Ephesians 4 (Part 1) :1-3 The Character of a Worthy Walk

Ephesians chapter 4 verses one through three follow along as I read these verses here and then we'll pray and get into this just a bit Paul writes I therefore a prisoner for the Lord urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called with all humility and gentleness with patience bearing with one another in love eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace I'm gonna have you stop there let's pray Heavenly Father thank you so much for your word we pray father that as we just dig into these verses for a little bit that you would speak to our hearts and give us insight and understanding into how we can understand them and apply them also to our lives we ask it in the name of Jesus Christ our Savior amen once before in this letter of Ephesians Paul has made mention of the fact that he was writing to them from prison he was in a Roman prison at this time and and we discussed his being a prisoner there of Jesus Christ in an earlier message but this time Paul is now going on to speak of those who are reading the letter and he talks to them about their calling you might have noticed that in these verses and he speaks of the calling to which they have been called and since Paul is writing this letter to Christians in general this is our calling he's talking about our calling right our calling in the Lord this applies to all of us and and so that means that you and I have a calling to which we have been called I always love to look at people's faces when I say that because there's usually kind of a blank sort of a thing going on because we don't normally think of our lives as you know having a calling we talk about pastors having a calling you know he's got called into the ministry or something like that but the Bible says that every single Christian has a calling and that's an important thing to to remember because we're living in a time when the enemy has pretty successfully convinced a lot of people in this world that they really have no purpose in this world and in fact their lives are really nothing more than the result of some sort of a meaningless sequence of evolutionary events that means that you're kind of a you're kind of an accident you know I mean you know there's no really reason why you're here other than the fact that things came together randomly in a sequence of events that was practically impossible to think about but yet it happened somehow and now you're here and your life is meaningless there's really no purpose to your life except well I'm just gonna try to be happy as best I can because when it's over it's over fact of the matter is the Bible tells us the exact opposite it says that you have been called with a calling that you have been called with a purpose that's the point of that if God called you that means he's got a purpose behind that calling you understand and if there's a purpose then there's a reason for you to be here and it's more than just making yourself happy and living to please yourself there's more to it than that and what is our calling God comes along it tells us you have a calling wonderful what is it our calling Christians is to reflect the very character in the Heart of Jesus now can I explain something very quickly here before we move on when I when we talk about a calling when we talk about reflecting the the Heart of Jesus in our calling right I'm not talking to you about something that you are you have to just kind of do by your own strength I'm talking about when we talk about reflecting Jesus in the world we're talking about something that we can only do by the power of God okay please understand that you know how sometimes you see a commercial or you'll see something out TV it'll say you know don't try this at home well this is kind of one of those passages in scripture where it's like don't try this by yourself this is only when Paul talks to you and I about our calling to reflect Jesus he's talking about something that can only be done in the power of the Holy Spirit so I'm gonna say that at the outset all right and so that you understand that let me let me show you how Paul explained this very thing to the believers in Rome when he wrote a letter to them I'll put this on the screen from Romans 8:29 it says for those whom he foreknew he also predestined look at this to be conformed to the image of his son why in order that we might be the firstborn among many brothers Paul says the you and I have been predestined to be conformed to the image of his son that's our calling to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ and it's believe me a very powerful calling it's a very weighty calling in case you thought you were gonna get off easy today no this is a very weighty thing for God's Word to say to you and I okay here's your calling guys it's to be conformed to the image of Christ and to portray that image to a lost and dying world well so here's what Paul says about this he says in verse 1 again if you look with me in verse 1 I therefore a prisoner for the Lord urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you've been called now this is very important he says you and I are to walk and that means to live out our lives by the way the word walk is something that is used a lot here in the book of Ephesians but to walk out our Christian life means to live it out in our daily interactions with people business you name it it's just how we live our lives what is Paul saying he says I urge you them to walk out your Christian life you know in a way that is worthy of the calling I know that worthy that word makes a lot of you people really uncomfortable in fact it's the W word and it's to some the nastiest word that probably was ever created they hate it because deep down they know they're not worthy before God and I actually hear this from people from time to time I've had people actually come up to me after a service to say pastor Paul I really want to accept Jesus but I just feel like I'm not worthy and I always tell them the reason you feel unworthy is because you're unworthy we're all unworthy none of us are worthy to receive Jesus okay let's get over that there's not one single person here who has done enough been enough whatever to be worthy to receive his love but Paul isn't talking here when he uses the word worthy about being worthy to be saved these vanities not even talk about being saved here he's talking to people who are already saved and he's saying to those people now that you are saved live a life that is worthy of the calling that God has placed upon your life now what's interesting about the word worthy here in this passage is that the Greek word means get this of equal weight isn't that interesting particularly in light of the fact that we just said a moment ago that it's a very weighty thing to be called to reflect Jesus in our culture it's a very heavy thing and yet this word worthy means of equal weight so Paul is saying let your life be of equal weight to your calling you with me let the life you live be of equal weight to the weightiness of your calling now what does he mean when he says lately your life be worthy of that weighty calling well he outlines it in verse two look with me there verse two once again he says with all humility and gentleness with patience obviously those things are all bound up in bearing with one another in love and then eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace so he lists basically four things here let me put him up on the screen for those of you that take notes this is helpful for you I know he's talking about humility gentleness patience and that eagerness to maintain unity let's take a look at these very quickly first he encourages humility guys humility what is it it's not it's not what some people think when when some people think of humility they think of having kind of a being down on themselves you know it's people who kind of go I'm really nothing you know I'm nobody and I really can't do it that's not humility in fact that's probably false humility if anything humility is how you and I see ourselves in light of God and His Word okay in fact I find this interesting I looked up the word humility in my Greek dictionary and I found out that it is derived from a Greek from a root word that means to reign in or to curb which is interesting in light of the fact that the world that you and I live in if you watch the Disney Channel you can see this but the world that you and I live in is constantly trying you to get you and I to focus on who we are who you are you know you've got to please yourself it's all about self right well humility from a biblical definition means to rein in that which naturally happens in our lives because guys please understand I pick on the Disney Channel just because they're very good at portraying what the world thinks is important but please understand it's just it's just what's in our sinful nature that's all and that means it's in all of us what is in all of us is to make a big deal out of who we are okay that's in you and me so the word humility comes from this Greek root word that means to rein it in to curb that which naturally flows out of us which is that desire to want to be bigger than I really am to inflate who I really am humility sees myself it or is the ability I should say to see myself as God sees me and that's an important thing for us because when God shows us who we really are well let me let me let me put it this way I've had people tried to tell me who they think I really am and it's always discouraged me I've also tried to tell people who I think they were and it ended up discouraging them too when God communicates to you and I who we really are it's not discouraging but it is humbling okay God has this way of communicating things to us that don't flatten all four of our tires but they do give us a true understanding he gives us an understanding of who we really are in him and that's something that we all need to do you know you guys you guys have read through the Gospels you know a great example is Peter what a wonderful character Peter is but he thought more of himself than was true and he was the one who was always kind of making these braggadocious claims you know and and and and the very night that Jesus was betrayed you know he Jesus told all the disciples that they were all going to desert him that very night and Peter said no no no no no not me I am ready tonight to go to my death for you and Jesus said are you really actually before morning which is before the rooster even crows signaling morning you will have already denied three times that you even know me well Peter was like no no no why did he disagree with Jesus because he saw himself in a light that was kind of self inflated he saw himself as being more important more well stronger and so forth than he really was and Jesus needed to allow him that night to go through a series of events that were going to reveal the real Peter and what he said to Peter was let me tell you something here bud Satan has asked to sift you as wheat and I'm giving him permission because you desperately need to see who you really are and when Peter saw who he really was a humility entered into his soul that would now guide him for the rest of his years to be an incredible pillar in the church but you see Peter needed desperately to know who he was but when he found out who he really was the Bible says he wept bitterly he wept bitterly just the realization this is me I can do this I can actually deny my lord I can do it it's it's in me to do it he saw himself as he really was and it broke him but you know what he needed to be broken he was like a wild stallion that needed to be broken and many of us are the same way you know we need to have that humility to see ourselves in in the proper light of who we really are how do we do that while we do it through his word you know there's something about the Bible reading the Word of God it becomes a mirror through which we see who we really are doesn't that happen to you when you read the Bible when you're looking into the word don't you see you read it you kind of busted you know I mean you you you and that sometimes that'll even cause us to want to close our Bible and not open it because I don't really like always that feeling of being busted being shown Who I am with all my warts and wrinkles because I got a lot of them spiritually speaking and so forth personality speaking but I need and you need we need to see ourselves and we do that through the mirror of God's Word and he communicates to us things that are essential to our understanding who we are and and and that humility that results not only changes how we see ourselves but it changes how we see others now this is interesting you know here's what the world says you got to learn to love yourself before you can love others that's that's a that's a mantra of the world it is a lie from the pit of hell you want to know what the key to really loving and treating others properly it's having a proper understanding of who you are in the light of God's purpose for your life and when you see yourself as you are in the light of God's glory and revelation you not only see yourself differently you see other people differently and you realize they're sinners just like you and you begin to treat them with a new compassion and a new open-heartedness and you begin to look at them and say you know what we're the same you know you're a mess up just like me and I love you you know sort of a thing next paul encourages gentleness your bible may use the word meekness what is that biblical gentleness is now how we respond to people when we feel attacked have you ever been attacked that's a dumb question isn't it every single one of us has felt attacked at one point of our lives or many more but we're talking here when when Paul talks about gentleness he's talking about the ability listen to me to suffer injury without becoming angry or resorting to revenge or becoming bitter which we naturally do our natural inclination when we are hurt by other people is to become angry now I don't want you in my life anymore I don't want to see you hear from you I don't want anything about you in my life anymore that's my natural tendency it's this this tendency to want to protect myself you know from any further hurt but Paul is encouraging you and I to be gentle around others and he says that when we do this we're living a life worthy of our calling in other words of equal weight with our calling can I just remind you what Jesus said about himself let me put this up on the screen from Matthew chapter 11 jesus said I am gentle and humble in heart there's the first two words we've looked at here already Jesus said I am humble and I'm also gentle and again that gentleness means you can hurt me and I won't lash back at you I can suffer injury at your hands and still care about you as an individual and still even love you do you guys get now why I said earlier don't try this at home don't try this in your flesh don't don't try to oh don't try to be a good Christian you gotta have the Holy Spirit living in you and empowering you to do this kind of stuff to be able to look in the eye of somebody who just hurt you and to say I love you and I forgive you and I choose not to respond out of revenge and bitterness and anger that's God you guys that's not human type of reaction that's a godly reaction and it happens because the very one who made that statement we looked at a moment ago in Matthew chapter 11 is now residing inside of you those of you who have come to faith in Christ that very one who made that statement I am humble I am gentle that character is now residing in you and now you can say I can do that through him I can do fact all things through him through Christ who gives me strength right that's why Paul made that statement because he knew that residing in him was a power that transcended his own ability to live and to respond to people but see so often you and I are focused on our inability you know we'll say something you know you'll hear people say boy you know si I'm just one of those people if somebody crosses me man I just I just let him have it you know somebody gets mad at me if somebody says something to me that's hurtful or whatever I just I just can't help myself I'm just I just go at him like no this is me yeah thank you thankfully God loves me well the fact of the matter is we're not supposed to focus on our inabilities and weaknesses we're supposed to focus on his strengths that now live within us and now I can do all things through him who gives me strength the third characteristic is patience and I'll probably hear a collective groan patience is one of those things we don't necessarily like to think much about because very few of us have it the New King James Bible uses the word long suffering here for those of you that have that particular Bible and this refers to how we respond to the failures and the mistakes and the irritations of others do you see what Paul is doing here humility is how we see ourselves and then we we come to this gentleness which is how we respond when we're hurt and then we come to this third characteristic of patience or long suffering which is how we respond when we see other people fail or when they get under our skin this word patience literally means to endure with your temper intact how you like that to endure with your temper intact I'm not asking for a show of hands but how many of you have a short fuse I get it I know what that's all about and we probably have differing levels or lengths of fuse depending on what we're going through in life I might have a long fuse for some things in a very short fuse for others the fact of the matter is I need to walk in patience but this is a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit in my life and in your life when other people bug us and believe me people bug us sue and I have been married for 40 years and I have had 40 years to bug the heck out of her and believe me I've done it and you know what you're not gonna bug anybody more than your spouse because you're living the closest to that person you know I always like to think of it as like a dance whoever you dance the closest with that's the person whom you're gonna step on their feet right just because you're dancing and in life you will be pushed to the end of your patience by the person who you live the closest with and and other people as well and Paul says that when you and I walk in a supernatural work of patience we are living a life that is of equal weight to our calling and guys if you're feeling condemned right now because you're not a very patient person around other people when they mess up join the group we all feel that way but that's because the reason you failed is because you attempted to do it in your flesh and your flesh will always fail Paul wrote in my flesh dwells no good thing and that means there's no patience in my flesh you know my flesh wants to do yeah he wants to cut people off when you know somebody does something and you know whether I'm driving in traffic or somebody says something stupid or or hurtful or just lame my initial response it's like dude grow up right that's in my flesh and it's don't look at me that way it's in yours too you guys look at me right all about every single we want to look you know if we said everything that went through our heads yeah you guys know what that's all about but we hold our tongue sometimes but inside our heart were boiling because it's like I don't believe how stupid that was well when we respond differently which Paul by the way refers to as bearing with one another in love we're living a life that is of equal weight to our calling so oh I got to tell you this story I read this story of Harry Ironside great Bible teacher commentator he's with the Lord now he used to tell a story about a friend of his by the name of George and George was a man who struggled with his temper and every so often George would just kind of flip his lid and and somebody'd say something or do something and he'd just kind of fly off the handle but but but Harry Ironside told how George could always be set right by somebody coming up to him and asking him a simple question and that question was George is this the old you or the new you and he said that George would actually at the sound of that question be brought quickly to tears he was a man of soft heart and he would say it's the old me and I need to bring the old meat the cross that it might be crucified there with my lord and you know I think that's just a wonderful question that we could all you know ask ourselves when the when the old well sometimes we don't know it's the old sin nature that's responding but when we're responding to the irritations and the mistakes of other people we need to ask ourselves the question is this the new me or the old me is this the new christ-like image that God is working in me or is this the old Paul the old stinky rotten corrupted me you know what most of the time it's the old stinky rotten corrupted me and I need to ask that question honestly and answer it honestly so that I can bring that to the Lord and so that I can begin to live my life in a way that is of equal weight to my calling the final characteristic is eagerness to maintain unity but would you look at that verse again there in your Bible in in verse 3 I want you to notice that what Paul what kind of unity Paul is talking about here notice in verse 3 he says eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace guys that's significant when he says the unity of the Spirit he's not talking about the unity of the body of Christ do you know that we're not to maintain the unity we're not told to maintain the unity of the body of Christ that's something he's going to take care of we're not even you're not told to maintain the unity of Calvary Chapel and and and what we're talking about here is the unity of the Spirit what does that mean it means that there is a work that the Holy Spirit has already done to join us to one another although we may look different to one another we may be different in some ways you know you you may not go to the same church as this person that you're maybe talking to you may not sing the same worship songs you may not have served at the same VBS this last week but the fact of the matter is you've been brought together by the spirit and there is a unity that he has forged in you with this person that is undeniable and we are united and joined as one through the spirit because here's the point you will go to a different church than some people you will sing different worship songs in some people and you will serve at a different VBS although it won't be as good as ours but that doesn't matter because through the spirit you're still one because he has made you one you know there's this Bible teacher that I love to read who was telling about a trip he was making by train this was many years ago from Minnesota to Southern California it took days to get there well on the first day of his trip he it was morning and he took out his Bible and and he he talked about having his morning portion that was his Bible reading for the day and he noticed this German woman who was walking over to him and she he knew she was German because of her thick German accent but she came to him and she said what is that you have there is that a Bible and he's yeah that's my Bible she said she said hold on I'm gonna go get mine and so she went back to her thing and she came back with her Bible and a little bit later in Norwegian man saw them reading their Bibles and he insisted that he to be allowed to come and join in on their little Bible study and and and after a while after a few minutes this Bible teacher was amazed at how many people had gathered around to listen and to participate in the reading of the scripture and in fact each of the days of this trip the conductor would actually walk through the entire train he'd say Bible study in car number 4 if you want to go you're all invited and the place got packed with people by the time they got to Southern California he said it was literally packed with folks who just wanted to you know get into the word and and when he finally got home this Bible teacher was reflecting on what had happened during that trip and he realized that the people who had come and joined him on in that train car to get into the word were people from all different walks of life different countries different denominational backgrounds different affiliations even some various kind of weird beliefs thrown in and yet you know what they were all joined by the spirit it was the work of the Spirit and nobody asked one so what church do you go to and do you guys believe the good stuff or what or whatever you know how we can you imagine somebody starting you have a Bible study than saying oh by the way this is only for people who believe such as such and such and such and if you have to have my translation of the Bible if you have a different one you can go somewhere else that is not preserving the unity of the Spirit by the way that's the opposite when there is a work of the Spirit that's going on you and I need to be very eager as Paul says here to protect that unity here's why because to do so is to walk in a manner that is of equal weight to your calling because you and I have been called to reflect Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world and believe me people who don't know him are going to see the difference they're going to see the unity they're going to see the patience they're gonna see the humility they're gonna see the gentleness and they're gonna be attracted to it and they're gonna want to come and ask you questions about it and the thing that you and I need to do is we need to confess that we have not walked in these things very well in fact I'd give us probably about a c-minus but you know what we're being made aware today that this is a work of the Holy Spirit and we need to come to him for the power to do these things this is not something again I reiterate to you that's going to well up from inside of your flesh this must be a work of the Spirit and when it is a work of the Spirit it is a beautiful thing you

Channel: Calvary Chapel Ontario

Views: 33,566

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Keywords: Bible, Bible teaching, Thru-the-Bible, verse by verse, Calvary Chapel, Bible study, Christianity, New Testament, Old Testament

Id: RLYBYsx6d6M

Length: 30min 47sec (1847 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 03 2018