I saw Casino Royale this past week with a few friends. If you like James Bond movies or these types of movies, you will like this. Overall, the movie was good, but I left the movie pondering something completely different.
Now, don't take this the wrong way, but I saw the new James Bond and I was impressed with how built his upper body looked. I looked at his body size and thought I was very similar in structure. However, where I lack is that I have tons of flab and he is well defined. Mind you, he isn’t this huge man, but his body is built.
So, after watching the movie, I decided that I was going to train myself to have a better body. I didn’t want to be 50 years old with a fat belly and wonder why my body looks so bad. After all, if James Bond can have a great body, why can’t I?
So, I came up with a plan as to how I was going to get a better body. I decided I was going to do 2 specific things:
* Watch what I eat
* Exercise and work out
I’ve been doing this for about a week and you know what. I haven’t lost any weight and my body doesn’t look any different. However, in the midst of my training, I know that I am headed down the right direction and if I don’t quit, I will be better off down the road because of steps I am taking right now.
In light of this, today we are going to talk about training ourselves to be Christlike in our lives. We are going to examine 5 easy, sure fire ways you can train to become more Christlike. Will you become Christlike overnight because of this training, probably not. However, just like me and my body situation, you will be headed down a path to true life.
So, let’s get into right now by looking at why we should become Christlike.
Scripture
1 Timothy 4:7-8: “Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.”
* What are we to do here? Stay away from godlessness and train ourselves to be godly
* What are the benefits of being godly? We will realize the promises God has for both this present life and life to come
* How do we train ourselves to be godly?
To train ourselves to be Christlike, we have to do 5 things. To help you remember them better, I came up with an acronym – T.R.A.I.N. Now, this isn’t a formual nor is it in any particular order. This is just a way for you to remember what you can do.
To effectively train ourselves to be Christlike we have to Transform our Minds
Romans 12:2: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
What are we to do? Don’t conform to the world but be transformed by the renewing of our mind
When we commit to following Christ, changes happen. If instance, once you start following Christ, some of the old things you had done, should now be gone – like getting wasted, sleeping with your boyfriend or girlfriend. Why is that? (Let students answer) It is because……we are transformed. The old Tom is gone, a new one is here. The old things we did are now gone because God can and should fill that void in our lives.
Now given, it doesn’t always happen like that and sometimes people stumble – in fact, we all do and fall back into that trap. But overall, we are transformed.
It is a transformation that begins in our minds. Our train of thought has to focus on godly things, not selfish things or things “the world” thinks about.
What then, is the benefit of this transformation? We’ll be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.
So, it begins with a transformation of your mind. We need to go from our desires, will and wants to God’s path. When we do that, we will be able to know God’s path for our life – a path that is good, pleasing and perfect.
The 2nd training exercise we can do to become more Christlike is to Read the Bible.
I mentioned this last week, so I won’t go too in-depth about this. However, as I pointed out last week, that when we read the Bible, we benefit. It gives us freedom from the old rules and regulations. It makes us prosperous and successful in life and it will help us as we head down the road of life.
As I said last week, these are just some of the benefits. But, if we want to train ourselves to be more Christlike, we need to incorporate God’s handbook to life – the Bible.
That’s right, it is our handbook and instruction manual on what to do and what not to do. The stories are often fascinating and there are plenty of great situations that you will often find ourselves in. Sure, take out the camels and the mules and substitute them with dogs and cats – whatever, you get my point.
Again, as I said last week, when we read the Bible, we benefit. So, as we train ourselves to be more Christlike, we need to Read the Bible.
The 3rd training exercise we can do to become more Christlike is to Apply what we learn.
Everyday, we learn something. Sometimes they are good like Pie = 3.14. Sometimes they are bad like, “you mean I can get in trouble for forging my parents signatures” – who would have known? You get my point.
What good is it if you learn something that can impact and change your life for the better if you don’t do anything with it? We’ve got to apply what we learn or we’ll never be better off.
One of my favorite verses is John 10:10. Christ said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
That full life comes from following Christ and training ourselves to be like Him. By reading the Bible, attending church, surrounding yourselves with people who follow Christ faithfully, you will learn a bunch. What you have to do with your learning is to apply them to your life and see how God works in you because of your application.
If you want a better life, if you want to be more Christlike, you have to apply what you learn.
The 4th training exercise we can do to become more Christlike is to Inquire of God’s wisdom.
We have to seek out God’s wisdom. When a decision needs to be made, where do you turn? Remember, a few weeks ago, I talked about how Solomon, king of Israel asked God for godly wisdom in the decisions he would have to make because he was young and had so much responsibility. Do you turn to God like that? God wants to give us wisdom to make the right decisions.
In fact, it says in James 1:5 – “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him”
The answer I most often get, when I ask a student, or an adult for that matter, what they are going to do with a certain situation, is “I don’t know”. It’s true, do a little poll by yourself and see if that is true of your friends too. They may have an idea of what they want to do or their options, but it is still a toss up.
The way we can know what to do is to ask God. James 1:5 says that if we lack wisdom – which most of us do – we should ask God and it will be given to us.
Now, once God gives us this wisdom, we have to APPLY WHAT WE LEARN – #3. What good is godly wisdom if we refuse to apply it?
So, seek Godly council, he promises to give us wisdom and apply it.
The last training exercise we can do to become more Christlike is to Never QUIT!
Notice how I didn’t say Never give up or Never stop? Giving up is like you tried for a bit but you just couldn’t do it anymore…poor you. Quitting means you refused to go on. Whether it was the pressure or the circumstances, you just couldn’t cut it. Do you understand what I am saying?
It can be awfully hard to be Christlike – especially since most other people in this world aren’t striving to TRAIN themselves. However, we can’t quit. We can’t quit on Christ!
Quitting on Christ means that He isn’t worth it.
Quitting on Christ means that He can’t help you through it.
Quitting on Christ means that He doesn’t have the power to help.
When we quit on Christ, you failed in life. Hear this again, when you quit on Christ, you failed in life. Why? Because you are quitting on the only true hope there is. You are quitting on the only true love there is. You are quitting on the only true path.
Guys and gals, life is tough and it is hard. You are faced with countless situations that almost appear like no win situations. However, there is victory to be gained and it is in following Christ. NEVER QUIT ON CHRIST!
Application
So, in wrapping up, we need to train ourselves to be more Christlike:
· Transform our Mind
· Read the Bible
· Apply what we learn
· Inquire of God’s wisdom
· Never QUIT!
It is never too late to train yourself. But, don’t wait til you have made too many poor choices that it will be harder for you to get into shape.
Look, I weigh 185 right now. I need to get into shape now while I still weight this much. I don’t want to make it harder on myself by weighing 200, 215 before I get into better shape.
What can you do this week to train yourselves? Where do you need to begin? The challenge this week is to go out and begin to train to become more Christlike.
Why do that? Because, as I mentioned earlier, we can take hold of the promises God has for us and we can know and understand His will, His path for our life.
Let’s begin today to TRAIN ourselves to be more Christlike.
Pray
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