As we continue our study of the deeper things of God. I hope you find yourself being excited by the thought of digging deeper into God’s word. These are the things that should stir our hearts as mature Christians. It’s not that we don’t get excited over a salvation message, but I want you to think about it like this:
I don’t get excited about the alphabet these days. But when I was a child and immature in my understanding, I was very excited to learn the alphabet. You see, when I got older I wasn’t excited to have a lesson on the letters of the alphabet, because I already knew them. But here’s the thing to keep in mind. Since I knew the alphabet, it allowed me to read books, which was very exciting, because that opened up an entire world of knowledge.
In the same way, the salvation message is very exciting when you first accept Christ, but as you mature, you should be excited that salvation has opened up the way for you to understand the Bible and gain knowledge of the kingdom of God. The alphabet opened up books for you, but salvation opened up the Kingdom to you.
I’m not saying we should abandon the salvation message. It’s the key to unlock God’s word, but I’m saying that as we mature we have to move on past hearing that message every week. My job is to teach you...the church, how to mature, so you can go present the exciting good news of salvation to those in your life.
In this process of becoming mature disciples of Christ, we must be moving toward becoming more like Jesus. It’s what we call being conformed to the image of Christ. It’s the concept of having our daily life look more and more like Jesus as we mature in our faith.
Ephesians 5:1 “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.”
Romans 8:29 “29 For those whom he foreknew healso predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.”
What does it really look like to be conformed to the image of Christ? This is going to be the topic probably through the rest of the year. We will spend the next several weeks discovering why we should be even want to do this. What will our life look like when we are moving closer to what Jesus taught and how do we avoid moving the opposite direction?
Being conformed to the image of Christ will not magically make all of your problems go away. Jesus told us long ago that life would not always be easy.
John 16:33 “33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation.But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
The one thing we are guaranteed by Jesus, is that we will have trouble in this world. Living your best life for Jesus includes some problems. It will not be an endless stream of blessings. The world will hate you if you take a stand for Jesus and talk about biblical truth in the public forum. Satan will oppose you and try to cause you all manner of problems if you are truly being conformed to the image of Christ. And how will satan attack? He will attack by using people.
These relationship attacks are probably the biggest source of worry, stress and anxiety. Our relationships drive our emotions and that can cause problems when things go off track.
But Satan is not the only one who causes relational problems in our life. Who do you think is the biggest source of relational problems in your life? That’s right...it’s you.
Often you have caused the problem, because you are NOT being conformed to the image of Christ. You can cause yourself major problems by remaining conformed to the image of...you.
Ephesians 4:21-24 “21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”
When you refuse to put on the new self that looks like Jesus, in true righteousness and holiness, you are living according to the desires of your flesh. If we are going to be honest with ourselves, this is where the vast majority of our problems come from. We are warned about this in scripture.
Romans 13:14 “14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”
We like to blame the devil when things go wrong in our life, but I think we are giving him too much credit. All too often, we’ve brought a problem into our life because of a bad selfish decision, and now we find ourselves in a bind.
As Christians we will start asking for prayer...because the devil is attacking us. But if you see the devil as the source of all of your problems, you will never be able to solve them, because you have miss-identified the true source. Identifying the core issue of what caused your problem is the way to ensure you can solve it...and not recycle it again later. The first step is to look in the mirror. Do you see the problem looking back at you?
The hard truth is this, the Devil is not attacking you...you are doing his work for him. He’s pretty happy with you.
He’s probably sitting back saying, “hang on a minute, I didn’t have anything to do with that. That was all you.” When we choose to gratify the desires of our flesh, we have rejected being conformed to the image of Christ.
Romans 8:5-8 “5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of theSpirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's
law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”
Remember 2 weeks ago when we talked about forgiveness?
When we reject forgiveness, it plants a seed of bitterness and that grows into a tree of anger. The devil wasn’t involved in that situation at all, but now you are miserable and asking God for His peace because you feel like you are under attack. The only place that attack was coming from was your own flesh. The anger, bitterness and unforgivness leads to death. That is not a life that pleases God.
If you walk according to the flesh, you are being conformed to the image of you...not Christ. And it will cause you to have major life problems.
How we respond to those problems is what is important.
We can either recognize our flesh as the issue and look to our hope in Christ for forgiveness and restoration...or we can throw a pity party and be the guest of honor. I don’t know about you, but for me when relational problems cause stress, a self pity party feels good and is the path of least resistance. It makes the flesh feel good.
Consider this. If we choose the pity party option, what are we saying about ourselves? We are saying, “I don’t deserve this to be happening to me.” Even though we caused the problem.
And what would make us think that? Pride. I know it sounds harsh to tell someone that is going through a tough situation that has caused them to throw a pity party...it’s because of pride. But hear me out. If we are going to follow Jesus as our example, we must be willing to humble ourselves and accept that we don’t deserve a perfect life. As a matter of fact, what we deserve is death.
Romans 6:23 “23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
It’s a root of pride that says, I deserve better treatment than I’m getting. And where pride exists, there is another thing to expect.
Proverbs 16:18 “18 Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”
Do you see the cycle of destruction? When you choose to be conformed to your flesh, it brings about pride which in turn causes destruction of your life. What is it that prevented you from asking for forgiveness of the people on the list I asked you to make last Sunday? Pride. And if you allow pride to rule your life what can you expect next? Destruction.
Pride says, I didn’t do anything wrong, I don’t deserve to be treated this way, I don’t have to reconcile with them. I am in the right. I, I, I, me, me, me. That reminds me of someone. Who does that sound like? Oh, that’s right...Satan.
Isaiah 14:13-14 “13 You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high;I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’
The destruction of Lucifer, who once was an exalted angel, was because of pride. It caused him to become satan. So what tool do you think he is the most adapt at using against you? All he has to do is suggest that you don’t deserve this situation, and your flesh will take over and do the rest. Your destruction is imminent.
So what should we do when we find ourself in a prideful place in life? Maybe we can learn a little bit from a guy in the Old Testament. His name is King Nebuchadnezzar. Now, if you remember him, it’s probably not in a way that you would think he should be a role model of how we should react.
Nebuchadnezzar was the Babylonioan king who threw Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego into the fiery furnace because they would not bow down to a golden statue that he had made of... guess who...himself. This guy was full of pride. There is an ancient inscription of his that was found. It’s a prayer to his gods and it highlights his arrogance and pride.
“I, Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, I am the son of Nabopolassar, King of Babylon. I who erected the Ezida Temple, I who built Procession Street, The Street of the Forgiven Son, The Street of Nebu, And paged it with shimmering stones. Nebu, you the divine minister, Grant me immortality.”
Did you notice all of the “I” statements? It was this pride that drove him to have a statue built of himself and then decree that everyone should bow down and worship him.
Pride led to his destruction. He had a dream that troubled him and none of his advisors could interpret it. So they called Daniel, the same guy who was thrown into the lion’s den...and God gave him the interpretation of the dream. He said that the king would lose his mind and become like a wild animal loving outside and eating grass...for seven years. And that is exactly what happened.
But God was not done with the king. God made room for his repentance, as He does for all of us. Here is how this story ends. Nebuchadnezzar himself wrote the following passage...and God decided to include it in the Bible for us to read.
Daniel 4:34-37 “34 At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; 35 all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?” 36 At the same time my reason returned to me, and for the glory of my kingdom, my majesty and splendor returned to me. My counselors and my lords sought me, and I was established in my kingdom, and still more greatness was added to me. 37 Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are right and his ways are just; and those who walk in pride he is able to humble.”
His pride caused his destruction, but humility cause him to be restored. That is the pattern we see laid out in scripture.
Proverbs 18:12 “12 Before destruction a man's heart is haughty, but humility comes before honor.
James 4:6-7 “6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
The devil is the one who is tempting you to be prideful and reject asking forgiveness of your brother or sister. Having humility and rejecting pride is how we resist the devil. Recognizing your pride is step one. Repenting of your pride is step two.
2 Chronicles 7:14 “14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
Did you notice who is being told to be humble? God says “My people,” it’s us. We are told to be humble when things are going wrong. Humility is the first step in God hearing our prayer and healing our situation. Do you think our land is in need of healing? Are you willing to take the first step of being humble or are you only interested in being right and fighting with those who oppose what you want? Being conformed to the image of Christ looks like humility, not pride. What did the humility of Christ look like?
Philippians 2:5-8 “5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to begrasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of
a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
And now look at the result of that humility.
Philippians 2:9-11 “9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Allowing pride to rule your life will bring chaos and destruction. It is an example of being conformed to your own flesh and sinful nature. But walking in humility, the way Jesus did, is how we can be conformed to the image of Christ in our daily life.
George Muller was a pastor in England during the 1800’s.
During his ministry he opened multiple orphanages that cared for over 2,000 children. As a child, I remember reading about him and how meal time would come at an orphanage and there would be no food for the kids. Then after praying, the food would be brought by someone. His life has been an example to millions of believers.
Muller was asked once, “What is the secret of your service to God?” Muller’s response was this: “There was a day when I died, utterly died, died to George Muller, his opinions, preferences, tastes and will...died to the world, its approval and censure... died to the approval or blame even of my brethren and friends... and since then I have studied to show myself approved only to God.”
This is humility. This is what being conformed to the image of Christ looks like.
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