Live Worthy

In this message from Ephesians 4:1–6, Pastor Jim calls the church to walk in a manner worthy of the calling we have received. After three chapters of celebrating our new identity in Christ as one family, Jim shows that unity is not something we manufacture but something the Spirit has already created and we are called to preserve. With humility, gentleness, patience, and a commitment to bear with one another in love, we reflect the oneness of one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all. Jim challenges the cultural currents of division, outrage, and self-advancement that shape us throughout the week and invites us to root our identity fully in Christ instead. Because Jesus humbled himself, gave up his seat at the table, and welcomed us into God’s household, we are now empowered to extend that same grace to one another. The church becomes a living masterpiece when we eagerly work to preserve our God-given unity, displaying the wisdom of God to a watching world.

Transcript

Mike | 00:00
Our passage for today's sermon comes from Ephesians chapter 4 verses 1 through 6. Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called. With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love. Being diligent to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit. Just as you were called in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith. One baptism, One God and Father of all who is over all and through all. And in all. This is God's word for God's people.
Pastor Jim | 00:48
Amen. So last night, Jess and I were down in South Jersey and went down to see my family. It was my niece's 30th birthday, which makes me feel bonkers old at this point. 
Yeah. Somebody just said, just wait. 
Yeah. But it was great. Got to go down and see my family. And I don't know if it's because my dad was a truck driver over the road. And so there was just sort of a disconnect that he wasn't around all the time that our family get togethers are like low key. 
Like they're not there's no pressure. It's like if you can make it great. If you can't, that's OK. My wife's family, on the other hand, very intense, like got to be together all the time. My family's just like, OK. 
Like if you can make it great. And I love it. It's easy to enter in and out of, you know, our texts. 
Like if there was a hashtag for it, it'd be no pressure. Like, it's just like, whatever. If you can be there, great. No pressure. Bring something. Don't bring something, whatever. But there is a seat for you. The table's open for you. 
You know, we're saving a space for you. And it's open to other people as well. 
Like two years in a row, our Thanksgiving gathering has been with neighbors. Like my brother's neighbors have shown up and we're just hanging out with them and they just fit right in like they're part of the family. I have no idea who these people are. How they got there, but I don't care. Let's find no pressure, whatever. 
Like we're all just hanging out and it's good. Just making room for each other. You know, being just being together and hanging out, sharing loving one another and even if somebody fails, even if somebody messes up, which we have in our family and It's like, whatever, we're getting together again. Several times a year, this is the way it happens, and it's just always that vibe, and I love it. Paul spends the first three chapters of Ephesians Laying out for this Local church. I just need you to remember this. This is a local church. This is a group of people in the city of Ephesus. He's laying out for them in three chapters... Who they are in Christ because of the gospel. That it's more than just an individual salvation story that's happening, that they are being made one family. That they're all being seated at the same table. In Christ. And they're called to be God's masterpiece. 
That's why this sermon series is called Masterpiece: The Church and Its Mission. They are called to be the masterpiece. They are called to be one. They are called to be gathering at the same table together, united by Jesus. And in that passage that Mike just read, what you see is Paul say, in light of this call, Live worthy of it. In light of the fact that you have been called to be one body, and call to be God's masterpiece, His divine wisdom put on display for all to see. In light of that, live worthy of that. Live up to that calling. And he rattles off one long sentence. It's literally, everything Mike just read is one sentence in the Greek. And he's answering the question, well, how? What does it look like to live worthy? Of that calling to be one family, to be one body there in the local church at Ephesus. And so as much as Paul wrote that to the Ephesians 2000 years ago, it's for us today. All right. And so I want to look at like, what does this mean for us? To be united in one body here in the Nazareth congregation with our congregation in Bethlehem? What does it look like for us to be one body? And so we're going to look at our call. 
Like, first of all, sort of defining a little bit, what does he mean? He used that term call four times. What does it mean to be called into this? 
And then we're going to look at the conduct and the challenge to the conduct. Because he's calling, if you notice there, he calls for five or six things, saying like, this is what it looks like to live worthy, to be humble, gentle. But then there's a challenge to that we are living in our current day. There's a challenge to that conduct, and then we're going to land on Christ. Why it is that we get to do this in the first place. All right, so the call. The conduct, the challenge, Christ. All right, that's where we're going today. 
So I want to pray for us as we get into this. So bow your heads with me. Jesus, this is your words written by the apostle Paul 2,000 years ago. He cared so deeply for God, the people would be united. That the church would be united around you. And if there was anything that got Paul frustrated, it was division. He cares so much that we would live worthy of this thing that you're doing, this call that you have on our lives as individuals, but as a family. On mission. And so spirit, we need to hear this today. There are particular challenges in our culture, in our current context that we need to do business with. And so I pray, Spirit, that you would open our eyes, open our hearts, the center of our beings. That we would know what it looks like for us to live worthy of this call. That we would know what it looks like for us to make every effort to keep the peace. That you have purchased for us. God, we can't do that. Our flesh does not want to do that. We see that from Genesis 3 on. 
So would you do a work here, Holy Spirit? Unite us to one another around Jesus and help us live worthy of that call. Speak to us now through your scriptures. We pray this in your name, Jesus. Amen. Okay, so let's talk about the call. Four times Paul says and uses this word, call. In verse 1, he says, Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called. 
So it's a calling with which you have been called. And then in verse 4, there's one body, one spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling. He's reminding them again, hey, I'm a prisoner. I'm writing to you as the church. I'm reminding you four times you are called. 
Something happened from outside of you to change you. You had no say in this. You can't call yourself. 
Right? This is something that happens from outside. It's a voice, it's a thing, it's an effort, it's an energy, whatever you want to call it, that happens from outside of you. And he's reminding them, remember, you didn't do this yourself. God saved you out of darkness and brought you into light. He says, whether you were near or far, you both missed the train, Jews and Gentiles, I am calling you into this new thing. You were without God, without hope in the world, and God... Called you and he rescued you and he has delivered you into this new thing, this masterpiece, this family that is God's on earth as in heaven. And he says, so now you are called in one hope. You have one eternal hope, one focus, which goes on to list all of those ones, right? Seven times you get these different ones. Look with me again at verse four. There is one body, He's reminding them, You weren't called to separate little individual journeys to be on. You were called to one family. That baptism language there, if you remember what Jesus said, baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. What he's saying is you were baptized into a new family where you've all been given the same last name. Jesus, I don't know. I don't know what would be a fitting last name for that analogy, but you've been all been put into one family under God, the father adopted as firstborn sons given full rights and inheritances as his children. You're in one family placed into a new family, a new humanity, the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile has been torn down. You have been made one. And this is why, we said this in a few weeks, I want to put that quote up on the board, is that the masterpiece is more than a saved soul. It's the new family of God. Did you read that with the masterpiece is the new family of God. He's reminding them four times you've been called seven times into one thing, the new family of God. You have been purchased with a price. This is not from yourselves, he says. You've been saved at an incredible cost. That Jesus. Gave his life. His body, His blood poured out for the forgiveness of sins so that we could have vertically, right? Harmony with God, peace with God, which then translates into peace with one another. We couldn't purchase that ourselves. It's something that's been done on our behalf, Paul says. You have been bought with a price. Christ's. Blood And this analogy is not perfect, but I hope it helps connect this for you. One of my favorite movies is Saving Private Ryan. Which came out and I think in 1997, 1998, somewhere in that range. And if you remember, Saving Private Ryan is based in World War Two. Captain John Miller, played by Tom Hanks, is head of a small detachment of soldiers. They're landing on the beaches of Normandy, and they have been tasked with going and finding Private James Ryan, played by Matt Damon. And they want to find Private Ryan because three of his brothers have already been killed in the war. And so they want to spare his mother this pain of losing another son. 
So Captain John Miller is off to save Private Ryan. That's where the movie title comes from. And so I'm going to ruin the movie for you if you haven't seen it. One of the last scenes is they're trying to defend this bridge. And Private Ryan is now with them. They have found him. They're defending him. And Captain John Miller is mortally wounded. And he's bleeding out. And he's dying there on the bridge. And he... He starts to try to whisper to Private Ryan, and he grabs him by the coat, and he pulls him in, and he says, do you remember what he says? Earn this. To earn this. And Matt Damon looks at him and he says, earn it. And he dies. That's it. And he dies. Now, I do not believe that we need to earn anything in our salvation. Okay. 
So when I'm giving you this analogy, please know that what I'm calling us to, what Paul is calling us to is to say, live worthy of the terrible cost that Christ paid for you to make you one family with God and with one another. He's saying in a sense, make something of this. Go and live accordingly. 
You know, Captain John Miller's telling Private Ryan, "Go make something of your life. I'm giving up my life for you. Other guys died for you. Now go do something accordingly." And so Paul's saying live worthy. Live in a manner worthy of this calling, this oneness that you have been placed into. 
So then he starts to lay out the conduct. What does it look like for the family of God to actually live worthily? Of this great price that Christ paid for us, of this oneness that he's placed us into. 
So I want to talk about conduct, how to live worthy. The term that Paul uses regularly, the walk. What does it look like to walk this out? 
You know, we're called people of the way in the book of Acts. What does it look like to walk in the way of Jesus? In unity, in the Church, amongst one another. Now, This is what I find interesting. What did Paul not say? When he says, live worthy, live in a manner worthy of this calling, this one hope, this one Lord, this one baptism, this one family, this one Father. He didn't say, Okay. I'm in prison. Go get me out. He didn't say, okay, Get your best arguments and go out there and start arguing with people. Prove all those pagans wrong. He didn't say, go out there and get all those pagans to stop sinning. Diddy. What did he say? These orders of conduct that he lays out, humility, gentleness, patience, bearing with one another. This is fascinating. The church was on the move, and he doesn't say, go take up arms with people. He says... Love one another well. In your own oneness, in your new family. He says, walk worthy. Again, look with me in verses one to three. Therefore, I, prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called. With what? All humility and gentleness. With patience. Bearing with one another in love. Being diligent to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of God. Peace. Walk worthy looks like relational health, friends. It looks like loving one another well in this group of people. Again, We could talk about, extrapolate this and say, well, what does this mean for denominations? What does this mean? Paul was writing to a local church. 
So I'm trying to apply this at a local church level, okay? So just stick with that. Don't try to outsource this to, "Well, what about denomination?" Stick with like this 115% you know, plus people. That make up Hope Alliance, all right? Paul is talking about relational health and keeping unity within the masterpiece. Within the family of God. I just want to break down some of these definitions. He says, walk with all humility. Which is deliberate refusal to advance oneself. Deliberate refusal to advance oneself coupled with a readiness to esteem God and others above self. Readiness to esteem God and others above self. He says, walk with gentleness, which gentleness here is meekness. When Jesus says, I'm gentle and lowly of heart, it means meekness. It's like power restrained. You can think of like a horse being bridled and broken and restrained, and the power is being limited for the sake of benefiting others. Gentleness is limiting your own power for the sake of benefiting others. He says, "Walk with patience. Patience is the opposite of being short-tempered. It's being long-fused. Instead of short fused. Real long fuse before you bubble over, before you explode. It's the self-restraint which does not hastily retaliate a wrong. I love that definition. It's the self-restraint that does not easily or quickly retaliate a wrong. It means putting up with a lot of stuff. From one another before we blow up. All right. Or he says, bearing with one another in love. I love this definition. Moves beyond mere patience to the gracious choice to stay present with weakness and opposition and immaturity. Think about that. Bearing with one another in love means Staying present with weakness, opposition, or immaturity, meaning not saying, "I'm done with you, goodbye." I you don't have the same viewpoint as me? Be gone. It means staying present with it. Meeting it face to face, not giving up on love, not giving up on truth. We'll talk about these in the coming weeks, but I mean, staying present to someone who might be weak, might be opposing, might be immature. 
And then he closes with sort of, to me, it's sort of the capstone of this, to be diligent to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Be diligent to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Means fully applying oneself to it. 
You know, we are diligent about our calendars, diligent about our kids and making sure they have what they need, diligent about our jobs. And Paul's saying, and I want you to apply that same level of energy to keeping unity within the church. Making an effort. To do so. It's a call to guard something given, not manufacture it. Again, I think this is important. Unity is not something we manufacture. God says, I've done it. I've put you into it. You are now one, whether you like it or not, you are one. Now live like it is what Paul's saying. It's not something we have to manufacture. Spirit created, but believer preserved. Spirit created, believer preserved. Meaning we don't make it, but we can mess it up. Or placed into it. 
So he's saying, be diligent, make every effort to apply oneself to keeping it. So... 
This is making room at the table for one another no matter what. This is saving a seat. This is sharing a meal with one another. This is viewing failures graciously. Because we are going to mess things up. It's having a thicker skin. With one another It means not blowing up and walking away because someone has a different opinion than you. Because someone's immature, because someone's not as far along in their journey with Jesus as you are. It's unity in diversity. Is prioritizing we over me. And what Paul says is it all brings glory to God. This is the manifold wisdom of God on display. This is the multifaceted wisdom of God on display. It brings glory to God, the father of all, over all, through all, in all. And as I said a few weeks ago, what Paul is trying to drive home again and again, because again, he doesn't say go out and fight with culture. He doesn't say go out and get me out of prison. He doesn't say, you know, get everybody to stop sinning around you. He says, the people are going to know you by your love, is essentially what he's saying. He's saying your witness is how you love one another, how you intentionally stay united amongst one another. And our ordinary faithfulness has extraordinary, even cosmic significance that angels lean in, that demons tremble when they see us getting along, because you know what they would prefer? 
You know what the dark forces of this spiritual world would prefer? That we're at each other's throats. That we gossip, that we put each other down, that we make us and them crowds. And Paul says, we will have none of that. This is spirit manufactured, believer preserved unity. 
So are we making room at the table? Are you making room at the table in your life? Are you saving a seat? Are you sharing a meal? Are you viewing others graciously? And their failures, their immaturity, and their opposition to your opinions. I said I want to talk about the challenge to this. Because we can hear all that and say, I'm getting along with everybody here pretty well. I'm not fighting with anybody. I'm doing okay. I want to make us aware of some things. I want us to think a little bit about the waters that we are swimming in these days. The culture at large that we are all a part of. Because obviously on a Sunday morning, most of us are getting along. We're on our best behavior when we're here, right? I haven't seen anybody, you know, Coming to blows here. Arguing about stuff, cursing anybody out. At least I haven't picked up on it. If it happens, let me know. I'd love to hear about it. But we're on our best behavior when we're together, right? But let's think about the other Six days and 23 hours of the week. The waters that we are swimming in our world today. I think that we are in A point in history Obviously we're in a point in history that's never happened, but I mean, culturally in a moment that has never been encountered in the history of the world. Where we are seeing everything about everybody all the time. And we know everybody's opinions about everything all the time. It didn't used to be this way, friends. We didn't know all this stuff. We weren't constantly inundated with Us/Them News Us/them social media, algorithms that siloed us. This has never happened in the history of the world. 
So like, we just have to be honest that like, these are the waters we're swimming in. Unless you're Amish, which I don't think any of you are. This is the world that we are in. 
Some of you are like, I'd like to be Amish. Yeah, I know. Me too, probably a lot of days. But this is the world that we're swimming in. And so think about the world with me. I just mean like secular humanism at large, the corporations that are around us, the social media... Conglomerate that is out there Cable News. The world... Thinks it The world thinks Unity is a good idea. Have you noticed this? World's like, we need to be one. Remember the one campaign, the red campaign, NFL diversity programs. 
Like, it's like, how do we be one? Office of Inclusivity in the government office. 
Like, how do we be one? We need to make sure everybody is one. The world talks about this all the time. All the time. And we hear it, and we're like, that sounds nice. 
Yeah. What were they actually saying? Have you ever thought about this? 
Like, what else is the world saying simultaneously to this? A lot of times the world thinks that the way to achieve unity is by saying, "If you think like me, then we'll be okay. If I could just convince you to think exactly like me, then we would have unity. Now, the world's probably thought that for a long time. But more recently, what's happening in our culture is now we're saying, if you don't think like me, you're out. You are censored. You need to be quiet. You're now excluded. Fascinating. Secular humanism, isn't it? We need unity. Just think like me. You're not? You're out. Whoa, hold on. Or this is the same mindset, that says we all just need to be ourselves. You be you, I'll be me, and then we'll have unity. Does that ever work in your marriage? You just do whatever you want? And that other person needs to just be okay with it? But again, if you pay attention to what's happening in our world, these things are all firing at us at the same time. Just think like me. You don't get out of here. We just need to be ourselves, and it's all going to be okay, and we can all do whatever we want. It doesn't bring unity, friends. Secular humanism fails every time. It just does. And Paul's saying, with the church. The church should be able to do this. God has already made you one. Now walk worthily of it. Now live it out. What about when a person messes up in our world now? Again, It used to be like a person would mess up and they would kind of just like, Disappear? Now it's like they get called out. Destroyed in the news, destroyed in social media, just absolutely impaled. Absolutely destroyed. Particularly if someone messes up in a way different than we mess up. You ever notice this? Till again. Raise your hand. Did you mess anything up this week? 
Seriously, raise your hand. I did. I did. But we love to point out when someone messes up differently than we do. We love to put ourselves into the position of, yeah, but I'm more righteous than them. Look at how they messed up. I, okay, I messed up a little bit over here, but look at them, look at what they did. Again, this is the world that we are living in. Feels good to be the righteous one in an us-them fight. Which again, that's the water we're swimming in now, friends, if you're paying attention. Where the current cultural moment in Christianity in this country is perhaps as opposite as it possibly could be. To what Paul is saying in this passage. Again, if you're paying attention, If you're listening, Christians on the left, Christians on the right. They're not talking about what Paul is talking about here. They're calling us to take up sides, take up arms, get angry with each other, kick people out. Make a list of who's in, who's out. Fundamentalism on both sides, friends. And again, this is what we are swimming in. If you're not aware of this, it's affecting how you come into the church. It's affecting how you come into community group, how you come into relationship with one another. Humility, a deliberate refusal to advance oneself. Does that sound like our world? A deliberate attempt to not advance oneself. That's not the world I'm living in, I don't think. Esteeming others above self. See that anywhere. Do you? Gentleness, meekness, power restrained, intentionally limiting oneself on behalf of benefiting others. Few and far between. Good grief. I feel like the Church has been told in the last few years, meekness is weakness. If you're meek, you're not a good Christian. What a weird time we're in. Patients being long fused. How many of your social media feeds are full of people who are long fused? You can laugh at that. 
You know it's not the case. Long-fused people, patient people out there. Willing to bear with one another. Self-restraint that doesn't hastily retaliate a wrong. I feel like, man, we go nuclear immediately. On people. Again, I'm not saying you do this. I'm just saying, this is the world that we are swimming in and we come in drenched in it into the church. Whether we realize it or not. Bearing with one another in love, staying present with weakness, opposition, or immaturity. How many of us are being told by our social media feeds, by cable news, by the things we're reading to stay present with weakness? To stay present with opposition. To stay present with immaturity. Again, I don't see it. I don't see it. Diligent to keep unity in the bond of peace. See any great efforts being made to say, okay, let's lower the temperature. Let's lower the temperature and love one another well. It's like, you're not with me? Then you must be against me. Be gone. Silenced. Censored. Out. Impaled. Done. Immature? Gone. Opposing opinion? Gone. We all just be who we could be, then we'd be great. Doesn't work. Jesus tore down the dividing wall of hostility and made one family in the church. Spirit manufactured, believer preserved. Are we, now let's go real local into our little church family here Your life, your opinions, your thoughts. Are we believers preserving one body? And you see what I'm saying, why it's hard? Or it might be hard for us to do that for the long haul if we're swimming in those other waters the rest of the week. We can come together, we can be here in our best behavior. But man, let me tell you something, it gets hard to speak the truth in love. If inside you hate all Democrats. If you feel like all Republicans are an existential threat Your existence. And a Republican comes to you and says, hey, you know, I saw the way you lost your patience with your wife the other day. Can we just chat about that? What's going on in your soul? If you're swimming the other six days and all those hours in anti-thought of who's bad, who's in, who's out. Man, it makes unity in the church difficult, doesn't it? This is what I'm talking about. Algorithms siloing us into homogenous echo chambers, which further reinforce our biases and weaken our ability to hear opinions contrary to our own. Because it feels like an existential threat. Our cultural moment is calling for Christians to take up sides, take up flags, take up arms on both sides. On both sides. Put up the flags. "Take up arms! Get at each other! Get these people out of here!" Our Facebook and Instagram bios that define what side we're on. Self-promotion, performative. Our bumper sticker battles. And social media side taking. Saying, this is my table, you're not welcome at it. There's no room for you here. 
So be gone. Our yard signs, porch flags, and clothing letting people know what side we're on. Again, I just don't think we've ever lived in the history of this world with this type of culture. Where it's just crammed down our throats all day long. Of us, them, mentalities. And underneath these, Okay, this is where this starts to come home for us. Underneath these is typically a sense of a threatened identity. There's a fear underneath there that I'm not okay. We're not okay, and we're not because of you. Because of the way that you think, because of the way that you feel. Therefore, I'm not okay. I'm not okay if you get your way and I'm not okay if I don't get mine. But in Christ's, In Christ, friends. Our identity is okay. It is solid rock that we stand on in Jesus. Unity already exists, Paul's saying. You have been placed and called into it. 
So we must think differently to maintain it. We must protect our minds and our hearts in ways that maybe we haven't been up to this point. Because if it's in Christ, our identity is not threatened. If your identity is in Christ, it is not threatened. But if it's not, If your identity is not fully in Christ, It is threatened. As is our unity. 
You see it? When I'm not okay, that starts to mean you might be the problem, you might be the bad guy. You're actually threatening my identity. Therefore, we're against each other. And Paul's saying that threatens unity. Spear Created. But it needs to be believer believed, believer preserved in our individual identities that we then live out in the public forum here as one church body. Paul says you have been called by something outside of yourself to oneness and Can I ask you a question? What voices are you listening to? What voices are calling you that you're giving credence to the other six and a half days of the week? That maybe aren't Gospel identity building. Who was someone in this church body who you might be able to be longer fused with. What type of person would it be hard for you to esteem higher than yourself if they came to church here? How comfortable would you be if you found out that somebody sitting next to you, like, ran the polls for Kamala Harris? How comfortable would you be if somebody said, I'm a MAGA supporter? Would you still feel unity? Or would that so upset your identity that, Just comes from. Boiling out of you. Or, you know what? I'm not going to talk to that person anymore. 
It definitely affects us. The cable news we watch, the social media we take in, the things we read. It is affecting us. We have to admit that. We have to realize that it challenges, it directly challenges what Paul is talking about here is supposed to be happening in the church, in the local church. Let's bring it home. Our church. Years later, the apostle John would address this very church in the book of Revelation. And he would praise them. With the words of Jesus. He's saying, here's what Jesus says to you. He says, "Your doctrine is solid. 
You know the right things. You persevered through hardships. You did good deeds. You were able to pick out false teachers. But one thing you lack. Love. You've forgotten your love of Jesus and you've forgotten your love of one another. This very church who Paul warned about this. And I would tell you, We're probably way more inundated with us, them thinking than has ever existed. And they certainly encountered. Paul's warning them. Jesus warned them again. They forgot what it was and who it was that called them and what they were called to. And so I close with this. To combat this challenge that we are faced with. We need to remember Christ. Constantly be soaking ourselves in the gospel. Probably more than the other stuff. I can't make your rhythm of life for you. But I would say I read something the other day that said, for everything you encounter in social media or the news that freaks you out, pray about it. If you don't have time to pray about it, stop looking at it. I was like, dang. Right on. 
Soaking ourselves in the gospel rather than these other things, because you're going to come in here dripping with one of them. We don't need to manufacture unity. We need to walk worthy of it. We've already been placed into it. Here's a church family. It flows from our identity in Christ Jesus. 
So how do we withstand this onslaught? This onslaught of a challenge to the conduct Paul is calling for. 
Well, one, Stop listening to these other voices. I don't know how else to say it. Stop listening to these other voices. Stop letting them shape your identity. It's a choice. Friends, it is a choice to say, I'm not going to let that shape my identity anymore. I'm solid in Jesus. He has bought an unshakable kingdom and he's placed me in it. I therefore am unshakable. I don't need to listen to all these other things. Cable news, social media algorithms, which are friends again. Profiting off of us as we do this, as we tear each other apart. Used to be that like sex and power sold the news. Now it's just division. Just sells the news, sells social media. Notice that every social media company got on board with Trump when he came in, when they were on board with Biden before. To tell us something, not about Trump or Biden. What about the capitalism that's at work within our social media feeds, right? Being profited off of our division, Think about the realities that they create or reinforce Again. This is not-- This is not a social diatribe about social media, cable news. About our identity. Who we are as individuals and who we are as a church. I would say. Listen to those voices less. And listen to the true voice of Jesus calling you more. What he's offering you, what he's calling you to the voice of Jesus. Look at me at Philippians 2. This is our Jesus. Paul's writing to another church. He says, therefore, if any of you, if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, do you hear it? He's like, you've been made one with him. If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded. Having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility, value others above yourselves. Not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interests of the others. Why? Any relationships with one another have the same mindset as Christ Jesus. Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped or something to be used to his own advantage. Rather, He made himself nothing. By taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name. That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess or acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. This is our King. This is the unshakable kingdom that He has brought to us. He gave up his seat at the table so you could be welcome to it, friends. He gave up his seat so you could have a new identity. And he saves you a seat at his table. Saved you with His own extravagant meal that he offers of himself, his body, his blood, so that we could be made new, so that we could have our sins forgiven, so that we could be brought into the household of God. He says, I am gentle and lowly of heart. This is our king, friends, gentle and lowly of heart. He welcomes you. Weary and tired to take up his yoke and find rest. He doesn't say, get it all together, stop being so immature, and then I'll give you rest. He says, come to me. Weary, broken, hurting, sinful, and I will give you rest. He takes a gracious view of your failings again. And again. And again. And all Paul is saying is, so you do the same. In the same way that Jesus has grace for you every day, have grace for one another. In the same way that he deals with your immaturity and your idiotic behaviors and the dumb things you do, I'm telling you to do that for one another. And you know what happens when we do that for one another? We start to taste and see that the Lord is good. We start to experience Jesus in profound ways that we never have before. And Paul's saying, yes. 
And then that becomes the manifold wisdom of God on display for all the world to see to the ends of the earth for all time. He humbly esteemed you above himself. Friends, we are so other. To Jesus. He's so holy and so altogether separate, and yet he comes and says, I want to make you one with me. And he says, Paul says, so go do likewise. Live worthy of the calling that you have received to be one. In this spirit manufactured, but believer preserved family. I think I've said enough. I want to pray about this.