“Becoming Like Christ”

“Because Being Like Me Just Aint Gonna Cut It”

“Who am I in Christ?”

 Pastor Matt.  November 27, 2005

Romans 6

¹What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? ²By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?

-         As Christians, we are to run from sin and run towards Him

-         Once again, if you truly understand what Jesus did for you are not going to choose to sin

-         It does not make sense to ask forgiveness and then continue to sin

o       You don’t get married and find a girlfriend on your honeymoon night

o       You don’t spend all year training your body for the race/game just to get drunk/trashed the night before

Why does this not make sense?

³Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

-         When we put our faith in Jesus, our old self dies

-         The old, sinful, messed up person we used to be, full of sin is buried

 Continuing with that idea:

⁵If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. ⁶For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with,^[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin— ⁷because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

-         belief in Jesus means the sin that controlled us no longer has the strength to control us anymore

o       When we are lost, sin often shapes who we are

-         We have within us the strength to overcome sin

o       With a belief in Jesus we can move out of the sin and become the person God wants us to be

 Today we are going to focus on what we have we become already.

 ⁸Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. ⁹For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. ¹⁰The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.   ¹¹In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

-         We have a new life in Jesus

-         Belief in Him automatically means some new things about us, about who we are

 Let’s look at some of us as we really are.  Let us look at that new life we have in Jesus:

Maybe you have never seen yourself this way before…

1.  I Belong

We become His child

-         John 1:12.  ¹²Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God

o       God does not hate you, He sees you as one of His kids

-         Ephesians 1:4-6.   ⁴For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love ⁵he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— ⁶to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.

o       Before the world was created, God loved you

o       He loved you and when you put your faith in Him, He adopted you (gave you full rights as His child)

We become His friend

-         John 15:15.  ¹⁵I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.

We become part of His Church

-         1 Corinthians 12:12-27.  ¹²The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. ¹³For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 

o       When we put our faith in Jesus, we automatically become a part of God’s family

o       No matter what we have been through, no matter what our background, we become family

o       You don’t get to pick your family

§        We are who we are, so deal with it and accept it

o       when we put our faith in Jesus we are united by the Holy Spirit inside us

o       As a Christian you, are never alone.  You have Jesus and you have the church

²⁷Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

-         we need each other…the Christian life was not meant to be lived alone

-         We as fellow Christians are not only to accept each other but we are to lean on each other, we need each other

o       We don’t judge, condemn, point fingers, but we do lift up, encourage, help each other

some of you need to reach out and embrace your family, some of you need to be better family

2. I have hope (there is still a chance for me)

Romans 8:28  ²⁸And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

-         no matter what I have been through, God will use it to fulfill His purposes in me

-         No matter what we go through, we can trust that God is going to do what is in our best interest

o       Discipline is different

§        Sometimes we mess up, and there are consequences and the best thing for us is to learn from our mistakes and move on

Philippians 1:6 he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

-         whatever God is doing in you is a good thing

-         Whatever you let God do something in you/ whenever you let God do something in you, it is a good thing. 

-         From the time we become a Christian, God starts working on us (this is not always fun

-         However, when we fail, when we fall short, we must get up because we know that God is not done with us, He is never done with us until we see Jesus face to face

-         God is always going to do good things through you if you will let Him

3. I Have a Purpose

- Ephesians 2:1-10.   ¹As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, ²in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. ³All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature^[a] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. ⁴But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. ⁶And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, ⁷in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. ⁸For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

-         There is no sense being bored as a Christian.  God has tons of stuff for us to do if we would just let Him work through us

-         We were created by God to great things

-         What is God telling you to do

-         We all have value and we all have a purpose.  God gave each and everyone of us a gift (as the Holy Spirit decided) to serve Him

-         What are you good at?  What are your gifts?  Start using them for Him

2 Corinthians 5:17-21.   ¹⁷Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! ¹⁸All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. ²¹God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

-         our most important mission (really the only mission) is to tell others about Jesus

 4. I am forgiven

Hebrews 8:12.  For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."

Romans 8:1-2.  ¹Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, ²because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.

Psalm 103:10-13.  ¹⁰ he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.  ¹¹ For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; ¹² as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.  ¹³ As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;

-         No matter what you did in the past, when you give yourself to Jesus, He forgives you.

-         Stop beating yourself up over past sin

and

-         Start living the new life you were meant to live

Closing

Let’s just take some time to thank Him for who He made us to be.

We are who we are simply because we put our faith in Him

Among many other things…

o       we belong to Him and His Family- the Church

o       We have hope

o       We have a special purpose for our lives

o       Most importantly, we are forgiven of all the filth in our lives!