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Introduction
This morning we are going to spend time together looking at a really interesting piece of scripture.
It is truly an honour to be able to share with you from God’s word every couple of weeks.
I really enjoy the opportunity to spend time wrestling with these passages and seeing what God has in them to share.
It is also amazing to look at my life in context to what we are talking about because it is so important for these passages to impact us who share them as much as we hope they impact you all in the seats.
And so as I looked at our passage I was humbled and I asked God to forgive me for the times where I’ve not lived up to these what I find in the bible.
So before we jump into our passage I wanted to share a quick story that as I look back at is kinda funny but wasn’t super funny in the moment.
You see I sometimes find myself in situations where I’m not always gentle or patient.
Like I’m naturally a fixer or someone who likes to just jump in and get whatever I need to get done done.
And I find that I take that into relationships sometimes.
I remember before Bethany and I started dating I was a brash young 20 something year old who just wasn’t patient.
And so as I was trying to be my charming self and get Bethany to like me I spent time trying to orchestrate opportunities for us to hang out.
And some of those opportunities were after youth group.
She was one of my helpers and so we’d hang out just after students were gone.
And one night, again before we started dating, I found myself super impatient and I shared with her that I loved her.
And as the words came out of my mouth I was like dude what are you doing?
I can’t 100% remember how Bethany responded but I remember going home feeling defeated like I just blew it.
But either my charm made up for it or Bethany was super forgiving but it all worked out in the end, and I have to believe that it was God in his infinite wisdom.
But we all find ourselves in situations like that were we aren’t humble, where we jump to conclusions because we can’t be patient, where we aren’t gentle and don’t think about what we say or how we say it.
This happens all through our life and I believe the passage we have this morning calls us to change how we approach these situations and how we go through life.
Please turn with me to , “Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God. 2 Always be humble and gentle.
Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. 3 Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.
4 For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future.
5 There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all, in all, and living through all.
Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God. 2 Always be humble and gentle.
Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. 3 Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.
4 For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future.
5 There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all, in all, and living through all.
7 However, he has given each one of us a special gift through the generosity of Christ.
8 That is why the Scriptures say,
“When he ascended to the heights, he led a crowd of captives and gave gifts to his people.”
he led a crowd of captives
and gave gifts to his people.”
9 Notice that it says “he ascended.”
This clearly means that Christ also descended to our lowly world.* 10 And the same one who descended is the one who ascended higher than all the heavens, so that he might fill the entire universe with himself.
11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers.
12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.
13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.
14 Then we will no longer be immature like children.
We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching.
We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth.
15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.
16 He makes the whole body fit together perfectly.
As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.“
Over the last 5 weeks we’ve spent time looking at this book of Ephesians.
We’ve seen over this time that Paul has been reminding the Ephesians about all that God has done for them.
All of the good things, the blessings that they have been given freely by God because of his grace toward them, because of his great love for them.
* 4:8 .
* 4:9 Some manuscripts read to the lower parts of the earth.
Tyndale House Publishers.
Holy Bible: New Living Translation.
Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2015.
Print.
Over the last 5 weeks we’ve spent time looking at this book of Ephesians.
So far as we’ve gone through
And as we move into Chapter 4 this morning we see Paul moving into a call for the believers in Ephesus to live right.
Paul reminds them of what God has done for them which should propel them to live accordingly.
You see when we understand how much God has done for us, we naturally want to serve and obey him out of gratitude and love.
And so in our text this morning Paul gives characteristics of what a life as a follower of Jesus looks like.
He gives practical examples of how these Ephesians should live.
And as I’ve spent time looking at this passage I really believe that what Paul is talking about are real things that we need to incorporate into each of our lives.
A. CALL FOR THE CHURCH TO BE UNIFIED
1. Live According to Your Calling
Paul begins by urging or encouraging the Ephesians that they are to live a life that is worthy of their calling.
What does this mean, a life that is worthy of their calling.
If you believe in Jesus
Paul begins by encouraging the Ephesians that they are to live a life that is worthy of their calling.
What does this mean, a life that is worthy of their calling?
If you believe in Jesus you have been given a purpose in your life that is different from what you maybe used to.
When you accept Jesus this purpose will require you to change or to give up sinful parts of your life that are not pleasing to God.
You see Jesus calls us to raise the bar.
To move away from the things that we once did and to live in a way that follows and honours Jesus.
And the reality is that this isn’t rocket science.
I think we instinctively know or begin to know how we should and shouldn’t live.
We know what is right and wrong.
I know in my own life I get convicted and I have this internal feeling that I’ve messed up when I mess up.
And I truly believe that this is God at work in my life in making me aware that I’m not living up to this purpose or this calling that he’s placed on my life.
John Trapp writes, “Luther (Martin Luther) counsels men to answer all temptations of Satan with this only, Christianus sum, I am a Christian.”
And it’s important to know and to remind ourselves that we don’t live like this so that God will love us or so that God will do things for us.
But we do this because God love us, because of what God has already done in our lives, because of the grace that he freely gives us.
Our motivation should flow out of a gratitude and not because we are trying to earn favour with God.
2. Be Humble, Gentle and Patient
Paul then goes on to encourage the Ephesians to develop some specific characteristics in their lives.
I think it’s pretty funny that he encourages some of the characteristics that are the hardest for us to master.
Which is the case with Christianity.
We have to work out of us the worst parts of us.
And allow Jesus to fill us up with the right stuff.
These characteristics Paul is encouraging them to work on are humility, gentleness and patience.
Paul tells them that a worthy life before God is one that is humble and gentle, its not a pushy desire to get their own way or to push their own agenda.
He’s wanting for them to consider others over their own desires and to be gentle with the people around them, their fellow believers.
Not only that but Paul is asking for them to “make allowances for each others faults because of their love”.
And I can only imagine the response to this request from the people in the church.
Cause it would probably be the same response from me.
After hearing from Paul I’d probably be ok with the idea of having to work on my self, my own stuff that I have going on.
But then to hear that I need to be ok with other people’s stuff, I’d probably be like whoa Paul now your asking a bit much.
But the reality is that if we are looking to be people who love Jesus and if we want to follow Jesus then we need to be like Jesus and bear with knuckleheads just like ourselves.
It’s easy for us to make exceptions for how we act and for our querks or things that annoy people around us.
But we have a hard time accepting the same from other people.
We complain about how they act and maybe even what they say and we have a hard time telling ourselves that we really need to bear with them.
We need to realize that they are who they are, which is a work in progress just like we are, and we need to love them just like Jesus loves us.
Which I understand isn’t always easy.
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