GODLINESS: Living and Loving Like Christ

As we’re walking through the lessons learned by evaluating the life of Joseph, let me ask you this question: What does it mean to make – and keep – Jesus the center of our lives? The word center is defined as “a person (or thing) that is the chief object of attention, interest, activity or emotion; that which everything else revolves around.” Is Jesus the center of your life? Of my life? We can be certain Jesus was the center of Joseph’s life.

Salvation comes when we choose to invite Jesus to be the center of our lives. But what about keeping Him there? Purposefully keeping Jesus at the center of our lives is called sanctification, and it means actively living a life aimed at growing in godliness. So what does it mean to be godly? Godliness means we have centered our lives in Christ, and, in my mind, it has two separate but equal parts:

• We purpose to LIVE like Christ.
  • LIVING like Christ involves our:
    • Heart: We LOVE like Jesus
    • Hands: We ACT like Jesus
    • Head: We THINK like Jesus
  • LIVING like Christ means filtering out impurities in our lives.
    • What are we listening to, watching, reading, etc.?
    • We purposefully focus on growing in virtue:
      • The 10 Commandments | Exodus 20
      • The Beatitudes | Matthew 5
      • The Love Chapter | I Corinthians 13
      • The Fruit of Spirit | Galatians 5:22,23
  • LIVING like Christ involves growing in spiritual disciplines.
    • We practice spiritual disciplines to build spiritual muscle and to produce spiritual fruit.
• We live to LOVE like Christ.
  • LIVING like Christ involves three things:
    • Fear: We revere Jesus.
      • Exodus 14:31 The people feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses His servant.
      • Exodus 15:11 Who among the gods is like you, O Lord? Who is like you— majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?
    • Love: We love Jesus.
      • I John 4:10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 
      • I John 4:19 We love because He first loved us.
    • Desire: We desire to have an intimate, close relationship with Jesus.
      • Psalm 42:1-2  As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?
      • Psalm 27:4 One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.