A Worthy Walk, Part 3

The bond of peace is secured when we work in harmony when they see a truly happy church, when they see a church of any size working in harmony. There is unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

There is one body and one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. We title today's message, A Worthy Walk. Let me tell you something that's far more important than growing larger and that's growing deeper.

Far more important than numerical size is the size of our maturity, the depth of our roots. That's what the apostle is pleading for. But it isn't going to be easy. That's why it's the Spirit's work through us.

It's not the work of the flesh. He says to walk in a manner worthy of the calling and now he tells us what is involved in that. The walk that is worthy is a walk that is full of humility, gentleness, patience, tolerance for one another and all of it done in love. You carry these things out, you'll get along well in your small group ministry with one another. You'll be able to make it without too many arguments because there's humility, gentleness, patience, tolerance for one another and it's in love. Humility, that means putting Christ first, others second, self last.

Very simple formula. Christ first, others second, self last. Humility isn't a living doormat.

Don't let anyone ever tell you that. That's not Christ's definition of humility. It's a lowliness of mind toward one's own merit. Humility, one of these five foundations stone, is Christ-like. Matthew 11, 28 to 30, come to me all you who are heavy laden and I will give you rest, for I am meek and lowly in heart.

There it is. The only time Christ ever described himself in his temperament was in Matthew 11, 28 to 30 and he calls himself humble of heart. One man writes, lowliness was much despised in the ancient world.

The Greeks never used their word for humility in the context of approval. Still less of admiration. The crouching submissiveness of a slave, that's what they meant.

An abject, servile, subservient attitude. Not till Jesus Christ came was a true humility recognized. He humbled himself. Only he, among the world's religious and ethical leaders, has set before us as our model a little child. Think of that.

He came and said, except you be as a little child, you can't come into the kingdom. The self-forgetfulness of a child. One of the things we love about children.

It's remarkable at times. Next word is gentleness. See that word? This is a synonym for weakness in many people's minds, but meekness is not weakness. Did you know in the etymology of this word it has in mind strength under control? The meek person thinks as little of his personal claims as the humble person thinks of his personal merits.

This is the absence of any disposition to assert personal rights. I'm going to ask you, is that rare in the 21st century? Probably as rare as any quality we could name. When is the last time you met a strong, natural leader who was humble and meek?

You can number them on one hand, usually with fingers left over. Christ was like that. The whole point of this is that when you walk in a manner worthy of the calling, you will be like Christ and the world will notice. You have to wear a badge, have to wave flags, not have to put symbols on the back of your car or wear a necklace, the big cross on it.

You don't have to do that. You'll walk the walk and you won't be able to deny it. In fact, he says there's a diligence involved in living like this. Look at the diligence in verse 3, being diligent to preserve the unity of the spirit and the bond. Think of the word belt with the belt of peace around this body.

Isn't that a great word picture? Diligent to preserve the unity. Think about it. You don't even create the unity. The unity is there. It's in the bond of peace in the spirit. When you step into it, you are a part of the preservation of it.

The apostle is imploring ministers, congregational members, believers, young and old alike, lay down the arms, pick up the belt of peace, preserve it. It's a good place for me to pause and just meddle. Are you a gossip?

Please don't answer out loud or don't answer for your mate. Do you gossip? Do you spread rumors? Do you sow discord among the family of God? Why do you do that? Why would you want to live so disobediently? Do you share confidential information that causes a disruption in the body of Christ?

Why, if you do that? Where did you learn that? You didn't learn it from Christ.

You learned it from maybe religious roots, or you learned it from some bad teacher who may have been a friend, or you cultivated it out of your own cesspool of depravity. Maybe that's where it came from, but remember in the war, loose lips sink ships? Some of you are old enough to remember that.

Most of you are looking at me like, where are you from? There was a Second World War way back then, and remember seeing the motto, loose lips sink ships, and if you talk too much, the result was a sunken ship. I'm going to tell you something even worse than that now. Loose lips split churches. If you're an officer at Stonebriar Community Church, right alongside purity is confidentiality, and right alongside confidentiality is self-control. Keep your mouth shut. You are dealing with information at times that is absolutely scandalous, difficult for the leadership to work through. You gain nothing in your insecurity of running off at the mouth by telling that information to another group that they might pray more intelligently.

Please. If you are not confidential, you should not be an officer in this church. I should not be a pastor. Sowing discord among the brothers is breaking of the unity and failing to preserve it. Job one for the believer is to preserve it. Do you disturb the peace?

That's another way of putting it, isn't it? They arrest you for doing that outside. No one is here to arrest you, but you need to know the impact of a disturbed peace in a church.

It's horrible. Lives are broken, fractured, sometimes irreparably harmed because we break the peace. The bond of peace is secured when we work in harmony with each other, when we allow love to flow freely and we forgive quickly. The most powerful testimony a church can demonstrate is unity. Don't think the world doesn't spot it. It amazes them when they see a truly happy church, when they see a church of any size working in harmony.

The lost may be unsaved. They're not ignorant and they're not blind. Why do you think a number of those cowboys would say, even though they didn't embrace the Savior as Tom Landry did, he walked the walk.

They saw it. He was different than other coaches they played for. One man had lost his wife and the game was coming that weekend. Coach Landry said to him, I know you're going through a terrible time.

You don't have to play. He said, do you know, Chuck, it was a playoff game. I was a starting running back for the team. And he said, if you don't feel up to it, you don't have to play. He said, when we ran out on the field, he had tears in his eyes as he put his arms around me in the locker room. He said, I want you to know I prayed through the night for you and what you're going through. And I realized then that my life meant more to him than the game we were about to play.

Can you name many coaches like that? If you can, they're walking the walk. Is this important? Well, you answer that. The entire trinity is behind it. The entire trinity. Verse 4 is the Spirit, circle that. Verse 5 is Christ the Lord, circle that.

Verse 6 is the Father, God, circle that. One body, that's Jew and Gentile living in harmony. One Spirit, that's of course the work of the Holy Spirit, same in all the lives of the believers. There's one hope of our calling to be like Christ.

There's no other mark. There's no other hope to be holy and blameless according to chapter 1, verse 4 of Ephesians. One Lord, salvation is based on the sacrifice of one death by faith alone in Christ alone. What hope that is for the Hindu who has 10,000 gods never knowing which one he can appease.

What hope it is for the pagan who doesn't know which god to follow and they're all angry. Here is a heavenly Father in the Lord Jesus Christ who is smiling because he has paid the price for sins and he is the one Lord through one faith and the one identifying sign, baptism. Baptism of the Spirit, yes I think so.

But baptism in water, whatever mode you may choose, the point is baptizo means to identify or identification and it's one sense of identification and it's not some denominational name. It is Christ. It is Christian. It is follower of Jesus, one baptism, one God and Father of all and talk about a high view of God who is over all, that's his sovereignty, who is through all, that's his omnipotence and who is in all, that's his omnipresence.

Magnificent statement of unity. Remember Paul's on his knees pleading with us saying why do you squabble over which mode of baptism? Why do you argue over which denomination is the best? Why don't you talk to a charismatic friend? Now understand I am not charismatic. This church is not a charismatic church but folks we're going to have to learn how to get along down here.

We're going to spend eternity together so we might as well get into practice now. It's okay. It's okay. You say well that sounds pretty liberal to me. Actually it isn't liberal at all. It's just very unified. If you're so narrow you can't see that, you're part of the problem. This is a unity that opens itself to wherever Christ is named. Instead of fighting for one's rights and arguing over the nitpicking petty details, it is saying in effect stand together in the body and march in step with each other folks because time is short and the message is getting garbled.

Unity. Harry Ironside tells a great story that's a true story from his own life. He was sick on one occasion and he had been involved in a series of meetings in Minnesota and was forced to return home by train which was the best mode of travel back then all the way back to California. He could barely stand up.

He was so sick. So this pastor of a church had the porter fix him up with a lower berth so he could really recline there most of the day as he worked through this illness. The first morning he just quietly opened his Bible to have some time alone with the Lord.

A stout German woman walked by and said, What's that? A Bible? And he said, Yes, it's a Bible. Wait, I will get my own Bible and I will have Bible teaching with you.

We do this together. A short time later a tall gentleman walked by according to Ironside and asked, What are you reading? He was Norwegian. Ironside told him, he said, I think I'll go get my own Bible. Each morning these three met and others began to connect with them. Ironside wrote that once there were 28 people reading from 28 different Bibles and that conductor would walk through the train saying, The camp meeting is beginning down in car 13.

All are invited. It was a great experience, says Ironside. At the end of the trip the cars were divided up when they got to Sacramento.

Some to go north, some to go south. The German woman asked, What denomination are you anyway? Ironside replied, I belong to the same denomination that David did. Really?

What was that? I didn't know that David belonged to denomination. Well, yes, David wrote that he was a companion of all them that fear God and keep his precepts. Oh, yeah, that's a very good church to belong to. Yeah, that's good.

And he said the harmony in their fellowship was remarkable. My wife these days is spending time in India, the great country of India. She's never been there before and we're in touch with each other by phone every day. Right now she's in Madras.

It's now known as Chennai on the southern coast near the Indian Ocean. Couldn't be further from home. Feels like she's been gone six months.

It's only been nine days. I said to her, How is it? She said, Well, the best part of the trip is the fellow believers can't understand a word they're saying. Don't understand their culture.

Never seen sites like this in my life. But as she chokes up, she said, But I'll tell you, we belong to the same family. Isn't that a great line? We belong to the same family.

Amazing. She can't even read from the Bible they're reading from and worshiping with. She doesn't understand the songs in the language of the people.

But she stands to say a few things with the help of a translator and she said the response is phenomenal as they link up with her heart and her with theirs. The belt of peace is tight around the body of Christ in Madras. I want it like that here. I want it like that here. We're all different. We have different temperaments. We have different gifts. We have different scars. We have different backgrounds. We have different convictions.

That's why I love you because you're so opinionated. You've got strong convictions. People without convictions are wimps. I've got convictions in case you haven't noticed.

You don't want me without convictions. But surely people with great convictions, though not agreeing at every little jot and tittle, link up together because greater is he who is in us than he who is in that world out there. And he cheers with great delight when another church splits and another Christian stops talking to a brother or a sister. Stop that!

That is no way for adult believers to act. We are linked together. We are on our way to heaven together. Please give room and understanding, a little freedom to those who don't agree with every jot and tittle that marks you out as an individual. The only one we have to agree with fully is Christ.

And he's easier to live with than any one of us. I'll tell you that. Let's bow together. Let's close our eyes. Just sit quietly before the Lord, will you? It's very convicting for all of us.

We are all so passionate about our pursuits, and we should be. We never want mediocrity to mark our lives. It certainly didn't mark Christ's life. After all, he died for what he believed, and he was only 33. They killed him. He gave up his life. It was that important that he pay the price for your sins and for mine. It was essential that he die. He died misunderstood and maligned and mistreated and tortured and hated.

Had we been there in our lost condition, we would have driven the nails right along with the Roman soldier. He walked the walk. He lived the life. He paid the price.

That's why we love him so. If you've never come to the level ground of the cross, then I invite you to do that today, right now. Right now. Step on in the family of unity. Join ranks with fellow sinners who are learning to live like saints.

It takes a lifetime. Now, Lord, this is straight talk, and this doesn't win votes, but it gets attention, and it teaches truth, and your way is the best, and forbid that we ever go any other way. We've tried those ways.

They're all dead-end streets, or they lead into swamps. So I pray that you will give us a sense of recommitment to this matter of unity and harmony and confidentiality and purity and love and tolerance and patience, your words, gentleness, humility, and the bond of peace. May we model that, Lord, at Stonebriar Community Church. May we model that when we're at home, in our neighborhood, at our work, behind the steering wheel of our cars, when we're doing business, when we're at the store, when we're meeting new friends and having a chance to impact another life, give us great harmony, Lord, as you grow us up, grow us deep. Now unto Him who is able to guard us from stumbling and to present us faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy to the only wise God, our Savior. Be glory and majesty, dominion and power forever and ever.

And all God's people said, amen. Do it again. Amen. One more time. Amen. Great.

Get out of here. Time to live it. When we hear God's Word, we're expected to do something about it. So as Chuck Swindoll said, let's go out and live it. An appropriate way to conclude today's Insight for Living. To learn more about this ministry, visit us online at insightworld.org. If you're feeling motivated to take your next steps, we encourage you to dig deeper into Paul's letter at your own pace. And to help guide your study in this New Testament book, remember Chuck has written a full-length commentary on Ephesians. As you'd expect from Chuck, the commentary is laid out in a format that's practical, easy to read and filled with opportunities to apply what you've learned to everyday life. Plus this particular volume comes with Chuck's commentary on Galatians as well. It's called Swindoll's Living Insight Commentary on Galatians and Ephesians. So to purchase this 300-page hardbound commentary right now, go to insight.org slash store.

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Be listening Tuesday to Insight for Living. The preceding message, A Worthy Walk, was copyrighted in 2000, 2001, and 2009. And the sound recording was copyrighted in 2009 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.