Good morning, Lighthouse. How y'all doing this morning? If you would, turn in your Bibles this morning to Ephesians chapter 4, and we're going to be looking at verses 1 through 7 this morning. That's going to be our jump-off verses, our text for this morning. Verse 1 says, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you're called. with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, even as you are called in 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 to every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Many of you guys are familiar with the book by Alexander DeMoss. You may be familiar with the movie, but it's entitled The Three Musketeers. And the heroes of that story had as their motto, all for one and one for all. And what this meant was that each member of that group of men would fight for the group or for any of the others in particular. In other words, they were vowing to stand together in their common fight. And as I thought about this passage, I realized that this was what the Apostle Paul was trying to get the Ephesian church to adopt as their motto. Simply stated, I believe that the Lord expects us as a church family to walk together in absolute unity for His glory. And these verses that we just read tell us that unity is not just a possibility. It's a divine requirement to get if we are to be everything God wants us to be as a church. Now, if we go back up and look at verse 1, notice Paul's use of the word therefore. Now every time I see the word therefore in Scripture, I have to stop and go back and see what it's there for. And this word here draws our attention back to the previous chapters where Paul has been laying a foundation of biblical Christian doctrine. Now as he begins his remarks in chapter 4, Paul is saying that there is no divorcing of Christian doctrine from Christian duty. And he's saying, he's going, guys, you know the truth, now walk in it. You know what you're supposed to do, so use it to where the rubber meets the road. James 2 verse 18 says, See, the bottom line is this, guys. Where there's genuine faith, there will be genuine works to back it up. And this morning I want to take this passage and I want to show you two main points on the thought all for one and one for all. First off, I want you to see that being one in the Lord is God's will for His people. In fact, Philippians chapter 1 tells us, "...only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ, that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel, and in nothing terrified by your adversaries, which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation and that of God." 1 Corinthians 1 tells us, Paul says again, he says, Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. And secondly this morning, I want to show you how it's possible. And you know, that's a pretty tall order, but this passage here gives us the necessary details. And I want you to notice the truths contained in this passage. First off, I want you to see the source of Christian unity. See, if we're to be united in the Lord, what is to be the basis of our unity? I think it's a fair question. I mean, we all came here today from different backgrounds. We all came here today from different cultural foundations, from different economic backgrounds, from different lifestyles, et cetera. So how in the world can we possibly find any common ground? These verses tell us about the areas in every saved person in this room holds in common. And it not only holds in common, but holds in common with every other saved person in this room. And these two areas provide us with the source of Christian unity. So I want you to see that we share common ground. Look at verses four through six. Paul says, There is one body and one spirit, even as you are called in the 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. Now, the night before Jesus was crucified, He prayed for His people. He prayed for us. And one of the things that He prayed specifically is that His people would be one. Look at John chapter 17 with me. Jesus says, Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word, that they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they may also be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them, that thou may be one, even as we are one. I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me." See, to ensure that we have a foundation upon which to build in unity, the Lord has provided us with seven great possessions that every Christian in this room shares in Him. Look back at our text in Ephesians. We possess one body, one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father. Now, did y'all notice something about that? Did you notice that everything we possess is about Him? See, here's the deal. When our lives, and our desires, our will, and our interests, etc., whatever it is, when they stop being about Him and start to focus on us, guys, we're headed for trouble. See, as believers, we may come from different places, but we stand on common ground. We also share a common grace. Look at verse 7. It says, But to every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. See, verse 7 here in this little passage, it begins a whole new thought in which Paul is going to speak of the spiritual gifts that are given to the ministers of the church to profit the church. Of course, it's good to note here that every believer, every one, Every child of God in this room has at least and possesses at least one spiritual gift. No one was left out. Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12, they're great passages to study about this. And there just isn't enough time this morning to flesh all of this out. I mean, another sermon, another time. But here's what I would like you to see. Look at 1 Corinthians 12. Paul says, now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit with all. Now look at Romans verse 12. Starting in verse 3, Paul says, For I say through the grace given unto me, To every man among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office, so we being many are one body in Christ, and every one members of one another. Having then gifts, differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy, according to the proportion of faith, or ministry, let us wait on our ministering, or he that teacheth on teaching. or he that exhorteth on exhortation, he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity, he that ruleth with diligence, he that showeth mercy with cheerfulness." See, every child of God has been gifted. Unfortunately, many believers just don't even realize what talent they've been given. You know, many years ago, my mother-in-law, she worked for TDC. And as a guard, she worked death row for most of that time. And she told me, she says, it wasn't like what I thought. She told me she met some of the most intelligent, talented men she'd ever met during that time there. And she would bring home some of the most beautiful, well-made works of art that the inmates had produced. And without fail, the inmates producing these products had no idea that they even had that talent. How much different might their lives have been if they had realized, developed, and utilized this talent before they were incarcerated? The gift that you have been given was given to you to use for the glory of God and to be a blessing to the church. And as each believer uses the gifts that he or she has been given, the unity of the church is strengthened and the church is helped. See, the source of our unity lies in what we share in common and in the fact that we have each been especially equipped by the Lord to be a blessing and to be a help to the church. Secondly, I want to show you this morning the secret of Christian unity. See, now that we know where our unity originates, how are we going to go about the business of practicing, protecting, and strengthening our unity? I'm glad you asked. These verses actually hold a simple answer. First off, we need to exercise the right walk. Look at verses one through three of Ephesians chapter four. Paul says, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you're called. With all lowliness and meekness, with long suffering for bearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Now, I want you to note here that the Apostle Paul does not tell us to make unity. Unity already exists in God's church. Our duty is to manifest it and to maintain it. And I want you to notice how this is done. First is, if we go back, look at verse two. It's done with lowliness. It says, with all lowliness. This word here means humility. an accurate understanding of your own moral smallness. In essence, it means that we individually have to realize our own insignificance while we see the worth of others. Philippians chapter 2 verse 4 tells us, Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. See, here's the deal. We have to get over it and we have to realize it's not about how great I am. It's I am what I am by the grace of God. It's about us getting off our pedestal and realizing that were it not for the grace of God, we'd still be a sinner bound for hell. Having a lowly spirit keeps me reminded of the fact that I am just one heartbeat away from failing God myself. Therefore, I'm not going to look down my nose at anybody else who's fallen or maybe backslid. Secondly, I want you to see the meekness. Look at verse two. It says, we are called with all loneliness and meekness. This word means gentleness. It means power under control. It refers to having the power to react against others, but refusing for the sake of Christ. Sometimes it just means keeping our mouth shut instead of setting someone else straight. Sometimes it means reacting with honey when you want to react with vinegar. It means being sweet toward others. You know, Adrian Rogers used to say, he says, you better make your words warm and sweet because you don't know which one of those you're going to have to eat. But the point is, when you're meek and lowly, you're absolutely in good company. Look at Matthew 11, verse 29. Jesus said, By the way, meekness is part of the fruit of the Spirit. In Galatians 5, it tells us, but the fruit of the Spirit is love. and joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. And against such, there is no law." If we look back to our text, I want you to see that we need to have longsuffering. This word means patience and endurance. It literally means to be long-tempered instead of short-fused. You know, you gotta ask yourself, and I have to ask myself all the time, do I have a long fuse or a short fuse? What does it take to get me riled up? And once I'm there, what does it take to get me cooled down? See, if we're gonna promote unity in the church, then we gotta learn to be long-tempered. And by the way, that's also part of the fruit of the spirit. And we have to forbear in love. See the word forbearing means to endure or to put up with. So not only do we have to be long tempered, we have to put up with. But really what that means is that we need to give people space to be themselves. We need to give people space to make mistakes. It means being unoffendable. See, you can be loud and mean as a cat stuck in a chain link fence, or you can be as useful as a post turtle. But I can and will choose to love you anyway. You see, the word love refers to God's kind of love. It's that agape love. It's a love that is unconditional. It's a love that is eternal. And it doesn't end based on what you do or you don't do. It remains constant and it remains strong in spite of injury. See, basically this phrase calls on believers to give one another the right to be different. The right to hold different opinions. And in generally, it gives them the right to just be themselves. Isn't that refreshing? You know, we have to put on so many masks in life. Depending on where we're going, we've got a mask for work, we've got a mask for home, we've got a mask that we put on in public. You know, and we take this off, here, You don't have to, you take away the mask. You take away the drama and you can come in and simply be yourself. You know, it's been said, in essentials, unity. In non-essentials, liberty. In everything, charity or love. Paul put it this way in Romans chapter 12. He said, Not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer. Distributing to the necessity of saints, given to hospitality. Bless them which persecute you and bless and curse not. Rejoice with them that do rejoice and weep with them that weep. Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits, recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men, and if it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. I love that, as much as lies within me. Secondly, we need to embrace the right work. See, Paul says in Ephesians 4 verse 3, he says, "...endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." See, maintaining unity here requires more than just a change in the way we walk. Unity here requires hard work. See, the word endeavoring means to exert oneself. We're called upon this verse to keep, to guard, to keep as a prisoner, the unity of the spirit. In other words, each one of us has to work hard to ensure that this unity of the spirit of God that he wants to produce in this church is unhindered and unbroken. And I was like, wow, how do we do this? It's simple, by maintaining that bond of peace. See that bond refers to that which binds something together. And we might call it glue. Peace simply refers to harmony between individuals. And what I mean is we can disagree on something and rather than having a hissy fit, we can just agree to disagree and we can move on. We can disagree and I can love you anyway. See, we're to work hard to ensure that this unity that God wants to produce is unhindered. And as we determine within our hearts that we will walk in love towards one another, that we'll be unoffendable, we will be exerting ourselves to see that the Spirit's purpose in our church is carried out. And the Spirit's purpose within our lives is carried out. Now, as I said, this duty does not lie on the other person's shoulder. It rests squarely on every individual in this church. We share in it equally. It's my responsibility to walk in love toward you. And it's my duty to work for the unity collectively here. You know, most Americans can recall what they were doing, if they're old enough. I'm about to show my age, but most Americans can recall what they were doing on January 28, 1986. I was in Navy boot camp in Orlando, Florida. And on that historic day, the reason it stands out in my head, the space shuttle Challenger exploded just 73 seconds into flight. Seven families were robbed by death, and an entire nation was wracked with grief. And all of this loss was ultimately blamed on one inexpensive O-ring. See, records revealed that the space shuttle was comprised of millions of parts, millions of components. And in this sea of mechanical makeup, it took just one little part to destroy the whole. One million parts did their job, but one failed. and disaster occurred. Now I bring that up because many people believe that their role within the church is not only small, but insignificant. And they believe it's inconsequential. It doesn't matter whether I'm here to do it or not. And this erroneous doctrine of the church causes individuals to believe that in the ultimate end of it, if it carried out to the end, that their behavior can't hurt the church. But see, like that small insignificant O-ring that failed, one failed performance can produce catastrophic results. We're only as good as our weakest link. I wanna show you finally the satisfaction of Christian unity. Look at Ephesians 4.1. Paul says, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you're called. See, if we collectively and individually decide to walk in unity with one another, and when I say that, we decide to walk hand in hand down this trip, what's the payoff? What's in it for the church if we do the hard work of walking in unity? What's in it for me? Well, first off, we're gonna live a balanced life. See, if we look back at that verse, the word worthy has the idea of balance. In other words, as you and I walk together here in lockstep as a team for the glory of God, we're declaring to a watching world that what we have is absolutely real. You see, nothing proclaims the genuineness of our faith like our open, unconditional love for our brothers and sisters in Jesus. John chapter 13 verse 35 tells us, By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another. Now, think about this. Two drunks in a bar fought somewhere last night. You take a look on the news and you probably heard multiple times. But two drunks last night in a bar fought somewhere. Today they're sober again and their fight is forgotten and a lot of times they're friends. But all they have is the bond of the flesh. Here in the church, we allow our hearts to fester and we nurse our grudges sometimes. And we profess to have the unity of spirit. But you have to put that to rest. We have to show the world and all the young believers that this thing we have is real. Isn't it time that everyone in the church made an effort to ensure that their walk matched their talk? I got hit pretty hard on that one. Secondly, the payoff on this is that we're gonna live a blessed life. See, as we walk in unity, as we strengthen each other, we will be what the Lord saved us to be, living proof that Jesus makes a difference in all those he touches. See, your life, my life, the life of this church is gonna trumpet to a lost world that we are absolutely different. The people coming through these doors are gonna say, you know what, I don't know what it is, but there's something different about that place. And it's gonna tell the world that not only are we different, we're saved and we're in this thing together. But being, you know, we need to understand that being united won't make us rich. It ain't gonna make us any more beautiful or less. It ain't gonna make us famous. But what, and most importantly, what it's gonna do is bring honor to God and it will draw the Lord's blessings in this direction. All for one and one for all. Is that the motto of our heart this morning? Let me close with this thought. The May 1987 edition of the National Geographic included a feature about the Arctic wolf. And author L. David Metch described how a seven-member pack of wolves had targeted several muskox calves who were well guarded by 11 adults. Now, as the wolves approached their quarry, the muskox bunched in an impenetrable semicircle, with their deadly rear hooves facing out. And as they did this, the calves remained safe. And there was a long standoff with the enemy. But then a single ox broke rank, and the herd scattered into nervous little groups. A skirmish ensued, and the adults finally fled in panic, which left the calves to the mercy of the predators. And there wasn't a single calf that survived. My point in the story of that story this morning is this. Lighthouse is, this morning, I don't know of any problems going on here. I don't. We've been in, for the most part, in unity for quite some time. It's been good. I do know, however, that we're living in perilous times. And I also know that as I look out on any given Sunday, there are many baby believers here. Paul warned the Ephesian elders in Acts chapter 20 that after his departure, wolves would come, not sparing the flock. Wolves continue to attack the church today. But they can't penetrate and destroy when the church stands in unity. However, when believers break ranks with one another, they provide the enemy with easy prey. See, it may be this morning that this sermon is just a reminder of who we are and how we are to thrive and to bring glory to the Lord in the coming days. It may be that someone here today has had their feelings hurt by others in the church. or someone listening out there, and they may have been hurt by others in the church, and they haven't been as loving and as forgiving toward that person as the Lord would want them to be. Why not get that settled today? It may be that others here have been on the offending end of the situation, whether intentional or not. Why don't we come before the Lord and ask forgiveness for that? It may be what some of these folks need this morning is just to have an old-fashioned neck-hugging, tear-jerking, snot-slinging time of just loving one another. I guarantee you the devil won't like it, but the Lord surely will. Still others in a crowd this side may have come into the house of the Lord just lost today. And what I'm talking about sounds real good on paper. but you just can't see how it ever worked in this world we live in. You know, I'd answer with the fact that all things are possible with Christ, and I'd invite you to let us introduce you to him. See, he died for you on that cross, and if you'll trust him, he's gonna save your soul. Ask us about them lessons before you leave. Whoever you are this morning and wherever you may stand before the Lord today, if there's a need in your heart, let's get it settled before we go home. Thank you guys. Pastor Dill. Good job. Every time I look at this passage of scripture, There's just so much here to know, so much to learn from it. It says there's one Lord. There are a lot of Lords. You got people in every aspect of your life wanting to be a Lord over you, telling you what to do. It means there's only one Lord that is the Lord, and that's Jesus. There's only one baptism. People talk about all kinds of different baptisms, foolishness, but there's only one baptism, and it's in water after you get saved, and it'll make you part of God's church. And all these things, there's only one real thing, and that's found here. But there's one thing here in verse number three, it says, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Now Ray's right, we have had a lot of peace here for a long time, a lot of years. but it's not always been peaceful. We've had to stand and fight against many attacks and certain people doing things you just wouldn't imagine people doing in a church, but it happens. And we know there's other churches around that have their troubles and they're going through a lot of things because they don't have that bond of peace working. When I was growing up, which was back when dirt was first invented, It's been so long ago. When I was growing up, I lived in a small town in southern Missouri, and there were a lot of rough old boys in that town. And every so often, we'd hear about the latest fight and somebody getting thrown in jail because they got drunk, got in a fight, and there were these little wars, and they would just go on and on. things between families. The judge in our small town, what he would do when a couple of men were brought before him for acting like children and fighting like they were doing in those days, he would initiate something called a peace bond. They had to put up money, stay out of jail, they had to put up money. And if they stayed peaceable, that bond was good. They would get their money back at some point. But it's a bond, it was a commitment, a financial commitment on their part to stay at peace with everybody else around them. Ours is not a financial commitment, it's a spiritual commitment. We're gonna live at peace with one another And we have decided that whatever it costs to do that, we're gonna pay that cost. And we've been able to do that for a pretty good bunch of years. But I'm here to tell you that Satan has not been liking it very much at all. And he's got plans to disrupt it, and he's gonna try to use you to make that happen. He will. You're gonna need a bond of peace. You're gonna need a commitment that regardless of what comes, you're gonna remain at peace with your brothers and sisters in Christ. I've taught for a bunch of years now that we need to be unoffendable. Brother Ray mentioned that. I'm sure he recalls that from a day gone by. You know, peace leaves when somebody gets offended, and they're mad, and they're upset, and they're hurt. But I learned, kind of the hard way sometimes, but I learned you don't have to get offended. You don't. There are people that say offensive things that they don't mean, and they don't even realize they did. It's your choice whether you're gonna be offended by it or not. And I choose to be unoffendable. I don't care what you do, I'm gonna love you anyway. I'd rather you love me first than we're just buddies and going down the road, but if that doesn't happen, it's not gonna change how I look at it. The Lord and I have made a deal. He'll love me and take care of me, but he expects me to be unoffendable. And I've learned I don't have to be offended. You don't have to be offended either. I promise you that I'm gonna preach something, as the Lord lets me stay preaching long enough, I'm gonna preach something that's gonna get under your skin and you're not gonna like it. Some of you are shaking your head, you already know about that. You can either take it and love me anyway, or you can be offended. You have a choice, but it's your choice to make. Nobody can make you be offended. Only you can make you be offended, only you. But God says, endeavoring, trying hard, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. We got a wonderful thing going on here. And it's been going on for a long time, and it needs to go on a lot longer. Yet it's up to us.