Impact
Next Gen Sunday • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Good morning church! It’s been too long since I have gotten to be up here and preach for you guys, or maybe not long enough depending on who you ask.
I want to start my time by asking a question, What leaves the biggest impact on a person? I mean, your life comes into contact with such an event that your life is changed forever. Is what came to mind breaking up with the person of your dreams that you thought you were going to marry? Is it getting into a massive blow up with your family and now these people that you have known your whole life aren't talking anymore? Maybe you suddenly got fired from your job and that requires a lifestyle change. Well, it is none of these things. The most dramatic, life-altering event that can ever happen to you is being born again, Calling upon the name of the Lord, being saved. Paul is going to talk to us a bit about what this life change looks like and how we are to live.
Body
Body
Scripture
Scripture
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,
Exposition
Exposition
The word "therefore" is a transitional phrase that references to what all previously came before it and says, because of that, this. An important reading technique and exegetical point to focus on when you come across this word is to ask a very important question. What is the, therefore there for? What all has Paul said so far in Ephesians? Let me sum it up for you quickly and you can go read it when we get out of here; He talks about the spiritual blessings found in Christ, that you, believer, were chosen before the foundations of the world; Paul says predestined for adoption to be holy and blameless before him as God set forth a plan for the fullness of time in Christ to bring all things under His feet to the praise of His glory.
Then Paul introduces us, sinful broken humanity, dead in our trespasses and sins, that through the blood of Christ and because God was rich in mercy, we are saved by grace through faith. This saving brings us from spiritual death to spiritual life, and in this new spiritual life God has created in us, he has prepared good works beforehand that we should walk in them. The good works that God had prepared Paul to walk in was to minister and preach Christ to the Gentiles, a gentile was anyone other than a Jewish person, someone, that was seen as outside the promise of God. Paul called this the great mystery of God that was revealed to him in Christ and how the Jews and Gentiles can now be unified in Christ.
I Paul, THEREFORE urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called. Walk in a manner worthy of the calling you have received. What is this calling that Paul is talking about? We have lost the meaning of what a calling is or what it means to be called in our culture. "I'm called to do this" "I'm called to do that" I'm called to a season of singleness. A call is not an inkling or a feeling, or an examining of your lack of attention from the ladies and thinking your called to singleness. It is a salvific call. A call to life change. A call to die to self. A call to what Paul means here, it is the call of Salvation that each believer has received. Paul is urging us to live a life worthy of that high calling. Worthy of the God who saved us by grace through faith. Worthy of the God who adopted us while we were still His enemies and calls us to sit at his table and be His sons and daughters.
That is a high calling; how can we ever walk in a manner worthy of it? It is a great thing Paul answers that for us!
Scripture
Scripture
2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,
Exposition
Exposition
Paul gives us four things here to help us walk in this manner. If you picked a random person off the street and asked them to sum up how to live a fulfilling life in 4 words, these for sure aren't the words they would choose, but let's see why Paul chooses these words.
Humility
Humility
Why would Paul say Humility? If you were, to sum up, the actions of Jesus in one word, that word would be humility. Jesus, being fully God, did not take equality with God as something to be grasped but emptied Himself by adding a human nature to His divine nature. Stooped down and acted in perfect obedience to the Father, even to death on a cross. The one whom all things were created through and for bore the curse of those that will believe in Him. Jesus put others before Himself, and He was God. How much more humble should we be towards our neighbors?
Gentleness
Gentleness
I heard it said and I can't think of a better way to say it. Gentleness is not weakness, gentleness is strength under control. When Jesus was getting arrested and standing before trial. He said Himself that the only reason this was happening to Him was because He allowed it. At any point in time He could have called down twelve legions of angles to wipe out everyone that stood in opposition to Him, but exercised gentleness to fulfill His ultimate purpose.
I have a Middle School volunteer named Jadon. Jadon can walk into any room and immediately be the biggest dude in there. He is ripped and he volunteers in Middle School and let me tell ya, some of them can be turds sometimes. He could impose his strength at any point in time but what would that benefit him or the kingdom? He has never been anything but gentle and He displays this characteristic well.
Just because you have the strength to do something doesn't mean that's what you should do. We should keep our strength under control and exercise gentleness.
Patience
Patience
Let me tell you something about patience. God is constantly being patient. What is the punishment for sin? One of my students? Death. Who here sins every day? Who here is lying? We sin every day but you are alive now, God has shown patience to you and allows you to repent of those sins and place them under the blood of Christ. People have instantaneously died from sin in the Bible and God is in the right to do it. We are never in the right to enact judgment, that is for the Lord to repay, so we are patient with others because of how patient God has been with us.
Love
Love
Without love church what are we? Nothing. Love is the driving force for the Christian life and how we can live a life worthy of the calling we have received. Love covers over a multitude of sins, with the greatest act of love being Christ's death on the cross. We can't forgive sins, but we can bear with one another in love. We can look past the ways that people let us down or mess up and love them through it. Knowing that the ultimate goal in a relationship is not that in this life you will be happy, but that in the next life, you will be holy.
Transition
Transition
So Paul has just told us the practical ways in which we can live a life worthy of the calling we have received, now he is going to give us the theological reasoning for what those 4 qualities accomplish.
Scripture
Scripture
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.
Exposition
Exposition
What do we see here? There is a lot in these three verses. What I want to contend for, because this is the argument that Paul makes and that Jesus even prays for in John 17, is that we are to be unified as the trinity is unified, and indeed we are. The four qualities we just looked at before are neighbor minded. None of those qualities are selfish, self seeking or self centered. They are all others focused. They help us walk in this unity that there is among believers that is eternal and unbreakable. Let me show you how our Christian unity is founded in Trinitarian unity.
We are to be eager, literally it translates to being ready to expend energy and effort. Eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit of the bond of peace. The Spirit here is the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead and the one who indwells, empowers, and unifies believers. This is why we can have unity with the entire Body of Christ, the global Church. We can meet other believers on the street, in an Uber, or in the airport and love them and feel an eternal bond with them. We have the same Holy Spirit, and we are unified in that because we have the Holy Spirit, we must have a bond of peace.
Let me tell you something, being a peacemaker is hard. Having a bond of peace is not sitting and doing nothing when your brother or sister is walking in sin. It is not being passive in every situation conflict could arise because you don't want to deal with the collateral damage that could unfold. Being a peacemaker requires loving honesty and a willingness to risk pain. Peacemakers are honest about the status of relationships around them, and as far as it depends on you, you will live at peace with everyone, willing to have awkward or tough conversations to get there, all while exercising Humility, gentleness, patience, and love. All of this is being empowered by the Holy Spirit.
There is one body, Christ's body, and one Spirit, the Holy Spirit, that unites us, just as we were called to the one hope that belongs to this call of salvation; that is the one Lord we worship, Jesus Christ our savior and our Messiah, the one faith we posses that Christ is the focus and object of, and because of our one faith we are united in, we are united in baptism. One God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. The God we serve is a big, all-mighty, sovereign God.
Do we see that the basis of our unity among each other is not because we are easy to get along with, but because it is an active work of grace by the Triune God we serve.
7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
Now the main point of this message is how to make an impact for the kingdom of God. Paul tells us to live a life worthy of the calling we have received, tells us how to do that, and what characteristics a person walking that walk should have, but what is our action step? What is the focus we need to be having going into this week? What are the practical implications that the text demands?
Others Focused
Others Focused
Christianity is not a selfish religion. It is not about you and it is not about me, it's about Jesus. We are following and submitting ourselves to the commands of Jesus, and Jesus commands us, to love others.
Unified in Christ
Unified in Christ
We are to be a unified people. We have everything in common. We are apart of one body, unified by one spirit, we have one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God that we serve. Anything else that we can disagree with each other is small in comparison to what we are unified in.
Trusting in God's Power and Grace
Trusting in God's Power and Grace
We need to trust in the grace that has been given to us to fulfill the tasks that we are to walk in being Christ's followers, knowing that the God who is over all, through all, and in all has the power to keep his promises and work all things for your good and His glory.
OUT
OUT
What the word of God is commissioning us to do this morning is to go out and love others, make disciples, bring them back to this church so they can be unified into the body of Christ, and teach them to trust in the power of the grace of God that you trust in.
Graduating seniors going to college or a new work experience, go out into your new environment, knowing that God has people there who are His so you can have a home away from home, and there are people there that will be His through your preaching of the gospel to them so you can grow your home away from home.
Students about to go back to school, some of you may be going into a new school with new people, some may be returning to the same school with the same people. Regardless of what kind of people you encounter this school year, make it a point to be humble, patient, gentle, and loving towards them. If they are far from God bring His word to them, if they know God and don't come to church, bring them here; if they know God and come to this church, then you have a partner you can use to reach your whole school together.
Adults, you're not off the hook, just because it's Next-Gen Sunday doesn't mean this message is just for my students. I know for a fact that you have that one coworker that you're super annoyed with literally all the time. Instead of gossiping about them, have a gospel conversation with them. Or maybe be humble enough to realize that you're that annoying coworker, and you need to make peace with your other coworkers so you can gently love them better.
Hear me when I say this, Don't let the students beat you in being invitational and loving. Don't look down on them because they are young; they are going to try to set an example of what Christian living looks like. Instead, if you want to see this generation be equipped to go out into this world and be a light, get plugged in. Consider volunteering. Don't passively come to church and treat it like you're going to the movie theatre every Sunday to watch a movie. Church is not here to entertain you and others around you and take your mind off the stresses of life; it is here to equip you and energize you and the people around you to go out and make an impact for the kingdom.
When we are United in our mission in Christ young or old, here or sent off, we can go out and have a greater impact for the kingdom of God.
I want to close our time here in the prayer for spiritual strength that Paul prays right before chapter 4.
14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.