Walk Worthy Pt 1

to the book of Ephesians, chapter 4. Ephesians, chapter 4. I'll give you the disclaimer I gave to the Wednesday night group, and that's that I had some form of an upper respiratory thing last weekend, and I'm better, except that I have the residual cough and fun things that go with it, so my voice is not as strong as it usually is. So, if I have to cough, I will do the best that I can to turn my microphone off, and I'll be back in a minute.

I'll turn the microphone off, so you don't get to enjoy it with me. And I will have a cough drop in my mouth, so if you hear that, I apologize. It breaks all of the rules that Mrs. Frederick taught me in communication, but it is what it is. The show must go on. So, Ephesians, chapter 4. Today we begin a new section in the book of Ephesians. It has to do with the responsibility

that we now have as believers. But I want to point something out to us. We, as believers in Jesus Christ, we, as humans, were created to respond. We were not created to try to earn God's favor. We were created to respond to the favor that God wants to give to us. We were created to respond to God's grace. Now, most of us, in our mentality, will always gravitate

towards a, if you do, then I'll bless. We were taught it growing up. Because of our humanity, legalism was given to us at the garden. And so we always are trying to earn God's favor because we're always trying to earn our way in the world. But the economy of God looks very different than the economy of the world that we live in. We do not live a life seeking to

earn God's favor because biblical Christianity has nothing to do with works. Biblical Christianity is God's grace at work in our lives. So we now live as responders. We don't live a life that is worthy, which is what we're going to talk about today. We do not live a life of responsibility in order to earn God's favor. We now live a life that is worthy because we already

have God's favor. There's a completely different mentality there. One involves fear. The other involves freedom. One involves anxiousness. The other involves peace. Because when I am constantly trying to earn God's favor, the question is always in the back of my mind, have I done enough? But when I live from a place of knowing that I have already been granted God's favor

and now I'm living in response to it, I no longer ask the question, have I done enough? I now ask the question, how much can I do? Because I am responding to who I am in Christ. And that's what we are created to be. We are told that we love Him because He first loved us. And so as we move into this next section, I want to point out to you that Paul does not

begin at all to talk about what our responsibility is as believers until he has first taken three chapters to explain to us what God has already done for us. I say that because I am unbelievably aware that there are people sitting in this room now and people that will sit in this room at second service and people that are watching online who are still trying to earn their way with God. Who still think that Christianity is a system of works and not a system of grace by which we respond to what God has already done. And so, we were created to respond to God's work and that's what He's going to go over here with us in these next three chapters.

It's going to start off with this aspect of walking worthy. As a matter of fact, that's the exhortation that He's going to give to us, to walk worthy. And as we look at the first sixteen verses of chapter four, this aspect of walking worthy will take on two forms. We will see that walking worthy involves a heart of unity and walking worthy involves a goal of maturity.

We'll cover the first one today. So the title of this morning's message is Walk Worthy Part One. So let's pick up in chapter four, verse one of the book of Ephesians. Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.

There is one body, one spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. Now under this first title of Walk Worthy, the first thing that I want to look at is the exhortation. So let's look at verse one. It says, Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called.

There's two words that I want to point out to you that he starts off this exhortation with. And those two words are this, therefore and beseech. Those are two really important words because they create the context of everything that follows. The first word is the word therefore. It says, Therefore I, Paul, the prisoner of the Lord Jesus Christ for you Gentiles.

And anytime we see the word therefore, you should always ask that question, what's it there for? And it leads you back to everything that he had talked about up to this point in time. Therefore, in light of everything that Paul had said, what all had he said? Well, he said that we are accepted in the body of God, that we have been forgiven, that we were chosen before the foundations of the earth, that we have been given the Holy Spirit as a down payment, as the engagement ring, if you will, of the promise that God has given to us, that it has been made known to us the mystery, that we have been made alive in Christ, that we have been made one in Christ, that we who were far off have been brought near.

All of the riches that we have in Christ. Why does he start off with the word therefore? Well, because as I just mentioned, we were not created to earn God's love, we were created to respond to God's love. And so if I am to walk worthy, I must first of all understand everything that Christ has already done for me, and the position that I am already in. So that I can walk not in

fear, but I can walk in confidence. I am a child of God, and nothing can change that. Whatever comes into my life, whatever happens, I belong to Jesus. And He is patient, and He is kind, and He will continue to love me no matter what. Therefore. The second word that I wanted to point out to you is the word beseech. Therefore I beseech you, brethren, because as He gives us

this exhortation, we must understand that this exhortation is not a stern command, but it is an urging out of love. That word beseech can also be translated, I urge you, or I implore you. The idea is an urging out of love. It would be like me saying, hey there is a tornado coming, I beseech you to go into your basement. Or, hey the building is on fire, I beseech

you to leave, right? Not necessarily a command, but I am urging you because I care about you. I want you to get out of the building. That is the idea that is being given to us here by this word beseech. And it is important because it plays into that same idea already done. As a matter of fact, Paul in the book of 1 Corinthians says the love of Christ constrains me.

The love of Christ compels me. If you will, the love of Christ urges me to be who I am. And in God's love, He is urging us to do what is next. He says, therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you or beseech you or urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called. Now, we have already discussed the fact that the word walk

means your manner of life. We have talked about that multiple times, but if you have never written that down or never understood that before, let me explain to you. When He says walk, He is talking about your manner of life. Live your life in this manner. And the manner in which He wants us to live our life is a manner that is worthy of the calling. The word worthy in the Greek

is axios. And that word axios means that which is of an equal weight. Now we are starting to talk, right? My walk, my life should be of an equal weight to the calling with which I have been called. God has called me in His grace. He has called me in His love. And He has called me in His righteousness to be His child. Therefore, my walk should look like my calling.

My life should match up with what Jesus had done for me. My life should look like a believer in Jesus Christ. We should walk worthy. The problem with a lot of us as believers is we didn't really believe. We bought fire insurance. You heard a message, and you heard a message about God's wrath, which is an important part of the message of the Gospel. And you said, I don't want that. Well, how can

I be free from God's wrath? Well, accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior. I'll do that. I'll accept Jesus. But now I'm going to live however I want to live. Well, you know what my question for you is? Do you really understand what you did there? Do you really understand what it means to accept Jesus? Do you really understand what it means to be a follower of Him?

Because while in His grace He comes in and transforms me and makes me a brand new person, there is still an aspect that if I have repented from my sin and am walking towards Jesus, then I have to repent of my sin and walk towards Jesus, because those are two mutually exclusive things. They're at two different ends of the spectrum, and you can't do both at the same time. You cannot receive all of God's grace if you will not first turn from all of your sin. And so he says, walk worthy, walk in a manner that's worthy of the calling with which you have been called. Well, what

does that look like? He gives us five characteristics of this walk. Five characteristics of what it means to walk worthy, and all of them will find in their central theme the aspect of unity in the body of Christ. And that will be the last thing that we talk about. But there's five things that he tells us. Number one, he tells us that we are to walk with all

humility. He says it right there in verse two. With all humility. The word humility can also be translated lowliness. Do you know what the word lowliness means in the Greek? To be low. You can't make this stuff up, people. It's just what it means, right? It means to be low. But what does he mean by that? Well, I love the way that the Amplified Bible translates this because

it says, in all humility and lowliness, forsaking self-righteousness. Now that word lowliness is starting to make a little bit more sense to me. You see, if I am to walk worthy, I have to forsake self-righteousness. You don't have to turn there, but you might write this reference down. Matthew 5, verse 3. That's the very beginning of the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount.

It says, blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are the poor in spirit. So what does that mean? What does it mean to forsake self-righteousness? What does it mean to be lowly? What does it mean to be poor in spirit? I'm going to give you the most basic definition of this that I possibly can. Humility means an honest estimation of yourself. An honest estimation

of yourself. There's two different ends of the spectrum when it comes to pride. One end of pride is what we would call arrogance, where we make sure everybody knows our resume all the time. We make sure everybody knows how great we are at everything, and we have to constantly tell everybody how awesome we are. At the other end of the spectrum of pride is what we would

call self-abasement, where I constantly tell you how bad I am, where I constantly tell you how awful I am, where I constantly tell you how big of a loser I am, and usually what I'm doing when I do that is I'm fishing for compliments. But either one of them is still pride. You know why they're both still pride? Because who's still at the center of it? I am. But

an honest assessment of myself means that I have the distinct understanding that I'm a sinner, and the distinct understanding that I simply need a savior. And all of a sudden, I no longer am at the center of every one of my conversations. My savior is. And sometimes the best thing that we can do if we want to walk worthy, and listen, if we want unity, is we need an attitude of humility. We need

an attitude that is so honest about who we really are. You ever gone in for a physical to the doctor, especially I like talking to the fellas sometimes, I think because I am one, but also because we're the ones that struggle the most with doing things like going to the doctor and stuff like that. Right? You ever gone to the doctor and they're like, how's your diet? And you're like, oh, you know,

it's pretty good. Whatever, dude. You eat ice cream all the time. You eat hot dogs all the time. You eat beef jerky like it's going out of style. Right? Your diet's not good. But you don't want your doctor to hear that because if you tell your doctor that, he's going to send you home with a note. Right? Have you ever noticed, fellas, that the doctor sends you home with a note

just like your teacher used to? This is what Johnny needs to eat. Right? Now give this to your wife when she gets home. And pretty soon your whole diet's got to change because he sent you home with a note. Right? And so when you tell your doctor, you know, give an honest estimation of yourself. You're like, I do pretty good. I get plenty of protein. I get all my dairy.

I get vegetables when they're grilled on my burrito. Right? I get all the things I need to. And we're not honest about who we are. You see, that's kind of what we can do with each other and with God. We don't give that honest assessment. But when we can just get bold and realize this is who I really am and this is the Savior that I really need, listen, it sucks all the pride

out of us. Because I can't go around telling you how good I am because I'm not really that good. But I also can't spend all this time talking about how bad I am because I've been redeemed by a Savior. All I can spend my time focused on is this wonderful Savior who took a sinner and turned him into somebody who's worth talking to. Right? It's humility. Go with me one place

in Scripture. Go with me over to Philippians. It's like two pages to your right. Philippians chapter 2. And I want you to look at verse 5. It's a familiar passage of Scripture but I want to read through it together. It says, Have this attitude in yourself, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God

a thing to be grasped. But He emptied Himself, taking the form of a bondservant, and being made in the likeness of men, being found in appearance as a man. He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. For this reason God highly exalted Him, bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that in the name of Jesus every knee would bow and every tongue would confess those who are in heaven and on earth.

Have this attitude in yourself. I think it was out of Believer's Bible Commentary. It said this, Lowliness means that we can be happy even when we're not in control. I'm going to read that to you again. Lowliness means we can be happy even when we're not in control. You know why I coupled that verse with that statement? Because when Jesus came to the earth,

who was He ultimately surrendered to? He was God. To the Father. And He decided He wasn't in control of the situation any longer. He would yield Himself to the Father. Brothers and sisters, the first characteristic of walking worthy is humility. Number two, gentleness. Gentleness. Go back over to Ephesians. I started to look at the page and I'm like it doesn't say gentleness on it.

I don't know what I'm doing wrong here. Go back to Ephesians. Verse 2 it says, And gentleness. The word gentleness can also be translated meekness. Have you noticed some of these are kind of tying into the fruits of the Spirit? Anything sounding familiar here to you of the fruits of the Spirit? There's a meekness that should be about us when we walk worthy.

What does meekness mean? Well I remember when I was a kid, and I think I shared this before when I taught through Matthew, that there was a t-shirt company when I was in high school. And I carried on through early high school era. And this t-shirt company was called No Fear. And everybody wanted a No Fear t-shirt, right? And one of the sayings on the front of the No Fear t-shirt

they had all these pithy little tough guy sayings, right? And one of the sayings on the front of the No Fear t-shirt was the meek shall inherit nothing. Right? Because that's the way the world views meekness. The world views meekness as weakness. And quite frankly, I think the reason why sometimes it's hard for men to sit in church is because they're being told to be meek and they translate

that as weak. Well I want to tell us all something. Meekness has nothing to do with weakness. Meekness is power under control. Again, the Amplified Bible translates it like this. Maintaining self control. You see, there's actually more power in being gentle than there is in unleashing all of that power on everyone else. Because it means that you know that you have the ability

to do something, but you have chosen not to because it's not the best way to handle it. And he says if we are to walk worthy then we must walk in gentleness. This Greek word for gentleness is interesting because it's used in three other ways in the Greek language. The word that's translated gentleness is also used in the Greek language to refer to a soothing medicine.

It's used to refer to a colt that has been broken. And it's used to refer to a soft wind. Do you notice that in each of those there is the potential for power, but that potential for power has been harnessed and is now under control? Brothers and sisters, what we need in the world today is Christians who know how to maintain self control and not lose their business on everyone around them.

Because everybody knows that there's an even tempered way about the way that they handle things. Interestingly enough, Jesus is given as our greatest example of meekness. And I want to point something out to you. Jesus is referred to as meek and gentle, but he also flipped over the tables of the money changers. It doesn't mean you can never handle business.

It means you know when it's the right time. Because when Jesus turned over the tables of the money changers, he was not out of control at one point in time. He was completely under control because he was filled with righteous indignation in what had been happening to his father's house. But let me give you another example of how Jesus exemplified power under control.

Do you remember when they came and arrested Jesus? Peter was ready to start wielding swords and everybody was ready to go to battle and Jesus says, I need you to understand something. At any point in time, I could call down legions of angels to deal with the situation right here in front of me but then the will of the Father could not be fulfilled. Brothers and sisters, that's gentleness.

That is power that maintains self-control. And he says that's who we're to be. That's what it's to look like if we are to walk worthy. We are to be gentle as believers in Jesus Christ. Scripture later refers to it as wise as serpents but as harmless as doves. And again, the world needs to see gentle Christians. So, the characteristics so far, humility, gentleness.

The next one, number three, is patience. Patience. The word patience can also be translated long-suffering. And as a matter of fact, I prefer that translation for this word and I want to explain to you why. There are two Greek words that are often translated patience. I can't pronounce either one of them so I'm just going to tell you that there's two Greek words

that are translated for patience. The first Greek word that's translated for patience means being patient in respect to things. In other words, inanimate things around you that you have no control over and yet you're still patient with it. The things of life that we all have to deal with. The second word for patience means to be patient in respect to persons.

That's the idea of long-suffering and that's the word that's used here. To be patient in respect to each other. Now, if I was to choose the one that's more difficult I would say the one that's more difficult is to be patient in respect to each other, right? Because I'm well aware of the fact that when things just keep happening everybody's had to be patient with the fact that you woke up in the morning only your alarm didn't work or your phone didn't go off like it was supposed to and you have to be patient with the fact that the stupid phone didn't work the way it was supposed to and then you tried to start the coffee pot and that was the day the coffee pot decided to break and you have to be patient with the fact that

now you can't have your morning coffee and then you got into the car only the battery had died because you left the lights on and now you can't start the car, right? That's being patient and while that's hard to do it's even harder when somebody did it on purpose. When somebody's being difficult and now you have to be patient with them because they're expressing their free will and making you making your life more difficult based upon their free will. Because sometimes they know what they're doing.

I think it's much more difficult to be patient with those kinds of people than it is to be patient with all of the things. And that's what he tells us that we're to be. We are to be long suffering. I got that from Gail Irwin by the way. Because that's the way we're supposed to be as people. If we're to walk worthy then we're to be long suffering. Why? Because do you know how long suffering

Jesus is with you? Have you met you? Have you met me? Of course he was long suffering with me. How many times do you think Jesus sat back and went I told them it was going to be a bad idea, right? I was talking to a guy that fixes a lot of machinery and he said I'm going to go and fix this machine for them but the first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to charge them a stupidity tax.

I'm not going to call it a stupidity tax but that's what it is. Because I told them five times how to do it right and they wouldn't do it. I'm going to bring it on a Sunday afternoon to fix it. So I'm going to charge them a stupidity tax. And I was like what if I can do that? What if I can charge people a stupidity tax? But you know what? Didn't Jesus have to charge me a stupidity tax, right?

Jesus is going it's not a bad idea. Actually Gabriel is the one that said it. You know I was. He was like Jesus come on now. I own a cattle on a thousand hills I don't need their money. How long suffering is Jesus with us? And you know what? He is so long suffering with me. How can I not show that same kind of long suffering to the people that are around me?

Do you understand how this is me responding to what Jesus has done for me? Not me trying to do something that's impossible for me to do. The more I understand how patient Jesus is with me, the more I can be patient with the people that are around me. He calls us to be patient. I love this. I can't pronounce this guy's name very well. His name is Chrisostom or something along those lines.

I don't know. Someone will make fun of me for it later. But this is what he had to say. It was great. He said patience is the spirit that has the power to take revenge but never does. It is characteristic of a forgiving and generous heart. See that's long suffering. Do you remember when Jesus was talking to the disciples about forgiveness and the idea? He came to Jesus and he said

Lord I think I'm getting the idea. How many times should I forgive my brother if he sins against me in the exact same way in a day? Seven times? And Jesus I think in a very gentle way said no Peter not seven times. Seventy times. Seven. And then he proceeded to tell them a story about how important that was. You see that's long suffering. Jesus said Jesus is that way with me.

Jesus is that way with you. And if we are to walk worthy in equal weight then we need to be that way with each other. So humility. Gentleness. Patience. Number four tolerance. Ryan you can't use that word. We're not that kind of church. Let me explain what the word means. First of all let me read this to you. It says verse two with all humility and gentleness and patience

for one another in love. I hate that biblical words get hijacked. I hate that words get hijacked in general. I actually thought at one point in time I should do a whole study about biblical words that have been hijacked and give the true biblical definition of them. I decided that would be something that would actually cause me more issues than it would help

so I just defined them as we go. The word tolerance is what we would call the definition of tolerance. Because tolerant means that you are affirming another word that I hate BT dubs that you are affirming of someone's lifestyle. That you say I am tolerant of you therefore you live how you want to. But the word tolerant doesn't actually mean affirming or accepting of a lifestyle.

The word tolerant actually means something very different than that. As a matter of fact let me read the definition of the word tolerance. The word tolerance means to bear with or to sustain to bear or to endure. That's what the word tolerance means. Now let me tell you what that means in this biblical sense. You see if I am tolerant of you I don't just pretend your sin doesn't exist

but I am patient with you while you work through it. You see tolerance and patience sort of like cousins. They work really well hand in hand. They go together really really well. So if I am tolerant of you and I will be there to pick up the pieces when you have failed again. I will be there to point out what you have done wrong but also to encourage you how to be right.

I will be understanding of your weaknesses and when you show up blaring words you should never say I take it in and I say probably not the best way we could handle that situation. And I correct in love. That's being tolerant with one another in love. Because if I love you I want to see you right in your walk with Jesus. If I love you I want to see you right in your walk with the Lord.

But if I love you I am also going to tell you anything that I need to tell you in a gentle sort of way. See that's being tolerant with one another. In the premarital counseling book that I use, they use an older version of the Amplified Bible translation and they talk about this in relationships with husband and wife. And it talks about being tolerant with one another.

Only they translate it like this. Making allowances for each other because you love each other. And I thought that's a pretty good way to put it. Making allowances for each other. In other words when you see somebody lose it again you say it's okay. I know they're working on it. I know that they're working through this. And I'm patient with the fact that you're not perfect yet.

I'm not perfect yet. Because we're bearing with one another. We are being tolerant of one another in that patient sort of way. The problem that takes place in the world today and in the church today is we see somebody get saved and we expect them to be perfect from the word go. Right? And we go oh my gosh they're saved. They're going to do everything right now.

Why are they still talking like that? Why are they still smoking? Why are they still drinking? Why are they doing some of these things? Well let's be tolerant with them. Let's bear with them and work them through this. Point out what scripture says and understand that they've still got work to do. They still have a ways to go to get where they need to be. And point out the truth

in love. Because you know what? That's what Jesus does with us. When I first started walking with Jesus I didn't do very much right. He was very patient with me and through his word he would start showing me hey that's wrong. I shouldn't do that. That's a bad idea. That's not the way I should be talking. That's not the way I should be thinking. That's not the way I should be acting.

Honestly this is the biggest thing we need to do with teenagers today. It's because I'm afraid that sometimes as adults we expect teenagers to be adults. You're like well you understand in my day Listen in your day teenagers weren't adults yet either. And they were making mistakes. You should be patient. And long suffering bearing with being tolerant with one another.

Why? Because you love each other. Because you love one another. Because what's the greatest test of whether or not you are a disciple of Jesus Christ? If you have love for each other. Right? Number five is diligence. Diligence. In verse three it says being diligent to preserve the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. Being diligent to preserve the unity

of the spirit and the bond of peace. That word diligent means endeavoring to or constantly diligent or making every effort. Now I'm going to tell you what we're going to make every effort about in just a minute. But I do want to point out that this is one of those things that takes a little sweat equity on the part of the believer in Jesus Christ. Because this carries with it the idea that

there is diligence in this. In other words this is not something that you just start the top spinning and it just goes. This is something that has to be done on a consistent basis in church life and in individual lives. And the thing that we have to pay diligent attention to, that we have to pay careful attention to is to preserve the unity. To preserve the unity.

Or to maintain the unity. Now unity is another one of those catch words. I don't hear it as much as I used to. Early 2000's it was a really big word. Especially in the church. That there be unity. The idea of unity was always something that was sort of taken out of context of what scripture actually intended. So let me tell you what it intends and then we'll talk a little bit more about it.

The preserving of the unity has to do with our unity in Jesus Christ. If you remember from our study in chapter 3 chapter 2 of Ephesians we were told that we as gentiles were at one time far off but we have now been brought near by the blood of Jesus Christ. Because in Christ he is our peace. And as our peace what has he done? As our peace he has broken down the middle wall of separation.

The middle wall of separation between Jew and Gentile. But brothers and sisters even the wall of separation that we have between each other. Because now as believers in Jesus Christ there is no reason why there should ever be a wall between colors, between people, between genders. There should be no division because we are all one in Christ. Therefore if there is a wall of division between you

and someone else then it is time for you to preserve the unity. Christ has already created it through the cross. It is now our job to preserve it in the way that we live. So what does it mean to preserve the unity? Well preserving the unity that unity of spirit is not necessarily structural or denominational but spiritual. It is a spiritual aspect of life. Now

within the city of Arkansas City alone if I remember correctly there are 68 different churches. Now I don't know how many denominations that includes but there is a lot of different churches in Arkansas City, Kansas. But ultimately there is one church in Arkansas City, Kansas. And that is the church of Jesus Christ. The church that is under the headship of Jesus Christ.

Why are there all of these different denominations? Because we have some different ideas about the way that we should do things. We are pretty non-formal at Calvary Chapel. We can't even spell liturgy. We don't even know what it means. But we are pretty non-formal here. But you take somebody who is maybe a part of a Methodist style of church and they love the liturgy.

They love there being the formality. And that is okay. As long as Jesus is still at the center the word of God is still our guide. If we call out sin when it is sin we are willing to offer grace because that is what we are told to do then we are actually just one church. It is okay that some are a little bit more formal than others. It is okay that some don't believe as much

in the manifestation of the gifts today as others. That is okay because we are still brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. We just have a difference of opinion on what we do with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. You see we can be unified in Christ because we are unified in spirit and spirit is within us. We just have a difference of how did David Guzik put this?

We have a difference of structure or denomination. There was a time when I was like I don't understand why there are lots of different denominations can't we all just be one? Well not really because we are all very different people. And some churches are going to minister more to one temperament or one style of person than another. And that is okay. We couldn't all fit in one building anyway.

It would be like the biggest building known to man. The only time we will all be able to fit in one building is when we are in the new heavens and the new earth. And that is going to be one big building, right? And so unity, it is okay that there is all the different denominations as long as we are all willing to come together under one headship and that is Jesus Christ.

As long as we are able to keep the word of God as the thing that guides us in the things that we would die for. Our job as believers is to maintain that unity. Therefore if we know somebody that goes to another church we don't look at them as the enemy. You know, they left our church and went to another one. I don't know if I can talk to them anymore. Listen, we are not clubs, we are not gangs, okay?

Once you are gone you are not dead to us. There was a different church that ministered to you. It is okay. We are to maintain that unity of the spirit. Again another quote that I found to be good and it was Warren Wiersbe who said this. He said, Doctrine cannot be thrown out for the sake of unity. Unity must be built on good doctrine. And this is important as well because

just because we are unified doesn't mean that we lay aside the important things. It doesn't mean that we lay aside what I would call the doctrines that we would die for. The essential doctrines of scripture. We still have to stand firm on doctrine because if we can't stand firm on doctrine then there is no real unity. But we can bend on some things. So he tells us that

we are to be diligent to maintain the spirit of unity and then he tells us one third thing or one last thing about this diligence in the bond of peace. To maintain or to preserve the unity of spirit and the bond of peace. And this is where this unity comes down to you and I. You see there is unity in the church in general. But there should also be peace in the church specifically.

How do we maintain the bond of peace? Well the way we maintain the bond of peace is first of all understand where wars actually come from. James chapter 4 verse 1 tells us where do wars come from? Do they not come from your pleasures that your pleasures that war within your members? One second here. Meanwhile back in the study. Do they not come from your pleasures

that war within your members? Again this was a Warren Wiersbe quote and I thought it was amazing. He said we must first understand that the cause of war on the outside is always war on the inside. I'm going to say that again because that nailed me to the wall and I've been married on this one all weekend. The cause for war on the outside is always war on the inside.

Who can't you maintain peace with? Who is it you have an issue with? Can I go ahead and tell you that it probably started in here? That it's probably actually starting on the inside of you? You can't forgive them because you can't forgive yourself. You can't let go of what they did because you still have war within yourself. You're not at peace with God in those areas.

War on the outside always begins with war on the inside. So I have a question for you. What do the battle lines look like inside your heart? Because maybe it's time to make peace. Because if you're not first at peace with God then you can never be at peace with each other. Because this unity of the spirit this bond of peace that we have with each other starts first of all

with the bond of peace that we have with Jesus Christ. And so he gives us these five characteristics. Humility, gentleness, patience, tolerance, diligence. Again, does this sound anything like the fruits of the spirit to you? It sounds a whole lot like the fruits of the spirit to me. Does it sound anything like the beatitudes to you? It sounds a whole lot like the beatitudes to me.

It's almost like everything in God's word works together. It's almost like God's word is just saying the same thing over and over and over again in different people's lives, with different stories and in different ways, so that it affects us all individually. Then he goes on to talk about the unity. He flows directly into this. So, in verse 3 he says being diligent to preserve the unity of the spirit

and the bond of peace. There is one body, one spirit just as you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord one faith, one baptism one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. And if we are to maintain this spirit of unity, we must understand the unity. And so he gives us seven foundations of unity in the church and in the life of the believer.

So let's go through these seven real quick. Number one, we are one body. We are one body. And what is that one body? That one body is the body of Christ. The body of Christ. We are all a part of the body of Christ. Everybody at Calvary Chapel of Ark City we are all part of the body of Christ. Everybody and all of the other Bible believing Bible teaching churches here in our Kansas City

we are all part of the body of Christ. Therefore when we all gather that's why when we all gather we are the body of Christ. That's why we need to get another one going. Someone just asked me the other day when are we going to do our next praise in the park? We have a ministerial alliance meeting not this Wednesday but next Wednesday and we will get it planned.

That was what made that so amazing that we did back in June. Because the body of Christ came together. The body of Christ came together and we didn't care whose church's worship team was up there leading we just praised God together. We didn't care which church it was that was being clapped for at that point in time. We were all just praising God together because we are

one body. And that's one thing I do think as believers in the western culture that we can stand to really start reminding ourselves of is that we are one body. And it's the body of Christ. Number two he tells us that we have one spirit. And that one spirit is the Holy Spirit because the same spirit indwells all of us. The same spirit indwells all of the charismatic people as much as

he does all of the really conservative people. He indwells those that are pre-tribbers he indwells those that are post-tribbers. He indwells the Democrat Christian as well as the Republican Christian. Ryan that's not true! Yes it is! It's one spirit Okay? And if your life is surrendered to Jesus it's the same spirit that indwells all of us. Number three we have one hope. And brothers and

sisters we have one hope. And the one hope is not that we will make this world a better place. But I think the best thing that we can do as the church today is quit telling people we can make the world a better place. I just want to make this world a little better place for my kids. Well you're going to fail. Okay? Because this world can never become a better place. Because it is completely

tainted by sin. The only way we'll make this world a better place is the day that God flicks the bick and sets the thing on fire starts over with a new one. That will make the world a better place. Right? Because our one hope is eternity. Our one hope is that new heaven and new earth in which we will dwell with Jesus forever. Number four there is one Lord. And it's an important word that's used there.

Lord. And that one Lord is Jesus Christ. And this is where it's really really important that we understand because some churches are telling you, we believe in Jesus but he's not their Lord. You know how I know he's not their Lord? Because they're letting sin into their camp. Because they have promoted sin within their camp. That's when I start going, but we can't

fellowship with you anymore because we no longer have one Lord. Because your Lord, the thing that governs your life, the thing that governs your church is not Jesus Christ. The thing that governs your church is the culture. And that's an important distinction to make because there is one Lord and that's Jesus Christ. Number five, there is one faith. The word faith speaks of doctrine or your way

to salvation, meaning the only way to be accepted is by faith in Jesus Christ alone. There is one baptism. The word baptism is identification. In other words, we are baptized into one body. So there is one identification with the body. And then last of all, number seven, there is one God and Father of all. The source. And I love the way he sort of gives us a little benediction to this section.

He says in verse six, there is one God and Father of all, one source, who is over all and through all and in all. In other words, he is the all-encompassing God. Brothers and sisters, one of the things I love to do, you know it, is to remind you that we are all family. But it's not just us here at Calvary Chapel City that are family. All of the believers in Jesus Christ

who have one body, one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one Father, we are all one. And the most beautiful thing we can do is begin to embrace the oneness that is the unity that we have in Christ. Amen? Let's all stand. Thank you for bearing with me. And I'm praying that we really begin to experience that oneness. So would you bow with me?

Father, we come before you and thank you. Thank you for how much you've blessed us with your word. Thank you for how much you've blessed us with your spirit. And Lord, thank you that you have blessed us with that unity that comes only through you. And so Lord, may we begin to understand who we are in Christ. That we are one in Christ. And begin to build each other up

in Christ. Father, move in our hearts. Fashion in us the hearts of the men and women of God that you want us to be. In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.