Ephesians 4:1-17

Gathering

Welcome

Announcements

FTN Aug 19, - volunteers, 4-6

Men’s breakfast. Next Wed.

Need Volunteers for Nursery and Children’s ministries.

S/S 9:45- 10:45

BIRTHDAYS AND ANNIVERSARIES

Opening Prayer

Call to Worship

Affirmation

Historic Creeds and Confessions (Apostles’ Creed)

I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth. And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary Suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead and buried; The third day he rose again from the dead He ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church; the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

Song of Affirmation

Just As I Am (357 UMH)

Psalter Lesson

Psalm 51 NRSV

To the leader. A Psalm of David, when the prophet Nathan came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. 1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 4 Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment. 5 Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me. 6 You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart. 7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice. 9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit. 13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. 14 Deliver me from bloodshed, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance. 15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. 16 For you have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased. 17 The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. 18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, 19 then you will delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.

One Bread One body (620 UMH)

Pastoral Prayer

The Lord’s Prayer

Blest Be the Tide That Binds (557 UMH)

Offering

Doxology

SPECIAL MUSIC

Sermon

SCRIPTURE.

Ephesians 4:1–16 NRSV

1 I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life 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 making every effort 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 of your calling, 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. 7 But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore it is said, “When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive; he gave gifts to his people.” 9 (When it says, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.) 11 The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. 14 We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. 15 But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.

I beg you

I beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called,

making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

There are plenty of theological words and phrases that we could explore.

One word -Beg

One phrase - maintain the unity of the Spirit

For the word Beg the NIV - urge, YLT - call upon, KJV - I beseech you.

These are all strong words for asking someone for something.

There is no gentle please at the end. We are past that point.

all of the translations I have read use either maintain or keep the unity of the Spirit in verse 4.

You get the sense that Paul is calling, in very strong way, the Ephesians to do something that they are already doing.

There is already unity of the Spirit, yet Paul is urging them to hang on to it with everything they’ve got.

This morning I intend to call or urge or beseech you to do something that you are already doing.

Why?

Because Christ designed the church to be dependent upon itself.

We are dependent upon God and each other.

The image that the Bible gives us is the Body.

The church is compared to the human body.

Every part is important. Every part has a specific job to do.

And when one part suffers the whole body suffers.

Ephesians 4:4–6 NRSV

4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

Paul really brings home the point of oneness here. One body, one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

Like the blood flowing through the various parts of your body, the Holy Spirit of God flows through every member of the body of Christ.

If one part of the injured or gets sick the whole body suffers.

When one of our members gets physically or spiritually sick, it effects the whole body.

You may have heard, that we have some members who are moving away.

I am so excited that they will be serving the body of Christ in their new homes.

I cannot deny that their absence will effect this local body of Christ.

We are going to have to adjust. It’s going to be like losing a limb.

For sometime we may feel as if we are walking on a prosthetic.

We will get through. God will provide.

REPEAT.

Ephesians 4:7 NRSV

7 But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift.

Ephesians 4:11 NRSV

11 The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers,

Ephesians 4:12 NRSV

12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,

God will provide what we need for the building up of the body of Christ.

I urge you, I beseech you, I beg you, maintain the unity of Spirit.

to lead lives worthy of the calling to to which you have been called.

In other words, not just here at church but in all of your life.

It is so important that the church set an example of Christ love.

We can tell the world about Jesus until we’re blue in the face, but if the body of Christ doesn’t look like Jesus, then our preaching is in vane.

REPEAT. If the body of Christ doesn’t look like Jesus, then our preaching is in vane.

Elaberate.

Body, hands, feet, evangelist, preachers, teachers,

If we don’t look like Jesus

I love to look for glimpses of the body of Christ in people I don’t know.

Like a detective I watch people looking for some clue that would connect the with the body of Christ.

Waffle House.

Elderly couple.

First impression - oppression

hand on shoulder.

flat expression.

She looked like a woman who had been beaten down by years of abuse.

He took his had off of her shoulder to manage the door, and she just stopped.

She stood their for what seemed like eternity. Arms at her side. shoulders sagging. blank stare on her face.

Then it happened, something I recognized, something I am all to familiar with.

She tried to step off and nothing happened. Her feet just stammered in place. It is to walking as shuddering is to speech.

The man reached out his hand and placed it on her shoulder, she stepped out and walked to booth right in front of me.

My first impression was wrong, dead wrong.

This lady has Parkinson's disease, or something very similar.

I tried desperately not to be obvious, but I couldn’t help but watch their every move.

When the waitress came, he knew exactly what she wanted and he ordered her food.

When their coffee came, he fixed it for her, adding a little bit of ice, so she wouldn’t burn herself when she spilled it.

She was going to spill it.

When her waffle came, he cut it up so carefully, then he gently slid her plate in front of her, and put her fork in her hand.

I didn’t catch it at the time, but I don’t recall the man eating anything.

That whole encounter was about her.

Some of you take care of spouses in very similar ways. you may think it goes unnoticed. I can assure that it don’t

When we care for one another, when we love one another, then we are living examples of Christ’s love for the whole world.

It’s the same love that led him to the cross. The same love that caused him to suffer and die for the sins of all.

It’s the same love that we celebrate today, when we come together in communion, in community, and receive together, the broken body of Christ.

Father, Son, Holy Spirit.

Spirit of the Living God (393 UMH)