Sticking Green Beans up Your Nose
Colossians 3:1-17 

        Well, we’re half way through our “40 Days of Purpose” Spiritual Campaign. From what I am hearing, most of you are really into it – hooray!  Some of you, though, still aren’t sure – that’s understandable. 

Some of you haven’t gotten into it at all, but at least you’re here.  And then a few of you downright hate it.  Believe it or not – that’s all right, too. We are all at different places in our faith journey.  We all have different theological perspectives.  Truth is – one size does not fit all. 

        I hope, though, that if you are willing – that you will continue to keep an open mind and look for the truth that God has for you in this campaign.  And I promise you he has something for ALL OF US!  Don’t worry about what doesn’t fit for you.  Look for what does.

        That being said, this upcoming week’s reading (chapters 22-28) may be some of the most “challenging” you will do so far.  It was for me.  Still, I found that I highlighted quite a bit that really spoke to me – so don’t give up the faith!  

        This week we discover the third purpose God has for our lives.  If you remember correctly – our first purpose is that: “We Were Planned for God’s Pleasure” … in other words – we are here, in part, to learn to love (worship – in its broadest sense) God.  Last week Ken shared with us the second purpose: “We Were Formed for God’s Family” … which corresponds to loving each other … or as our banner states: FELLOWSHIP.  

Both of these purposes make sense to me – especially since it fits neatly with my favorite scripture: that we are to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength (worship)… and that we love our neighbor as ourself (fellowship).”

        Now to purpose #3:  “We Were Created to Become Like Christ.”  So far so good.  The first chapter of Genesis says that God created us in his image.  So it stands to reason that he would like us to grow up and become like him … like Christ. 

Now, don’t get me wrong, God’s not saying you’re going to be a god. I mean, men, your wives may think you’re a god. On second thought, looking around - I’m pretty sure they doesn’t think you’re a god. Maybe in some of your minds you think you’re a god …but I doubt you are. Trust me on that one.

See, God doesn’t want us to become gods; he wants us to become godly. And how do we do that?  Well … it’s called DISCIPLESHIP.  Let me share two important points.

First of all, discipleship is a lifelong process. We see that in the Bible. None of the important figures in the Bible had it made from day one.  Not Abraham, not Moses, not Peter, not Paul.  They all had to grow into who God called them to be. 

We see that in our own lives as parents. Our children grow up, day by day, bit by bit, lesson by lesson, a steady mix of hurts and joys.

I read a story recently about a dad who was feeling some angst because his little girl was growing up, entering the teen years. She announced at supper one night that for the very first time she was going to do her hair up in curlers for the junior high school prom. And that just sent a shiver down the dad’s spine.

“My baby! This is the beginning of the end.” He had a major Steve Martin Father of the Bride anxiety collapse right there; he almost burst into tears.

About a half hour later, though, he went by the bathroom, and she was in front of the mirror, carefully rolling up her little-girl locks of hair, and wetting each strand of hair down with a …toy squirt gun …which definitely made him feel a little better.

So, too, our journey in discipleship occurs slowly and deliberately.  I don’t think we ever get to the point where we say: “I’ve got it made and now I can coast.” We are all growing in Christ – just at different speeds and depths. 

And because it is a life long journey we don’t need to get all caught up in where we are on the road. It doesn’t matter where we start – it’s where we finish that counts. 

How do we grow in discipleship?  Well, first off …we can’t grow unless we are stretched.  That’s true in almost all situations in life.  You want muscles – you lift weights.  You want to be a doctor -- you go to school - forever.  You want to be like Christ – you study – stretch your spiritual muscles.  That means we need to read the instruction book – the Bible. 

Let me make one thing clear though – the Bible is not given to us to increase our knowledge. It is given to us to change our lives.  Many of us read the scriptures every day.  But if we aren’t taking what we read and applying it to our lives - all our study, all the time we spend in reading “the word” can be for naught. 

Our New Testament passage for this morning is a good place to start.  Take it home. Read it over.  It gives us a pretty good blueprint for our behavior. 

Now let me stop right now and ask this.  I probably should have began my sermon with this question:  Why does God want us to become like Christ???

I guarantee you it’s not to cramp our style, to take away our personality, to make us boring, or to take all the fun out of life.  God wants us to become like Christ because he loves us and knows it will bring us JOY pure and simple.  The closer we are to being like Christ, the more JOY we will experience – even in the darkest of times.

And dark times there will be.  None of us are immune from pain.  Sometimes, though, pain is what growth is all about.  Now, I love it when things are going great in my life; I’d like to spend my entire existence in an emotional Disneyland. But there’s not much growth spinning round and round in those teacups. We become better disciples when we go through hard times and challenging experiences – because we are forced to TRUST God.

There is another way that we learn to be disciples.  The book spends a couple of chapters on it and I think it bears mentioning this morning.  It has to do with temptation.  Temptation is something we all are exposed to. 

Just because you go to church doesn’t mean you won’t be tempted.  Just because you are a pastor doesn’t mean you won’t be tempted.  Even Jesus was tempted. There is nothing wrong with being tempted – it is what we do with it that matters.

We need to remember that temptations are not sin. The classic line by Martin Luther is that “you can’t keep the birds from flying over your head, but you can stop them from building a nest in your hair.”

Temptation begs the question: Do we love God more than the thing that is tempting us? That’s what’s happening when we’re tempted. It’s always a test of what we love most in our life. Whether it’s materialistic attachment to possessions, an inappropriate relationship, personal comfort or our reputation, the issue is what do we love most in our life?

Then too, even though all of us are tempted in different ways, none of our temptations are unique.  One of the ways we can get down on ourselves is by feeling that our temptation is worse than anyone else’s, like “I’m really bad, I’ve got this terrible temptation, this temptation that nobody in all of human history has ever gone through.” I hate to burst your bubble, but your temptation is just like millions of other peoples’ all over the world.

Temptations are universal. It’s kind of like the toddler who thinks they’re the first one to come up with the idea of sticking a green bean up their nose. I’m sure we’ve all experienced that temptation, right? Am I the only one?  Oh…

I like the story that Joy Davidman (who was married to C.S.Lewis) tells of a missionary in a dark corner of Africa who was hard at work trying to convert a native chief. Now the chief was very old, and the missionary very much into prohibitions.

The native chief listened intently. “I do not understand,” he said at last. “You tell me that I must not take my neighbor’s wife.”

“That’s right,” said the missionary.

“Or his ivory or his oxen.”

“Quite right.”

“And I must not dance the war dance and then ambush him on the trail and kill him.”

“Absolutely right.”

“Ah, but I  do not do any of these things!” said the native regretfully. “I am too old. To be old, and to be Christian, they are the same thing.” 

The truth is we never outgrow temptation. You never get to a point in your life where you become so spiritual or so old, that you’re not tempted anymore. But every temptation is an opportunity. And what we do with that opportunity shapes our lives.

So if temptations are here to stay throughout our lives – what can we do about them?  How do we turn them into something positive – how do they help us to become like Christ?

One of the ways we do that is to fill our minds with good thoughts.  This is known as “displacement theory,” where positive images replace negative ones, where Bible promises replace discouraging attitudes, where the good books we focus our minds on fortify us more than trashy ones do.

Ps. tells us - “Fix your thoughts on what is true and good and right.”

Phil. 4:8 says the same thing - “Finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable . . . think about these things . . . and the God of peace will be with you.”

Temptation always starts by getting our attention, and enticing us away from proper thoughts. When we change our thoughts often the temptation will disappear.

Think about the most useful invention for men – ever! THE REMOTE CONTROL.  That’s exactly what we could use for our minds.  We need to train our minds to switch channels when we are faced with temptation.

It is also helpful to have a SPIRITUAL PARTNER.  Our Old Testament lesson in Ecclesiastes talked about just that: You’re better off to have a friend than to be all alone . . . if you fail, your friend can help you up.

A small group can do this. A one-on-one best friend can do this. A men’s fellowship or girls’-night-out group can do this. 

The apostle Paul did better when he took along Silas, Barnabas, John Mark, or Timothy, than when he went it alone. And in Gethsemane, when Jesus was tempted, He craved the fellowship of Peter, James, and John.

One of the reasons AA is so effective is that each person in recovery has a sponsor further along in recovery that they can go to when they are struggling with their own temptation. Each of us needs a friend who can encourage us to do the right.

At times, someone asks if they can talk with me. They outline an ethical problem they’re facing, and usually they know, without me telling them, what the right thing to do is.

The unspoken message is: “I want someone I can trust to encourage me to do the right thing. A dark voice within, is tempting me to do the wrong thing. Please encourage me to do what I already know is right!”

I know that they are on the right track when they have the courage to come in and talk. What is sad, is when we don’t get the courage up to go and share a struggle with someone else. You don’t need to find a pastor to talk with about such things... .anybody  with a bit of wisdom and understanding can do the same.

In fact, if you encourage another person to hold you accountable to do the right thing, you can benefit them in the same way. Your “spiritual partner” strengthens you, you strengthen them, and the world is blessed by more ethical behavior. We call this a win-win-win situation!

To become like Christ … to become Christ’s disciple – is a life long process.  Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither is our discipleship.  Be patient with yourselves. 

Really – the way to discipleship is embodied in the first two purposes:  Love and worship God (cause he really, really loves you). The truth is in the act of love our discipleship is revealed. 

And then don’t forget that we don’t do it alone – God is with us and so is our spiritual family – that’s the Loving Others/Fellowship part. 

It’s not where you start that matters, it’s staying on the path … and taking more steps forward than backward.  Getting up one more time than we fall down.

Most of us have children.  Pause and think of our heavenly Dad considering US as his children.  In his great love, he wants us to grow up, to be like his “first” son – our Savior. 

Our memory verse for this coming week says it all.  Philippians 2:5 “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus!”

Amen.