The Reality of Every Christian

This podcast is the Ministry of Graham Parkway Baptist Church.

For more information on our church, please visit GrahamProay.org.

My name is Lance Williams.

I'm one of the pastors on staff here at Grakway.

I usually do announcements and then Neil usually gets up to preach.

This day we flip-flopped it, and you'll notice that we just had a a short worship set there at the beginning because today really is an invitation.

I hope and pray that today isn't an inundation of information, that you just get overwhelmed with all these opportunities, but it really is an invitation into opportunity.

That's really the rest of our day together.

So if you've got your Bibles with you, we're going to jump right in to Ephesians 4.

If you don't have a Bible, there's one on the end of your row, and it is page 977 of that Bible.

Let me just say this: that uh today, when we look at this, and you'll see all over the place, whether it be on your bulletin, on the slides uh behind me that will come up whenever people are talking, whether it be any of the advertisement, you'll see the called logo.

That's our mission's uh theme for this year, is that all of us are called to respond in one way or another.

Missions is not optional.

It's not something that you get to go and say, that's great for them.

I'm so glad they get to do that.

So when we uh unveil kind of our logo and hope that you guys respond, really the opportunity is here to kind of go, okay, I get it now.

I want to I want to help.

Uh so if you got your Bible, let's let's dig into Ephesians 4 together.

Um because the reality is we all make excuses, me included, and I'll tell you a little bit about that here in a minute, uh, about why we have more important things to do than to join God in his mission.

We all make that excuse at one point or another.

Let me just read the first 16 verses of Ephesians 4.

I'm only going to talk about two, however, but just to give us a good understanding, a good context as to what's going on, let me read Ephesians 4, 1 to 16, which says this.

I, therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace.

There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call.

One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

Hopefully you're getting a theme.

But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.

Therefore it says, When he ascended on high, he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.

And saying he ascended, what does it mean?

But he he had also descended into the lower regions of the earth.

He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, gave all those to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried carried about by every wind of doctrine, but by huming, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes.

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

And as we do, here's the title of the sermon for today.

It's the reality of every Christian.

The reality of every Christian, all are called.

That's it.

And I'm just gonna spend time in verse 1 and then in verse 7.

So let me read verse 1 just again so that we have a fresh perspective.

I therefore, prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.

I only have two points for today.

The first one is just this worthy lives are called lives.

What does it mean to live a worthy life?

You ever ask yourself that when the Bible says stuff like this, live a life worthy of the calling with which you've been called?

What does it mean to live a worthy life?

God has given us salvation.

How can we ever measure up to that?

We can't.

That's the great news of Christianity is that we absolutely cannot measure up to that.

The Greek word for uh for worthy is axios, which means to bring into equilibrium.

In other words, consistency, equality, equilibrium.

In other words, we we have this idea of who God is, and we all believe, I think, at this point, that God is a missionary God.

If you don't, we can look back at Genesis 12, where he chooses Abraham, plucks him out of being a pagan, and makes him, brings him into a relationship and says, Abraham, I want to bless you.

I'm calling you now to go and be a blessing to the nations.

That's the first time that we get to see God's heart of ascending God.

We see it again when in the Gospels, when the Father sends the Son to the earth for the salvation of all who would believe.

We see it again when Jesus in the Gospels then sends out his disciples right after he sends his spirit to be in the disciples.

There's this great theme.

Number one, God is redeeming the world, but number two, he is sending.

Sending Abraham, sending the Son, sending the Spirit, sending the disciples, which by the way are you and me, not just the twelve dead guys we read about in the Bible.

God is sending, and so there is this understanding and this great belief of this call of God on all of us to enter into that, to live this life worthy of this calling.

So, what does it mean to live in equilibrium of that?

It just basically means this that we are to live consistent lives.

What we believe about God, he's sending, he's missional, he is all these great things, he's holy, he's loving, all of those things too.

Now, how do we live in accordance with that?

Not live up to that.

How do we live in consistency with what we believe about God?

That's the equilibrium that we're talking about.

We're not talking about I've got done all these bad things, and now I've got to outdo the bad things with the good things.

That's not Christianity at all.

Christianity is God has called you into relationship with you and now given you responsibility.

That's the calling that we have all received.

And guess what?

No one can deny it.

The Greek word for calling in this particular context is klasis, which means an invitation or a summons.

And so God, just think about this for a second.

God, the creator of everything, scattered the stars in the sky, knows them by name, knows the hairs on your head or on your face.

Keith, thank you.

I'm catching up with you, by the way.

Knows the hairs on your head, knows all those different things, called you, summoned you, invited you into relationship with him so that we can live inside of this unbelievable relationship where we can never really fall out of it.

Never ever can we fall out of that relationship.

Instead, we're in it, God's called us into it.

It's a past tense verb right there at the end of verse 1.

The calling to which you have been called.

So what we're talking about today is responsibility.

Not about measuring up.

This worthy life is about responsibility.

That God not only called us, but then gave us responsibilities.

That's why at the end of Ephesians 4 it talks about the apostles and the preachers and the teachers.

And many of us in this room go, yes, that's great for them.

We've missed the point if that's the case.

Because that's not just the people that stand on stage or that will come up on the stage today or teach in the rooms.

That, dare I say, is all of you.

And one way or another, God gifting all of us in unique and special ways, which we'll get to in a minute.

But we get to the point sometimes where uh this calling that we understand really it's it's the opportunity and the responsibility to live for God's reputation.

To live for God's reputation and not my own reputation.

I went off to college, and when I went off to college, uh my dad wrote me a note, a bunch of notes, and uh kind of sent me off to AM.

And he goes, All right, son, now I want you to live in a manner that doesn't put a black mark on the Williams name.

And I thought, and you're waiting until college to tell me this.

It's a little late, buddy.

The Williams name, if it's written in black, you can't even see Williams anymore.

There's so much black around that thing.

I have jacked it up from the get-go.

Uh but the great opportunity for us is that God has given us this name, Christian.

And now he's saying, now live in honor of he who gave you this name.

Don't put a black mark on the Christian name.

Because a lot of times we think of missions and we go, I'm so glad to be a part of a church that goes to India.

I'm so glad to be a part of a church that goes down to the nursing home.

And that's kind of where it ends.

You give your tithe and you send people out to do those things, all God glorifying things.

But if it stops there, I think we're falling short of what God's calling us to really do.

And that is to actually show up and make ourselves available to whatever the Holy Spirit is doing.

I think we're sometimes bad at this because we're really bad at verse 2 of Ephesians 4.

Uh Ephesians 4 is this, uh, 4-2 is this.

Uh, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love.

We're really bad at the humility and patience part.

Instead, we're prideful and impatient.

I'll give you a really good example.

I was at my house amazingly yesterday, uh, kind of finishing up my outline, and Reese looks at me at about 10:30 and she goes, Hey, uh, quit working.

It's time to go outside.

Literally.

My three-year-old, quit working, time to go outside.

You're right.

You know what?

You're right.

It's Saturday.

It's a beautiful day.

Let's go.

So we go out in the front yard, I get Ellie and her little car, I get Reese and her little bike, a little princess bike.

I love walking around with that princess bike, uh, especially carrying it.

Uh it's great.

Uh but we go out in the front yard and I'm thinking to myself, all right, sweet.

I'll just have the opportunity to just let this marinate over me.

I just want to, you know, just think about the sermon about reaching the nations, just be left alone.

My kids will go, it'll be great.

I walk out to the end of the driveway, Jehovah's Witnesses.

And I think to myself, Lord, how can I get rid of them?

And you think I'm kidding.

Because as I'm thinking about a sermon on reaching the nations, I'm thinking, I just want to be left alone.

How can I say something just so they'll leave?

Well, the easiest thing I know what to do to say something to get somebody to leave is to tell them I'm a pastor.

It's the easiest way.

When we're in your in any, just try it sometime, even if you're not.

Maybe you are.

Uh it's the easiest way to get somebody to leave.

So I just said, they start telling me all about these uh the handouts that they have, the literature that they undoubtedly have.

And I said, Hey, this is great.

I am a pastor.

Um, so I I I'm I'm totally on board with what you're saying here as far as you know teaching your kids uh, you know, by the Bible standards.

I, yes.

He goes, Oh, okay, well, have a nice day.

And they left.

And I thought, score, yes, money, they're out of my hair.

And then I got about three steps down the road, and I feel like the Lord just said, Hey, I'm glad that you're done with them, but I'm not.

Because now they're gonna go teach your neighbors about Jehovah's Witnesses.

Congratulations.

Okay.

Pride and impatience.

I had my own priorities.

Guess what?

I got to turn around.

I said, Lord, and I was still kind of bargaining with Jesus.

Lord, okay, if you want me to go talk to them, you're gonna have to turn them around and let them meet me right in front of my house.

That happened.

And so I met them in front of my house again, and I started talking to him, and I just said, you know what?

I I had this little conversation with the Lord.

I was like, all I want to tell them is that they're wrong.

That's not gonna get me anywhere.

That's not gonna get you anywhere, Lord.

What do I say to them?

I just was like, all right, I'll I'll do this differently.

Um hey, I just I'm a pastor and I already told you that, and I just had a question about what you believe.

I think I know what you believe, but I just want to know for sure.

I want to go to the source.

What do you believe about Jesus?

Well, Jesus is the Son of God whose shed blood gives us access to Jehovah.

Actually sounds pretty good.

Then I asked, Well, is he God?

No, he's a God.

Okay, we're off the track here.

And I just started asking questions, not judging them, not in harsh criticism of what they do.

I just started asking questions.

Now, where do you get that in the scriptures?

And she started to look it up and couldn't find it.

I said, Okay, while you're looking that up, I heard something about Jehovah's Witnesses.

I heard that you guys think that churches are run by Satan and that me as a pastor I'm an antichrist.

Is that true?

And she laughed, she goes, No, not at all.

I said, Well, when I said I was a pastor earlier, you guys just kind of left, like just cut off the conversation and left.

What was that about?

Help me understand that.

And she said, actually, two things.

Number one, when I when I heard that you were a pastor, I got scared because I don't want to argue.

And I thought, wow, what a sad statement about Christians.

Secondly, what she said, which was even more indicting to her own self, was, I know that you're a pastor, and that usually means that you're gonna I was scared because I knew that you wouldn't know the Bible.

What is that saying about herself?

It all of a sudden the words of Romans 1 came into view of they suppress the truth.

There will come a time when man will just suppress the truth.

It's almost like she knew the answer, but really she can't believe it.

And I just walked away from that going, oh my gosh, what an opportunity I would have missed.

Because I totally failed.

Totally botched the job in our first 45 seconds together.

Can I just tell you that as we're talking about missions and everything else that's gonna go on today, you are welcome to fail.

God will redeem it.

You don't have to be perfect, and all these things that we're gonna talk about and be opportun and be invited into, as all are called.

You don't have to be perfect.

Matter of fact, you're not, and neither am I.

Perfection was purchased on the cross and then given to us as we're called into that relationship and then live in freeing responsibilities.

So I tell you all that story because you're gonna have the tendency in your mind to go, I can't do that.

I'm not qualified to do that.

That's for somebody else.

And I would just say, can you just put those, yes, speak those to the Lord and say, Lord, this is how I feel.

But let's put those aside as the invitations start to come across here later on in the service.

So that's the calling that we have, the calling to be responsible.

Sometimes we will fumble, but the Spirit will redeem because that's what He does.

That's what God is in the business of doing.

If you read the Bible, it's just a big story of redemption, of making things right, which includes all of us and all of our issues.

Uh the second point that I wanted to make mention of today is that God never calls us without equipping us.

This call that we're talking about.

God equips us with certain things.

Uh the Bible calls them spiritual gifts in Romans 12 and here in Ephesians 4, as well as in 1 Corinthians 12.

You guys have been gifted in a way.

I have been gifted in a way that's different than Bo.

I could never get up here and sing, although that would be kind of fun to watch probably one day.

I could never get up here and sing.

I do teach on a regular basis and preach every once in a while.

That's part of my gifting.

It's not something that when I became a believer, I was like, I want to go teach and preach.

I was like, I'm terrified of that.

But God over the years has just kind of stirred that up in me and let me cultivate that with him and giving me more and more opportunity to go and do that.

You guys have different gifts as well.

Some of you may be showing mercy.

I'm terrible at that.

Just absolutely terrible at it.

But that's a spiritual gift that God can give to people and does give to people.

Let me just say this.

When we talk about this equipping, it's really found in verse 7.

Verse 7 says this, but grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.

That's verse 7.

Now there's two things.

Number one, each of us, if we call ourselves believers, if we say, I believe in Jesus for all that he is to make me all that I'm going to be, grace was given to each one of us.

There's not one person in this room, not one person in this world that says, I'm a believer, and then can still say, but I can't do that.

Or I'm unqualified.

In some way or another, whatever mission or service opportunity you hear about, you can help.

Praying, sending, going, whatever that may be, whether it be locally, regionally, or internationally, there is a way for you to participate.

Grace was given to each one of us.

Now, this is the cool part to me.

Because this grace was given to each one of us according to what we earned.

Nope, doesn't say that.

According to the measure of Christ's gift.

Now, when we give, we usually get a budget out.

We go, all right, I got all these little things, compartments of where I need to send my money to, or whatever we're giving.

We have a budget and we go, I can offer you 8%.

I can offer my savings 15%.

I can offer my church.

Okay, you didn't hear that one.

I can offer my church.

All right, whatever it may be, right?

Whatever you've you've you've decided in your heart.

So there's this, we get this budget.

And I think we get to this point in this in this verse when we talk about spiritual gifts and equipping, and we go, okay, Lord, you gave me an eighth of a teaspoon.

You kind of measured it out like this, and you made sure that I didn't get too much, and you kind of poured over my head.

I'm supposed to live.

Woo! Eighth of a teaspoon of grace.

Here I go.

Guess what?

That would be enough.

That's how rich and deep his grace is.

But he didn't do that.

Instead, he took, he doesn't have like a budget of grace.

He's an endless supply of that stuff.

Matter of fact, he just just dollops it on you because you burn through it.

I burn through it like crazy.

Just burning through grace.

And he's like, all right, sweet, I'll give you more.

I got an endless supply of this stuff.

You just take it.

Keep going.

Fail your heart out to my glory.

Not to your fears and not to your personality or whatever else.

Instead, just burn through my grace.

I've given you a measure of it, and it's not an eighth of a teaspoon.

It's like a 55-gallon drum upon drum upon drum that you can just swim in and brush it away from your face.

It's so thick.

Measure of Christ's gift has been given to each one of us.

And church, friends, it's time to put it into practice.

It really is.

Because we hear missions and we get excited about what this church is doing and we give towards all these things.

We do that.

We do that faithfully.

But what I hear on a consistent basis is people at the nursing home going, I've been doing it for three years.

I just need somebody to take it over for the next six months.

I'll take it back.

I've been over at Kids Hope for two years, and I've been doing X, Y, and Z.

I I I think I think God might be calling me to do something else, but I kind of feel trapped.

It's time for us as a church to build each other up in love, in patience, in humility, in long-suffering for one another.

As we receive this call and this gift, we've got to respond.

Can you imagine God doing all that he said he was going to do?

Calling people out of the nation, setting up Israel to be this beacon of light for all the nations around them to be able to go, oh, now I get it.

Then sending his son, killing his son, picking 12 fishermen, sending his spirit, equipping all of us, and then us going, we're good.

Can you imagine that?

God has given us this unbelievable measure of grace to put into action, to burn through and fail through, and do whatever we gotta do.

But the reality is we're all called to participate in some way or another.

So as we go through the rest of our service together, would you believe it or not?

I I'm done.

Uh uh as we go through the rest of our service together, let me just say this I want to say it again.

I said it at the beginning this is not an inundation of information.

This is an opportunity to respond.