Please read with me. I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you recall, to the one hope that belongs to the call. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. The grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore, it says, when He ascended on high, He led a host of captives and gave gifts to men. In saying He ascended, what does it mean? But that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth. He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things. And He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way unto Him who is the head unto Christ, from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow, so that it builds itself up in love." May the Lord add His blessing to the reading of His Word. Amen. There was a ship, a destroyer, a cruiser, what do you call a ship? Aircraft carrier, yeah. Aircraft carrier that took off from Pearl Harbor during World War II. It was one of the many that they produced and then they shipped it out to Pearl Harbor to have it equipped and the men were put on it and they took off for Japan. And in less than a month, after the time it reached the waters of the South Pacific, it was ringing one of the islands very near the coast of Japan itself, toward the end of the war, and a suicide airplane broke out from the circle, the kind of containment that was supposed to be that the airplanes from the aircraft carrier, why am I having a hard time saying that? One of the airplanes was supposed to be providing, and that suicide zeroed in on them. I'm having a hard time with that. The suicide plane zeroed in on them and went right into the carrier. And there was explosion and there was fire. And this carrier that started out with 2,000 men on it was left. They later found out with about 600 who were still alive and healthy and able to function. Most of them were lost. Nobody who knew who their superiors were. They were black with soot. They were all just trying to put the fires out and get the carrier under control. And as they got the fires out, they realized finally they were going to save the ship. And they figured out where the captain was. And they got him and the first mate. And they looked and they realized that the ship, though the fire was out and no one else should have to die, was drifting in toward this enemy island. And it had no power and there's nothing they could do. And one of the ships nearby pulled up beside it and they put their big tow cable and they dropped it on the deck of the ship. But it was doing them no good. It was just sliding down the ship. And they had to get that tow cable and get it around the hitch, the tow hitch. Why am I having a hard time? What do you call those things? The what? You know, like this. What's like that? The what? Yeah, the trailer hitch ball. That's it. You know, the big thing. The cleat! It is a cleat. Daniel, there you go! Hunter Jones! Thank you, Hunter Berry. Hunter Berry! I had to get it around the cleat before they drifted into the enemy island. And so the captain sent the first mate down. He had 60 men. Everyone else was busy putting out the fires. And the captain looked at him and said, sir, that weighs over, like, seven tons. He said, there's no possible way we can move it by hand. And the captain looked at him and said, sir, I didn't ask you what the difficulties were. I simply told you to get the toe around the cleat. And so we went down there, and with all the men they had, they were all lifting with all their might, and they were pushing and they were pulling. It was six inches wide, six inches in diameter, steel cable, and they couldn't move it. And there was nothing they could do. And they got in a line. They were all just kind of pushing and pulling. And one of the African-American men in the back of the line started singing. Gonna take this line and make a tow. Heave, ho! Everybody just kind of looked at him like he's looking at me. Gonna take this line and make a tow. Heave, ho! And slowly, they all began working together. Gonna take this line and make a tow. And it moved. The first time it moved. And working together and singing, they moved the line down the deck of the ship and they got it around the cleat. It's a beautiful picture of untapped potential that was brought out when they started working together. when they realized their one singular purpose, when they recognized the one single job that had to be done, when they realized that they all had to do it together, when they realized it had to be done at exactly the right moment together, what they were capable of doing. Isn't that a great story? I love that kind of story. If we do it together, what's God doing? Among other things in world history, what is He doing? The primary thing He's doing is He is undoing the works of sin. He is redeeming. He's undoing. That's why all the words in the Bible have the word re in front of them, right? He is changing things. He's regenerating. He is recreating. He is redeeming. He is undoing the effects of sin. What were the effects of sin? It alienated us from Him. alienated us from the world, and alienated us from each other. When Adam and Eve sinned, they went and hid from each other. They put on clothes. Before their sin, they were naked and unashamed. They were in complete relationship. Here I am. There you are. Nothing to be ashamed of. Nothing to be embarrassed about. Nothing to want to hide from. And then when sin came, all of a sudden we started covering ourselves up. And what God is doing in redeeming us is He's restoring that relationship. He's restoring that unity. So Jesus prays in that high priestly prayer, John 17. At the end of His life, He's about to go to the cross. The most sacred prayer He could possibly pray. He starts out saying, Father, the time has come. I have done everything You asked me to do. If you think about what that sentence means, it gives you chills up and down your back. When Jesus Himself, God, who has been waiting for all eternity, to do this one thing, and He says, the time has come. And you just expect the world to crack apart at that sentence. And He begins to pray. What does He pray for us? That they would be one, even as you and I, Father, are one. He's praying that we would be united. That we would be one again. That's what God is doing. He's undoing what happens at the Tower of Babel. The whole story of Genesis, if you follow it, is a story of war and destruction and separation. And that's the story of history, war and destruction and separation. And after Jesus is crucified and resurrected, when He ascends into heaven and He sends His Spirit down, what happens? All the people that receive His Spirit begin speaking in different languages. And it says, people were there from every nation under the earth, and they heard the Gospel in their own language. It's this picture of this restoration, bringing us back together, reuniting us, making one of the many. That's what He's doing, to empower us to be one again. How do we do that? He's given us everything we need for it. The potential's there. How do we get it? First place, we get it by exercising charity. Verses 1-3, I therefore, prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called. What is he saying there? He's saying, look, be what you are. Walk in a manner that's worthy of the calling. You've got the uniform on. You look like you're supposed to look. What is it? With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. What are we going to have to do in order to have this unity restored? First, we're going to have to exercise charity. We're going to have to be humble and gentle. We've got to be humble. What does that mean? What does it mean to be humble? It means you consider other people more than yourself. Paul talks about it again in Philippians 2. He says, do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. You know what the problem is? The problem is we can't fake that. You really can't. I can fake like I like you. And I can fake like I'm interested in you. But I can't even fake that I think you're more important than I am. And that's really what Christianity has kind of gotten down to. What can we fake? at the core of it, and he says, let each one of you look at others and consider them to be better than yourself. You've got to start with humility. What do you think of the people around you? And the problem is, we really do. We really do. We really believe we're better than them. We really do. We really do believe that there's something innate in us that makes us better than them. We're Christians and they're not because we're smarter. You know, maybe we're lazy, maybe we're not real hard workers, but we're not like those poor lazy people. They deserve where they are. They deserve to have the bad life and the bad schools because they're not like us. You see, we're better than them. We just can't fake it. We really do. Don't you feel that way? When you're at a grocery store and there's somebody behind you and they're just different than you and they act different and you just want to go, come on, don't y'all know how to even act? Don't you really innately at the core of your being think you're better than them? You can't even fake it. And the problem is we have no concept of the grace of God. A man came into this town. This is supposedly a true story, but, you know, I'm not real good on the whole detail thing. And most of the stories I tell y'all aren't true, I'll just tell you. But this one actually supposedly is. This man was walking into town, and he was an old army buddy. He was an old army fella, and he was looking for his buddy. And he walked into the post office, because in these small towns, the post offices, people who work there know everybody in the town. And he said, you know old John Reisinger? He said, he's an old army buddy of mine. He and me, well, we went to every bar in the South Pacific. We chased every woman there, and I'm just looking blank. I haven't seen them in years. And the postal guy kind of got, didn't really know what to say. And at that particular moment, John Risinger walked in. He said, oh, there you are! I know you anywhere, you old ruggedy, blankety, filth, foul, you stinking son of a... What are you doing, man? Let's go tear it off like we did in the old days. And John said, oh, it's so great to see you. I haven't seen you in years. How have you been? And they started talking. You know, the guy kind of laid on one of the fellows that just loves to tell you all about his life. So one of those, you know, ask him how you've been. He'd actually want to tell you. He just kind of went on to his, you know, three people in child support, two wives, and yada, yada, yada, and still living the exact same life he lived when they were in the army tearing it down. He said, well, how about you, man? What are we doing wasting time in this post office? I know there's going to be a sleepy town. There's probably a honky-tonk somewhere. And John said, well, you know, actually, I'm the pastor at First Baptist Church now. And I'm different. And the guy stood straight ahead. And then he just started yelling out profanity. Well, you stinking blankety-blankety-blank, that's the dangest thing you ever did. Boy, tell me a lie like that. What are you thinking? Boy, God's going to send you to blank for that. No, really, that's really where I am. No, really, come on now, wait for my time pulling my leg. No, really, I'm the pastor. What? When are you going to quit this line? When did you become a liar?" And he walked him downtown and he took him to the front of the church. And there he saw on the sign, you know, Pastor John Risinger. And the guy just looked at him. And his eyes teared up, and he said, I never would have thought it of you, John. And he just walked off. And John looked at him, and he didn't even realize it, but tears were just running down his face. And he said, there but for the grace of God go I. There is nothing different. There is nothing about me that makes me any different except for the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. I did not ask to be born when I was born, or to the parents to whom I was born. I did not ask to have the friends in my life that shared the gospel with me. I did not ask for those things. The only good thing about me is the Lord's grace. Do you believe that? If you don't, you will never get to the second point. You'll never have the fellowship and the unity you can. And because our only consolation, our confidence, was for so long, and it's especially hard for those of us who grew up Christians, because our only consolation, when everybody else seemed to be having so much more fun than we were, and everybody else was kind of doing those things, and we wanted to do them, but we didn't, and our consolation in life was, at least I'm better than them. And then we had to open the stinking Bible. And it says, no, you're not. You're just alive and they're dead. Be humble. Be gentle. If we're humble, then we're strong enough to be gentle. Gentility requires strength, not weakness. You understand that, don't you? I carved a pumpkin last night. I carved a jack-o-lantern. You don't have to carve pumpkins. They grow naturally. I called Jack O'Lantern last night, sorry if you're not a Halloween guy. But, you know, funny thing, I had four children sitting around me, very close, with a very sharp knife in my hand, and I didn't let them cut it. Crazy, aren't I? You know, my two-year-old was just right there beside me the entire time, and I never once said, here, why don't you cut it a little bit? It wasn't because he was too weak, it was because he wasn't strong enough to control where he would put the blade. You ever watch a two-year-old try to crack an egg? They're just not strong enough to control themselves, so it just kind of looks like this. Well, thanks. I like a little shell in my pancakes. It takes strength. It takes the strength. Unity, fellowship requires strength. The strength to not have to defend yourself every time you feel accused. The strength to not have your feelings hurt every time someone turns around, or every time you don't get noticed, or you don't get the credit you feel like you deserve. The strength to just be happy something good is happening. The strength to just be glad to be a part. What does charity require? Unity and fellowship requires humility and gentility. It requires longsuffering or patience. Don't you love this word? I love the old translations. New translations use patience, and we all think we know what that means. That sounds so, you know, clean. Old translations used to use the word longsuffering. You know what longsuffering means? I bet you're smart enough to figure that one out. You have to suffer a long time. Gee, that was difficult. We're not good at that, you know, because we do take so much pride in ourselves. You know, a few weeks ago, we studied election and predestination. And when I was your age and I was going through college and I was studying this stuff. Gosh, I just said that, didn't I? I'm old. Yes, when I was your age. And I was studying this stuff for the first time. It took me months, months. to come to an understanding of what these doctrines meant. And then by the time I finally figured it out, and then I realized that I figured it out because I was so smart, I gave people a good five to ten minutes to agree with me. And if you didn't, I just kind of gave up. You just don't believe the Bible. Long suffering. Patience. with people who don't agree with us. Patience with people who are different than us. Patience with people who just don't know how to act. Last year, I went to a wedding rehearsal. It was just wonderful. And the guy there is so funny. He's just a great guy. I love him dearly. He got up and he started introducing all his wedding party. It was a very humble rehearsal dinner. He paid for the entire thing himself. His parents didn't even come, and he started listing off his wedding party, and they were all friends from high school, and he said, you know, the reason... I haven't seen some of these guys in years, but they're in my wedding party because they loved me when I was just a dumb Jehovah's Witness. He grew up a Jehovah's Witness, and he had been absolutely isolated from fellowship of any kind his entire life, and when he finally got out of that, he had no understanding of how to act. And he started crying, and he said, these guys just love me because they were supposed to. And I drove them crazy, and they should have kicked me out, but they just love me because they were supposed to. Who would say that about you? Who's going to put you in their wedding party just because you loved them, just because you were supposed to? That's what Christians do, you know. We don't pick our friends based upon who entertains us and who makes us feel good about ourselves and who has the same sense of humor. We love people just because we're supposed to. I think that's what Jesus meant when He said, when you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they invite you in return and there you're repaid. When you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you'll be blessed. Because they cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just. It requires humility. It requires long-suffering. And fellowship requires effort. Make every effort to keep the unity. You know, loving people takes effort. It really does. It doesn't take a whole lot, but it takes effort. It takes being willing to go first. That's about all that you really need. If you want to have a healing, loving, fellowship community, be willing to go first. You know what that means? It means you don't sit around and wait for somebody else to say hello to you. I'm the most condemned by this. I went to probably 40 baseball games in the last two years and almost every time I had the same resolution getting out of the car. Boy, I really need to have more friends in the community. I really need to be a minister in the community and be bringing people to Christ, all that Christian stuff. And so I tell you what, if anybody talks to me tonight, I'm really going to talk to them. Hmm. Kind of let me off the hook, didn't it? Nobody's willing to go first. To be the guy to say, to be happy to see you. To put it out there on the line and say, I'm just glad to see you. How are you? And you know why? It's basically because we all haven't gotten out of sixth grade. We all kind of carry that around with us. You know, you remember that day in sixth grade when you were happy to see somebody and they just offed you? They were just like, who are you? I had a guy actually literally just say that. I was like, hey man, how you doing? Who are you? Yeah, that's what all his buddies did, but that ain't what I did. I'll tell you what I didn't do. I was never the first one to speak again for years. It's hard to believe, isn't it? I'm the first one to speak just because I like to speak. It's hard. Somebody's got to go first. Somebody's got to go first. The Apostle Paul says that. He says, greet each other with a holy kiss. What does that mean, greet each other with a holy kiss? It doesn't mean we need to go around, you know, smacking each other up. But what it does mean... I don't know, I just thought of that. I'm kind of dead tonight. I want to get something to eat. What does it mean? It means you don't have the right to just sit there and act like you didn't see somebody come in. It means you don't have the right to wait for them to come greet you. It means we're going to serve each other. We're going to make the effort that unity requires. We're going to make every effort to have the fellowship and the unity. First of all, we need to exercise charity. We're not going to get through this tonight. That's fine. Good night. We're not even going to get close. But let me just say this. Yeah, if you will start practicing that, your friendships will all of a sudden become very rich. There's an article I read once in Redbook. That's embarrassing, isn't it? My mother-in-law's in the hospital, okay? I've read every single magazine in the waiting room. I picked this one up. But what she's talking about is this woman talking about revelation that she had made about her marriage. And when she began to inform her friends about it, and her friends were all just, that's just the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. What she was doing was she was putting her mother's advice into practice, and it revolutionized her marriage, and she was sharing it with her friends, and they all said, that's ridiculous. And basically it was just, you know, she would just serve her husband in a very simple, tangible way, and it made him much more responsive to her. And universally, their response was, but he doesn't do this for me, or he doesn't do that for me. And her answer was simply this, are we just going to sit around and stare at each other, wondering who's going to go first, while our marriages die? You know, I've talked with so many of you who, want to hide behind the I'm shy excuse. Everybody just thinks I'm stuck up because I'm shy. Well, maybe they think you're stuck up because you don't talk to them when they come in the door. How do you feel when you come into somebody else's house and they don't talk to you? Maybe they just assume you think your video game is more important than they are because you won't quit playing and talk to them when they come in. It requires effort. It's not a hard effort. That makes fellowship so rich. People will be as glad to see you as they are to see their dogs. Don't you want that? Come on. Hey, there's a lot more people who cried when their dog died than are going to cry when you die. It's true. Why? Why do people love their dogs so much? Because every time you come in the door, your dog's happy to see you. Every time. If you're having a bad day, you come in, see your dog, she greets you, then you get up, you leave, you can go out in five minutes, come right back, and she'll do it again. Your dog's always happy to see you. She's serving you. And that's why you love them so much. You can be that. You can have that kind of richness. If you'll make the effort to keep the unity, if you'll make the effort to love each other, And finally, we have to recognize our unity. We have to recognize the fact that we are, in fact, united. We are, in fact, united. What is a relationship? A relationship is just a history. It's shared experiences. We've been to the same places. We've done the same things. We're going the same direction. We care about the same things. That's what a relationship's about. Well, guess what? If someone is in Christ, we share the same history. Not only the history of their personal conversion experience, but the same history of the last 4,000 years. That's their life story and it's yours. You share the same struggles. You have the same goals. You have the same purpose. You're on the same team. You're working to see Christ brought to bear on this earth. You are one. And what unites us, even if I don't know you, if you're in Christ, what unites me and you is much closer, much more intimate than what unites me and my best friend who's not a believer. Because we're joined. We're one body. We're one thing. We have one faith, one foundational way of viewing the world. We have one Lord, one husband. We have one head. We have one baptism. It's like the ring. I love those old schools like Texas A&M and West Point and the Citadel. Every graduate has the same ring so you can recognize each other across the room. That we have that bond. You're one of me. We're together. That's what our baptism is. I went to Vanderbilt and while I was there in the 80s, multiculturalism and diversity and all that stuff, was a big thing. And all they wanted was for us to just get together and love each other. And you know, so that what they do, they start having all these these multicultural fests like Oktoberfest, which I love. I know there's like six Germans on this campus, but I like bratwurst. I don't care who you are. But, you know, they always had these. They built the Asian Student Center and African Student Center and the Eurasian Student Center. And so what happened? Well, all the Spanish students started hanging out in the Spanish place, and all the Africans started hanging out in the African place, and there was less unity than ever. Because they had nothing to unite us around. Then I went and spent three years at this seminary that didn't say a single word, did not say a single word about multiculturalism the entire time I was there. And yet I'd sit around lunch tables and I would say, wait a minute, There's eight chairs at this table and we have four continents represented. Why is that? Because we've got something to unite around. We've got the same Lord and the same faith and the same baptism. We're going the same direction. We've got that potential. We've got it. I want you to enjoy it. I want the Lord to bless it. I'm excited about fellowship. I'm excited about y'all's unity. You can do great things. You've got to embrace the humility. And you've got to embrace each other. Please pray with me. Father, will you give us the grace to recognize the faith that we share. is greater and deeper and richer than we believe. Father, we confess that what keeps us from having a richer fellowship, what keeps us from loving each other the way we should and can, is that we're just too impressed with ourselves. Father, You open our eyes. You show us that everything that is good about us is what You have poured out on us. Father, we confess that we're just not living it. We're not walking the walk that is worthy of the calling that we've received. And we call out to Jesus to save us from ourselves. To save us from our arrogance. To save us from our coldness. To save us from not caring. To save us from our not loving. To save us from our sin and from ourselves. I pray in Jesus' name, Amen.