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Transforming ourselves into the Image of
God. (Preached on January 16, 2011 by Bobby Stafford)
Audio
/ Video
Growing can sometimes painful. Growing
spiritually compels us to leave our comfort zone. It causes us to
stretch, to set goals for ourselves and to change for the better.
The purpose of this lesson is to help us learn how we can live more
in the image of God and to set goals to help us achieve this.
Paul gives us a goal in 2 Corinthians 3:18
What is the goal? To continue to be
transformed into the image of Christ. If we have become comfortable
with some of our ways and with some of our thinking and in our
attitudes, then changing those to align ourselves with the image of
Christ might bring some discomfort.
In this lesson we are going to look at four
ways that we can bring ourselves into alignment with the image of
Christ.
Goal # 1) Always remember that we are the
temple of God. We live in the image of our Lord through our habits
and lifestyle.
Read 1 Corinthians 3:16
Recall this epistle was written to the
collective church in Corinth. The Lord's church is the temple of
God. The warning in this verse is that anyone who defiles the
temple will be destroyed. So what does this mean?
2 Corinthians 6:16-18, "And what agreement has
the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living
God. As God has said: "I will dwell in them And walk among them. I
will be their God, And they shall be My people." Therefore "Come out
from among them And be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what
is unclean, And I will receive you." 18 'I will be a Father to you,
And you shall be My sons and daughters,
Says the Lord Almighty."
2 Corinthians 7:1
7 Therefore, having these promises, beloved,
let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and
spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
Christians must cleanse themselves from
anything that can harm us either physically or spiritually. We must
be continually examining ourselves in search of anything we are
doing that can harm us either physically or spiritually and get rid
of it. Any type of bad practice or bad habit, any type of immoral
action is what falls into this category. And once identified, it
must be cleansed from our personal lives.
Why is this so important?
1) It effects our destiny
2) The world is watching us to see how we
live. We must always bear in mind that wherever we go, or whatever
we do in the world, we constitute His temple and that whoever does
anything to defile His temple will be destroyed. The best
lifestyles are lived as examples for others to follow.
Goal # 2) If we want to transform ourselves
into the image of God, we must mind our own business and not meddle
in the affairs of others.
Read 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12, "that you also
aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work
with your own hands, as we commanded you, 12 that you may walk
properly toward those who are outside, and that you may lack
nothing. "
2 Thessalonians 3:11-12
For we hear that there are some who walk among
you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies.
12 Now those who are such we command and exhort through our Lord
Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread.
Notice the connection in both passages between
not working and busybodies. When one is not working, they have much
more time to meddle in the affairs of others. Work is good for
Christians. Good works keep Christians out of all kinds of trouble
and helps keep us from sticking our noses into the affairs of
others.
Christ was not a meddler. He did not get into
other people's business, he was not a busybody.
Goal #3) If we want to transform ourselves
into the image of God, we must be careful how we dress.
The women of Jerusalem in Isaiah's time were
not acting or dressing like God's people.
Read Isaiah 3:16 and following. What were
these women doing? They were being seductive and flirtatious. They
were drawing attention to certain parts of their body by the things
they wore and the way they acted.
Because of their behavior and dress God said He
was going to strike them down and being them to shame.
Read Matthew 5:27-30. If men can be guilty of
adultery of adultery just be having lustful thoughts, then can women
be guilty of harlotry by just promoting those thoughts in men? Is a
flaunting walk and a seductive outfit a form of harlotry? Since men
can be guilty of adultery by having lustful thoughts then women who
promote those lustful thoughts are just as guilty.
Proverbs 7:10, "And there a woman met him, With
the attire of a harlot, and a crafty heart"
Notice how she is described. She has the
dress, the attire and the adornments of a harlot. Both men and
women can fall into condemnation because of how we dress and how we
act.
Goal #4 ) If we want to transform
ourselves into the image of God, we must cleanse our speech.
Ephesians 5:3-7 "But fornication and all
uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as
is fitting for saints; 4 neither filthiness, nor foolish talking,
nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of
thanks. 5 For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor
covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom
of Christ and God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for
because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of
disobedience. 7 Therefore do not be partakers with them. "
We must cleanse ourselves of filthiness. This
word carries the meaning of obscenity, something that is deeply
offensive to morality and decency.
Foolish jesting and course talking means being
crude, vulgar and irreverent, especially in things dealing with
sexual matters. These are language habits that are corrupt and
debase. It is sometimes called gutter language today. These are
things that should not come out of a Christian's mouth.
Psalms 59:12, 1 Peter 3:10, James 3:5-10
Jesus Christ would never have engaged in this
type of language practice, therefore if we are going to transform
ourselves into the image of Him, we cannot do it either.
The image of our Lord:
We could not imagine our Lord abusing His body
with smoking, drugs or alcohol.
We could not imagine our Lord being lazy and
not wanting to work.
We could not imagine our Lord meddling or being
a busybody in other people's business.
We could not picture Jesus dressing in some
type of vulgar, gaudy or expressive attire.
We could not imagine Jesus having a vulgar,
foolish, gutter language manner of speech.
If our goal from 2 Corinthians 3:18 is to be
transformed into His image, then that means we have to work on those
things. Our dress, our manners, our speech, what we do physically,
where we go, who we are with because the world is always watching.
Someone else is always watching too. Proverbs
15:3, "The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the
evil and the good."
What image are we really reflecting. Does the
world see us as a people who are really trying our best to transform
ourselves into His image, or is the world seeing a bunch of
hypocrites?
We talk about Christ and about being religious
and things spiritual, but do our lives reflect that? Which of these
things does the world see in us? What we teach or how we act?
We need to be constantly scanning and examining
ourselves. Our goal is to be more like Him at the end of the year
than we were at the beginning; To be more like Him at the end of
next week, than we are this morning; to be more like Him tomorrow
than we are today. The Christian life is to be one of constant
progress. We must strive to be more and more like Him in every way,
every day. |
