Imitator

This Sunday I am preaching at a local country church and here is my sermon for anyone who is interested We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know brothers and sisters beloved by God that he has chosen you because our message of the Gospel came to you not in word only but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full convictions; just as you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for in spite of persecution you ow what kind of persons we proved to be among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord for in spite of persecution you received the word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia but in every place y our faith in God has become known so that we have no need to speak about it 1 Thessalonians 1:2-8 One of my favorite movies of all time is the Shawshank Redemption, primarily because it has two quotes that have stuck with me. The first one is more of a gut punch and it is “get busy living or get busy dying.” My other favorite quote is from thecharacter Andy Dufresne is that “Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things and not good thing ever dies.” The Apostle Paul talks about hope, along with faith and love quite often. The most famous place where these themes can be found is 1 Corinthians 13. This chapter is often dubbed as the loved chapter and has been recited at more weddings than we can count. In this passage Paul tells the three things that will remain are faith, hope and love. Paul doesn’t disagree that hope is a good thing, but Paul makes the argument that the greatest of the three is love. An outpouring of Godly/holy love is the basis for how God operates and we should follow in the same suite, So my question is, how does faith, hope and love play into being an imitator of Christ. So lets lay a little bit of ground work on what it means to be an imitator. One definition of being an imitator is that we copy someone elses behavior or actions of someone else. How often does a younger sibling copy the actions or words of an older sibling? Or, how often do we by the same products or use the same products or have the same stances of social issues that our favorite athletes, actors, athletes have or use. I remember one time I saw my dad and brother standing off in the distance with their back to me and I had a hard time telling who was who. They are about the same height, similar body build and the same walk. I could argue that my brother is a clone of my dad. The crux of being a clone or an imitator is that we become so like the other person that we don’t know where one ends and the other begins. I know I will give us this warning, we imitate or become the people we wither spend the most time with or who has the biggest and loudest voice in our life. So we should be careful of who we let into our lives and gives us advice. So what does faith have to do with being an imitator? The most basic truth is that we have to believe in who we are imitating to be true and that what they have is worthy to be doing or imitating. Faith is believing that there is someone or something out there that is either better or cooler that we are or are becoming and we want it that said characteristic in our life. Whether it is a characteristic like peace, or joy, to a talent like photography or computer skills, we put faith into those people who have the characteristics/talents we want and we imitate them for better or worse. How many people who want to become a better writer, read the author they respect or idolize and find every video or article they talk about writing, and then they put it into practice. Eventually we become their disciple because we write in their style. It would be like if were a big CS Lewis fan and I read all of his work and started to write in some of his themes and styles, that would make me his disciple. Faith is realizing that something is true and should be imitated, or it at least looks like fun and we want to give it a try and see where it takes us. Hope is more than just wishing something will come true. I can hope that the Vikings can go and win the Super Bowl, but it is something that I am not going to hold my breath over. True or Biblical hope is knowing something will come true because of past performance. Biblical hope is rooted in experience and it is also rooted in trust. It is trusting God providing on His promises because He has come through on His promises before. If God does not come through on His promises, that would make Hm a liar, and if He is a liar, that would not make Him God. As I am wrestling how hope and being an imitator come together, I have come to this conclusion. Hope differentiates between being an imitation and an imitator is that an imitation is something that is fake and is based on smoke and mirrors. Being an imitator is being the real deal. When I think of this, especially the smoke and mirrors part, I think of imitation crab. It is different fish meat stuck together and we pretend it is crab and we use it for salads and other food dishes. Imitation may taste like crab, but its not crab. Its kind of like saying something taste like chicken. Even though it tase like chicken, it is still not chicken. It is false imitator. Real hope separates what is fake and wont last, and then focuses on what is real and will last. Hope is imitating what is good, holy and Godly. This kind of hope gives life to us and those round us along with joy and encouragement. False hope or imitation, destroys life, is destructive to us and everything around us and it kills joy. How love and imitation go together is we imitate out of a sense of wanting to and not because we have to. I know there are times where doing dishes or loving that neighbor or family member can be more of a chore and it feels like a have to. I get it, not all of life is roses and that we only get to do the things that are easy or that we want to do. This is where the Holy Spirit comes in. The Holy Spirit is not only an encourager, but also a convicter, and at times gives us that push in the back. We can not imitate God or become Godly on our own. This is where the Holy Spirit comes along side us and pushes us, walks with us and even leads us to have our image restored. The Apostle John tells us that God is love, and if we are to imitate God, we are to love like He loves. This means that we are to grow up, have standards, and follow the two greatest commandments, which are to love God with all we have and to love our neighbor as ourselves. The reason we should be obedient to God is two fold. The first one is that that He elected us to Him so that we can a relationship with Him. We can have a conversation about election all day, but the way I see it, God elected a way for us to have a restored relationship with Him and that is through Jesus and His work on the cross and His resurrection from the dead. We just have to take that free gift. God gave us the opportunity for a new life filled with riches that we can not even imagine and a restored relationship with Him. We just need to accept that free gift and live it out. The second part is that we are obedient to God not because we have to, but because we want to. Love is doing something without obligation or fear, but out of a wanting to do it and with complete sincerity. It means that there is a relationship, and the Apostle John tells us that God is love and everything He does is because He loves us. We should reciprocate that love back to God and to others. I will mention this again, we can not do this on our own, but its something that God has to come in and change us through the work of the work of the Holy Spirit So where does the rubber meet the road and what are we suppose to be imitating. A good place to start is found in Galatians 5, where Paul tells us what the Fruit of the Spirit is. It is such things as love, joy, peace, patience, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. If we are to take a look at this list, it is a realization that these traits fly in the face of human nature. When we imitate these things and we allow God to work through us. When we imitate these things, it changes our character and our outlook on life. When we imitate these things, its not so that we can be noticed or to get a good job, but it is to make God known. To close out, Paul gives us two things to ponder. The first one is that when we become imitators of God, we will face persecution. When we imitate God, we are stating that the world does not have all the answers and what it has to offer is down right crappy and there is a better way. It is not always the easiest way, but the end results are better. Our outlook on life will change, and joy will come easier in difficult situations because we know that God will take care of us and protect us. We might not know what the future holds, but we know who holds the future. Finally, when we follow the example of Christ, it makes the work of the people before us not in vain. We are responsible to those who came before us by taking what is true and living it out. Being an imitator is taking our life and sharing it with all those who we come in contact with so that they may know what is true and that they can have the same joy that we have. Being imitators is doing or saying nothing spectacular, but it is being obedient to Gods calling and living our life of love so the world may know that there is a better way