WHO IS YOUR ROLE MODEL? – Saturday October 15th 2016
Memorise: Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of
Christ. 1st Corinthians 11:1
Read: Philippians
3:14-19, (KJV)
14 I
press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
15 Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.
16 Nevertheless,
whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the
same thing.
17 Brethren,
be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an
ensample.
18 (For
many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that
they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:
19 Whose
end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their
shame, who mind earthly things.)
Bible in one year:
Daniel 9:10, Psalms 78:55-72
MESSAGE
One thing that thrills me about the Bible is that it is a library of
books that confirms that there is no new thing under the heaven. Everything
good, bad and ugly have happened before and they are written so that we can
learn from them. We have had many leaders in both secular and religious
history; we still have leaders in the present age. The question is; who is your
role model? Show me your model and I can tell you who you are. In the Bible
reading for today, we read about someone who was bold enough to tell his
audience to follow him because he was a follower of the Greater Master, Jesus.
Open Heavens 15 October 2016:-Who is your role model? He went further to
tell the Philippians what he did with his life:
“Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but
this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching
forth unto those things which are before. I press toward the mark of the prize
of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 3:13-14
In his effort to please his Master and Lord, the apostle said that those
things which were gain to him, he counted as nothing so that he may win Christ
and His righteousness. He aspired to become like Jesus Christ to the point of
no return. He said in Philippians 3:10:
“That I may know him, and the power of his
resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto
his death.”
We can learn many things from the life of this apostle: If we look at
the dramatic change that followed his encounter with Jesus Christ on the way to
Damascus, we cannot help but ask whether we plan to go to the same heaven with
this soldier of the Cross. His memoirs are clearly written in 2nd
Corinthians 11 and 12. He spoke in part about the price of not only his
discipleship but also of his apostleship, as he talked of a thorn in his flesh
that buffeted him and then concluded in 2nd Corinthians 12:9-10
by saying:
“And he said unto me, “My grace is sufficient for
thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” Most gladly therefore will
I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in
persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I
strong.”
Beloved, who is your role model? We have living role models in the
present age; those that are sold to the righteousness attainable only in Christ,
those who have not corrupted themselves with the affairs of this life. Their
lifestyles may not be amiable but if we follow them, our heavenly destination
is guaranteed. Paul, the apostle under study, warned us thus in Philippians
3:17
“Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them
which walk so as ye have us for an example.”
The reason he gave was that many, even as early as the first century
Church did not walk uprightly. As it was in the beginning so it is now.
Therefore, beloved, watch out for good role models and pattern your life after
them as they do after Christ. 15 October 2016 Open Heavens.
Action Point
Look among Christian
leaders and find out those living according to Christ’s doctrine. Follow their
footsteps.
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