Fully Worthy - Ephesians 4:1-6

But today we're going to be in Ephesians chapter 4 verses one through six. So if you have a Bible, you can turn there. And we're going to be discussing this idea of worthy. It's very aptly named song that we just sang, that it is God, who is worthy as Christ, who is worthy that as Jesus was baptized, in Matthew 3, that he is baptized, he's raised up, and God from the heaven says, this is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased, saying, Jesus is worthy to be listened to. He's worthy to be praised. He is worthy to be savior. He's worthy. And we're going to be talking about worthy today, and there's lots of definitions of worthy or lots of different ways that we use it. My wife and I are in the process of maybe looking at buying a house, and we figured out that there is a debt worthiness. You can be worthy to incur debt. I didn't know. Some of sometime in my life, I was unworthy to incur debt. That's pretty crazy. There's worthy of nobility. There's things that are worth our time. There's things that are worthy, right? Maybe we can think of myths and characters from history or stories that are worthy. I think the 1st thing that might come to your mind is King Arthur, right? He finds this sword in the stone, and he's able to pull it out of the rock because he's worthy because he is the rightful heir of the throne of England. Maybe you're a Marvel fan. And you think about Thor, right? In the very 1st movie, he's sent to Earth because he's not worthy to be king, he's not worthy. He's not acting kingly, and then he is supposed to be, he's working through the entire movie. Whoever's worthy will be able to hold the hammer, and eventually he becomes worthy, right? Maybe another one we think of is a movie coming out. called The Odyssey, Odysseus, if you know the myth, at the end of it. Near the end of it, Odysseus has been traveling for a long time. Here's some spoilers for you. It's been out for a little bit. So he's traveling, and then there's a bunch of suitors for his thought to be widow, and the idea is that you have to pull this bow back and shoot through these eyelets of these weapons in order to earn the worthiness to marry his thought to be widow. There's these ideas of being worthy. We also think about those who maybe are not worthy. You know, we're celebrated July 4th. We celebrate our independence, maybe a very famous historical person that was not worthy, was Benedict Arnold, the famous American trader who was a turncoat, right? And that he is no longer worthy to be called an American, because now he is for the enemy. Um, I'm an Oklahoma City Thunder fan, if you're anything like me or have watched any of the NBA. We had a player on our team named Kevin Durant. You hear me grife about him quite a lot. But it was actually, I don't even know how many years ago. It might have been almost 10 years ago. at this point, but we had just lost in the Western Conference finals to the best team that was in the league, and then Kevin Durant decided to leave our team for that team. He just got beat by him and he left. It was crazy in Oklahoma, the amount of people that were so upset with Kevin Durant. They were burning their jerseys. They were burning Kevin Durant's jersey. They were erasing him from the record books. They thought, this man is no longer worthy to be considered a Thunder player, or even an X Thunder player. And there's a lot of beef still there today. Maybe we think about another famous culture one is Anakin Skywalker, right? He was meant to bring balance to the forest, right? He was meant to be the one who brought the good side over the dark side, but he succumbed to the dark side, and he no longer was the chosen one, unless you watch episode 6 and he becomes the chosen one again, but we won't go down that path. But he no longer is worthy to be this Jedi, no longer worthy to be the person to lead the charge against the dark side. We're talking about what it means to be worthy, how to walk worthy of the calling that we've been called to. We're talking about this calling of salvation, that we've been called to salvation by Jesus. How do we walk in a manner that is worthy of that? And what we're going to learn is that we must walk worthy of the call that we've received by walking like the one who called us. So we're going to be in Ephesians 4, one through six. This is what it says. Paul writes, I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you've 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. There is one body, and one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is overall, and through all, and in all. Let's pray. God, we thank you for today. We thank you that you are worthy. You are worthy to open the scroll in Revelation 5. You are worthy to pay the price for our sins. And God, we will be sitting here crying holy and worthy to you. And Lord, that you have called us to live worthy. Lord, would you take the words that are on this page? Make them honoring to you. Would you build up your church and what it means to walk worthy before you? Would you be drawing us by your spirit this morning? We ask all these things in your name. Amen. So verse four, he says, I, therefore, a prisoner for the Lord urge you to walk worthy. So, we need to walk worthy of this call. We talked about the call already, but a little bit of background. The call that Paul is talking about in chapter one in chapter 2 is that before Christ, you are separate from him, completely separate, an enemy of God. He says in chapter 2, verse one, that you were therefore dead, completely dead in your trespasses and sins, that you were so horrible in your sin that you're unable to do anything good. You were also divided. The Jews and the Gentiles were divided. They didn't like each other. They were separate from even each other, separate from the grace of God. But God in Christ has made them one. God in Christ has brought the dead to life. God has brought the children who were of wrath, who were deserving of punishment now to his table, that now they are children of love, and not simply just children, but we are now who have faith in Christ. We are co-heirs with Christ. co-heirs with Jesus, that as he is, um, worthy of all of this, that now we are alongside him in Christ, co-heirs with him, that were grown by grace through love. That we talked about this last week, that the spirit strengthened us in the inner being, that he opens the doors of our hearts so that Jesus couldn't dwell. Jesus can dwell richly within us, growing love. This unknowable love that Christ has that we begin to know it. and that he as he is growing, that allows us to love him more, that now we have power over sin and death, this divine call that you've been given, to honor the Lord, to have the Lord grow in you. This is a divine calling. This is salvation by grace through faith. There's nothing that you earned to, nothing that you've done to earn that. So the question that Paul is getting at here is what do we do in response to all that Jesus has done for us? We walk worthy of the one who saved you. He says, I'm a prisoner of the Lord. Why is Paul bringing this back up? He's mentioned this twice already in this book? In this letter in chapter 3, verse one? He says, for this reason, I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, on behalf of you Gentiles. Verse 13, he says, so I ask you not to lose heart over what I'm suffering in prison for you, which is your glory. Paul has mentioned his prison is imprisonment because he says it was for you. It was for your glory for the Gentiles. He says, Paul is in prison for preaching Jesus as God and as savior for the salvation of Jews and Gentiles. Remember then Jesus' life, that he was not received well, that his people rejected him. They hated him. They were constantly looking for ways to trap him in his words, constantly looking for ways to imprison him or kill him. The Jews saw him as a heretic, and they wanted to stop him. They sought to kill him for all 3 years of his ministry. And he was eventually betrayed, imprisoned, beaten, and killed on a Roman cross. Now, Paul, following in the footsteps of Jesus in pursuit of the lost, is now in prison for the Gentiles. He is following after his savior. As the savior was despised, so was Paul. So why is this worthy of the one that he's following? Why does that matter? Because he's endured hardships like Jesus. Another example of this is found in Acts 5. It's a crazy story. The apostles have received the spirit. They're going out preaching the gospel, they're calling out sinners, they're calling people to repentance, all these different things. The high priest hears of it. He brings the apostles in front of them, and he charges them to stop preaching the gospel. Stop doing that, is what they said. And then Peter looks, he stands up or he answers up and he says, we must obey God rather than men. We're not going to listen to you. You can beat us all you want. We have to listen to God. We're not gonna listen to you. And then they have some discussion. But eventually, they beat them again. They decide not to imprison. Then they started thinking, if this is not of God, it's just going to fizzle out. But they beat him, they charge not to speak anymore, and they leaf. They leave the high priest's presence. Now, if you've been beaten, maybe you've been whooped before from a parent or something like that. You leave maybe discouraged or dismayed, or anything like that. But the apostles leave rejoicing. They leave excited, they leave rejoicing, because they say in verse 41 of this book, that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. They were seen as worthy to be beaten because of their relationship with Jesus. They left with rejoicing. They took the signs obedience, worthiness. As Christ received beatings in a death sentence, so did his apostles. They were seen as worthy of these sufferings just because they were following him. And now Paul, as a prisoner for the Lord, has done the same thing. He's looking at the Ephesians, and he's saying, I, Paul, a prisoner for the Lord, who has followed after his footsteps, who is following after him, and these people do not like me for the exact same reasons that they did not like Jesus. I'm calling you to walk worthy. Look at him. He's credible. He has done what he's asking the Ephesians to do. Paul is not a manipulator who's sitting on the sidelines telling others to do the work that he's not willing to do himself. But in 1st Corinthians 11,1. He says, be imitators of me as I am of Christ. Paul is saying, follow the example that I am setting. Listen to me and do what I've asked you to do. He said, I a prisoner of the Lord Jesus, he says, I urge you. I urge you. Last week, we talked about how he bowed his knees before the Father, this emotional, falling down, pleading to the Lord in the same way. He is emotionally urging that the believers at Ephesus. I'm urging you. Walk worthy of this calling. The calling is worth it. Jesus is worth it. Now walk worthy of this calling. I'm urging you to do this from my prison cell as one who has done it and shown you that it is worth it. I urge you to walk. This idea of walking is also found all throughout Ephesians. We already mentioned this one in verses two, chapter 2, verses one and two. He says, you were dead in your trespasses and sins, and when in which you once walked, following the course of this world. And then in verse 10, he says, as a result of grace by faith, he says, for we are workmanship created in Christ Jesus, for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. He says, walk in this new way of life. Now walk in Christ. There's new ways. There's no longer trespasses and sins that you should be following, but follow the good works that are being laid out before you. Walking towards Jesus as he grows in us and calls us upwards. We need to be walking like Jesus, walking worthy of the call. So maybe you just heard me say, Dalton, if I'm not being persecuted, am I not walking worthy of the call? Now, walking worthy is not just being persecuted, but Paul's credibility statement is not a call for everyone to go look to get locked up. But what he's saying is an example. Paul is an example of someone who is fully devoted to Jesus as he followed him, regardless of the outcome, fully devoted to Jesus as he ended up here. Imitate me as I'm imitating Christ. So Paul wants the Ephesians to follow Jesus' life, an example as worthy ambassadors, as worthy heirs. We know this picture, right? So think about a royal family. We've seen the movies, we've read the books, all those different stuff. There's a good king, right? He's kingly, he has decorum, he is respectful, he has good manners, he has all these things. And then there's a prince, right? The prince is meant to take over the throne. He's meant to become this king one day, and what does the prince always do? He like rejects the father's instruction. He walks his own way. He's the mess, right? He does whatever he wants to do. He's just, he's just following into his self-satisfying actions, right? But he's supposed to live up to the name. But when it comes to be time where he's supposed to get crowned or something like that, he's thrown out and he says, you aren't worthy, you've been a disgrace to the name. We understand this story, right? We've seen it played out. The king passes and the prince is meant to become king, but he lacks this respect. He lacks the decorum. He hasn't walked in it. The Ephesians, along with all of those who put their faith in Jesus, have a sacred call on their life that they're meant to be walking into. We are heirs with Christ. That is our future. That is our promise. We should not want to be this selfish prince who does whatever he wants to do, knowing that one day I get to claim what's rightfully behind. But we should be like the wise prince. The prince that Solomon is writing to in Proverbs, he says, listen to my word, son. Listen and you'll gain wisdom. As we become this wise prince, we look to the king, the good king, and we want to walk in his ways. We want to learn from him. How do we do this? We imitate him. We imitate him as he is rightfully worthy of his own name. worthy of his own praise? We to look to the king. We should be walking in his way, walking as he walked. We must seek to be living worthy of the name we've received as children of God. Later on, probably next week. We're going to be talking about all of us as a church, well, growing up into the head as the body of Christ. Now we're seeking to be more like Christ in all of our individual ways, that we are looking to imitate him. So Paul is using the word worthy to the Ephesian church to call them up, to a devotion that honors Jesus as Lord, always. It's a call to live a life that is in step with Jesus as we pursue holiness in godliness. It's a call for us to become more like Jesus every day, that we should be wanting to be worthy of this. Now look in verse two. He says, 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. There is one body, and one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call. Now, this verse gives us the context of this command. Although there are many ways in which we should be walking worthy of the call that we've received, Paul is talking specifically to the Ephesians about walking worthy in the church. He says, look, bearing with one another and love. There is one body. Later on, he's going to talk about how we are one body, how we're united in this one body, but there's many different ways that we many different ways in the church to use gifts. There's one body and one spirit. Paul is once again talking about the church and their unity in Jesus. Walk worthy in the church. So that's the point number two. Walk worthy in the church. He says, previously, remember who you were before Christ, that you were dead in your sin, but now you have been brought alive in Christ and now you are loved in Christ. Now Christ is growing richly within you, that his spirit has opened the doors. He scrubbed the floors. He's prepared the throne. Now Christ sits on the throne of our hearts and he's growing, worshiped and prays within us. And as we are pursuing this relationship with Jesus. It bubbles over, it pours over into how we love those in the church, how we relate to others in the body of Christ. We're united with Christ. We're united with others. We must be like the church, be like Christ in the church. Our Christ likeness goes further than evangelistic efforts. It pursues brothers and sisters in the love of Christ. A lot of times we think about just acting like Christ in the workplace. Just acting like Christ in our neighborhood. But when we get to church here, we kind of put it on cruise control, right? They need to see Jesus out there. Here, they already know who Jesus is. don't need that. But listen to John 13, 34 through 35. Jesus himself is talking to his disciples and he says, a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. You are also to love one another. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples. If you have love for one another. It's this love that we show for each other, here in this room, on this day, throughout the week, as a body of Christ. It's this love that shows the world that we're disciples of Christ, that we love him. So we think about evangelistic efforts. What we do here matters not only for each other, but for the world, that as the world looks in, they begin to see, that's different. Why are they doing that? Look at all the different backgrounds. Look at all the different socioeconomic levels, whatever it is, they're loving each other. They're serving each other. They're trying to outdo each other in good works. They're trying to outdo each other in love. What is this love? This unknowable love of Christ that is pouring into our hearts by him dwelling on the throne of our heart is overflowing to each other when we meet. When we're going throughout the week. We should be loving each other as Christ has loved us. This love shows our worthiness to be called his disciples. It shows our worthiness to be his heirs with him. It shows more of an evidence of our worthiness, not so much of earning worthiness. Walking worthy of the call is loving one another as Christ has loved us. Let's look back at this verse and look at what Paul is saying. How do we exactly love the church? With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. We're walking humbly in all things. We're not looking to exalt ourselves. We're not looking to boast over others. We're not looking to elevate ourselves over others, but we're humbly coming to look to serve each other, to love each other. We're walking humbly in all things. We're walking gently. We're caring for one another as we pursue Christ. We have gentle language towards each other. carrying language towards each other. The way that we interact is meant to be gentle. We're walking patiently. Now, we know this. We're in a building. We're full of a bunch of different people and where people are, their differences are going to be known, right? We know the people that are different than us, the people that we don't want to talk to on Sunday morning, right? But we're called to be patient. We ought to walk patiently with one another, seeking to listen before speaking, seeking to serve, seeking to love, not seeking to boast yourself over another. They're not worth my time. being patient, being humble, being gentle, pursuing each other. And it says, bearing with one another. We should be walking together. Man, life is hard. Everyone in here has something that they're going through. Whether it be a health related problem, financial problem, a job situation, a family problem, a sin problem, everybody's going through something. Walk together. We don't come in here expecting everybody to be perfect. If we are, we're in the wrong place. We're here realizing that we are saved by grace through faith, that we are coming in here as a body of Christ to build each other up, to find the encouragement that we need to continue going on, we share with each other, we share with trusting people the struggles that we have, and we bear that with each other, not only just saying, oh, I hear you, that really stinks. But let's bring it to the one who can actually do something about it. Let's carry each other's burdens. Can we help financially? Can we help with something? Can we take some of the burdens off of each other's shoulders? And we're walking with unity, maintaining unity in the spirit and the bond of peace. We will all be wronged here. We'll all be offended at some level. We're going to disagree with somebody, but we ought to walk eagerly. Look at the word they said, eagerly maintaining the unity of the spirit. We're looking to be reconciled and maintain unity, even though we may not want to. These are the things that Jesus lived out on the earth. This is not something Paul's coming up with. We're looking to live like Christ. He walked humbly like a lamb to the slaughter of the cross for us. Self-sacrificing himself in order that we can be elevated. He calls himself. He says, come to me, all who are weird because I'm gentle and lowly at heart. I will take your burdens. I will carry them for you. I will pay for them on the cross. I'll bring them before the Father. He was patient with his disciples. Oh my goodness, he was patient with the disciples, right? We can read that over and over and over again, even after they deserted him after the crucifixion, after they denied that they even knew him. Jesus pursued Peter and was reconciled to him, eager to maintain the unity that he has in himself. We live worthy as we live like Jesus. And Paul says, Walk in a way that is worthy of the call that you've received. So whereas your unity with Christ is set and sealed by the spirit that we have in our hearts. Unity in the church must be maintained. We can't just say someone else will do it. We maintain it. We repented the sin in our own heart as we try to elevate ourselves over others and we pursue each other in love as Christ loved us. This takes an intentional effort of self-sacrifice like Christ. Unity must be maintained. You've read this before. Philippians 2 verses 3 through 8. Paul writes again, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves. Look, each, let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others, have this mind among yourself, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God. Did not count equality with God, a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. We need to be thinking of others as more important than ourselves. Wow. That's, like, impossible, right? But Paul, and this says, have this mind among you, which is yours in Christ Jesus? Christ is growing in you. He's already forming this mind in you, and as he's building us and calling us to faithfulness, this mind is ours. We should come off our throne as Christ has come off his, and bow at Christ's throne by following him to love each other in the church. Let's put on the mind of Christ and live like him. We are in Christ and Christ is in us. He is growing our hearts, an unknowable love for God, and that is spilling over love for others. He's working in our hearts a worthy way of living, living like him. Walking worthy is loving like Christ. So why is the church singled out? I love my family well. I think I love my neighbors pretty well. Why is Paul singling out the church here? Should he not have just said, hey, love everybody. Love, love everybody that you see equally in this way. Why is he focusing on this? The 3rd point we're going to see is that believers are united as family. He's singling them out because the body of Christ is a family in the spirit. Galatians 328. After Jesus, after you have faith in Christ, he says this, there is neither Jew nor Greek, there's neither slave nor free. there neither male or female. You were all one in Christ Jesus. Now Paul is saying, he's not saying, okay, actually, there's no gender. There's no actual any of this. He's talking about a social network, a social aspect. There's no longer some that are over another. There's no longer those who have preference over another, but you're all one, equal footing. You were all sinners. You're all saved by grace, and by that, we're all one in the spirit if he has saved you. The Jews and Gentiles, the slave and the free, the male and the female. Now all have same, have the same spirit and the same access to the same Father, through the same Savior, Jesus. Paul singles out the church because the church is the family of God, members of the same inheritance. Jesus has torn down the wall of hostility. He has killed hostility between the groups. We are no longer divided, but were one. All in Christ are one in Christ. One family, one body. Now you may have guessed this, but I like basketball. And in high school, I played basketball. We were horrible, horrible team. So our coach was also not very good, but he was trying everything he can to make as a team. But I remember this one Friday night. It was a football game, and our football team was good, and we had a big rivalry game happening. It was between Sand Springs, which is where I'm from, and Sapulpa. Yeah, those are real places. Sopulpa. And we despise the pulpo. Even to this day, I'm like, I have to like, hard to even say the word. I'm just joking. But it was a big rivalry and there was something else around it. Like if we beat them, we go to the playoffs that they beat as we don't, it was something like that. It was after basketball practice, my coach gets the entire team around and he says, okay, guys, I know the big games tonight. I don't want to see a single one of you get in a fight tonight. It was a big deal. Like we had a game coming up. I don't want to see a single one of you get in a fight tonight. He said, but if one of you does, you better all be. And I was like, 1st off, I'm pumped up right now, just saying that. Like, he was saying, I don't want to see one person get in a fight. But if one of you does, you better come to his help. You better come and beat that guy up to try to beat him up. What he was trying to do was build us up as a family. He wanted to hold us up. He wanted us to show preference and protection for each other as a family. If one person finds himself in danger, We better all get in that danger with him. We're going to get in there and be a family, a basketball team together. Now none of us got in a fight, a little sad about it, but it's fine. Just joking. Never been in a fight before. But a greater family than that basketball team is in the church. We ought to lay down our lives for the care and love for each other, where someone, a faithful brother or sister is hurting. We should come to their aid. We should come to bear their burdens. We should come to be gentle and humble and loving to them. Just as Jesus laid down his life for ours, and just as Paul laid down his life for the Gentiles. We are a family here, and we ought to pursue each other with worthiness in the love of Jesus. Are we doing that? Are we pursuing each other with this type of love? Are we just claiming love as our identity, yet not actually acting through it? Are we walking worthy of the call that we've received in Jesus? Now there are many who claim to follow Jesus. There are many who claim to be a part of this family of Jesus. Do we just accept everybody as a part of the family? Paul starts to talk a little bit more specific here. And verse four, he says, there's one body and one spirit, just as you were called to one hope that belongs to your call. One Lord, one baptism, one God, and Father of all, who is overall and through all, and in all. Paul is bringing clarity. He's saying, the ones who believe the true gospel are truly the family of God. And now he gives us the foundations of family, that we have one Lord. We have one Lord, that who is Jesus. He's fully God, fully man. He was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died an undeserved death on a cross for our sins. He was buried because he died, and 3 days later, he rose from the grave victorious over sin and death. He now sits at the right hand of God, and he advocates for those who have faith in him, that now all sin, all guilt, and the one Lord has been paid for and accounted for. We have one faith. This is faith in Jesus, as risen from the grave, and faith in his victory, and authority over sin and death. This faith that results in salvation by grace alone. It is by faith, not works, that people can be saved. This is our one hope in this one faith by one grace that we have in the one Lord that we have salvation from sin. We have one baptism. This follows the example of Jesus, that the baptism actually depicts or shows the gospel, and that the person being buried in the water is looking like he is dying to self, dying to sin, to be raised to newness of life as Jesus was raised from the grave, that the gospel is being shown. And now we are completely washed clean of all guilt and sin. And we have one God, the God of the Bible. The God who reveals himself as 3 and one. He has always existed in perfect eternal unity as father, son, and spirit. He is overall, through all and in all. We do not craft our own God, but we pour over the scriptures his word to learn more about him, and we believe in him. He is God. In other words, Paul is saying, there is one true gospel. There is truth. And we are united as a family as we hold firm to that truth. The ones who have this faith and hold firm to it are heirs with Christ together. They have been called from death to life, and place at the table of the Father as children of love forever. And here's the truth is that Paul here is not saying only you Ephesians. This truth is not just local, localized in Ephesus, but it's all those who believe this one truth, are united by the spirit and the bond of peace. It isn't localized, it's globalized, right? The family is global. I have an amazing privilege at the school, at the seminary. where I'm the, I'm graduate advisor. I talk on the phone with people from all over the world about coming to seminary, helping them with classes, hearing their testimony, hearing their story about all that they're doing and what they hope to get out of this education. Just this week I met with a man at the seminary. He's from Myanmar. He lives here in Kansas City right now, but he was displaced because of the civil war that's happening there. He tells a story of he was with his friend and his friend was a kind of going against the government and his friend was arrested. He's in jail right now for 17 years because of this, and he fled the country because he didn't want to get thrown in jail himself. But now he's here and he feels for his country and how he has had great hardships there. His family is all gone, but he told me that he feels that God wants him to be better equipped to share the gospel with his people and to be praying for his people. He's coming here. He never thought to get any kind of college degree. He just finished at UMKC, and now he's coming to Midwestern, and he's going to get some kind of doctoral, not doctoral, some kind of master's degree, so that he feels that he's better equipped that when he has to go back in 4 years, that he's able to share the gospel in a more effective way, to plant churches, to reach the lost. Now, I have almost nothing in common with this guy. He's from Myanmar. I'm from Sand Springs, Oklahoma, right? He speaks a completely different language than I do. And I had to speak really slow to make sure he could hear me. But he wants to plant churches. Not just plant churches like me, but he wants to plant churches because there's lost people, because he loves Jesus, and he wants to see a place, a nation, a world changed with the gospel. We have unity in the bond of peace from with people from all different backgrounds. We are one family in God. In Christ, we have unity across geographic, economic, and social barriers. There's a famous Christian phrase. It says in essentials, unity, in non-essentials, liberty, in all things, charity. And what that means is we have unity in the essentials. These are things relating to salvation, that it's about the gospel. It's about salvation, by faith alone, by grace alone. It's about creation, and there's so many more, but we have unity here, across barriers, across denominations, across people. We have unity here. These cannot be compromised. If we begin to compromise these, we make false gospels. We cannot compromise on these. But we have liberty and non-essentials. These are people who are determined to biblical faithfulness, but differ on interpretation. They're bound by their conscience in their interpretation of scripture. There's easy ones, like music style, or church location or discipleship method, right? We could have unity with people, even though their church looks different than ours, but the larger ones maybe are like communion. How do they do that? How do they view that? Is it an actual blessing to me or is it simply an image? Is Christ actually in the elements? Or is he all around the elements? Or is it simply a symbol of what Christ has done for us? Or baptism? very similar thought. But these are believers that are seeking to be faithful to scripture, yet they come to a different, thoughtful, biblically based conclusion. We can still have unity, although we disagree on secondary, not salvific, not salvation issues. Just a note. These are theologically honest people. These are people who are not ruthlessly tearing apart scripture, trying to fit a social agenda. These are people who are genuinely seeking after God, seeking after interpretation, asking to be corrected if they're wrong. These or uphold the Bible. And then there's charity in all things. There's going to be disagreements. There's going to be people here. There's going to be people in our city, in our denomination, in our uh, religion, as Christianity that disagree, but we have charity in all of these, that we seek to still serve each other in the same areas. We pursue a biblical faithfulness, that commands us to be open to unity, that we would be praying for each other, that we may look different, Our worship may sound different, but it is Jesus, who is the creator and judge of all truth, not us. So where the gospel is truly preached. We could have unity. It is God who is overall and through all and in all, not us. I can't be the one to say, absolutely you're completely, absolutely wrong. But I can hold firm in my conscience of what the Bible is saying and as the Lord is teaching me, and then I allow the Lord to be the one who makes those decisions. This week, again, we're going to be serving along in the Ethiopian Aromo church in Riverside. Now, Jackson visited it once. It's very different than our church. They worship very different. They dance, they hoop, they holler during worship. They have very different ways of doing things. But man, they love Jesus. Hey, Winston, it's like, oh, yeah. They believe very differently. They very lively. But man, they love Jesus. We've had many conversations. We had a few conversations about specific things with what they believe. And we kept talking and we just both kept saying, we believe the same thing. We just do it differently. So this week, we're partnering with them to reach their kids, who are now 1st generation Americans, who their parents are from Ethiopia, but they speak English. They are American in culture. And we're going to be reaching people in the community as well, inviting them to be a part of this. We both want to see Riverside reach with the gospel. We both realize that the lost need forgiveness of sins, and that is only given by grace through faith in Jesus. We hold firm to the essentials. We disagree on secondary things, but we are unified in the way that we want to share the gospel. So we're going to serve shoulder to shoulder this week, though we're different. We're united by the same spirit, and the bond of peace under the same father who is father of all in the same savior. So to summarize this week. As a follower of Jesus. You have received a royal call from God. You are co heirs with Jesus in a diverse family of believers. So walk in a way that honors that call and honors the one who has called you. Although we have many different people, locally and globally, we pursue unity, because Jesus has made us one by his spirit in the bond of peace. So some take homes that we can have this week. Number one, know the call. know the call. When I say this, I want you to think, dwell on the gospel. think about this often. To walk worthy, we must remind ourselves of the call that we've received, that you have been saved by grace. And you are continued to be saved by grace through faith. You can't earn it, you can't lose it because it's been grace that's been given to you. You are an enemy of God, but now you have been made a child of God. You did nothing to save yourself, but God chose to save you by his son. You were walking in your sins and now he has given you good works to walk in. Think about this often. Seek this truth. How can I aim to be more faithful in my walk today? How can I aim to walk more worthy of this call today? Number two, know the collar. Know the collar, just as a prince looks to the king to walk worthy to learn the ways that he should be walking in a worthy manner. We should be seeking to know the one that we're following. We should be seeking it. I can't actually follow him if I don't know where he is. I can't learn from him if I never hear from him. I can't learn from him if I'm not reading from him. Last week, we remember Paul asked God the Father to send his spirit into our hearts, to open our hearts for Jesus to live in us, and show us his unknowable love in the measurable power. As we get to know Jesus more, he grows his love in us. He grows us in worthiness by his spirit. Our relationship with Jesus grows as Jesus grows in us. You cannot love others without Jesus growing in you. Hold firm to Jesus, and allow him to grow in your heart richly. We walk worthy of the call as Jesus grows in us, and we obey his command to love others. Let's pray. God, we thank you for today. We thank you for the call that you've given us in Jesus, that you've called us from sin. You've called this from death, and you've called this to life. Well, thank you for your word. That it is truth. Thank you that we can seek to learn more. And to hear from you. Lord, there's so many things that we do not know. We don't even know your love fully. Lord, would you teach us more of your word? Would we be soft to correction? Would we be? Open to your spirit, who teaches us all things and reminds us of Jesus. This week, Lord, would you be leading us to each other, that we would serve each other and bear one another's burdens? Would we have unity in the bond of peace? Would we have unity in the spirit? God be with us this week as we're going to be sharing the gospel with lots of people. God, call people to salvation. Let us honor you as king, let us honor you as savior. You are worthy, and we love you. Jesus' name. Amen.