Ephesians Part 9
The unity of the church Part 1
Without the body, we are nothing!
Ephesians 4:1–6 (NLT)
1Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you
to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God.
2Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each
other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love.
3Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the
Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.
4For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have
been called to one glorious hope for the future.
5There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6one God and Father of all, who is over all, in all,
and living through all.
A few things to
ponder
For the past 3 chapters Paul’s has taught us the Doctrine
of the Gospel, now he gets into the living it out, through our daily lives.
·
Knowledge is great, but, with the practical application
it can’t help you
o Like
anything the pleasure is in the doing
·
God promises us a lot, but if we don’t live out
our lives in the manner he gives us we will just be frustrated
o There
are a lot of people that think they are Christians that simply aren’t
o They
see folks with solid relationships with Jesus and don’t understand why their
life is a mess
o It’s
because you’re not putting it to practice what you have learned
·
And Paul’s is going to give us some things to
work on in our everyday lives
It’s time to put
on your big boy/girl pants!
1Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you
to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God.
Here is a guy in prison
·
He knows he days are numbered
·
He knows death is coming
·
He doesn’t ask for help
·
For things to make him more comfortable
·
He stays the course
o Stays
on mission
o Stays
with the plan laid out for him
And he begs us all to walk the walk we talk!
·
Lead a life worthy of your calling
o You’re
a Christian
o You’re
a follower of Jesus
o And
it’s time for us to act like it!!
·
You have been called by God himself
o To
be a living example
o To
live out the teaching of Jesus
o It’s
time for us all to stop just listening and to start doing
·
It’s time to put on your big boy pants!
o Stop
cherry picking what you want to follow in the bible
o And
start doing what you know is right
Matthew Henry:
That you walk worthily, agreeably, suitably, and congruously to those happy
circumstances into which the grace of God has brought you, whom he has
converted from heathenism to Christianity. Observe, Christians ought to
accommodate themselves to the gospel by which they are called, and to the glory
to which they are called; both are their vocation. We are called Christians; we
must answer that name, and live like Christians. We are called to God’s kingdom
and glory; that kingdom and glory therefore we must mind, and walk as becomes
the heirs of them.
Charles Spurgeon!
walking is a position which also signifies activity. You would suppose,
from the way in which some Christians behave themselves, that their whole life
was spent in meditation. It is a blessed thing to sit— but we walk as
well as sit. We do not merely learn, but we practice what we know.
We are not simply scholars, but, having been taught as
scholars, we go on to show our scholarship by working in the vineyard or
wherever else the Master may be pleased to place us. “We walk.” Some Christians
seem as if they always sit, but, “we walk.” You would
gather, indeed, from what others say that the whole life of a Christian is to
be spent in prayer. Prayer, it is true, is the vitality of the secret parts of
Christian life, but we are not always on our knees, we are not constantly
engaged in seeking blessings from heaven. We do, “continue in prayer,” but we
are also engaged in showing forth to others the blessings which we have
received, and in exhibiting in our daily actions the fruits which we have
gathered on the mountaintop of communion with God. “We walk,” and this implies activity.
Oh, I would that some Christians would pay a little attention to their legs
instead of paying it all to their heads. When children’s heads grow too fast it
is a sign of disease, and they get the rickets, or water on the brain. And
there are some very sound brethren, who seem to me to have got some kind of
disease, and when they try to walk, they straightway make a tumble of it,
because they have paid so much attention to perplexing doctrinal views, instead
of looking as they ought to have done, to the practical part of Christianity! http://www.spurgeongems.org/vols10-12/chs677.pdf
The Christian walk
starts, with unity in the body of Christ!
Ephesians 4:2 (ESV)
2with all humility and gentleness, with
patience, bearing with one another in love,
The Christian Walk
starts with humility
Humility (lowliness,
meekness, submissiveness): the quality or condition of being humble; modest
opinion or estimate of one's own importance, rank, etc.
Proverbs 11:2 (NLT)
2Pride leads to disgrace, but with humility
comes wisdom.
Philippians 2:3 (ESV)
3Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit,
but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.
Matthew 5:5 (ESV)
5“Blessed are the
meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
·
Only by
pride comes contention; only by humility comes love. The more
lowly-mindedness the more like-mindedness
·
We must be humble, and to be humble we must first
be humbled
o Broken
o Tore
down
o And
lifted up again, with a new purpose and new meaning
·
I believe pride is the bases of most sin
o It
drives us
o It
keeps us up at night
§ Am
I better than everyone else
§ What
do others think of me?
§ I
need to get mine attitude
·
The first thing we need to address is our
humility toward others
It takes a strong
person to be gentle
Gentleness and
meekness
·
Sir Thomas Browne: "Meekness takes injuries like pills, not chewing, but swallowing
them down." This indicates that meekness allows a person to overlook or
forgive perceived insults or offenses
·
Gentleness is a strong hand with a soft touch.
It is a tender, compassionate approach toward others' weaknesses and
limitations. A gentle person still speaks truth, sometimes even painful truth,
but in doing so guards his tone so the truth can be well received.
Matthew 11:29 (NIV)
29Take my yoke upon
you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find
rest for your souls.
2 Corinthians 10:1 (ESV)
1I, Paul, myself entreat you, by the meekness
and gentleness of Christ—
·
The world see’s these traits as being weak
·
Or timid
·
And nothing can be farther from the truth
·
It takes a strong person to turn the other check
·
To think of others first
·
And to forgive when it’s not deserved
·
And that what we are called to do!
Gary Thomas: When
my daughter was young, she used to love to squeeze my hand as hard as she
could, trying to make it hurt. She could squeeze with all her might, but it
never hurt. She didn't need to be gentle because she lacked the power to cause
me any pain. Then, just for fun, I'd give her hand a tight little squeeze until
she yelped.
It's the strong hand, not the weak one, that must learn
to be gentle.
Patience is a
virtue! That I have not mastered!
Ecclesiastes 7:8–9 (ESV)
8Better is the end of a thing than its
beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.
9Be not quick in your spirit to become angry,
for anger lodges in the heart of fools.
·
This is not one of my strong suites
·
This world is right now
·
Don’t wait
·
And it causes all kinds of problems
·
Instant gratification and lack of Patience kills
o Relationships
o It
gets us in debt
o And
makes us slaves to this world
o So
follow Jesus in being patient in all we do!
Why is this so
important??
Vs 2 making allowance
for each other’s faults because of your love.
·
Because God knew we would be messy
·
That we would mess up often
·
And without this foundation, the church would never
survive!
·
He knew we need to get these things down
o Being
humble
o Gentle
o Patient
o So,
that we could make allowances for each other’s faults!
o And
love one another!
John 13:34–35
(ESV)
34A new commandment I
give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are
to love one another.
35By this all people
will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
We must become
united!
3Make every effort to keep yourselves united
in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.
4For there is one body and one Spirit, just as
you have been called to one glorious hope for the future.
·
There is nothing we can’t do together
·
12 disciples and 120 scared followers changed
the world
o because
they were united in Jesus
o and
we can change a community, the lives of our kids, if we unite!
And we do that
under on headship!
5There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6one God and Father of all, who is over all,
in all, and living through all.
·
There is one head of the church
·
And we are to follow his example and his
teaching
·
Not cherry picking what we like out of it
·
But truly following and putting into practice
the teaching of Jesus in to our daily lives!
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