation. The church was young and they needed practical guides for living. So Paul urged the Philippians to join together in imitating his conduct.
As Charles Spurgeon has said,
The true servant of Christ teaches by his life as much as by his words.
1 tim 4:17
Paul understood that he taught as much by his life as he did by his words.
That is why he could, with out embarrasment say, Follow me, make me your example. Yes,
Imitate Me
Imitate Me
Be imitators all together of me, brethren, and fix your eyes on those walking thus as you have us for a model;
This morning what are you teaching by your life? If, like Paul’s hearers, the people around had no Bible, and you were their only example, what would you teach them by how you live, what you say, what you leave unsaid, and undone? Could you say, with confidence, join together in imitating me? If not, what one behavior can you change this week?
Second, Paul said, Walk like me.
Brothers and sisters, become imitators of me and watch those who live this way—you can use us as models.
Walk Like Me
Walk Like Me
Walk Like Me
Walk Like Me
As I have told you many times and now say with deep sadness, many people live as enemies of the cross. Their lives end with destruction. Their god is their stomach, and they take pride in their disgrace because their thoughts focus on earthly things.
Life Application Bible Commentary, Philippians, Colossians & Philemon Forget the Past and Reach to the Goal / 3:12–4:1
Paul gets tough with mere earthlings here: people who live to appease their appetites, who believe so strongly in their greatness that they become slaves to pride.
What horrible people these must be, so concerned with earthly trivia that even at worship their minds wander to dinner arrangements and weekly appointments. So consumed with work that worship is inconvenient. So busy planning the next party that prayer gets pushed aside once again. Paul wants none of these people in the church.
Are we in danger of being enemies of the Cross? Is too much of our time spent on efforts that will not endure in eternity, seeking earthly pleasures, satisfying our physical desires? We must set our minds on knowing Christ, not on pursuing the things of this world.
Phil 3:18
Stand Like Me
Stand Like Me
Therefore, my brothers and sisters whom I love and miss, who are my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord.
Loved ones,
Here, too, they are admonished to remain steadfast, as a soldier stands firmly in battle, and to resist those influences, about which Paul had just warned them, that might undermine their stability.
St. Patrick’s Story.
Peter Thomas O’Brien, The Epistle to the Philippians: A Commentary on the Greek Text, New International Greek Testament Commentary, (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1991), 476–477.
Prayer
Dear Jesus, We confess that we are not ready to ask our friends and family to follow up, to use us as examples, to imitate us. We know that our behavior, our actions, or our inaction is not something we want repeated in the lives of others. For these sins we are sorry, and ask your forgiveness. Please, as you promised in your word, If we confess our sins, you will forgive us. So forgive us we pray. Help us to walk like Paul, who walked like Jesus. Help us to stand firm, and hold our ground during this lenten season.
Amen.