Lessons for the Worthy Walk and the Worthy Work

I do call your attention to one of the phrases that we were just singing together, "How I love the voice of Jesus." You know a lot of people are into hearing God speak. They want to hear God speak to them. I don't say this trying to be facetious. If we want to hear the voice of Jesus, we just listen to what God's word says, folks. Now listen, if we study God's word, we will hear by the Holy Spirit's enabling the voice of Jesus. And especially when we meet together like this as a church.

So this morning I pray and I trust and I believe that we are going to hear the voice of Jesus and the voice of Jesus will speak to us right where we are from His scripture. So if you would turn back to those scriptures that we did read earlier in our scripture reading, Ephesians 4, verses 1-6, although we do know these verses, I'm going to call your attention back to these verses several times throughout the message. And like I said later on, I will get you to turn to John chapter 17. There's one or two verses there that I want us to put our eyes on and to take note of.

Now this morning I'm doing what I do from time to time through our study of Ephesians. You know that at times I will pause and our progression in the verses and I will really do several things. A lot of times I call it preaching back into what we've already covered. I will review and I do review what we've studied. I feel like we really need to review certain portions of scripture to get it. And then I will make further application when I do this. I'm just carrying the application a little further, applying it to what we've already studied.

And then at times I'm offering some particular lessons and I want us to hold on to these lessons and these are lessons from what we've studied that I feel like are really pertinent to where we are. Now this morning I'm going to do all three of those. I'm going to review what we have studied, these things that you should know and hopefully the review will help solidify it in your mind. I'm going to make some further application here and I'm going to give us some lessons for the worthy walk that God has called us to live. And then I'm going to give us some lessons for the worthy work that God has called us to continue to do.

Let me say that again. I'm going to give us some lessons here for the worthy walk that God has called us to live out and I'm going to give some lessons for the worthy work that God is calling us to continue to do. Now remember what we have before us in the book of Ephesians. Remember where we are in the study of the book. First of all, the first half of the book. I have said this numerous times that chapters 1-3 are all about the theological, they're all about the doctrinal. I have said many times that within chapter 1, 2 and 3 we have God's great plan for the salvation of man.

We know that Paul started in eternity before time and before creation and he's dealing with salvation there. Then he moves into time and he moves into what we would call human history and he deals with the salvation plan there. And then he moves into the heavenlies, he moves into eternity future dealing with that great salvation plan there. Chapters 1, 2 and 3 are all about the believers blessings and privileges and the position that we enjoy as believers as a truly redeemed child of God. These blessings, these privileges and this position is for both Jew and Gentile.

Now that might not make much difference for us today, but it definitely did in their day. These things are for all whom God would call and make alive in Christ Jesus. Why? Because of his rich mercy and great love. So the first half of the book. But more specifically, we have just gotten started in the second half of the book. Chapters 4, 5 and 6 are all about the practical. But it's not that Paul is disconnecting from the theological, no. The theological is what determines the practical. It all goes together.

But in chapter 4, 5 and 6 Paul is explaining how God's people should live in their Christian life, particularly in the local church, in their families and even in society. And remember that Paul gives one command after another in chapter 4, 5 and 6. I've challenged you to note the commands. They're one after the other all through those three chapters. But even more specifically, we have been in chapter 4 verses 1 to 6 for two weeks. We have been studying the worthy walk that God is calling us to walk as well as this worthy work, this worthy work that God is calling us to. Now look back with me at the worthy walk.

We see this in verses 1 and 2. Paul says, "I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord." What is he saying? He is walking the worthy walk that God has for him. He was a prisoner for Christ, by Christ and for the churches. So he's identifying with these Ephesians and relating to them in his worthy walk. He says, "I urge you, I beseech you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling, the vocation to which you've been called with all humility, with gentleness, with patience, with forbearance or bearing with one another in love." Now we must remember what's happening here.

Paul is urging us, he's even begging us to live in our everyday life, a life that is worthy of Jesus and worthy of our great salvation. He is urging us to live a daily life that is in equal weight and value to the gospel, the cross and the Savior who saved us. And this walk is to be characterized by certain marks. This walk is to be permeated by four graces, four graces of God within us, first humility. And humility is the first mark of the worthy walk in that we must be humble to receive the gospel and be saved.

Listen folks, how humble must we be to accept Christ, die to sin, die to ourselves, repent of who we are and all that we've done and come to faith in Christ? Very humble. And it's a humility that can only come by a work of grace in us. And then this humility, which comes from God, it leads to a work of gentleness. And this humility and gentleness, it ultimately produces a work of patience. And this humility and this gentleness and patience, it produces a work of forbearance. And this work of forbearance is the ability to bear with others and one another in and with the love of God, a love that is bigger than we are. This is the worthy walk.

It is an everyday life that is worthy of our gospel call. It is an everyday life that is marked out by these four graces in the life, the humility, gentleness, patience, and a forbearing love. So that's the worthy walk. Now look back with me at the worthy work. I want us to see the worthy work in verse three. He says, "Eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace." Now some scholars call this a grace as well, but I see this as a grace, but also as a work. What does he say? Eager to maintain. See the work? To maintain, to preserve, and to protect the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.

Now we must remember what's happening here. The work of the worthy walk is diligently keeping and protecting the unity of the spirit in the church. Now, not creating unity, man cannot do this. It is only Christ that brings about the unity of the spirit in the church when he saves people by the power of the gospel, therefore creating one new man and one body. And this is unity. When Christ saves all kinds of people and by the spirit's power, he brings them into one body, the church, therefore creating one new man.

And the work of the worthy walk is for all of us, and it is maintaining and preserving and protecting the unity that Christ has created and is continuing to create among us in the church. And all of this is done how? I call this the magic sauce, the glue. It's done by altogether being bound together with the bond of peace. I read a rather lengthy quotation by Albert Barnes here. Now I'm taking his quotation and I'm making it my own. So it's a little bit of Albert Barnes and a little bit of me.

But listen, as the church, you and I, we should be bound together with the attitudes and the affections of peace, not just for some type of an external unity, not just for a unity around a common confession, not just for a unity in how we worship, not just for a unity in how we do this thing called church. This is a work of the Holy Spirit that produces in our hearts as born-again Christians when the spirit fills us with the same love of God, when the spirit fills us with this joy that can only come from God, and with the same purposes of God being brought into our life and altogether believing in peace and being bound together in this peace, we can all work to maintain and protect the unity of the spirit of the church no matter what may come our way.

Now look back with me at the reasons for this worthy walk and the reasons for the worthy work. This is in verses 4, 5, and 6. It's rather abrupt there. Paul makes an abrupt shift and he does it on purpose. He says there is one body, one spirit, just as you were called. There's that word called again, talking about the effectual call, being called to the gospel. There is one body and one spirit just as you were called to one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

If you ever want a verse about the sovereignty of God, his ultimate sovereignty, there it is in verse 6. Now notice what we must remember here. This is the foundation of it all. The reasons for the worthy walk and the worthy walk are found here. It's because there is one body, which is Christ's church. And there is one spirit that lives in his people and lives in and among his churches. And there is one hope to which we have all been called and we have one Lord and one faith. We have one Lord and one faith. Jesus is our Lord and the one Christian faith is our faith.

We have one baptism and we have one God and Father who is over all, through all and in all. I know it's been a couple of weeks, but remember our assignment. I told you that verses 1, 2 and 3, that is our command, that is our call. I called it a command, but I hesitate to say a command because Paul here, when he says, "I urge you," he's not commanding. He is coming and he is beseeching them. He's coming along beside them with great emotion and he is begging them to the call. So we need to see this is our call folks, verses 1, 2 and 3. And then verses 4, 5 and 6, this is our creed.

One of the things I did on my vacation was to get up early in the morning and I studied over these verses. I meditated over them. I prayed over them and I didn't want to just try to memorize them in some rote fashion. No, I wanted them to be in my heart, in my mind, in my understanding. I want them to be a part of who I am. I want to marinate my mind and my heart and my understanding with what is here. We must do this folks. This must be our call and this must be our creed. Now this morning I want to look at four lessons. These are what I'm calling four lessons for the worthy walk and for the worthy work.

Now I'm not putting this information on the screens. It's a little lengthy and it wouldn't really fit to be honest with you. So if you need this information, maybe you take good notes, but if you want to follow me with your mind and your heart and your eyes, I can get you this information a little later. Now these are lessons that will enable us to better live out our worthy walk and these are lessons that will help us to better do the work of the worthy walk. So lesson number one, we are born into the body. An easy phrase for you to write down, we are born into the body.

Now look, these particular things here, you should know if you have been here at Grace Life Church of Brookhaven for any period of time. But we have some who are rather new and that's great and you need to hear these things. But honestly, we all need to be reminded of these things far more than you know. I'll illustrate what I mean here. Those of us who have children, how many times do we have to remind our children of things that they know? Every day, morning, noon and night, every hour, every five minutes. But aren't we just like our children? As the children of God, how many times does God need to remind us of things that we know?

So being reminded of these things are good. But remember what we have seen here, just in Ephesians folks, before time in human history, in eternity past, God predestined us for adoption in Himself as sons of God through Jesus Christ according to the purposes of His will. Chapter 1, verse 5. And when we were dead in the trespasses and sin in which we lived, remember, we were the walking dead, the zombies, the death walkers, God being rich in mercy and in great love, He made us alive together with Christ. That's the new birth. And by grace we have been saved. Chapter 2, verse 1, 4, and 5.

And God reconciled both the Jew and the Gentile to Himself through the cross, ultimately creating in Himself one new man in place of the two and ultimately creating one body through the cross. Chapter 2, verse 14, 15, and 16. And we, as the redeemed, those who are blood-bought and born again, we are a part of the one new man and the one body. That is if we're alive together with Christ. And in chapter 3, we see that this great mystery had been hidden throughout all of the ages. And folks, the great patriarchs like Moses and Abraham, they did not know of these things. They didn't know. These truths were hidden.

But this great mystery about the church was made known to Paul and through Paul. That is that in God's time, He, God, would create for Himself from both Jew and Gentile one new man and one new body. That one new man and that one new body is the body of Christ, the church, the church. We know these things just from Ephesians, chapters 1, 2, and 3. And there are a whole boatload of scriptures that speak to these things that I've just spoken about. And folks, we must be thoroughly convinced that within the scriptures, there is no such thing as Christian living. The Christian life outside of the church are disconnected from the body.

How can the hand be disconnected from the body? In the New Testament, the church is seen and expressed in two ways. First, the universal church, which is the church of all time and all throughout the ages. But then second, the local church, which is the physical church located in places like Ephesus and Philippi and Rome and Jerusalem and Antioch and Smyrna and Laodicea and Colossae and Philadelphia and many, many, many more in the scripture and also places like Brookhaven, Mississippi. And look, it is obvious in the scriptures that body life, church life, it was and is local church life.

Yes, there were times that the universal church is mentioned in the scripture, but most all of the time in the scripture, the church is seen and understood as a physical local church that is comprised of physical actual believers with real problems. And of course we do see the local churches within the scriptures networking together to do the work of the church. One of my favorite networking examples is the church of Philippi, how they network with Paul. Well, you know it or not, they were the only ones that financed his missionary journeys. No other church gave him money. What a network folks.

So we must see a fresh and a new that when we are born again, we are born into the body of Christ. We are supernaturally by the power of the spirit made a part of that one new man and one body as we see in Ephesians 2, 14, 15 and 16. But that doesn't stay out in the cloud. That's not in the abstract. It's in the concrete. We must see that God expects us to identify with and connect with and even covenant with what? A local church, local believers, a local church. And look, God saves us through the power of the cross. He supernaturally makes us one new man and he implants us, implants us into his body, into the body of Christ.

But this all takes place where? Yes, in the universal invisible church, but we must see that we are to be a part of the local church. We are born into the body, the body of Christ, the church, even a real local church. I give you a great example. What do you have when you have a child who has no parents? They're an orphan. It's a terrible thing. Some of you have never seen an orphan. Some of you would do you some good to travel to a third world country and really see an orphan. We don't really have that problem today. But you know, even with an orphan child, they have a mother and a father.

But I want you to see there's no such thing as an orphan spiritually. And to say that you're an orphan spiritually is to say that you're disconnected from the body, from the local church. That is an anomaly. You don't see that in the scripture. Any person, no matter how spiritual they may seem, that lives a life that's disconnected from a local church, living their life day in and day out, within the life of a local church, they are not New Testament Christian. You know there are certain things that are implicit. They're not necessarily commanded. But if you read the scripture, you see them there.

Look folks, all through the New Testament, it's a local church. Who are these letters written to? So remember folks, remember our heavenly family on earth is what? It's our local church. And remember this must be a part of our DNA. You got to see this must be our heartbeat. This must be the very fiber of our being that we are born into the body. We are born one new man. And it is God who brings us to a local body. Now can we move local bodies? Sure. Sure. But let me tell you folks, if you're a real believer and you move or you travel or something and you're not connected to a local body, you will feel like an orphan.

And if you don't, something's wrong. So lesson number one, we are born into the body. And let me tell you, I don't have time to go very far here. When God saved me, when God saved me, I did not know joke from job. I barely knew Old Testament from New Testament. But I'm telling you when God saved me, he put within me a love that I did not know even could exist for what? A local body. And the very minute I walked into the door of Highland Baptist Church, I knew that is where God wanted me to be. And I planted my life there. If my pastor would have said, "Chris, I need you to come to the church.

We're going to herd cats tonight." I would have been there because I loved it. lesson number two, we have a two-fold personal responsibility in our worthy walk. Now this is a little longer here. You need to get it. We have a two-fold personal responsibility in this worthy walk, our worthy walk. Now I have taught you what the worthy walk is thoroughly. I have taught you this. I have repeated it in many different ways and you should get it. Also, I have taught you the fact that there is only one worthy walk and it has been set forth by God. But we must see that we are to walk the worthy walk in two places in life.

You see, we are expected by God to walk the worthy walk. There's only one in two places in the life. Now let's go back and read verses one to two. I want it to be fresh in your mind. Paul says, "I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord. I'm walking my walk. I urge you, I beseech you, I beg you with great love and passion to walk in a manner worthy of the calling, the vocation to which you have been called with all humility." Not a little bit of humility. With all humility. You could even say with all gentleness, with all patience.

"Oh, bearing with one another in the love of God, with the love of God." But first, I want us to see we are responsible to walk the worthy walk in our personal lives. You need to see this. We are responsible to walk the worthy walk in our personal lives. Now we have seen what this word "walk" means. It speaks of the daily Christian life. It's about daily Christian living. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, on vacation, on home, good times and bad times. Paul uses this word "walk" often in Ephesians and he is always speaking of daily Christian living. Specifically, we see this word five times in chapter four and five. Now what's the point?

Paul is really, really concerned about instructing on daily Christian living. But notice, Paul is calling us to make sure that our daily lives are worthy of our calling, worthy of the gospel, worthy of our salvation. Paul uses this word "worthy" here and it carries with it the idea of weighing something out on a set of scales. On one side of the scales, he talks about our calling. He's referring to the gospel. He's referring to saving grace. He's referring to the cross. He's referring to Christ Jesus, how we were born of the Spirit of God. And then on the other side of the scales, he's talking about daily Christian living.

And as Paul is calling us to make sure that our daily lives are of equal weight and value, they are of equal weight and value to the gospel, to the cross, to the calling that we have received to Christ. So in our daily lives, more specifically, in our personal daily lives, what we do, who we are, really apart from the church is what I'm aiming at. We are to make sure that all of this is of equal weight and value to the gospel, to Christ, to salvation. Remember the scales? They didn't have bathroom scales like we do. When I was on vacation in our condominium, I noticed there was a set of scales under the counter.

I got them out and I stood on them and I got off of them real quick. But on their scales, the way their scales were designed, they had a beam and a pivot point in the middle and they had a basket or a tray on one side and a basket or a tray on the other. You get the idea of the scales. But on one side we have the gospel. We have salvation, the cross, Jesus himself, the salvation that we would say we have. How does that balance out with your home life? How does that balance out with your marriage? How does that balance out with how you relate to your children and how you manage your children?

Sir, how does that relate to how you manage your home? How does that balance out? Is everything about your home life and your marriage and your children? Is that worthy of the salvation that you profess that you have? What about in your work life and in your vocation? Oh, how you live in your work life. Is that balancing out? How is that in relation to your salvation? Is it worthy of the salvation that you say that you have? What about how we deal with our money and how we deal with our possessions? Oh, what about our hobbies and our free time? See, I'm aiming at particular things that deal with your personal life.

How does your personal life relate to what? The great salvation call that you say you have. Is your personal life worthy of that salvation call? And look how this applies to all of us. We all are responsible to walk the worthy walk in our personal lives Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, even outside of the church. And we are to walk the worthy walk in our personal lives and our personal life is to be marked out by these four graces. Our personal lives should be permeated by humility and gentleness and patience and forbearing love. Now here's my challenge to you before I move on. We need to meditate on these verses.

Oh, we need to meditate on verses one and two and we need to pray over these verses and we need to ask the spirit of God to apply this to our personal lives and oh, if the spirit starts applying it to our personal lives, we might start saying things like this. Well, Lord, I'm not measuring up here. I'm not what I should be here. I need to work on this here. See folks, we've got to walk the worthy walk in our personal lives. But then second, still dealing with this two-fold personal responsibility. We are responsible to walk the worthy walk in our local church. Now you know why I said we're born into the body.

We're responsible to walk the worthy walk in our local church. Now look, the whole main idea of chapter four verses one to 17 is the unity of the believers in Christ. We're not going to leave this theme of unity for a little while. And this unity is all centered in local church life. Everything in verses one to 17 is about local church life and unity in the local church. So within the local church, Paul is calling us to walk the worthy walk. And this worthy walk is to be marked by four characteristics, their graces, this humility that can only come from God, this gentleness, this patience, this forbearing love.

Now I want you to follow me here very closely. There are always some, there are always a few in the life of the church and they think the characteristics of the worthy walk are marked by externals. There are always some that show up. They think that the characteristics of the worthy walk are externals. Now I'm going to name three externals that usually creep up. You might get to add to the list. First doctrine, second personal convictions, and third performance, Christian performance. Doctrine and theology. We just studied three chapters of doctrine and theology, isn't that right? And then convictions, personal convictions.

I'm not talking about clear commands. I'm talking about personal convictions and I'm talking about performance or how you live out the Christian life. Now listen, follow your pastor here. If we have people, if we have a person in the life of the church and they see doctrine, they see personal convictions or they see Christian performance as the true characteristics of the worthy walk. You know what you have? A modern day Pharisee. All the Pharisees, that is what their lives were marked by. They had doctrine as straight as a ramrod. They had convictions galore. They had law after law after law outside of what the scriptures had given.

And look, they performed unlike anybody, but they were miles, millions of miles away from God. And you know what they were full of? Not humility, pride. You know what they were full of? Not gentleness, not patience and not a forbearing love. And you get a person like that in the life of the church. They are one of the most dangerous things that can be in the life of a local church. Because what you have is a person is full of pride and not humility. They are not gentle, but they're harsh. They're critical. They're severe. Oh, they're not patient. They're impatient. They're rude. They're dogged. They do not bear with one another.

They lift the love of God. They're dismissive. They're judgmental. They cut people off. They even destroy people. And look, many times these people can appear to be so very spiritual. Why? Their doctrine is straight. They can cross every T and dot every I. They'll have a long list of personal convictions that look godly and they'll say they got them out of the scripture and oh, they can outperform all of us together. And I'm telling you, they are Pharisees and they will destroy the work of the church if you leave them alone. This might sound strange to you.

I would like to rather have somebody who's struggling to have good doctrine, but their lives are characterized by humility, gentleness, patience, and forbearing love. You know why? Because if they have humility, they will sit there and let a pastor straighten out their doctrine. Because if they have patience, if they're gentle, then they will gently sit there and they'll patiently let other brothers and sisters help them along the way. If they have this forbearing love in them, they will bear with one another. They'll bear with you. They'll bear with me.

I would like to rather have somebody who doesn't understand convictions and they're struggling to live their life out in their personal life, but yet they know God because if they know God they're humble, they're gentle, they're patient, they have this forbearing love. You see? And look, church, if humility is truly a part of who we are because God has done a work of humility in us and then we have gentleness and then there's this work of patience and then there's this forbearing love that only can come from God bearing with one another in and with the love of God, oh listen church, then any and every situation that can come into the life of the church, we can react the way we should.

See the problem is we think we have to have a checklist. No. We need these inner characteristics. If some of the worst problems come our way, if some of the worst difficulties come into your life, if some of the greatest struggles come into your home life and into the life of the church, but if you have humility that comes from God, a gentleness that comes from God, patience that comes from God, and a forbearing love that can only come from God, you will react rightly, not perfectly. And oh listen, if we're all in it together, if you're not reacting quite like you should, we can help you and I'll need some help.

And look, please don't be the person who is so focused on your doctrine that you can't worry about your character. I'd like to rather have somebody who struggles in their doctrine, but oh they have these marks of grace in their life. Oh and if you've got a long list, too many lists of personal convictions, but you have these characteristics in your life, you'll let a local church help you wade through some of these personal convictions. If you struggle in performance, look, it all comes together, folks. This reminds me of a church I know of, a pastor that I met.

You know when you're a pastor, you meet other pastors and lots of times you hear about their church problems. Sometimes we compare difficulties. I'll never forget I met a pastor and he was describing to me how there was a person in the life of his church, oh their doctrine was straight, oh straight, they can articulate it, they can debate anybody. They had these strong, firm convictions, personal views. When it came to Sunday, in the Lord's Day, in the Christian Sabbath, and you know they had the list and they could perform it flawlessly. But you know what they were in the life of the church?

Prideful, arrogant, rude, impatient, wouldn't bear with anybody with the love of God, no. And ultimately, that pastor said, I had to tell him to leave. So what good does it do to have your doctrine straight as a ramrod and your convictions and personal convictions, the list gets a mile long and you can live it better than anybody and you can't get along in the family of God. If you have a son or a daughter that can't get along in the family, what do you have? A hellion. See how it applies? Let me share with you how this works in my arena. I'm talking about a pastor now, okay.

I knew of a church in a particular setting where this pastor, he had his doctrine just right folks. He had his church confession just right. He had his theology just right. You know he was reformed and Calvinistic and he could tell you all about it. He could cross every T and dot every I. And I'm telling you, he was souped up, very intelligent. But you know, he goes to a church and the whole church wasn't quite just like he was. They didn't quite know their doctrine. They struggled to understand these things.

And rather than being humble and rather than being gentle and rather than being patient and rather than bearing with the love of God in them, you know what he did? He was pride, he was dogged, he was impatient, he was not gentle. He did not bear with them in love. He demanded, he had an iron fist and you know what he did? He took his straight doctrine. He took his personal convictions and he took his performance and he ran right up into the church and it blew up. Was this doctrine correct? Yeah. Well, the methods in which he lived it out, was it correct? Yeah. It didn't work.

If you don't have these four characteristics, all the other doesn't matter. And the sad thing is one of the leaders of the church calls me after it's blown up. You know what he says? Well, you know what to do. We didn't know he was that way. And the sad thing is a group of people left this church and were a part of that. See folks, if you got your doctrine straight, if you got all of your convictions in a row and you can live it better than anybody, but if you don't have these four graces, you're a Pharisee and you're one of the most dangerous people in the church.

So lesson number two, we have to have this twofold personal responsibility that we adhere to to live out the worthy walk in our personal lives and in our church. And then lesson number three, we all, all have individual jobs to do in the life of the church, but we all have one common, one ultimate job. We all have individual jobs, but we all have one common ultimate job. Now here I'm getting a little ahead of myself in the verses in chapter four, but I want us to see that we all have different jobs of ministry in the church, but we all have one ultimate job that we are responsible to do together.

And we all have jobs, works of ministry to do in the church. Now if we look ahead, chapter four verses 11 to 12, we see that all of the saints are to be equipped for the work of the ministry. That means that every born again believer is expected to work, is expected to serve, and they are expected to minister in the local church, that local church in which they are a part. How can you serve and minister in the church universal? It's local. Now think with me here. We have seen that we are born again into this one new man and this one body of the church. And no Christian is to live their Christian life disconnected from the local church.

That kind of Christian life is totally foreign to the scriptures. Well we will learn and we will see in verses 11 to 12 that the saints of God are to be equipped for the work of the ministry for building up the body of Christ. And listen, if you are a member of Grace Life Brookhaven, pay attention to your pastor. If you feel like God is leading you to be a member of Grace Life Brookhaven, you pay attention to the pastor. God expects you, He expects all of us to serve in the work in the local church. Well you might say doing what?

You're expected to use your time, your talents, your abilities, your opportunities, all that you are, but ultimately your spiritual gifts because all born again people are given spiritual gifts to do what? To build up the body of Christ. Look at verses 11 to 13. I've been referencing those verses. Chapter 4. Paul says, "And he," this is God, "gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, the teachers to equip the saints," that's all of us folks, "the saints for the work of the ministry," why?

"For building up the body of Christ until we all attain the unity," there's that word unity again, "until we all attain the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood to the measure, the stature, the fullness of Christ." So as members of Grace Life Church of Brookhaven, we all have ministry to do. We all have a job or jobs to do. The saints are to be doing the work of the ministry for building up the body of Christ. And I just simply ask, are you serving? Are you serving? If you're not serving, you come to me and ask, you come to Brother Keith and we will put you to work.

And let me tell you, if you come and you ask to serve, and if you are placed in an area of service as a member of this church, I'm telling you, your Christian walk will explode. And I mean in a good way. Second, we all have one ultimate job to do together. We all have one ultimate job to do together. Now we have seen this one ultimate job that we are all to do altogether. This is to eagerly, willingly maintain and protect the unity of the spirit of the church. That is together, being bound together in the bond of peace to do what work. Preserve the unity of the church.

Verse 3 again, "Eager to maintain, to preserve, to protect the unity of the church together in the bond of peace." So our one ultimate goal, our one ultimate responsibility as Grace Life Church of Brook Avon is to collectively maintain the unity of the spirit of the church willingly, all while being bound together in peace for the work. So you see that we all have our jobs to do. You have your jobs to do. I have my job to do, but then you see, we see that we all together have one ultimate job to do together. Many of you know that when I was in bivocational ministry, I worked for a building contractor.

I worked for a local building contractor that built some of the nicest homes in town. Million dollar homes, two million dollar homes. You know how the other half lives? You know I did a lot of things when I worked for that contractor and our crew did anything and everything. We didn't do plumbing, we didn't do electrical, we didn't do heating and air, but I'm telling you we did it all. You could go from building cabinets in a two million dollar house to digging a French drain in one day. You could go from hanging some of the most expensive crown molding in a home to digging a ditch, to working under the house.

You know if you were to ask me what my job was, I could have responded in several ways. You could have come to me and you could have said, "What's your job today? What are you doing today?" I could have said, "Well, I'm pressure washing bricks." I pressure washed over 6,000 bricks on the job. You could have come to me on another day and said, "What are you doing today?" "Well, I'm helping build cabinets today." You could have come to me and you could have said, "What are you doing today?" "Well, I'm putting in French drains today." Or, "I'm hanging rafters on the second floor." When you're the small guy on the crew, you end up on the second floor.

All of those answers would have been right, but you know what my ultimate answer should have been? Together with all of the guys on the crew, we're helping the boss man build this fellow a nice house. You see? There were days I would have just said, "I'm earning my paycheck." There were days I'd have gritted my teeth and said, "You know, I'm pressure washing these bricks and I'm sick of it." There were days I would have said, "I'm digging a French drain and I hate to shovel and I'm ready to go home." But the ultimate answer was, "I should have said I am with all the whole crew and together we are bound together to help the boss man build this man his dream home." Some of you are nodding your head.

You get it. So, in the life of the church, when someone asks you what your job is, you're to say, "Well, I'm here to teach vacation Bible school. I'm here to do recreation in Bible school. I'm here to come and participate in small group. I'm here to come and to be a part of what God's doing in the preaching ministry of the church. I'm here to cook hamburgers and hot dogs. I'm here to chaperone a youth trip. I'm here to work with the children and teach in the children's ministry of the church. You can name all types of jobs. I'm coming up here to clean. I'm coming up here to take out the trash.

I'm coming up here to pray with the pastor and all of those answers will be good. But your ultimate answer, the number one answer you should say is this. I am bound with these other believers and together, bound with peace, we are going to protect the unity of this church." So lesson number three. We all have individual jobs to do, but we all have one common ultimate job. Now lesson number four, and this one will be rather quick. We must see the high standard for his church is unity and oneness in the church. We must see the standard, the high standard for his church is unity and oneness in the church.

We must see that the high standard listed in chapter four verses one to 17 is not necessarily purity and doctrine. Oh, we should have pure doctrine. We must see that the high standard listed in chapter four verses one to 17 is not necessarily purity in the methods of the church. Now we should have pure method. Yes, we must see that the high standard given here in all of these verses is unity of the spirit in the church oneness. And first we are all together called to maintain this unity verse three.

And that is this supernatural unity that only comes through the power of the Holy Spirit when he unites all kinds of believers together, the one new man and the one body. And then second, we are all called together to work in the ministry of the church so as to build up the body until we all maintain the unity of the faith verses 12 to 13. And we will get to this work and more of this work and ultimately what more of this work looks like. Guess what? As we progress through the verses now for the sake of time, I'm not going to ask you to turn to John 17, but I'm going to give you an assignment. Two verses, verse 20 and 21.

Now what is Jesus doing? He's praying to his father and he's praying for his disciples. And then he transitions to pray for all of the church throughout all of the ages. That's us. And notice what he is praying. Jesus is praying for his church that his church may be one just as he is one with the father and the father is one with him. That is the standard. It's unattainable. We're sinful. But that still is the standard. Jesus is perfectly united in one with the father and the father is and was perfectly united in one with the son. And what is Jesus praying? He is praying father helped them to be one as we are one.

And if he prayed it, that's the standard. You might say, pastor, that's too high. No, it's not. That's what we are to strive for. So we must see that the standard is unity. A spirit born unity, a Holy spirit born oneness, but a oneness that we maintain and somehow some way we help to grow it through our service. So lesson number four, we must see the high standard for his church is a unity and a oneness that is out of this world, but in the world. Why? So that the lost world may see it and know that Jesus is real. Now, here's how I'm going to conclude real quick next week before we move on the verses seven to 16.

I want us to deal with one of the most difficult and one of the most dangerous things that can come into the church that can attack true unity. I'm not going to tell you what it is, but I'm going to show you what it is. And when I make some very, very pertinent application for all of us, but I want us to see one of the most dangerous, one of the most difficult things that can come into the life of the church. It can sneak into the life of the church and it can ruin the unity. And listen, in my opinion, if we miss this, what we're going to deal with next week, we're really dead in the water to continue. We're dead in the water to continue.

So let's pray. I know that these four lessons have been a lot. All that we've been studying in verses one to six are a lot, but with God's help, we can hear His voice. It can be applied to who we are. And with God's help, we can repent and we can grow and we can become and start the journey and continue in the journey to be who He wants us to be. So let's pray.