Become More Like Jesus: 40 Sermons That Will Change Your Life

By Rev. Kevin Sills

As Christians, we are trying to be more like Jesus and constantly falling short of that goal.

The forty sermons in this book explore how anyone can be more like Jesus, including those who have not yet given themselves to Christ.

In fact, at the end of each sermon you’ll see an invitation to do so, and the back of the book includes a prayer that will allow you to be born again as a child of God.

The sermons are written in a way that can be understood by people from every walk of life. They are easy to read and expound on the Word of God so you can take him into your heart. The sermons also emphasize that as Christians, we are held to a higher standard as we must love everyone—even those who are evil. We love them because God loves them.

Whether you’re a Christian seeking to ignite your faith or someone with questions about Christianity, the sermons in this book will change your life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Mar 25, 2022
• ISBN: 9781664259362

Rev. Kevin Sills

Rev. Kevin Sills has had many different jobs in his life, including door-to-door salesman, insurance salesman, retail store manager, and factory worker. His most challenging and rewarding job, however, has been answering the call of God to become a pastor. God has used him to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ to others. An ordained pastor in the American Baptist Churches, he lives in south-central Indiana with his lovely wife, Robin.

Book preview

33487.png

FAITH AND DEEDS

33538.png

Sermon, September 5, 2021

James 2: 1–18

Have you ever gone out on a limb and did something solely on faith? Right now, I’m not talking about faith in God, but faith in general. We take a leap of faith. It could have been taking a class, buying a house or car; dating someone; moving to a new town, taking a new job, or any of several things. We might have done tons of research on the topic or no research at all. We trusted our gut; the saying goes. We listen to that little voice in our head that says, Do it; go ahead and do it. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn’t. We learn from those times it doesn’t work out. Most of the time, it is only the trivial things in our lives that we take such a gamble: trying something new at a restaurant; trying a new television show; getting a book that someone recommends; or getting a different hair style. Those types of things if they don’t work out are not the end of the world. However, some people do some pretty serious things based on faith; their own faith that they believe they know what they are doing. One such thing is online dating. I’m not sure how many of these dating sites there are, but there are quite a few and there are sites for whatever you are looking for. People use blind faith when going on these things. They base their decisions on what that particular person has written about themselves and a picture that is supposed to be them. We’ve all heard stories about how when they have decided to meet, nothing about them was true. Even worse, they might get swindled out of their life savings believing that they are helping someone who is in dire need. We take a lot of chances based on our intuition alone. We hope that we have made the right decision about what we are planning to do. That type of faith is not the faith that James is talking about this morning. Our faith in God through Jesus Christ has been proven true by the power of the Holy Spirit. James, in our reading this morning is telling us what we need to do with that faith. (Read the Scripture.)

When we read our Bibles, we’ll notice the breaks in the text. I’m talking about chapter breaks and the different headings within the chapters and at the beginning of chapters. The authors of those books did not insert those breaks. Those breaks were inserted by Bible scholars as they translated the manuscripts. As the books were written the authors didn’t stop their writing to put a header on the next part. We wouldn’t do that either, would we? When we write a letter or even an email to someone, we know we don’t put breaks in our writing, we simply write out what we want them to know. So, as we look at the second chapter of James’s letter to the church, we need to look at all the verses we read this morning as one thought. By doing so the last few verses make more sense than taking them alone; there have been many discussions over the years about those last few verses.

James starts the second chapter with this sentence; "My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. (James 2: 1, NIV) In the age when James was writing this letter, just as in our society, more respect was given to people of wealth and prominence, people of title. Think of how we treat the Queen of England, the President of the United States, and the wealthiest among us, movie, television, and sports celebrities and then compare that to the homeless, marginalized, poor of the world, and even in our own area. We automatically think higher of the well-known person, giving them more respect; the one who has less we give them less respect. Things have not changed very much in the last 2,000 years. We shouldn’t beat ourselves up too bad; it is simply human nature to act this way. So, favoritism is showing one-person preferential treatment while shunning another. James says that if we see someone coming into the meeting, coming into church, and we notice how impeccably dressed they are and they are wearing expensive jewelry and make a fuss over them and give them the best seat in the church while ignoring the one who seems to have nothing, we are committing a sin. We have judged based solely on appearance. We have said because the one looks rich; they must be good and the one who looks poor must be bad. This not only happens in church, but everywhere we go. We make judgements on people simply by how they look. I do the same thing. If I see someone in my neighborhood walking around looking respectable I think, I wonder what they are doing here. However, if I see someone walking around my neighborhood that looks like they don’t belong there I think, I wonder what they’re doing here!" Thankfully, God does not love us because we are rich, good-looking, or tall or an athlete or a movie star or any number of things the world says is important. God doesn’t have favorites; he loves each of us just as we are, just as he made us. James says this in 2: 5–7 (NIV):

Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? Are they not the ones who are blaspheming the noble name of him to whom you belong?

As people who believe in Jesus, we are instructed to not show favoritism. As soon as we show favoritism, we are saying that we prefer someone we do not know or may know based on what they seem to be and not how they truly are.

How can we overcome this human tendency to choose favorites, to respect some more than others? James gives us the answer: "If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing right. (James 2: 8, NIV) This royal law was given by Jesus when asked what the greatest commandment was; however, this royal law" was first given by the Lord God to Moses in Leviticus 19: 18. The rulers of Jesus’s time had forgotten about that one. If we are to keep the royal law, what does that mean for us? As human beings, especially in western culture, we are our own worst critics. We constantly are critical of the things about us: we don’t like how we look; we don’t like being so short; we don’t like being so tall; we weigh too much; we weigh too little; we don’t like the choice we made and want a do-over; we don’t like our family; we don’t like that we are poor; we don’t like our health; and it goes on and on. However, the one thing we do not say is that we do not love ourselves. We may not like ourselves some days, but we always love ourselves. Sometimes we feel that we are not loved by the world, but we always love ourselves. We love ourselves even though we know all the bad stuff about us. Then again, we can love ourselves too much. We do things just so others will see us and think highly of us. We think we are giving someone a break and expect them to be thankful and bow down to us. C.S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity:

If you do someone a good turn, not to please God and obey the law of charity (the royal law), but to show him or her what a fine (forgiving) chap you are, and to put him or her in your debt, and then sit down to wait for his or her ‘gratitude’, you will probably be disappointed. (People are not fools: they have a very quick eye for anything like showing off, or patronage.)¹

We are charged with being equal and fair with everyone we meet. We are all created in the likeness of God.

Loving our neighbor as ourselves, is not a choice that comes naturally to us. We have been taught to Look out for number one; not to be concerned for all those other people. This change of attitude can only come from God and the example he has shown us. We can only do this if we love our neighbor as God loves us. The Apostle John wrote in 1 John 3: 16 (NIV), "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters." God loved us while we were His enemy. C.S. Lewis continues,

I admit that this means loving people who have nothing lovable about them. But then, has oneself anything lovable about it? You love it simply because it is yourself. God intends us to love all selves in the same way and for the same reason: but He has given us the sum ready worked out in our own case to show us how it works. We then have to go on and apply the rule to all the other selves. Perhaps it makes it easier if we remember that that is how He loves us. Not for any nice, attractive qualities we think we have, but just because we are the things called selves. For really there is nothing else in us to love.²

We love others because God loved us first, for who we are, not who we appear to be. So, here again, we have something else to choose; we can love the world and look out only for ourselves or forget the world, live for God, and love others.

As Christians we are called to a higher standard. We are to love and be charitable to everyone in the world. We are to love our family and friends, even those who have offended and hurt us; love our enemies, even though they mean to persecute us and destroy us; love those who are addicted; love those who are different; love those who are diabolical and evil; we love them because God loves them. Yes, God loves them, because before we gave our lives to Christ, we were exactly those things. Sometimes, we can still be those things, but the love of God overrides all our faults by our faith in Jesus Christ. The strange thing about loving others as God loves is that we start looking at them as persons again. We stop seeing them as that person who did that or that person who is so evil and begin to see them as a broken human being who needs the love of God inside of them. It doesn’t mean that we like what they are doing, only that we love them enough to bring Jesus to them. We do have a choice: we can be nice to people on the outside, but still despise them on the inside; or we cannot like what they are doing but love them enough to accept them as they are. The difference is that if we are only nice to people we will never grow to love them; as Christians, following the royal law and trying to love everyone, we will find that the more we love them, the more we will start liking more people – including those whom we never imagined we could like. God has chosen us to be the love of Jesus to those who have run out of choices. Amen. (Invitation)

¹ MERE CHRISTIANITY by C.S. Lewis copyright © C.S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. 1942, 1943, 1944, 1952. Extract printed by permission.

² Ibid, p.120

33487.png

UNTAMEABLE

33542.png

Sermon, September 12, 2021

James 3: 1–12

Have you ever tried to tame something? When we try and tame something, like a wild animal, it means that we are trying to make it fit for our use. People have tried to tame all sorts of wild animals and have even domesticated some like cows and pigs. This taming process can take a long time. Horses, for example, can be tamed so that they are useful to humans. We ride them; we race them; we have them pull things like carts and buggies; in time past we used them to plow our fields and move heavy objects. Even today we see wild horses being caught and tamed for human use. Sometimes this taming process was very abusive to the horses and sometimes the horses would fight back. We’ve tried taming other wild animals. Our circuses use lions, tigers, elephants, and other wild animals to perform stunts and tricks for our excitement and amusement. Sometimes, these wild animals that we have tried to domesticate revert back to their wild instincts and there is a tragedy. It’s not only wild animals that we’ve tried to tame and domesticate. We may say that we’ve had to tame our wild child. We’ve tamed wild plants to that they produce crops for us to eat. We’ve tamed the natural way of the landscape by knocking down mountains with explosives, filling valleys with tons and tons of rock and dirt, crossing streams and rivers with bridges, and wild rivers with dams. When I was in high school and college, I tried to tame my hair, but it didn’t last awfully long. No, I will not show you pictures! As a human race, over the centuries, we have learned to tame just about everything in our known world. However, James reminds us this morning that there is one thing we have not tamed. (Read the Scripture.)

After talking about how faith without works is dead for all of Chapter Two, James starts Chapter Three with these words: "Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly." (James 3: 1, NIV) Why would he say such a thing? Throughout the Word of God, we read how God uses ordinary people to spread his message. These people do not have any formal training, but through the Holy Spirit bring God’s message of love, hope, mercy, judgment, grace, redemption, and salvation. Why then should not all of us be able to teach God’s word to our non-believing world? As believers, filled with the Holy Spirit we should be able to expound on our faith enough to bring someone into God’s kingdom. He explains his reasoning in the next verse; "We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check. (James 3: 2, NIV) There has been only one who was never at fault, Jesus. Even though we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us, we still mess up, we still sin. Those who are called to be teachers of not only God’s Word, but as teachers in general know how important it is to be mindful of what they say – all the time. Anyone who’s ever taught a class whether in the school system or in church knows how difficult it is to keep quiet when someone says something that is totally bizarre; our first reaction may be to put that person down or point out how wrong they are. If we do such a thing, the next time that person has a question or comment they won’t say anything for fear of being ridiculed. In one of my seminary classes, the professor had a pretty neat come back for some of the things people said. Instead of putting someone down he would say, That’s interesting; I haven’t heard that before." Then he would go back and go over the point that person was confused about. I thought that was an exceptionally effective way to correct their misconception.

James started out by saying that most of us should not become teachers, because we can’t control what comes out of our mouths. James says this in 3: 3–5a (NIV):

When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts.

How true! How true! How true! We have learned to tame the beasts of the field, but we cannot control the beast that is in our mouth. James tells us to think of the fires that the tongue has started. James says in 3: 5b–6 (NIV),

Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

Most, if not all, of those horrible forest fires in California and those earlier this summer came about by one small thing. On the news the other night the reporter said that one ember, in those high winds, can travel up to seventy miles and start another fire. We set off so many fires, so many arguments because our tongues cannot be still. James says in 3: 7–8 (NIV),

All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

It doesn’t matter that we try to be quiet, we may even try to bite our tongues, but sometimes our tongues seem to have a mind of their own. Have you ever had to say, I’m sorry; I should have thought about that before saying anything or I wish I could take that back? Boom! Suddenly, it’s out there. The things that come out of our mouths have been the cause of more destruction than any natural disaster. The damage caused by the things that are said can never be repaired or taken back. Whether it is on an international level or a personal level the words that we say can cause monumental destruction. Then, with our next breath we try to make it right.

James started this part of his letter by saying that everyone should not be a teacher. In 3: 9–12 (NIV) James tells us why:

With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

It is like we have two mouths – one that is thankful for all that God does for us; it is the mouth that we pray with, welcome, and greet people in church, wish them well when we visit them, and bless them and God for all that they and he does for us. With our other mouth we can say a thing that would tear everything down. We can make others feel small and insignificant. We can hurt someone’s feelings with the uttering of one word. We can create as much hurt in our speech as we can love. My brothers and sisters, which is exactly what we do; with one breath we spread love and warmth to God and those around us and in the next we spread cold and hatred and gossip. We come to church and sing of God’s blessings and then curse someone who cuts us off in line at Wal-Mart. Why do we do these things? How can we say we love God and hate our fellow man? Shouldn’t we be one way or the other? Can you think of other things in this natural world that can only produce one thing? Sure, we can: apple trees only produce apples; oak trees only grow acorns; tuna fish only have little tuna fish; human beings only have other human beings. The natural world we live in, if we don’t mess with it genetically, can only produce what God has created for them to produce. We human beings cannot even control one of the smallest organs in our bodies. There are some organs we do have some control over, but not our tongue. Now don’t be ashamed or alarmed about this; we all do it. James, the brother of Jesus, is saying that he does it. James is saying that those who have chosen to teach need to be aware that they do it, because God and the people will hold them to a higher standard.

What can be done? How can we stop this evil that is lurking in our mouths? We can’t put a bridle on our tongues. We can’t attach a rudder to it so that it only says the right things all the time. It’s like if we are going to say good things, the rudder would turn that way, but if we were going to say something evil or hateful the rudder wouldn’t turn, and we couldn’t talk. It’s too bad we don’t have a switch that we can hit when we’re about to say something bad. Well, we don’t have those things, so what can we do? My brothers and sisters we cannot do it alone. We do have someone who is always with us and who will help us. We have the Holy Spirit. When we gave our lives to Christ, the very power of God was given to us by the gift of the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised us this in John 14: 15–17 (NIV):

If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.

We need the power of God to be always with us to help us control this thing that causes us so much grief. We need God to put a muzzle on us to keep us from getting ourselves into trouble. With the Holy Spirit living inside of us he will help to keep our tongues quiet. It’s only through the very power of God that we can tame our tongues. I’ve been told that I’m a mutterer; are you a mutterer? When things aren’t going my way and I get flustered, I start talking to myself. Sometimes as I’m talking to myself, I’m talking out loud. Have you ever done that? Usually when I’m muttering, I’m whining and moaning about how bad things are going for me at that moment. When I worked at a dollar store, I had a lot of those moments. I would work fourteen – sixteen hours a day for days in a row. Employees would call off and as the manager I would have to cover for them. I was very tired and usually when I am tired my tongue is at its strongest. One day as I was walking to the back of the store, muttering to myself, I realized what I was doing. I had hoped no one had heard me. So, I stopped and prayed that God would keep my mouth shut, because if He didn’t, I was sure to say something that I would regret. After I prayed that prayer my attitude and disposition changed, and my day went so much better. I couldn’t have done that on my own; I needed the power of God through the Holy Spirit to not only keep my mouth shut, but also change my whole attitude.

My friends, only through God can we overcome the evil that lurks within us. As hard as we may try, we are not strong enough to stop ourselves from causing harm by what we say. Our problem is that if we think it, we have the right to say it. From the beginning of time people have gotten themselves in all kinds of trouble because they thought they could say anything, and people would have to take it; and would not become upset. It is only, and I mean only, through the power of the Holy Spirit can we control what comes out of our mouths. The next time we feel like cutting loose, remember that even if no one is around, God knows what we are saying. God not only knows what is coming out of our mouths; he knows what is in our hearts. Whenever the situation comes up and we feel that we must retaliate by saying something, let us first say a prayer that God will keep us from opening our mouths. Then, ask God through the Holy Spirit to give us the wisdom to understand what that person is really saying. Then, we ask God to give us the wisdom not to say something or to say something that will help tame the situation. James ends chapter three with these words:

But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness. (James 3: 17–18, NIV)

My brothers and sisters with the power of the Holy Spirit we can tame our tongues. Amen. (Invitation)

33487.png

COME NEAR TO GOD

33546.png

Sermon, September 19, 2021

James 3: 18–4: 12

What do you like to come near to? Well, the first thing that comes to my mind in being near my spouse, Robin. We like each other’s company; when we walk in the evenings, we hold hands; we like going on picnics together; and we try to keep each other safe. We say to each other that We’re birds of a feather or We’re like two peas in a pod. Hopefully, that’s how you feel about your spouse, too. However, we can come near to many different things. We may have a favorite hobby or sport and we devote our free time to those interests. We may have a group of friends that we hang out with, enjoying each other’s company and companionship. We may have devoted our lives to teaching children how to get along in this world. We may have devoted our lives to seeing that our parents are healthy and taken care