Worthy Response

Welcome

Announcements

Join us on Sunday Mornings at 9:30 am for Sunday School, Wednesday evenings at 6 pm.

Ladies Dinner Thursday January 6th.

Lords Supper and Church Luncheon January 9th.

Prepare for Worship

Call To Worship

30 Psalm 25:1-14

Confession

Prayer of Confession

Lord Jesus, we have sinned times without number, and been guilty of pride and unbelief, and of neglect to seek you in our daily lives. Our sins and shortcomings present us with a list of accusations, but we thank you that they will not stand against us, for all have been laid on Christ. Deliver us from every evil habit, every interest of former sins, everything that dims the brightness of your grace in us, everything that prevents us taking delight in you. Amen

Assurance of Faith

“Even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.” Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.

The good news in Christ is that when we face ourselves and God with the awareness of our need, we are given grace to grow, and courage to continue the journey.

Leader: Friends, believe the good news of the gospel. People: In Jesus Christ we are forgiven!

Confession of Faith

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 Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. He descended into hell. The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on 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 Ghost, the holy catholic Church*, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

Catechism

Worship

19 To God Be the Glory

162 Wonderful Merciful Savior

133 All Glory Be to Christ

Prayers of the People

Prayer Request

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

A Worthy Response

As we enter a New Year, let us enter with a new mind set, a new heart, and a new purpose.

We spent 6 weeks looking at the Coming of our King. Before that we spent about 4 months looking at Pauls letter to the Ephesians

Not going to do a large recap of that section of sermon series, but to point out that those first 3 chapters layout Our Calling in Christ

Ephesians 4:1–2 ESV

1 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,

The Calling

Paul here makes a simple plea. He has completed his presentation of the Gospel to the church in Ephesus, and now shifts focus. He now is telling them how to live in light of their calling to Christ

Today for us, and for those who surround us however we must clarify this kind of verse. Beginning with understanding who it is that calls us.

Who Calls us

Paul tells us to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.

So we know that we have been called, but who has done the calling.

Ephesians 1:17–18 ESV

17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,

Paul tells us that it is the Father who calls us. We see the same confirmed in John 6.

The Father is the one who controls the circumstances by how we are called. He determines the means by which His calling is delivered.

How are we Called

Romans 10:17 ESV

17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

Recount story of interaction online about the calling of a Pastor this week.

Our calling is apparent when it is right in front of our face.

We might hear the gospel a hundred times, and respond in disbelief, then there is no calling, but the one time when we hear it and it rings true, and it gives us hope, then we are being called.

What are we Called to

What we are called with is what we are called to.

We must handle the Word of God appropriately. It is not a self help book. Believing will not make your life perfect and solve all your problems. God is not a genie upon which to wish.

God is not an equal choice out of a multitude of choices of who or what to worship. He is the Creator of all and calls us to humble faith and repentance.

The Response

There is an ever ongoing argument as to the nature of man’s response to God’s calling.

Some will say that the response is the thing that brings us into the Kingdom of God, others say that we are incapable in and of ourselves to ever respond.

We must march cautiously through this kind of theological point. We are so prone to ere one way or the other. And both can lead us into a false understanding of this issue.

According to Scripture God calls us to Himself, we are called by the hearing of His Word, and we are called to believe and repent.

If we are to believe and repent then obviously we have a responsibility to respond to the call. But How?

Can We Respond

John 6:44 ESV

44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.

Romans 3:10–11 ESV

10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God.

Scripture obviusly holds forth that man is broken, and wants nothing to do with God.

Sproul: “It’s not our “can I” that is broken, it is our “want to” that is broken and needs repaired.”

God is not holding back anyone from coming to Him, from responding, rather no one wants to come, and He in His mercy changes hearts through His word so that people may respond.

We call this regeneration. God works to change our hearts so that we might see the truth, even thought we do not wnat to.

Then we respond. Note how we are to respond “repent and believe” We are to respond in faith and in action.

Responding in Faith

John 6:29 ESV

29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

Understanding what it is to believe in God can sometimes itself become a sticky situation. What do I need to beleive? How much of what I am told about God do I need to believe and be saved?

When Christ calls us to believe, it is a word with the same root as faith. and to have faith is to have trust.

I can believe in you, but do I have trust in you.

So when we repond iwth faith, when we say we beleive, it is far more than agreeing that the storied in the Bible are true, which we do, but it also means that all of our trust is in God. Trust that no matter what comes our way we know without a doubt that God’s intention behind all that happens is for our good.

Romans 8:28 ESV

28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Responding in Action

But Christ did not stop at believe and be saved, no He called us to act upon that belief, and the first step was to repent

Mark 1:15 ESV

15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Our first reaction to belief is to trust that God meant what He said about the forgiveness of our sins, and then to repent of those sins to Him, including dis-belief itself.

But Paul has moved beyond just this basic understanding of the Gospel, and has called us to further action in response to our faith.

The Walk

Ephesians 4:1–2 ESV

1 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,

Paul having just completed the first half of his letter clarifying to the first reciepients just what it means to be saved, the Gospel. The good news that even though they were horrible sinners (Ch 2), that God has chosen them, redeemed them, and would keep them until the end (ch1). And that He intended to use them to defeat His enemies and redeem the world (ch1 and 3).

Having said that Paul now tells the reader to act upon hearing this call, this truth presented. He calls them and us to walk in a worthy manner.

He then gives us just a few basic principles by which to do that. In order to understand these traits we must look to definitions, how were they originally understood.

Humility and Gentleness

Humility: 1. the having a humble opinion of one’s self, 2. a deep sense of one’s moral littleness, 3. modesty, lowliness of mind

Gentleness: mildness of disposition, gentleness of spirit, meekness

We are all so prone to think so highly of ourselves, of our abilities, of our knowledge. And worse we are all so willing to hold it over others around us. But we are not called to walk in that way, but rather to think little of ourselves, and feel compassion for our fellow man

Titus 3:2 ESV

2 to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.

To be gentle, equitable, fair. We are called by the one who directs all things, the maker of the universe, the King of all Kings. We have no need for bravado, no need to crush people to get our way.

The mark of true professional soldiers is their humility and gentle natures. Fear them.

Patience

patience; endurance, constancy, steadfastness, perseverance, longsuffering, slowness in avenging wrongs

This is a learned trait, not all of us have been fully versed in it, or its benefits. We want what we want, and we want it now.

The more impatient you are, the harder the lessons from God will be in this area.

When we consider though the God we serve and the fact that every good thing we will ever receive will come from Him in His time, then we should repent of our lack of faith in being impatient.

We must simply wait for God’s timing, enduring whatever hardships, whatever imperfections in those around us, longsuffering. This is the manner in which we walk in our faith.

Love

Paul calls us to bear with one another in love. Better put is to give tolerance for each other’s shortcomings.

We do this through loving them, love is a verb. It is something we do, not something feel.

Bearing also means to hold one another up.

We as the body of Christ are to accept the fact that none of us is perfect, and to love one another in spite of that fact.

Conclusion

If you are hear today, and you have faith in Christ, a faith that is characterized by unmitigated faith in Him and His promises. Then you are a Christian. If not, if you lack that kind of faith, then in hearing these words you are being called. If you believe them to be true, then you are called to respond, respond with faith and repentance. Turn away from your sin.

Beloved, if you have been regenerated, if you have come to know the saving love of Christ, then you are not to remain idle, you are called to act. Your calling did not stop at repent and believe, it continues in each and every word of Scripture. Over the next few months we will look at all the prescriptions of Christian living given by Paul to the Ephesians and to us.

But today, listen to Pauls word again:

Ephesians 4:1–2 ESV

1 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,

Starting today, seek to see if you see yourself walking in a manner worthy of your calling. I am sure we can all look around and see how others are not living out these mandates, but that is not what Paul tells us to do. He tells us to look at our walk, and correct our path.

To think little of ourselves and much of others, to avoid being overbearing with those around us, to wait for others around us to see their own shortcomings, and because we can see our own weaknesses, tolerate theirs, loving them irregardless of who they are today.

This section of Scripture as we will find out the rest of this month is about the unity of the Church. We will investigate many aspects of what it means to have unity in the Church, but obviously from Paul’s perspective it begins with each one of us, looking at ourselves and asking am I walking as Christ did? If not there is where I need to start. Not in correcting everyone else, but correcting me. Unity within the church begins with our response to God’s calling of each one of us.

Benediction & Doxology

Closing Prayer

If anyone has any questions or concerns feel free to catch me afterwards. And a quick reminder we do have plates in the back for anyone who desires to worship through giving today. The plate to the right is general giving, and the one to the left is specific for our missions giving.

Join us as we sing the doxology:

Praise God from whom all blessings flow, Praise Him all creatures here below, Praise Him above ye Heavenly Host, Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.

Numbers 6:24–26 ESV

24 The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; 26 the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.