WALK THIS WAY (Eph 4:1-3)

TWELVE 5 CHURCH

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, a right like to welcome everyone this morning if you can make your way in if you stand out front of the make your way in here this morning and will, we'll get started what a beautiful day that the god is made a man for us to come together and worship him a man

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I want to welcome everyone. In Hebrews, the writer of Hebrews told us to not neglect meeting together and to encourage one another, all the more as we, all the more as we the day drawing near.

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Amen. We're honoring him this morning. We're honoring our Savior by obeying and worshiping him together.

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Amen. Bringing our gifts to encourage one another, praise the Savior. If you're a visitor with us this morning, we want to thank each and every one of you for coming in.

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Amen. We're so glad to have you. We hope you all enjoy your time with us this morning.

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We've got some visitor cards, our visitor cards out. We've got visitor cards out front. Visitors, if you're visiting with us, please get one of those connection cards, fill it out.

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Okay? Fill it out. That's, we want to connect with you and get to know you. Okay?

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A couple of announcements, Tuesday morning meeting prayer, 7 to 8 a .m.

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Every Tuesday morning, right here, these doors are open. I want to encourage you, if you're a member here, come, pray.

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It's awesome. We have a good time and do a lot of praying. Amen. Amen.

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Midweek gathering, Wednesday nights, 6 .30 p .m. If you have not came and went through Bible study with us on Wednesday nights,

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I encourage you to come. That's my, personally, my favorite service. I love

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Sunday morning. Sunday morning's awesome. Wednesday night is killer. Okay?

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Nathan, Jeremiah, Keith, we have several. I think my dad is doing this

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Wednesday night. It's a great time. We learn. It's awesome.

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I encourage you to come if you haven't been coming on Wednesday nights. Right now on Wednesday nights, systematic theology, why

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Christians believe what we believe. Amen? Very important. The youth are in First John.

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They're meeting. Jeremiah takes the youth over and meets with them. Awesome youth. They're learning a lot.

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Children's ministry. This is a big one. Children's ministry's coming soon. If you didn't know,

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I guess we signed. We signed on the lease. We're going to be moving to our new building. Fortunately, we're going to have, amen, we're going to have room now, once we get in there, we're going to have children's on Wednesday night.

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We're going to have a cry room on Sunday mornings. We're going to have, the youth is going to be under the same roof as we are on Wednesday night.

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They're going to have their own room. Okay? So we're really, really super excited about that.

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A lot of exciting things going on here at 12 .5. Amen? Like we do every

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Sunday morning, we pray for a local church. And this one is not too local, but it's local,

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Olive Branch, Mississippi, Mercy Hill. And Nathan told me before service this morning, he said,

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I just want to let you know that that is a very, very good reformed church. Okay?

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So these guys are doing great things. Nathan and Jeremiah have both visited this church.

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They've got friends at this church. Okay? So we need to remember them. That's who we're praying for this morning.

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If you would, bow your heads as we pray. Our most gracious heavenly

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Father, Lord, we come to you now, humbling ourselves before you this morning,

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Lord. Lord, we love you so much, and we're so grateful for what you're doing here,

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Lord, at 12 .5, Lord, and the growth that we're experiencing, all the exciting things we've got going on,

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Lord, and for this new, this new building, Lord, that you've blessed us with,

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Lord, this morning, we also want to thank you, and we want to pray for, for this, this church over in Olive Branch, Mississippi, Mercy Hill, Lord, as I'm sure they're, they're getting ready to start their service right now as we speak,

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Lord, we pray that you'll just continue to bless this church, bless this group of people,

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Lord, Lord, I pray that you would be with the leadership there, Lord, pray that you would be with the pastor this morning,

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Lord, Lord, we love you, we praise you, Lord, we're so unworthy and so undeserving of your grace that you pour upon us, and we're so grateful, and we're so thankful, we love you in Jesus' name, amen.

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Sorry. Well, saints are gathering all over the world today to worship the one true

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God, amen, amen, and so that's why we've gathered today, let's go ahead and stand for our call to worship, this is a way for us to look to God's word, to read out

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God's word in a reading response so that we can be reminded of what we're gathering to do today and set our minds, our affections, our focus, our attention solely on the one that deserves it all, amen, amen.

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Our call to worship comes from Ephesians chapter four, as we've been going through Ephesians, we would like to look at verses four through seven where Paul says, there is one body and one spirit to one

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Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, and father of all.

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He is over all. Grace was given to each one of us, and all of God's people said, amen, amen.

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Our dear heavenly father, once again we come to you, Lord, we praise you, we stand here in awe of you this morning,

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Lord, Lord, we praise you for rescuing us from all of our spiritual enemies, for you are the rock of our salvation.

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We praise you for giving us access into your presence, that you allow us to come before you with joyful and thankful hearts, and also with hearts when our hearts are sad.

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We praise you for your supremacy and your greatness, you have no rivals, you alone are the great

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God and great king who rules over all, including all other spiritual beings.

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We praise you for creating all things and sustaining them and holding them by your hand.

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We praise you for the pinnacle of your creation, us, man, you are our mighty maker, father.

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The only fitting response is to kneel and submit in humility to you, for you have made us and created us to worship you,

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Lord, and we just praise you, Lord, you are awesome.

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We love you, Lord, and we just praise you. We pray, I pray this morning that you would unite us as a body of believers, as brothers and sisters in Christ, unite us this morning as we worship and sing praise to you.

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You are so worthy of all of our praise. We love you, we praise you, in Jesus' name, amen.

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We worship our king. Come, let us bow at his feet.

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He has done great things. See what our savior has done.

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See how his love overcomes. He has done great things.

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He has done great things. Sing this with me. You are heavenly.

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Oh, hero of heaven, you conquer the grave. You free every captive and break every chain.

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Oh, God, you have done great things. We dance in your freedom, awake and alive.

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Oh, Jesus, our savior, your name lifted high. Oh, God, you have done great things.

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You'll be faithful forevermore. You have done great things.

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And I know you will do it again. For your promise is yes and amen.

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You will do great things. God, you do great things.

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You free every captive and break every chain. Oh, God, you have done great things.

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We dance in your freedom. Oh, Jesus, our savior, your name lifted high.

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Oh, God, you have done great things. Hallelujah, God, above it all.

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Hallelujah, shake the board. Hallelujah, you have done great things.

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One more time. Say hallelujah. Say hallelujah.

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You conquer the grave. You free every captive and break every chain.

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Oh, God, you have done great things. We dance in your freedom.

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Awake, my savior, your name lifted high.

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You have done great things. Let's sing this one together, all creatures of our

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God. Creatures of our

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God. Praise with a sing.

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Oh, praise him. Hallelujah. Son of God indeed.

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It's ought to be. Oh, praise him.

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Hallelujah. Embrace his spirit deep in you.

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Touched by his blood. Rejoice in his great love.

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Oh, praise him. Hallelujah. Christ has defeated every sin.

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Cast all your burdens now on us.

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Creatures of our God. Praise with a sing.

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Oh, praise him. Burning sun with golden beam.

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Silver moon with softer gleam. Oh, praise him.

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Praise him. Hallelujah. Well, now is our time of prayer of confession and assurance.

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This is a beautiful time where corporately we can confess our sins together. Because ultimately all sin is against God and him alone.

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But when we confess our sins, we know that he restores us. He gives us that peace and that joy, that koinonia is restored.

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And we rest in that. In the assurance of God's promises that he does not fail to do what he intends to do.

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And so this morning, I want to read a prayer from one of the Puritans. And so sometimes reading a prayer can be dead and we just kind of go through the motions.

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No. If these are true biblical prayers, if this is in spirit and in truth, that this still rings in our hearts today.

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So if you would, please bow your head with me as I read this prayer from one of the Puritans of old.

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Holy Lord, we have sinned at times without number. And been guilty of pride and unbelief, of failure and find our minds not being in your word.

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We neglect to seek you in our daily lives. Our transgressions and shortcomings present us with a list of accusations.

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But we bless you that they will not stand against us because all these accusations have been laid on Christ.

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They go on to subdue our corruptions. But Lord, we pray that you would allow us to have grace to live above them.

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Let not the passions of our flesh nor the lustings of our mind bring our spirit into subjection.

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But you, Lord, rule over us in liberty and power. We thank you for our many prayers have been refused.

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We have oftentimes asked to miss and we do not have. We have prayed from lust and have been rejected.

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We have longed for Egypt and have been given a wilderness. Go on with your patient work, oh

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Lord. Answering no to our wrongful prayers and fitting us to accept it. Purge us from every false desire, every base aspiration, everything contrary to your rule.

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Lord, we thank you for your wisdom and your love for all the aspects of discipline to which we are subject.

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For sometimes putting us into the furnace to refine our gold and to remove our dross.

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No trial is so hard to bear as a sense of sin. If you should give us choice to live in pleasure and to keep our sins or to have them burnt away with trial.

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Lord, give us sanctified affliction. Deliver us from every evil habit, every accretion of former sins, everything that dims the brightness of your grace in us.

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Everything that prevents us from taking delight in you. Then we bless you, oh

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God of Abraham, for helping us to be upright. Amen. And if I could get a couple of ushers to come up and take up our offering this morning.

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Now if y 'all wanna be seated while we take up the offering here. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we praise you this morning,

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Lord, for this offering that we're taking up, Lord. We just praise that you would just, just bless it, Lord. Lord, we love you, we praise you.

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In Jesus' name, amen. Come Thou fountain, every blessing

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To my heart to sing Thy grace Streams of mercy never ceasing

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Call for songs of loud praise Teach me some melodious sonnet

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Sung by flaming tongues of gold

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The praise of my heart fits upon it

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Now to Thine we give thanks Here I am, my heaven is in heaven mine

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And I owe my safety to a stranger

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Who knows his precious

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Oh, to make some great attention to me

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Let thy goodness, my goodness Take and seal it, seal it for Thy courts above Take and seal it, seal it for Thy courts above My sleep is found

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He is my light, my strength, my song

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This cornerstone, this solid ground

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Firm through the fiercest drought And the steepest torn

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Where the heights of love Are depths of peace

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When fears are still And striving ceases

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I come for Him Here in my strength

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And take on flesh For His love in helpless pain

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This gift of love And righteousness Scorned by the ones

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He came to save Still on that cross

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As Jesus died Was satisfied

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With every sin On Him was laid

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Here in the depth of Christ I will believe the

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God His body laid Light of the world

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By darkness falls In the place of death

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In the place of death Oh, for the love

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He holds In His hand

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Till He returns Oh, calls me home

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Here in the palace I'll stand Till He returns

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Oh, calls me home Here in the palace

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I'll stand I'm ready to go to God's word.

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Are you? Let's go to God's word. You may be seated. Let's open up your copy of God's word to Ephesians chapter 4 as we see what it truly means to be in Christ in Christ and in Christ alone

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Ephesians chapter 4 we're finally making it through the halfway point of our study through this great epistle where the apostle

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Paul says there in verse 1 He says, I therefore a prisoner for the

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Lord urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called with all humility and gentleness with patience bearing with one another in love eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace there is one body and one spirit just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call one

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Lord, one faith one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all this is the reading of God's word let's stop once again let's go to Him and ask that through the power of the

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Holy Spirit we can understand, we can grasp and then we have the power to obey God's true words

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Dear Heavenly Father when we come to you once again and we thank you we praise you for who you are we love your word for your word is truth we love your law for your law is good and it is for our good because it is who you are

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Lord, and so we pray as we look at your word Lord, and as we look at particularly here in this section of Paul's words we know that this is inspired by you, and so I pray that we can comprehend it

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I pray that you would give me wisdom I pray that you guard my words from error, I pray that you guard the ears of the hearers if I speak an untruth, oh but God if I speak truth and when your word cuts through that bone and marrow and gets right to the heart,

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I pray that you use it to mold your people more into the image of your son Father, that's what we long for this morning, we long to be sanctified we long to be more like our savior so help us mold us work in us, in Christ's name amen well now that we've reached the second half of the

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Apostle Paul's letter to the church in Ephesus, it's obvious that he has switched gears as to the subject matter in certain ways if you were with us two weeks ago, you'll remember that I mentioned that the first half of this letter to the church in Ephesus, chapters 1 through 3 these are primarily what we would refer to as indicatives this is conveying information this is theological information about God, how

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God saves why God saves and who he is, whereas the second half in which we are starting today, chapters 4 through 6 are primarily what we call imperatives these are simply application, this is a call to action of that truth that we've learned in the previous three chapters and because of this in this particular letter, many preachers will skip right to this chapter they'll jump right to these verses and say very little if anything at all of the rich deep theology of the previous three chapters that we have just spent the last 27 weeks looking at they'll skip over that part they especially love these first six verses that we just read wherein

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Paul is calling for unity and I understand this desire it makes sense that they would want to jump right to this, after all we all long for unity, don't we?

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each one of us is hungry for unity, we long for unity because unity just, it eludes us more often than not, doesn't it?

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unity just doesn't last it's like holding sand in your fist, the tighter you try and hang on to it, what happens to it?

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it comes through your fingertips and falls back to the ground and so often within the church unity is that, and pastors want to go to this text without the previous three chapters in order to drive us to unity and it just falls through our fingertips and the reason for that is that we treat unity like that sand we treat it as something external something outside of who we are and what we have in us and we approach, our approach to unity is no different than our reaching down and picking up that handful of sand, it's something mechanical it's something that I must do the sand is outside of me reaching down and grabbing the sand is an action that I must take and imperatives in scripture, these applicable things that we see all over the new testament as to what we're to be and what we're to do often lead to this type of approach when detached from the indicatives it leads us to something external and mechanical when detached from the theology that Paul has laid out over the past three chapters because you see imperatives like what we see here in chapter four, this does not create a hard division between the indicatives in chapters one through three and the imperatives here there's not a hard division between the theological information and the application to that information notice that Paul doesn't skip a beat he doesn't bring closure to the theology, he doesn't close out the theological and the reason is that we cannot separate the theological from the practical, you can't do it it's impossible it's all theology and it's all practical it's just communicated differently to us because we need the information in order to reach the application and those two things go hand in hand together and you cannot detach them in any way and neither does

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Paul of course but when we create that division it leads us to come to text like this and treat them as something to do that is external and mechanical instead of internal and organic what do

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I mean by that well, I'm gonna try and let the word of God I'm gonna get out of the way and let the word of God explain that to us as we go through here

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I want us to see there in chapter four verse one, how Paul introduces this call for unity he says

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I therefore now, hold on Paul's getting ready to urge them to walk in a certain manner he's getting ready to urge them to walk in a manner worthy of this calling yet he ties this urging to what he has previously said you see what

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I mean you can't detach it therefore for what because of in light of I urge you in light of because of, therefore what what is he pointing to well it could be in light of the doxology that we just looked at last week verses 20 and 21 of chapter 3 couldn't it, where Paul declares that God can do far more abundantly than all that we could ask or think and of course, he is speaking of these verses however those verses are a culmination of praise over what has been written all throughout chapters one through three and so you can't detach it, you can't say well the apostle

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Paul is saying therefore because of the doxology because of this praise I urge you no, he is speaking of it in totality,

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I want you to notice what Paul goes on to say there in verse one, look at it he says I therefore prisoner for the

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Lord, urge you I therefore, because of this, in light of this I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called

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Paul has been talking about this all throughout these chapters, hasn't he back in chapter one, if you've got your

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Bibles I'm going to be flipping around through Ephesians a lot here so just stick with me, hopefully we won't be jumping around too much all over the

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New Testament but in Ephesians I want you to see how everything is tied in, in Ephesians chapter one in verse 18 the apostle

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Paul goes to his first prayer, his prayer for the saints there and he's praying, he says

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I pray that you have the eyes of your hearts enlightened that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you okay, so what has he called you to?

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it's a hope, what is this hope? well, look back at verses four through six in chapter one there, it's when he's laying out the theology here, he says even as he, who

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God the father, even as God the father chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him in love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ he has chosen us this is the hope that he has called us to, adoption as sons, he has brought us into glory this is what he's called us to, isn't it?

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Paul goes on to hash out this glorious truth ultimately using it to thoroughly dismantle the disunity between the

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Jew and Gentile believers because that's what this whole thing, this letter is to Gentile believers in Ephesus, remember and so he's dismantling the disunity between these two groups saying there's not these super Christians and sub -Christians, there's not

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Jew and Gentile Christian, it's all in one and he's bringing it all together and then ultimately in chapter 2, in verse 12, he says remember that you who

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Gentile believer, Ephesians church in Ephesus, you were at that time separated from Christ alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope in without God in the world but now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ this is what we've been called to and then finally in verse 22 of chapter 2 what does he say?

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He says, in him, in Christ you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the

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Spirit and now, Paul says therefore in light of this,

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I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called because of this you and I have been set apart, haven't we?

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we've been set apart we've been loved by the Father from eternity past we've been purchased by the

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Son and we have been sealed with the promised Holy Spirit we have been called we've been called to this glorious hope this great truth that Paul has just been laying out in all this theology in chapters 1 -3 and with that call comes a calling what is that calling?

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what's this calling that Paul is talking about that he's urging them to walk in a manner worthy of?

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I think we see it summarized in this statement that Paul makes in between this appeal to walk in a manner he says

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I therefore urge you to walk in a manner but he says something in between that, look at it look at your

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Bibles, he says I therefore a prisoner for the Lord I find it interesting that the

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Apostle Paul is always reminding the readers that he's writing this letter from prison we've talked about it before many times every one of his prison epistles every one of his letters that he's writing he is constantly reminding them through the letter of his position in imprisonment, but he doesn't refer to it as being a prisoner of Rome he never does, does he?

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he always acknowledges that his imprisonment is because of for the sake of and by the will of the

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Lord, that's his whole purpose is constantly reminding them, and why does Paul do this?

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particularly in statements like this, why is this just thrown in? I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of this calling

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I therefore, because of this, urge you but he throws this in, a prisoner it's not like he's randomly throwing this into the conversation because he wants sympathy is it?

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that's not like Paul Paul's not after sympathy no, he's purposeful with it it's here for a reason and the reason is that his life is an example of this calling it's a subtle reminder of what this calling is meaning you and I the people that he's writing to essentially, and this letter's for us isn't it?

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you and I are called to suffer that's what we're called to that's what

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Paul's saying here, I'm a prisoner for the Lord I'm suffering for the sake of the Lord and I'm calling you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called you may say, well hold on pastor

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I thought we encouraged people to come to Jesus because Jesus makes everything good Jesus fixes all your problems

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Jesus makes your life good, makes you happy all the time, it gets rid of all of your problems, unfortunately that's what much of Christianity today has brought salvation down to so that they can get more numbers in, so that they can build bigger buildings, so that they can make more money and build bigger staff members and do all of this stuff that they justify because they're just trying to get you to make a decision and in order to make a decision you've got to think that you're coming to get something of benefit to you in this earthly sense but that's not what

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Scripture teaches I'm going to tell you right now, if you're a lost person in here if you do not know

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Christ or you don't know that you know Christ, I'm telling you right now I'm going to give you a good sales pitch come to Jesus so you can suffer come to Jesus so you can suffer and you say, well that just doesn't seem right according to Scripture it does

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Peter himself said it in 1 Peter chapter 2 in verse 21, he says for to this, to what?

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to suffer, for to suffer you have been called there's that word again, called what have you been called to?

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You've been called to suffer why? Because Christ also suffered for you leaving an example so that you might follow in his steps pretty clear, isn't it?

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called to suffer so if this is the calling to which we have been called what is

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Paul telling us to do here? When he says to walk in a manner worthy of this calling to walk in a manner worthy of this suffering, what is he telling us to do?

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Paul uses this word walk often that we see this all through Scripture Paul uses it in all of his letters but in this particular case in Ephesians I think he uses it eight times throughout we see it used back in chapter 2 again you can look back at it in chapter 2 verses 1 and 2 and he's correlating this walk that we are currently to walk on with what he had previously told us we currently walked in, right?

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He says and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked it's the same word there and what were you doing in this walk before?

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He says you were following the course of the world following the prince of the power of the air the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience this is how you formally walked, isn't it?

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But what happened? What happened? Verse 5 happened. Look at verse 5

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He made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved. You once walked according to the prince of the power of the air, you once followed him, you once followed the things of this world, you walked in that way but now you've been brought into salvation by grace you've been saved and now in verse 10 for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which

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God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them you see a pattern here that Paul's calling us to.

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You once walked this way, now you walk that way so what does

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Paul mean by walk? When he says to walk in a manner worthy of this calling well he's referring to the direction the trajectory he's referring to the pattern and appearance, the expression of our lives being seen through where we are headed and walking so the question is, is that walk is it worthy of is it an expression of is it in light of and in line with this glorious calling is it?

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Is your life in line with this glorious calling to which you have been called well the question is how do you know if it is how do you know if this glorious calling is where you are walking, if you are in line with this look at verse 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience bearing with one another in love,

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Paul gives us a list of things that will be present if we are walking in a manner worthy of our calling we have a list of things that are that we are to look like if we're walking the direction that God has called us to, the first of which is humility, some of your translations may say lowliness humility has actually been called the first, the second and the third essential of the

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Christian life it's vital to the walk of a Christian, humility

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James says that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble

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Paul said in Philippians chapter 2 he says do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit but in humility count others more significant than yourselves and Jesus his own words during his earthly ministry in Luke 14 he says for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted

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I don't know about you but when I read text like this it becomes discouraging to me, if you ever tried to be humble, if you ever truly tried to be humble you can only maintain it for so long if you ever really had it in the first place because what happens when you try and be humble, by the time you realize or even deceive yourself that you actually obtained it, you've already lost it you are now prideful in your humility that's the nature of trying to be humble isn't it just a constant vicious cycle of pursuing humility to only find yourself prideful with what you obtain in that humility or more than that, find yourself discouraged in how incapable of humility you actually are if you're honest with yourself it's impossible, you can't try to be humble and so I read text like these and I think that's discouraging to me

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I've tried that and it never works am I not a Christian? is that my problem?

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am I not in Christ? because I can't seem to achieve this humility that scripture keeps pointing me to and Paul, he tells us to walk humbly this is one of the characteristics of where we're walking that shows us that we're walking in a manner that's worthy of the calling to which we've been called, is humility how is this possible to maintain?

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it feels impossible doesn't it again, humility is very much like unity, it's like grabbing sand, by the time you squeeze tighter and tighter that sand is all gone slipping through your fingertips time and time again and so when pastors continually skip the first three chapters of this book and they want to jump right to unity and they give you a bunch of principles and they tell you, be unified love each other, be humble be this, be patient, be gentle all you do is feel the weight of the law don't you that you're incapable of fulfilling it over and over again, so what does it mean?

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what are we looking at? because Paul's not making humility the goal what do

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I mean by that? why is Paul not making humility the goal? we often do that, that's what we aim for we aim for humility because we see it, we go well we're supposed to be humble,

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I'm going to aim for humility but Paul ties it to being worthy of a calling, the calling that you and I have been called to right?

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that's what he's tying it to, and what is that calling? remember, what's the calling? it's to suffer, right?

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the calling is to suffer, because of why? because your

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Savior suffered, your calling is to suffer because your Savior suffered for what purpose? to redeem you

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He didn't suffer for nothing, He suffered to purchase you, to buy you back from sin from death,

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He redeemed you, and here's the point, here's why the theology matters, that great truth naturally drives you to humility you want to know how to achieve humility?

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look to the cross of Christ and look and praise Him, just as we talked about last week with the doxology, you praise

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God for who He is then and only then do you ever even approach achieving humility in any sense lasting humility but here's the problem we're sinners and as soon as we look to Christ and we remind ourselves of the

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Savior and we remind ourselves of this great theology, like, I walked according to this world,

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I was blind, I was dead in my sins, and God loved me before He'd even created the world, and He sent

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His Son and He purchased me, and He awakened me, and He brought me to life, and now He's adopted me as a son, and now

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He sealed me with His Holy Spirit, and you look at that beautiful truth, and you remind yourself of that beautiful truth, and the humility sets in the unity comes in, and all of it comes in, and then you quit looking at Christ again pride creeps back in, this unity creeps back in it's a constant battle, isn't it?

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and then what do we do? I want the humility back I gotta grab the sand grip it tighter,

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I gotta grab grip that humility tighter, I gotta achieve it, but that's not what Paul's calling us to this is simply an outworking of what

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Paul has been getting at through all of this theology our goal should not be humility our goal is to remember what the triune

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God has done for us and when we long to walk in a manner worthy of that, this will produce that humility.

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The second evidence that Paul points to is very closely related to humility, look at it some of your translations say gentleness and some say meekness both great translations gentleness and meekness, true humility always leads to gentleness always leads to humility, you want to know if you've achieved humility?

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it comes with gentleness it comes with meekness every time you can't have one without the other you can't achieve gentleness and meekness without humility humility is a prerequisite for gentleness and meekness, true gentleness and meekness right?

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A gentle meek individual is slow to insist on his rights think about that for a second, a gentle meek individual is slow to insist on his rights why is that?

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it's because they realize that all of their rights have been secured by grace if you've been looking to the cross of Christ and achieved humility in that, in looking to Christ then you know that all of your rights have been secured by grace they're done they're there and God cares for you and God is taking care of your rights, which leads you to be willing to be wronged not to fight for them because you say look what a

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God who's able to do far more abundantly than I could ask or think has done to redeem me from sin and death he is more than capable of vindicating me he is more than capable of caring for me and for me to let go of my rights and respond with gentleness and meekness in that humility this is one of the elements that Paul's saying if you're walking in a manner worthy of this calling it will come with humility it will come with gentleness, meekness

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Paul expresses this heart of meekness in his letter to the church in Corinth in 1 Corinthians 6 -7 he says to have a lawsuit at all with another he's talking about other believers is already a defeat for you you see the church in Corinth what were they doing they were suing each other like this person would deal with this one with a bad business dealing or this person would steal from another and they would go and they'd take each other to court and Paul says no no no as Christians you're not allowed to take each other to court it doesn't work like that it doesn't work like that what does he say, he says why not rather suffer wrong why not rather be defrauded how can

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Paul say this how can Paul say why not rather suffer wrong why not rather be defrauded because he knows his eternal position in the one that saves the one that creates everything the one that sustains everything the one that owns a cattle in a thousand hills so what a person, my neighbor my friend, my family member defrauds me of a few thousand dollars in a business dealing so what my

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God owns everything those dollars that he defrauded me of, they're not even mine in the first place they're

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God's everything belongs to him why in the world am

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I going to go seek vengeance why am I going to try and seek what's mine because that's not what a

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Christian does now often we do let's be honest often

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I do more often than not I want vengeance I want to make them suffer

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I want to twist that knife in their back and make them suffer as I suffered don't look at me with a holy look, you know good and well you felt that we feel that and you know what that tells me when

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I do it it tells me that I'm not walking in a manner worthy of the calling to which I've been called I'm not looking to Christ I want mine that hits doesn't it you see outward humility leads to an outward expression of gentleness to meekness and you know what great grace you've been given you don't deserve and so we suffer in this way let's be honest you don't go after someone that has wronged you you're suffering aren't you but again what's he called you to suffer he called you to suffer and we do so as Paul points out next look at the text what's the next thing he points to patience some of your translations say long suffering and this is correlated to what he says next patience and he says bearing or again some of your translations say enduring bearing or enduring with one another in love it's interesting

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Paul the way he writes this he's actually combining two virtues together he intertwines two virtues together as though they are interchangeable and cannot be done one without the other and what are the two virtues bearing or enduring and love bearing with one another in love we read that in English and we're like yeah

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I kind of get it but no in the Greek these two things what he's doing is he uses language that makes them interchangeable you cannot detach those two things he's basically saying one thing with two words with two virtues and he does this for a reason the derivation of the word bearing in the

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Greek is referring to holding one's self up not shaken up but continuing to keep firm holding myself up if I just said if Paul just used the word bearing or enduring what is

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Paul saying? Paul is just saying hey endure or bear this burden keep yourself up and firm so that you do not fall here and this is what we do when we merely tolerate something or someone we grin and bear it again it's like humility right we try and achieve it on our own and we go okay so I'm going to endure this brother or sister and what they're doing

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I'm going to stand firm in spite of it someone does us wrong and we simply choose not to retaliate and then we think that we're being godly in our actions even though our heart longs for vengeance are you trekking with me?

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even though our heart longs for vengeance we're just going to endure it you ever tried that for very long?

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it reminds me of what Peter asked Jesus when he came to him he said how many times should

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I forgive? right? seven? seven times?

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is that how I should forgive? and Jesus basically just gives him an answer he's like no it's like infinity and so this obviously blows these guys minds because he's thinking man

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I've just doubled what the Jewish law requires of me to forgive but now

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Jesus says no just continue and this blows their minds and the reason is because they can't even begin to comprehend what it means to endure because they see it as just pure endurance they see it as just taking one on the chin for the team

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I'm strong enough to bear it, I got big enough shoulders I can handle this I'll be the bigger person all the while in your heart anger disunity, bitterness vengeance stews so the next time you have to take it on the chin it chips away at you until finally disunity burst open the floodgates open and disunity just floods in because you're not made to bear it

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Paul doesn't tell us to bear with one another to endure one another he combines it here notice he combines this enduring this bearing to love and oh that changes things that changes things drastically here we say oh

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I thought that an outward adherence of humility and gentleness and forbearance was enough for unity that's what it's taught like when a pastor just skips chapters 1 -3 jumps right into chapter 4 and verse 6 and says hey church be unified okay, well alright let's get our bearings here

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I can't stand so and so but I'm gonna tolerate them I hate my brother but I'll fellowship with him for the sake of unity because that's what's most important isn't it actually

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I had a pastor one time tell me I know I've said this before it drives me crazy he said here's the thing at our church we are gonna seek after unity at all cost and I was like what?

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unity at all cost? so we're just gonna like throw out the gospel?

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like everything? because that's the way the world thinks we've got to just achieve unity no matter what pull ourselves up by our bootstraps be humble, be gentle be patient, bearing with one another as we grit our teeth and just take one on the chin for the sake of unity and then just like that sand, what happens?

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and we squeeze tighter and tighter and tighter and the next thing I know all of us go no I gotta

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I gotta pick up more sand that's what happens in the church that's why unity eludes us and you may say well

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I thought this was enough but you're telling me that I have to do all of these things in love?

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what does that mean? what does it mean to love? is love just something that I conjure up this feeling inside of myself for my brother?

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because again you're asking me to pick up sand and hold it in my fist because that's impossible we just keep digging ourselves into the hole don't we?

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we just keep going we're hopeless in this but do you see how this is unattainable?

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if all of these things including love are external and mechanical but praise

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God they're not praise God that all of these things are internal and organic what do we mean by that?

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look at what Paul says next look at verse 3 he says eager this word just means make every effort to strive after be hungry for to maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace it's interesting when we read this we think automatically we read our self effort into it again automatically we go okay so pastor you told me we're not to be just like fighting for this and like trying to force these matters of humility and patience and all of this bearing you just told us that but Paul says to fight for it to be eager for it to strive after it but what does he tell us to be eager for?

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this word in the Greek for maintain means to guard means to guard it doesn't mean to conjure up Paul is not saying that we should create unity and that's how we get it backwards we say we are a church and we must create unity we must create a unified front now everybody pull yourself up by your bootstraps and do your part so that we can be unified just be selfless all the time and it fails but Paul is not saying that he's not telling us to create something he's saying that we should guard that we should maintain it in other words it's already here it means we already have it it means that it's already a part of us it means that it's already inside each one of us it's already present within the church it's already all around us what is it?

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well look at it the unity of the spirit notice in your

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Bibles that that word is capitalized isn't it? what does that mean? it means it's the Holy Spirit it means that Paul is referring to the unity of the

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Holy Spirit and remember we've already all been given the promised Holy Spirit within each one of us who are in Christ as a guarantee as an inheritance an inheritance of what?

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an inheritance as what? sons heirs children of God that inherit this and what does that mean?

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it means that we're brought into one body we're brought into a family remember he's torn down that wall of hostility and he's brought us

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Jew, Gentile, male, female black, white all together as one body the body of Christ with the unity of the spirit already within us it's just as Jesus prayed in John 17 he says

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I in them and you in me Father that they may become perfectly one perfectly one not imperfectly one perfectly one so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me unity already built within the

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DNA of a new creation it's the unity of the spirit, the

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Holy Spirit of God that is in perfect union with the Godhead in perfect union and we are brought into this, this unity is internal it's organic and see here's the problem, we're the ones that lose sight of it we're the ones that distort it and pervert it we're the ones that forget that that unity is already there and that our job is to guard it our job is to is to look to it to rest in it, to fervently strive after it because our sinful, selfish desires they distract us at every turn, it's just as James said what causes quarrels among you what causes fights among you is it not that your passions are at war within you we are the ones that distract from that internal organic unity that is already ours do you want unity in this church?

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let's be honest do we want 12 .5 church to be unified? do we want to be a people that died a self and lived for each other do we want to be people that when we're wronged, we overlook it but we don't just overlook it by taking one in the chin we overlook it out of love because we so passionately love each other because of our great love for God that we gladly gladly overlook an offense is that what we want to be?

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if that's what we want to be then people we got to look to Christ remember that he's done it for us he has purchased this unity for us he has brought us to it and we are to walk in a manner that is worthy of that calling with all humility, with all gentleness with patience, bearing with one another in love being eager to maintain eager to guard the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace we've been granted peace peace with God, peace with each other peace with creation the wall of hostility has been torn down now live in light of that you see we have to have all that theology that we've been talking about in order to even get here we have to have it all together because all of this is theological we don't live on the power of the

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Holy Spirit so often because we're trying to do better and be better only

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Christ did better he did perfectly and now he says that my righteousness is imputed upon you, now live in light of that rest in it rest in what

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I've done for you and I've granted you peace and now the Holy Spirit has indwelled you, and if the

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Holy Spirit is indwelling in me, then the Holy Spirit is indwelling in you, the Holy Spirit is indwelling in you, and we are all brought into one as a family and what do you do when a family, what do

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I do when my children dishonor me I chasten them but my love for them never wavers in the slightest

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I don't seek out after selfish desires to smite them back it's not in my nature as a father why can't we see the church body in that way, because that is infinitely greater than even that that is what

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Paul is calling us to this is how this church will be unified we guard it it's not that we create it but we can't, it's already here now rest in it don't seek to pervert it and distort it with your own sin it's perfect unity in light of this we go to the ordinance of the