To Know...

Settling in...

You know that feeing you get when you try something for the first time, or when you meet someone and really hit it off, and then you’re like… This is what I’m going to invest in. I’m going to spend all my time doing this… This is the coolest thing ever.

Last year, my son Cole caught the fishing bug. I mean, that boy was on fire for fishing. He worked, he got paid, he shopped (for fishing stuff), and he fished. That was his summer. Sometimes he played drums and rode his bike, but it was mostly all about fishing… and buying new stuff to fish with…

He has a tackle box full of what I only know to describe as ‘stuff’. And he still loves fishing, but now his approach is much more …well… settled. He might throw one lure on his line, jump in the kayak and take the bare minimum out with him. The fire has cooled down to some burning embers… he has settled in to a comfortable routine.

If you’re married, or you’ve been dating someone for more than six months, you’re right there with me on this idea…

Are you still sending flowers every week? Still buying cards for no reason? Leaving little sticky notes around the house to remind them how much you love them?

Paul is writing to people who are pretty much in this place… there’s nothing necessarily wrong with being settled. But sometimes complacency comes along with settling in.

The Letter...

There’s some scholarly controversy around this letter. Did Paul write it? Was its original audience the Ephesians? To be honest, we can’t really know for sure, and for the purposes of our conversation today none of that debate will sway us one way or the other.

It’s likely that this epistle is what we’d call a “circular letter” - one passed from city to city, from body of believers to body of believers in the early church.

What I love about this letter, truly love about it, is that it could just as easily be written to any church today, by any leader in our connectional church.

Just as it is Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, it could be Pastor Kerry’s video greeting to Millville Church of the Nazarene. And for the next few moments, we’re going to look at it exactly that way - as a letter directed straight to us… the men of this congregation.

The original recipients of this letter were not being called out in typical Paul fashion. There was no egregious thing Paul was writing about and calling for correction. The Ephesians were just “settled in”.

We see this confirmed in the letter to Ephesus in chapter 2 of the Revelation, where John is told to write,

Revelation 2:2–5 (NIV)

I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false.

You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you:

You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.

Paul’s Message to the Church

Ephesus was a worldly city. A place where cultures, lifestyles, and religious beliefs intersected. Maybe not a lot different than Millville.

We don’t have a temple dedicated to the goddess Artemus around the corner, but we have plenty of other things that could distract us from being the men God calls us to be.

So Paul writes this letter - and in the first three chapters, he blesses them, prays for them, reminds the church about the gifts of grace and unity in Christ that God has blessed them with.

Chapter 4, the passage we’re in today, marks a turning point in the letter. Paul is drawing on the idea from earlier in the letter (Chapter 2, if you want to check it out later) that we are One in Christ and he’s kicking it up a notch.

He’s calling for that same unity in the church. And while that topic alone could be the theme of a whole series of sermons, that’s not where we’re going today. Because, in most things, this included, we need to craw before we walk.

Team Effort

When I play PlayStation - Call of Duty - with my son Ryan and our team loses the match, I’ll typically look at the virtual scoreboard.

To no one’s surprise, he’s usually at the top.

I’ve improved over time, but still, inevitably if I say anything about the match, his response is usually, “get good”.

He says that because the team winning depends on each member doing their part.

The same is true here - To really be good at unity in the church and our relationships with each other, we need to “get good” at our individual relationships with God.

This was reinforced for me this week in a bible study in Paul’s letter to the Galatians.

Galatians 6:4–5 (AMP)

But let every person carefully scrutinize and examine and test his own conduct and his own work.

He can then have the personal satisfaction and joy of doing something commendable [in itself alone] without [resorting to] boastful comparison with his neighbor.

For every person will have to bear (be equal to understanding and calmly receive) his own [little] load [of oppressive faults].

Back to Basics...

Paul (And Jesus Himself, through John, in the Revelation Letter) was calling the church back to basics.

To “First love”. To maximum effort. To unity and maturity.

Or maybe we should reverse that order to

Maturity and Unity

Listen again to Paul’s exhortation to the recipients of the letter:

Ephesians 4:1–3 (NIV)

As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.

Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.

Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

Maturity, Then Unity

Humility, gentleness, patience, bearing with each other, love.

I see some of you squirming in your seats as I repeat those words. Sure, they’re good for the early church, but come on Walt… you’re bringing all that soft talk into a men’s meeting?

I am. Because Paul does. And Paul does because Jesus does.

Remember, Paul is writing to the original boys’ club.

Look, I get it… As guys, we have our ways. We have our built in routines, thought patterns, and ways of approaching life. You could say we march to the beat of our own drums.

To bridge the language gap, let’s read the same three verses from The Message Paraphrase...

Ephesians 4:1–3 (The Message)

In light of all this, here’s what I want you to do. While I’m locked up here, a prisoner for the Master, I want you to get out there and walk—better yet, run!—on the road God called you to travel.

I don’t want any of you sitting around on your hands. I don’t want anyone strolling off, down some path that goes nowhere.

And mark that you do this with humility and discipline—not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love, alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences.

Get on the Road...

The road God calls us to travel. There’s something interesting about being on a path. Once you’re on it, you’re not likely to just stand there. A path demands to be traveled on - whether you feel like it or not. That’s the start. Get on the road and start moving.

Humility & Discipline

Before Christ, humility was not considered a favorable term. In Greek culture, William Barclay writes,

“humility was looked on as a cowering, cringing, servile, ignoble quality; and yet Christianity sets it at the very forefront of the virtues.”

Humility comes from:

1. Self Knowledge - Understanding ourselves, our strengths, weaknesses, desires, and temptations...

2. Setting life beside the life of Christ and in the light of the demands of God - Through prayer and study.

3. Accepting our “Creatureliness” - Knowing better the men God created us and calls us to be.

Humility & Discipline

This is something the Holy Spirit has really been speaking into my life. And maybe more to the point, these principles were at the heart of us getting this mens group going again.

In a really rough part of my journey, men like Rev. Jim and Pastor Jonathan came along beside me. They added value to my day by encouraging me to spend more time in God’s presence. They discipled me. They held me accountable. The fruit of their labor is my obedience to a calling that’s been on me since the second grade.

And in obedience, I’m standing here offering an opportunity to each of you for a similar experience. In complete honesty, this passage was assigned to me as part of my coursework. I didn’t know what to do with it. I’ve wrestled with it for weeks. But God has a way of telling us the things we need to know. It is only through humility and discipline… making myself small in God’s presence and listening to the will of the Spirit that I even knew how to share this message with you. I’ve felt for a while that God is calling us as a church to be in the Word more. In this moment, right here, that’s the road I want to encourage you to step onto. There are resources we can share with each other to take this first step, and I’m committing right here and now to journey with you.

Steady She Goes...

God’s grace equips us to rise up to the challenge. The Creator understands His creation. The One who calls us, equips us.

If we step out in humility, in a posture that opens our eyes to see, our ears to hear, and our hearts to understand, God will provide all we need to bear fruit for the kingdom.

So we’re on the road, stepping out in faith, seeking God and growing in knowledge of ourselves and of Christ - the one who calls us to unity.

But, before we can be truly united, we have to “get good”.

That takes practice. 2nd Peter Chapter 1 talks about practice…

2 Peter 1:5–8 (NIV)

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control;

and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.

For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

A Call to Maturity

Its a journey. I think it’s an old Chinese proverb that says a journey of 1000 steps begins with one.

For all of us who wear activity trackers, do you count every step? No, we just get out of bed, put the thing on and celebrate when the rings close… we just do it, and things happen, right?

It all starts with one step,

on the right path…

Let’s see where Paul takes us on this...

Ephesians 4:14–16 (NIV)

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.

Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.

From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

Paul tells the church, “Speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become mature in Christ.

So let’s start wrapping this up… This is where Paul has been bringing us. And I’m pretty excited about it, because this passage hits on things some of you have spoken aloud. The Holy Spirit is responding to the mutterings and groanings of our hearts and our church… and I love the way the message lays it out for us…

Ephesians 4:14–16 (The Message)

No prolonged infancies among us, please. We’ll not tolerate babes in the woods, small children who are an easy mark for impostors.

God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love—like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do.

He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love.

Pretty plain language there… Christ is at the center of it. It is only by God’s grace and the power of the Holy Spirit that we can do it. Jesus says, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life”. He’s calling… And here’s the why...

Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible Maintaining the Unity (4:1–16)

But upholding the “truth” must be conducted in a spirit of love (1 Pet 3:15–16), and it is to be done, not, as it were, for its own sake, but in order that the church may develop in unity, like a body in which every part has its proper role to play.

“Get Good!”

Thy why is that the mission is so much bigger than us. We need to get good, get united, and be prepared for what comes next. If you read the rest of the letter, you’ll see just how important this is...

This is it guys. This is the moment where we commit to each other to “get good”. Getting good, is how we know the whole truth. Being in the Word daily is where we start to understand those three elements of our humility. It’s where de discipline ourself to listen to the Spirit. It’s where knowing starts…

Taking our lead from Christ is how we speak it in love. We are called to be the spiritual leaders of our families. We have no choice but to step up. We have a community of support right here in this room. Let’s journey down this road together. Let’s get into the word together consistently. Let’s get on the path and get moving.

Let’s pray…