"Living out God's Calling with Humility and Gentleness - Eph 4:2

Good morning. Here at Dillingham Rabian Church, our focus is to train disciples

of Christ as we learn the Word of God together.

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

Today's job market is changing, and so is what employers wish to see on resumes.

According to YahooFinance.com, the challenge is to grab attention straight away.

No one wants to read every one of your job entries, for instance,

if they run over two decades or longer.

Eliminate college or high school graduate dates. Remove jobs that lasted less than six months.

Bundle your experiences into one tiny or tidy paragraph and skip dates.

Use only the work that's germane to the job you're applying for.

The automated hiring technology known as Applicant Tracking Systems or ATS carves

out throngs of applications and resumes employers typically receive for a single

position. So grease the wheels.

More than a third of human resource managers say they prefer having skills listed first on a resume.

After all, what can you do for them today is what the employer really wants

to know. The top three or four skill categories mandatory for the job you're

targeting should guide what you list.

These include hard and soft skills, certifications, and key accomplishments.

Coding languages now dominate hard skill sections, while time management tops

the list of soft skills, followed by customer service and critical thinking.

I'm sharing this article about how resume writing has changed drastically in

recent years because I want to show you what the world values in people, especially in workers.

The world and systems value accomplishment skills relevant to the specific job

that you're applying for.

Employers rarely care nowadays who you are or where you come from.

Rather, employers want to see what you can do for their companies now.

Thankfully, God does not work this way.

Demonstrate to God and others that we as Christians truly are abiding in the love of Christ.

It is character qualities that display that we are truly being filled with all

the fullness of God. Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, we come before you, Lord, and we praise you for the privilege

it is to be able to come into your presence, to be able to hear from you your very word to us.

Teach us and guide us through your word. Grant us your wisdom to be able to

see life and to see your word here that we're studying according to your ways,

according to your understanding, your truth.

Teach us, Lord, and may we be teachable in your presence. In your precious Son's

name, Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen.

Here at Dillingham Rabian 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 4, verse 1, we learn that as a result of being the recipients of

Ephesians 4:1

the incalculable and gracious love of God,

we as believers in Christ are to consider ourselves as prisoners of Christ Jesus,

our only Lord and true Master.

And as we live in our true identity as slaves and prisoners of the Lord,

we will boldly share the love of Christ with our actions and our words.

Moreover, God, through Paul, taught the Ephesians and us that in the magnificent

love of God, we are urgently summoned by the Lord and Master of the universe

to live worthy of the calling of God's love that we have been called to.

Today, we're going to teach in our teaching series in Ephesians 4,

Ephesians 4:1–3

verse 1 through 3, beginning in verse 1.

Therefore, I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy

of the calling with which you have been called.

And this is where we are now, verse 2. With all humility and gentleness,

with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to

preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

It's important for us to understand that Paul was communicating to the Ephesians

the extreme urgency of God's summons to them and to all Christ believers to

live according to the calling from God that they have been called to.

The big question we need to ask ourselves is, what is this calling that we as

Christians are called to?

To answer this question, we must go back to Paul's prayer for the Ephesians.

Let's look at Ephesians 3, verse 14 to 19, where Paul prayed,

Ephesians 3:14–19

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,

from whom every family in heaven and earth is named, that he would give you,

according to the riches of his glory,

to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner man,

so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and that you,

being firmly rooted and grounded in love.

May be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length

and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge,

that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

It's essential for us to remember that the focus of Paul's prayer for the Ephesians

was for the believers to be filled with all the fullness of God.

But to be filled to the overflowing fullness of God, a person must know and

learn the infinite love or grace of Christ.

And to know and learn the unfathomable love of Christ,

one must be saved by God, having Christ living in us by the incalculable power of God,

to be rooted and founded in the love of Christ and be strengthened with power

as we live within godly Christian fellowship.

And so as we study the virtues or characteristics of the calling that we've

been urgently summoned to as Christians,

we, you and I, 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.

And thus, we are going to do today is to begin studying this list so that we

can know what living in the love of God entails.

We'll look at two of these characteristics today.

The first is 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 love.

My two little boys like to build creative structures out of Legos and blocks.

Recently, I've been teaching the boys how to play Star Wars Monopoly and chess,

especially to Jonathan.

Paul is still in the stage where

when he gets mad, all the pieces of the chess game end up on the floor.

However, because of their size, my two little boys have difficulty in playing

games on the kitchen table.

It is easier for me to play on the table, but for Paul especially,

he has to stand up on his chair or even climb on the table to be able to see

everything and play with the pieces.

And thus, I do not demand that the boys play at my level at the kitchen table.

Rather, I get down or I lower myself to the level of the living room floor and play with them there.

As I get older, it's surprisingly more difficult to get down and stay playing

on the floor with my adorable boys.

And yet to play with them and love them, I need to be down at their level.

I share this little family story with you because in order to love God and others,

we as Christians must lower ourselves in our own viewpoints and raise God up as our greatest value.

And in God, we are to raise others up to be more valuable than ourselves.

Paul in Ephesians 4, verses 1-3 wrote to the Ephesians.

Ephesians 4:1–3

Therefore, I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy

of the calling for which you've been called, and this is it here in verse 2, with all humility.

I want you to see that Paul did not just urge the Ephesian Christ believers

to demonstrate a little bit of these characteristics of God's love in their lives,

but rather their lives were to be filled with these virtues of God.

The first virtue that I want to bring to your attention is the virtue of humility,

which means the disposition of valuing or assessing oneself appropriately,

especially in the light of one's sinfulness or creatureliness.

Now, I'm not exactly sure whether Paul has an order in mind for describing these

characteristics of God's grace,

but I will say that without humility, a person cannot truly be saved,

let alone be truly gentle or genuinely love God or others.

I want to point out three aspects of humility that help the Christian to live in the love of God.

The first aspect that I want you to see is that through humility,

we are able to recognize God for who he really is as God Almighty.

What humility does for us is to lower ourselves in our own perspective so that

we can see God for who He really is as the supremely greatest value and treasure in the universe.

We cannot recognize the grace of God without humility.

God in Isaiah 66, verse 2 proclaimed, For my hands made all these things.

Isaiah 66:2

Thus all these things came into being, declares the Lord.

But to this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit, who trembles at my word,

meaning that the humble and contrite one who fears God understands that God's

hand has made all of creation, including humans, and is to the humble person.

Is to whom God will look. The second feature of humility that I want to point

out to you is that humility is the necessary prerequisite for the forgiveness of God.

Jesus himself taught about humility in Luke chapter 18, verse 9 through 14.

Luke 18:9–14

And he also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that

they were righteous and viewed others with contempt.

Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself, God, I thank you that I

am not like other people, swindlers, unjust, adulterers, even like this tax collector.

I fast twice a week, I pay tithes of all that I get.

But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift

up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, God,

be merciful to me, the sinner.

I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other,

for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.

In 2 Chronicles 7, verse 13 to 14, when God was speaking to Solomon,

2 Chronicles 7:13–14

God said this, If I shut up the heavens, there is no rain, or if I command the

locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence amongst my people, and here it is,

my people who are called by my name humble themselves,

and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways,

then I will hear from heaven, and do what?

Will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

The central aspect of salvation and being brought into the grace of God by the

love of God is whether or not a person is allowed to be in the presence of God.

Now, please follow me here.

One of the foundational truths of the Bible is that without the grace of God

imparted to God's people, we as humans are by nature, as a result of Adam's

fall, all sinners. and sin cannot be in God's presence at all.

It was only through His sacrificial death on the cross that Christ was able

to pay for the lifeblood debt that all of humanity, including you and I,

O God, so that we would be able to have the opportunity to come into the presence of God.

But to enter into God's holy presence, God's forgiveness that Christ died to

gain us must be applied to all people individually.

For God's forgiveness to have been applied to you and me, we had to believe

not only in Jesus Christ as Lord God, but that we are not God and that we are

in desperate need of God's forgiveness.

And this is why humility is so essential.

Humility allows us, like the tax collector in Jesus' parable,

to realize that God is God and we are not.

That we are sinners before the only righteous and holy God, and that we absolutely

need His forgiveness and His power to enter into relationship with Him.

The third aspect of humility that I want to show you is that humility helps

us share the grace of God to others.

Paul in Philippians 2, verses 3-4 taught, Do nothing from selfish ambition or

Philippians 2:3–4

vain glory, but with humility of mind, regard one another as more important than yourselves.

Not merely looking out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.

For us to view others with God's love-filled grace, we must value Christ more

than ourselves, more than anything.

We humble or we lower ourselves in our own estimation and lift Christ up as

the greatest so that we become lesser and lesser and he becomes greater and

greater in our viewpoint.

When we value Christ more and we value ourselves less, then what Christ values

becomes way more important than ourselves.

And who did Christ value so much that he was willing to go to the cross?

Humanity and especially the church. You see, the more we value God as our supreme

treasure, the more we will value others.

And the more we value others, the more we'll be willing to sacrificially serve

others as Christ Jesus served us.

How does having humility practically

demonstrate that we have the grace-filled love of God in our lives?

By demonstrating that God is our supreme treasure and in God,

we value others as more important as ourselves or than ourselves.

To demonstrate humility before God, we must learn through faith in Christ,

by God's power, to abide in God as we obey His Word, the Bible.

Humbly trusting Christ and obeying God's word shows God that we value him in

his ways above all other ways.

Faithful obedience to God's word demonstrates to the people around us that we

are truly disciples of Christ who abide in the love of God.

And I believe one of the main reasons, if not the main reason,

for the rate of disciple-making in the American church being so low is in great

part because we lack the humility to love God and others properly.

We don't love God and others because we love ourselves too much.

And if we valued God as so much more valuable than ourselves,

we would be continually scouring the Bible for God's transforming truth.

If we valued God greater than our lives, praying would be as natural as breathing.

If we valued God as our greatest treasure, we would do whatever God asked of

us to do and go wherever he wanted us to go.

If we valued others the way Christ values us, we would spend every available

time loving our families and making disciples of our children and of our spouses

and every single person we meet.

Paul goes on to teach the Ephesian church a second character quality that demonstrates

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

And as Christians, we are to walk in a manner worthy of our summons with all gentleness.

One of the many aspects of my wonderful wife, Abigail, is her green thumb.

Abigail has the ability to make many plants grow in areas that they shouldn't be able to grow.

One of the reasons why Abigail is so good with plants is that she is gentle with them.

I often see my beautiful wife out in the garden or working on the plants in

her hydroponic system, gently pruning the plants.

Now, she is rough on weeds, but she is gentle with the plants.

And when she walks into the garden, Abigail does not clomp around the garden

wherever she wants, like a moose or like a couple of little boys that I know.

I'm actually not sure who actually does the most damage, my boys or moose.

No, my wife is mindful of the plants and flowers that are there and gently chooses

paths around those plants that will do as little harm to them as possible.

And this concept of being gentle as we're mindful of those around us is what

God, through Paul, was instructing the Ephesians about.

Regarding the second character quality of those who live worthy of the calling

which God has called them to.

Paul wrote in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 1 through 2, Therefore I,

Ephesians 4:1–2

the prisoner of the Lord, implored you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling

with which you have been called, with all humility, and this is the word I want you to see, gentleness.

The second character quality that Paul listed as one of the essential qualities

of those who abide in the love of God was gentleness.

The word gentleness meant acting in a manner that is gentle, mild, even-tempered.

Gentleness is very similar to humility because another way of defining this

word is the quality of not being overly impressed by the sense of one's self-importance.

Gentleness, humility, courtesy, considerateness, meekness.

It's when someone is focused on their own self-importance that they are arrogant

or deal harshly with others.

There are a number of ways that gentleness is used in the scripture, and here are a few.

Paul in his letter to Titus wrote in Titus chapter 3, verse 1 through 2.

Titus 3:1–2

Remind them to be subject to rulers, authorities, to be obedient,

to be ready for every good deed, to malign no one, to be peaceful or peaceable.

And here it is, gentle, showing every consideration for all men.

So gentleness in this context has to do with having consideration for everyone.

What Paul was saying was that to be gentle towards someone, we must consider

that person as more important than ourselves.

However, some regard gentleness as weak or allowing others to dominate us.

In 2 Timothy 2, verse 24-26, Paul instructed Timothy that the Lord's bondservant

2 Timothy 2:24–26

must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, be able to teach, patient what wrong.

And here's what I want you to see, verse 25, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition.

If perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the truth or the knowledge

of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil,

having been held captive by him to do his will.

Peter also wrote in 1 Peter 3, verse 15,

1 Peter 3:15

But sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense

to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you,

yet with gentleness and reverence.

With both these passages, Paul and Peter were directing Christ's believers to

gently correct those who have an opposing worldview that is causing them to persecute us.

We are called to give an account of the hope that is in us with gentleness and

respect for their culture and the fact that people in the world do not know

any better. Now, this is challenging.

I believe that Paul put patience next in the list after gentleness because he

knew that to be gentle in the world that is against us, that wants to hunt us

down and kill us, or is opposed to us, we need a whole lot of patience.

Gentleness also can keep people in situations calm that otherwise could inflame

into anger and violence.

Proverbs 15, verse 1 proclaimed, A gentle answer turns away wrath,

Proverbs 15:1

but a harsh word stirs up anger.

A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

One should also see that gentleness is an amazing witness of the Lord being

with us in the midst of suffering and hardship.

Paul instructed in Philippians 4, verse 4 through 5, Rejoice in the Lord always.

Philippians 4:4–5

Again, I will say, rejoice.

And here it is, verse 5, Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near.

The word for gentleness in Philippians 4, verse 5 also means reasonableness.

Philippians 4:5

If we act reasonable when people are attacking us, then that is a powerful proof

of our claim that Christ is Lord and that he is always near his people.

Again, I want to encourage you today that gentleness is not weak,

but rather it needs more power and strength than violence and bluster does,

especially when persecuted.

What then has God been teaching us today in this passage? God through Paul reminds

us that our extremely urgent calling.

As Christ's disciples is to live in the grace-filled love of Christ so that

we are filled with the fullness of God.

We've 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.

We also looked at the virtue of gentleness, which has many wonderful applications in Scripture.

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

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

Whoever, I want to impress upon you today that you do not have the power and

strength on your own to act with these virtues and neither do I.

To grow into all the characteristics of a person who is abiding in the love

of Christ, we, you and I, need to depend solely on God's strength and power

to be living examples of the grace of God.

By ourselves, we are not the important ones.

God is to be our all in all because he is the supremely greatest one in all existence.

And I want to leave you with this quote from Oswald Chambers.

One of the greatest proof that you are drawing on his grace is that you can

be humiliated or humble without showing the slightest trace of anything but his grace. Let us pray.

Father, we thank you.

For the mercy that you have overwhelmingly bestowed upon us in Jesus,

that you have lavished upon us in your beloved Son.

Thank you. Thank you for your Holy Spirit that's continually working in us and

interacting with your word in

us so that we may be convicted or we may be convinced of your gospel truth,

and repent and obey you and follow you and abide in your love. Thank you, Lord.

Teach us today what you have taught us, Lord, about humility, about gentleness.

And may you apply them by your grace to us, Lord, as we trust in your love and as we obey your word.

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

I'll leave you with this 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.

Amen. Have a wonderful Sunday. May the Lord bless you.