Characteristics of God’s calling - Eph 4:2-3

Good morning. Here at Dillingham Moravian Church, our goal is to help all learn

the Word of God so that we can grow as disciples of our Lord and Master Jesus Christ together.

My name is Pastor Simon, and welcome to the preaching ministry of Dillingham Moravian Church.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come before you and we praise you and thank

you for the great and merciful love that you have bestowed upon us in Jesus,

that you are the Most High God.

You are the one and only Lord.

And as we come to your word, teach us how to live according to you,

Lord, according to the calling that you have bestowed upon us in Jesus, Lord. Use us, Lord.

Use us. May you be our life and may you be our joy. Teach us, Lord.

Thank you. In your precious Son's name, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.

Here at Dillingham Moravian Church, we have been studying Paul's letter to the Ephesians.

The focus of Paul's letter is the unity of God displayed through the Church of Jesus Christ.

In Ephesians chapter 4, where we've been studying, Paul taught the Ephesian

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

believers in Christ and us that we are all to consider ourselves as prisoners

of Christ Jesus, our Lord and true Master.

God, through Paul, reminded the Ephesians of their extremely urgent calling

as Christ's disciples to live in the grace-filled love of Christ so that they

would be filled with the fullness of God.

In Ephesians 4, we studied two key characteristics from Paul's list of what

living in and displaying the gracious love of God means.

The first characteristic, or virtue, we looked at was humility.

Humility allows us to view ourselves appropriately before God,

that we are sinful creatures before our Creator God in desperate need for His forgiveness.

Humility allows us to view God as our treasure, and in God to see others as

better than ourselves so that we can love God and others.

Gentleness gives us the ability to not be impressed with our own self-importance

so that we can reasonably share the gospel with others, especially during persecution.

And today we're going to continue on in our teaching series in Ephesians 4, verse 1-3.

Ephesians 4:1–3

Ephesians 4, verse 1-3.

Ephesians 4:1–3

Where Paul wrote, “Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, exhort you to walk

worthy of the calling for which you have been called, with all humility and

gentleness, and here are the virtues we're looking at now, with patience,

bearing with one another in

love, being diligent to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Today we're going to continue our study of Paul's list of the virtues or characteristics

of the calling that we have been urgently summoned to as Christians.

And in order to do that, we must understand that our calling is to live in the

grace-filled love of Christ so that we are filled with the fullness of God.

Paul listed some of the key characteristics of living in and displaying the gracious love of God.

Thus, we're going to, today, begin studying this list so that we know what living

in the love of God entails. We will look at two of them today.

The first characteristic of the love of God that God, through Paul,

was teaching the Ephesians and us is that as Christians, we are to walk in a

manner worthy of our summons with all patience.

One season when I was crewing on a drift boat, we were down fishing in the midst

of a bad storm towards the south line of the Nuskak fishing district.

The waves were battering our small boat back and forth, the engines were on

full, and we were dragging our driftnet out behind us.

The waves and the wind were so strong that the carabiner that held the driftnet

to the winch bent and was about to give way, and then we can lose the entire

driftnet with all its fish.

This was a potential disaster, an incredibly stressful situation,

and yet my captain calmly ordered us to grab hold of the rope attached to the

drift net, and he backed up the boat,

he got a new carabiner,

detached the old bent one with the new one, like it was an everyday occurrence.

And this concept of calmness in the face of great stress or trials is what the

Apostle was getting at in regards to patience.

Paul in Ephesians 4, verse 1-3 wrote to the Ephesians commanding,

Ephesians 4:1–3

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,

gentleness, and with patience.

Paul continued with his list of essential characteristics of displaying the love of God in our lives.

The characteristic I want to point out to you today is the virtue of patience.

That's what we're going to look at first.

The word that Paul used for patience meant a state of emotional calm in the

face of provocation or misfortune and without complaint or irritation.

For the Ephesians and other Christians in the early church, trials and challenges abound.

There were a number of ways for the Ephesian believers to exercise patience as they trusted Christ.

With the Roman Empire-wide attempt to systematically destroy Christ's church,

along with the eager efforts of the Jews to stamp out Christianity,

it would have been extremely difficult to not live in fear of attack or to be

tempted to give up faith to live in peace or make the pain stop.

It is probable that there were some Christians who wanted to retaliate with

violence in response to the horrors inflicted upon them and their loved ones.

Additionally, many Christ believers had to live closely with other believers

who were from different ethnic or religious backgrounds, like the Jews or non-Jewish Christians,

who viewed specific doctrinal and traditional issues very differently.

Conflict was certainly possible with tempers flaring and thus patience was needed

to remain in an emotional calm without getting irritated or without complaint.

Paul, in 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 14, taught, And we urge you,

1 Thessalonians 5:14

brothers, admonish the unruly, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak,

be patient with everyone.

It also would have been extremely difficult to share the gospel amongst the

culture that violently opposed them.

Great patience would have been necessary to continue making disciples for Christ

amongst the people who hated them.

And with all these situations and more, tremendous patience would have been

essential and a key component of living a life filled with the love of God.

There are a number of ways that God in Scripture uses patience in the life of believers.

Patience is first on Paul's list in 1 Corinthians 13, verse 4,

1 Corinthians 13:4

when the apostle defined what love is.

Love is patient love is kind love is not jealous love does not brag is not puffed

up and so on but remember the very first one he quotes or uses is love is patient.

The author of Proverbs wrote in Proverbs 15, verse 18, “A hot-tempered man stirs

Proverbs 15:18

up strife, but the slow to anger quiets a dispute.”

Again, the writer of Proverbs commented in Proverbs 16, verse 32,

Proverbs 16:32

“He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty.

He who rules his own spirit than he who captures a city.”

Although these two passages do not name patience in them specifically,

I want you to notice that the Christ believer who is slow to anger is one who

is exercising patience because he or she is emotionally calm in stressful situations.

Another way that patience is used in the life of the disciple of Christ is in

waiting upon the Lord amidst persecution.

In James 5, verse 7-11, James instructed the Jewish Christ followers who were

James 5:7–11

dispersed around the world to endure persecution and injustice.

This is what he said in verse 7. Therefore be patient, brothers,

until the coming of the Lord.

Behold, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the soil,

being patient about it until it receives the early and late rains.

You too be patient, strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

Do not groan, brothers, against one another, so that you yourselves may not be judged.

Behold, the judge is standing right at the door.

As an example, brothers, of suffering

and patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

Behold, we count those blessed who persevere.

You have heard of the perseverance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord's

dealing. that the Lord is full of compassion and merciful.

Moreover, patience in waiting upon the Lord is helpful in combating worry and fretting.

Fretting is the type of worry when we're focused on the seeming unfairness of

how the wicked prosper properly.

More than those who follow the Lord. Fretting leads to anger,

which can culminate in violence or other types of evil.

The psalmist in Psalm 37, verses 7-9 urges the believer in God to be still in

Psalms 37:7–9

Yahweh and wait patiently for Him.

Do not fret because of Him who prospers in His way, because of the man who carries

out schemes of wickedness.

Cease from anger, forsake wrath, Do not fret. It only leads to evildoing.

For the evildoers will be cut off, but those who hope for Yahweh,

they will inherit the land.

To develop patience, it's important for us to have the understanding that those

who do evil seem like they go through life without consequences.

But nothing could be further from the truth. They, one day, will get their comeuppance.

One big truth we can learn about patience is that we, you and I, need more of it.

No matter how patient we think we are, God can put us into situations that will

stretch our patience and show us just how much we must depend upon Him.

Friend of mine often says, don't waste a good trial.

It is necessary to recognize that patience means that we are emotionally calm

amidst all circumstances, especially trials in times of stress.

For us to develop patience, we, you and I, must understand that we are not in

control of situations, but God is.

Trust and wait upon the Lord in times of potential stress, and He will act upon or act on your behalf.

That's a promise from Isaiah 64. Pray that God will give you the words to say

to the person that you're sharing the gospel to.

Pray that God will give you His calm when dealing with challenging people.

Pray that God will help you see people and circumstances from His perspective.

As a father raising little kids, my patience is often tested.

And I've realized that when I am the most impatient is when I'm trusting in Christ the least.

I encourage all of us to keep trusting the Lord's grace that is working in us right now.

Draw upon His grace and then act patiently towards others.

One of my favorite quotes about patience is from Oswald Chambers,

who wrote, It is in difficulty that our patience is tested, and in difficulty

that we must learn to draw upon His grace.

It isn't a question of praying and asking God to help you. It's a question of

accepting His grace, here and now.

We make a prayer a kind of preparation. It's never that in the Bible.

Prayer is the exercise of drawing on the grace of God. It is the most practical thing.

Don't say, I'll endure this difficulty until I can get away and pray.

Pray now. Call upon the grace of God in the moment of need.

Paul goes on to teach the Ephesian church the fourth character quality that

demonstrates that a Christ believer is abiding in the love of God.

As Christians, we are to live in a manner worthy of our calling by bearing with one another in love.

One summer, I was helping a friend down on Snag Point carry his fish from his set net to the car.

We were using my friend's baby strollers and putting totes filled with fish

in the strollers. The stroller that I was pulling was so full of kings that

I wasn't going anywhere. And I wondered why.

When I had a look, I realized there was so much weight in the cart that the wheels were bending.

And when we took some fish out of the stroller, the stroller was fine. We were able to carry on.

And my point with this story is that similar to the stroller carrying such heavy

weight, so also we as Christians, in the love of God, are to carry the heavy

burden of others' sin against us.

Paul went on in his teaching about the characteristics of what it means to live

out the love of God in Ephesians 4, verses 1-3.

Ephesians 4:1–3

And in verse 2, he said, Bearing with one another in love.

The word that Paul used for bearing with one another meant to regard with tolerance

or endure, to bear with, to put up with.

The idea here of bearing with one another is that of carrying a heavy weight,

especially over a sustained period.

David in Psalm 68 verse 19 illustrated this well.

Psalms 68:19

Blessed be the Lord who daily, and here it is, bears our burden,

the God who is our salvation, Salah.

God, through Isaiah, foretold of Jesus the Messiah in Isaiah 53, verse 3-4.

Isaiah 53:3–4

He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

And like one from whom men hide their face, he was despised,

and we did not esteem him.

Surely our griefs he himself bore, our sorrows he carried, yet we ourselves

esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted.

In both these passages, what is the burden that God and Christ bore on our behalf?

Our sin, or our sorrows and griefs that we had given God as a result of our sin.

Christ, who was and is and always will be innocent of sin, took upon Himself

our sin and was counted unrighteous to bear the full and terrible wrath of God.

And just as God bore the terrible weight of our sin against Him,

we, in Christ's grace, are to bear the weight of other sins against us.

Paul, in Colossians 3, verse 12-13, instructed, So as the elect of God,

Colossians 3:12–13

holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility,

gentleness, patience, Transcription by CastingWords,

Verse 13, Bearing with one another and graciously forgiving each other,

whoever has a complaint against anyone, just as the Lord graciously forgave you, so also should you.

In Colossians 3, I want you to see that bearing with one another is closely

connected to forgiving each other, just as the Lord has graciously forgiven us.

Carrying the heavy weight of other sins against us is not possible unless we

forgive them and cancel or absolve them of their debt against us.

It is so crucial that we understand that we can only bear with one another with

love because there is no other possible way to bear the sin of others against us.

But it's equally important to know that it's not by the power of our own love

that we can carry the sin of others, but only through the gracious love of Almighty God.

For the Ephesian Christians, being able to demonstrate the calling of God's

love that they were called to in the midst of persecution, in the midst of conflict

in the local churches, would have been challenging indeed.

And that is why Paul urged the Ephesians to draw the strength from the love

of God so that they could joyfully carry the weight of other Christians' sins

against them, just as Christ did for them.

As they were able to bear the sins of other Christians against them and forgive

them, the Ephesians were powerful witness to the love of Christ.

How then do we as Christians today bear with one another in love?

There are at least two ways that we can draw or bear love.

Each other in the body of Christ. The first way is by living in the love of

God and drawing on the grace of God to be able to carry the heavy weight of other sins against us.

To draw upon the loving grace of God, we, you and I, must stay or abide in the love of God.

Jesus in John 15, verse 9 instructed to His disciples, Just as the Father has

John 15:9

loved me, I have also loved you. abide in my love.

For us to stay or abide in Christ's love, we must trust that God loves us,

and then when others hurt us,

we immediately draw upon the strength of God's love that we know is there for

us, and then lovingly put up with the other person's sin against us.

The second way we can apply bearing with one another is that in order to graciously

put up with other sins against us, we must look to God in Christ as the example

of bearing with our sins against Him.

This is crucial. When others attack us physically or oppose what we think or

what we want to do, the temptation is to lash out with anger and impatience.

Rather, in the moments or times when we are sinned against, take the time to

remember what God has done in Christ for you and for me.

Remember that Christ had joyfully borne our sins, and God has not counted our

sins against Him, and He has forgiven us.

He has chosen to remember our sins no more.

We are to do the same to believers in Christ as well as those outside the church.

The last point that I want to bring to your attention is that as we as Christians

are to be diligent in being patient with each other and bear with each other's

sins against us, because as we do so,

we are living in the unity of the love of God.

Thus, as disciples of Christ, we are called to live in a manner worthy of our

calling by being diligent to keep the unity of the bond of peace.

Being a greenhorn when I first started crewing on a drift boat,

my captain went around the boat with me, showed me all the different equipment

that the boat had and how to use them, and the precautions we had to take with

operating the different machinery.

Now, on a 32-foot boat, there aren't a whole lot of parts and equipment on it,

but each part is essential for the safe and efficient operation of the vessel.

In the Church of Christ, the peace of Christ is that bond that keeps us unified

in the Holy Spirit. And we are all essential for the unity of the Church of Christ.

In Ephesians 4, verse 3, Paul wrote, being diligent to keep the unity of the

Ephesians 4:3

Spirit in the bond of peace.

In verse 3, I want you to see a couple of important truths.

First off, that as part of the Church of Christ, we are to work diligently to

keep the unity of the Spirit in our local church, as well as the universal church.

I say this because Paul gave the responsibility for keeping unity in the church

to the Ephesian believers, and subsequently to us as well.

The word for diligent meant to be especially conscientious in discharging an

obligation, to be zealous, eager, take pains, make every effort, be conscientious.

Meaning that we as Christians, as far as it rests on us, are to work extremely

hard at and pay special attention to making sure that the Holy Spirit's unity

is maintained in the body of Christ.

The idea behind unity is a state of oneness or being in harmony and accord with each other.

Secondly, I wish you to see that it is peace that binds each Christian together

in the Spirit's oneness.

The question we need to ask here is, whose peace is this? It's the peace of

God that binds us together.

The word that Paul used for bond meant connection, a connection based on kinship

or marriage or common interest, understood as something that fastens various

parts as on a ship together.

The word peace in this instant meant harmonious relationships and freedom from

disputes, especially during the absence of war.

And I share these words with you to make the point that because of Christ's

sacrificial death on the cross, paying the blood debt that we owed God for our sins,

we, you and I, are now at peace with God in Christ through the Holy Spirit.

And that peaceful relationship with God we now have mirrors the relationship

that the Holy Trinity has.

And it's God's peace applied to us in the church by the Holy Spirit that keeps us together.

Just as a ship or in a marriage relationship, Every part is needed and cannot

operate without the other.

And as we live together in the body of Christ, we, you and I,

must view our oneness in the Spirit with each other through the lens of the

horrible yet beautiful cost that Christ paid to bring us together with God and with each other.

No matter the controversies and challenges that threaten to separate us,

we, you and I, must continually remember what Christ has done to make us one.

May we stay in the oneness that Christ so lovingly bought for us.

Paul in Colossians 3, verses 14-15 taught,

Colossians 3:14–15

Above all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity,

and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called

in one body, and be thankful.

What then has God been teaching us in this passage? We have been taught that

as Christians, we are to display the characteristics of what it means to live

in the grace-filled love of Christ, so that we are filled with the fullness of God.

And today we looked at three of those key virtues that Paul listed in Ephesians 4,

which were patience, bearing with each other in Christ's church with love,

and being diligent to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Patience means that we are emotionally calm amidst all circumstances,

especially trials and times of stress.

Bearing with one means that we are to carry the heavy weight of other sins against

us, with and in the love of God.

And lastly, we are called to work hard to keep the unity of the Spirit in the

church as we are bound together in the peace that Christ died to give us.

The key focus to displaying all these characteristics is the love of God,

trusting in God's love, and then acting in the love of God.

I want to encourage you today, trust Christ,

trust His love, and in His love, display His love to the church,

to the people in your local church, and then from there out to the world,

sharing the gospel and being a light for Him.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we pray thank you for your word,

your very truth to us, your communication to us.

Thank you. May you take your word that you have spoken and embed it in our hearts, in our life.

May your word transform us by your spirit and use us for your glory.

May we as our local churches be a force for you in this world, for your glory.

And for people to come to know Christ everywhere.

In your precious Son's name, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.

I'm going to leave you with a benediction from 1 Corinthians 15, verse 58.

1 Corinthians 15:58

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in

the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

Have a wonderful Sunday. May the Lord bless you.