If you have a copy of God's Word, turn to Ephesians, chapter 4. Ephesians, chapter 4. There's 32 verses in this chapter, and I'm going to cover verses 1, 2, and 3, the Lord willing, this morning. I'm going to do acquisition all the way through and pray God to use it for our edification. Begin reading with verse 1. I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all. But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. May we pray. Gracious Father, as we come before Thee this morning to receive the Word of God, to edify and build up the Church of the Living God, may You teach us, may You speak to our hearts, May you help us to understand the Word of the living God. And we praise your name for having the opportunity to worship and to receive the teaching of the Word and to give us the ability to apply these truths to our heart and lives. And we ask you to give us this strength now and grace. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. This is dealing with unity of the Spirit. This is talking about communion of the saints, our communion together as saints. We have one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God. We don't serve three gods. We serve one God. And they are revealed to us as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And we need to be in unity as a church. All churches need to be in unity, whether it be here, Grace Chapel, Covenant. Unity. Our homes need to be in unity. one accord in the home where there's division the Lord said a house that is divided cannot stand and that's true of a house a government church in a society as far as the ministry the ministry if we're going to see as we get down to those verses the Lord has called out ministers to be over his church over his churches and to teach and to edify and build up the body of Christ And Paul says this in 1 Thessalonians 5.13, And to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake, and be at peace among yourselves. Now, ministers are not without their infirmities. We are not without our weaknesses. We also have our shortcomings as others. But God says you're to esteem elders highly for their work's sake, for what we do. Not so much for us, but we're nothing. We're servants, but for the work's sake. And this is the reason the Lord did this, to promote unity in the church with growth, that we all come to the fullness of the statue of Christ and to endeavor. God gives us these gifts to the church, prophets, as he mentions. He mentions apostles and pastor teachers. That means pastor and teacher is the same office. They're doing the same. All pastors are teachers. and evangelist, those who evangelize, like Brother Jeff Harris does when he goes around, Brother Hatfield and others, Brother Zach when he goes over, when they go to India, especially more, more is Brother Jeff and Brother Hatfield seem to be more in that area of going to other countries and spreading the good news of Jesus Christ. As you read the book of Ephesians, chapters one through three, as Brother Zach brought out when he was spoke on this when he was his last sermon, has to deal with doctrine. Doctrine, basically. You lay the foundation, doctrine, and then the last three chapters deal with practice. You learn, you practice. You learn, you practice. It's like our children. We teach them things, and then they obey those things. They practice those things. It's certain things you learn as you gain knowledge, and then you put those practices into work. You teach a child math and they go to the store and they give someone $0.50 for a $10 candy bar. It's almost that bad. $0.10 candy bar. Those days are past. $0.35 candy bar. And they should know how much change to get back. So they are learning to put into practice what you teach them practically. And this is the things of God. We learn things in the doctrine. We learn the things of the Word of God. Then as we meet the trials and tribulations of life, we learn to put those truths we learn into practice in our life. That's learning to walk in the Word of God. And that's the reason we have pastor elders, pastor teachers to teach the Church of God. Paul says also in Ephesians 4, 1, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called. Now, we're going to take this verse apart and look at it word by word and come to some meaning. I beseech you. You know, Paul, that means I beg of you. Please. He's pleading with them. Pleading with them. Now, Paul is a very emotional individual. He says in Romans 12, 1, I beseech you therefore, brethren, By the mercies of God, I beseech you, because of the mercies of God, because of His goodness. As you look back from chapter 12 all the way back to chapter 1, you see the doctrines of grace brought forward. You see God's mercy. You see it redeeming us. You see all things working together for our good. And Paul is saying, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. This should be our goal at Mount Zion, each one of us. should be willing to be a living sacrifice, not a dead carcass, but a living sacrifice. Holy, which means set apart, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Now, we all have different services in the church. We have elders. If we are blessed someday, we'll have deacons. Then we have each one as members. But each one of the members have their particular gift. We're all part of the body of Christ. You're not here by accident. You're here by God's purpose. And we're here to edify and to meet the needs of each other. And remember that. You're not alone. I'm not alone. We're here to help another brother or sister who's in need. God placed you in the body. God placed me in the body to be a helper to others' needs. I pray that we won't lose sight of that. And that's why it's so important, Paul said, to seek you. He says also in chapter 15 to verse 30 of Romans, that now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake. Again, he's using his pleading. I beg of you. I beg of you. And for the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in your prayers to God for me. He says in 1 Corinthians 4, 16, Wherefore, I beseech you, thee you follow as of me. See, Paul's pleading method. Pleading. Pleading. We need to be like that, you know. And when Paul was given instruction to Timothy how to conduct himself, he says, Rebuke not an elder, but entreat him as a father. That's how we should respect elders. As even ministers and those who are in the church that are older than we are, we should respect them as fathers. And young men as brethren. I should look at every young man in this congregation as my brother. which we are, brethren. We have a blood, you have blood brothers and somehow sisters. And the family of God should be as close as our blood family. It should be as close. You should deal with each other as brothers and sisters, not as strangers. He also says a prisoner of the Lord. Now, how did Paul become a prisoner of the Lord? When he met the Lord on the road to Damascus. And he was changed in that moment and can change to a new man. He was changed from Saul to Paul. He said, Lord, what would that have me to do? At that moment, he became the prisoner of Jesus Christ, the prisoner. Willingly, willingly, Lord, what would that have me to do? And that's what I've been asking my question, asking me, Lord, what would that have me to do as being a servant and the elder of Mount Zion? And I had to search my own heart. And the Lord, am I doing what I've been called to do? Now, each one of us need to ask ourselves that question. Lord, am I doing what you call me to do and not Zion? Now, each one has different gifts. We all do. Some have gifts of communicating. I think we all need to communicate to each other. The Lord says, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Sometimes the greatest need in our church is just to communicate to each other. and in families, husband and wife. They need to talk. They need to communicate. They need to understand and watch each other's thinking. It's very important to communicate. But Paul was a prisoner of the Lord. He was in the sphere of the Lord's control and the Lord's government and the Lord's control around him. I have a note here. He was a prisoner in the spirit of the Lord. And I have a note. An area of power control or influence domain to surround or encompass to put in or within a sphere. You know, Brother Justin preached on grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. How do you grow in grace? What does that really mean, grow in grace? Grace is the unmerited favor of God. In Psalms 1 it speaks about the tree planted by the river of water. Now, the tree is receiving its nourishment from the water. Being in the sphere, its roots going down and reaching the water, the tree grows. We are in the sphere of God's grace. Grow in grace. We're in grace. As we're in grace, we grow as a Christian. We receive our strength. We receive our nourishment by being in the grace of God. God's grace strengthens us. Paul says, by the grace of God, I am what I am. So as we as Christian believers, we have been put into a sphere of grace. In other words, we're surrounded by grace. We've been encompassed by God's grace. It says that the angel of the Lord encamps around those that are His children. The angels are surrounding us. They protect us. So the grace of God is around you and I, and we're growing in that grace. That's how we grow as Christians. The grace of God. The grace of God. A bondslave. You know, Paul was not ashamed to be a bondslave of Jesus Christ. He says in Romans 1, Paul, a servant, which that word servant is the King James Version, is the Greek word, bonslave. Bonslave. Called to be an apostle, separated into the gospel of God. He says, first of all, I'm a slave to Jesus Christ. Then I'm an apostle. His attitude of surrender. Surrender. He says in Romans 6, 19, I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmities of your flesh. For as you have yielded your members as servants to uncleanness." At one time, we were bond slaves to the old nature. We were bond slaves. And iniquity unto iniquity. Even so now, he says, yield your members as servants or bond slaves to righteousness unto holiness. Now, as Christians, we are bond slaves to the Holy Spirit. We're bond slaves to grace. We're bond slaves of Jesus Christ. We're to yield ourselves to the Lord. which is our reasonable service, as he says in Romans 12. Even Jesus Christ, when he was in this world, says in Philippians 2, 7, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant or a bondslayer. Christ submitted himself into this world to be a slave, a bondslayer, to his Father to do his will and to be a servant to the church. So, a bond slave. The next word we see in chapter 4 is, I therefore, the person of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the Lord. The next word we see is the word walk. It means to conduct oneself in an orderly behavior, to conduct yourself. You know, we remember that our past life, how we walked. Paul said in Ephesians 2, 2, where in time past you walked, your conduct was according to the courts of this world, according to the principle of the air that now worketh in the children of disobedience. We walked in the flesh. We were under Satan's control without Christ. Paul said in Galatians 5, 16, this I say, walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Again, the sphere is what Paul is talking about. Walk in the sphere of the Spirit. You're under the control of the Spirit. You're living in the Spirit. The Spirit encompasses you. He indwells you. You're to walk in His presence. Walk in His strength. Walk in His power. Thus I say, walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For we are His workmanship, Ephesians 2, 10, created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. In other words, God has ordained works in a certain spirit, and the spirit is in the Spirit. As we're walking in the Spirit, we are fulfilling God's ordained will for our lives. We will be practicing good works by the Spirit and by the grace we are receiving. Now this gives God all the glory. Paul brings this out very clearly in Philippians 2. He says, Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, that he gives God the glory. Verse 13, For it is God which worketh in you both the will and to do of his good pleasure. We are to work out The good works that God has given us, as we are walking in the spear, encompassed by grace, encompassed by the Holy Spirit, as we're filled with the Spirit, we will be fulfilling God's purpose in our life. Now, when we were in the sphere of corruption, we were in Adam, we were depraved, we were lost, we were undone. We could not fulfill the blessings of God because we were in corruption. We were still in Adam, but now we're in Christ. Now we've been translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son. And we have, by God's grace, the ability, as Paul says, I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me. We're in Christ now. We're in that spirit. We're encompassed by Christ. He promised, I'll never leave thee. I'll never forsake thee. So we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper. Hallelujah for that. To walk. to walk. And all through our Christian life, we're learning how to walk. He says, walk worthy. Worthy. Meaning in a manner worthy of. Worthy of. Now, I looked this word up in the Greek. At first, I didn't catch the meaning of it until I studied it farther. The Greek word means having the weight of. I said, what's the word that got to do with weight? But as you get into this text, you'll see what it means. It means that our Christian experience, the Christian life that we live, would weigh as much as the profession of the Christian which we make. In other words, we should practice what we preach. We should practice what we profess. In other words, the weight should be balanced. You've seen the scale where it's got a weight on this side and a weight on this side and they're balanced. In other words, our life, our practice, our doctrine, or what we believe should be balanced by how we practice and obey the Lord. That's what that's teaching us. That's grave responsibility. Are we, as Christians, as preachers, practicing what we preach? If not, we're not walking worthy of the Lord. That's serious. I mean, this really strips you down and makes you realize, boy, No wonder Paul says, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And even when we've done our best, we've only done what's our duty to do. So are we practicing what we profess as Christians? And I pray we, I'm sure that everyone here would be saying, yes, we all come up short, but we need to press toward that mark of the prior calling in Christ Jesus. We should be striving to walk worthy of the Lord. Paul says in Philippians 127, only let your conversation or your manner of life be as become of the gospel of Christ. In other words, we should live that we can honor the gospel, that we honor Christ's gospel, that whether I come and see you or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit and with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel. Here we go. In one faith, in one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel, the gospel. is so important. In Colossians 110, Paul said that you might walk worthy of the Lord. Again, it's not that you are so worthy in yourself. That's not what Paul is saying. He's saying we should walk worthy in the sense that our practice and our profession should be equal. They should weigh equal. In other words, if it's this way that all you do is practice a doctrine, but you never practice, you're not really walking worthy. But when they come up even and you're practicing what you profess, you're walking worthy of the Lord. That's what that's teaching. And we almost ask ourselves the question, am I walking worthy of the Lord? Does my practice equal my talk. And that's serious. And this is what is being brought out in this verse, which really was an eye-opener to me. He says in 2 Thessalonians 2, that you walk worthy of God, who had called you into His kingdom and glory. He's called us from darkness, from Satan, from condemnation, from wrath, from the lust of the world, from hell, from eternal damnation, and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son. We have a holy calling, as we're going to see in a few moments, and we should be walking worthy of that kingdom, worthy of it. Now, remember, we stand before God in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Our will be judged the last day as we stand before God, not having our own righteousness, but that righteousness of God by faith. But at the same time as believers, we have an obligation to walk worthy of God, to walk worthy of God. The next word we see is vocation. Now, this word can throw you off, too, if you're not careful. As we think of the word vocation, we think of the word your trade, your business. Mark works for AT&T. Bill works for this company where they sell the gas. Each one, Carl works for this company that he's working with in a pipeline. But that's not what he's talking about here, vocation. It doesn't mean your job or your trade. It means the calling with which you are called, it speaks of an effectual call unto salvation. You are effectually called unto salvation. There's a verse in Hebrews 3.1 that says, Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, the effectual call of God, consider the apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus. We were called by God's grace effectually. God doesn't lose anyone. He doesn't try to call us. He calls us. When God's purpose, time is set for each individual in this world, when He calls, you will answer. You will answer. Paul's thought is that sinners were called unto salvation and made saints. You don't make yourself saints. God makes you a saint. He sets you apart. We are to live saintly lives or separated lives. That's what this verse is teaching. The verse 1 has a lot to say. We just covered verse 1. I'm going to re-read it to you. I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation, worthy of your calling. In other words, worthy of that divine summons that called you from darkness unto light. Walk worthy of that calling. That's a command. This is not God advising us or Paul just giving us information. He's commanding us to walk worthy. Balance the scales. Let your practice meet your profession. Practice what you preach. If you don't, you're not walking worthy of the Lord. Neither am I. Neither are you. Now, this may cause us to get on our knees and do a lot of heart searching, and that's all right. We need to do that. It should cause us to repent. Jesus said in the early church that you left your first love. A lot of us have left our first love because we're not walking worthy of the Lord. See, before we even get down to these verses that deal with our relationship to each other, Paul is setting us and teaching us what we should think. In verse 2, now he gets down to where we live. He says in verse 2, with all lowliness, and meekness, with long-suffering forbearing one another in love." Boy, he says a lot in that one verse. Again, he's coming down to where we live as a family and as a church, body of Christ. The lowliness of mind which springs from a true sense of ourselves, a deep sense of our own moral smallness and demerit. When you really see yourself as you really are apart from Christ, we are vanity. We're sinful. We're ungodly outside of Christ. That's what we would be. That's why Paul says, Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves." Do we esteem others better than ourselves? And this is what we're coming down to. We should not have a high opinion of ourselves. We should not walk around like a peacock, thinking that we're it. We're the answer to all problems. No. We need to have a lowliness. to understand that in ourselves we're nothing. Like the republican who said, God have mercy upon me, a sinner. That's the attitude we're to have toward each other. Esteeming Mark better than myself. Mark esteeming me better than himself. We should have that attitude toward each other. Loneliness. Paul said in Colossians 3.12, Put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, vows of mercies, Kindness, humbleness of mind. It's in the mind. It's a mindset. Humbleness of the mind. Meekness and long-suffering. These are things that we don't even talk about sometimes. But we need to come down and realize this is where God wants us to be as far as in His service and His Kingdom. Esteeming others better than ourselves. He says, Peter says in 1 Peter 5. Likewise, you younger submit yourselves unto the elder. All of you be subject one to another. See, I'm glad Paul came back around. I mean, Peter came back around and mentioned that all of us should be subject one to another. In other words, age has nothing to do with it totally. Now, the younger should be more submitted to the elder, but at the same time, we all should be in subjection one to another. Submission. and be clothed with humility. In other words, if you're going to put your garment on, you know, we put our suits on, we come to church, we're all looking nice, we've got our ties on, we've got our shoes polished, you know, ladies come with their pretty dresses on, and we come filled with pride. We need to come to the church with humility, clothed with humility, with a spirit of humbleness to come before our God, to come before one another, realizing that we are the least of all saints, as Paul said. For God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble. So humility, lowliness of mind, esteeming others better than yourself. And that's not easy to do. That's not easy to do. How do we do this? Glad you asked me that question. Again, that verse, walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. In the spirit of the spirit, we're called encompassed by the Holy Spirit. And we're walking in God's word, obeying God's word. As we're doing that, God will work in our lives the spirit of loneliness of mind. Now, we can't do this on our own. You can't be humble on your own. The Lord would humble us. He'll work that humility into our lives. And He does it through the teaching of His Word. He teaches us. He trains us. And through afflictions, through trials, and through things that come into our life. The next word we see in this verse is meekness. You remember the famous verse that Jesus said, Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. You know, we're living in an age of macho man. You know, you've got to be the macho man. But meekness is the attitude of the child of God. It is an inward grace of the soul. Now, this is what it comes down to mean. It's a temper of the spirit in which we accept God's dealing with us as good and therefore without disputing. Boy, isn't that hard to practice. You take a situation, someone's going through a heavy trial. I've been through trials in my life where I questioned God. I didn't say I was right for doing that without disputing. So that was saying I wasn't really meek in God's dealing with me. I would still have pride in me. I still needed to be humble and have a humble spirit. I needed God to keep working in my life. So He brings these trials to bring us down, to humble us, to strip us of all of this pride, strip us of all of this vanity, and to bring us down that we're nothing. Meekness. 2 Corinthians 10.1, Now I, Paul, myself, beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ. Christ was a meek man. And we're to follow His example. A submissive spirit is what we could say meekness means to be submissive to God's providential will. A meek spirit is Abraham and Sarah where Sarah was obedient to Abraham. She had a meek spirit. She had a submissive spirit. We are to be submissive to one another. We're to have a meek spirit, a submissive spirit. The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, Long-suffering gentleness, that's the same Greek word as neatness, the same Greek word, but it's translated gentleness, gentleness. We all need to be gentle with one another. We need to be neat with each other. We need to be kind one to another. It's easy to say things to hurt one another, but God put a zipper on our lips and help us to be careful what we say. You can never undo what you say. Paul says, Bredeth a man be overtaken in a fault, you which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness. Spirit of meekness. Considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. We have to consider ourselves. With all loneliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love. We'll be dealing with that in a few moments. Put on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved vows of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering. It seems to be that Christiana today has forgotten those verses. Some Christians are so sensitive they walk around with a chip on both shoulders and they'll purposely bump into you to knock that chip off. Now, that's not showing this attitude here of longsuffering, kindness, meekness, gentleness. That spirit, James says, is not from above, but is from below. A lot of times, people cannot be at peace with others because they're not at peace themselves with God. You have to have peace within before you can have peace with others. Long-suffering. Now, this is difficult, too. See, all of these things that Paul is describing here, we cannot do without the Spirit of God, without God's grace. Long-suffering means to be patient under trials from people or things in providence. Be patient. I have a note here. The Christian who is patient is the one who under a great siege of trials bears up and does not lose courage. In other words, you don't give up. You don't give up. And a lot of times you feel like giving up. Paul says in Colossians 111, strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness. Longsuffering. Colossians 3.12, put on therefore is the elect of God, holy and beloved vows of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, being patient under God's providential will. And one of the fruits of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering. demonstrating in our lives, if we're walking in the Spirit and we're filled in the Spirit, we should be long-suffering, shouldn't we? Toward each other. And we need that. You need that in the family. There's not a family in this congregation or any family that doesn't need the fruit of the Spirit and long-suffering to be long-suffering with one another at times in our families. long-suffering with children, young adults who are learning, who are experiencing the world. Parents can see that they're going the wrong direction and they get excited. They need to be long-suffering and kind and gentle and meek when dealing with our children, especially when they become young adults. So they can see that we're doing all of this in the love and affections. Same thing as elders. And I pray for God, by God's grace, I can do better in this area. That when I preach and teach and instruct each one of the members of Mount Zion, that I can do it in love and in sincerity and not just mechanically. That it comes from my heart, a heart of compassion for each of you. That's what we need. As elders, and that's what we need as members, that we do things to each other out of a heart of compassion and love for each other. Because the love of God is shed abroad in our heart by the Holy Spirit, then that same love comes out and is demonstrated in our lives to each other. The same love of God. Long-suffering. One of the remarks of an elder is this. Preach the word. Be instant in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering. In other words, when you're teaching and you're preaching and you're rebuking and you're exhorting, do it with longsuffering. Be gentle. Do it in love and kindness and doctrine. The next word in this verse, in verse 2, is forbearing. It means to hold up, to sustain, to bear with, endure. It's kind of explaining long-suffering, explanation of long-suffering. We bear with one another in love. And if Mark is doing something against me that's rubbing me the wrong way, how do I deal with that? The Bible says here we're to bear with one another in love. Love should be the thing that helps us get through different things. Husband and wife disagree about something. How should they get through it? The long suffering. We should bear with one another in love. Love should be the thing that smooths things out. Love. Again, walk in the Spirit and you should not fulfill the lusts of this flesh. It is in the spirit of love that God, the Holy Spirit, produces in the life of the believer, this love that motivates and controls all areas of our life. So we can't leave God out. If one thing I learned in these three verses is how dependent we are upon the Holy Spirit. We can't produce this type of Christianity ourselves. This is the work of God. That's the reason I really enjoy what God says. It is God which worketh in you both the will and to do of his good pleasure. Don't be discouraged if you're not perfect in these areas because neither am I. When I studied these three verses this week, I said, boy, Brother Rose has a lot of growing to do. A lot of growing. I have a lot of denying to do itself. I have a lot of casting out. I need to fall before the Lord and really deal with each one of these words in my own life and ask myself, am I walking in the spirit of the Holy Spirit? If these things are not being brought forth in my life, then the question is very obvious. I am not. And you're not. We need to examine ourselves and come back, seek the Lord, humble ourselves and ask the Lord to bring about this transformation in our lives. Be not conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. By teaching God's Word, He renews us and He trains us and He teaches us. But it's slowly, it's slowly. Christ's love was a forgiving love. Ours should be the same. No matter, Jesus said, Peter came to the The Lord said, Lord, how many times should I forgive my brother? You know, Carl has already sinned against me twenty-five times today. How many times should I forgive Carl? Seven times? The Lord says, no. Seven times seventy. Four hundred and ninety times. Boy, that's a lot of times, Lord. So, forgiveness basically has no bounds. We should be willing to forgive. Willing to forgive. That's the attitude we should have toward each other. Forgiving, a forgiving spirit, a love of forgiveness. Jesus said on the cross, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. A loving and forgiving spirit. Do we possess that spirit? Stephen, when he was being stoned to death, he looked up to heaven. What did he say? Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. He had a forgiving spirit. Why is that happening? Stephen has such an example because he was filled with Christ's love and it was being demonstrated in his actions. Verse 3, coming down to verse 3, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Endeavoring means to take care, to make haste, to do one's best, determined effort Are we determined to do the will of God? As Mark mentioned earlier, sometimes we're complacent as a church. We're not really determined to do anything. We just come to church, we hear the sermon, we go home, I love you brother, I love you sister, and we go out and we're still the same. What makes the difference? We've got to endeavor. We've got to put some action into our lives. We've got to make haste. We've got to do one's best. We've got to determine to do something and do it. See, it's the spirit of determination that makes us different. 2 Timothy 4, verse 90 says, Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me. That word is the same Greek word, endeavor. It's the same Greek way it's translated, diligence. You've got to put some diligence in your life, Christian life. Hebrews 4.11 says, Let us labor. It's the same word. Let us labor. Let us have diligence, therefore, to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. Peter says in 2 Peter 3.14, Wherefore, beloved, seeing that you look for such things, be diligent, be diligent, endeavoring, laboring, that you may be found of him in peace, without spot and blameless. Now that's a good goal. To be found in him in peace. without spot and blameless. Boy, that's a powerful verse there. Endeavoring to keep. The word keep means to guard by exercising watchful care. One thing a mother does. You've heard this testimony. A mother can be when she has a child and she's sleeping, the child's sleeping in the crib. That child wakes, she wakes. There's something built in. She's conscious. of that baby's needs. She's there. She's guarding that child. She's watchful. She's got a watchful care of her children. Children are playing. She hears one crying. She's right there. She's watching. She has a watchful care. We're to be like that. We're to have a watchful care of keeping to the unity of the Spirit. It should be our watchful eye that we all can be walking in peace and in unity in the Church of God. Paul says, that thou keep this commandment without spot, keep, guard the commandments unrebukeable until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. His testimony was, I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Paul was very, very, very watchful over the gospel. He said, if any man preach any other gospel than what I preach unto you, let him be accursed. He said, let them be cursed who don't love the Lord Jesus Christ in His appearing. Let them be damned. That sounds pretty hard, but that's exactly what Paul said. Keep the unity, agreement, one accord, produced by the Holy Spirit. Now, how can we be in unity in Mount Zion? How can we all be in one accord and one agreement? Only by the Holy Spirit. I'm not going to build you up some false stuff. situation here, we can only be in unity by the Holy Spirit. How can husband and wife be in unity and agreement only by the Holy Spirit? Again, showing you our need of the Holy Spirit's ministry in our families and in our churches and in our own personal life. Unity. As it says in verse three, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There's only one more Greek word used of the word unity, the same Greek word in Ephesians 4, 13, till we all come in the unity of the faith, unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, mature man, unto the measure of the statue of the fullness of Christ. That's my prayer for each one of you, that each one of you will come to this point in your life, in my life. Keep the unity of peace in the bond, that which binds together, the bond. Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, something that binds together, binds together. That same Greek word is used in Colossians 2 19 and not holding the head from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministers and knit together increased with the increase of God. There's been bind together by God. Peace peace in this verse is the binding factor. The binding factor which which will preserve the unity which the Spirit produces in the words were to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. Peace is the center of it all. That's what God is producing in our lives and in our church when we're walking according to his word, peace. It is the fact of which the Holy Spirit produces in our lives. How can a church have peace? How can a church be in unity? How can a church be in one accord? Only through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. As we submit to God, see, we've read these verses here. What worthy of the vocationworthy are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring, being diligent to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Paul says in Philippians 1-2, Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Peace from God. I love this verse in Philippians 4-7. It's a beautiful verse. And the peace of God which passeth all understanding. shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus, the peace of God, which passeth understanding." Isn't it wonderful at times in your Christian life when you have that peace of God shed abroad in your heart? We have a little joy unspeakable and full of glory before we get to glory. Paul said in Colossians 3 verse 15, "...and let the peace of God rule in your hearts, If God's peace is ruling in our hearts and in your lives, you know what? We're going to be at peace with each other. See, God has it all under control. To the which you are so called in one body and be you thankful. And I like this verse, how Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 3, 16. Now the Lord of peace, he's called the Lord of peace. He's called the Prince of Peace. Hallelujah. He came to bring you and I peace. Himself give you peace always by all means. Now listen to this verse again. Now the Lord of peace Himself, now listen to this, give you peace always by all means. God will give you peace by all means. He'll work in your life to bring you peace. The Lord be with you all. In closing, I'm just going to reread these three verses. I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation with which you are called. Does your profession and your practice balance out? Are you practicing? Am I practicing what we preach? Are we living what we're called to be? We're called to be saints. Are we living as saints? With all loneliness, Are we esteeming others better than ourselves? Meekness. Do we have a submissive spirit? Long-suffering. Are we long-suffering toward one another? Forbearing one another in love? Are we encompassed about with love so that we can forbear one another? Endeavoring. Are we using diligence and laboring to keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace? Peace is the goal that we're all seeking for. Are we doing that? I pray that some of these verses have been a blessing to you. As we continue all the way to verse 32, it may take a few weeks to go through this chapter, but I pray that it will be a blessing to the church and a blessing to you, and that we all may grow together. May we pray. Our gracious Father, as we bow in Thy presence, Lord, we need Thy Holy Spirit. As individual Christians, as elders, as members as families, as the church of Mount Zion. We need the Holy Spirit to minister and bring us to this truth as taught in verses 1-3 of Ephesians 4, as Paul laid out by the Holy Spirit. Oh, Father, as we look at ourselves, we can say, oh, woe is me, a man of unclean lips. Lord, I thank You for Your mercy and Your goodness. We thank You for forgiveness. And we thank You that You can meet our needs in these areas The Holy Spirit can teach us and train us to be submissive and meek in lowliness and kindness, gentleness, the fruit of the Spirit. Lord, may we so live that the fruit of the Spirit be manifested in our life. We give you the praise and the honor and the glory in the name which is above every name we do pray, Jesus Christ. Amen. Does someone have a song in closing?