The Lord be with you. Thank you very much. It's a gift to be with you this morning. Tulip time has happened, is happening. Anyone see the drone show last night? I did not. Heard it was pretty cool though. Students across the street graduating, turning their tassels to the side, off into whatever else God has in mind for them. And it's Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day. So I've got all kinds of mom memories looping the track of my mind this week. When I was in fifth grade, Mrs. Johnson's class. School was Lakeview Elementary, which is no longer there. It's on the corner of 32nd and Luger's, I think it was. Does that sound right? It was a corner classroom, so there were windows on each side open to the rest of the world, which was perfect for daydreaming. One day, I'll call it a Tuesday, she, Mrs. Johnson, sent us down to a music class, Mr. Wiltsey's music class. So we all got single file and we traipsed down the hall and we went into Mr. Wiltsey's music class, and the protocol was you'd stand in front of your chair and wait for Mr. Wiltsey to give the command, and then we would all sit down. And I had the brilliant idea that day of pulling the chair out from underneath Carrie Coop, who was standing right in front of me. So Mr. Wiltzy gave the command. I removed the chair. She hit the floor. Mr. Wiltsey pointed like that. I got to walk by myself this time down the hall to Mrs. Dangerman's office. She was the principal. I was a pretty good kid, so she didn't really know what to do with me, so she just pointed and sent me back to Mrs. Johnson's, the original classroom, the one on the corner with all the windows. So I'm sitting in Mrs. Johnson's class all by myself when my mom walks the dog past the classroom. And she sees me sitting there all by myself and she's waving so excitedly and so proud of me. And I'm thinking to myself, how am I going to explain this when I get home? So when I got home, I've got a it wasn't as bad as you think, Mom. I get home and my mom says, Johnny, what did all of the other kids do to get kicked out of class? Happy Mother's Day. Isn't it great? She would read to me a poem by Rudyard Kipling. Do you know this name? Rudyard Kipling, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1907. The poem was titled If, it's kind of one of his more famous poems. If you keep your head when all about you others are losing theirs, if you trust yourself when others doubt you, and make allowance for their doubting too. If you wait and don't grow tired of waiting, if you don't lie while others are dealing in lies and don't hate when others hate you, if you think, if you dream, if you meet triumph and disaster and treat those impostors just the same, it goes on, all of these ifs. Do you know the poem? And then it ends. Everything is yours. And what's more, you'll be a man, my son. So my mom would offer me this poem, if. And so, like throughout my childhood, all she really had to do was say, The end, you'll be a man, my son. And all and the rest, all the ifs came with it, you know. So I grew up with Rudyard Kipling in the sort of ether of my mind. So I kind of, well, there's a Rudyard Kipling story, I'll tell you if there's time before the morning is over. But for now, it's tulip time, it's graduation day, it's Mother's Day, and it's the sixth Sunday in the season of Eastertide. We've been walking the corridors of Ephesians during Easter Tide. Listen to this. Now to him who, by the power at work within us, is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine. To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to live your lives in a manner worthy of the calling to which you were called. With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. There's one body and one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. He gave to each of us grace according to the measure of Christ's gifts. Therefore, it says, when he ascended on high, he made captivity itself captive. He gave gifts to his people. Now, when it says that he ascended, what does it mean but that he also descended into the lower parts of the earth? And the one who descended is the same one who ascended far above all heaven, so that he might fill all things, the gifts that he gave. Or that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and to the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. We are no longer children tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, by people's trickery, by their craftiness and deceitful scheming. But growing up into all things, into the head, who is Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body's growth, building itself up in love. Now I affirm and insist on in the Lord that you do not live as the Gentiles live in the futility of their minds. They're darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness and heart. They've lost all sensitivity and have abandoned themselves to impurity, to licentiousness, greedy to practice all kinds of impurity. That's not the way you learned Christ. For surely you've heard about him and have been taught in him as truth is in Jesus. You were taught to put away the old way of life, the former self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds. To clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God and true righteousness and holiness, so then put away falsehood. And speak truth to your neighbor, because we're members of one another. Be angry, but don't sin. And don't let the sun go down on your anger. Do not make room for the devil. Those who steal, put away stealing. But rather rather labor. With good work, with your hands so as to share with To share with the needy. Let no evil talk come out of your mouths. But only what is good. As is needed. Let your words be full of grace. To all who hear. Put away bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and malice, together with all slander, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other as God has forgiven you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us a fragrant offering and sacrifice to the Lord. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. It's Ephesians 4. I double-dipped a little into the last couple verses of Ephesians 3 and the first verse of Ephesians 5. Is that okay? Last week I only preached Ephesians 3, 20 and 21, 2 verses, not to him who by the power at work within us. And after the service, I was standing out on the lawn. I was chatting with somebody. I could feel a presence, you know, waiting for me, you know, you know, that feeling. Young man, so after the one conversation was over, I started talking to the young man. We started talking about the sermon. I was like, well, what'd you think? And he was like, it was okay. I said, if you had to grade it, how would you grade it? He'd say, it's probably a B. I was like, well, what would make it an A? And he said, more scripture. So here you go. That's Ephesians 4 for you. It starts like this, chapter 4. I therefore. Like you can't really start a sentence like that, you know? Unless you're connecting it to what preceded it. I, therefore. The therefore connecting is not just chapter 3, not to him who by the power worked within us, but the whole of 1, 2, and 3. It's the hinge. The therefore is the hinge on which one, two, and three swing into four, five, and six. Four, five, and six, you know, four at least. That's what we considered this morning. Four of the stuff on unity, the stuff on gifts, the stuff on righteousness and holiness, put away bitterness and wrath and anger and uh the other W I'm forgetting now, and slander and malice and be imitated, all the all the stuff swings on what precedes is dependent on and is preceded by one, two, and three. Are you hanging with me? And one, two, and three extol the goodness and the glory and the beauty and the grace and the kindness and the mercy of God revealed in Jesus Christ. You don't get four, five, and six without one, two, and three. That's just math. You know? All of the stuff, the commands and the demands and the insistence on how we live, as it shows up in chapter four and five and six, depends on who God is. God's grace, God's mercy, God's goodness. If we reduce Christianity to an ethic, what you do, or even a dogma, what you believe, or an experience, how you feel, you will wake up one day wondering, how in the world did I get here? The invitation on all of our lives is to root it deep into the heart of God who loves us and gave himself for us. That's what Paul says. I like the way Brendan Manning puts it in a book titled All Is Grace. All that is not the love of God has no meaning for me. I can truthfully say that I have no interest in anything but the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. If God wants it to, my life will be useful through my word and witness. If he wants it to, my life will bear fruit through my prayers and sacrifices. But the usefulness of my life is his concern, not mine. It would be indecent of me to worry about that. I, therefore, the prisoner in the Lord. It all, it all rooted. The Bible begins with God, in the beginning, God, and it ends with God. Come, Lord Jesus, and everything in between depends on God. We, we, all of our little fingers in the holes of the ship we're sailing in amidst the storms of our lives are going down. They're going down, man. They're just going down, if not God, who loves us and gave himself for us. And I would have expected, at least on Mother's Day, you would say, Amen. Four, five, and six, depend on one, two, and three. One, two, and three, it's by grace you've been saved. One, two, and three, the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness towards those who believe. One, two, and three, the inheritance of grace. One, two, and three, the goodness, the grace, the glory, the beauty, the kindness, the mercy of God, therefore, unity. Righteousness, holiness. If you were to grade this sermon right now, you would say it's uh okay, I'll keep going. I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to live a life in the manner worthy of the I beg you. I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, he's rooting, this is very interesting. He's rooting the demands and the commands and the insistence on how we live in his status as prisoner. What's up with that? Who starts by saying, Because I'm an utter failure, I require of you, which is not what Paul is, but you get the idea. I therefore, the prisoner. It's like when the judge marries two people and he the judge says, By the power vested in me by the state of Michigan, I declare your husband. He's rooting his authority to make these claims on our lives in his status as prisoner in the Lord. Isn't that odd? Which could be one of those inverted upside-down gospel things that we're always talking about, you know. Blessed are the meek. If you want to save your life, you better lose it. Power is made perfect in weakness, it's that upside down thing. And at the same time, I think the Apostle Paul is rooting it not just in his status, the upside down stuff, but in his location. I, therefore, the prisoner in the Lord. It isn't about professor or student, employer or employee, wealthy or poor, smart or not that smart, PhD or high school dropout. What it's your location that matters in the Lord. It's union with Christ that matters. Do you know the name Todd Billings? He's one of those really smart guys that walks around Holland, uh, teaches over at the seminary, wrote a book titled Union with Christ. God's gracious loving call is, in fact, a threat to our autonomy. Doubt he'd mind if I added status. God's gracious loving call is, in fact, a threat to our autonomy, our deep and pervasive strategies to keep hold of our lives rather than losing them for the sake of Jesus Christ. I, therefore, the prisoner in the Lord. If you know where you are, think about where you can go. You know? If you know where you are, think about what you can do. If you know where you are, in the Lord. So there's 815 college students walking off the stage this afternoon at Hope College, largest graduating class in the history of Hope College. Uh amazing stuff. I mean, I cannot tell you how much food we have provided for those seniors at Hope College. It is staggering. The amount of coffee Joel Borsma has poured for the seniors at Hope College. It is, it'll blow your mind. And we're great. It's a bittersweet day, you know, because like this is kind of what you were supposed to do when you went to, you're supposed to graduate. And like, but we don't want you to leave. It's this sort of bittersweet thing that happens. Uh Pete Sturzma, he's the football coach at Hope College, was asked to give the commencement address. I mean, I don't know what you're doing this afternoon, but you should go. He you will be pumped up for the rest of your life. Pete Sturzma is like the energizer bunny. Uh they did not ask me to give the commencement address, but I made one up anyway. Uh to all of those seniors, uh, well, how and all of you, uh, wherever you are, this is my commencement speech. Wherever you are, remember where you are. Oh, is that a good one? Whatever you do, remember where you are. Whatever you say, remember where you are. Wherever you go, remember where you are. Whomever you're with, remember where you are. Are you with me? I therefore the prisoner in the Lord. Uh Louis Mead's Union with Christ is at once the center and circumference of authentic human existence. I, therefore, a prisoner in the Lord. Sinclair Ferguson, Scottish theologian, union with Christ is rooted not in humanity and their achievement of holiness or sanctification, but in what God has done in Christ and for us in union with Him. Rather than view Christians first and foremost in the microcosmic context of their own progress, the Reformed doctrine, first of all, sets them in the macrocosm of God's activity in redemptive history. It's seeing oneself in this context that enables the individual Christian to grow in true holiness. In the Lord is the point. Wherever you are, whatever you do, whatever you say, in the Lord. That's who you are, that's where you are. If you were to grade this sermon right now, are we ascending? Are we descending? I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to live your life in a manner worthy of the calling to which you were called with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love. And then chapter 4 goes on with all the things that goes on. One Lord, one faith, one baptism. Make every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. Put away the former self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts. Don't let evil talk come out of your mouth. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgive each other, put away bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and malice, together with all of the stuff that fills four and then gives way to five, you know, the household codes. Long list of, I'm not going to take any of it away, we've got to contend with it. But I want you to notice the virtues that precede it. Humility. Gentleness. Patience. Love. It's not just what you do that matters. It's how you do it. Humility. Gentleness. Patience. Love. Organizations like to talk about policies and procedures. You know, of course they do. Don't miss postures, you know? How you hold yourself is not insignificant in accomplishing what you're up to. Humility, gentleness, patience, love. So before you shoot off the email, you know, is it humble? Is it gentle? Is it patient? Is it love? Before you hop online onto the social media networks, you know, Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook. And all the other ones, you know, and and you and you you enter the fray. Is it humble? Is it gentle? Is it patient? Is it love? Before you start talking about your neighbor with the other neighbor, because for all the reasons you talk, is it humble? Is it gentle? Is it patient? Is it love? Do you see what I'm doing? It's not just what you do. John Mark Homer in a book titled Practicing the Way. Love is the acid test of spiritual formation. Humble, gentle, patient love. Alan Levi in a book titled Theo of Golden, I don't think anything is actually good if love is not in it. Humble, gentle, patient love. It's Mother's Day. You got stuff going on, I'm sure. So I'll keep this tight. I've only got 45 more minutes or so. My mom uh would recite to me uh if by Rudyard Kipling. So that you know, at some point in my childhood, all she had to do was say, Then you'll be a man, my son. So Roger Kipling's kind of a like in the circling my mind uh throughout my life. Uh won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1907, big deal, I guess. Uh uh his he had a son, John, uh, who wanted to fight in World War I with the British Army, but he he his eyesight wasn't that great, so he didn't he didn't make it, he didn't pass. So Kipling called some of his friends and got his boy into the army. Do you know the story? Uh 1915, uh John Kipling is fighting for the British in World War I, is shot and killed. Uh Rudyard Kipling, I mean, it's just devastating news, the combination of grief and guilt, you can imagine, you know. Uh one of uh John's uh military companions who was in the war with him was reading one of Kipling's books during the battle, and he would keep it in his chest pocket. Uh and he got hit by a bullet in his chest in the book. And the bullet lodged in the book. So when he got back, when he after the war, he tracked down Rudyard Kipling and gave him the book with the bullet lodged in it that saved his life. Isn't that wild? Uh Kipling, you know, 1930s, he's he's growing old, his his writing uh slows down a fair amount. Some publication erroneously announced his death, but he hadn't died. So he responded to the publication in writing. I've read that I am dead. Don't forget to delete me from your list of subscribers. I thought that was hilarious. I've read that I'm dead. Don't forget to delete me from your list of subscribers. And at some point I stopped laughing and I thought, maybe that's a good way to go. Like I'm I'm dead. You know, that's how Paul puts it in a different place. It's no longer I who live, but you know, I'm I'm dead, so please delete me from your list of subscribers, all the things that subscribe us into their way, their way, you know, the cultural way of animosity and anger, and you know, just delete me from your list of subscribers, all these systems of honor, shame, where some are good and others are just bad. Just delete me, delete me from your list of subscribers, all the voices telling me who I am and who I'm just delete me, delete me from your list of subscribers, delete me from the old way of life, the former self, so that I can clothe myself in the new self, created in the likeness of God for true righteousness and holy. Just delete me from it all. Humility, gentleness, patience, love, humility, gentleness, patience, love. Amen. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.