Peter Pan used to be my hero. He was so cool. He could fly, he could use a sword, he had his own fairy and he lived in a tree. What kid wouldn’t want to be him? The best thing was however, he never had to grow up. Now I know that most kids can’t wait to get older so they can drive a car, develop a love for vegetables, catch cooties, give lots of people money in exchange for stuff they don’t really want… but mainly drive a car. But I never wanted to. I wanted to battle pirates, have food fights whenever I wanted, stay up late, get up late (actually this is sounded a lot like present day) but I digress. I didn’t want to grow up.
But I watched this new release Peter Pan the other week and for the first time I felt sorry for him. No one had ever explained to him what it really means to grow up. All he heard was work and responsibility so he ran away.
The Peter Pan syndrome… the man who never grows but insists that he can behave forever like a child.
I think Christians call fall one of two ways… Peter’s way. Not wanting to grow because of fear.
Or Mr Darling…. Who knew the cost of everything “even a hug”… those who are safe and comfortable, and their fear is that if they venture into this growing thing that God will call them into the reaches of deepest darkest Africa to live in a grass hut. If it ain’t broke, why fix it? Right?
For me it was like this. My picture of a ‘mature’ Christian was either someone who, instead of walking, bounced everywhere, incapable of any emotion other than borderline histerical joy or oozing sympathy. You wonder what planet they beemed in from. They never seemed to struggle and have a spiritual depth akin to a teacup. The other option was the uptight overly conservative super serious Christian. The ones who don’t laugh, seldom smile. Love to spend long hours listing the faults of the masses and are real… real plastic and 2D that is…
I thought that in order to grow as a Christian I would have to have a personality transplant, loose my over active imagination and start taking prescription drugs to go up or down depending on which option I picked.
Thank goodness someone set me straight.
Listen to this…
For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like His Son, so that His Son would be the first born, with many brothers and sisters. Romans 8:28
Discipleship – simply put, translated from Tere’s greek version, is to become like Christ. There will be a range of wigs and beards after the service in the café.
Isn’t that what first pops into your mind?
I can safely say that’s not what becoming like Christ means.
It also doesn’t mean…
It also does not mean you BECOME A GOD…
I’ve tried this. It doesn’t work. The amount of stress you cause yourself trying to will yourself to be everything, do everything and know everything is ridiculous. I agree that you have a certain amount of influence over yourself, but to speak something like I will stop smoking and expect it to be thus is just silly.
But we have been falling for this line since the dawn of creation…
It also doesn’t mean you become a MINDLESS CLONE.
The Christian collective is not here to assimilate you, implant you with the dull and boring chip.
Contrary to belief becoming like Christ does not mean you loose your personality or individuality. I’m a Christian and I’m one of the most colourful people I know… take that as you will… This was one of my fears and it was dispelled this year at church camp when at least 10 people came up to me during a ‘let people know what you like about them’ exercise and asked me to sign the ‘kinda crazy but in a good way’ box.
And it also does not mean that you life becomes EASIER.
I think this is one of the most popular mistruths of Christianity, esp. for anyone who has been suffering. Sometimes I think it would be nice if Jesus would put on a dress, hand me a pumpkin and wave his magic wand but that ain’t the way it works… The things we are promised is that His love will never leave us and heaven. Actually, as we journey down this road to becoming Christ like it is common experience that things can get worse as God uses the suffering to draw us closer to him, but that’s another sermon.
So what does it mean then?
It means taking on his VALUES ATTITUDES and CHARACTER.
This is what it means to become like Christ.
This is what Paul had to say
Since then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything – and I do mean everything – connected with that old way of life has to go. It’s rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life – a God fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his charater in you. Ephesians 4:22-24 (The Message)
• What Christ loves and values, you come to love and value. Mother Teresa is a beautiful example of this.
• Jesus’s attitudes become your attitudes. Instead of stopping and asking yourself ‘what would Jesus do in rush hour traffic’ you just know…
• And all those character traits that seem so elusive… patience, self-control. Joy peace, love kindness etc they all start to grow when you become more like him.
Sounds like a far distant dream? The good news is it’s possible simply on the basis that it is an ongoing journey that God is involved in.
The bad news is, it’s an ongoing journey. For those impatient perfectionist types – sorry, you ain’t going to be complete before you time is up.
But the good news again - it’s possible to get closer and closer.
How?
Well, this is not achieved through imitation… Can you imagine someone coming up to you and saying “I can’t believe you’re not really Jesus!”
Nor is it possible solely through the ‘power of positive thinking’ - “I am like Christ I am like Christ, I am like Christ”
And unlucky, there isn’t a pill you can take.
So - What DOES it take to become like Christ?
It’s a combination thing. You play a part, God play’s a part, and other’s play a part… ah look at that… 3 parts. Biblical.
1) I play a part… in becoming like Christ. I can…’
• Commit myself to God’s way
As Jesus was going down the road, He saw Matthew sitting at his tax-collection booth. “Come, be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Matthew got up and followed him. Matthew 9:9
Fast forward say 2000 years… you’re standing in line at the ATM and Jesus walks up to you and says “Hey, come follow me. Come be my disciple” What would you do? I’d look around for a hidden camera, probably laugh and say “yeah, whatever” and turn back in line. What did Matthew do? Got up and followed him. Jesus still asks this of us today. Come be my disciple. Come, be my follower. We have to make that decision. And I believe this decision is a daily decision. In all areas of our lives we have to decide who calls the shots. Us or Him?
This includes times when it is not so easy. And sometimes it requires us to step out in faith.
Now in the story of Peter Pan you can see this played out with Wendy and Peter. Wendy chooses to return home even though she doesn’t what lies ahead and Peter chooses to remain in Neverland.
You can also
• Change the way I think
That’s the only 2 bits we play in becoming like Christ. Committing ourselves to God’s way and changing the way we think.
Listen to this:
Don’t copy the behaviours and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do and you will know how good and pleasing his will really is. Romans 12:2
• Yesterday I was sent an email by a vegetarian friend directing me to an animal cruelty website. Where I watched agraphic video on what goes on in the slaughter houses. This certainly challenged my thinking on eating meat (I‘ll let you know when I come up with a verdict). On the main page of the website there was a list that almost swung my thinking back around. It was a list of all the celebreties that are vegetarians. I justrolled my eyes. I’m supposed to be swayed to become a vegetarian because Kim Basinger and Alec Baldwin are? Now if it were someone really cool…
• What about the speeding? Here’s a good one. How many people here ever drive over the speed limit. I did/do… I’m working on it. The thing is, my thinking stated to change on it. You see, it’s not a suggestion, it’s a law. I speed, I break the law… big deal. Everyone does it. Yeah yeah, if everyone jumped off a bridge would you jump too… I always used to answer yes just to end the conversation.
• Isn’t the entire advertising world geared up to make us think…. (pause)…. Think that we need something? Think that we won’t be happy, beautiful, successful loved without it?
How often do you stop to have a look at the stuff you think?
This heads us to…
• Develop a Christ-like character
Instead, there must spiritual renewal of your thoughts and attitudes. You must display a new nature because you are a new person, created in God’s likeness – righteous, holy and true. Ephesians 4:22-24
This is the goal of our participation in the journey. That we develop a Christ-like character. Displaying a new nature, put it on.
Let’s break it down… we’ll start with an analogy… let’s take, clothes… in order for me to put on clothes in the morning I need to a) know what’s in my closet b) decide which clothes are worth wearing and c) put them on.
The same goes with a Christ like character. In order to put on the character of Christ I need to a) know God’s character b) decide that character can direct the way I live my life and c) put it on. We do our part, God does his part and others do their part. We’ve got to do our part. We do the possible. Now we have faith that God can do the impossible.
2) God plays a part… in me becoming like Christ
As the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him and reflect his glory even more 2 Corinthians 3:18
For God is working in you, giving you the desire to obey him and the power to do what pleases him. Philippians 2:13
There are no sub points to this. That’s it. God does his bit.
I love that verse… For God is working in you… giving you the desire to obey him and the power to do what please him.
Thank goodness he is going to give me the desire to obey him cause I know there are times when I don’t have it and all I want is a ‘day off’. And thank goodness he gives us the power to back up those desires cause again so often… the mind is willing but the flesh is weak!
But the take home part in this verse is that God is working in you weather you see it, feel it, understand it or not.
That’s part of the pursuit and it’s part of his love for us. Now whether you’re a follower of Jesus here tonight or not there’s something you need to know. God loves you. I think that this can be one of the hardest things to understand and the thing we most often need to be reminded of. God is chasing after you and pursuing you, working in and around you. And he wants to work through you too. You’re not here to take up space. God didn’t give us a church building with 500 seats then create you to sit In one. One of the keys to becoming like Christ is understanding and acceping this love.
Let me tell you a story. I work with kids at an afterschool programme and there was this one kid who was playing up, acting out. Distracting kids, ignoring me and what I was telling him and breaking all the rules. I took him to one side an all he could do was grin at me an avoid eye contact. Now I said this to him “Mark (name changed) I really like you. I think you’re intelligent and I think you’re funny. “ To this he grinned. “But there’s a right time and a wrong time for you to be funny. That was the wrong time”… at this point he started to look down and his smile faded.
So I decided to go with a hunch. “Hey, I care about you and I think you’re neat” He just stared at the floor. “Mark, look at me. I care about you.” He looked up into my eyes and just stared at me, searching for something. “Do you believe me?’ His looked changed ever so subtly and it looked like he just might take a chance that I meant it. And you know what, he started opening up to be, telling about what was really going on at home. Because I showed him I cared he took a risk and opened up.
This is what it is like with God. He asks us to get to know his character, to see and experience his love for us and when we decided that he can be trusted and we open up, he is able to work with us and in us to start healing some of our hurts.
And then finally we have “others”.
3) Others play a part… in me becoming like Christ
Now I say “others” because it’s not just people but can be circumstances or things…
Bruce talked this morning about Troubles Temptations something else beginning with t
• God’s Word provides the truth
All scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realise what is wrong in our lives. It straightens us out and teaches us to do what is right. 2 Timothy 3:16
It provides us with the truth, the guide book for our journey.
Man, God’s word is so important in us growing to become like Christ.
• The devil likes to sit on our shoulder and whisper lies into our ears like “God could never love you” “No one else could possibly understand what you are going through” “You’re alone in this” And man, sometimes it feels like he’s been eating way too many doughnuts.
• Then theres’s the media, telling us how we should look, shop, dress, eat, sleep, drink, sneeze.
• Then there are parents and friends, who love us dearly, but still like to tell you how to live. Actually I’m one of those friends… I was telling my best friend today how to drive…
Radio TV work uni, everywhere you go there are voices telling you how to live.
And half the time they contradict each other - like, is it ok to eat eggs or not?
And sometimes they’re just plain dumb – join Telecom, it’ll be like you never left the office. Who wants to have never left the office?!!? It’s my worst nightmare!
And sometimes it’s plain dangerous – if you don’t make yourself look like a super model by starving yourself and doing whatever it takes then you have no value.
It’s God’s word that gives us the foundation for truth and lays down the path for our journey.
• God’s people provide support
I’m eager to encourage you in your faith but I also want to be encouraged by yours. In this way, each of us will be a blessing to the other. Romans 1:12
I want to encourage you along your journey and I want you to encourage me in mine. Now I have the privilege of working with the youth here at the tab ad I don’t think they know this, but the challenge me I feel, as much as I challenge them. Their hunger for God encourages me. The strength and honesty with which they face their battles encourages me.
I also have friends who journey along a similar part of the path with me. I’m able to be real with them, and them with me. And you know what, most of the time I don’t have any answers but to quote the create Theologian Paul Colemen from the Paul Coleman Trio “I can be a listening ear, a smiling face and a shoulder that you can cry on”.
Then there are those who help me from further down the path. Who show me that my struggles can be overcome because they have faced similar ones. Who can help me see a larger picture because their vision is bigger than mine. And you know what, sometimes I just need someone older to come along and say “you know what? I think you’re neat!”
I get the feeling that between those of us who don’t want to grow up and those who are afraid to let go of the status quo we have the marketplace cornered. We are called neither to be Peter Pan’s who never move past childhood. Who don’t know love, and run from people or try and banish them. Nor are we called to be Mr Darling’s who are so concerned with numbers, appearances, security and comfort that we shy away from living.
Maybe it is Wendy who we should follow. She couldn’t tell Peter what more there was to life than sword fighting and flying but she wanted to find out. You see, when we grow we don’t leave behind who we are to take on the new, such as was Peter’s fear, but it gets built upon. Enhanced, embeleshed, refined, stretched, strengthened…
So what?
Three things.
• If you’re not doing your part, start. Maybe you didn’t know. That’s cool, now you do. Maybe you do. If so, stop kidding yourself. Don’t let you be the thing that kept you from knowing the abundant life that Jesus promised.
• If you’re struggling at the moment with God’s part in all of this. Maybe you’re in a dry place and you need refreshing. Or maybe you need reassurance of God’s passion for you. Or maybe you need to hear it for the first time tonight. Then ask Him tonight to speak to you somehow about it. From my experience when you ask God to show up He doesn’t miss an appointment.
• Thirdly, if you need help or support, pray or encouraging words. Even if it’s something as simple as a hug then please, take the plunge and ask someone. And you know what, if you are doing ok in this area, then please check those around you. Sometimes all people are waiting for is someone to ask.
How does Peter’s story end? The narrator tells us that Peter was afford many adventures and wonders that most children never have but he was also unable to experience the one thing the others had… As Peter is watching through the window as the lost boys are adopted into The Darling household he says “Life would be a wonderful adventure” and with that he turns and he flies away…
Let’s pray…
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