The title of the message is Gospel Imitation, Thriving in Christ as Disciples who are Striving for Christ. That is the sub-theme of our text. Gospel Imitation, Thriving in Christ as Disciples who are Striving for Christ. And we're going to find our text in 1 Corinthians 4, verses 14-21. Now, before we dive into it, because obviously the most important thing that we'll do today is read the text of scripture. That's the most important thing I will say, is what God's word says. So we're gonna read that in a moment. But just think about how influential pop culture can be. Now, Debbie had no idea that I was intending to use this as my illustration, and she just gave me the absolute most perfect ever visual aid this morning and didn't even know that I was going to talk about this. Think about pop culture and how influential it can be in our society. I don't know if you can see this. I have this wonderful strand of Christmas lights. And what is hanging from it is the Enterprise D, okay, the Enterprise D. Oh, here we go, Enterprise D. for those of you who enjoy and understand what that is. For whatever reason, the Defiant made the list. The Defiant is Captain Sisko's vehicle of choice. You have a Romulan Warbird, okay, Romulan Warbird. This is not OG Romulan Warbird, okay, so this isn't from the 60s. This is more of the 1990s version of the Romulan Warbird, a little bit more aggressive and assertive, I would say. Apparently, the neck is a vulnerable spot on this. as we find out in the series. And then a Klingon bird of prey. This is Oji, and of course goes all the way back to the wonderful episode four of the movies where they rescue whales from the 1980s, bring them into the 23rd century to save the species. That is this famous warbird. And then, oh, wait a minute, we have a usurper. What in the world is going on here? Anybody know what that is? That is the Millennium Falcon. So I guess I should say may the force be with you, right? Because we have a usurper. We have Star Wars and Star Trek right here this morning. You know, it's interesting that, again, Debbie had no idea that this would fit nicely with the intro of my message this morning. But pop culture is incredibly influential. As I began to mention some of the names of these vehicles on this Christmas strand of Christmas lights, some of you are thinking back to maybe Captain James T. Kirk, who called Spock to help him capture the Romulans, right? And maybe some of you were thinking of Captain Jean-Luc Picard in games, right? Or maybe you were thinking a little bit forward Chakotay, engage, or whatever she says. I can't remember, you know, Captain Janeway. I don't know what you were thinking, but either way, you immediately began to think about sort of the series, this movie and TV series that has captivated audiences since the 60s. Maybe, maybe with, as soon as I raised the strand, you saw the Millennium Falcon and immediately, you know, I am your father. You know, you were, you're immediately drawn to the epic saga of Star Wars that again has gone from 1977 to the present with all kinds of ingenious creations and storytelling. Either way, you can see how easily influenced we are by popular culture. And in fact, the ideas and the ideology of both of those series are both just as equally wrong, but could not even be more divergent. You had the Star Trek series that viewed man as God. Very humanistic in its philosophy, man will eventually rise above its problems, rise above its selfishness, and build a utopian society that will end poverty and end war, and will explore the unknowns of the galaxy in vessels of peace. Right? And if you see any of the new modern, I'm not advocating for the modern Star Trek series, but you can see this utopian ideology of the 60s has turned into a dystopian reality because that generation of writers has realized that mankind is not getting better. And they are not improving themselves. And ultimately, man as God is not working out very well. Now, Star Wars is less humanistic and more sort of a yin-yang Eastern mysticism idea that there is a forever battle between good and evil, and though it appears that evil is more aggressive, assertive, and more powerful and more dominating, that in the end, ultimately, the drop of good on the evil side outweighs the drop of evil on the good side, and therefore, good always wins. and you've got this consummate struggle in the universe. Both of those philosophies and ideologies are anti-biblical. Neither one of them are true according to Scripture. Scripture teaches us that there is a good, awesome, all-powerful, sovereign God that made everything out of nothing, and He made you, the chief of His creation, on purpose for a purpose, and that purpose was to glorify Him as you serve alongside Him in perfect fellowship and harmony, having dominion over this beautiful creation, this earth, and all of the universe. God created us with an incredible creative capacity, so much so that we have the genius of our generation, not only planning societies on another planet in our solar system, but showing that He can create vehicles that will not just you know, surpass the gravity of Earth, but they will come back down and land on chopstick platforms automatically all by themselves. And it wasn't science fiction, folks. It actually happened last fall. And the point I'm making is, That the philosophy, the way of life, the system of values or beliefs that guides our every action, your philosophy, my philosophy, system of values or beliefs that guides our every action, must be founded and grounded in the Word of God. God's Word shares with us that God has a special plan for you, the chief of His creation. And though sin entered in the world, and death by sin, and death is passed upon all men, for all have sinned, as we learn later on, that sin entered the garden through choice. The choice to disobey God and obey Satan. The deception that Satan brought in. The question, has God said? And boy, our society hasn't strayed very far from that question. Has God really said? that there should be male and female? Has God really said that marriage is one woman, one man for life? Has God really said that we should, you know, call good, good and evil, evil, right? And so the list goes on and on. So by the time we get to the book of 1 Corinthians, we find Paul preaching and planting a church, he spends three years in the city of Corinth, planting a church in a society that's not very dissimilar to our society today. A society that is driven by vain and empty philosophy. A society that denies that there is a good, all-powerful, all-knowing, sovereign Creator that loves them and made them for a purpose. This society that Paul preaches to, the society of Corinth, was a society of pragmatism. a society of polytheism, worshiping many gods, a society that put the prowess and the power of men to subjugate others above the humility of a man to give in sacrifice to others. You see, the city of Corinth was a city that is not far removed from the society that we live in today. And just like our society is driven and influenced by the influencers that tell us these empty philosophies, the movies and series that have shaped 60 years of entertainment. So we too can be a people, not of this world, but of the children of God that can be influencers who imitate those who imitate the gospel. And so the text of 1 Corinthians 4, the heart of this text is found really very clearly in Paul's admonition to imitate me. We find that in verse 16. He says, therefore I urge you, imitate me. And I would argue, and I think that the text argues that that statement, imitate me, in its context is the point of the first four chapters of the book. Paul is laying out an argument that says the gospel is important and valuable, and thus imitating those who believe the gospel is important and valuable. So, as we look at the text this morning, we need to kind of step back and talk about where we've been. Paul's strong theme has really been the supremacy or the major importance of the gospel to break down societal walls of separation. In Corinth, the society was separated by ethnicity, by gender, by social status, by economics. Sound familiar? And the believers in the Church of Corinth were trophies of God's grace. They'd been saved out of all of those things and been called to live by the gospel, not by the philosophies that they were taught that were empty and vain. The believers in the Church of Corinth, like them, all of us must strive for the mastery. They were a work in progress. Paul's letter that we're ingesting strikes at the heart of their need for growth and godliness. They need to embrace the gospel. They need to do so daily, in every circumstance. And it's because the gospel is what initially brought them together in the unity of the faith in the first place, under one Lord, under one faith, under one baptism, under one Father who's Lord over all, in them all, and ministering through them all, in His Son, Jesus Christ. The gospel didn't stop with just their unity, but moved on to deepening their wisdom in what is genuine and true, God's gospel wisdom. That's what we saw in chapter 1. That wisdom was what they were to embrace, what would produce actions befitting followers of Jesus, and what would eventually lead to their eternal reward. In other words, the wisdom that we follow eventually affects our attitudes and actions. If we follow the wisdom of this world, if we pattern ourselves after the humanism of a Star Trek or the Eastern mysticism of a Star Wars, we will find ourselves at the end of that long road empty, disheartened, and disappointed. But when we accept the wisdom of God's gospel, we will find ourselves as imitators of Jesus at the end of a life of hardship, struggle, and trial, to be sure, but a life that's eternally valuable, a life that has eternal reward, and a blessing that comes from knowing Christ. And so, we found that God was calling the believers of Corinth to participate in his unifying work of preaching and living the gospel. This would necessitate rejecting worldly wisdom, refusing to create factions in their church over personalities or preferences, and saying no to sinful practices that condemn and separate them from Jesus Christ. In short, as we noted at the close of chapter 3, like the Corinthians, we are to avoid self-deception. We are to employ gospel wisdom. We are to enjoy gospel blessings. We must understand the key theological principle being laid out as one of Paul's prominent themes—be who you are. If you've accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you have been transformed. You were once old nature, and now you are a new creation in Christ. So accept that newness. Be who you are, that transformed follower of Jesus. That's what Paul was telling the Corinthian believers. That's what we are told today. Being who you are, though, is also a team effort. It takes a team to live a life that eternally matters. It takes the church, united, connected, going one direction at one pace under leaders that are God-ordained, serving, and loving. The final three exhortations from chapter 3 also beckon us to a gospel unified life by avoiding self-deception, refusing to boast in men, and enjoying what is actually ours in Jesus. And so the last time we were together, we read through the first 13 verses of chapter 4. We noted that Paul circled back to those big ideas to tackle the problem of divisive preferences and judgmentalism regarding leaders in the church. So God is calling us, as a church, to find and embrace our true gospel identity. As such, we were exhorted to consider our position and purpose in verses 1-5, and to be disciples of Scripture and to reject pride in verses 6-12 of chapter 4. In fact, in short, we were called to embrace our gospel identity. Now, with that in mind, As we close out chapter four today, we will see that embracing our gospel identity requires us to be in a discipleship relationship that imitates gospel living of our spiritually mature mentors. Gospel growth starts with receiving and claiming your gospel identity and continues through gospel imitation. So the kernel of truth today that we walk home with, the end of this message hopefully, is to thrive in Christ, you must be a gospel imitator. To thrive in Christ, you and I must be a gospel imitator. Well, after that introduction, you might ask the question, well, what does the text teach about gospel imitation? That was a great question. I'm glad you asked that this morning. What does the text teach about gospel imitation? Well, let's look at it this morning, shall we? Chapter four, we're gonna jump in verse 14 and read to the end of the chapter. This is Paul speaking directly, intimately, and passionately to this group, and we're going to say, I'm going to tip my hat to you, today we're going to see two facts about gospel imitators from the text today. The first one we will see is that gospel imitators follow the right leaders. We'll see that in verses 14 to 17. He alludes to it at the end as well, but primarily in those first two verses. And then the second one we are going to see in a few moments, is that gospel imitators experience the right results. When we imitate the gospel, we will live a life that results in that imitation. And we're going to see what those are in a moment. So, as we think through those points this morning, let's go ahead and read the text. I do not write, Paul speaking, I do not write these things to shame you, but as my beloved children, I warn you." Remember, he's talking about the previously written content. Hey, you guys have been fighting about who's the leaders of the church. I'm of Paul. I'm of Paulus. I'm of Cephas. Well, I'm of Jesus, right? Like just arguing and divided and bickering and self-centered. And he says, look, I'm not writing this to shame you, but I am writing this to warn you. for though you might have 10,000 instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers." Let me pause for a moment. He uses hyperbole and understatement back-to-back. 10,000 is the largest number mentioned in Scripture until you get to the book of Revelation, which is 10,000 times 10,000, and this is essentially hyperbole on hyperbole. In other words, he's saying, if you had as many instructors as is feasibly possible to count, Which you don't. That's what he's saying. He's using hyperbole. You don't have those. For in Christ Jesus, I have begotten you through the gospel. Therefore, I urge you, imitate me. For this reason, I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful son in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways in the church as I teach everywhere. in every church. I skipped a phrase, I apologize. Back in verse 15, you don't have 10,000 instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers. Again, he's using understatement. How many fathers do they have? One, him, right? So he's using understatement and overstatement to essentially kernelize this thought, hey, look, because I am your spiritual father, because I care and nurture you as a father, you need to imitate me. I'll explain a little bit more about that in a moment. So, verse 18, Now some are puffed up, as though I were not coming to you. But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord wills. And I will know not the word of those who are puffed up, but the power. For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. What do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in love and in the spirit of gentleness? And he ends the section with a question. So, we're going to see two facts about gospel imitators in the text today. The first fact is this, gospel imitators follow the right leaders, verses 14 to 17. Who are we introduced to? We're introduced to Paul as the father, the spiritual father, the one who brought them the gospel, the one who helped birth them into the spiritual life. and we're also introduced to Timothy whom he calls his son in the Lord. What we see then is a pattern of discipleship. A disciple or a follower learner of Jesus must follow and learn from someone who is following Jesus. That's why at Crossroad Baptist Church, we won't do it today for sake of the visitors we have, but at Crossroad you will often hear me ask the question, who is the church? And we respond, we are. What is the church's mission? To glorify God. How do we accomplish that mission? By being disciples who are making disciples. See, the whole book of 1 Corinthians is all about saying no to the empty vein philosophies of this world, identifying with who I am in Jesus, and learning how to navigate all these empty and vain philosophies this world is throwing at me with the gospel. And today we've come to the heart of the matter in the first four chapters that we do that by imitating our leaders. and specifically Christ is the head of the church. We understand that, right? But ultimately there are two sub points here. Gospel imitators follow the right leaders. Who are the right leaders? Well, he's told them specifically Paul and Timothy. So they're local pastors. Those who are immediately present in their lives. That's what he's calling them to. Hey, gospel imitators Follow the right leaders. At Crossroad Baptist Church, as a gospel imitator, you and I must be men and women who follow our local pastors. Now, you all know me. Some of you are visiting for the first time, so this might seem awkward to you. You know I'm not a domineering, austere, dictatorial guy. I'm not. I'm not that kind of pastor. I'm the kind of pastor that believes, as an under-shepherd of Jesus, I need to be humble, I need to love you like Christ loved you, gently and in meekness. And that's how I live. That's the way I am. What you see is what you get. There's nobody different here in the pulpit than at home. You can ask my wife. I have feet of clay, so I do say and do stupid things and have to ask for forgiveness. I am just a normal person following Jesus. However, I am your normal person. I am the pastor God has equipped and called to Crossroad. And then God has blessed us by adding another pastor at Crossroad, Pastor Steven. And we work together with one mind and one heart, with one focus and one direction to shepherd the sheep of Crossroad, to grow you in a grace, to equip you to do the work of the ministry so that we can make an impact as gospel imitators together in our community for the sake of Jesus. Notice that in the exegetical context here, he sort of contrasts the difference between a father and a guardian. So I just threw that up there so you can make note of that. Basically, what he's saying is Paul is contrasting what it means to be someone's father versus guardian. Now, of course, our greatest father figure is our Heavenly Father, and He's the only perfect one we will ever know. However, I think everybody in here understands what the closeness of the parent-child relationship implies. And some of you didn't know your earthly father, didn't have a good relationship with your earthly father, and I understand that. But we have a Heavenly Father that sets the perfect example. But either way, Paul is using this human illustration to show and juxtaposition the difference between someone who has a familial relationship with you versus someone who's hired to do the job. And ultimately, in the ancient world, a guardian was often someone hired to be the manager of someone's children. It included everything from their protection, to their education, to their daily provision. So this guy could be a guy or girl, could be, you know, live in protection, cooking their meals, giving them baths, clothing them, taking them to school, or could be their tutor. There's all kinds of different jobs this household manager would do as a guardian. They could have even been a slave or an indentured servant in the home. However, the hired guardian rarely cared for the children like a blood parent. And Paul is imploring the Corinthians to stop fighting and dividing themselves and to walk humbly following his fatherly example. Friends, we live in an amazing generation, don't we? How many of you got something technological for Christmas? Okay, all right, a good number of you. You know, technology puts everything at our fingertips, doesn't it? We can create meals from cookbooks at our fingertips, right? You know, Google, tell me how to make roasted pork, right? All of a sudden, bingo, there's 16 different, you know, stuff. Just pick the one that has, I have ingredient, oh, I've got that herb, I've got that spice, I've got a pork loin, that's good. This one says I should dice it. This one says I should just lay it out and filet it. This one says I should rub it. This one says I should shove it full of stuff. This one says I should wrap it in bacon. Good choice. I mean, I know I should stop. We're getting close to lunch. But the point is this. We have what we want at our fingertips. We can look at a cookbook and make something ourselves. Or we could just use Uber Eats and order it online and have it delivered to our doorstep in 15 minutes. We can ask Google or Siri how to do just about anything and have a patient mentor on YouTube explain it to us, fully equipped with a pause and rewind button. This has made us think that we don't need the family that God has given us or the family leaders that God has placed in our lives. Think about that from a theological concept. We live in the most theologically robust society ever. The church a number of years ago bought me some software called Logos. Some of you say Logos. It's Logos, okay? They bought me Logos. It's Bible software. And I now have my entire library exponentially now on this little teeny device. Over 10,000 volumes of books I have access to at the click of a button. No wonder my sermons are so long, right? No, the point here is this, as we think about it, we can read sermons and eloquent words from Augustine, Chris Sostlum, Thomas Aquinas, Jonathan Edwards, David Whitfield, David Brainerd, John Murray, John Owen, C.H. Spurgeon, R.A. Torrey, J.C. Ryle, Karl Barth, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Paul Tillich, N.T. Wright, Warren Wiersbe, Charles Ryrie, Charles Stanley, David Jeremiah, C.J. Mahaney, John MacArthur, John Piper, or Kevin DeYoung, and I only made a small list. Yet, none of those men know you personally. None of them go to your church. None of them visit you in the hospital. None of them call you or text you when you're down. None of them take you out to eat. None of them care for you. None of them pray for you. None of them serve you. That's Paul's point here. There are those who are gospel imitators, and gospel imitators must follow the right example. Those who are gospel imitators must follow the right example. They are to follow the pastors of their local church. Now, when you're doing that, I promise you, you're gonna catch us saying stupid things, making mistakes, and when you're following us, you're gonna say, hey, pastor, you said something on Sunday. I read this verse this week. You think they kinda go? Oh, you know what, sister? Thank you for sharing that with me. I completely missed that. Or if you're keeping the Pastor Ryan Dictionary, I think it's still just one volume, thankfully. You'll note that there are a lot of silly things that I've said from the pulpit over the years, including, I think the highlight is spiritual thongs. I think spiritual thongs, that's the highlight. I was trying to say psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, and I said spiritual thongs. Anyway, that's definitely going in the annals of ridiculous that things the pastor said. The point I'm making is, though we are not perfect, we are your shepherds. And when Pastor Steven and Pastor Ryan approach you and need your help, when we come to you in love and say, hey, you know, we've missed you, or, hey, you know, I know I see these gifts that you've got, and I'm wondering if you could use them here in this aspect of ministry, just know it's because we love you. It's because we're just as excited that God has brought you here to Crossroad as you are about being here. Maybe, maybe, maybe we're a little bit more excited that you're here. And so the point is this. If we're to be an imitator of Christ, we need to do so by following the people God has placed in our lives. We are to do so lovingly and understandingly. You understand that we're mere men. We're not to compare our pastor's personalities or their preaching to others they can hear on the radio or over their favorite podcast. I promise you there's a lot better preachers on the radio and podcasts than I am. I promise. You don't even have to go very far. Just a quick millisecond and boom, there you go. You can listen to your favorite preacher. But the point is, if you're a part of this assembly, you are called to be a gospel imitator within this assembly. And that requires you to understand, first and foremost, that you have a local pastor and local pastors who are immediately present in your life that you are to love and imitate. Secondly, we see that true disciples of Jesus are those who live out the gospel in humble, obedient action. The text actually talks about that, as we see in verse 17 and following, how are they to imitate Paul? Verse 17 explains that it has to do with his way of life in Christ, and the most immediate example is back in chapter 4, verses 9 to 13, when Paul actually told them of the suffering that he was experiencing for the gospel's sake. But it's also the proper response, that suffering for the gospel's sake is also the proper response to those who inflict that suffering. He saw that in verses 12 and 13. To imitate Paul would then be to walk in the way of humility and suffering and godliness for the cause of Christ. Imitation is not the same as saying, I belong to Paul. Rather, Paul wants them to incarnate the cross. In other words, live out the cross in their life, die to self, die to passions other than passions for Christ. To live out their Christian identity in a real and meaningful way, to become true disciples of Christ. This teaching, Paul claims, is universal to all churches and not specifically only to the church at Corinth. Ultimately, Jesus set the example. He was the ultimate, quintessential example. Paul records that in Philippians chapter 2, when he, the King of Heaven, humbled himself and was obedient to the Father's will, even to die on a cross for you and for me. And so, as true disciples of Jesus, we are to let our actions show our belief. Like James tells us, faith is an action verb. What we say we believe must be shown in our attitudes and our actions. If we say we love Jesus, then we must live like we love Jesus. If we say we submit to Jesus, then we must live like we do. If we say we follow Jesus, then we must do what Jesus does. To thrive in Christ, you and I must be a gospel imitator. We imitate those who are leading us in our assemblies. We imitate Christ in humble obedience. But there's a second fact in the text in verses 14 to 21. Gospel imitators experience the right results. Gospel imitators experience the right results. Now, there are four sub points here, and I'll have to go through them rather rapidly. The first one is this, warning those whom they fathered. When you are imitating Jesus, when you are following the gospel and you're applying the gospel to your life, Right? That often necessitates warning those who you are discipling, who you are responsible for. Those in your small group and in your inner circle and your immediate family and your extended family. Now the word warn here can be a strong word, but it actually has the idea of admonition. It has the idea of applying truth for somebody else's safety, right? Not for their harm, but for their good. Warning those whom they fathered. According to Paul, a major responsibility of church leaders is to warn those for whom they care in the Lord. 1 Corinthians 5.12 says that. Colossians 1.28, which resonates at a lot of levels with the opening of first chapters of 1 Corinthians. It's a good summary of his strategy. an intention in confronting the Corinthians that were boasting and they were factionalized. He's basically telling them, look, Paul's point in sending Timothy is to remind them that God's people need a present shepherd. They need to follow specific leaders who are following Jesus. Jesus stated as much in John 10. Remember John 10? My sheep hear my voice. They know me. They follow me. That's what he's getting at. Why is he sending Timothy? He's sending Timothy because the sheep need a shepherd to be present. Your pastors love you and work hard to carefully, patiently admonish you to accept the gospel and to live by it. Now, I'm gonna say more about this in a different context. The next point sort of alludes to this, but let me just throw this caveat out there. No human being is meant to be the judge over another human being. James chapter 4 clearly states that. Okay, so when I'm talking about warning, we're talking about the kind of warning that when you take your kids to the Grand Canyon and there's not a guardrail, you've already told them in advance, I don't want you within 15 feet of the edge. Right? You know what I'm talking about, nervous Nelly moms, right? You're talking about like, what kind of rope can I tie to their waist kind of a thing, right? It's the idea of, I want them protected, not I'm ruling over them, or I'm looking into their lives. I'm just gonna say this, as human beings, we often can be more discerning about other people's problems than we are about our own. That's why Jesus said in His Sermon on the Mount, hey listen, when you have a friend or a brother who has sinned, would you deal with the giant beam sticking out of your eye first before smacking them in the head with it? In other words, there needs to be some self-reflection, right? And if you've got the right kind of church family, and Crossroad is, You're gonna have a church family that is not judging you, but coming alongside you and saying, oh sister, man, I know you're really struggling here. You know what, I've been there before. Let me help you. Come alongside. I don't know, I don't have the words to say, but I can pray with you right now. And I would like to pray with you. And in fact, when you're struggling with these thoughts or these emotions or these feelings of sadness or despair, why don't you text me and immediately I'm gonna call you and we're gonna talk. We're gonna pray. That's the kind of, admonishing we're talking about. It's not the, oh, you need to do right, mm-mm-mm, right? That's not what I'm talking about. It's the kind of admonition that says, you know what? I'm gonna help you along the way. So there's a second aspect where gospel imitators experience the right results. Awarding those that are within the family. It's not just the pastors that are admonishing and coming alongside and helping and lifting one another up. We are to do that together. In Galatians 6, Paul said, hey, brothers and sisters, you spiritual ones, he's not actually addressing the pastors, he's saying everybody in the church, you're spiritual, you have the Holy Spirit of God, you're saved. The whole context of chapter 5 is, walk in the Spirit and you won't fulfill the lust of the flesh. You spiritual ones, come along the person, if you see a brother or sister overtaken to a fault, Restore them in meekness and fear, lest you also be tempted. It doesn't say beat them down with your Bible club. Don't smack them in the head with your Bible stick. That's not what it says. It says restore them. Right. So you go for the very purpose of pulling them out of the mire. And guess what? Sometimes we get stuck as humans in the mire so down deep that it takes a while to get us out. I wish I had thought to put it on the screen, but there was a meme going around Instagram for a while. It was hilarious. It was a sheep that got stuck in a trench, head down, and the shepherd comes up and he pulls it out, and immediately the sheep just skips away twice and plunges right back in the trench. It was just, I'm sorry, I know it doesn't sound funny, me telling it, because I'm not a funny person, but it was hilarious, trust me. And it was such a perfect illustration of what we're like as humans. You know, somebody comes up, helps us out, like, oh, thank you for getting me out of that horrible pit I was stuck in, bleep, bleep, bleep, boom, right back in. A little help, please, ah, right? And yet, how many of us need that kind of family? That kind of family that says, oh, you're in the trench again. That's all right. The same thing I pulled you out with last time, it will work again. But this time, I'm going to kind of stand in front of the trench so you don't jump back in. Right? That kind of stuff. Not the, well, you know, if you would just be like me. Right? No, no, no. That's not the kind of imitation we're talking about. Believers are likewise toward each other. 1 Thessalonians 5.14, Romans 15.14, and Colossians 3.16. We know that this doesn't call us to be judges over one another. Paul already dealt with that misunderstanding earlier in the book. But Paul actually admonishes us to care for, support, and protect one another. following what Jesus taught in Matthew 18. That is, we go and restore the person. We love on them, we care for them, we protect them, we shelter them, we shield them. Hey, some of you silver hairs in here, there's a lot of us younger folks that could benefit from your wisdom and your experience. And in the way that wouldn't be a, well, I told you so, but more of, well, even though I saw that coming, I can help you. I can help you with a solution, right? And young people, some of the silver hairs or the no hairs in here, they could use you coming up to them, asking for a little wisdom because they might be lonely. They might feel out of touch or out of place. They might feel like their time has passed and a whole generation below them doesn't think that they matter or important anymore. But if you come and you spend a few hours with them, you might find they've got a lot of wisdom to share. And that's what the family of God is all about. That's what this admonition is for. There's a third thing that we're to do, experiencing the unity of the Spirit through the Word. And we see in the text here that Paul is saying, look, The kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. You say, well, why did you say experiencing it through the word? What he's saying is the kingdom of God is not just somebody's empty speech, but it's through the word of God and the power of God through the Holy Spirit of God. That's the implication. And I don't have time to take you there, but he's mentioned it in chapter one, two, and three. illusion to contrasting their empty words and vain philosophy, right? Humanism, Star Trek. Eastern mysticism, Star Wars, right? Contrasting it with the solid Word of God. Paul is not impressed with words, but rather with deeds. Are they effective for the Kingdom of God? That's what he's saying. And when you are an imitator or a follower of Jesus, and you're imitating Those who are imitating Christ then gospel imitators experience the right results. You're gonna experience unity of the spirit through the word When the Word of God is preached received and believed it produces unity and not division I Don't know any of you have been in churches where Everybody comes they look polished and pretty But after the service all you hear is backbiting and infighting Complaining about this person in that person Thankfully crossword is not like that. I praise God that this is a genuine Group of people that love Jesus with all their heart and strive to please Jesus and serve each other But when the Word of God is preached and received and believed it should produce unity not division if there's slander and backbiting and evil speaking That's not spirit driven unity. That means the word isn't being received and believed, right? And so there's a last one here that's shown in the text, walking in love, producing the fruit of the Spirit. He says, what shall I, what do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod or in love and a spirit of gentleness? And obviously this is a rhetorical question and obviously he wants to come in love and a spirit of gentleness. By the way, those two things are fruit of the Spirit. And so when you and I are imitating Christ, and imitating those who imitate Christ, and we're coming and being present and participating in our local assembly, then we will walk in love and produce the fruit of the Spirit. Some exegetical comments here. Paul wants to come with a gentle spirit because he wants his readers to be walking in the Spirit. When we are gospel imitators, we will experience the right results in our lives. The fruit of the Spirit. Remember Jesus' warnings in Matthew 25, we preached about a couple of weeks ago. And in Luke 13-15, when he calls people to real, true discipleship of Christ. If anyone would come after me, if anyone would be a disciple of me, Jesus said, let him take up his cross daily and follow me. So, die to self. Die to the things of this world. die to the vain philosophies of this world and live for Christ. In conclusion, we've seen today that gospel imitation is thriving in Christ as disciples who are striving for Christ. We learned that to thrive in Christ, you must be a gospel imitator. May God help us to be gospel imitators, to follow Christ, and to follow Christ's people and to see those wonderful results in our lives, unity and Spirit-filled living. Let's pray. Father, we thank