CALLED TO BE LIKE CHRIST

Acts 29 #7

Pastor Dennis Clanton

Woodland Church

Sunday, November 16, 2025

(Acts 20:32, WCA) “Now I commit you to God and the message about his extravagant love. Such love can strengthen you and build you up so that you will become like Jesus. You will then share in the inheritance that God gives to all those he has set apart for himself.”

(1 John 4:17, NLT) “And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world.”

LIVE LIKE JESUS

(1 John 1:5–7, NLT) “This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.”

1.  Live simply

(Acts 16:4, Message) “They presented the simple guidelines the Jerusalem apostles and leaders had come up with.”

“Life is deep and simple, and what our society gives us is shallow and complicated.” –Mr. Rogers

2.  Be patient

(Acts 20:32, GW) “I am now entrusting you to God and to his message that tells how kind he is. That message can help you grow and can give you the inheritance that is shared by all of God’s holy people.”

3.  Spend time daily with Jesus

(Acts 2:46, Message) “They followed a daily discipline of worship in the Temple followed by meals at home, every meal a celebration, exuberant and joyful,”

4.  Do life together with encouragement partners

(Acts 2:42, Message) “They committed themselves to the teaching of the apostles, the life together, the common meal, and the prayers.”

GROWTHWORK

1.  Go deep

(Acts 20:21, NLT) “I have had one message … the necessity of repenting from sin and turning to God, and of having faith in our Lord Jesus.”

(1 John 1:5, NLT) “God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.”

2.  What would Jesus do if he were you?

(1 John 2:6, NLT) “Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.”

3.  God will finish what you can’t complete in your lifetime

(Philippians 1:6, NLT) “And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.”

(Acts 20:24, NLT) “But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.”