Imitator or Actor?

Well, good morning. Good morning. Thank you all so much for being here. Really appreciate everybody setting aside a few moments out of their Sunday to come and worship with us and be in a place, you know, it’s just special for lifting up the name of Jesus, and that’s why we gather here.

If this is your first time with us, I just want to say welcome again. Thank you so much for being here. If this is your first time in a long time, I want to say welcome back. We really would love to get to know you a little bit and help you in your journey of walking with Jesus Christ, the risen Savior. And if there’s anything we can do to come alongside you, of helping establish habits of getting in God’s Word, of helping you take a step like being baptized or joining church, we’d love to come alongside you for that. That’s what that connect card is great for. If at some point in the course of the next few moments you decide you do want something like that, you still have an opportunity to fill that out and put it into the offering plates, which will be in the back of the sanctuary. So the time has not passed you by.

Yeah, this past week I had an incredible opportunity to be with the students and Carter and Miss Michelle at summer camp. And this will sound absolutely ridiculous to some of y’all in the room. I get that. Please bear with me. I realized at camp I am 32. The types of things that my body used to rebound from, it’s not so much a rebound, it’s more of a thud, if that makes sense. Thank you. Yes. I learned this specifically at 2:15 on Wednesday morning after having some questionable cafeteria food. I’ll let you fill in the gaps there.

I learned some other things at camp. I learned that today’s students so deeply want to be called to a really high standard. Wouldn’t you know, every morning, Carter, Michelle, and I did not attend breakfast with the students. We went to a leader devotion totally separate from all the students. That happened at the same time that our students were supposed to get to breakfast. Every morning, our group of sixth through 9th graders got themselves up, got themselves dressed, and got themselves to the cafeteria without our help. That was incredible. I’m not going to lie, that’s a win in and of itself. So, parents, if you’re hearing students, you’re on the hook officially. You could probably do a little bit more than what you’re currently doing around the home. Parents, you could probably ask your students to do a little bit more than what you’re currently asking them to do.

I also learned that some things just never change. Picture it. We are in an auditorium of [inaudible]00 middle and high school students, a bunch of folks like us trying to help them take steps of faith, and some of the college staffers. And we would be in a moment of worship where, man, like literally these students, the moment that guitar struck the first chords, like 300 of them rushed to the front to go and be up at the altar to be able to worship, which is what you saw in one of those pictures. And you would see these moments where these students were just so, man, like caught up in something. And I had an observation because so much of that was genuine, but some of it I fear wasn’t.

Summer camp is a really interesting environment because you see a dynamic at play. I would call it the imitators versus the actors. Here’s what I mean. At camp, it became really abundantly clear who was truly walking with Jesus and who was having a spiritual moment with the risen Lord. Not because they would rush to the front and raise their hands in this exalted moment of joy, but because afterwards in small group, they would have moments where they would confess their sin, where they would recognize how they need to grow in their relationship with Christ. You would see it in their speech toward one another. It was seasoned with grace and truth versus you had some actors. They were just right there too, man. They were in the moment. Both hands lifted, got a little bounce, but they leave there and in their mind the farthest thing from them is Jesus Christ. They’re thinking about which girl’s phone number can I get? And we had a personal record on our trip. I will not tell you the student that got that personal record, but I was impressed.

Not going to lie, the the hoodba of this young man. At one point, girls are just putting phones in this kid’s lap. I’m like, man, I didn’t have that that type of game when I was in sixth grade. I was Cody Braxton’s age. So, you would see this dynamic at play, though, where you’ve got the imitators and the actors right beside each other. It was so clear who’s really walking with Jesus, who is giving their lives to Him versus who’s just kind of getting caught up in what’s happening around them.

And it dawned on me that’s not just true at student camp. That is also true in local church. What I mean is I fully believe there is a large group of folks here this morning who are sincerely trying to follow Jesus. They are seeking to imitate Him with their lives. And if we’re just playing the numbers game, that would also mean we probably have a few actors in the room as well.

Here’s what I mean by an imitator or an actor. It’ll be on the screen. An imitator, as my definition, that’s a Jesus lover who is fighting and struggling against their sin and they are trying to grow to live like their heavenly Father. Not perfect. I’m not calling for perfection. Not seminary trained. That’s not what we’re talking about. Not even superchurched. You could have given your life to Jesus last week and be in here right now and you could have a closer walk with the risen Lord than any of us because of what you have experienced. Those are imitators. Those who are trying to live like the Jesus they profess faith in versus actors.

I say this with some gravity. I believe actors are fakers who live for sin and just pretend to like Jesus. I believe that both are in the room. Man, if you are acting, let me help you see what that might look like. That could look like giving large financial gifts to local church and that being a bit of a justification or a payoff for some other activity you keep in secret like what you watched last night, the secret thoughts you harbor against others or how you speak about people. Acting can look like being a leader who helps contribute to the life of our church that, but you’re also holding grudges and bitterness. Acting can look like faithfully attending our services and coming on Wednesday nights and bringing your Bible, but also being so wrapped up in the need for approval that materialism runs your life and you’ve always got to have the nicest stuff and be seen at the nice restaurants posting the perfect moments on Instagram or on Facebook.

I think genuinely I believe that most actors don’t even know they’re acting. They’re just kind of caught up in the moment of something they want. And this isn’t just my perspective. As we continue this Ephesians series this morning, I truly believe it’s the perspective of Jesus Christ looking down on us right now.

One day when Jesus was walking and talking with His disciples, He told this parable about the nature of the kingdom. He said, “The kingdom is like a big drag net.” We’ve seen those in the harbor or out in the marsh. There’s these boats that have these weighted nets. They drag them behind them and they’re just trying to catch up some fish. And Jesus said, “In that big drag net, there’s a lot of good fish. Fish you would want to eat.” And let’s just pretend they’re all legal limits, right? A lot of really good fish. But also in that net are some things you do not want to eat. Jesus says at the last day that net is going to be opened up and God Himself will sort the good from the bad. God Himself will sort the imitators verse the actors.

That’s why Paul would write these words to this church in Ephesus. That’s why he would call this church to a higher standard like we can call our students to a higher standard. This morning, brother Paul, Uncle Paul, is calling all of us to a higher standard. We’ll be in Ephesians chapter 5. If you have your copy of the Bible, please open it up to Ephesians chapter 5.

My goal for us this morning for the imitators in the room, I just want to breathe, man. I just I just want to put some wind in your sales that you can just continue in your life of walking with Jesus. Whether that was something that began last week or 10 years ago, I just want to encourage you in your imitation of Jesus Christ.

And for the actors in the room, I want to offer you a better way. I want you to see that your life was made for more than just pretending to like Jesus. I want to help you see that you are acting and help you get out of that. Here’s the question. Are you an imitator or an actor?

If I could have had the last word at camp a few weeks ago, I would have looked at that group of 1100 students and I would have said, “This week is fun. What’s next week going to look like for you?” This morning, this is fun. What does tomorrow look like for you? Are you an imitator or are you an actor?

Let’s read Ephesians chapter 5 verses 1-5. This is Paul speaking to the church at Ephesus. Therefore, be imitators of God, as dearly loved children, and walk in love as Christ also loved us and gave Himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God. But sexual immorality and any impurity or greed shouldn’t even be heard of among you. Let me say that again. Sexual immorality, any impurity or greed shouldn’t even be heard of among you as is proper for saints. Obscene and foolish talking or crude joking are not suitable, but rather giving thanks. For know and recognize this, every sexually immoral or impure or greedy person who is an idolater does not have an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

Man, if you thought the introduction to this sermon was heavy, what about Paul’s words right here? He uses some incredibly definitive and heavy language. What I want to do, what I need to do for us is help unpack this, for us to see where you stand with the Lord and offer you a way out or offer you some encouragement on your way.

Paul says that we are supposed to imitate God. Amen. I think that so many people that are not in the church and some that are in the church think that imitating God begins with what I do. It begins with all the rules I can keep. It begins with all the church activity I can muster up. It begins with all the Bible reading plans that I can accomplish or all the prayer prompts that I can follow. But that’s not what Paul says. Paul says, “Be imitators of God as dearly loved children and walk in love.”

Imitating God starts with love. It starts with being loved by a heavenly dad who gave up everything that could ever be given. He gave up everything to have you and that you would just love Him in return. Imitating God is all about love. It is all about loving God. It’s all about loving other people. Yes, the rulekeeping comes with that. Sure, the church activity should come with that. But that’s not the heart of it. Those are like the struts of a house. The foundation of the house is not rulekeeping. The foundation of your house ought to be being loved by God and loving God in return.

So, here’s the main thing I want you to really walk away from this message with. If there’s one thing you grab and you take with you for tomorrow, it’s this. Please listen up. We imitate God by walking in love. We imitate God by walking in love. Students, it’s not Tuesday night at 7:30 with 200 people up at the altar with their arms raised. That ought to come. It’s not reading your Bible religiously every day for the rest of your life. That should come. Imitating God is all about love.

So, let’s walk through this because here’s the deal. In 1 John 4:8, John the beloved disciple says that God is love. Which means the surefire way to imitate Him is to love. To be like God means to love people. And who did God love the most? Those who liked Him the least, us.

So let’s walk through this passage. We imitate God by walking in love. Verses one and two teach us something related to that. It teaches that imitating God begins with beholding. Imitation begins with beholding. I love how Paul does this. Paul leads with a command, but then follows it with a promise. He tells you who you are, and who you are directs what you do. Who you are is a loved child of God. That’s why you ought to walk in love.

Think about who Jesus is. Jesus is the ultimate expression and image of God, not my words. Jesus came and revealed what God was like. This is how the apostle John puts it in his own gospel. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Then the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed His glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. No one has ever seen God. The one and only Son, who is Himself God and is at the Father’s side, He has revealed Him. We see God. We behold God when we look to Jesus Christ. And because God really did inhabit humanity, and He took on flesh 2,000 years ago and lived a perfect life in our place and died a sacrificial death for us, but did not stay dead, but came back to life in a victorious resurrection and then in a glorious ascension back to heaven. Jesus is not here anymore. Physically, He is not here anymore. Spiritually, through the Holy Spirit, He dwells with us. But we cannot physically look at Jesus, who revealed the glory of the Father, which means we see Him here. And because this is the body of Christ, we ought to see Him there. If you want to imitate God, you better start by beholding Jesus Christ. Through Jesus’ own perfect life and sacrificial death, Jesus perfectly imitated God and revealed God’s heart for us. The ultimate expression of God’s love was how Jesus gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering. And who is us? For at the right time, while we were still helpless, Christ died for us, the ungodly. For rarely will someone die for a just person, though maybe for a good person, perhaps someone might even dare to die. But God proves His own love for us in that while we were sinners, Christ died for us. Who did Jesus come for? You and me. How does this passage describe us? Ungodly sinners. That’s the truth, man. It’s not because I don’t like you. It’s because I love you that you got to hear this from me. If I sugarcoat this at all, then the gospel doesn’t have its power or its potency to do anything in your life. At the right time, while we were the most needy, Christ died for us. That is the ultimate expression of God’s love. When we least deserved it, when we most needed it, Christ gave everything.

Man, here’s the deal. You and I, we were designed to imitate God. We were, man, we were hardwired to love God and to love other people. But we broke God’s heart when we rebelled against Him in the Garden of Eden. And ever since then, you and me and your grandma has been dealing with something inside of us called sin. And sin makes it really hard to do the right things. Don’t you get that, man? Does anybody else feel that? Maybe I’m the only person in the room. I’m just a little introspective this morning. You and I, we want to do the right things, right? Like none of us want to walk around being angry. None of us want to walk around using people and taking from people, right? But there’s like a living darkness on the inside of us that when we have this impulse for good, there’s also this voice for bad telling us that we ought to do the bad thing for us because maybe it won’t actually hurt anybody anyways, or maybe you deserve this, or you never do anything for yourself, or maybe that person deserves it. Look what they’ve done to you. We all have a really hard time doing the things we’re supposed to do because sin lives inside of us. And that’s why Jesus had to come and die, not just to forgive us of a theoretical debt we owe against God, but to really rescue us from ourselves. If you want to stop acting, if you want to stop playing church, if you want to stop pretending to be a Christian, if you want to live the life that God wants for you, then man, my encouragement is to look to Jesus. Turn your eyes upon Him. Look full in His wonderful face. Then all the things of this world will go strangely and strangely dim as you look. What is it? Is mercy and grace. Something like that. Do you know it better than me? And you’re probably turning in your seat right now saying, “Jeremy, don’t you know this stuff?” Imitating God requires love. It requires beholding Jesus, the ultimate expression of love. And because of that, acting isn’t enough. That’s verses three and four. Acting just is not enough. It’s enough to fool some folks here or whatever church you normally worship at. It’s enough to fool some family members. But acting is not enough. Remember, Paul is saying that while some people really are imitating God, there’s also some folks that are just acting. Some people claim to love God and occasionally do Godward things, but they also engage in some actions that Paul says just is not proper for saints.

When Paul opened up this letter to this church in Ephesus, he said, I’m just going to Ephesians chapter 1 verse 1 and 2, Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will to the faithful saints in Christ. That word saint, it means a set apart one, a dedicated person. Someone who is supposed to live a holy life because they’ve been marked for a holy purpose.

What Paul is saying here is that sexual immorality, impurity, greed. Verse three, those things shouldn’t even be heard of amongst saints. It’s not proper for saints. It’s the difference between a wedding dress and a daily wear sundress. Both can be beautiful, but a wedding dress is reserved for a sanctified purpose. You don’t wear your wedding dress on Sunday mornings. You don’t wear your wedding dress when you’re grabbing coffee with a friend. You wear the other stuff. At least that’s what I’m told. I don’t wear wedding dresses. I never have. Never plan on that. Wedding dresses have a reserved purpose. Christians have a reserved purpose. Just like it would be improper to wear a wedding dress to go work out, it is improper for Christians to practice these things.

Here’s the deal. If Uncle Jeremy can just saddle up beside you real quick. You cannot be a saint and live in sin. You can’t be a saint and live in sin. This is good news to free somebody right now. I’ve just got like this overwhelming sense that somebody is feeling incredibly personally offended. How about for a moment you just sit humbly before the Holy Spirit and you ask Him, “Is He talking to me?” You cannot love God and willingly engage in what God hates. You can’t be a saint and live in sin.

Here’s the question for you. Is your life proper for a Christ follower? Is it proper? This isn’t me. This isn’t my ideas. This is just coming from the Apostle Paul writing to this church in Ephesus. And we are getting to absorb the goodness of this. Is your life proper for a follower of Jesus? Or imagine this. If Jesus Christ was still walking with us bodily and He was looking over your shoulder at what you’re doing, would what you do make you blush to know that Jesus Christ, your Savior, was watching you? We live like we can hide things from God because physically we don’t have Jesus over our shoulder, but physically and spiritually we do have Him in our hearts through the person of the Holy Spirit.

Here’s the deal. There is nothing we do that is hidden from the sight of God. Man, are you sexually pure or are you openly living in sexual immorality? Do you fight sin in your mind, the judgmental thoughts and the cursing and the raging against people, or are you indulging in it? Are you greedily obsessed with more dollars, more stuff, more homes, or a bigger home? Or are you content with what God’s already given you? Is your talk crude, foolish, obscene, or is it filled with thanksgiving? Which one is it? Is your life proper? Or would your life actually make the Lord blush or make you blush before Him?

See, here’s the deal. God does not care about attracting a crowd of dressed up actors that love sin. God has no business in that. God does not care about attracting a crowd. What God is after is drawing together a pure family of imitators who actually love Him and want to live like Him in the world that He’s placed them in. There are so many people that fill pews in churches just like this who live like those outside of it.

Here’s the deal. I’m not saying that as Christians we need to be openly aggressively against people outside of the church. We ought to be the most loving toward them. But the way we talk should be very different from them. The sexual standards we hold ourselves to ought to be way higher than that. The type of contentment we have with our stuff ought to be so different from the greediness of those who do not profess faith in Jesus.

Is your life proper for a follower of Jesus? Or do you talk like people who do not profess faith in Jesus? Do you act like people who do not profess faith in Jesus? Again, it is not us verse them. But we cannot have a missionary presence in the communities God has placed us in if we do not live differently than the people of the communities where God has placed us. When Becca and I lived overseas, it would not have made sense for us to act like Muslims. If we had acted like Muslims, there would be no legitimacy to our faith in Jesus Christ. We had to live differently. But that did not mean that we openly antagonized them. That did not mean that we would intentionally try to offend them. No, we would love them, but we would say, “Hey, no, in fact, I actually don’t beat my wife because I love her and I serve her instead.” No, actually, in fact, I don’t treat women. I don’t make crude comments against girls because I’m married to my best friend and that could be a sister of mine in Jesus Christ. Like, if we act like the world, why would the world want what we say we have? Therefore, be imitators of God.

See, Christianity is not a part that you play. At the end of the day, actors when they are done acting, they take off their mask and they return to their real selves. The attitudes and the habits that they used were just part of a character they played. Having been a middle and high school student, having gone to student camp, I know what that’s like. I know what it’s like to go to camp and have this religious, spiritual, emotional high for a week. And then I get back home and I return to the real Jeremy. Students, y’all know what that’s like. You were just in an environment that was incredible for your spiritual growth because all we talked about was Jesus and the pool. But you get back from it. You get out of that environment and you kind of return to your real self. And I wonder whenever all of us leave here and you get back to your real life, are you taking an actor’s mask off? Or are you there who you are here? Are you an imitator of Jesus like you seem to be here? Are you an imitator or an actor? And man, the stakes are high.

Verse five tells us that imitation comes with an inheritance. And I want every person in this room to have an incredible inheritance, regardless of what your parents or grandparents passed down to you. Read verse five with me again. For know and recognize this. Every sexually immoral or impure or greedy person who is an idolater does not have an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Those who imitate Jesus will receive an inheritance in God’s kingdom. You see, based on their love for God and their embrace of God’s love for them, they will one day be in heaven with Him. And here’s the deal. God really wants you in heaven with Him. Like He left heaven so that He could get you and bring you back to His home in heaven. Like He left the throne and was born in a manger. Like God, the one who set the universe in motion, the one who spoke solar systems with a whisper, also had to learn how to speak with His mom and dad for you. God loves you. God really wants you in heaven with Him.

So, we’ve got to get this right. God wants you with Him. And maybe today you realize that you’ve been acting. Maybe today you realize that you’ve been pretending to be a Christian through all of your activity, through all of your religiosity, through all of your morals and rulekeeping. And you are wondering what’s the way. In the very beginning, God made us to love Him perfectly and to love each other perfectly. God made us to function like a choir and instruments under a leader that has harmony and melody with the Lord where our lives and our actions would be in step with Him. We’d be on the same time. We’d have the same tone. We would have our various parts but all singing the same song. That’s what God made us to live like. But because of Adam and Eve and their disobedience and that disobedience which has been passed down to all of us, we have been born in a state of brokenness. And you feel the brokenness at Wednesday. On Wednesday at 2:15 in the morning, I was feeling brokenness. Oliver heard brokenness. We all feel it. From the creaking of our bodies to the frustration that we feel in traffic to the anger we have against our loved ones and everything in between, you feel brokenness. And We try to escape that brokenness. We try to numb it. Some of us try to numb it through substances. If we get to the end of a bottle of some sort, we can feel better. And it might numb it for a moment. It might take it away for a moment. Some of us try to get away from the brokenness by our accomplishments and our achievements. If I can just earn this, if I could have that, if I could play in this, then I’d be fine. And it might make you feel better for a moment.

Some of us try to escape the brokenness even through religion. If I give enough money, if I take the Lord’s supper often enough, if I sing enough songs, if I attend enough Bible studies, and it might make you feel better. That’s the thing. But brokenness is like this. It’s this wall that we’re tethered to. And no matter how far away from the wall you can run away through whatever it might be, that bungee cord tether is always going to pull you back in. We can’t free ourselves from brokenness. Someone has to free us for us. And that’s why Jesus Christ came.

Jesus Christ came down. He left His home in heaven to live a perfect life for you and for me, one that we could never live through our rulekeeping and our hard work. And after living a perfect life, Jesus died a sacrificial death, fully accomplishing everything on the cross that you and I deserve to give. We deserve to be punished for our sin because there is a good God who is also holy, who has a standard that we have all transgressed. We have all fallen short of the glory of God. We have all broken His rules. We are all ungodly. We are all dark. We all need rescue.

But after Jesus lived that perfect life and gave His life for us on the cross and died, He did not stay dead. No, no, He did not stay dead. He came back to life fully securing a victory for us over sin and death and shame and darkness and the whispers in your mind that tell you to do the things you don’t want to do. God, He defeated all that on the cross so that you could have freedom from yourself and from the sin of this world. And now He offers you a new life in Him if you would only turn your back on the old way. Turn to Jesus and embrace the grace that God has for you. That’s the way out. The way you go from an actor to an imitator. Though your life may look similar with some of your habits and your decisions, the way you go is through love. It is through loving God and embracing the fact that God loves you.

You see, God doesn’t just save you. He doesn’t save you, sorry, because of your imitation. God saves you by His grace. But grace doesn’t just forgive you. Grace ought to reshape you. It ought to transform you. It ought to change you. The hope of the gospel is not eternal fire insurance. The hope of the gospel is not just a guarantee that you won’t go to the bad place. The hope of the gospel is a freedom you can live with right now because God has done everything for you, you can’t do for yourself.

Paul is trying to tell us to stop acting. Stop acting. Man, if you came in this morning trying to check a box, stop acting. If you came in this morning so frustrated that your preferences aren’t being met, guess what? None of our preferences are king here. The preferences are of our King, Jesus Christ. Let’s stop acting. If you came in this morning just hoping to get out of here to go do something a little more entertaining later, guess what? This isn’t for your entertainment. Let’s stop acting. Let’s stop trying to have a camp experience where we all come forward and raise our hands or whatever that means for you, but you can go away from camp and live your real life outside of that. Let’s please just stop acting. Christ is calling for imitation, living differently because the gospel has done something in us. Are you an imitator or are you an actor?

Man, can you bow your heads and close your eyes for me? No manipulation here. Holy Spirit, please speak right now. God, I need You to speak. Imitators obviously aren’t perfect, but they are on a purifying trajectory against sin. And actors may pretend to do Christian things, but they don’t actually love Jesus. Can you pray This prayer after me? God, am I an imitator or an actor? Lord, I’m not sure where to go from here. If you believe that God revealed to you this morning that you’re actually an actor, would you be brave enough before Him to raise your hand? All right, hands down. Thank you. Thank you for your bravery and your honesty. If you feel like the Lord was helping you see that you’re an imitator, will you raise your hand then? Thank you, God. I cannot shake this feeling that there’s something happening right now. Lord, we’ve already come to 12. I want to pray over everybody. God, the holy Lord of the universe who sees the inner parts of us, the one who left heaven and came and lived on the earth You created to save people You made to love You, who loved sin instead. Would You please settle on the actors in our room and draw them from their acting into love? Would You settle on the imitators and encourage them in their love for You? Please do some work over this final song. Thank You, Christ. Amen.