Ephesians 4:1-14

Intro

Good evening y’all! Seniors, this is it, you have made it! Tuesday is the big day, who is ready for it? Y’all better hydrate though, cause it’s gonna be hot.

But seniors this is the week you have all worked so hard for, and prepared for since you started kindergarten.

Parents, this is it, you made it! This is also the week you have been looking forward to and preparing for since your little kid started kindergarten. And if we are being real I know some of y’all parents probably feel like your name should be some where on the diploma, I know my parents felt that. They deserved at least their names in parenthesis under my name, you know, Austin Lamar Ussery, (and also Lisa and Lamar.)

But for real, I’m so glad we are all here tonight to celebrate these graduates. Y’all have worked really hard, and now we just get to sit back and celebrate.

I want to thank all the parents for getting the pictures together, helping with the boards, all of that good stuff. Y’all are the unsung heroes.

I also want to thank our hospitality team here at FBC, we will get to reap the fruits of their labor after we finish up here and head down to the fellowship hall. So please stick around after the service for the reception downstairs, they have worked very hard, and they love feeding people.

But anyways, we are so glad for all of you to be here.

I want to share with you a few thoughts from God’s word tonight, so if you have a bible, go ahead and flip over to Ephesians chapter 4. We are going to look at the first 14 verses here tonight.

But before we really get in to it, let me pray for our time in God’s word tonight.

pray

Context

Okay cool, so Ephesians chapter 4, verses 1-14, let me give you some context as to what is going on here.

So Paul is the one writing this letter to the church in Ephesus, he started this church on one of his missionary journeys, and left Timothy in charge of the church. Paul wrote three letters to the people in Ephesus, 2 letters were written to Timothy, we have those letters, 1 and 2 timothy. But this letter was written to the church as a whole to encourage them and to encourage them, basically there are some people trying to teach false teaching, and Paul is encouraging to stop teaching this false teaching and embrace unity in the church, that is one of the themes in this book.

Paul is also in prison while writing this, if he wasn’t in prison he would have gone and probably told him this himself.

Main Idea

So the main idea that I want you to remember from tonight is Christ is where we find our calling. I want you to remember that, we like to talk around this time a year about what we are going to do with our lives, Seniors you are graduating and you are now being asked to make decisions that have the potential to set the course of your life. This are life altering choices you are about to make. So when you are are making them, remember where your ultimate calling is.

We all have the same call v. 1-8

So let’s jump in to this, we are going to read this passage in chunks. So let’s read verses 1-6, read this with me.

English Standard Version Chapter 4

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all

Okay cool, so let’s look at this, the first thing we see is a therefore, so we need to ask ourselves, what s the therefore, there for? haha, it’s a good thing to do while reading the bible, it will give you a bigger scope of all of the things going on in scripture. So i’m just gonna read back one verse, 3:20

English Standard Version Chapter 3

20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Basically, our God is mighty, all powerful, and his majesty and might are greater than anything we can imagine. All of that to say, we serve a great and awesome God, so Therefore, Paul is urging us to act accordingly.

Understand that as Christians there is a way to walk, and way to not walk, we serve a great and might God, we need to build our life around walking in that manner.

So let’s look at this first verse here, Walk in a manner worthy of your calling.

This is asking us a question, what is our calling? What is is Paul trying to get at here by using this word calling.

Today we have all different thoughts on what calling is, Seniors, when you are trying to figure out your major, you may have been asked, “What do you feel called to do?” Parents, some of you have probably been asked what your calling is.

And usually how we answer this is by naming things we are passionate about. If you ask any teacher who is here, what they are passionate about, they will tell you they are passionate about kids, they are passionate about teaching kids.

All of us in the room have something we are passionate about. Think about, what are you passionate about?

Now think about this, what is your calling in this world? Think about.

Now some of you may be thinking that your passion is your calling. But I want to challenge that thought a little bit.

Look at the rest of this first chunk.

English Standard Version Chapter 4

with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all

Okay, so there seems to be word that is repeated here a few times, the word is, One. One is repeated over and over, one body, one spirit, one hope, one lord, one faith, one baptism, one Lord.

So what does this tell us about calling? That we all have the same calling. If you are writing things, down, write this down, We all have the same call. If you are a part of the church, if you are a part of the Body of Christ, you all have the same call.

How many football fans are here? Go Dawgs. What is Georgia’s sole purpose when playing football, other than blow late game leads. What is that team trying to do? They’re trying to get that football across the goal line. Everything they do is designed to get the football across that goal line. Even when they are on defense, I know they are trying to stop the other team, BUT given half a chance to score they’re going to take that football and try to get it across the goal line. Because when the clock reads zeros all that matters is who has more points on the board. That is it. You don’t have to tell us Georgia fans about that. Does it matter if special teams has a great game if the ball doesn’t cross the line? Nope. All that matters is, who crossed the line more? What is the score.

So what is our call? If we all have the same call what is it? What is that call?

We serve a great and mighty God, how are we to walk in manner worthy of that calling? What is this calling? We are all called to know God deeper, and to make disciples. The Calling on all of our lives is to ultimately know Christ deeper and make disciples. At the end of our lives those are the only two things that will count in eternity.

We are all uniquely gifted to carry out the call v. 7-13

But I’m not making this point to make you feel like you should not have passions because that is not true. Passions are not a bad thing. Let’s keep reading on this passage, look at this next chunk with me. Starting verse 7. Read with me.

English Standard Version Chapter 4

7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore it says,

“When he ascended on high he led a host of captives,

and he gave gifts to men.”

9 (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? 10 He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) 11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ

Okay so what is going on here in this chunk? Verse 7-10 are kinda wild at first read, why is Paul talking about Ascending and Descending? Basically Christ has come and saved us, I’m not going to because we don’t have time to try and parse all the nuance here in these verses, but basically it is a very very early form of one of the Church’s confessions and creeds. And Paul is pulling a quote from Psalms. But Christ has come and set the captives free from the dominion of sin. If you are in Christ it is because you were once held captive by sin and death. Christ has come and redeemed you and is redeeming this broken world.

But what about passions? And this part is more for believers here tonight, but passions are not a bad thing. Passions are a good thing. It is good to be passionate about things. But for believers in the room passions are not an end goal, they are a means to a greater end. Look at this text again, verses 11-12

English Standard Version Chapter 4

11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,

At first read this looks like this is talking to church leadership, and in one sense Paul is talking to church leaders, but look at these groups and look at the whole of scripture, Christ has gifted all of us. If you’re writing things down, write this down, We are all uniquely gifted to carry out the call.

Remember the call is to make disciples and to know Christ deeper. We are all, all believers in this room are uniquely gifted. Those passions you have, they are not merely things you are passionate about but they are things that the Lord has gifted to you so that you may go and make disciples and know the Lord deeper.

All of you are about to head out and do great things in this world, you all have passions that are different, use those passions. When we talk about Calling don’t think about what the Lord wants you to do with your life, the Lord has already told you what He wants you to do. He wants you to know Him deeper and to go and make disciples.

Keeping with the football analogy, not everybody on the team can be the QB, not everybody on the team is the star wide receiver, but everybody on that team is playing a role in carrying out the goal of getting that football across the line.

Some of you are going on to nursing, some of you are going in to engineering, some of you want to go in to politics, all of these things are great and wonderful endeavors. Make Disciples. Go be the best engineer you can be, but use it to make disciples. Go be the greatest nurse, but use it to make disciples, Go become president, but make disciples. The best version of what ever you become is the one who makes disciples.

The call is to make disciples. All of us who are believers in the room are uniquely gifted to make disciples and to know Christ deeper.

Remember where your anchor is v.14-16

Okay, so let’s keep going because this text is not yet done. Let’s read this last chunk, verses 14-16

English Standard Version Chapter 4

14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

Okay cool, look at this first part, verse 14, I love this analogy Paul uses here of being tossed to a fro by the waves and winds of every doctrine, human cunning, and deceitful schemes.

I know maybe none of us have been on a small ship in the ocean or in a giant lake but the people who Paul was writing this to had probably been on a ship or at least knew someone who had been on ship that had been in the middle of a storm. Paul had been on a ship that got wrecked. Paul knew the importance of an anchor. You know why ships drop anchor was so that they can be tethered to something solid, if they want to not drift randomly in the water you drop anchor. We all understand the concept of the anchor.

What Paul is saying here is Remember where your anchor is. If you’re writing things down write that down. Remember where your anchor is. You have to be anchored in this world or you will be tossed around, you can be lead to believe all sorts of non sense.

Students, you are about to go off in to a world that is less and less welcoming to what we believe. And I am not telling you this to scare you, but to make you think, what are you anchored to. As Christians we are anchored to Christ. Christ is the foundation of everything we do. Know Christ deeper, make disciples in all that you do.

Point to Christ

So why does this matter, why did I pick this to talk about during a graduation service? Because for those of us who are believers in this room this text is calling us to examine how we are carrying out the calling of Christ. Are we making disciples, or are we going through the motions. If you are going through the motions, I want you to think about your calling, have you truly given over your calling and passions to Christ?

For anyone in here who does not know Christ, know this text is calling you to know Christ for the first time. This text is calling you to know Christ as Lord, as King. Know that anything you dedicate your life to that is not Christ will not matter. Anything that is not Christ, will fade away and be destroyed in the age to come.

So last thing, students I want you to think about this, Adults you can think about this too, but students, this is it, this is the last time you are in High School, this is the last time, we are going to sit here in these same roles.

A couple Wednesdays ago I encouraged you to not waste your summer. But for y’all this is the last time I get to preach to you as students, so I want to encourage you to not waste your life. Go and do great things in this world but in all that you do know Christ deeper and make disciples, make your life count for eternity.

Pray with me.