Faith Practiced Toward One Another
Faith That Works • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Have you ever noticed how we try to fit in?
I mean, look at the image on the screen.
This is a made up social media influencer.
Yet, if someone added 1 million in number or even 100,000 subscribers behind her name on a platform… people would want to be here.
People would almost certainly pay attention to the things she was doing
People may try and emulate her in some ways.
The internet would pay her for those people checking her out…no matter the content of her life.
This morning we dive into the second sermon in our series “Faith that Works”
We look at a message from Ephesians 4 titled “Faith Practiced Toward One Another.”
Think about how we are influenced by others.
For instance:
We might consider how if we wanted to join a fraternal organization of some sorts…we would seek to follow their standards, alter our lives to meet said standards, or maybe change a multitude of things we normally would not change.
We might even consider the natural idea of wanting to fit in or be a part of the group as the necessity for the change.
When someone follows an influencer, joins an organization/club, and maybe even starts to work at a new place they will alter their lives around what the requirements of the organization has published.
But this is not always so when it comes to the things of God: If we look at the story of the blind man healed in John 9, his parents were not willing to speak the truth about Jesus to the Pharisees.
Most likely they were concerned with being ostracized from the synagogue and really their cultural norm.
Paul has given the church the three chapters of the blessings that come as an outflow of the relationship with Christ, but now he switches gears.
In Chapter 4 Paul starts to point to the obligations of the same relationship.
Let’s read our focal passage:
1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,
2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,
3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—
5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
There Is A Freedom & Bondage in Surrender.
There Is A Freedom & Bondage in Surrender.
Paul is free in Christ & yet simultaneously in bondage.
His bondage is self induced in one way and part of God’s plan in another:
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
So in as much as Christ has set us free from sin, He exhorts us to submit unto His Lordship.
Thus, Paul regularly calls himself a prisoner and slave.
Yet at the point of his writing of the letter to the church at Ephesus, Paul is imprisoned…most likely in Rome around 60-62 A.D.
Ephesians 4:1 (ESV)
1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,
Paul refers here to the being a prisoner
Flesh Out What You Have Been Called To Do!
Flesh Out What You Have Been Called To Do!
Ephesians 4:1 (ESV)
1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,
2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,
Humility
Gentleness
Patience
Love towards One another
Ephesians 4:3 (ESV)
3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Unity of the Spirit
Bond of Peace
Unite in Faith
Unite in Faith
4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—
5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
One Body/Church
We are to recognize the universal church — no denomination, country, ethnicity, or language.
The church is the church in England as in the US as in Mexico as in South Africa as in China as in Iran as in Russia as in the Ukraine.
It is one church — His Church with One Spirit
One Holy Spirit
If we walked in unity of the Spirit—our churches would need no denomination.
If we walked in unity of the Spirit—we would be able to unite and their would be a catholic church
One Lord — Jesus
Because there is Salvation in no one else — there is really only one Faith
Yet here we are separate.
Separate because we are not united
One Father God —
4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
1 Corinthians 8:4–6 (ESV)
4 Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.”
5 For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”—
6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.
No- I am not calling for the end of denominations
I am calling for a realization that we must recognize that we are not the only Christian church, and thus work together on the things which we can.
Let’s be real— there are 7 SBC churches listed in Caldwell & 4 more by adding ones that are less than 20 minutes from our building.
Historically that would be a long way to drive but in our day we drive farther to make groceries or for chinese food.
Unity says we strive where possible to unity and work for the common good.
Walking Away, But In...
Walking Away, But In...
Be mindful of others…It’s a Gospel issue
Be willing to be second…It’s a Gospel Issue
Be faithful in service…It’s a Gospel Issue