Are you diminishing God’s glory in your Christian walk?

Am I Walking in a Manner Worthy of My Calling

Ephesians 4:1-6 a

Pastor Kerry Kinchen, Bridgeway Bible Church

Please turn to Ephesians 4:1. We will be reading through Ephesians 4:1-5 in our verse to verse study. As you are turning there, I want you to think about Jesus and His ministry of walking around Galilee, Capernaum, Jerusalem, Samaria, and the surrounding areas. Wherever Jesus walked, He was like a magnet of a man. As he would go from place to place, He would draw large crowds of people. When Jesus walked from place to place, He would preach to the Lost sheep of the house of Israel. Jesus would heal people who didn't know Him. He would heal people who believed in Him, and He would anger people who opposed Him. Jesus would put people at ease, and He would also put people to the test by separating the wheat from the chaff. In John 2:11, we read that Jesus did signs,

"... and manifested his glory, and his students believed in him;" John 2:11

Wherever Jesus walked, and whatever happened, Jesus was glorified, and His Father was glorified. Even in His God glorifying walk, where He manifested His own glory, Jesus recognized that He was glorified, but He knew that it was the Father who glorifies Him. How amazing it must have been the first time to hear Him say,

"If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, 'He is our God.'" John 8:54

In His body, He, as the eternal Son, was always about the business of glorifying His Father--even when Jesus walked off, and away, from His earthly parents, as a young boy. Someone might say that it was an unkind, disrespectful thing to do. Jesus walked into the temple in Jerusalem. His parents walked out of the city, and then in panic walked back to find Jesus after they realized He was gone. When they found Him, how amazed they must have been to hear young Jesus say,

"Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father's house?" Luke 2:49

Jesus walked the most worthy of all walks. It was an amazing walk. Jesus always walked in glory. Jesus always glorified His Father. Later, Jesus said,

"... the works which the Father has given Me to accomplish--the very works that I do--testify about Me, that the Father has sent Me." John 5:36

How can we imagine Christ walking in such an unworthy manner as one who had in mind to walk without doing the works that the Father had given Him to accomplish? Such a thought is so foreign that one can hardly bring it to mind. It is a pagan kind of thought. To try and assert it as a reality is to assert heresy. John was so impacted by the glory walk of Christ, that he said, that Jesus

"... dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father," John 1:14

Jesus walked with a specific task to glorify His Father, Who glorified Christ in His task of being God manifest in flesh as the Messiah, crucified and resurrected. When Christ taught his students, He taught them to walk in such a manner that they would glorify the Father,

"16 ... let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." Matthew 5:16

This is the worthy walk of Christ. He wants His people to walk like Him. It is the worthy walk of the body of Christ. Now after the resurrection of Christ, and His ascension to the Father, the body of Christ is being manufactured person by person. God is building His church as a living walking temple to glorify Himself as a doxology. We know ourselves as being the body of Christ. He is the one who gives us Himself as the Head of His body, to look to, and think from. He gives us the arms to reach out with, and He gives us the legs to walk the walk with. In the process, God put the glory of Christ in us now, as our hope of glory later on in our resurrection from the dead. Paul has been declaring this in so many different ways--from so many different angles since the very beginning of this Ephesians epistle, and now Paul is coming into chapter 4. Please read with me, starting 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, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, 3 being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all." Ephesians 4:1-5

Please pray with me as we partake in the preaching of God's sacred word, in this sermon titled,

"Am I Walking in a Manner Worthy of My Calling" [prayer]

If you will remember, we touched upon Ephesians 4:1-4 last week in the thanksgiving sermon. It is an important passage. Coming into it this morning, I want us to notice that first, Paul is magnifying what he is about to say. He magnifies what he is about to say by bringing to the attention of the Ephesians that he is the prisoner of the Lord. At this point I am going to give you a five second Greek lesson. We know that Paul is not stating that he is a prisoner of Rome, though Paul wrote this letter from prison. We know that Paul is declaring the weight of being imprisoned by Christ, as a prisoner of Christ, because Paul is using something called the genitive case here in the Greek. Now, what this means in good Texan terms that we can all understand, is that Paul is the personal possession of Christ, the Lord, King, and head of His church. Paul is using this expression in much the same way he has done in his epistles when he says that he is a bond servant of Christ. Paul already made this pronouncement of being Christ's prisoner, back in 3:1, where he said,

"1 For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles--" Ephesians 3:1

Paul states what he is. It sounds humble, and it is humble in a way, but in another way, it is really a high honor that all of God's children share. To be a prisoner of the Lord is salvation, and blessing, beyond whatever we can ask or think. But in this context here, we also notice that Paul has already said that the one particular reason he is the prisoner of the Lord, is for the sake of these Gentiles he is writing to. When Paul brings it up again, Paul is pointing to the fact that these Gentiles are his focus as God's prisoner, and so from there he says

"Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called," 4:1

At this point I want us to check ourselves and, we really need to be honest with God as we consider Paul's assertion of his position in writing these things. Ask yourself this question:

Am I starting to take the Bible for granted for what it is?

Now ask yourself this question:

Am I starting to take the Bible for granted for why God has preserved it for me?

What I mean, is that we must be careful not to lose sight of the fact that there is a certain authority behind the holy scriptures that we can not take lightly. It is the authority of the Master. Whenever an employee does something in the name of his boss, people understand that though the employee is not the one in authority, he has the authority of the boss in what he is doing, because he is an instrument of the boss. Paul is an instrument of the Master, but the point is that since Paul is the instrument of the Master, (doing the Master's will for the sake of the Gentiles), then we need to listen very intently to the directives that Paul is giving for living out the life of our Christian calling. In other words, being a slave of Christ as His prisoner, gives Paul the authority, as one who is representing His Master. In 2 Corinthians 5:20, Paul calls it being an ambassador for Christ. So, with this in mind, we can probably figure out that Paul walked in a manner worthy of the calling with which he had been called--right? We think of Paul saying in the last letter he wrote from prison before being executed,

"I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith" 2 Timothy 4:6-7

So, what we see is that Paul has the humble position as a slave, but in that position, he has the authority, and Paul has the demonstration of it in his very own life and actions. But, the question that you and I must ask this morning is;

Am I walking in a manner worthy of the calling by which I have been called?

This is where I think all of us can always find room for improvement. In considering ourselves, and our walk, we must recognize that there is a worthless way to walk. It is not the valuable walk of your calling. All throughout this epistle, Paul has been explaining our calling to be those who glorify God as His prize possessions. The worthless way to walk, is to do things that do not glorify God. How many Christians do we know, who claim the name of Christ, and we can plainly see that they walk in this world according to everything that has absolutely no value whatsoever? We live in an age when the worthless is being treated as worthy. How does a person give the worthless this kind of treatment? It is simple:

Anything that we do that diminishes God's glory in us as what He made for Himself, is a worthless, empty waste of the time that you should be using to glorify God with your walk.

To explain a bit what I mean, often, I am analyzing my own self. I analyze my life. I am talking about Kerry here; and what happens is that I am not always happy with routes I have taken that seemed to be great ideas at the time. The reason is because as I start doing something, I start to wonder why I am doing it; Am I trying to bring attention to myself? Am I trying to impress people with something I can buy, or some way that I live that they can look at and admire? I often find worthless things that I start to pursue, and I look at them, and I think that I am wasting huge amounts of time, and money, on something that has no value whatsoever, but it seemed so valuable at the time that I started doing it, or pursuing it. I ask myself when I am frustrated with another member of the body of Christ who is acting immature spiritually, whether I am angry because of personal hurt, or am I having a kind of righteous discernment of concern. One glorifies myself; the other glorifies God. Our individual walks in the spiritual sensitivity to what God wants is based upon this same kind of analyzation. All of us should ask ourselves about the God glorifying value of our walk at any given moment. You see, there is a manner of walking that has worth. The worthy way for you to walk, is according to the calling which you have been called. And clearly, the reason for your calling which you have been called, is so that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, and you would shine forth that glory to everyone around you. Paul is going to tell us how to do it. So, introspection helps us. Looking at ourselves gives us some guide posts concerning what needs to be fixed. But, there a lot of Christians, that because they are so caught up in doing things according to the patterns laid down by the world, they get into those patterns, and so what happens is that they look at what they are doing, and they say,

Well, I don't see that mentioned anywhere in the Bible. I don't see where this thing I am into, or doing, or have done, is blatantly called sin.

It could be seeking to separate from other Christians simply because you don't like their personalities. This is what the world does with each other. It could be giving, just so you'll get rich, because you want God to give you money because you gave money. That is the walk of the world. You know, it is good to analyze what we are doing according to God's word. Trying to find it listed as a sin is a good practice. But, we've got to be careful, because what can happen is that we look at our walk from our own point of view, and we can validate it very easily. We can easily scoff at wisdom. We can easily get snared, and say,

I do not see why any other Christian would say I am being unwise in doing this.

Or, we might say,

I really don't care what other Christians think. I only care what God thinks.

You know, these kinds of things sound noble. They sound pious. But, when we ask ourselves about the value of our walk at any given moment, are we being sincere with the sincerity that wants to see God glorified in all our actions? Or, we are doing something else? In other words, there are times when saying: I really don't care what other Christians think. I only care what God thinks, is a good thing to say, when it is truly God focused. But, are we saying it as an excuse to be inconsiderate of the the body of Christ that God thinks we need to listen to in wisdom and unity? Are we using such pious cliche's to act unwise in our decisions. I want to encourage all of us here with some wisdom thoughts. When we get past trying to glorify ourselves in our short life spans on this planet through excuses that only serve to prop up our pride and vanity, and we do the good thing of going on to grow by the word, we start to see wisdom nuggets in scripture that have nothing to do with being legalistic, or Pharisaic, or narrow, and opinionated, but are sobering teachings that shake up our self absorbed, self assured, walk in a very demanding way. What I mean is that we see the higher aspect of our calling, where Paul says walk in a manner worthy, precious, meritorious, and in the high value of your calling with which you have been called. God's word is complete, and just so that we will not be confused about our call, Paul identifies the call, and what it is for, in 2 Thessalonians,

"14 It was for this He called you through our good news,

[it was for what?]

that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ." 2 Thessalonians 2:14

It is for this gain that you and I have been called. This is worthiness. It is value. Think about it for a moment. This gaining of the glory of Christ is what we are supposed to look to each and every waking moment of our lives. We have it positionally. We will have it in the afterlife. We gain it each and every day, in another respect, according to effort. Just think of this as your marching orders for your walk. You want to walk as if you have gained the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ already don't you? Now listen to me very carefully, I could talk about how we have already gained the glory of our Lord in our positional identification with Him in His glory imputed to us as fellow heirs. I could dwell there for the rest of the sermon. Or, I could go on, and on about the clothing styles that we in the body of Christ sometimes wear that, when we look at them, we have to force ourselves to think;

Is this an erotic clothing style, or is this not an erotic clothing style?

The fact that we have to ask the question, and then argue with ourselves over the answer, means we are only walking on the edge of the higher walk of worthiness. I could go on and on about how you should be about walking in honesty. We could certainly cover much about how we should be about walking in sexual purity, and how you and I should be about walking without getting caught up in the glory of the world in all of its trappings of deceit and seduction of empty pursuits. We could spend a year on all of those types of things, and find out that we've only just begun. All those kinds of things are important, and all those kinds of things are good things to think about in trying to walk the worthy walk--the one that glorifies God, where we attain that glory in the sense of actually looking like the glory to the rest of the world. They are things that have to do with acting like the body of Christ in reflecting how Christ walks through your steps in this world. But Paul has something in particular in mind that he is getting at. It a specific area in your God glorifying walk where you manifest, in unarguable, and silenced surrender to the glory you have obtained in the Son. It has to do with body life. Paul says it in the next verses, in 4:2-3. Look at 4:2-3.

/1/
Paul says that first of all your worthy walk is a humble walk. OK, now we are getting down to what really manifests the glory of the Lord according to our call in a very important way. But, please listen to what I am about to say, when it comes to the walk of the call, most Christians in our day, fail miserably right here. How many of us can truly say, we walk humbly. How many Christians do we know who do? I tell you something that I have often talked to my wife about that absolutely fascinates me. I have asked the Lord about it in prayer, and I have looked in God's word for a clear answer to why this happens. It is an amazing phenomenon. What I have noticed is that whenever I preach on pride, forgiveness, and God's call for us to be humble, then over the next couple of weeks, I will see people within the church act like they have never heard the sermon. In fact, they start doing the exact opposite! Folks, the trend is so bizarre that I have mentioned it to my wife on more than one occasion. I've thought that maybe God is bringing out what was there all along, and so He decided to time it after the preaching of His word. I have also thought that maybe I am just sensitive to what is always there, and because the scriptures are on my mind, people's sinful actions stick out more to me. I have also thought that God wants those prideful people to be made evident so that the pretense will be exposed. But, you know what, there is another reason, and that is when I see prideful people, what else do I see?--I see me. When you see pride in others, don't you see yourself? And so, when I see that, I loathe it in myself, and I have more grace upon that person, and then what happens? First, I am forced to be humble in my reaction to that person who is being prideful. then secondly, I start working on adjusting my own walk. The point is that pride is one of the biggest problems that we have with ourselves, and it is a big problem that keeps your walk unworthy instead of being of value, which is what we want. How many of you realize that pride destroys more relationships than just about anything else? You say,

Well, maybe I don't agree with that, pastor. I could say that lying destroys more relationships, or I could say that sexual immorality destroys more relationships, or something else; like personality conflicts, and personal opinions, and all those kinds of things.

OK, I agree that those are real examples of things that destroy relationships. I'll even go one step further with you, and say that those things, in our particular age, and culture, are big relationship destroyers--even in the church. But, listen to me, because I want to ask you a question:

Why was the relationship typically destroyed in respect to lying, or stealing, or sexual immorality, personality conflicts, or personal opinions, and so forth?

The answer is because of pride. You see, if you are prideful about doing any of those things, and so you want to try and cover your sin, or your offense, or even your affinity to be consumed with your own opinion, then you, because of your pride, are continuing to damage yourself, which is a person who is called to manifest Christ's glory in the worthy walk, and you are continuing to damage the rest of the body of Christ. Further, you who are at the other end of the deal, when you fail to look at the offending brother or sister, and forgive them in humbleness, where you consider them as being better than you, and you consider that you and they are in the same boat of being completely held together by God's grace alone, and you consider that they are the people that Christ purchased on the cross, then you, in your selfish, self consumed, pride, that you will not even admit that you are drowning in, are destroying the manifestation of the glory of Christ in you, and you are destroying the bond of unity, which is only a bond of unity that comes from the redeemed spiritual connection that we all have in Christ in the first place. Folks, we need to be humble. So much of the worthy walk depends on it.

/2/
This leads to the second thing that Paul says about the worthy walk. He says the worthy walk is a gentle walk. The reason why I say that the last point leads into this one, is not just because this is how Paul lists them, but also because pride will keep you from being gentle. Let me just say, that if your disposition is to not be gentle, then this is going to be as tough for you as a toddler stepping down stairs for the first time. If your disposition is to not be gentle, then you absolutely must; first of all, recognize, then believe, and then want to glorify Christ, by manifesting His glory in being gentle. What I mean is that far too many Christians in our day, do not think they need to be gentle in their attitudes, reactions, confrontations, and urgings. If you do not recognize, then believe, and then want to glorify Christ, by manifesting His glory in being gentle, then you will disobey the word of God, and you will go the opposite way, which is your natural way. Like I said, this is a place where pride raises up its ugly head. Our own selfish pride gets in the way when we think we have a right not to be gentle because we think that the rough way is the right way to accomplish the worthy walk of God. Now, listen to me carefully. I know that we can come up with excuses for not being gentle to our brothers and sisters in Christ. Let me tell you, I have heard more excuses for rough behavior among Christians than most of us could come up with in one sitting. In fact, they are the same excuses that spouses use for being rough with one another, in both their speech and actions. But, what we are talking about here is the title of this sermon, which is walking in a manner worthy of our calling. There are excuses though. Usually, the rough person will say something like,

Well, that is just my personality.

Or,

I just deal with the situations in the way that gets the job done.

Sometimes, they will say,

It worked didn't it?

Sometimes, someone will say,

There is nothing wrong with a little righteous anger.

Actually, there isn't anything wrong with righteous anger. God commands it in Ephesians 4:26. But, the questions we need to ask ourselves is whether the excuses I just gave, are really just excuses for an unworthy walk. Consider James 1:20;

"for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God." James 1:20

If this be the case, then what does this say about unworthy walk excuses for such behavior? The reason why I ask this question is because the righteousness of God achieved by us, is a manifestation of the glory of God achieved in us. Let me repeat that;

The righteousness of God achieved by us, is a manifestation of the glory of God achieved in us.

Clearly, the anger of man, then, can be something that devalues your walk into unworthiness. We consider what Paul instructed his child in the faith; Timothy, the appointer of elders. Paul says,

24 The Lord's bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, 25 with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth," 2 Timothy 2:24-25

To walk the worthy walk is to not be quarrelsome, and if we are having a hard time figuring out what that means, notice that Paul immediately says but be kind to all, and then Paul says that the correction of those who are in opposition, is to be with gentleness. The Lord's bond servant, Paul the apostle, says, he, the prisoner of the Lord, implores us to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which we have been called, and he, as the Lord's bond servant, imprisoned in the kingdom of God, says to walk there, as he walks there, in gentleness. This leads to the next thing that we are to nurture,

/3/
The worthy walk is a patient walk of tolerance, and it is in love. Being patient with people is difficult. Being patient with people in tolerance, means that you put up with them no matter how much you don't like them. Again, pride, and pride's best friend, selfishness, are the destroyers of this worthy walk. What will destroy this manifestation of the glory of Christ is something so simple and innocent that we often don't recognize what a devastating weapon of Satan it really is. It is the attitude of not liking people. What I mean is that it is easier to be patient in love with people you already like. But, when you say in your heart, "I don't like that person," then you will not be patient with them, and you will not demonstrate that you love them. In fact, you will separate from them. You will avoid them. When they have needs, you will turn the other way. And what is it that people usually say when they separate from people, and avoid them? They say,

I just don't like being around that person. I don't like being with those people. They irritate me.

Did you catch the real message? The real message is, I don't like those people. I don't want to be patient with those people. I am going to walk my walk, according to me, by walking away, and manifesting the glorylessness of my flesh, rather than manifest Christ's love for those people. Be convicted folks, because there are way too many members of the body of Christ who think more highly of themselves than they ought, and unfortunately it is no secret, because the unworthy walk is as obvious as someone who is limping in a parade. You might think you are being subtle by walking away from your brothers and sisters that you decide you don't like, but, make no mistake about it, what you are doing is almost always understood to be an avoidance that has to do with whether you like the person or not. People are intuitive when it comes to these things. Don't you think you discern that someone likes you when they act like they want to be around you? If you want to glorify God, then seek the love umbrella. What I mean is that when you don't like someone, make yourself walk according to the verse that says that love covers a multitude of sins. Open the love umbrella; go to your brother, or sister, and hold it in the rain of pride, and grated nerves, and start liking that person according to the way God loves them. What I am preaching on this morning is walking the worthy walk. This leads to the next thing that Paul says:

/4/
The worthy walk is to be diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. When you are marching in a parade, and everyone is in unity, then the whole marching band is moving and operating like one body. When someone starts to limp, then the whole unit has a hitch in it. When someone wants to do their own thing, like break out of sequence, and go over and get a chili dog, then the whole group is thrown off kilter. We must be diligent, which means working extra hard, to preserve our unity of the Spirit, which is what is our glue that makes us come together. We are all sealed by the Holy Spirit. We are all connected together, living together, dying together, and going on for eternity together. We are already connected in one kind of unity because we are all in the same parade, but what Paul is getting at is that we need to be connected by making something else happen in our walk. You see, the worthy walk is a preserving walk. This is where you make sure you are the one who brings peace between brothers and sisters who are experiencing strife, pride, lack of patience, and lack of gentleness. You don't have to be violent, and dramatically intrusive to be a breaker of unity and peace. Again, what a lot of Christians do, is they just walk away from the body. They, in prideful lack of patience, turn their backs on their brothers and sisters when they get frustrated and the least bit angry. Folks, it does not matter how quietly you do this, this is not peace. It certainly is not preservation of the Unity of the Spirit who puts up with every single one of your own self righteous sin issues. I hope we are getting the Holy Spirit connection here. Listen to what I am saying. Please listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying through Paul his prisoner. Just so we will really get it, let's jump ahead to the end of this chapter and see what it is that grieves the person of the Spirit, where Paul says,

"29 Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for building up according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. 30 Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice." Ephesians 4:29-31

Malice is gossip, and murmuring, that is meant to hurt people. It is not diligence to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Tearing down is the opposite of building up. It is not diligence to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander are not things that are having anything to do with being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Now the big question:

How are you going to obey God, and not grieve His Holy Spirit, if you are, in fact walking the unworthy walk of destroying the unity of the same Holy Spirit, in the explosiveness of selfish, carnal, turmoil?

You know the answer. But look, there is a reason for all of this, and Paul states it next in 4:4-5, the reason is because there is one body and one Spirit, of the one hope of your calling (mentioned above). In other words, Paul gives the summation of God's design of unity. There is only one body of Christ. There is also only one Spirit. There is only one hope of our calling. There is only one Lord, one faith, one baptism. What this means is we not only walk the worthy walk out of sheer obedience to God, but more importantly, we really sincerely need to like the worthy walk. We need to like it, and we need to love it. And here is the key to liking and loving the worthy way. We are going to have to like the body of Christ in all of its demands upon us. We are going to have to love all of its imperfect people, in all of its glory, which is the glory given to it by the Father. And one of the main reasons in Paul's point is because this is all there is. There is no other planet with called out, set apart, Christians looking to their Father. There is no other option for you to walk the worthy walk. You can't pick and choose concerning this, like you pick and choose which football team you are going to decide to like, and love. There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling. Paul says that by one Spirit we were all immersed into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit, in 1 Corinthians 12:13. God put us there, and now God is calling you to attain the glory, by walking the glory walk. Notice that we are there by the Spirit who is our bond of unity. The Holy Spirit is Who plunged us into the one body of Christ. God made us to drink of the One Holy Spirit. Now, also notice that none of this wonderful thing that God created for Himself has anything to do with glorifying you as a spiritually mature Christian. Your walk is not about what people think about you, so that you can be sure that everyone knows how spiritual you are, or how balanced you are. I talked to a man a few weeks ago who has real pride issues with the church. He has unforgiveness in his heart that is manifest in his walk. He does not seek the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, though he thinks he does. He is one of those I talked about at the beginning of this sermon, who just walks away in discontent concerning those in the body he does not like. What was interesting is that over 80 percent of what he said to me in the conversation had to do with how spiritual he thought he was. It had to do with how certain people think that he is spiritually mature. It had to do with how people owe him apologies. In the middle of the conversation, my heart just sunk with grief. The man totally ignored the volumes of scriptures that pointed out his sin of being divisive, prideful, selfish, and quarrelsome with people in the body. I grieve for him, but I also know something else folks--Any of us can take on that same mindset in a flash. We have got to look to the fullness of God's word as our standard, or we will get off kilter in our walk, and this morning, the Spirit is telling us that the worthy walk is the walk of humble, peaceful, work. And here is the irony, the very same body of Christ that we may be sinning against in our unworthy walk, is the same body that can hold us accountable, and point out where we are getting off kilter. Maybe this part right here is the reason why, whenever I preach these kinds of sermons, it seems like Christians will run out and do the opposite as quickly as they can. I am just telling you that it takes work to preserve things. Anything can fall apart. All you have to do is neglect it. Preservation takes work by doing everything you can to preserve the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. This leads to the last thing I want to mention before we finish, and that is that Paul says that along with there only being one body of Christ, Spirit, baptism, hope, Lord, and faith, is that there is only One Father, and the only reason that He is your Father is because He decided to rescue you by adopting you;

"6 one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all." Ephesians 4:6

But notice the really heavy, deep, thing that Paul says. Paul says that our Father is in all, and through all. What Paul means is what he means when He says earlier concerning the Son,

"22 And He [the Father] put all things in subjection under His feet [the Son's feet], and gave Him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all." Ephesians 1:22-23

This is a declaration (of God, who is one, and also Triune in His essence) where the Son, the Father and The Spirit is in all of us. The term all in all, means those whom God saves and makes into the One new man of the body of Christ--His church. In closing, this should be your greatest motivation for walking the worthy walk. The Holy Spirit is in you as you carry Jesus around with you everywhere you go. I urge you to walk the walk of the God who works in you to will and to work for His own good pleasure. Take stock of your attitude. Is it body of Christ preservation centered? Is it unity in the Spirit preservation centered? Is it the attitude that is seeking to attain to the glory of Christ? I am going to pray for us today that we would get the sense of how important the worthy walk is, and then walk it.