Congregation, blessings from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. May God's mercy and grace shine upon you more and more. I invite you now to turn with me in your Bibles to our text this morning, which is Ephesians 4, verses 1 through 3. That is Ephesians 4, 1 through 3. We already read it during the prayer meeting, but Lord, we will read it Once more, hear now the word of the Lord. I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with long-suffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. And congregation, I ask us to pray once more. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, you are the amazing God who is love. You are full of mercy and grace. Nothing compares to your majesty and in the truth, that truth, we sing hallelujah. We come before you in prayer once again to lift up pastoral, my pastoral petitions to you. We pray that you continue to have mercy on us as we look at sacred scripture this morning. Our renewed yet stained by sin minds are prone to distort your word, and we ask that you guard us from such foolish things. May we not be habitual stealers of your many crowns, O God, and may we not make ourselves wiser than you. Let us be prepared to accept your word and with full force walk the path laid out for us. Lord of lords, king of kings, this text has much wisdom and teaching for us to consider. And may the sermon be received well and glorify you. Lord, please protect my speech. May there be no perversion of the flesh on my lips so that the pureness of your words may be taught undisturbed. Remove me from the equation and may Christ and him crucified and his word be at center stage. May it be heard by the congregation, heard by me, and may we all be fed by it. Let us give you all the praise and press forward. And in Christ's name we say, amen. Members of Centennial Baptist Church, it is my desire to make the case to you this morning that the Apostle Paul is not talking merely to the Church of Ephesus here, but that we all are to heed his call to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called and explain the imputed characteristics of said walk. In short, God instructs here to walk in this way. It is my desire that this sermon may be a benefit for all of us to hear. And I don't say that lightly, and I know I say that every week. that I desire a benefit for all the congregation here to be fed week in, week out by the preaching of God's word and the teaching of God's word. And I legitimately desire for our ears to hear God's word today and the communication of biblical truth. If all that I have to say is things you already know and practice, then give thanks to the Lord. Give thanks to the Lord for even the reminders of his truth, which he gives when he sees fit. If you didn't already know but still practice them, then thank God for the disposition that he has given you and that you have been blessed by. And if you know that this is what we are to do, but are not putting your knowledge into practice, then I implore you, make today the day that your gratitude for the things of the Lord draws you to act. And if you don't know nor practice what is being said in the passage this morning, then I implore you to seek the things of the Lord, dive into his word with us, and be blessed by the riches described within it. Again, there is much benefit for all sorts and kinds of Christians for us here in this passage. And for some context, I want us to consider really the condition of Christianity in America, which could be illustrated by one who walks with their feet twisted while going down a steep hill while the way is covered in slick ice. And you might be wondering, Pastor Winter, that seems like a little harsh of an exaggeration of where the church is in the United States. And I unfortunately don't think it's too over the top for a number of reasons. The Christian finds his or herself in a strange new world that we often find ourselves stumbling in time and time again. Gone are the days of where we debated the roles of men and women. We look like old school people now, even questioning such things. And soon, too, will the postmodern debates about what is a woman will be considered old hat and we will be considered weird for these discussions. Yes, now is the dawning of the post-postmodern, which is whatever you decide is actually a great foundational truth. So it's no longer about what is in reality a woman, but more of what is your reality. And therefore, that is what is true. This is the world we find ourselves in, and again, it's a strange world that we unfortunately become more and more comfortable to. It is a frog slowly being boiled, where reality and objective truth are exchanged for perception of reality, and it is exchanged for relativity of truth being superior. And this is what can be described as individualist supremacy. and has become an issue in the church where it's the individual who determines, not the corporate body. It's the individual who determines when and where or how many times to attend religious services regularly. When you look at the stats in America today, three out of 10 Americans attend religious services regularly. A part of the body So if you look at three out of ten, that means seven out of ten parts of the body do not attend regular church service. And if you want to get to the root, or actually far worse, Mormons, compared, have two-thirds of their membership regularly attending, when Protestants have 44%. They have 66% of their members, while we, with the gospel truth, have 44. This has caused some churches to look at these numbers and go, what is going on? And some of the answers that they have come up with are shocking. that in order for us to get the body back, we need to become niche. We need to find things that are niche and what would be relevant. So I recall a megachurch in San Diego where each of their campuses have different styles of worship to cater different parts of the body. And they have different aesthetics for each campus and different pastors for each campus that is then piping live stream footage of the teaching pastor, which by the way, he would reject the term pastor and just say, I'm a teacher. Catering to the individual's needs and not the gathered body. You then have examples in California, and this is particular for California because we like our cars here. drive-through movie theater churches, which Alia reminded me that this became popular during COVID for particular reasons. But prior to that, there were certainly drive-in movie theaters where you could park your car, don't have to get out of the car at all. And then there's someone else in front preaching. So everyone, you don't have pews, you just have hopefully whatever comfortable seat your car has. And I didn't realize that that was a desire for folks, that I want both church, but I also want to be in my car for as long as the church service happens. I don't realize that there are individuals that desire such things. And actually, it's not perhaps desire. It is for sure a desire, or there wouldn't have been a need. I fear this spells a future of hyper-individualistic churches that cater to people's preferences rather than God's word. It's catering to the finger of the body and not God's word, which is for the entirety of the body. We are called to be members of biblical local churches, and we don't determine the church based on individualistic preferences, but on scripture. We are to refrain from hopping from one church to the next based simply on the winds of individualistic desire. It is the same said scripture that tells us how we are to operate inside and outside of the church. And said teaching reveals that the individualism of modernity has very little to do with the biblical language of the corporate body that is used time and time again. In our text of Ephesians 4, verses 1 through 3 gives us an idea of how that corporate body, the one body, should function both inside and outside of itself. Which brings me to this first verse for our consideration. Ephesians 4, 1, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called. For context, The I here, the one speaking, is the Apostle Paul. It is this blessed writer of most of the New Testament that is doing the beseeching. He is doing so not at the highest moment of his life, according to probably our standards, but perhaps what we might say his darkest, because this letter is often grouped with others and labeled, what, the prison epistles. We can read in Acts regarding other times he and others were jailed time and time again, and each instance of their imprisonment was not because of sin, but because of their continual preaching of the gospel, telling people about our risen Lord and Savior. It was this that caused the authorities to lock up these men of God, to arrest Paul. And because of such things, this is why Paul does use the language of prisoner of the Lord, both here and back in Ephesians 3.1, when he calls himself a prisoner of Christ Jesus. He does this, why? In order to add gravitas towards what he's about to say. It is persuasive weight behind the words he is about to say, such as when someone says, I, as the pastor of CBC, tell you this, or I, as an officer of the court, tell you this, or I, as the president of the United States, often has some weight to it. and so on. And why do we do that? Why do men and all authorities say things like this? Because it serves as a quick reminder of who is talking. It gives the bona fides. The legitimacy, the credentials of the speaker, for we then are to lend an ear to what they are saying. That this is not some homeless person on the street who has no knowledge of things, but this is the Apostle Paul. the servant, the prisoner of the Lord speaking. The title Paul rightly gives himself here is not meant to be a pompous title, but one that in part recognizes reality. He is or has been a prisoner. Parts of his life have been in captivity. The life he once lived prior persecuting Christians to now he a convert being persecuted. then the other half is that he is a prisoner for the Lord's sake. And that is a truth that we ought to meditate, that this is all happening under the sovereignty of our Lord. It was the providential plan of God to see Paul in chains, and therefore the truth ultimately is that he is not ultimately a prisoner of the Roman Empire or a prisoner of the Jews, but he is a prisoner of the Lord. that he is in prison for preaching and teaching Christ. He is in prison while also professing the Lord is sovereign. Paul mentions this not in a prideful way, but so the weight of his words may be felt. This prisoner, or if you have the ESV, instead of the prisoner of the Lord, the ESV puts the prisoner in the Lord. He beseeches the people of God here. And perhaps some of you are going, okay, he's beseeching, but what does beseeching mean in the modern day? No one says that term. ESV doesn't use beseech here, and it helps give us a commentary, but instead reads urge. Paul, a prisoner of the Lord, is urging here. I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of your calling. The Greek word here is translated in other ways as well. It can be translated as implore, exhort, and the King James uses in Acts 27, I pray. And when Acts 27 reads, wherefore I pray you to take some meat. So we can conclude. the apostle is calling us to heed his words and desire for us to take the instruction given. He is exhorting us similar to the way a minister exhorts his congregation, like I will later on. It's similar but different. How so? Because your pastor's exhortation is not held to the same level as exhortation found in scripture. Scripture is scripture. No, we ministers are not perfect and fallible human beings. God's word is infallible. Therefore, when it exhorts us, it is an infallible exhortation. God's Word is incapable of making mistakes, and God's Word cannot be wrong. We can't, as Bible believers, look at the Apostle Paul's words and say, that's great for him, but not for me. It stands as a standard for the words of man to be measured by. In other words, Don't read this passage as a mere exhortation by mere man, but is the exhortation of God himself to his church. The people of God, and therefore it is infallible, and it never loses its weight. So what are we being exhorted to do here? Well, in general, it is to walk worthy of the calling in which you were called. I say in general because the text certainly does continue past verse 1 and details how we are to walk. With lowliness and gentleness, we are to walk. With longsuffering, we are to walk. With bearing with one another in love, we are to walk. With endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace, we are to walk. The way we are to walk is not left open for the individual to determine, but we as a body have been given instructions. The peculiar circumstances of said walk will certainly look different for each individual believer of the Lord, but none of us are to ignore the teaching of the text when we consider the peculiarities So it doesn't matter if you are a new believer or old. It doesn't matter whether you're a pastor, deacon, or member. We all are exhorted here. And what we also ought to keep in mind here is that the call is not just an external exhortation, but an internal one. Internally, you are to remember, we are to remember, the calling with which we were called. That is to then drive you to walk in a proper manner. Beloved, Scripture is not looking for mere external submission here. It's not, and we are not meant to simply tickle the ears of men by paying lip service, which often external submission can turn into. We are to have what is called a heart change. We are to have a heart change as well. We are to walk in light of God, calling us out of darkness into light. We are to walk in the way found in 1 Thessalonians. Walk worthy of God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. Brothers and sisters. God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. We have been snatched and freed from the bondage of sin into liberty found in Christ. The efficacious power of our thrice holy God has called you out of the world of fallen man into his kingdom. So we children of God, bought by Christ, are to therefore go forth and walk in the ways of the light, ways of the Lord. We are to walk by faith on Christ, like Paul who walked to the prison made by man, knowing that he has been freed by he who is the king of kings. Have you thought about that? That Paul is knowingly going to prison, going, okay, you can put me behind bars, But I'm still free. I can die behind these bars. But the chains are already gone. He has been freed by he who is the king of kings. We are told to walk in this way. First, with all lowliness and gentleness. And let me play Webster here and give you something to work with. We ought to see lowliness to mean a freedom from pride or one source puts it a humbleness in mind. In our walk, we are to be free from the feeling of deep pleasure from one's own achievement and achievement of others, as well as keep a modest to low estimate of one's own importance. The word in Greek that we translate this from is often translated in other parts of scripture, humility. In a particular version of the scripture, this is coupled with gentleness, or King James translates the same word in 1 Peter 3.15, meekness. Taking that all into consideration, and to summarize it, we are exhorted to be gentle, and we are exhorted to be lowly, just as Christ was gentle and lonely. We are to be Christ-like. Matthew 11 29 records the words of the Lord when he said, take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls. Does it not fit into the Christian pursuit of killing sin and being more Christ-like, to be more gentle and lowly? When we do at least this one thing, I can tell you that the impact is tremendous. Christians no longer envying the gifts and the grace of others, but as one puts it, rejoicing at them and at every increase of them, rejoicing more and more. Going beyond this form of humility leads to one being teachable, understanding that we don't know everything. It can be extremely difficult to teach folks who think they know everything. Hidden it close to home, they can read John Calvin. They can read Benjamin Keech. They can read every book of the Puritan. They memorize the Confession. Yet they can't receive instruction on basic Christian thought and doctrine that they missed in their upbringing. Such as to show intellectual humility. Accepting the fact that you might be wrong. and will at times be very wrong. If we want to go even further, it means the weakening of our attempts to will things to happen and submitting to the will of God in all circumstances. I don't know about you, but I believe many of us struggle with not having our will and plans in the driver's seat. Beloved, I think many of you know my testimony about coming to Centennial Baptist Church. If left to my will, prior to visiting Centennial Baptist Church, Allie and I, at this time, would be shoveling snow in Carson City, instead of planning a fellowship meal with the local church. that we are to have today. Thankfully, the Lord and his plans are sovereign, and they are over the plans of man. And he causes a heart change. And the more I came to visit, and soon, he caused a heart change, the more and more I came to visit, and soon you are left to submit to the Lord's will, to wave the white towel and say, Lord, wherever you will lead and have us, we will go. That's submission to the Lord's plan. That is showing a heart of gentleness and being lowly. I thank the Lord for it because you are a wonderful congregation. It needs to be said, a wonderful congregation And I would have missed the opportunity to minister to you all. The Lord has grown my family and I personally and my family here, which I believe he has done for you as well. And for that, I give the Lord thanks for his mercy and grace shown to us regularly in this church. And I think this ties into the next thing we are told in this passage, which is that we are to walk this way with what? Long suffering. longsuffering. As the commentator writes, this means we are to bear much and long with the infirmities of each other without being easily provoked to anger by any ill usage and not immediately meditating and seeking revenge for every affront given or injury done." Long-suffering is certainly an interesting reference here because in Galatians 5.22 we are told what? That it is one of the fruits of the Spirit. God desires that this trait is found amongst His people. When someone crosses us, whether in the church or out in the world, we are not to grab our pitchforks and our weapons and seek revenge, but trust in the Lord. Trust in the Lord. When a member of the church does something that is deemed egregious, we, of course, do not lash out in anger. Instead, approach them with mercy and grace. Approach the brother who has offended you, and if it be resolved, rejoice that you have gained a brother. Of course, there are times where our long suffering looks like we don't mention something and wait to see if the Lord resolves it. And because there is much wisdom in doing so. And I think it's connected to the idea in 1 Corinthians 13, 4 that charity suffereth long. Or in New King James speak, love suffers long and is kind. Yet it needs to be pointed out that to bear much and long with the affirmatives of each other doesn't always mean that we are always silent. I can tell you with my experiences with individuals whose infirmities were something as severe as drug abuse, that to hear, to bear the burden alongside them was to not remain silent, but to address the elephant in the room. To bear the burden was to watch him admit to his friends that he stole money from them and taking the time out of our day to schedule those meetings and to have the time to sit there next to him and to confess these things. To bear the burden was to take time to bring this person to rehab for the second time. to bring something else that is not as severe as drug abuse to, to kind of bring another example to help this idea come home. Another example is young men and women in Christ that so desire to be married, but they have so many areas to grow in, that there are many offenses that are upon them. Do we stay silent, or do we work together to help relieve this burden? I think, of course, we ought to help them. Going, brother, you're blind to the fact that what you're doing right now is an offense. I think we can all find examples of that happening in the Christian church. And I could give you examples that are both comical and examples that are strange and bizarre, But I don't think I need to here. That we ought to, of course, go help these brothers that are perhaps unknowingly offending many others. Men ought to share the burdens of young men in this way, and women likewise with younger women. That happens. so much that I think it's important for us to realize that this is us living as the church body doing this. To bear one another's burdens does not always mean to be silent about them, for they could become more severe problems. Or we could have so many things that we have been silent about that we're a walking powder keg waiting to explode Because we have fallen, unfortunately, into the trap of keeping a record of one's wrong. When we read in 1 Corinthians 13, 5, thinketh not evil, or the love does not keep a record of wrongs, as the translation reads. The King James puts it, thinketh not evil. To be long-suffering doesn't always mean to suffer in silence, brothers and sisters. There are times after much prayer and consideration where you go to the person and with hand in hand go, I am going to help you through this infirmity. I am going to share the burden with you, brother in Christ, sister in Christ. with locked arms help each other through these infirmities. Christ and the example that he gives us in scripture helped the blind man see, and so ought we to help fellow saints who are in need. One of the big reasons why Christians are to be long-suffering is based, yes, on our Lord being long-suffering, not just to unbelieving fallen folks, but to his own people as well. Let's call things the way it is. Whenever we think that we have done enough bearing of each other's burdens, that now we can rightfully do this, or rightfully do that. And maybe it gets all the way to the point where we can now seek revenge, which I don't think is often the case. I don't think it's prevalent. But there are times where people get to that point. It's tragic. or even feel justified in not following scripture where, Lord, I've just done this so much. So of course, I'm going to fall short in this area. Think about how about even at that moment, Christian, you are a benefactor of the long suffering of our God as he's patient with our foolishness when we think this way. Do you think about that? Our foolishness in a way that we have a punch card, and we only are to be suffering a dozen, a long suffering a dozen times, but then we would get to what we want, we get to do what we want to do freely the third time, 13th time. This card is now a get out of jail free card. Instead, remember the words of our Lord found in Matthew 18, 22, when he talks about how many times we are to forgive. What does he say? I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to 70 times seven. And if the response to Christ's words is that, well, I just need to make a bigger punch card. I need to do 70 times seven holes in them. And then once I get to that last hole, now I can strike with what I really want to do. Wake up and see how the Lord certainly does not act that way with you. Yes, when we truly begin to see what longsuffering entails, we see how it is tethered to the idea that we are to walk bearing with one another in love. This is overlooking the infirmities of one another, forgiving injuries done, sympathizing with, and assisting each other in distressed circumstances. We are to not be quick to anger or to seek our pound of flesh. And it is reemphasized here that we are to bear with one another. It is again the same willingness to grab the arms of our brothers and sisters and declare, I shall bear this burden with you. Together, we will walk in the Lord and we will help you. You who needs a crutch, bear the weight. You who needs a crutch, let your brother bear the weight for you. Families, no matter how difficult, seem to often get this idea. Where families can say some pretty crazy things to each other. But what happens in Thanksgiving? They are often around the same table. And it's like, didn't I just say I want to burn your house last week? They get the idea. Families, no matter how difficult, seem to often rally themselves together and bear with one another. How much should that be the case when we're talking not about family of man, but the family of God? I think all of us are ready to bear with one another in some form. I've heard it time and time again, that is the case. And I see time and time again, people following the truth that love covers a multitude of sin. Meaning they're confessing this, that they have said that they've done this, that they are pursuing this. Yet there is still more. More in the sense that it's now becoming uncomfortable for us. And what does Scripture tell us? The same thing, time and time again. Yet there is still more. Bearing with one another includes the willingness to work together. We at times overlook the infirmities of one another, and there are times we desire to assist a brother or sister with said affirmatives, all fitting under the scope, again, bearing with one another. And do not think that I'm a fool here. Do not think that I am thinking it's all roses. It's going to be hard. No doubt about it, beloved. It can be one of the more difficult hills in your Christian life that we are to climb through. The hurt can feel like it is too much. It can feel like I cannot go an extra step. Yet we are to be reminded Christ's answer again and again and again. Yet those are the times, brothers and sisters, that We need to bear each other's burdens more and more and the most, we need to hold fast to what Christ and His holding of our burden has been for us and inform how we act together. And to do so with gentleness, the way Christ is gentle with us. Do so with a mind for what is proper. and faithfulness to the word." Now, hopefully, people who hear this or have heard this before aren't thinking that I'm advocating for a nitpickiness, that now we have sessions after every Lord's service of like, you aired this grievance, you aired that grievance. We're not calling for a nitpickiness or the microscope to be brought out Because that causes a host of problems as well, that is a separate. Sermon. I'm talking about the affirmatives of another. Bearing the affirmatives of another starts with overlooking them, but dependent of the severity among other things. Bearing the affirmatives of another is reasoning with one another, reasoning with the brother about these things, helping shoulder the burden with the hope found in Christ, spurring the work forward. And we do this not out of a external submission, but what ought to inform us is the eternal reasons, which is out of love for what Christ has done for us. Love for the Lord God Almighty and his word. We bear with one another out of love. This love permeates throughout our walk, brothers and sisters in Christ. It is this love that grows our humility and our desire to help grow our brothers and sisters in Christ. It is love that is willing to move past the weaknesses of our spiritual siblings. And it is love that desires to help our spiritual siblings with said weaknesses and in their weaknesses. We help with their weaknesses and that we desire to strengthen with the glory going to God and we help in their weaknesses and that we don't wait till they come to us, but we go to them. As Christ came down to set the captives free, what was the example given to us? Did the captives go to Christ? No, Christ came to the captives. And I think about Again, the young man I mentioned earlier regarding drug abuse. 1 Thessalonians reminds us to be patient with all men and support the weak, does it not? Brothers, remember that the man I am talking about was weak, and I can tell you he needed all the patience we could render. We have brothers and sisters that need all the patience that we could render. Does that require all the patience I have? At times, yes. At times, our patience can be worn so thin that we empty out the cup that there's nothing left. Only to find that the spirit reveals at the false bottom and there's a rich cavern in there for us. Did it push to find more deep wells of patience that the Spirit gave me in this instance? Yes. And I think I, along with others here in the church and the church abroad, understand this. I, along with others, give it to Him, give it to our brothers and sisters out of love. And let us likewise do the same for our family in Christ. Finally, let us walk with endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit. The point we read in verse three, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. So we have this term unity of the Spirit here, and perhaps many are wondering, what that actually means, that the phrase that is used, perhaps all we know is that we are to endeavor to keep whatever this unity is. And it's really a quite easy concept. I think one commentator puts it simply in one sentence, that it is the spiritual cord that surrounds and binds God's holy people together. It is the unity that is given to us by the Spirit and we see reference to in the New Testament. This is the unity to where we might have different lives outside of this church. We might have different interests. We might speak differently. We might have a different view on this particular area of watching movies, or we might have a difference over here. Yet what makes it where we're all the same body is this unity. The unity that no matter what part of the globe you are in, we are still part of the same body. We read in 1 Corinthians, for as the body is one and has many members, But all the members of that one body, being many are one body, so also is Christ. For by one spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and have all been made to drink into what? One spirit. is the unity of those who Paul in chapter 3, 6 says are partakers of the what? The promise of Christ. It is this unity of the Spirit that binds and knits us together into one body, and this singularity is important, congregation, for it is one body that has one head who is Christ, one body that is made up of believers that strives to be of one mind and of one judgment according to scripture. We strive for those things. Do we get it there all the time? No, that's why we are striving for it. And it is a precious thing, this unity of the Spirit. Many things will try to break the bonds of unity in a church, and while what is called the mutual comforts and delights of the saints is difficult for us to seek after all the time, We ought to seek after as much as we can for the sake and unity of the church according to scripture, going as far as scripture would allow us to bear one another's burdens. Satan may try to tear down the church and sin can disrupt the very structures we thought were the strongest of them all. That is why we are to endeavor in keeping the unity more and more. Because, oh, how do we know that this fallen world would like the infrastructure of the church to crumble? The path, therefore, that we are to walk is one of peacemaking. that we see a tear in the body, that there's a limb that is falling off, we then take the thread and needle and go, let me sew it back up the best that I can to the glory of God. We endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. As members of the visible body whose head is the prince of peace, so are we called to be peacemakers, both inside and outside of the church. The unity of the church is a precious thing, and the disintegration of it, a travesty that has depth we may never see the bottom of in our lifetime. I think that's prevalent time and time again. How many churches are there that historically have been very strong in the faith, have had very strong unity, but then as peacemaking has become less and less of a thing to consider, they have now become these liberal shells of themselves out there in the world where there is no gospel, that they are more akin to worldly wisdom than Scripture. Strive for peace within the body and you find yourself walking the path prepared for you, the path that Christ has prepared for you. And I exhort you, beloved, to walk that path in a way worthy of the calling which you were called. Do not cheapen the value of peace, but continue to cherish it. Blessed are the peacemakers, and may we seek to be some in the world, in our homes, and in our church. To be a peacemaker is to be long-suffering. It is to be gentle and lowly. It is to remember that God has been all of those things on our behalf. But heed the warning. A church made up of non-peacemakers is one whose walls may soon crumble. When the members are not committed to one another in this area, or there is a great struggle, then you see churches topple from within. When body parts do not act like they are part of the same body, what do we see? If we have had experiences with family members or brothers and sisters in Christ, where even a smallest part of the body is rejected from the rest of the body, how much does that change the rest of the body? I think of one of my cousins who, when she was living, early on, her liver died, to say the least. And how that changed not just her life at that moment, but her life forever after that. Her living in this world. I think about just how much truth is that found in the natural world about if the body, if a body part, it gets rejected and how much like sepsis is a thing, I believe that is an issue and so on and so forth. When the body parts not act like they are part of the same body, the body cannot thrive nor survive for long. A church that is growing together and is willing to walk in the way the Apostle Paul describes are signs of good health, or at the very least, recovery. That you're on the road to recovery, a path of recovery. And I don't wish to repeat myself on every point, but I'll just say this next. Take great care that when we are ready to be long-suffering, ready to bear one another's burdens, May it be found in a source of love. You desire to do so out of love and in doing so you'll find that you are far more willing to suffer the infirmities of the saints than you were before. To cultivate the bond of peace is to do such things. Long suffering has implied with it that it takes time. It's not short suffering, it's long suffering. Bearing burdens takes time to do it as well. Be prepared and willing to stick it out for the glory of God. Don't be quick to push the ejection button, but instead do the hard work just like we often do with our family by blood. Are there times where the ejection button is necessary? I think there are. But are we to be quick and hasty? Certainly the world would like that. But we go slow. We are long-suffering. Okay, I know I didn't want to repeat myself, I'll do one more. When you see this path and think it is too much, too much for us to handle, that the weight is so much upon our shoulder that if I hold this any longer, it is going to fall upon my neck and destroy me. I want you to immediately take your mind to the cross again and again. Our path has much difficulty, that's for sure. And that difficulty can lead us to a number of areas. But it is due to sin and our fallen nature that is difficult. When there's confusion in the church, when the Lord doesn't do confusion, that is because of sin and our fallen nature. The Son of God willingly took it upon himself and was crucified, buried, rose again, and ascended to heaven. It is he who commands us to be meek and lowly, and it is he who calls us to be peacemakers. So let us walk in the way the Lord wants us to walk, and may it put out fires of disunity and raise up, once again, bonds of unity. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we give you thanks for this time to consider your text this morning. I pray that it was found beneficial, that it was pleasing, that it glorified you, O God, that it was pleasing in your eyes. As we begin to consider these things more and more, let us remember more and more the cross, more and more the gifts of mercy and grace that we have received. May it spark in us and the gratitude that we have sparking us untapped sources of much patience, long-suffering. Heavenly Father, be with us as we are about to partake, and in Christ's name we say, amen. Congregation, I'll now call for a few moments of silent contemplation to prepare ourselves for the Lord's table.