Episode Transcript
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Will please remain standing. If you're
able otherwise have feel free to have a
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seat. And let's turn our attention
to Ephesians, another book in the New
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Testament, Ephesians chapter four, verses
one through six. Phesians four, one
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through six. Again, if you're
using one of the black bibles, this
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is page nine hundred and seventy seven. Let's give our attention to God's word.
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I therefore, a prisoner for the
Lord, urge you to walk in
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a manner worthy of the calling to
which you have been called, with all
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humility and gentleness, with patience,
bearing with one another in love, eager
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to maintain the unity of the spirit
in the bond of peace. There is
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one body and one spirit, just
as you were called to the one hope
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that belongs to your call, one
Lord, one faith, one baptism,
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one God and father of all,
who is over all and through all and
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in all sends. The reading of
God's Word may be seated well here in
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Ephesians chapter four, Paul begins to
transition to a new section in his letter,
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and for that reason, and it
will be helpful to briefly remind ourselves
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of what's come before, because he
says at the beginning of Chapter Four.
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Therefore, right, he's he's leading
US somewhere based on something that he's already
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said. On the basis of these
things and chapters one, two and three,
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I now, therefore, as a
prisoner of the Lord, urge you
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to do something. It's a strong
word that Paul uses, a word that
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is more than a request or an
ask. It's maybe an ask with a
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push. You won't find that in
a dictionary. That's my paraphrase of that.
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He's urging them. I think the
English word there expresses that well.
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It's a powerful statement and he had
gives some reasons for it, and he
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talks about this kind of walk that
we are to walk on. In order
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to understand that walk, in order
to understand how we walk in a manner
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worthy of the calling to which you've
been called, you have to understand what
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that calling is. Right. In
other words, how do you walk in
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a calling, in a way that's
worthy of that calling, if you don't
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know what the calling is? Right? How do you walk as a king
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if you don't know what a King
is? How do you act as a
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how do you act in any situation
if you don't know how you supposed to
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act what it is you are and
so we can go back and we can
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look at Ephesians one, two and
three, or we can look at some
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things Paul says right here in these
six verses, because he reminds us that
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God has done something in this world. There is this objective thing that God
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has done in time and in space. He says that we have been called
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and we have been given something.
Notice he says we are to maintain something.
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He calls it the unity of the
spirit in the bond of peace.
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He doesn't say create a relationship with
God, he says maintain a relationship with
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God, maintain this unity that you
already have. Why is it that we
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have the spirit? Well, as
you go back and you read, you
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learn that God has poured out his
spirit on his people. You remember,
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back in Ephesians too, we read
and and three as well. We read
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how God is building out of sinful
humanity a sanctified temple where he is to
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dwell forever. God is taking us
as living stones and constructing this house for
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himself. This is what God has
done, and the cornerstone of this House,
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the foundation of it all, rests
upon Jesus Christ. These are amazing
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things. God has sent his son
into the world to accomplish our salvation.
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If you let your eye go back
to the beginning of chapter two, he
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says, and you were dead in
your trespasses and sins in which you what's
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walked, following the course of this
world, the following the Prince of the
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power of the air, the spirit
that is now at work, and the
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sons of disobedience, among whom we
all once lived in the passions of our
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flesh, carrying out the desires of
the body and the mind, and were
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by nature children of Wrath, like
the rest of mankind. But God,
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being rich and mercy, because of
the great love with which he loved us,
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even when we were dead in our
trespasses, made us alive together with
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Christ. He's raised us with Christ, he's seated us in the heavenly places
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and he's lavished upon us every spiritual
blessing. And all of this is according
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to his perfect call and affectual call, a call that has gone out into
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the world through the preaching of the
word and is made effectual by that spirit,
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as the word of God has been
preached from city to city to city,
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gentile community after general stile community.
People are believing. They are leaving
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aside their old practices, their old
worship, their idolatry. Remember of this
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was particularly important in Ephesians, where
there was even a riot over the idolatry
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and idolatrous practices, over against the
things that was Paul was preaching. You
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have people burning their magic books,
changing the way that they live because God
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has changed them inside. God has
seated them with Christ. He's given this
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them in this adoption, this inheritance, as a result of that adoption.
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Chapter One, verse eleven. In
Him, that's Christ, we have obtained
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an inheritance having been predestined according to
the purpose of him who works all things
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according to the counsel of his will. We read about how we have received
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the spirit. In verse thirteen.
In Him. You also, when you
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heard the word of truth, the
Gospel of your salvation and believed in him,
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were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our
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inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
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If you ever doubt what God has
doing, it, what God is doing,
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and if in fact, you will
see the inheritance, consider the fact
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that he's given you his holy spirit. I'm not sure what more you could
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ask for as a guarantee that God
will give you all things beyond his very
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own spirit. So this is the
spirit that we have, the unity with
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the spirit, and then, therefore, through the spirit and the work of
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the Sun and the Gospel that has
come this unity with the fathers. He
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says in Verse Six of Chapter Four, we have one God and father of
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all, who is over all and
through all and in all. So this
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is what God has done, this
is what God has called us to what
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we read. They're in Matthew about
the servant being forgiven. We saw a
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picture there of a changed status,
something that happened in this person's life that
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didn't follow out properly right. This
person had a change. This was a
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man under great debt, debt that
could never be repaid. Perhaps some of
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you have been in debt, or
perhaps some of you are in debt and
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would and would love to have the
freedom of having all of it removed.
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Can you imagine overnight, all of
it gone right at the moment when you
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thought all was lost and you were
to be sold in your family and everything,
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and then to be forgiven that is
doesn't even really begin to compare to
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the glorious things that we have been
given in Christ. To be forgiven,
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not only of our debts against God, yes, that's true, but much
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more than that. We've not been
merely forgiven and then sort of set out
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free into the world, but we've
been forgiven and then united to him by
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his spirit. We've been forgiven him
by him and then built up into a
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holy temple for him to dwell in. We've been forgiven by him and then
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united into one body, this body
of Christ, in which we live and
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dwell together and experience this relationship,
relationship with the father that is similar to
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the relationship that even the son of
God has with the father of God.
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That's how Jesus puts it, John
Seventeen, that we have this unity with
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him, this bond of love,
a unity of the spirit. Therefore,
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I urge you to a walk and
a manner worthy of that calling. We
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have a changed status if you are
a Christian. You have been justified,
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you have been forgiven, you have
been adopted as God's son, you have
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been brought into his family, and
I use son even for you, ladies,
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not to say there's a change of
gender, there or anything, but
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to highlight the fact that you receive
the status in the ancient world, of
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a son, and not just a
son, but with with Christ, the
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firstborn son, the one who has
a right and inheritance. All of us
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get to be that kind of son. All of us get to sit at
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the table with Christ, whether male
or female, slave or free, we
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remain who we are, but we
attain this status that is elevated beyond what
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we could have ever asked for.
This is what God has called us to,
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this is what he has brought us
to, and not only has he
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changed these our status before him,
but he's at work in our hearts.
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It is possible to even in a
sort of human life, to adopt someone
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and yet not be bonded to them. This is a challenge right, to
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bring someone into your family. Perhaps
you've experienced this as someone entering a family,
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perhaps through marriage, you just never
quite sink in with your inlaws or,
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worse right, just because there's a
change in status, just because you
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belong to the family, doesn't mean
that all of a sudden everyone's loving,
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but it's different with the Lord.
To Express, I'm trying to express and
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remind you of the greatness of the
things that he's given to us. Not
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only does he adopt us into his
family, not only does he change our
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status and promise us an inheritance,
but he loves US and he changes our
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hearts so that we love him,
so that, by his spirit, we
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are bonded together and act as his
children and call out to him, ah
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a father. That's why we ought
to walk in a manner worthy of that
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calling. How could it be any
other way? Beloved, how could you
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be loved him such this way and
then Walk Tal can act in such another
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way, to walk in a manner
worthy of our calling? That's what he
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calls us to do, that's what
he urges us to do, and that's
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what we ought to do, to
want to do. You know what this
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means, right? I mean to
to have something that is valuable and then
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to treated otherwise is a sort of
brain breaker, right. I mean,
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imagine somebody gives you, let's say
your father gives to you, a pocket
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watch and he says this was your
great great grandfather's pocket watch, it's been
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preserved for generations, it's worth millions
of dollars and it's yours, my son.
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Thanks Dad, you swing it around
on the chain and it goes lying
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it, it hits the wall and
it's destroyed in a moment. What's Your
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Dad gonna do? Anyway? Might
be a little upset right because you have
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not acted in a manner worthy of
the gift that you've been given. There's
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an incongruity there that, at the
very least, just doesn't make sense.
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But it's, of course, much
worse than that. It despises the gift.
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It's it's it. It's a shame
on on you. We are called
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to be people that are consistent with
the treasures we have been given. Imagine
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another example. Imagine that you wake
up in the middle of the night,
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you hear a noise or something like
that, and you're kind of stumbling around
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looking for something. And let's say
this is me, and and then my
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wife. She turns on the light, right, a hopeful thing, and
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now I can find what I need. What if, instead of using that
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light, I keep my eyes closed, I keep acting like I'm in the
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darkness? Right, she would be
right to look at me and say,
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what are you doing? Why are
you falling over things? Why are you
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looking for things in this way?
I just turned on the life for you
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if God shines the light of Christ
into our lives, shows us the path
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of righteousness, changes our heart and
then we just sort of bumble off on
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another way. Is that consistent?
Is it right? Is it good?
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Is it anything that you might consider
worthy? Of course not. When we
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think about how do I live,
when you ask yourself, how do I
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live my life as a Christian,
let God's Word here frame that for you.
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Walk in a manner worthy of the
calling to which you've been called.
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Now there is a potential danger here
that the Apostle Paul quickly disabuses us of
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and warns us against. In our
sinfulness, we have a tendency to take
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gifts and abuse them in some of
the ways I've already talked about. But
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perhaps in another way, and this
way, I am a Christian. I
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am now going to walk in a
matter worthy of the calling to which I
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have been called, and all you
people are despicable to me. Right,
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we decide that we are now elevated, which is true, but instead of
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looking up at our father in heaven, in humility, as he says,
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he says to walk in a manner
worthy of what you've been called, with
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all humility and with gentleness. We
may be tempted to look down our noses
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at others. That, of course, is not walking in a manner worthy
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of what you have been called.
And it's a very striking way that Paul
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puts it. This word humility would
have rubbed the Ephesians the wrong way.
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The word that he uses here is
that of a servant to a very lowly
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kind of creature or acting. In
the EPHESIAN world, much more than in
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ours, although it's still around,
there was a very highweight put on honor,
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respectability, no, built, nope, nobility, those kinds of things,
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and some of that is good.
But what do he is warrant.
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But what he says here is I
want you to walk in a manner worthy
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of these amazing treasures that you have
been given, with all humility. Right,
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it's this contrast in a way that
is very striking, but of course
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it is exactly the way we ought
to walk, because this is the salvation
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that we have received. Right,
Christ did come into the world as a
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conqueror, putting all things under his
feet, and yet he did so by
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dying on a cross. That contrast
that great service and depth of love and
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giving even of one's own life,
put right up next to the glories of
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the Kingdom of God, that is
that he has brought into the world.
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That is the calling to which we
have been called, and so we cannot
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walk in a manner worthy of it
if we walk in pride, if we
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walk in selfishness. And that's why
he adds with all humility and gentleness.
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Now, to continue on in these
verses, in this this thing that a
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god has called us to, this
commission he's given us. He adds these
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words with patience, bearing with one
another in love, walking in a manner
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worthy of which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, sounds
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all nice and the abstract until you
meet up with someone that you have to
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bear with. Right, it's easy
to talk about sanctification and forgiving the people
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their sins if you're not actually with
people that you have to forgive. And
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yet the Lord and our Savior has
seen it fit to teach us about mercy
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and love and forgiveness. By putting
us together, we're forced, in a
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way, to learn these lessons.
We learn how to forgive. Why?
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Because we're sinned against right. The
way of holiness is not abstracting yourself from
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the Community of Christ. The way
of holiness is not sort of leaving the
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building and saying, okay, I'm
going to go be holy away from all
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of these people. It doesn't work
like that. No, we are called
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to walk in this manner worthy of
this calling, with all gentleness and with
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humility and with patience, bearing with
bearing with one another in love, to
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continue on. Notice that he adds
this word that is obnoxious to the flesh,
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eager, in verse three. In
other words, this walking and humility,
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this bearing with one another in love, is not a kind of haphazard
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when I feel like a kind of
thing. It's not even a do it
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all the time kind of thing.
He says to do it with eagerness,
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bear with one another in with love, and I'm being eager to maintain the
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unity of the spirit in the bond
of peace, not when it's convenient or
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when the time might be appropriate or
when you're in a better mood. He
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says we ought to deal with obnoxious
people, Dive Occult People, Frustrating People,
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people that really really try our patience, and to do so eagerly,
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being eager to maintain the unity of
the spirit in the bond of peace,
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and all of this happens because of
love, just as we have been loved.
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He calls us to love one another. Want to flip over to first
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John A, chapter four. Remind
you of some verses there. A First
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John Four, verses twenty through twenty
four says this. If anyone says I
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love God and hates his brother,
he is a liar. That's what John
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says, and you can see why
he agrees with Paul. Both of these
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men, commissioned by Jesus Christ,
inspired by the Holy Spirit to say this
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very clear thing. You cannot proclaim. Of course you can, but it
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is not consistent to proclaim that you
love God and then hey your brother.
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The person who does that is a
liar, for he who does not love
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his brother, whom he has he
for he who does not love his brother,
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whom he has seen, cannot love
god, whom he has not seen.
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And this commandment we have from him. Whoever loves God must also love
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his brother. Now, if you
look at your life and you say I
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am not someone who loves my brother, I am not someone who bears with
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people in love. I don't walk
in humility or gentleness, I walk in
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selfishness and anger. If you look
at your life and you say no,
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I am not eager to maintain the
unity of the spirit in the bond of
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peace, but I'm eager for division. I'm eager for separation, I'm eager
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for poking the people, prodding,
people, yelling, fighting. Then you
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can know that you do not have
the spirit of God, and that's a
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tragic thing. But knowing that fact
doesn't have to leave you there either.
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To recognize an inconsistency, to have
God himself point out something in your life
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and say you are a liar,
of course hurts our pride. But what
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do we want? What do you
want? Do you want your pride?
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Do you want to hang onto your
anger and your selfishness and your hatred and
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your divisiveness and your death? Or
do you want the love of God and
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peace and unity and gentleness and patience? Do you want what God has done
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in the war, done in this
world? Do you want the calling to
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which he has called, I'm called
his elect do you want the hope,
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as he says in verse four,
that belongs to that call? The one
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Lord, the one faith, the
one baptism, the one God and father
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of all if you want that,
it's yours to have, because God says
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all who come to him and repent
of their sins will be forgiven of their
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sins. All who recognize their wretchedness
and their sinfulness and their evil hearts and
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go to him and say, Lord, forgive me, will be forgiven.
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This is how generous is he is, this is how good he is,
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how loving he is, and when
he forgives you, he changes you and
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he works in your heart so that
you do walk in a manner worthy of
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the calling to which you have been
called. Now, the Christians around you,
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and if and perhaps you are a
Christian, will tell you that it's
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it's not a perfect walk, that
the sin in US still fights against the
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spirit that's in us. But,
as the apostle says, we don't despair,
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we have hope. Why do we
have hope? Because we have a
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hope that belongs to our call,
and our call has been given to us
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by God himself. We walk,
then, in hope, we walk in
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confidence, even as we fight and
struggle against our own flesh, not because
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of our own strength or ingenuity or
force of character, but because of him
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who has called. We live in
him. We walk in him. He
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is one God and father of all, who is over all and through all
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and in all. There he is
speaking, I believe, particularly of his
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sons and daughters, those whom he
has saved, he is working in,
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those whom he is united to.
His spirit will never be let go.
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And so, if you are A
and if you are not a Christian,
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then repent, put your faith and
the one who promises to give you all
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these things when you trust in him. And if you are a Christian and
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you struggle, then repent and walk
in this manner. Put Your hope in
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the Lord, and you know what
will happen. What will happen is what
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has happened. He will continue to
do his work of uniting us together,
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in maintaining the unity of the spirit
among us, in making us one body
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and, one day, beloved.
We will struggle no more, we won't
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walk in fighting and hoping. We
will have the thing that we have hoped
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for and we will enjoy it forever. There is coming a day when you
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will see exactly the worthiness of your
calling, the gloriousness of it, and
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you will see it with your own
eyes. Have Hope in that. Walk
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in IT, walk in Christ.
Let us pray
