Transcript
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If you got a Bible, go to Ephesians, chapter four.
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Whoo.
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We always get excited for the first scripture. It always scares people that are new to victory. They're like, why is everyone shouting? Our first. Like, the first scripture in the sermon is like our first touchdown in the game. It's, you know, something we just shout about. The word of God is alive. It's active, has the power to change your Life. Ephesians, chapter 4. Paul the Apostle was writing the book of Ephesians from a prison in Rome. We've been talking from this book for the last several weeks. And we've been going chapter by chapter, verse by verse, line by line, going through the book of Ephesians. Paul wrote this book to a church that needed to be reminded about their identity in Christ. That their salvation didn't come from their behavior or how good they were or how many scriptures they memorized or whether they were born into the right family, that their salvation came by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ. So those first three chapters of Ephesians Paul is outlining, this is your identity. You are loved by God. No matter how bad you've been, no matter how many sins you've committed, he loves you. And when you put your faith in him, you are forgiven by Jesus. He purchased your forgiveness on the cross. He paid for your punishment. You are adopted into the family. Right. We've been brought as sons and daughters by our Father in heaven. Paul outlines this in Ephesians 1, 2, and 3. He says, you are his masterpiece. You were a mess in your past, but you're a masterpiece now. We've been talking about how God is changing us and he's transforming us. And his saving, loving, compassionate power at work in us. Paul's been outlining that. And that's important for us to remember because those first three chapters, preparation for the next three chapters. The next three chapters. Paul's about to take us on a walk, a journey of what it looks like to live this out. Everybody say, walk it out. Walk it out. This is what Paul's going to talk about. He's saying, you have this amazing salvation. You have this amazing love, this amazing grace. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me and you And Paul says, with all of that grace, with all of that salvation, with all of that inheritance, all of that forgiveness, all of that mercy that you didn't pay for, you didn't earn, you didn't prove how worthy you were, he goes into chapter four. This is where it begins. The practical application of this book starts Right here in verse one, he says, as a prisoner for the Lord. Now Paul could have said, as a prisoner for Rome, he could have stated his current circumstances, but he flipped the script instead of seeing his current circumstances as if he was in chains and he wasn't allowed to do anything great or there was no purpose in the season and it was a waste of time. He saw his pain as a purpose. Note takers are history makers, world changers. I just encourage you to write this down. See your pain as a purpose. See every season as a season of purpose. And God will give you an assignment in that season if you will recognize I am not just here on accident for an accident. No, I'm here on purpose because I have a purpose. Even though even if I didn't choose these chains, go, God's going to use these chains. Even if I didn't choose this painful season in life, God's going to use this painful season. This has a purpose. Paul said, I'm not a prisoner for Rome. I'm a prisoner for the Lord. Wherever I am, I'm there for God. If I'm single, I'm there for God. If I'm married, I'm there for God. If I'm a parent, I'm there for God. If I'm not a parent, I'm there wherever I am. And whatever I'm doing, it is for the Lord. Paul says, I'm a prisoner for the Lord and I'm writing to the church. And he was no longer the pastor at the church. He started the church but passed it on. There was a young. There was a couple named Priscilla and Aquila that were carrying it on. And Timothy, Pastor Timothy was preaching, ministering in the church. And he says this to the church body. He says, I urge you, I beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called. Now that verse right there is like a life verse for me. I have circled that verse since I was a teenager and I have prayed to God, God, help me to understand what this means. I'll never forget when I was 16 years old, I was on a mission strip. We were in Mexico and we were going down the streets of Mexico. We were sharing the gospel. We were passing out beans and rice and Jesus Christ. It was awesome. And we were doing dramas. I played the part of the greed guy. I was like, you know, Mr. Greedy Man. And Jesus comes and sets me free. And then in one drama, I played the part of Jesus. It was always weird. You got with. You'd have different characters in different Dramas. And so I was having a little bit of a personality disorder complex. I didn't know who I was. But I remember my youth pastor sat me down and he outlined that chapter for me. He said, paul, you've been pretty goofy lately. You've been saying some stupid stuff. You've been getting into some trouble. And he said, I want to remind you that you have a higher calling on your life. And I was like, I know. He's like, you. You are called to a higher standard. He's saying, I'm not saying you got to prove to God that you're worthy of salvation. I'm saying you are already worthy in the eyes of God because of what Jesus did for you. Now, walk in a way. Walk in a way of the worthiness that Jesus already purchased for you. Don't make yourself worthy by being good. You're worthy because he's good, because he paid the price for your value. My value doesn't come from how good I've been or what family I was born in. I mean, our world, we have a value system based on, you know, merits. And, like, this person was really good. They worked really hard. They earned their, you know, fame, or they earned their money, or they earned how we respect them. But in God's eyes, we're all sinners in need of a savior. And when Jesus died on that cross, he paid for your worth, your value, your righteousness, your salvation. So he doesn't look at you based on how good you've been, but how good he is. But my youth pastor was saying, don't waste that goodness and that mercy and that grace on just living an aimless life. Live a life. Walk. I want to title this message A Worthy Walk. A worthy walk. There was a song that came out when I was in high school by Stephen Curtis Chapman called the Walk Just Doing the Walk. And he was my man. Like, I loved listening to him. But the song was all about walking the walk and not just talking the talk. There's a lot of people that talk the talk, but not everybody walks the walk. Paul said, I beseech you. I urge you. I'm appealing to you. Live a life. Walk in a way for the calling that you have on your life. And then we ask ourselves, what does this mean? What does it mean to walk the walk? And a lot of us in this room, we might think, well, it means, you know, don't do bad stuff, only do good stuff. And that that's true. But Paul's first explanation of a worthy walk might surprise you. His first Description of a worthy walk. And I want to read this to you from the new living translation version. We're gonna switch. He says this walk in humility, the first characteristic of a worthy walk. And I'm gonna give us six characteristics of a worthy walk. The first characteristic is humility. Everybody say humility. Walking worthy of our calling means walking in humility. That's the first characteristic. In other words, he's saying, I don't want you to think too high of yourselves. Romans chapter 12 talks about this. He says, Verse 3. Don't think higher about yourself than you should. Keep a balanced perspective of who you are in Christ. Some guy came up to me last night at the altar, and he goes, I love you, Pastor Paul. I love you so much. But don't get a big head. Don't you get a big head. He put his hands on my head. He was just trying to shrink my head. I was like, okay, I'm not. He goes, listen. He goes, sean Foyt, pretty good message. Darius Daniels, very intellectual, very good. Russell Johnson, kind of wild, Pretty good. Said some crazy stuff on stage. Goes, but you my man. Y' all are like, who are these names? These are the people that preach this week at revival nights. He was going through the list of preachers. He's telling me. He goes, but you my man. Oh, Pastor Paul, God speaks through you to me. And I said, dude, no, it's all. He goes, no, no, no. I'm saying this. I love listening to you preach. I said, man, thank you so much. He goes, but don't you get a big head, bro. Don't you? And he just puts his hands on my head. Keep your head small. I was like, yes, sir. Thank you so much. I will. But it is important. I was talking with Russell Johnson, one of the preachers at revival nights, and it was a phenomenal sermon. And he said this after he got done preaching. He's like, you know, my kids weren't here tonight. My wife wasn't here tonight. They don't really care how good of a sermon I preached. They care about how I treat them when I get home. The best sermon that we will ever preach is the sermon that we show every single day to the people around us. Are we walking in pride or are we walking in humility? Are we demanding our way? Are we trying to prove to everybody how awesome we are and how we know it all and they don't? Or are we practicing humility? Paul says, live a life worthy of the calling you have received and start with humility before you Start with self righteousness. Before you start with the memorization of all the scriptures and all the worship songs, start by living a worship song in the way that you treat people around you. Walk in humility. Don't see yourself higher than others. Carry yourself with a lowly spirit. In fact, the two words that Paul uses as the first characteristics of a worthy walk, I'm going to give you. The second point here is gentleness. Lowliness and gentleness. Humility and gentleness. The only place in Scripture we see these two words together is describing the heart of Jesus. In Matthew 11:28, Jesus says, Are you tired? Are you weary? Come to me, all who are burdened, and I will give you rest. And he says this. He says, for my. My ways are lowly gentle. In verse 29, he says, I have a gentle spirit. I have a humble heart. And I'll teach you how to live the unforced rhythms of grace. I'll teach you how to walk in gentleness and humility in a world that's constantly screaming my way. You know, get out of my way. I'm gonna do what I want to do, and I'm gonna get. Paul says, start with humility and start with gentleness. Humility is so refreshing when you're around people who haven't arrived. How many? All in the room have not arrived? Yeah. The rest of you, we want to be like you. You're perfect. But for those of us that haven't arrived, we're still under construction. Like the roads of Oklahoma. We are still a work in progress. The truth is, this is what Paul says keeps us attractive in God's eyes. God is actually drawn to humility. He likes people who carry a low spirit. I'm not saying you got to walk around just defeated like Eeyore, you know, I'm just saying, like, because you can walk with confidence, but still have humility, like, you can, Paul says, walk in a way that's worthy of the calling you have received. Imagine if, you know, there was a professional athlete and he was so good at his sport. Let's just say, you know, let's just say, like, one of the greatest football players. So good at football, right? And he chooses not to show up to practice. Cause he's so good. He's just so good, he doesn't even have to go to practice. The coach calls him. He's like, hey, I need you at practice. The whole team is here. Well, I'm just so good, I don't have to practice. That's pride, right? He's like, I'm trading you to another team. You need to show up to practice, wear the jersey for the team that you are a part of, and wear the jersey on practice days, not just game days. I need you here, whether it's rainy or sunshine. My dad was really big on. On, like, loyalty and allegiance and like, commitment. My dad was a big fan of Arkansas football. He loved the Razorbacks. Cause he was from Arkansas. He played for Southern Arkansas University. He was a football player. But I remember our family went to an Arkansas football game. We drove to Fayetteville and we watched lsu. That's Louisiana versus Arkansas. And y'. All, LSU won the game. And it was freezing rain. It was the week after Thanksgiving. It was so cold. I was ready to leave at halftime. I was like, can we go? He was like, no, we're staying here. We're going to support our team. I was like, but they're losing. He's like, we didn't show up. We're not fair weather fans. We didn't show up just to watch. When they win, we're going to be here. Even when they lose, we're. This is what it means to be all. My dad was like, very committed. I was like, okay, okay, all right, I repent. I'm sorry, you know, but my dad was committed. He was loyal. This is what Paul was talking about. He's like, hey, look, we're all in here. We're all in on this. One time, a person was wearing a T shirt from another church and they were on staff for us at Victory. And my dad was walking down the hall and they were working here, and they were wearing this other T shirt. And y'.