Ephesians 4 - Called!

God calls each and everyone of us, but what does he call us for?
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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

So today is a little unique for us. If you're visiting here, we don't normally do this, but uh we are tag teaming the sermon today. It's something we've kind of started a few years ago. We enjoyed doing it, and so I'm gonna preach part of it, and then Malcolm's gonna preach part of it. And so if you're listening online and you just hear the voice change, you're not like, wow, he sounded really weird at the beginning, but he sounds normal at the end. It's okay, we're just gonna switch and uh what's gonna happen here. So um see it's a little bit different, but we enjoy it. My name is Jared, I'm the associate minister here, and so I'm so glad you're here for the first time. You're just enjoying visiting with friends or whatever, glad you're here. If you're here celebrating the resurrection and this is your home church, I'm really glad you're here. So, yeah, absolutely. Let's pray and let's praise God for this Sunday or this weekend. Um, God, thank you so much that we do not celebrate and worship on Friday because you didn't stay in the tomb, Lord. You did not stay on the cross, but you overcame that. And with that, we are guaranteed to overcome along with you, Lord, as the scripture tells us. As we partake in a baptism and a death like yours, we will partake in a resurrection like yours, Lord. Thank you for that, and thank you for this chance to celebrate as we talk about your call and how you call us, Lord. Um, let us just um give us ears to hear and uh the ability to answer that call, Lord. It's your son's name that we pray. Amen. The summer that I turned 12, or actually right before I turned 12, um, I took a road trip with my dad. So I was 11 years old going on a trip. Um we went and with my grandma, his mom, my dad drove us back to Ohio, to Cincinnati, to see um his brother, and then down to Florida, and then back. And I can't imagine doing that trip, you know, with a 11-year-old sweaty mess in the backseat, um, your mom riding shotgun for 3,000 plus miles, had to be something. And then to pick up several other sweaty 11-year-olds, you know, pre-pubescent boys to cram in the back of this car to go to Disney World. And uh, I just it's amazing that my dad did that, and he still lived and he still talks to me to this day. Um and so it was amazing that you did that. It was a great trip. One of the best things, and we just called it because my stepdad was from Ohio also, or from the Cincinnati area, and so we just always referred to everything back there as back east. Oh, we're gonna go back east. How's the relatives back east? You know, everything was back east. That's a general, you know, that way, I guess. Um and so it was just everything was back east. What I learned, one of the best things about going back east, fireworks, right? Especially when you are a 11-year-old, a sixth-grade boy, and fireworks are legal, because I grew up in Flightstaff, where if you you know shoot off fireworks, it's a very serious thing because it is can put everybody in danger because all the forest and how dry it gets. And so it was a I mean, there are years up there in Flightstaff where they don't even have Fourth of July fireworks, like the city doesn't have because it's too dry. And so to be able to go and be given the opportunity to singe my eyebrows and blow my fingers off was a fantastic opportunity, right? And so we made the drive back. I don't remember that trip where we stopped, but we ended up buying fireworks and and going around and doing the trip, and and we got back to Arizona, and I'm sure that we lit them off at the inn, you know, at some point in the trip, but I don't know how it ended up. But later that year, my seventh grade year, I was rummaging around my dad's house in the in a closet somewhere, and guess what I found? Leftover fireworks. Now, being a dad now, I absolutely know what happened. He got tired of shooting off fireworks, so he started shoveling them in a bag and setting them aside, right? And going, nope, that's the rest, we're all done, right? But then also being a dad, he's too cheap to throw those away, so he's like, I gotta do something with them, right? And so he takes them back to Arizona. So I find them in the closet. Now, this was hours of entertainment. I never once lit them because I knew that was super dangerous and I could start a force fight or that. But man, just to look through the bottle rockets and the whistling peats and the the little firecrackers and the black cats and all these things, and and just the power that was there was just mind-blowing and just captivating. I just spent hours, and so eventually, of course, I took them and I they ended up, I don't know how, in my bag somehow, right? That went from my dad's house to my mom's house, where I spent a majority of the time. And then I don't know how, but they ended up in my school backpack, right? And so because I mean, let's be honest, when you've got something that cool, you can't keep it to yourself, can you? And so I took them to school, and I don't even remember who I showed them to. But I'm sure I would, because you gotta, I mean, yeah, I've got something that literally explodes right back here. You gotta check it out, right? And so you I'm sure I showed it to somebody, right? And and I just felt that great, beautiful feeling of feeling vastly superior to your peers, right? Because I had fireworks and they did not, and therefore I was that much cooler, and people would look at me in awe and reverence. Because growing up with flight staff, fireworks was like you got to see those or play with them in that far-off land of Mexico, right? Or like a different place. Like it was a very unique, and so it was just amazing to have these and have the opportunity and to possess them. And so, I mean, I don't remember who I showed, but I'm sure one of my friends at some point went, Can I buy some of those from you? Right? Now, at this point, they'd just been sitting in my house or in my bag. I hadn't lit any of them, but I was like, wait a minute. I have fireworks that I can look at, or I have money that I can do stuff with. And so I sold fireworks to somebody, right? At school. I know you're like Jared, I I know, looking back, I absolutely understand. Like, you know, you were that stupid. I was that stupid, right? And so I remember the exact day, that spring of my seventh grade year, sitting in Mr. Morgan's fifth hour U.S. history class, right? And that is where I heard the voice of God. The voice of God sounded remarkably like our assistant principal, right? No, it wasn't the voice of God at all. But it was like, and you know that classroom, like why do all those old classrooms have that same speaker in it, right? The brown box in the corner, and it always has that, you know that sound, right? Attention, you know, the school announcement would come over, or if it was really important, Mr. Morgan, directly to the teacher. And every teacher had to do what? Face the speaker. Why do you do that? It's a speaker, like you know, but you're still you face the speaker. Yes, and you speak in that weird, artificial voice that everybody in every surrounding classroom. Yes, Mr. Morgan, could you please send Jared Prickett to the principal's office? Has your stomach ever fallen out the bottom of your pants? In that moment, and I swear, Mr. Morgan hit slow-mo. Hmm. Yo, right? And I remember him saying, You better take your backpack with you. I don't know if Mr. Morgan knew what was going on, but Mr. Morgan knew what was going on, right? So I get my backpack. I gotta tell you, East Flag Junior High School in Flagstaff, Arizona is set up so the principal's office and the main office is right at the entrance to the very top of the school, and then you have to go down like twenty steps, or I'm sorry, there's third hall in the library, and then you go down twenty steps, and that is second hall runs parallel, and then there's a long hallway that runs down to first hall, which is where Mr. Morgan's classroom is. I had traversed this trip many times, gone past the gym, up the hall, past all the bright windows that let in on the sun, past that, up the second hall where the eighth graders were, up past the library, third hall, to the office, tons of times. Something was different that day. The sun didn't shine quite as bright, right? And my steps somehow echoed on carpet as I walked through those halls. Because I didn't know exactly what happened, but I knew what happened, didn't I? Because, and here's the thing, too, is I I knew I knew Mr. Firstnow. My mom taught eighth grade at that same school. I'd known Mr. Firstnow for years because my mom would be there and she'd introduce me and I'd say hello, and I mean he knew my older sister had already gone through, so he's very familiar with who I was, all these things. I talked to Mr. First Now a ton of times. I knew his first name, Russ. That's like a secret weapon if you know a teacher's first name, right? And so I knew Russ First now. But in this moment, I was filled with absolute dread. You've never seen a seventh-grade boy take slower steps in his life. And I was filled, I mean, I'm sure you know that feeling if you've ever been there, being called to the principal's office and that walk. And I didn't even have, they didn't even have the courtesy to send a courier with a note, then you get to walk with somebody at least. This was like dead man walking, I swear. It was just, I mean, I was I was going through and I walk in the office, and there he is to greet me, and he just goes, sit down. He doesn't even let me go in his office directly. I have to sit in front of the secretary, Rosie, who sold us to Molly's every year, and her looking at me over that tall counter, mm-hmm, you know? It was awful. Because of that guilt, I knew that I had done something wrong. And when I got that call, I knew it wasn't like, Jared, you want a free bicycle? Come to the office to collect, right? That dread and that instant moment where it was, oh my gosh. Now, what's crazy is in scripture we see a very similar story in scripture. There's no principle, of course, no principal's office, but we see in Genesis a story that's similar to our own story. I mean, the story of Adam and Eve is of course the story of Adam and Eve, the first people on earth, but it's also all of our story. Right? Because Adam and Eve sinned just like we all sin, and we've experienced that. And so we can read this as Adam and Eve, we can read this as how it relates directly to us. Now, in chapter three, Adam and Eve, you know, have been created, they're set in the garden. God sets the rules, there's only one rule. Do whatever you want, just don't eat from this one tree, the knowledge of good and evil. So, of course, Adam and Eve eat from that tree, right? And so they do that. They eat from this tree. The woman is tricked, and the husband follows her, and they eat from this tree, and then right after, in chapter 3 of Genesis, verse 7, let's pick it up there, because God calls us, and God calls Adam and Eve. He says this in verse 7, then, right after they ate their fruit, then the eyes of both of them were opened. They realized they were naked, so they sowed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of Lord God as he's walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And they hid from the Lord among the trees in the garden. But the Lord called to them, uh, to the man, Where are you? And he answered, I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was a naked, so I hid. So the first thing that we see is they start to interact. In verse 7, the first thing that we see when they've sinned is we feel shame. Right? In verse 7 it says, Then the eyes of both of them were open. They realized they were naked, so they sewed fig leads together and they made coverings for themselves. I wonder how quick that was. Was it like a crunch? You know, like all of a sudden. But in that moment, they knew that they were naked, and they felt that shame. And I'm sure we've all felt this, where you've set this goal, I'm not going to gossip. I'm not gonna say that thing that I always that retort. And then in the moment where that person gets under your skin and you know the right comeback, and you bite it back, and as soon as it's out of your mouth, it doesn't taste good like you thought it would, but it just makes us because all of a sudden you're so ashamed that you sunk that low and you said that we've all felt that shame, and it's that instant, exactly what they felt in this moment. The next thing that they felt is they felt guilt. We feel guilt. You give in, you feel that shame, and then look in verse eight, it says, the man and the woman, they heard the sound of the Lord God as he's walking in the garden in the cool of the day. So they hid among the trees. They knew that God was there, and they knew they were guilty, and they felt that guilt, and they hid themselves. In that same moment, I'm sure it happens to you because it happens to all of us. We try and hide from God. And a lot of times this takes the place of like we try and justify what we did wrong, right? It's the same kind of hiding. It's trying to put something up in front of you. Yeah, God, I wouldn't have said that if they would just be quiet. Or if they would have just, or this is why I did that. I the only reason I do that thing is because that's just us trying to hide. We're trying to put something up that blocks it and makes it okay. But the thing is, we feel that shame, we feel that guilt, and that's a symptom of feeling that guilt. And there's one other thing that they do here also. It says, But the Lord God called to the man, Where are you? And he answered, I heard you were in the garden and I was afraid. And I was naked, so I hid. We fear. We fear God in that moment when we know we have sinned. Mr. First now was not anywhere close to God, but in that moment he felt like it because he held my life in his hands, didn't he? My seventh-grade mind thought he did anyway. We don't want to, and we hide because we feel this fear. We almost you get that point where after you've committed that sin that you you swore you were never going to do again, you almost don't want to pray. You know that God will forgive you, and yet it's so hard to make that step and go back. You almost want to just pull in and pretend that you're not talking to God or that he's not there. And so the same thing is because we have that fear. And this is all we hear because they heard God walking. We hear God's voice on our heart, and we know that we've sinned, and we've created this barrier between us and God. And so when God calls us, when to talk about our sin, we feel shame, we feel guilt, we feel fear. But what if when God called us, he was calling us not to talk about our sin? What if he was calling us to talk about something else?

SPEAKER_01 15:49

And he was calling us for something else. That's the good news. Resurrection weekend is to celebrate our risen Savior. It's a reminder that Jesus did die for our sins, those sins that caused us all that shame and that guilt and that fear, like being called to the principal's office, or when God called Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Because Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and on the third day he rose again. We have a hope of newness of life, just as Jesus showed us when he triumphantly rose from the grave, conquering death and rising to a newness of life. The same power that raised up Jesus from the dead is alive in us so that we can have Jesus as our Lord and Savior, repent of our sins, put to death that old selfish sin in the waters of baptism to rise up a new creature in Christ, victorious in Christ with a newness of life. Yet, as God called Adam and Eve and many others in the Old Testament, God also calls us. Not to cause shame for us, not to cause guilt, not to cause fear, but he's calling us to walk like we're alive. As Jesus rose up from the grave and he walked, and he wants us to walk like Jesus walked. My section of the sermon, I get to go to Ephesians chapter 4, where we've been studying, and we're going to look at Ephesians chapter 4, 1 through 6, where God calls us. I bet you've recognized that point. But now it's not being called because you've got a problem. He's calling us to step up and do something better. Let me read these verses. Therefore, I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called. With all humility and gentleness and patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, just as you are also 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. I want to point out here in verse six, I want to point out six things here in verses one through six here about this calling. First of all, we're called to walk worthy. Called to walk worthy. But what does that mean? Well, in looking at the life of Jesus, there's one characteristic about his life that truly stands out. Even though he was fully human and fully God, even though he's fully human, he walked worthy. Refusing to sin, resisting sin, resisting temptations. In Hebrews chapter 4, verse 5, I have these scripture references up there, so hopefully you can get those. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 15, we can read that our Jesus is our high priest who can sympathize with us in all of our weaknesses, because he was tempted in all things like unto us, yet without sin. He never sinned. And God wants us to live pure and holy lives. He wants us to change our lives after learning that Jesus is Lord, that He really conquered the grave, that he rose again, and he wants to be our Lord and our Savior. Now He's calling us. I want you to start walking sinless. I don't want you to be selling your fireworks at school. I want you to do things in the right way. I want you to make a very conscious effort to resist sin and be sinless. When Jesus was on trial before Pilate in John chapter 18, Pilate's conclusion after questioning Jesus was, I find no guilt in him. That's John 18, verse 38. If we believe Jesus died for our sins, if we believe that Jesus has risen from the grave to give us a new life and a new beginning, then we as Christians need to start acting like it. And God is calling us, walk in a manner worthy of which I've called you. Stop your sinning. Second, when we look at Jesus, we're also called to walk like Jesus. Especially at this time, we get to remember his death, burial, and resurrection. And he tells us we need to remember that we have been called to walk in humility. As we remember Jesus' death on the cross for us, and then his resurrection, his humility is a very key focus. In fact, Paul wrote in Philippians chapter 2 these words, starting in verse 5: Have this attitude in yourselves, which is also in Christ Jesus, who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as a thing to be grasped, but he emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men, being found in the appearance of a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. One of the keys of being able to walk worthy, resisting sin, is that we need to humble ourselves to say, I am willing to obey God whatever he tells me to do. Instead of claiming, well, no one can tell me what to do. Of course, none of us in this room have ever made that statement. No one's gonna tell me what to do. Well, maybe we have. I know the Bible tells us that in the days of Noah, things were very bad. No one was walking right with the Lord. No one except for Noah. Noah alone found grace in the eyes of the Lord. In today's world, there are many people who are living only for themselves, for their own pleasures, for their own desires. I mean, TV and movies on TV, they promote that attitude. It's all about you. Even the rebellions that are taking place in our great United States are things about people trying to prove we don't want anybody to tell us what to do. There's no kings, there's no this, there's no that. They don't want law and order because no one's going to tell me what to do. But God has called us to walk in a manner worthy of the calling. And part of that calling is to walk like Jesus, and that means being humble enough to give up your own pleasures to submit to God in all things. We have been called by the Almighty God, the one who raised up Jesus from the dead, and that's what we celebrate, especially this weekend. That we are to walk in humility, being willing to empty ourselves to become. Obedient to God in everything. When he says we need to believe in Jesus, then be humble enough to believe in Jesus. When he commands us to repent of our sins, then be willing to be humble enough to repent of your sins. When he orders us to be baptized in his name in the waters of baptism in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins, be willing to humble yourself and be obedient, be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins. When he demands that we are faithful until death, then be humble enough to be faithful unto death. We are definitely not greater than Jesus, and if Jesus was willing to humble himself to become obedient in all things, even to the point of death on a cross, who are we not to be willing to be humble? Even to the point of being obedient to him in all things. We are called also to walk in gentleness. But how do we define gentleness? Again, I look to the life of Jesus, especially when he was going to the cross, and we remember that, especially this weekend. Matthew chapter 26, starting in verse 47, Judas is leading a crowd out to Jesus to betray him with a kiss. And in verse 50 of Matthew 26, Jesus tells him, Friend, and there is an R in there. There's an R in that. It isn't fiend, it is friend. He's telling this to Judas, who is going to betray him. He says, Come and do what you're supposed to do. Jesus did nothing to stop Judas from betraying him with a kiss. And then when one of his disciples pulled out a sword and he struck the ear of the slave of one of the men, remember what Jesus said? Put away the sword. And then he healed the man's ear. That's gentleness. Well, what I find really impressive is when you read in Matthew's account, Jesus says to his disciples, Do you not know that I can appeal to my Father and He will at once put at disposal to me twelve legions of angels? Now, legion's a term we don't use very often, but if you look it up, a legion in the Romans aspect of that time period is four to six thousand soldiers. Twelve legions, if it was just five thousand right in the middle, that's sixty thousand angels. Do you not know that I have sixty thousand angels that I can take care of these guys with? If you remember back in the Old Testament, there was one event where one angel went and destroyed 185,000 soldiers. Can you imagine what an army of 60,000 could do? And yet Jesus is extremely gentle. Friend? Go ahead. Betray me. No, let's not fight then, let's just go. That's gentleness. Instead of fighting against flesh and blood, Jesus looked at the real battle that was going on, and he willingly humbled himself to be obedient and laid down his life for us. And we are called to walk in gentleness. Ephesians 4 2 also points out we're called to walk with patience. Again, when I look at Jesus in the trials he was going through, Mark chapter 14. He was on trial before the chief priests and the whole council, and the people were coming forward, and they were giving false testimony against Jesus. They were misquoting Jesus. They were out and out lying. They were failing to make any sense because they were contradicting each other. The high priest could tell that the false testimony wasn't accomplishing what they wanted to do. And he looks over at Jesus and he says, Don't you hear what they are saying to you? And I demand that you speak. You know what it tells us? Mark chapter 14, verse 61. Jesus kept silent and did not answer. That's patience. Can you imagine such a time? Whole bunch of people falsely accusing you? Are you going to just sit there and take it? Without yelling and screaming back at them? Wow. That's what we've been called to do. To be patient. I once read about a woman who was complaining to her doctor about all the arguments she and her husband were having. And they just would escalate and they'd just get horribly bad. And she was going, Do you have anything you can give my husband to keep him from arguing with me? The doctor looked at her and said, I've got just the right prescription, but it's for you. For me? Yeah, what you do, the next time an argument starts, you go get a glass of water, take a big gulp, and swish it back and forth in your mouth until he calms down. What? Just do it. She did it. And after about a month, she came back for a checkup and said, You would not believe it. My marriage is so much better, there's hardly any arguments. How did a glass of water for me stop these arguments? Well, because every time you had that water in there, you weren't talking back. That's quite a thought to think about. Patience and silence. And that's what Jesus calls us to do: to be patient. We've been made new creatures through Jesus. Jesus died. He rose again, and now we're called to walk like him, to walk in a manner worthy, to walk in humility, to walk in gentleness, to walk in patience. And we have been called to walk in love. I have several Bible verses down here to let us see Jesus demonstrating his love as he went to the cross. Luke chapter 23, there, starting in verse 28, we read about Jesus. He's heading to Golgotha. And on his way, there were women who were weeping for him, and he turns to them. He says, Stop weeping for me, start weeping for yourselves and for your children. That's love and kindness. He wasn't trying to get everybody to pay attention to him. He was concerned about other people. And not only that, but he keeps on going on. He gets to the cross, they nail him to the cross, and there's a thief on the right and a thief on the right, on the left, one on each side of him, and they're hurling insults at him as it tells us about this. And then all of a sudden, one of them says, Hey, you know what? He's innocent. We deserve what we're getting. Tells the other guy to quit insulting him. And then he turns to Jesus. He says, Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingdom. Do you remember what Jesus' reply was? No way, man. You've been insulting me. That's not what it was. It was today you will be with me in paradise. That's love. He knew that guy was a sinner. He deserves to be crucified. He knew he had been insulting Jesus. And he shows love, kindness, compassion, forgiveness. He didn't keep an account of all the evil the man had done and say, I'm sorry, man, you just have not made it up for. You've got to do a lot more than that. Start begging. No. He said, Today you'll be with me in paradise. Jesus showed love, a love that reached beyond a common kindness, to go an extra mile, to love the unlovable. Is there anyone in your life that you have been struggling to love and forgive? Some of you are laughing and looking away and not wanting to pay attention right now. I'm telling you, look at the example of Jesus. He showed us this calling to walk in a manner worthy of our calling. And it is about love and forgiving. He forgave that man. He promised him life in paradise with Jesus. Can we realize that the same God who could raise up Jesus from the dead, and we're celebrating that, is calling us to walk in that kind of love and forgive other people. Even people have been mean and abusive towards us. Resurrection weakened is to remember how Jesus rose from the dead. It's to bring us a hope of a newness of life. Resurrected to live for him for eternity. God has called us to walk worthy, to walk in humility, to walk in gentleness, to walk with patience, to walk in love. And verse 3 points out, called to walk in unity. When Jesus rose from the dead, it tells us in John chapter 20 that Jesus appeared to the ten disciples in a locked room. First thing he says to them is, peace be with you. It wasn't you unfaithful, abandoning men. Why didn't you stay with me? No. Peace be with you. Some of us probably would have started in there berating him and telling him, What is wrong with you? But no. Jesus prayed before he went to the cross in John chapter 17 for unity. Now he's showing us how unity works. He comes back to the same guys who had abandoned him. He says, Peace be with you. Love you guys. Let's have a great day. Came in love and forgiveness because he didn't just bring up all their past sins. He realized unity isn't based upon always bringing up the past. It's about going forward. Remember, Thomas wasn't there. And when Jesus leaves, and the disciples see Thomas later and they tell him, We've seen the risen Savior. He's going, I'm not believing that until I put my finger in those holes, put my hand in the side. The next week Jesus appears. And Thomas is there. Remember how he treats him? You doubter. No, that's not it. Peace be with you. Thomas, come here. Put your finger here. Put your hand here. And don't be disbelieving, but believe. There was no grudge holding. There was no holding back because, Thomas, you slipped up. You didn't agree. It was all about love and unity. In John chapter 21, I got that verse up passage up there. Jesus meets his disciples up by the Sea of Tiberias. We call it the Sea of Galilee. And he does a miracle for them. They've been fishing all night. They haven't caught any fish. He's walking on the shore. He tells them, throw your net out on the other side. They do it. And they get this great big catch of fish. And they get themselves to the shore. And what has Jesus done? He's made them breakfast. He loves them. And he wants to reach out to them. He's made them breakfast. He doesn't say, hey guys, fix me a meal. He made them breakfast. And then he starts questioning Peter. Peter, do you love me? And gives Peter a chance to say, Yes, Lord, I love you. And then he gives him an assignment. Well, tend my lambs. Shepherd my sheep. Tend my sheep. Jesus doesn't kick Peter out for the three denials. Instead, Jesus lets Peter give three assurances. Yes, I love you. And then gives him responsibility to watch over and take care of God's people. So many people want to turn on somebody who's offended them. They want to run away from a church because I got my feelings hurt at that church. They want to find faults in others to justify why they're leaving. If anyone ever had a reason to leave a group of people, Jesus did. But he doesn't leave them. He comes back to them and he loves them and he makes them breakfast and he treats them because Jesus demonstrated unity. Jesus was raised up from the dead. We're celebrating that this weekend. And he set the example for us of how to live in a manner worthy of the calling with which we have been called. He set the example to walk in humility and in gentleness and patience and love and unity. And Paul continues on in verses 4 through 6 to emphasize this unity theme because there is one body, there is one spirit. Just as you have been called in, one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is in all and through all. Ephesians 4 may not specifically stress the resurrection of Jesus, but it does stress that Jesus, who has been raised from the dead, has called us to live differently, to call to live like Jesus. To walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which we have been called. We're called to walk like Jesus, worthy of that calling. And this is the calling that God has given to us not to create shame, not to create guilt, not to create fear. This isn't the calling. Jared Prickett to the office. This is the calling. Hey, bud, can I talk to you? I love you. You ever get those calls? Somebody's just calling, let you know how much they love you, and that I'm rooting for you. And that's what Jesus is doing. God's calling us. Will you answer that call? Are you willing to start walking a new life just as Jesus walked for us? Lord, I thank you for this passage, and I ask, Lord, that you would help us to realize you have called us, not to try to cause fear and trembling in us and guilt and shame. But you've called us to walk like Jesus did. And as we remember on this weekend the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus, help us to walk like Jesus did. Help us to surrender in all areas of our lives. Thank you, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen.