SPEAKER_00: Well, good morning.
SPEAKER_00: Happy Super Bowl Sunday to you.
SPEAKER_00: I was hey, you can tell the true football fans by the ones who cheer and applaud when you talk about that.
SPEAKER_00: Um I actually have to brag on Pastor Hunter this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And it's funny, Jack, he was talking about he accidentally said my name, but Hunter's the one who visits people in the hospital and and ministers to Jack and does all the good stuff, you know.
SPEAKER_00: Um but I was uh I was in preparation for this message, and Thursday night I worked on it, and I'll be honest with you, I woke up and I had nothing.
SPEAKER_00: And Friday, Hunter calls me.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Hey, what are you gonna preach about this Sunday?
SPEAKER_00: And I said, I have no idea.
SPEAKER_00: He goes, Well, you know, I was thinking you should talk about the Super Bowl.
SPEAKER_00: And then he just lays out my whole sermon for me pretty much.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and I go, wow, that was awesome.
SPEAKER_00: So if uh if you're going, how did he come up with this?
SPEAKER_00: It's good to have good friends who are led by the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: But um yeah, happy Super Bowl Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: You know, uh, we've had a great time with Hunter over the past two months.
SPEAKER_00: My wife, every time we hang out with him, she walks up and she says, Hey, she says, Have they chosen who's going to the Super Bowl yet?
SPEAKER_00: And Hunter responds with, they don't choose.
SPEAKER_00: And it makes his eye twitch.
SPEAKER_00: It's fun to hang out with real football people when your wife is not a real football person because when she does that, they all do that.
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's fun, but if we're honest, they don't choose who goes to the Super Bowl, right?
SPEAKER_00: There's there's a lot of prep and there's a lot of work that goes into who goes to the Super Bowl.
SPEAKER_00: People wake up and every day, not just during the season, but every day they wake up and they go, I'm gonna work towards a Super Bowl this year.
SPEAKER_00: And they have to put in all this work and all these, um, they do all this lifting and all this conditioning, and and then they they they look at all of their plays, they do all of these things to get there.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're here this morning, we're gonna talk a little bit about that today in the Christian life too, because Jesus says in Mark 8:34 to take up your cross daily.
SPEAKER_00: You see, the Christian life isn't a thing that happens on Sundays and Wednesdays, it's not a thing that happens when you go to small groups, it's a thing that happens every day of your life.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus admonishes us to take up our cross daily.
SPEAKER_00: And in the passage we're gonna study today, the apostle Paul does the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: We are gonna be studying Ephesians chapter 4, verses 1 through 16.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're going, that sounds familiar, it's because Chris preached the last half of that chapter last week.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we're gonna be in Ephesians chapter 4, 1 through 16, but I need to ask you a question.
SPEAKER_00: Why would you listen to this message?
SPEAKER_00: If you're sitting out there and you're going, what am I gonna get today?
SPEAKER_00: Well, number one, if you've ever wondered what the goal of the Christian life is, the win, so to speak, this message is for you.
SPEAKER_00: If you've ever wondered how the Bible defines Christian maturity or what traits the mature Christian has, then this message is for you.
SPEAKER_00: This message is important because if you don't have a target to aim for, you'll either hit nothing, or even worse, you'll hit the wrong thing.
SPEAKER_00: And both of those can be detrimental to your faith and the faith of others around you.
SPEAKER_00: And so today, if you are here, I implore you, lock in because it's gonna be a good message.
SPEAKER_00: Would you stand to your feet this morning in honor of the reading of the word?
SPEAKER_00: We are in Ephesians chapter 4, starting in verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: And it says this it 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.
SPEAKER_00: With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace.
SPEAKER_00: There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call.
SPEAKER_00: One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
SPEAKER_00: But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore it says, when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.
SPEAKER_00: In saying he ascended, what does it mean?
SPEAKER_00: But that he had also descended into the lower regions of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.
SPEAKER_00: And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Father, thank you for your word.
SPEAKER_00: May it do in us that which you want to do.
SPEAKER_00: Would it change us forever and more in Jesus' name?
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You may be seen.
SPEAKER_00: So this passage it starts out, 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.
SPEAKER_00: That term calling is one of those things that, at least when I was younger, it was something that was kind of spoken of like this magical thing, right?
SPEAKER_00: The calling, right?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, you're a Christian now.
SPEAKER_00: What's your calling?
SPEAKER_00: Are you called to be a pastor?
SPEAKER_00: Are you called to be an evangelist?
SPEAKER_00: Are you called to what's your calling?
SPEAKER_00: But here's the thing about calling that the Bible tells us this morning the Christian life is a calling.
SPEAKER_00: The Christian life isn't something that, again, we do on Sundays, but rather the calling is something that we do for God every day.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love.
SPEAKER_00: See, if if you take the football analogy just a little bit further, our Christian life is calling.
SPEAKER_00: But with that calling, there comes certain fundamentals.
SPEAKER_00: When you hang out with football people, particularly football people who coach, what you hear over and over and over again, Jerry, is that the fundamentals are off.
SPEAKER_00: I've heard that so many times.
SPEAKER_00: They just arm tackle.
SPEAKER_00: I can't tell you how many times I've watched the game of Jerry, and he's yelled that at the TV.
SPEAKER_00: He talks about the fundamentals and the Christian life, though it is a calling, has certain fundamentals that we must practice.
SPEAKER_00: Certain fundamentals that if we'll do more and more, we'll be more and more like Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And so, what does Paul say about some of those fundamentals?
SPEAKER_00: He's going to give us some.
SPEAKER_00: Again, he says that we have been called with all humility, gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace.
SPEAKER_00: We have fundamentals that Jesus exemplified with his life.
SPEAKER_00: That's why they are fundamentals.
SPEAKER_00: Tell me, of all the people you can think of throughout history, who was more humble than Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Tell me, of all the people in history, who had more gentleness and patience.
SPEAKER_00: If you think about some of the stories of the disciples, one of my favorites is the story where Jesus, he's got the disciples, and they go to, I believe it was Samaria, and they go into this town, and Jesus sends the apostles out, start telling people, hey, Messiah's coming.
SPEAKER_00: And as he sends them out, they reject him completely.
SPEAKER_00: And James and John, they come to Jesus and they're like, We've got it.
SPEAKER_00: We've got to figure it out.
SPEAKER_00: What we're gonna do is we're gonna call down fire from heaven like Elijah, and it's gonna burn all these people up.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine being Jesus in that moment?
SPEAKER_00: You're just like, you've been with me this long, and that's your solution, you know?
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus in his humility doesn't burn them up.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus in his gentleness, though he also tells the truth in love there, um, doesn't react in the way that the apostles would choose to react.
SPEAKER_00: In his patience, he bears with their misguided thoughts and he bears with them in love, and how often does he do that with us?
SPEAKER_00: How often does he look at the times when we screw up?
SPEAKER_00: And speaking from my own personal experience, how often do I come to the Lord and I repent of something in the next week?
SPEAKER_00: It seems like I fall right back into that thing, thinking that the Lord bears with me in love.
SPEAKER_00: And how often should we, as the people of God, look at those who do us wrong over and over and bear with them in love?
SPEAKER_00: Reminds me of a passage where again the disciples they come to Jesus and they say, Jesus, how often should we forgive?
SPEAKER_00: Up to seven times?
SPEAKER_00: Look how spiritual I am, seven times.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord says, No, 70 times, seven times, not as just a number, but rather as a forgiveness that goes on and on and on.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus bears with us in love, and how often should we bear with one another in love?
SPEAKER_00: Last week, Chris was preaching about forgiveness, and one of my favorite things that he talked about was absorbing the debt.
SPEAKER_00: How often does Jesus absorb our debt, and yet we're not willing to absorb the debts of others?
SPEAKER_00: One way that I think the Bible talks about that is to bear with one another in love.
SPEAKER_00: And so we have fundamentals that Christ sets forth in his life.
SPEAKER_00: If you read Philippians 2, 5, it says, Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself.
SPEAKER_00: He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Mark 10, 45, for even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, to give his life as a ransom for many.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus calls us to practice the fundamentals of the Christian faith.
SPEAKER_00: And so should we.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible goes on from there.
SPEAKER_00: And it says, verse 4, there is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call.
SPEAKER_00: One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.
SPEAKER_00: You see, not only do we need to practice the fundamentals, but we have to realize that we also have one team with one aim.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: With one purpose.
SPEAKER_00: We have one team.
SPEAKER_00: If you uh if you're a football fan, or if you're not, hey, I tell you what, if you're not, let me help you out.
SPEAKER_00: This will help you.
SPEAKER_00: Today, there are two teams that are gonna play in the Super Bowl.
SPEAKER_00: It is the Seahawks, they're from Seattle.
SPEAKER_00: That's why I'm wearing my Seahawks colors today.
SPEAKER_00: And there are uh Patriots who are from New England.
SPEAKER_00: Now, good job.
SPEAKER_00: Let it go, football people.
SPEAKER_00: Um I am rooting for the Seahawks today only because they helped me have a sermon illustration.
SPEAKER_00: But um if you look at the Seahawks, there's a guy on the Seahawks.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you again, Hunter Deal, for all of your good information.
SPEAKER_00: Because I like football, but I'll be honest, I'm not a football guy.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know the names of the quarterbacks until today because I know who Sam Darnold is.
SPEAKER_00: He's the quarterback of the Seahawks.
SPEAKER_00: And if you look at the life of Sam Darnold, here's what happens: he was a great player.
SPEAKER_00: But even the best players don't get the Super Bowls a lot.
SPEAKER_00: Sam Darnold, he uh just so you know, he played for USC.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and he was a redshirt freshman.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't know this, but a redshirt freshman turns out a lot of times, those are your best players.
SPEAKER_00: And the reason why they redshirt them as a freshman is because they can't play them in more than four games a year, because that way they can save their eligibility for when all of their better players start to graduate out and they need this guy for later.
SPEAKER_00: So he comes in as a redshirt freshman at USC.
SPEAKER_00: And I read this article about him from his second string quarterback.
SPEAKER_00: His uh second string quarterback said that that USC has a culture of competition.
SPEAKER_00: They are a culture of people who, if there's somebody else that's better than you, they're gonna take your job.
SPEAKER_00: And so they fight and they struggle all the time to be the best.
SPEAKER_00: And he said the weird thing about Sam Darnold was when he came in, he was always asking people, hey, what do I do to be better?
SPEAKER_00: Hey, how do you read this defense?
SPEAKER_00: You've been here longer than I have.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, what about this?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you, but in a culture of competition, I would never go to my enemy and ask them for help.
SPEAKER_00: And yet that's what Sam Darnold does.
SPEAKER_00: You see, he did that because he realized he had a team around him.
SPEAKER_00: And so you think, man, this guy's so good.
SPEAKER_00: No wonder he's in the Super Bowl.
SPEAKER_00: But let me tell you about his NFL career real quick.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, 2016, he uh he becomes the starting quarterback for USC.
SPEAKER_00: He wins a Rolls Bowl.
SPEAKER_00: He's the first freshman to win the Archie Griffin Award.
SPEAKER_00: 2018, he's a first-round draft pick and third overall pick in the NFL draft.
SPEAKER_00: That's him.
SPEAKER_00: 2018, he gets drafted to the New York Jets.
SPEAKER_00: New York Jets.
SPEAKER_00: Um, his first season with the New York Jets, four and twelve.
SPEAKER_00: That means they won four games and lost 12.
SPEAKER_00: Bad day.
SPEAKER_00: But hey, hey, second season, hey, they were seven and nine.
SPEAKER_00: Still bad.
SPEAKER_00: Third season, oh man, you think they bring it out?
SPEAKER_00: No, two and fourteen.
SPEAKER_00: And that's when they he left the New York Jets.
SPEAKER_00: Um, probably not because he wanted to.
SPEAKER_00: 2021, he goes to the Carolina Panthers.
SPEAKER_00: You think, all right, this is gonna turn itself around 5-12.
SPEAKER_00: Last in AFC South.
SPEAKER_00: Um, he was also out after game 10 with an injury.
SPEAKER_00: That's Sam Darnold.
SPEAKER_00: He's the guy who's the quarterback for one of the teams in the Super Bowl today.
SPEAKER_00: And Sam Darnold had two choices at that point, right?
SPEAKER_00: Just like I was.
SPEAKER_00: Sam Darnold could get better and do the work that it takes to get back in the game, or he can quit.
SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you something.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you all today, and I felt this strongly from the Lord, some of you all today are sitting out there and you're injured.
SPEAKER_00: You feel like quitting.
SPEAKER_00: I was talking to a lady on Wednesday, and my heart still hurts for her because she talked about the fact that so often it feels like she wants this faith thing, and yet she just keeps falling back into sin and and and she it's a struggle.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the thing about Sam Darnold, and here's the thing about you today.
SPEAKER_00: If you're here, sometimes you just need a team to come around you.
SPEAKER_00: So so many times we try to get it all on our own.
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: So many times, man, we sit on our own and we try to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps because we're Americans, right?
SPEAKER_00: And that's what we do.
SPEAKER_00: But nobody goes to a Super Bowl alone.
SPEAKER_00: You need a good team.
SPEAKER_00: That's what happens.
SPEAKER_00: You see, Stan Donald, he goes from those teams and he ends up with the 49ers.
SPEAKER_00: And man, the 49ers had it going on.
SPEAKER_00: Um, did it so much better.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, he this is his first year when the Seahawks goes to a Super Bowl.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody does it all on their own.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're here today and you're going, man, I'm playing injured and I need help, the church is the place to find that.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is gonna go on from that, and he's gonna say that he gave apostles and prophets and evangelists and shepherds and teachers.
SPEAKER_00: Why does he say all that?
SPEAKER_00: Because sometimes we need good coaches, we need people to help us in Christian book.
SPEAKER_00: Christian faith is never alone.
SPEAKER_00: And so he goes on.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 7, it says, But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore it says, When he ascended on high, he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.
SPEAKER_00: And saying he ascended, what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions of the earth?
SPEAKER_00: He who descended is the one who has also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when you read this passage, people get into debates about this passage all the time.
SPEAKER_00: What does this mean?
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I can tell you we all agree on.
SPEAKER_00: What we all agree on is Jesus came from heaven to earth and was a man.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what you can know for sure.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus came for you.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you aren't playing hurt because you're not playing at all.
SPEAKER_00: There's some of you out there who are not Christian, and you're going, man, I'm so miserable.
SPEAKER_00: I have done everything that I think it takes, and every time, it just seems like everything falls apart.
SPEAKER_00: What is going on?
SPEAKER_00: Why is life struggle and pain?
SPEAKER_00: And I can tell you, you when you come to Christ, struggle and pain don't go away.
SPEAKER_00: But here's what does happen you have a God in heaven who helps you.
SPEAKER_00: There is a God in heaven who loves you and came for you.
SPEAKER_00: He descended into the earth for you.
SPEAKER_00: One of the ways that you can interpret this passage that I read was that Jesus didn't just descend to the earth, but he also died for your sins.
SPEAKER_00: If you're sitting out there today and you want to know what the gospel of Jesus Christ is, it's this we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: We couldn't meet God's perfect standard, but he didn't leave us in that state.
SPEAKER_00: Not only did we all sin and fall short of the glory of God, but guess what?
SPEAKER_00: He sent his son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins, to be this thing called propitiation.
SPEAKER_00: It means that God gave his son so that he could pay the sacrifice, the price for us because we were his enemies.
SPEAKER_00: And yet Christ came so that he could die in our place.
SPEAKER_00: So that we could be justified, made just as if we never sinned.
SPEAKER_00: That is for you today, if you will call on the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you something.
SPEAKER_00: It's the greatest thing that ever happened to me, and it could be the greatest thing that ever happened to you, but it's not easy.
SPEAKER_00: If you want easy, you go sell ice cream.
SPEAKER_00: I've been telling everybody that lately.
SPEAKER_00: You want easy, the Christian walk isn't always easy, but it is always great.
SPEAKER_00: And if you want something great in your life, today is the day.
SPEAKER_00: Chris said, you've got to count the cost, and he's absolutely right.
SPEAKER_00: If you're sitting out there today and you're going, well, what does this Christian like?
SPEAKER_00: That sounds great.
SPEAKER_00: I want, I want cupcakes and rainbows and awesomeness.
SPEAKER_00: But let me tell you, it could require things of you too.
SPEAKER_00: There could be times in your life when somebody doesn't like what you have to say, family members and friends.
SPEAKER_00: And what the Bible says is you have to count Christ as more important than that.
unknown: That's right.
SPEAKER_00: As more precious than that.
SPEAKER_00: It could mean any number of things.
SPEAKER_00: It could mean going to the ends of the earth and selling all of your possessions and going where no person has gone yet to preach the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: What it could mean is any number of things.
SPEAKER_00: Are you willing?
SPEAKER_00: Is Christ the most important thing in your life?
SPEAKER_00: Some of you need a team.
SPEAKER_00: But what some of you need really is to switch teams.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you have been on the devil's team for too long and you're miserable and you know it.
SPEAKER_00: Today's the day.
SPEAKER_00: Today is the day to be saved.
SPEAKER_00: So who do you serve?
SPEAKER_00: Do you serve sin or righteousness?
SPEAKER_00: Romans 6, 1 and 2.
SPEAKER_00: It says this.
SPEAKER_00: It says, What shall we say then?
SPEAKER_00: Shall we continue in sin so that grace may abound?
SPEAKER_00: By no means.
SPEAKER_00: How can we who died to sin still live in?
SPEAKER_00: If I can go back for just a moment and talk to the Christian who's injured, one of the things that we do so often is we think that we're okay.
SPEAKER_00: We think that we can beat this thing on our own.
SPEAKER_00: We think that even sometimes we're bound to this thing.
SPEAKER_00: That this sin, whatever it is, is stuck on us like glue.
SPEAKER_00: That it's just who we are, and there's nothing we can do about it.
SPEAKER_00: What I can tell you is this.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 6 again says, Shall we continue in sin?
SPEAKER_00: By no means.
SPEAKER_00: How can we who died to sin still live in it?
SPEAKER_00: If you want some good homework this week, go read Romans chapter 6 and read about the fact that it tells us how we've died to our old selves, our old sins, and we've been raised to newness of life.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Corinthians 10 13 says, No temptation is overtaking you that is not common to man.
SPEAKER_00: God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability.
SPEAKER_00: But with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it.
SPEAKER_00: You do not have to be bound in sin forever.
SPEAKER_00: Now, we can debate, does that mean you'll never sin again?
SPEAKER_00: I no, no.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what we're here to talk about.
SPEAKER_00: What we're here to talk about is you don't have to be a slave to sin.
SPEAKER_00: You can be freed by the blood of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And so the Lord He calls us to practice fundamentals.
SPEAKER_00: He gives us a team to help us and good coaches to help us along the way.
SPEAKER_00: He gives us a church and he gives us these offices.
SPEAKER_00: Let me read them one more time because I'm going to read you what the purpose of them is.
SPEAKER_00: He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers to do what?
SPEAKER_00: Two things.
SPEAKER_00: To equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Remember how I said that the Christian life is a call?
SPEAKER_00: Christian life is a call to every Christian to do the work of ministry.
SPEAKER_00: I love what my brother said about the one.
SPEAKER_00: I'm an action guy.
SPEAKER_00: There are different personality types.
SPEAKER_00: I'm one of those people that, like, if you say, hey, you want to go hang out?
SPEAKER_00: I'm probably going to say yes.
SPEAKER_00: My wife's always getting on to me.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, you need to stop that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm an action guy.
SPEAKER_00: I'm one of those people that wants to do the thing, right?
SPEAKER_00: Um I'm one of those people that when I see something to jump on, I jump on it.
SPEAKER_00: But here's what you need to know.
SPEAKER_00: We have apostles and prophets and evangelists and teachers and all that to equip the saints for the work of ministry and for building up the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you will have all of these things that you want to do as an action person where you're like, I can reach this person and this person and this person and I can go and do all of these things.
SPEAKER_00: And then because you get so enamored with everything, you do nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all, the Christian life is a call to reach the one more.
SPEAKER_00: Who's the one in your life that God has placed close to you?
SPEAKER_00: The one that really needs Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Who's the one?
SPEAKER_00: You see, we're equipped for the work of ministry and for building up the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Who's the one that's close to you that is a Christian who just needs that word of encouragement today?
SPEAKER_00: The Christian life is a calling, and all are called to bring others to Christ, to give people the same hope that verse 4 talked about, and all of us are called to build each other up.
SPEAKER_00: How long do we do this calling?
SPEAKER_00: Well, to close, verse 13 says until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.