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Sunday, August 15th • Beau Bradberry
"I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called" — Ephesians 4:1
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Show Notes
August 15th, 2021 • "I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called" — Ephesians 4:1
–
Podcast: https://pod.link/willowridgechurch
Website: https://willowridgechurch.org
Instagram: https://instagram.com/willowridgechurch
Facebook: https://facebook.com/willowridgechurch
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@willowridgechurch
–
Podcast: https://pod.link/willowridgechurch
Website: https://willowridgechurch.org
Instagram: https://instagram.com/willowridgechurch
Facebook: https://facebook.com/willowridgechurch
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@willowridgechurch
Creators and Guests
What is Willow Ridge Sermons?
Sermon audio from Sunday services at Willow Ridge Church.
Hi, and welcome to the Willow Ridge Church weekly podcast.
This is where you can find audio for our current and past sermons.
We hope that you enjoy this week's installment, and be sure to check back next week to hear
the latest message.
Thanks for listening.
I'm just going to tell y'all, all right, I've heard some pretty things in my life, but sitting
right over here when Berger backed away from the microphone and the singers backed away,
and we heard the voices of you guys coming together as one family.
It was just a blessing.
So thank you guys so much for being here this morning.
Thank you so much for worshiping.
I'm excited.
This has been one of the best days out of the last 18 months of my life.
So thank you guys so much for being here.
I want to echo what Dave said.
For all of our first-time guests, thank you so much for being here.
I'll be back here at the welcome table as well after the service is over with.
If this is your first time here, please come by, and I want to meet you.
I want to learn your name.
I want to thank you for being here.
I want to have that opportunity just to engage with you, and so just thank you on your way
out.
If you would just stop by for just one second, I would just love to have the privilege and
the opportunity to meet you.
Now, I'm going to kind of recap a little bit of the announcements that we just heard,
but I'm going to try to do them a little bit differently.
So as we're going into our series this morning of our family reunion series, kind of getting
us all back together again, what I want to help us understand and kind of see is the things
that we are doing are being driven by mission and vision of who we are, who God's called
us to be, and all of these things are drawing us and bringing us together.
You know, the reality is within the world, and this has been the case since the fall of
man, go all the way back and look and see the division that is there, and that where Satan
rules and where Satan reigns is amongst division, amongst strife, amongst hatred.
And so what we're doing is what we're trying to point into and bring us back to is a unity
of the body, a unity of the family.
Like God's word says that we are the family of God, and so that we can have the opportunity
to live and function in this way.
So as we talk about the things that are going on around here, I know because I've been there
before, it's easy to take a step back and just say, oh, that's some programming stuff that's
just going on, but that's not our heart.
The heart is continue to see the body, to continue to see the bride of Christ draw back together
again, all right?
And so I want to encourage, if you've got your tickets, fantastic.
Hopefully, the rain will hold off long enough this evening, or maybe we can get a couple
innings of baseball in, but we'll be at the baseball game for the Fireflies tonight.
If you do not have tickets, we do not have tickets, but I do know that the game is not sold out.
So if you would like to go and want to go online and request seats, or even there, in section
109 is where Willow Ridge Church will be, and maybe you can get some tickets that way.
But then if you can't make it tonight, next Sunday, all right, we've rented the entire
JC's bowling alley from four to six.
And so we can come out there together, we can gather together and go and bowl.
Your cost for shoe rentals, for bowling has been covered.
If you want nachos, pizza, hot dogs, 3,000 calories packed into one small basket like I'm
going to do, right?
That is going to be there.
That's all you've got to pay for is for your food, but we would love to see all of us back
there just bowling.
And I'll tell you what, what's going to be interesting to see, a couple of things.
Number one, those of us who will request bumpers, all right?
Like we won't call you out, but it is going to be interesting to see.
And then the other is this, and this is what I'm going to be watching.
Who is here to have fun and who is here to compete, right?
And I think that's going to show us a lot within the dynamics of our church family and excited
to see that.
So that's next Sunday, and then on August 29th, and this might be the night that I'm
most excited about as we gather back here.
If you've been a part of Willow Ridge Church for several years, you know that we like to
play games.
We like to have parties, and that's what we're going to do on August the 29th.
And so we've got a fun night of games planned where you can come here, and if you don't
want to play, you just want to observe.
There's going to be an opportunity and a space for you.
But if you want to get out and be a little silly, have a little fun, we're going to have
some games that we're going to be able to play together.
But then with that, right, we're going to eat because we are Baptist.
And so we'll have hot dogs and all the sides with that.
And then we're going to ask you if you would like to, if you want to enter in to bring a
homemade churn of ice cream.
And right now, I'm putting together some professional taste testers amongst our congregation who are
going to go around, and I crushed a little girl's heart last week because she asked if
she could be on the team, and I said, absolutely.
And she said, does that mean that I get a big bowl of each one of them?
And I said, no, sweetie, that's not what that is.
But we give you a little sample of all of them.
And the winner will receive a 14-carat golden painted spoon that we will have and then give
that out.
And so encourage everybody to be a part of that.
But also, not only just those, but the continual week-to-week ministries that we do.
You know, when COVID kind of came and we had to shut down a lot of things and we started
bringing things back, one of our ministries that I'll be honest with you during this season
has been so meaningful and so impactful to so many different people in our community has
been our Celebrate Recovery ministry.
And they were one of our first ministries we brought back.
And if you aren't familiar with Celebrate Recovery, you immediately hear recovery and connect
it to drugs and alcohol, and there is an aspect of CR that is for people that struggle with
drugs and alcohol.
But the purpose of CR is to come alongside people that have hurts, habits, and hang-ups.
And I don't know about you, but I know that I fall into a lot of those categories myself.
I have been through my own CR study.
In fact, we'll be starting another one this week that I'm going to be a part of on Wednesday
mornings.
And so if that's where you are right now, maybe you're battling through some depression issues.
Maybe you're battling through some substance things.
Maybe you've got some hurt that you're kind of navigating through in your life.
Our CR ministry, and we're going to focus on it over the next couple of weeks, be a wonderful
opportunity for you to connect.
And they meet on Thursday evenings, I believe, and now it has left me at 6 or 6.30, Mark?
6.30.
And so I want you to be here at Thursday at 6.30.
Got a wonderful group of men and women to welcome you, love you, and walk alongside of
you.
And I want to, as we look through the dynamics of what it means to be family has existed and
just been so strong in so many different areas of our church, but especially in our CR ministry.
And so I want you to be a part of that.
And so, all right, with that said, we're going to jump into our message this morning.
And with that, it's going to be a recap for some of us who have been here.
And maybe for, there's a lot of new faces and even new faces that have happened over the
course of this last year.
It'll be something new for you.
And what I want us, as we go through this study together, as we go through this next four
weeks, as we talk about family reunion, what's going to build us or bring us into that is
we're going to talk about our vision and our mission of who we are.
Right before there was a thing that we knew of called COVID, we had started a series where
we were working toward and pushing toward a new vision and new mission at Willow Ridge
Church.
And in that, we haven't walked away from that over the last 18 months, but it's caused us
to look different.
And as we gather together back today in one service, it's a great opportunity for us to
remind us of who we are and what God's called us to do.
And so each week, we're going to be building through and working through this as we look
at our scripture.
And so I want to remind or maybe educate some of us who don't know about what our vision
and mission is as we begin.
And so our vision statement is this, that we are one family, one ministry, one calling.
That when we look at the vision of Willow Ridge Church, this tells us who we are.
This is who we are as a body.
This is what makes us unique as a congregation in where God has placed us in who we are and
and who we are called to be.
Now, as you notice within here, there's kind of a theme that is centered on through here,
and it's the importance of us being together in one worship service.
And it is this, everything is centered around the concept of one.
We are not many, and some churches do that.
And that's fine.
And that's good.
That's who God's called them to be.
But we're centered and we're built around the fact that we are one.
Something that is unique within our culture and our context and our setting is that you
and I, as you look around this room, there are people who have traveled from different
counties.
We are not situated in one city.
We have people from West Columbia.
We have people from Orangeburg.
We have people from Lexington.
We have people from Red Bank.
We have people from Columbia.
People from Irmo that we are scattered.
We have people that live and work in different areas, in different ways.
We have different things that are here.
But within this, we are one.
And so what does that mean for us?
What does it mean that we are one in Christ, in this, beyond our salvation, in who God's
called us to be?
And this is something that we wanted to really press into, that I felt like God was leading
us down to understand what this looks like.
And so it began with us by saying that we are one family.
And by one family, what that means, it does not mean that we are one genetic family here,
that we are one family who controls everything here, but that you and I, regardless of our
background, regardless of where we come from, regardless of our education, regardless of
our socioeconomic status, regardless of the color of our skin, regardless of the language
that we were born speaking or the language that we still speak today, that you and I are one family,
a unified body, and it is Christ who unifies us.
And so that's who we are.
And that makes things complicated sometimes.
But we are the body of Christ of Willow Ridge Church.
Now there's the church outside of that, and we celebrate that.
We work with church planning.
We pray for our brother and sister churches that surround us.
But when it comes to who we are, that we are one body, a unified body.
But also within there, we're one ministry.
And what's going to be important for us with this is this is unified in what we do here.
And so just a second ago, you took your elementary and your preschool kids, and you took them
over into a different building, and you dropped them off there.
Just earlier this morning, we had one of our small groups where we're meeting in a classroom
space over here.
We got our CR, that group that is meeting on Thursday night.
We've got our small groups, some of them that are still operating, some that will start back
up.
We've got our student ministry that's been operating all throughout the summer, and it's
going to pick back up in several weeks once we're done with our Sunday nights that we're
doing.
And that when you look at all of the ministries that we have here, there's one common theme,
one ministry that keeps us unified in what we do.
And we get this from Jesus because it's what he called us to do, that we are called to go
and make disciples.
And so that's what it's about.
So in our ministry, the goal of what we're working through as we do snack packs upstairs,
as we gather together for CR, as we gather for our small groups, as we're dropping our kids
off in the nursery, as we're sending them to youth camp when we drop our students off, that
in all of what we do, of what we're pressing for, of what we're about is one ministry, and
that ministry is discipleship.
We're not here to entertain.
We're here to grow in our relationship with the Lord and to understand who he's called us
to be and to do that.
And which brings us to the last part of our vision, which is one calling, that you and I
are called to go, that we're called to go.
What I love about what Sunday morning provides for us, what I love about the feel of what
we're trying to create and what we're trying to do here, it is a point in time where we
can come together and rally together as brothers and sisters in Christ.
As we were here, and if you weren't able to be here earlier, I just want to tell you this
is a fantastic time of men and women and kids kind of coming in and gathering together and
getting some snacks and getting some coffee and getting some juice and having conversations,
seeing people who hadn't seen each other in a long time, seeing individuals who didn't
know each other until this morning kind of coming and gathering together.
And we had that wonderful time of fellowship.
And now we're going to come here and we're going to be fed and the Spirit of God has already
moved and worshiped and continue as we look at God's Word.
But then at some point in time, maybe a little bit longer than some of us are anticipating
because I could kind of get going and going and going and going, right?
But I promise you, if this is your first time here, we will leave and we will go.
And that's the call.
And it's not just that we go from here, but you are called to go.
The Great Commission says literally that the word go is as you go.
So in every aspect, in every moment, in every relationship of where God has placed you is
an opportunity where He is leveraging you for the gospel.
And so it's not just missionaries and pastors and elders and ministers that go, but it's you.
And it's you and it's you and it's you.
That when we are in Christ, when we've been saved by Him, when we have the beautiful privilege
of partaking in the saving grace of Jesus Christ, that you and I get a mission.
And this is our calling, all of us.
It's our calling to go.
So it's not just about being discipled, right?
That's our ministry.
But it's our calling to go and make disciples.
And we believe that this is who we are, that this is what we're about.
We are one family, one ministry, one calling, and that's who we are.
But we also have to look at our mission of what we do.
And this kind of fleshes out.
Our mission statement is this.
We are engaging, equipping, and sending people to make known the truth of the gospel.
Of what this is building and what all of this from the vision has poured into.
And this is what God's called us to do.
And so what we want to do here in this congregation, what we want to do here in this moment, in this experience,
is set an example for what God has called our lives to.
So that we take on the things that are happening here and we take them to our homes.
We take them to our work.
We take them to where we play.
And in every aspect of where God has sent us, as He's mobilized every single one of us as missionaries.
And so it's our mission, engaging, equipping, and sending people to make known the truth of the gospel.
And so we want to be engaging here.
And it's the point of Coffee Talk.
It's the point of that group of people that were standing out there in the blazing hot sun the entire time,
kind of welcome you as you're coming in.
And they're dripping sweat and having to change shirts.
I know some of them, like, brings their backup shirt each Sunday morning in case it gets too sweaty out there.
Because we want to be engaging.
It's what Coffee Talk is about.
What one serves.
It's about what's welcoming.
It's our hope for you as our first-time guests that we want to engage you and say,
You know what?
Here's the thing.
We want you to be a part of this family.
We want you to feel welcome.
We want you to feel a part.
I'll never forget.
It was like the first time that I went out on a date with, I didn't know she'd be my wife,
but I'd seen her and I'd hoped that she'd be my wife.
And I went to Erin's house and I met her mom and her mom met me with a big old smile on her face and her hug.
And immediately within that moment I felt like I was family because I was engaged in that.
I was brought in.
And so we want to be engaging, but we also want to be about equipping.
Equipping in all that we do so that it's not just about what we do here.
It's not just about being fed, but it's about learning to feed yourself.
To sow the hope of what we have here.
We don't want it to be where we are dependent on the pastor, that we are dependent on the elders,
that we are dependent on the ministers, that we are dependent on the leaders,
but that in the attempt to feed is so that you and I can grow and learn together
and learn to feed ourselves so that when we learn how to feed ourselves,
then we can feed others as well.
Right?
So I feed so that I can feed you so that you can feed yourself so that you can feed others.
And then the mission, the last part is we're sending so that we leave and that we will go.
And we will go.
And we will go.
So we gather together in our home and we grow together so that when it's time that God calls us and we leave.
Now what we're going to do over the next four weeks is we're going to look at Ephesians chapter 4.
We're going to look at the first six verses this morning,
but then we're going to continue to build on that throughout the next three weeks after this.
And what we're going to do is we're going to look at what Paul's called them to do
and what God's called them to be.
And what we're going to notice that within here is the scripture transcends time, culture, language,
socioeconomic, and everything else.
That in this example of the church that begins with the unity of the body of Christ,
of what this will look like, is that this is the calling.
And you and I, what we want to do through this is we want to examine who we are corporately together.
But I want to be honest with you, like take the step back also this morning
and have this examine and lay against your life as who you are as an individual.
Who you are in your walk with Christ.
What we do here, what we're about here, where you are here,
should be a reflection, an example of who you are everywhere else.
That this should not be the different you because you are here.
This should be the reflection of who you are here and who you are there
because it's who Christ has you to be, who he's called you, who he's transforming you to be.
And so let's jump in and we'll go through these first six verses, I promise, relatively quickly.
Starting in verse one, Paul writes and he says,
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling
to which you have been called.
With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,
eager to maintain the unity of the spirit and the body of peace.
There is one body and one spirit just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call.
One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.
And so this is what Paul writes to the church at Ephesus.
And so what we want to see first is individually what Paul addresses to the individuals
and to the corporate gathering is the calling.
Our calling as individuals, our calling as a corporate body of believers.
Paul says this, walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.
Now there's a lot of calls within there.
So what exactly is Paul saying?
And he's saying this, you and I are responsible for reflecting the Savior that has saved us.
That you and I, that Jesus has saved you.
Jesus has saved me if he has saved you.
And so now live your life authentically as if you are saved.
If you've been saved, live like it.
And so his words that he uses is walk in a manner worthy of the calling.
So what Paul's saying is it's not about the physical way that you walk, but it's about being on this path that says when people see you,
when they see who you are, when they see what you embody, that it reflects Christ.
One of the most godly men that God's ever given me the privilege of knowing is my grandfather.
And I'll never forget, I spent a lot of time at my grandparents' house.
And oftentimes when I would leave my granddad's house, he would look at me, I was heading out the door,
and he'd say, when you leave here, represent us well.
What he meant was, you're a reflection of me, don't mess it up, right?
Paul's saying this, if Christ has saved you, if you've experienced the saving grace of Jesus Christ,
if you've experienced what Jesus has done for you on the cross,
if you're being transformed in your very being,
you are no longer the person who you were, you are new in him.
The old has gone, the new has come, the dead man, the old man is there,
and there's new life here, live like it.
And so in our life, what we're called to do, what we're called to be,
our calling is to pursue something, and is to pursue holiness.
I think so often where you and I fall into a lie that's been masked under the guise of Christianity
is the understanding that we aren't to pursue holiness,
because holiness in and of ourselves is not obtainable.
And I'll admit, like, I can't achieve my own holiness.
In fact, it's imparted to me through the work of Christ,
but in that, in what God's called me to be,
in what God's called me to do, I'm to pursue it.
So I'm not to pursue the things of this world,
I'm to pursue the things of God,
and I'm to chase after that, I'm to keep my eyes focused on him.
So that's what it needs to be.
So as I walk in a manner worthy of the calling that you have,
there's pursuits that I need to go on,
and that pursuit is holiness.
And that as I do this, what I know in the process that's happening is I'm being sanctified.
I'm being sanctified.
So there are people who teach that once you are saved,
that you are free from, meaning you will never sin again.
Well, there's only a problem with that.
The Bible doesn't preach that, right?
And here's what the Bible says,
that in this, in our pursuit as God saved us,
that what he is doing is he is sanctifying us,
that he is working through us,
that he's taken those actions and those attitudes and those thoughts
and those words that were sinful and apart from him,
and as we're growing and as we're maturing,
he's removing and removing and removing more and more of those.
And so this life that we're on, this journey that we're on,
is the process of sanctification,
that every single day as we walk and pursue after him,
we become more and more like Christ.
My son Grayson came with me to church this morning,
and we were riding, and we got in the car together,
and I said,
Hey, buddy, what did you eat for breakfast this morning?
And he said, I didn't eat anything.
I said, you didn't eat anything?
It's 7 o'clock in the morning.
He's been up for an hour, right?
Why didn't you eat anything?
And he looked at me and he said,
Because you're taking me to Bojangles, right?
And I said, well, I mean, I am now,
but hey, next time, get a bowl of Cocoa Pebbles, right?
And then I thought, but that's what I would have done, right?
More and more looking like his father.
And that's not always good in that instance, right?
But you and I should have this time and part within our life where we're realizing that there's the more and more as we walk and go about our journey that we're looking more and more like our heavenly father.
And that's our calling.
And that's our pursuit.
But here's where it gets sticky, all right?
We're called together.
We're called together, all right?
Paul's word says,
With one another in love.
Now, I'll tell you this.
This is the hardest thing for us to do.
This is so hard.
You know, it's not that you and I are just responsible to work ourselves down this path, but you and I are responsible to work each other together as we go through this.
Now, I was thinking about this the other day.
It is very easy for me to do something that I know how to do.
I know that's a profound statement, right?
It's easy for me to do something that I know how to do.
But sometimes it is very difficult for me to teach you something that you don't know how to do,
even though I know how to do it.
And when we look at this life, that's what God has called us to be.
That we are called together, one another.
It's not about independence.
It's not about what we're to do alone.
But it's who God has called us to be and what God has called us to do together.
And it's what he models for us.
When you were saved, what God did, the most gracious thing that he could do in your life and in your sanctification,
is he gives you his spirit.
The Holy Spirit comes and dwells in us.
The Holy Spirit of God lives in every man, woman, and child who is a believer.
Because God says we're not made to do this alone.
So the Holy Spirit comes and resides in us.
So from the very beginning, in and of everything that we're going to do,
it should be imprinted into our hearts that we can't do it alone.
We're so incapable of doing it alone that God sends his spirit.
And that is only through his power, it is only through his leading that you and I can even do anything that glorifies God.
But then also God gives us each other.
Like you and I are blessings for each other.
You and I are examples of God's grace and God's kindness for one another.
God has given you each other.
God has given you to me.
God has given me to you for our betterment, for our holiness, and for our sanctification.
So in every step and every process of what you are, every hiccup that you've had, every victory that you felt,
every defeat that you've experienced, in all of those things,
God has given us one another to come alongside one another so that we can do this together.
Your walk with God was never intended to be alone, isolated, and in your own power.
Our walk with God was always designed to be in community, and the power of the Spirit,
and please church, hear me with this, not depending on one another, but leaning into one another.
Your walk and my walk with the Lord and our relationship with him cannot be dependent on one another
because we will fail, and if it's dependent on me or dependent on you, then it'll fall apart.
It's dependent on God, but what God gives us the beautiful picture of being able to do
is be able to lean in and press in and come alongside and grow and strengthen and encourage and teach
and even in some areas rebuke because it's who he's called us to be.
And that when God does what God's doing in this, there's a purpose and there's a reason behind what he does.
It may seem like silly on a Sunday night to gather in here and to play games on a Sunday night at the end of the month,
but there's a reason behind it.
There's a reason why it was so important for a team of individuals to come here this morning
and to get coffee and to get orange juice and to stand there and to serve you.
There's a reason for it.
And there's a reason why God gives us each other and calls us in this,
and it's what we want to make sure that we focus on,
and it's for unity of the Spirit.
For unity of the Spirit, Paul says eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Now, for you and I to understand this, that our life, we talked about this last week,
our life is a reflection of God, that you are here on this planet to bring God and give God glory.
That's it.
That's it.
That's my call.
That's your call.
That's my kid's call.
That's my wife's call.
That's every person who's on this planet.
God puts them here to give him glory.
And so as he calls us to do things, as he calls us to be something,
it is in that that we would reflect and give him glory.
So your relationship with mine, my relationship with you,
and your relationship with each other is for a purpose and for a reason,
for the unity of the Spirit to show the world what the gospel means and what the gospel looks like.
And so in order to maintain the unity of the Spirit, it's for you and I to embrace and understand the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Not that it just saves us, but it then calls us to live our life.
Because what it means is that you and I, that we understand through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ,
that we obtain something.
That something is given to us, something that was not there before, and what that is, is peace.
The Bible tells us that when you and I, when we were lost in our sin and our trespasses,
there was a wall that was put between us and God.
There was a barrier that was there, and it was our sin.
And it was through the sacrifice of Christ that that wall has been completely destroyed for those who are found in him,
for those whom he has saved, that that wall is broken.
And now the hostility and the war that was there, guess what we have between us and God?
We have unity and we have peace.
And that's what we gain.
We are no longer enemies of God, but we are sons and daughters.
There's no longer strife between us, but there's unity and peace and hope.
Now as we go and make disciples, we're called to reflect that in the world.
And God's word says that as that's been established, Paul says we are to maintain it.
That you and I and how we treat, how we interact, how we talk about, how we live amongst each other
is to be done in the spirit of maintaining the unity of the spirit.
Because as the world sees us is how the world sees God.
Jesus in John chapter 13, it's verse 35 if you want to make a note.
Jesus says this,
They will know that you are my disciples by your love for one another.
Love that.
Jesus doesn't say they'll know you're my disciples by how many classes you've taken.
How many books of the Bible that you've read.
How many verses that you've memorized.
How many mission trips that you've gone on.
By how much knowledge that you've obtained.
Jesus says, no, no, no, what they're going to know that you are my disciples by your love
for one another.
So think about that.
How we love each other is how Jesus says, this is what marks, this is what shows, this
is what lets everyone know that you are my disciples.
And so many times we think it's about the words that I can say, the things that I know,
the arguments that I can have, the points that I can prove.
And Jesus says, no, no, no, no, it's about how you love one another.
That's what it's going to look like.
And that's what it's going to be.
And so I want to conclude in this last point, and we're going to go into time of worship.
What does that look like?
What does it mean to love each other in that way?
What does it look like tangibly to say, I'm going to maintain the spirit of unity.
This is who that I'm going to be in my life.
Well, Paul gives us four words that we need to embrace.
He says, with all humility and gentleness, with patience and forbearance with one another in love.
And so in closing, I want to define these four words for us.
And the band's going to come up.
We're going to have some more time in worship.
I want to close in this.
If we're going to be one in Christ, if we're going to work toward and maintain the spirit that God has
called us to of unity, that we have to be a people marked with humility.
Humility.
Now, our world defines words differently sometimes than the way God defines them.
You know, I think it's kind of funny sometimes when people say, well, I'm looking at the Bible,
and so I jump to the dictionary to see.
And what we're doing is we're making sure that the world has defined something that God is choosing to define.
So I want to make sure that we see these words and understand what they mean according to God's word.
And to be humble, the humility that we are seeing is servanthood.
Servanthood.
Jesus humbled himself by coming and serving.
That's what it means to be humble.
That's what the humility that God is pointing us to,
that you and I are not looking about or thinking about ourselves,
but we're looking at our brothers and sisters and saying, how can we come along?
How can we serve?
How can we love?
How can we care?
Without looking forward and return.
Right?
Like, this isn't an I owe you kind of thing.
Or this isn't even better, a you owe me kind of thing.
That our servant minded is when we don't get anything in return, but how can we love you?
So I want to ask you this question.
Who are you serving?
Who are you serving?
Who are you looking at in relationship within the context?
Who are you serving with all humility?
But then also, gentleness.
Gentleness.
Now, I love this definition.
Gentleness in this context is defined by restraint or controlled strength.
Right?
Not what I could do, but what I'm going to do.
That's gentleness.
So that when you and I, in the context of our relationship, as we enter at, because we are still people who struggle with sin,
that as we engage with one another, I don't know if you know about this, but sometimes there's conflict in churches, right?
Like, we have that.
But the response to it, the response to you and I in this moment is gentleness, is restraint,
is holding back from what our flesh is wanting us to do and what God is calling us to do.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
Just step back.
Just hold back.
Just let there be gentleness.
Let there be restraint.
Let there be controlled strength in the moment.
And then I love this.
With patience.
With patience.
And when we look at this patience, what patience means is a reluctance to avenge wrongs.
Right?
So you wrong me.
Oftentimes, it's my response then.
What you've done to me, watch now what I'm going to do to you.
Watch how I'm going to take care of this and handle this.
That I do this to you so that you may never do this again.
But patience within the context of the body is the reluctance to say,
No, no, no, no, no, no.
You're on your journey.
You're on this.
And it's not my goal to avenge wrongs.
But it's my goal to help you see who Christ has called you to be.
That's discipleship.
That's sanctification.
That's working through.
That's understanding that as I've been wronged, it pales into comparison to how much I've wronged God in my life.
And then the last, with forbearance, or the ESV says bearing with one another in love.
And I love the definition of the commentator that I read about this.
And he described forbearance.
Forbearance is a love, but specifically a love that holds others up.
And that's what we're called to do in the church.
That that's who we're called to be.
That there's going to become points and times in our life where we can't stand any longer.
There's going to become points and times in our life where our weakness begins to overtake us and overcome us.
There's going to be points and times in this journey from where we are to where we will be in eternity that we experience falls and failures.
That we experience shortcomings and we begin to experience where sin is beginning to win and to battle within there.
And that what forbearance calls us to the type of love is not to kick someone while they're down, but to pick them up.
And to hold them up and to carry them so that they can be renewed and strengthened in Christ.
And that's what it means to be one.
And that's what it means to see unity within the body.
I'll tell you today, it's fantastic.
Hearing what we heard as you lifted up your voices.
Seeing what we saw as we saw families interacting that had not seen each other in a while.
Seeing new people connect with one another and exchange names and begin to learn and begin to hear people's story was all beautiful.
But if we walk out and that was just a moment, and if this isn't who we are, one family, one ministry, one calling,
then we've just completely missed who God's called us to be.
Would you pray with me?
Lord, we thank you so much for this opportunity that we could have to be here.
Lord, I just thank you for this time.
Jesus, where you've brought us together in the midst of all the craziness that is existing right now.
One people, one family.
Lord, we celebrate you and we thank you of who you've called us to be, Lord, and what you've called us to do.
Lord, I pray that in our life that we would walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.
Lord, I pray that we would embrace that, Lord, that this is the life, this is the path that you've set us down.
This is who you've called us to be.
And, Lord, that we would embrace that.
Lord, I pray that we would not just give lip service, that this is where we attend church.
But, Lord, that this would be where we have family.
Family that live in different neighborhoods, in different cities, with different backgrounds, with different stories.
Family who we struggle with.
Family who we celebrate with.
Family who we're reminded of our hope in Christ with.
Lord, may your words that you gave Paul in Romans 12 ring true in our life.
May we rejoice with those who rejoice.
Weep with those who weep.
Live in harmony with one another.
Jesus, we thank you for the peace that you brought us.
The unity of the Spirit.
Lord, that our sin has kept us separated.
Through your work on the cross.
Through your death, burial, and resurrection.
We find life.
I'm going to ask if, just for a moment, guys.
Just with every head bowed, every eye closed.
Kevin, if you could bring up the house lights just a little bit.
No one looking around.
This life that I'm talking about is not found because we've taken a church class.
It's found because Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior.
And so, I want to make sure that we're careful on something today.
That this life that God has for you and that God has for me is not found because we agree and align ourselves with a pastor or with a church.
It's because we are found in Christ and in Christ alone.
And all of this is because he loved you and I enough that he paid the price for your sins on Calvary.
That he gave up his life so that you may have life and that you may have hope and that it may be eternal set for you.
And so, this morning, with every head bowed and every eye closed, I want to ask one question.
Is today the day that God is calling you to your salvation?
Is today the day that Jesus Christ becomes your Lord and Savior?
If that's you and that's you today and that's where you are, just, I want to get, no one else is looking.
The band's not looking.
People upstairs aren't looking.
No one's looking.
It's just me and you and the Lord.
And I want to ask, if that's you, would you just look up here at me?
Lord, I pray that today, as my brother just indicated,
that today would be the day that, Lord, that he would be found in you.
The day would be the day that Jesus, that you would save him as he repents of his sins,
as he understands the work of what you have for him, Lord,
and that his new life and his new hope is found in you and in you alone.
And today we celebrate that there's one person that moved from death to life.
And it's your name we pray.
Amen.
In just a minute, we're going to stand and we're going to respond and worship.
Something that we've been able to do today, that we haven't been able to do in a while,
is we've got prayer encouragers.
If y'all raise your hands where you guys are.
We've got prayer encouragers on either side of the auditorium.
And I'll be down front.
I'll be right here.
And maybe today you need somebody to pray with you.
Maybe today you gave your life to Christ.
You feel like God's calling you and you've been saved and you want somebody to pray with.
We want to pray with you.
We want to talk to you.
As the band plays, I want to encourage you to respond.
There's places where they can go and pray with you and they would love to do that.
There's places where I can go and pray with you and I would love to do that.
We just want you to respond how God's leading you.
But as we're going to go into a little bit of an extended time of worship this morning,
maybe it's just a time between you and the Lord to celebrate Him for all that He's done.
Don't respond to me.
Don't respond to the band.
Just respond to Him as we worship Him.
You stand as we worship Him.
Thanks again for listening to the Willow Ridge Church weekly podcast.
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