Sermon: Forgiving, Giving, and Living

Imitating God
#1399
Martin G. Collins
Given 23-Sep-17; 74 minutes

description: God possesses three non-transmittable attributes: omnipotence (all-powerful), omnipresence (existing everywhere at once), and omniscience (knowing everything). These attributes will never become descriptive of God's people. But there are other transmittable attributes which we can make a part of our new nature. These include love, forgiveness, compassion, and longsuffering. God commands that we emulate Jesus Christ, who sacrificed Himself for us. He instructs us to humble ourselves, giving our entire self as a sacrifice of love. Paul explains that light symbolizes the regeneration of the new creation, totally separate from the old creation, lying in darkness. There must be a regenerative change in what we are and how we think, speak, and act. With God's help, we must obliterate our evil, carnal nature, replacing it with purity and holiness, which will be evident to those with whom we associate. They will observe that no filthiness or course speech comes from us, as we radiate God's behavior in a murky world of darkness. Just as God characterized the Prophet Daniel as a light, He has also called us to be lights to the world, to radiate His attributes of forgiving, giving, and living.

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