Do As God Does

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered at Pilgrim Reformed Church on Sunday morning, the 11th of August, 2024.  A recording of our service should be available on our YouTube streaming channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams.]

There’s a saying that “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”.  In other words, if we copy something for our own use, it’s because we like that thing or find it useful.  And in effect, we are complimenting the person or thing that we copied from, implying that we liked it so much we wanted it, too.

The same holds true for following someone’s example.  We can learn a lot that way.  In fact, the practice of shadowing is quite often employed as a teaching tool.  This is when an inexperienced person is tasked with simply following along with a more experienced person to just watch how they do things, how they handle certain situations, how they interact with others.  And isn’t that how the disciples learned from Jesus?

Of course, there’s a flip side of following someone else’s example that can best be summed up by “do as I say, not as I do”.  I think we all know how this one goes, since we don’t always do what say should be done, and too often do what shouldn’t be done.  The Apostle Paul admitted to this one.  He confessed in his letter to the Romans that “instead of doing what I know is right, I do wrong”.  He knew how hard it was to always do what is right, even when we have a good model to follow.

Now the other apostles actually had the experience of shadowing Jesus during His ministry on earth, while Paul only came to know Jesus personally after our Lord’s death and resurrection.  Still, Paul did know Jesus quite intimately, for Jesus gave him a special insight into Himself and God.  Paul was called to serve Christ, being first sent to the Jews only, but then later to the Gentiles when the Jews rejected his message.  He was given the task to help the Gentiles come to Jesus, to encourage the people to be worthy of God’s calling, to live as He would have them live – as He would have us live.

Please listen and follow along to the instructions the Apostle Paul gives us in his Letter to the Ephesians, from chapter 4 verse 17 through chapter 5 verse 2, and I’ll be reading from the Contemporary English Version of our Holy Bible this morning…

4:17 As a follower of the Lord, I order you to stop living like stupid, godless people. 18 Their minds are in the dark, and they are stubborn and ignorant and have missed out on the life that comes from God. They no longer have any feelings about what is right, 19 and they are so greedy they do all kinds of indecent things.

20-21 But this isn't what you were taught about Jesus Christ. He is the truth, and you heard about Him and learned about Him. 22  You were told that your foolish desires will destroy you and that you must give up your old way of life with all its bad habits. 23 Let the Spirit change your way of thinking 24  and make you into a new person. You were created to be like God, and so you must please Him and be truly holy.

25  We are part of the same body. Stop lying and start telling each other the truth. 26  Don't get so angry that you sin. Don't go to bed angry 27 and don't give the devil a chance.

28 If you are a thief, quit stealing. Be honest and work hard, so you will have something to give to people in need.

29 Stop all your dirty talk. Say the right thing at the right time and help others by what you say.

30 Don't make God's Spirit sad. The Spirit makes you sure that someday you will be free from your sins.

31 Stop being bitter and angry and mad at others. Don't yell at one another or curse each other or ever be rude. 32  Instead, be kind and merciful, and forgive others, just as God forgave you because of Christ.

5:1 Do as God does. After all, you are His dear children. 2  Let love be your guide. Christ loved us and offered His life for us as a sacrifice that pleases God.

--Ephesians 4:17-5:2 (CEV)

Let us pray…  Heavenly Father, we thank You for all the insights and instructions the Apostle Paul saved for us in our Bible.  We can greatly benefit from his experiences while he served You.  Sadly though, Father, like Paul, sometimes we don’t do what we should do.  And sometimes we do what we shouldn’t.  Please help us live as You would have us live, dear Father.  Help us better follow the example Your Son Jesus set for us.  Help us as we step out into the world, offering aid where we can and witnessing to the non-believers, sharing the Good News and showing Your love.  And please forgive us when we hesitate to witness for You and our Lord Jesus out of fear or anxiety.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit within us and better understand Your message today.  Thank You for forgiving and forgetting our sin.  Help us share the Good News of everlasting life in our daily walk.  This we pray in the precious name of Your Son, Christ Jesus our Lord.   Amen.

The early church leader Augustine was once accosted by a heathen who showed him his idol and said, "Here is my god; where is thine?"  Augustine replied, "I cannot show you my God; not because there is no God to show but because you have no eyes to see Him."

I read of a study that concluded that how we see God as our heavenly Father depends to an extent on how we see our earthly father.  If our father was distant, impersonal, uncaring, someone who would not intervene for us in any situation, we may see God as being distant and uncaring.  If our father was pushy and inconsiderate, we might think that we are worthless in God's eyes.  If our father was demanding and intolerant of mistakes, we may feel that God will never accept us for our flaws.  If our father was weak, we may think we can't depend on God to help us.  But if our father was patient and kind, we are likely to see God in that light also, being patient and forgiving of our faults, our sins.  If our father accepted us and supported us no matter what, we probably see God loving us and helping us in any situation, accepting us even when we sin.  Which Father do we see in heaven?  Which God do we want to be like?

My father was a human being, and by that I mean he had many flaws, just like the rest of us.  But he was a hard worker, an honest man, and I never doubted that he loved me dearly.  He couldn’t always give us what we wanted, but we never went without.

I guess that does color how I see God as my heavenly Father.  He doesn’t always – or even usually - give me what I want, but always what I need.  And I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that He loves me dearly, and calls me His own.  And quite frankly, I don’t see how anyone can think otherwise.  For God is good, all the time.  He goes beyond seeing to our needs to providing us with the things that make this life worth the living.  This is the Father, the image of God, that I want to be like: the loving one who helps bring joy to the joyless, love to the unloved, hope to the hopeless.  What God do you want to copy?

“Do as God does”, Paul says, right there in the opening verse of chapter 5.  Since we are God’s dear children, we should do as God does.  That’s a pretty tall order, isn’t it?  Can we create a universe and everything in it?  No, not like He did.  In truth, we cannot create anything material.

I’m reminded of the old joke where a man is challenging God and he says, “I can do anything You can do.”  God responds that, “I created man from a handful of dirt and My spit.”  The man says, “I can do that”, and reaches down and grabs up a handful of dirt.  But God stops him and says, “Wait a minute!  That’s My dirt.  Make your own.”

So, no, we should never even think that we’re God nor anywhere close to His awesome power.  But Paul means that we should try to imitate God in what He does, rather than the world and how it handles things.  We should live as God would have us live rather than as the world lives.

Paul tells us to be like God so as to please Him, to please God, to do as He does.  But that doesn't mean life will be easy for us.  Life was certainly not easy for His own Son Jesus, nor for His apostles.  Nor was life easy for King David, the man that God said was after His own heart.  But like David, we all have hope.  Hear what David wrote in the first five verses of his 130th Psalm…

1 From a sea of troubles

I cry out to You, Lord.

2 Won't You please listen

as I beg for mercy?

3 If You kept record of our sins,

no one could last long.

4 But You forgive us,

and so we will worship You.

5 With all my heart,

I am waiting, Lord, for You!

I trust Your promises.

--Psalm 130:1-5 (CEV)

We don’t always do what we should do, and too often do what we shouldn’t.  But God doesn’t keep a record of our sins.  Instead He forgets them.  He erases them from His memory and forgives us, otherwise we would be lost.  So it is right that we should worship Him.

Do as God does and don’t give the devil a chance.  These are very sound words of advice Paul delivers.  When we vary from what God has shown us through His Son, we are giving the devil a chance.  When we, as Christians, don’t shadow Jesus, don’t follow His example, we are giving Satan a chance to come back into our lives on a full-time basis, where he will try to steal our souls away from God.

Jesus showed us how to live.  Paul tells us what we should do.  Don’t be stubborn or greedy.  Discern what is right and what is wrong, and do what is right.  Stop lying, even about little things, and start telling each other the truth.  Don’t get so angry that we sin, and don’t go to bed angry.  Be honest and work hard so we can help others.  Don’t be bitter and angry and mad, yelling at one another and cursing each other and being rude.  Instead be kind, merciful, and forgiving of each other.  Don’t make God’s Spirit sad.

We are God’s dear children.  Let love be our guide, just as Jesus loves us.  In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord, the one true Son of God, who set the perfect example for us to follow.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Almighty God, thank You for sharing Your word with the Apostle Paul and the other men and women who penned the contents of our Bible.  And thank You for saving these words throughout the centuries.  Our Bible contains all the examples and instructions we need to live a righteous life and be pleasing in Your sight.  Sometimes, though, dear Father, like Paul, we don’t always do what we know we should do, what is right to do.  Even though we might not want to, we do what is wrong knowing it’s wrong the whole time.  Please forgive us these failures, Father.  Forgive us when we vary from the way You have shown us to live.  Please help us reach out more into the world, serving You by serving others.  Help us be more like Your Son Jesus, being more forgiving and merciful in our dealings with others.  Guide us around any pitfalls in this life and strengthen our spirits to do Your will.  And please help us do a better job of sharing Jesus with others so that they too may be saved by Your mercy and His sacrifice.  

Father, please shield us from Satan as he attacks our faith, trying to make us his own.  Help us be better servants, glorifying You in all we do so that the world can see You in us, through our deeds, in how we live.  And help us remain strong, faithful, and true to You in all things, no matter what the world throws at us or holds out before us.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to Your commands, and seeking Your help to do so…

Lord Jesus, You set the perfect example for how we should live, and especially for how we should treat others.  Sometimes, Lord, we fail to follow Your example, going off on our own impulses and desires, ignoring how it might impact others around us.  Please help us be more considerate, more caring.  Help us as we go about spreading the Gospel message.  Help us share Your love by being more understanding, more merciful, more giving and forgiving of others, offering aid when we can.  Not everyone believes in You, so it is our job to help them see the truth and believe.  Give us the words to say, show us what to do to help bring the lost to You.

Lord Jesus, please shield our minds and our hearts from Satan’s lies and the world’s empty promises.  Guide us around all the devil’s traps and snares.  Help us see though his temptations and all the false teachings.  Help us fend off his attacks.  Please help us be faithful and true to You, putting all our trust in You, all our hope in You.  Heal the hurts that separate and divide us one from another.  Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on anything this life might offer.  This we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.