Good evening everybody. Let's begin this Bible study with a word of prayer. Would you please join me in prayer? Our God, we want to give you thanks for your precious Word. And God, we know that Lord, when we think about even Apostle Paul, he was praying for the congregation to be strengthened, to have inner strength from faith.

And Father God, we do require that strength as we look into all the instructions and the commands that you have for us. For us, Father God, to follow, to obey, and to abide by all the things that you command us and to give us, Father, requires supernatural strength. And so we pray, Lord, that as you exhort us, as you give to us your Word and instruction, would we, Father God, continue to find our footing and our strength from you.

We thank you, Lord Jesus Christ, and we pray. Amen. Okay. Well, we are in a transition section in our study of the book of Ephesians, as chapters 1 through 3 were clearly just, you know, brilliant, or I guess you can say, really majestic, like, doctrine for us to learn about the grace of God and what the Lord has been doing.

I typically like to summarize chapters 1 through 3 like this, "It's God who elects, it's God who saves, and it's God who builds." Right? It was--so much of it was just thinking about the ramifications that it has on us, how God has been enacting His mystery, His plan, His administration of our salvation and redemption over time.

And so, what an incredible thing that is for us. And then now we're transitioning into, "And therefore, we need to walk." So let's read our section of the passage together. And the Scripture says this, "Therefore, I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace.

There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you are called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all." And we're going to stop there. I know in the previous lesson I had wrote up till verse 7, but I think after studying it more closely, it's good for us to pause here.

Jumping right into the study, in the very first section or the first verse, we have Apostle Paul giving us this application of command, "Therefore, you need to walk." He says, "I actually implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the call." Let's break that down. I gave you a brief just looking at it in section by section.

Now if we were doing a really kind of, I guess you could say, detailed attention study to this, we could literally break up each one and study it. What we're going to do is more so just overview it, right? Now, because we've been doing the study and last time I did essentially kind of like a review, I'm not going to review chapters 1-3, but here when he says, "Therefore, I the prisoner of the Lord," he has in mind all that's being built up in terms of God's plan.

I made much of it the last study that Apostle Paul has in his mind the glory of God as it pertains to his masterful plan for his church, right? And when you think about all that, yes, it's inclusive then of Jews and Gentiles coming together. It's inclusive of our individual salvation, but also it's inclusive of our corporate, what that means at the ramification for the church at large.

I believe he has all that in mind, but the important thing is he implores a walk that is worthy of all that. So here, just taking a look at that first section, he says, "I implore you." Okay, the term really just means to urge, but in other portions of Scripture it's translated, "I exhort you," right?

"I challenge or strengthen." Now, to add the oomph, so to speak, to add the emphasis to that, Apostle Paul begins with essentially his authority, but in a unique way where he says, "I, the prisoner of the Lord." And when he does that, you kind of wonder, like, in certain moments when somebody gives a strong exhortation or commands you to do something, sometimes we could have a reaction where we kind of wonder, like, "Do you know who you're talking to?" Or more so maybe, "Do you even understand the struggle of trying to do something?" Right?

And essentially, Apostle Paul literally and spiritually says, "I am the prisoner of the Lord," which shows both his experience in doing the very thing that he's commanding, but also in many ways the authority of which he's commanding with, right? And we also take a moment to think about this.

I have this little sentence here, it says, "As good children, we should listen well to both doctrine and instruction." And the reason why I wrote that is because whenever we move into a section that's highly applicational, and there's lots of commands that are going to come one by one, we take a moment to kind of reflect, like, "Are we ready for this?" Right?

If we're not ready, then we're gonna just do exactly what I just described. Like, "What? Where is this coming from? Do you even know how hard it is? Do you know how much I've already tried? Are you not appreciating how much blood and sweat I've already put into walking like a Christian?" Right?

Like, if we're not ready for the instruction, that's how we're going to feel. But if we are ready for it because we've been paying attention, we've been listening, then we're going to be all the more receptive. What's unfortunate is in our modern church history, in recent times, when there was the hyper grace, kind of like, "You don't preach imperatives, you just really have to keep preaching the gospel, and the imperatives will eventually come, you don't even need to mention it almost." But that doesn't show this receptiveness.

Like, you really understood, and therefore you're ready for the application, right? But that's what I'm going to challenge us to do. In some circles, it wasn't even kosher to give an urge, right? To give an exhortation. But for us, we actually should be receptive of it because we've been listening.

And so what I'm saying is, in maturity, we should have been listening well to chapters 1 through 3, and what we should be doing is saying yes to both. Yes to the doctrine, yes to the instruction, and although some of us, maybe we love the doctrinal, right? We love the doctrinal, we love talking theology, but when it comes to application, it's kind of like, "You're not willing to go more forward." This should be a challenge to you.

Both are required of us. On the flip side, there have been times when people love the practical. They love action. They want to produce something. They want to be a part of a movement, so to speak. But when it comes to doctrine, and why, and the theology behind it, it feels so dry.

But as for us, again, it's absolutely important for us to know. A huge part of God's Word to us is we're supposed to remember, we're supposed to understand, and we're supposed to know Him. And we have to think accurately and intimately about God. But also then, we have to apply, and so again, this is just a quick early exhortation that there's a requirement for us to have a balance of both.

That when we're doing our Bible study, I hope we're not looking at the scripture as kind of like, "And how does that matter?" But also, we shouldn't be looking at it as like, "That's nice, and I'm just simply admiring." Now, next portion of it, the passage talks about this important concept, a broad concept, that our walk should be in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called.

Now, truthfully, when I think about this term, "manner worthy," instinctually, I know, I think I know and I understand. But then, when you take a moment to pause, honestly, something doesn't sound right. It feels weird, right, to say, "Walk in a manner worthy of this calling," because truthfully, how can we?

And what's more, worthy? Like, in what way are we worthy of anything? You know, what way are we worthy of God, or His call, or the path that He has set for us, right? And what's more, if you think about the English definition of the term "worthy," I looked it up, and it says, "Having qualities and abilities that merit recognition." Okay, so the times that the idea of worth is being used, essentially, you're worth your position, or you have the merit to hold your position.

Or we even have idioms that say, like, "A man is worthy of his wage." Essentially, his work is deserving of that kind of pay. Now, when you think about the way that he's using this, obviously, he's not using it in a means of, like, "By your work, you're going to merit some kind of pay." What he's talking about, actually, is reverse.

What he's saying is, you have this call. You essentially believe in God's plan and mystery. And you must therefore live worthy of it, meaning, the more biblical idea is, worthy is the Greek term axios. And that means worthy, or suitably, or properly. There is a one-to-one match. As a matter of fact, that term then was used, yes, as a scale.

Essentially, you should be thinking about something in balance. Something essentially is consistent. And that's the intuitive terms, intuitive understanding that we get, and that's pretty much the way Scripture uses it through various different contexts. There are so many times in the Bible, and I have those cross-references for you there that you can look up in your own time, where the challenge is, you know what's been done for you.

You know who he is. You know who you are. You know what he's doing with you. Therefore, be consistent. Therefore be. You need to actually practice what you believe. The consistency for us, from going from God's command, our belief, our faith, is called into action. Right? And so then, when we think about this, there is a huge challenge.

For a lot of us, it does have to go into this pattern where we first have to know why. We first have to have the motivation, and we first have to have the foundation. However, if we do not move from there to then walking in a manner that's consistent, then our lives become sarcastic.

It becomes hypothetical. Right? It becomes like, if somebody says like, "Oh my goodness, it's so scary being out there." And then you say, "It's pretty scary." And then you end up going out there, what ends up happening is your words become pretty sarcastic. Like it could be taken that way.

And the reason why I use that example is because we believe that we should be fearing God. And if our words are simply, "I do fear God. He's pretty scary." And then yet you do every single thing that communicates that you're not afraid of Him, your words almost become sarcastic to God.

Right? And so whenever we think of our action and our words in relation to the Lord, we really have to be careful. Our yes is yes, our no is no, and all those consistencies matter. Why? Because it really reveals what we believe about the Lord. Okay. So in summary of that first point, it's our life as being fitting, is being consistent to the righteousness, truth, and love that we have received, the gospel we have received.

Okay. Moving to the second point. Apostle Paul, in his challenge now, and saying, "I essentially implore you to walk in a manner worthy of a calling," he says that it should be done with certain character trait and manner. Okay. So he says, "With all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another, and love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace." Okay.

Now, again, we could just pause here and do a full one hour study of just these two verses, verse two and three. But what we're going to just do is walk through these character traits and the manners. And the way I like to do this is because in verse one, Apostle Paul said, "I want you to walk in a manner that's worthy." Let's take a moment to think about these character traits, the humility, the gentleness, and so forth, in a kind of evaluative way where we ask the question, "Is this pattern worthy of the gospel?

Is it worthy of what we believe?" What I mean by this is, let's take a list of all these things, all humility, gentleness, and patience, and ask the question, "Is it consistent to what we believe in Christ and the things that we've been taught in chapters one through three?" Let's first think about humility.

Okay. Humility. Now, when we think about humility, a lot of times it's just to think like you're not -- a lot of times people describe humility in a negative term, meaning you're not bombastic, you know, you're not all like pomp, and you're not all about bragging, okay? Something like that.

Or you're not all about thinking that you're the best, right? And essentially, yeah, humility is to think properly. That comparison to you and God, you're tiny. God is massively, infinitely huge, and you're just a finite being, right? You're tiny. That, in a sense, is humility. But when we think about the opposite side, again, in contrast, we realize that living in pride is absolutely unworthy of God.

What do I mean? Okay. If I believe, according to the book of Ephesians, that I was dead, completely dead in my transgressions, and what's more, I was super far from God. I wasn't even close. I wasn't even as close as the people of the Hebrews, right? And yet, and yet I currently now think I deserve a lot more.

And yet I think, like, where are my rights? It's inconsistent. To know that I'm in transgression, like the rest, like everybody else, to know that I was in such -- to say that I'm in transgression is I was out of line, and I was wrong, but my normal way of speech is, "You're wrong, you're wrong, and you're wrong." Right?

"You're unfair, you're not righteous, everybody else is to blame but me." That kind of self-preservation is absolutely unworthy of God. It's unworthy because that kind of self-preservation continues to preserve the flesh, and it does not preserve Christ. It does not preserve the truth that we've been told, and that now we believe in.

That kind of pride, again, is unworthy. What's more, that's a self-preserving pride, okay? Self-preserving pride. What's more, if I believe, according to Ephesians 2, that I have been saved apart from my works, it is by the grace of God, and it's not my deeds, it's not because of the things I have done, and yet, and yet, my ambition is, "Look at what I've done!" Right?

"Look at my success!" And yet, my regular pattern of speech is, "Compared to you, I've done so much more!" Right? Completely inconsistent. It's unworthy of the kind of gospel we have received. Why? Because that kind of self-exalting pride promotes our vanity rather than Christ. Let me repeat that. Anytime we're sitting there proud, proud that we're not like those lowly ones, or in comparison that we're somehow better, and we believe we're better, or more significant, it completely exalts our vanity, and it does not exalt Christ.

It's unworthy of Christ. And so, ultimately, pride and all its selfishness, self-preserving, self-promotion, all of that, it's unworthy of the reality we believe. And so, the definition of humility actually is an accurate view of God and His reality. In humility, you're always vulnerable to truth. When reality and truth hits you, your humility allows you to receive it and believe it.

It's consistent with it. The grand worldview of God shows us who we are. And so, a passage I want to highlight to you is Philippians. Philippians 2. Remember that in Philippians 2, 3, Scripture tells us that without empty conceit, but rather with humility of mind, we are to regard others more important than yourself.

Okay? And again, a valid question to you then, I just tried to give some ways and patterns of speech. I just tried to give some ways and patterns that we think. Are your thoughts and is your speech consistent with what we profess to believe, even in chapters 1 through 2 of Ephesians?

Okay? 1 through 3 of Ephesians. What's more, he says, "with all gentleness." Okay, so all humility and gentleness, he says. Now, it's really closely tied with humility. Gentleness, the most common Greek word for that is "proutess." And it's most commonly translated as gentleness. It's also translated sometimes as meekness or humility.

So there seems to be some kind of overlap there. Now, when we think about this though, when we think about the term gentleness, it is used in not just simply, "Oh, I'm humble." But in a way where you're not reactive. Where essentially in your quick temper, your reactions are overly harsh.

Okay? So in that way, are you gentle? I want to ask a question. Are you approachable? Now, when in terms of what we believe, we believe that God has been gentle with us. In the sense that, all we've learned about in Ephesians chapter 1 through 3, is that God has kind intention, lavishing intentions to save, to cause us to be blameless and holy.

Okay? He has a very purposeful and intentional dealing with us. I mean, if you look at the scope of what Apostle Paul said in the salvation plan of God, can we sit there and be like, "Oh my gosh, so harsh." Right? He overreacted. Like, is that what we're going to be able to say and judge God?

No. The complete opposite. What's more, we read of Christ. I have this picture of a lion and a lamb. Because Christ is described this way when Christ said to us, or the disciples, "Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.

For I am gentle," which is the same word here, "and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." Wow. I think about that and I think about the character of Christ. We are saying that I have seen the kindness of God. I have seen God's intentional purpose.

I have seen the work of God. Like that's what Apostle Paul is highlighting. I've seen the intentional work of God. Right? But, for us then to have this kind of eruptive attitude where we respond to stuff where we can, you know, again, the inconsistency for us to say, "My Savior has been gentle with me.

I know that I was a child of wrath. I know that I was supposed to be." God could have, and then another way to put it is God should have punished me. Then and there. I believe that. And I believe rather than doing that, God has been so kind and gentle.

But what in the world is wrong with you? It's so inconsistent if we work like that. And so I want to give just a quick encouragement. Kind of an encouragement that I recall back when I was in seminary. One of my professors, Dr. John Street, would always say, and this he would always say to the men, the husbands.

And he said, "Husbands, Scripture actually calls us to live in an understanding way." Right? And I think all of that contributes to this idea of gentleness. And he would always say, "They are like fine china, beautiful silverware that you're supposed to hold. Not so loosely and weakly that you drop it, but not so harshly that you break it with your own hands." And then he would rebuke and say, "Some of you guys, rather than treating your wives like fine china and beautiful silverware, you treat them like tupperware." Right?

The idea is, do you have that kind of control? Do you have that kind of intentionality? And I think that's important for us. The reason why I picked this picture of the lion and the lamb is because Christ has that unique element where one person might think you're supposed to be this like doormat where you're always taking the backseat and yielding.

But the concept actually is not like that at all. The concept more so, in one of the kind of word studies of the New Testament defined it like this. It says that you are able to maintain a posture. So the idea is you're in control, you're able to maintain a posture before God and before circumstances where you can submit to whatever the Lord gives you.

Okay? That's kind of an extensive definition. But what I'm trying to describe is it's not the wrong idea of somebody who's just super weak. It is definitely not the idea of some that we're supposed to avoid is the idea of somebody who is overly harsh. But I kind of think about a surgeon, right?

If you're super harsh, then essentially you're going to cut too much. If you're super weak and you're not skilled in your surgery, you're just going to cut often. You're going to have to repeat the process. Question to you, are you gentle? When you're not overly harsh and cutting way too deep and too much, but at the same time you're intentional and you're able to actually help.

Right? Okay. Moving to the next thing, patience and tolerance and love. I put those things together because after the study of the terms, they're really similar. Patience comes from the term macro through mia. Okay. And taking literally, it means long suffering. Tolerance, it comes from the term anexo my, which means enduring, okay.

Enduring difficulty. And so essentially the idea has this mentality where it's like, you're supposed to be able to absorb the wrong done to you. And actually within both first Timothy and Titus, when it describes descriptions of leaders, it says, are you able to endure when wronged? Right. And I think that's something really interesting because Proverbs chapter 10 verse 12 describes an individual who is wise, who is able to have a heart that covers up all transgressions.

Okay. If you're an individual where you are so bothered by the offense, and again, confession, right? When certain offenses just really, really boil within you and you can't overcome it. And sometimes those offenses aren't even sins. It's just like annoyances. You just, people get on your nerve and tolerating and bearing with them.

ESV translates this passage, the idea of bearing, sorry, tolerance, it translates bearing with somebody, right? Some of us aren't even able to do that. And some of us are more inclined like, well, you know what, if you're going to offend me or you're going to attack me, the best defense is offense.

And then so you go and you turn that around as an opportunity to hurt the other individual, right? But scripture is actually challenging us, no. Remember we were talking about consistency. The consistency of what we say we're believing, right? I mean, we are talking about how in Ephesians chapter three, that Christ took away with the enmity.

There was hostility. We were hostile against God. Well, we didn't want his kind of authority and rule in our lives. And what's more, his law then, because of our hostility, because of our transgression, is hostile against us. And there was this huge divide. Christ absorbed all that. And for us to be like, uh-uh, I will not stand for disrespect, right?

And some of us are really sensitive. If something, a word they say remotely sounds like you're patronizing me, like you're diminishing my importance or you're not even thinking of me, we're like, uh-uh, I'm standing for this, right? The scripture actually calls us to a higher ethic, okay? Yes, is it true that let's say for parenting, you have to teach your children to abide by authority?

Yes. Should you be allowing people to walk all over you? No. But there is an intentionality. There is a gentleness that's built up in all this, accumulating to love. That your love is able to actually cover a multitude of sins, right? And what's more, we are the ones who are saying we believe that God has long suffered with us, with mankind for generations.

For us personally, I mean, we can sit and talk about disappointing, you know, God disappointing us because life is hard or we have some troubles and we've hit some really rough times. We have to flip that around sometimes and ask how many times have we disappointed God? And why does God have to long suffer with us?

Why does He even have to bear? Why does He even have to wait? Why does God of the universe have to even wait for mankind to do anything? He doesn't. Absolutely not. And we've been learning in this past chapters 1 through 3, the amazing grace of God, right? To even involve us, to even desire for us to respond to His love.

It's been crazy, right? And so, if ever we have this temptation in our hearts to say, "Well you know what? You're frustrating. Say what you need to say. How come you're not saying this? And communicating with you is tough and blah blah blah blah blah." Right? That's inconsistent. What I mean is, sometimes we're tempted to essentially write off people and say, "Forget you then." Right?

And at that moment, we are inconsistent with what we're saying we believe. So, every single one of us, I'm sure, we want to grow in patience and long-suffering. And these attitudes, these are the attitudes that are going to build the unity that God desires. Verse 3 says this, okay?

The third point is you need character to build unity. And verse 3 says this, "Being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." Okay? Now, real quickly here. The reason why I separated being diligent from the others is because the others described these character traits, right?

That are like humility and patience and things that we're all growing in. But being diligent is a participle. Right? What I mean by participle is the whole idea of like the running, walking, right? Basically, it's an ongoing action. And so, just as a quick definition and also an encouragement, being diligent means that you're showing your eagerness.

You're showing your effort. You're showing your earnestness. Right? And so, let's say hypothetically we have this conversation and we were telling this young man who is just like grew up staying at home and just feels more comfortable being left alone. And basically, you know, you encourage the guy and you say, "Hey man, let's really fellowship and get together and try to connect." And he's like, "Oh man, I mean I've tried before and it's just not working." You know?

Like you try and people don't reciprocate. Okay? What I'm gonna do is get all nerdy and be like, "But remember it was a present participle." Present meaning now. You tried, but are you trying? Okay? What's more, it's a participle in the sense that it doesn't give you a parameter that the whole idea is you're being humble, patient, all that kind of stuff.

All of that showing your earnestness to produce unity of the spirit or to preserve it. Right? So, the idea is I would ask then, "Hey, it's a good thing for you to just acknowledge, well, I should be trying and then to take go above that. What steps are you showing to show your effort and earnestness in preserving this?

Why? Because this unity is worthy of being preserved. What do I mean? In the next point, in thinking about to preserve the unity in the bond of peace, I want to highlight something for you. Christ, God, the spirit, the triune Lord has designed and wanted this unity. And Christ specifically prayed for it and then it was accomplished and therefore it is worthy of our efforts to preserve it.

What do I mean? John chapter 17 in Christ's high priestly prayer, he says, "I am no longer in the world and yet they themselves are in the world and I come to you." He is praying to God Father. "Holy Father, keep them in your name and the name which you have given me that they may be one even as we are." Christ uses the unity that he has with his Father and prays.

This is one of the purposes of which we are doing this, is that we may be one. Verse 22, "The glory which you have given me I have given to them that they may be one just as we are one. I in them, you in me, that they may be perfected in unity so that the world may know that you sent me and love them even as you have loved me." This is a passage I've referenced a couple times actually in our study through Ephesians, I think twice.

Because it's so significant that the unity that Christ again wanted, prayed for, then accomplished highlights and presents God's grace and love. Because remember in Ephesians chapter 1-3 we learned that this is a grand purpose of God, to exalt himself, to show us his glory of how extensive his love is.

And what's more, God commands us in Philippians chapter 2 verses 1-5, connecting our doctrines and our application. Therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection, compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.

Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves. Do not merely look out for your own personal interest, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus. So as we take a look at that, what a challenge to us.

That the unity that God desires within the church, God desires us to do by what Christ has already prayed for and established. God has given us the bond of peace is what I'm saying. And so, if sometimes you presume that certain characters and personalities in the church just don't mix.

Perhaps sometimes you presume that there just aren't enough commonalities for us to get together and really hang out. Perhaps you presume that your Myers-Briggs letters, INTJ or whatever it may be, just does not match yours. Let me tell you, the basis for our peace, the basis for our unity, the basis for our fellowship was never some letters.

It wasn't some treaties or it wasn't some contract you and I signed. It's the bond of peace that Christ has made. And if it so happens that we happen to be of similar age and if it so happens that we happen to have similar interests, nice! But it's just nice.

We have something so much greater. And if ever you've clashed with somebody in the church and you've written them off and you said, "You know what? It's better that we're just far apart." Can I remind you, that's not something for you to determine. Right? If you are participating within this body and let's say you had this experience where you clashed with somebody and you decide, "You know what?

Let's just stay far away." Or, "That's just never going to work." I know that sometimes that's a temptation to think that because even in the realm of marriages, that may happen. Two people who love each other made a covenant pact together may one day almost feel like, "Oh my goodness!

You and I are like, you know, oil and water we just don't mix." But that's not something a conclusion you're allowed to make within this household. Why? Because you're not the father. God has said, "I have built this church and I'm making it my dwelling place." It is a spiritual family of God.

And He has given us a bond of peace that supersedes whatever experiences, personal clashes that we have. The differences that we have, yes, they may be difficult. The differences that we have, yes, may be really evident. But just remember the context of this application in what God has already taught us in chapters 1-3.

And therefore that context we have to highlight now. Apostle Paul reminds us of the context by giving us a boom, boom, boom, boom, boom list of how much we have because that's how he started it. You're so blessed. Blessed be God who has blessed you with everything. He's blessed you with everything.

And so he says, "There is one body, one spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all." Okay, as you look at this list I highlighted for you the term "one" because he repeats it seven times.

Which is the number of typically perfection. I don't want to make too much of it, but man, what an emphatic little section here. This is the ground upon which we walk, as he's commanding us to walk, and the ground upon which we build the unity or preserve the unity that God has given us.

The theme is oneness. MacArthur, John MacArthur comments on this and says this, "This passage shows us that the foundation of our practical unity and how we are to apply this is our spiritual oneness. Every application, every practical unity that people long for, that people believe is powerful for us, comes out of the inner oneness of God." Okay, and the way I like to put it is when you look at this passage, I ask, "Is there a theme going on here?" There kind of is.

And the theme essentially is you have all that you need for unity to be truly one. Why? Because you are in all of God. Or another way to put it is you have all of God. You have what God has given us through his triune self. Christ prayed for that.

He's there. The triune God is there. There is one body and one spirit. There's one Lord, Jesus Christ, and one God, Father of all. Right? And essentially that's what he's saying at the very end of it. Who is overall, the Father of all, who is overall through all and in all.

And therefore then, as we have this theme, I want to kind of wrap things up by thinking about how does this build for us that foundation we're supposed to walk on to walking unity and oneness of spirit together as a church. Because that's so important, right? Well, another passage that summarizes this concept is 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 13 and 20.

It says, "For by one spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one spirit. There are many members, but one body." Okay? So I want you to notice something there. He says, "Whether you're Jews or Greeks, slaves or free." Okay?

Other parts of Scripture it says, "There's no male or female here." Right? There's no, you know, Jew or Greek. There's no slave or free. I mean think about the social categories. If there ever were dividing social categories, those things would really separate people, right? I mean you have people who are like masters and lords and then people who are property.

You have people on incredibly opposite sides of the spectrum on the social status. What they're even capable of, the circles that they're supposed to run around in and what they're even capable of doing. Some of these individuals, remember, between Jews and Greeks in the sanctuary, there was an inner court and an outer court.

Women and the Gentiles weren't even allowed in this in this center part, right? So I want you to think about that. Now, I want you to think about cultural things that bring us together and then I want you to think this, okay? When the Scriptures talks about the spirit that we have one spirit, think about this that we have through the spirit a new birth.

We have been called by God to be a new man. Through the spirit we are born again, which means we are then, we have the same origin. We are then by origin united. What's more, Scripture talks about that we are this body. There's just one body. This is our identity.

Why? Because we are the body of Christ and he has descriptions that then we organically coming together, we all play a part and there's a purposeful architectural and intentional orchestrating this thing together by God. And so therein lies our identity. We have the same hope, which is essentially our purpose.

Our purpose is the glory of God. Right now we exalt the glory of God and the exaltation of Christ in his gospel in the future glory by seeing Christ exalted in him coming for us. Right? What's more, sorry I keep pressing next but it's all right there. Okay, what's more?

We have the same Lord. We are by governance united. Think about this, people they feel the sense of I mean go to a soccer game where it's not just like the galaxy and the this and that team the sparks or whatever but it you know if you ever go to a soccer game where it's national, national games right?

We have let's say Chile and people are just singing like ole ole ole ole right? Chile. And then you have you know the kind of like solidarity in that. But think about this, I mean we have one king. That means we are we're a part of the same kingdom.

We're governed by the same majestic, gracious, righteous God who's powerful. That's amazing. What's more, we're united by belief. We have this one faith. We believe in the same truth and that truth has opened our eyes and all of that leads to the same experience. We have been baptized into one baptism.

The greatest story, the greatest drama we've all experienced. There's going to be then a mutual kind of, man remember when we were before and right? We're running around so lost in the dark. We have the same story. I mean think about how much we have in common. And what then happens is when we recognize that we have all this gracious you know elements that we have been afforded by God held in common by the church.

The church should have a multifaceted unity, a culture of unity in Christ. The reason why I say culture is because culture it's typically built up of your practice, your belief, your customs, your posture, like all that kind of stuff. Your mutual understanding, all that kind of stuff built to a culture.

And I pray and hope that our culture is built on that common spiritual ground. Please do not come in here and request that our culture be built on anything else. Whether it be sports, whether it be our ethnicity. Don't ask for that. Why? Because if it's not unity in Christ we're going to have the wrong culture.

If it's not the character and righteousness of Christ we're not going to have the bond of peace and therefore it's not going to be the right culture. The community aspect of this. It has to be built here. And the question I have for you is looking at this list, why do we sometimes talk and act like we don't have much in common?

Right? It's like sometimes we walk into a scenario or rumors like, "I feel so out of place." Why? Why do you walk into a church group at our own building and feel so out of place? And we know why. I mean I know I'm asking almost like an annoyed way.

I do this sometimes, right? Because you're afraid on a superficial humanistic what you see with your eye level you're not the same as everybody else. But this is where we too have to continue to practice our faith. We shouldn't walk into a room, let's say there's somebody across the room who's 65 years old who have children my age.

I shouldn't sit there and think like, "Well what am I supposed to talk about?" We have the same origin, identity, purpose, governance, belief, experience, and culture. We've got stuff to talk about. We have an opportunity for fellowship. You know I watched this interesting interview and disclaimer it's a little political here.

A news reporter who's clearly conservative was asking a young black Muslim girl who is demanding repayment for slavery from the government and also establishment of safe zone cities. If you guys don't know what all that is you guys could probably look it up. Safe zone cities, safe spaces, and repayment for slavery that happened a while ago.

And the reporter asked, "Don't you think you're going a little overboard? You are asking for stuff which within your mind and your perspective makes sense but none of this applies to every American citizen. You can't apply this to every American citizen." And the reporter asked, "You're a citizen like everybody else." And the girl responded, "Look I'm first a black female Muslim American but in that order." And the reporter said, "Oh I see but we have a problem." Now the reason why I point this out is because you and I exercise a priority in our identity in our mind.

We have a worldview by which certain things take precedence. We have a worldview where certain things matter. We don't sometimes intentionally put it there but that's how we've operated. And for a young girl she has certain identity portions that are completely first tier priority for her and therefore when asked the question, "What about your general citizenship?" She says, "That's last on the podium for us." We have to think about this and say, "You, whether it's culturally, identity, all that stuff.

You are first of Christ. You have one God and Father and everything else you just happen to be. Your first and foremost priority identity is of Christ and everything is a far far second." And so Apostle Paul is pointing to this. If you understood chapters 1 through 3, we have incredible foundation for unity.

We have everything as we abide in Christ to belong to the family of God as God is building up that household. To keep the unity of faith is a worthy cause and that is the proper worldview. You know I was so challenged that a lot of commentators mentioned, "Think about every treaty that has been made in history between nations and countries.

How many of those percentage wise do you think have been kept where neither parties you know made any kind of infractions and transgress the stipulations of those treaties?" Very few. No treaty, no mutually beneficial agreement or contract is going to do and provide for us the kind of powerful unity and oneness that we know is so precious, is so pleasing to God and also beneficial for us.

It's sweet for us. It's lovely. It's amazing. Nothing on earth is going to produce that. Only the power of Christ. Only the power of the Spirit. And so with that I want to conclude by saying man Pastor Peter's sermon this past Sunday when he was talking about Christ as the light and essentially is the way.

He's lighting the direction and the way for us. We are all on the exact same path so actually beyond even this passage we could talk about so much more. Let's make sure that we're focused on the right kind, the right source, and the right result of the unity that God has for us because ultimately all of that is going to be pleasing to him.

Let's take a moment to pray. Heavenly Father we thank you so much for your grace. God, we're to think that our Savior is praying for us and that long ago before we even existed of course he knew. And God his kind intention has been then meticulously over such a long time.

We can't even trace it ourselves because our minds are so limited. All that Lord God we just thank you and we're amazed. But now Lord we're challenged to go beyond our comfort zones. For those of us Father God I just feel sometimes weak to go out and take initiative and all that stuff.

We recognize that's not done because it just happens to be to be good. But Lord it's done because it's glorious to you. Because you're pleased by it. Because Father God you're honored when in your name and on the foundation of Christ we're able to love like Christ. For all of that God we thank you.

We thank you Lord Jesus Christ and we pray. Amen.