Chapter of the Bible this morning, turn to Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4. We'll be reading the first three verses and our text today will be Ephesians 4 verse 1. Paul says here in Ephesians 4 verse 1, I therefore the prison of the Lord beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with long-suffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. Let us pray. Father, we thank you this morning that you have saved us from our sins. that Christ called us out of darkness into the marvelous light of your kingdom. And we ask this morning, Lord, that you would visit us with your spirit and that we would understand and obey your holy word. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. It's been said any time you read the word of God and you have the word, therefore, you need to find out what it's there for. and the word therefore where the Apostle Paul used it here it means that the Apostle Paul is saying he says I'm about to make a connection with what I'm about to say with something that I have already said and he uses this word to connect things that he wrote in Ephesians 1 to 3 to what he's about to say now and what he does is he proceeds in this letter to lead the Ephesians into the practical application of the great doctrines and theological truths that he laid out at the beginning of this letter. If you've never read the first three chapters of Ephesians, you need to read that because it's rich in truth. It's rich in doctrine of what God in Christ has done for us. If you read through those passages, you will see central doctrines of the Christian faith, all that is central and vital to understanding the way of salvation. You'll see examples of adoption, redemption in Christ, election, acceptance in the Beloved, grace, God's workmanship in Christ, the guarantee of our salvation, the sealing of the Holy Spirit, the reconciling of the Jews and Gentiles into one body through the cross of Christ and other things. And what Paul wants us to understand is the call on our life in light of these great doctrines that he taught in these first three chapters. that this word, therefore, is a conjunction, and a conjunction is a word that connects sentences and phrases and clauses. And so what he does here is he uses this word, therefore, to connect these great doctrines to our lives. Jesus said in John 13, 7, He said, If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. And so when the word, therefore, is used, it implies something like, for that reason or as a result of something, Paul is basically saying the conclusion is inevitable. After you read all this great truth in Ephesians 1 to 3, you are to walk worthy of this calling wherewith you have been called. Every true Christian has a call upon their life, and because of this calling with which they were called, they are to walk a certain way in this life. As you read the Word of God, you see this word walk is used many times in the Word of God to describe how we are to regulate and conduct our lives in light of the calling on our lives. We talk about walk, it talks about activity, it talks about movement, it talks about progress, it talks about what you do in this life. You can look up in your concordance, it talks about walking love, walk honestly, walk circumspectly. But what we want to look at this morning is that we walk worthy of our calling. Now I want to give you a couple of scriptures this morning that show you what I'm talking about. Colossians 1.10, the apostle told the Colossians, he said that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work, increasing in the knowledge of God. So he says, walk worthy of the Lord. And then in 1 Thessalonians 2.12, he says that you walk worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom, and His glory. So what these scriptures connect is the way we are to walk with a calling in our lives to walk worthy of the Lord, to walk worthy of God, and of course Ephesians 4.1, to walk worthy of the calling for which we were called. And what he's telling these Ephesian Christians is that the call that God has on their lives should cause them to live their lives in this sinful world in such a way that is worthy of this call that they have on their lives. You say, what does it mean to walk worthy of the Lord? What does it mean to walk worthy of God? What does it mean to walk worthy of this calling? Well, basically, there's three ways to define this word worthy. When someone or somebody is worthy, then it means that they have worth, they have merit, that they are deserving of something. It means that honor and respect and consideration is due to them. Example, take God. How many of you believe God is worthy? The psalmist says, I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised. And that means that he's worthy of praise, worship, honor, and adoration. He deserves it. And because he's God and because he is what he's done for us, he merits these things. So what the apostle says is to walk worthy of God or worthy of the Lord. You are to live your life in a manner that is respectful and reverence of him. The call that God has on our lives is deserving of something. And it means it's deserved that you walk worthy of Him. And this call on your life is a high call. It's a valuable call. That's what makes it worthy. And he's saying by the way you live, you need to respect, you need to honor, and you need to dignify this call that you have on your life. Y'all with me this morning? And walk in a worthy way. Now there's two other ways that this can be described. It has the idea of equal weight or balancing. And the Apostle Paul uses this word to exhort them to give equal weight in their lives to doctrine and practice. In other words, he wants equal weights on the scale of doctrine and practice in their lives. He doesn't want their lives to be lopsided or out of balance. Because there's two things that Christians will either do. Number one, they'll either put all the weight on doctrine and none on practice. But they're put all the weight on practice and very little on doctrine. And to do either one, it puts imbalances in our lives. And he's telling the Ephesians here that he wants doctrine and practice to be as the same weight, so when they put them on the scales of life, they will balance out perfectly in the Christian's life. And brethren, a head full of knowledge that is not practiced or obeyed is a hindrance to the kingdom of God. You know, it will bring disgrace and shame to the cause of Christ. A head full of knowledge that is not obeyed will end up in deception and hypocrisy. The Word of God says, be ye doers of the Word of God and not hearers only, deceiving your own self. But the other side of the story is, if you think that all that Christian life means is that you live a good moral life and that the doctrine is of no importance, you're out of balance and you're a hindrance to the cause of Christ. So, you know, the apostle wants us to put that balance in our life. Now, doctrine is very important. Now, I know people say, well, you know, we just go to church over and over again. We hear the same things over and over again. But doctrine is vital to the life of the church. And you will not live a good Christian life without good Christian doctrine. Now, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4, verse 16, he told Timothy, he said, you take heed to yourself and to the doctrine, he said, and continue in them, for in doing this, you'll both save yourself and them that hear you. Now, y'all might not like this this morning, but we are a preaching and a teaching church. And we put a priority and a premium on doctrine. And we understand that the call on our lives, the way we are to live, we can only get it through doctrine. And you say, well, why do you do that? Because the Word of God tells you to do it. You know, we worship and praise, we sing to God, we pray, we fellowship, we put a premium on prayer. And I thought about it the other day, but our bread and butter is the Word of God. You say, well, why would it be the bread and butter of the church? I mean, there's so many other things that you need to do. Well, one reason is, is that as Pastor Jim said this morning, it makes us mature, thoroughly equipped for every good work. You know what every good work is? Practice. It's just practice. The doctrine that we have matures us and gets us ready to practice the things that we've been hearing. All scripture is profitable for teaching, for instruction in righteousness. It teaches us how to live before God and how to please Him. Our doctrine must be right in order for us to live lives that are pleasing to God and to walk worthy of this calling that we have on our life. And Paul is basically telling the Ephesians that he wants their doctrine and practice to complement each other, to balance out on the scales of life. Now another definition of this word worthy is something that is becoming. In other words, it could be translated that you walk in a manner that is becoming of the calling wherewith you were called. Philippians 127, the apostle told the Philippian church, only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ. Now in the King James Version, what he says here is only let your conversation be as becoming the gospel of Christ. But then I looked at another translation, the Williams translation says, only you must practice lives that are worthy of the good news. I like that. Practice lives that are worthy of the good news. Now this idea of becoming talks about consistency. And it means something that is suited to or matches something else. Example, when you put on clothes, you make sure that it all matches and is consistent in all its pieces. And I don't know how people dress crazy now, so I can't really make a good illustration. But you don't put stripes with checks, okay? Vanessa had to help dress me this morning. get colors together and everything. She says, this don't go with that, that don't go with that. So she dressed me this morning. I hope I'm consistent. If I'm not, Vanessa dressed me this morning. But you make sure that nothing clashes or is inconsistent with the other pieces. There should never be a clash between our doctrine and practice. Y'all with me? It should be consistent in the Christian's life. And if it's consistent in the Christian's life, then we're walking worthy of the calling with which we was called. What we believe and the talk and how we should live should match up. Now Titus 2, 9 to 10, I'm giving you scriptures because we've got a lot of scriptures this morning. He says that they may adorn the doctrine of our God and Savior in all things. So what he tells us there to do is to adorn the doctrine. What to adorn means to honor and to dignify, to add beauty or grace to something. And the idea is that the doctrine is the foundation and that life is the adorning. And he's telling us that our lives should honor and add beauty and dignity and grace to the doctrine that we've been taught. When we adorn the doctrine, what it does is when we live the things that we're taught, it makes the gospel attractive. Y'all with me this morning? And what it does, it causes people to look at it and deserve to have it. It glorifies God. All you ever hear about churches is they don't live it. You know, and of course, sinners would take it as an excuse. But brethren, our lives and everything that we do should show the beauty of the gospel. Our life should issue from doctrine, always match up with it. And brethren, our walk should display the beauty of the gospel and our life should display the beauty of Christ. And the way we do that is we walk worthy of this call for which we are called. Now, why is this calling on our lives worthy? It's because it's much more than just a call to go to church every Sunday, to be a good boy and girl throughout the week and do the best we can. This call that we have on our life, like I said, is a high call. It's a call to be separate. This call that we have on our lives is a call from darkness to light. It's a call to be a saint. It's a call to walk in the footsteps of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's a call to be separated from the world and sin and to be separated apart to God. Now, I'm going to give you several scriptures and just tell you what they say just to show you what they're saying when they're talking about calling. And another thing about being called, and this is the greatest privilege in the world, you're called to be a child of God. And I totally understand Christians because this is the greatest privilege in the world. Y'all with me? And people are losing sight of the privilege that God has called them to be his child. Well anyway, 2 Peter 2.21 says, To this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow his steps. And then he gives the example of how he suffered and he didn't get vengeful about the suffering, but you were called because you would follow in the footsteps of our Lord Jesus Christ. Philippians 3.14, I pressed forth a goal for the prize of the upper call of God in Christ Jesus. And that upper call is a call that was made in heaven. And this is a high call, and the reason why it's a high call is because it was made in heaven. It's the privilege and favor of God that he gave us this invitation to be his child. Hebrews 3, 1, Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling. It's a heavenly call. 2 Timothy 1, 8-9, he says, Who has saved us and called us with a holy calling. And it's all about a sovereign and free grace of God that's given to us in Christ Jesus before time begun. So God's call on the life of the Christian is a call to be separate to him, to live holy to him, because 1 Peter 1.15 says, but as he has called you as holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, be holy, for I am holy. He said, what's my call on my life? To be holy, to be pure and upright and separated unto God. And then the last one, 2 Peter 2, 9, it teaches the priesthood of the believer. He says that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. We're called to be the children of light, to come out of darkness and live in light. And this is the greatest motive, to live a holy, sanctified life, is the fact of your love for God and that he's called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Now, this doctrine of calling has been taught in the Word of God and many understand it, but there's a massive amount of scripture on this subject. And most people, when they think of being called of God, they don't interpret it as a call to be His child, to be holy and righteous. Most people, when they hear the word called, they think it's a call to the ministry or a call to preach. But brethren, Every born-again believer has a special call of God upon their lives, from the least to the greatest. Jesus said, my sheep will hear my voice, and they will know me. They hear the voice of the Son of God, and they know this call that he has on their life. Every Christian is called to live a faithful, fruitful life. Every Christian is called to be an ambassador for Christ, fulfilling the great commission in your life. Every believer, in a sense, has this special call on their life. And the only difference is, is that some people are gifted with certain things that others are not. And the church is the one that will recognize these gifts for ministry. Okay? But every Christian is called. A lot of preachers will tell you a story, and I'm going to tell you a story here in a minute about a preacher and calling. But when they got the call from God, and they said that they heard an honorable voice, and God told them to go to preach. And he wanted to preach in this certain place God told him specifically. And most people, when you say call, they think that God called them like he called the Old Testament prophets. But that's not biblical, and that's not New Testament. I recently talked to a man I worshiped with many years ago, and he told me this story, and it was just about a week ago, how God called him to go to this little country church that he'd never been to before, never met the people, and he wanted him to start a Wednesday night Bible study. He said he'd driven by this church many times and he was resisting the Lord and the Lord kept telling him to go. He said, so finally he said, okay, Lord, I'll go there and I'll do your will, whatever you want me to do. So he said he was there after one Sunday service and he came out and he shaked the preacher's hand and all of a sudden the preacher just looked at him and said, I think the Lord wants you to start a Wednesday night Bible study here. He said he about fell over cause he knew for sure then God had called him to teach, you know, in this church. Needless to say, The Word of God does not teach this. The Word of God, God does not have to speak oddly like he did in the past. And the way I look at it is he deceived himself, the preacher, and the people in that little church. Y'all looking at me funny. I see some of you still got some mysticism in you. But you would say, Pastor John, how do you know you're judging? How do you know that God didn't speak to him and say, send him to that little church? Now, early in my Christian life, I've been right on top of that. I said, praise the Lord, brother, you know, I would have been straight up on it. But my problem today is that I've been taught. And I know more of the word of God. And I know other things that will tell you that this wasn't God. See, when you say call, people are listening for an audible voice somewhere out of heaven, you know, speaking straight from God. Now, as we'll talk about later in calling, you hear the call of God with your heart. And most of the time the call is to come and be saved and to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I know ministers have aspirations for ministry and things like that. We could talk about that a little, but what this man was telling me was totally unscriptural. Problem number one, you say, why wouldn't this be right? Because you don't just let anybody in your pulpit without knowing their life, what they believe, and if they qualify. Y'all with me? If somebody's driving down Taylor's Good Road this morning and they come to the back door and say, tell Pastor Jim I need to start a Wednesday night Bible study here, he'd probably tell them, we got a TV room in the back, sit back there, we'll talk to you in a minute. You don't do that. That's just unscriptural. Number two, brethren, we have the canon of scripture. We have the full revelation. God no longer speaks through dreams, visions, prophets, and apostles. He used these things and the means of grace to give us revelation back in the Old Testament. That's how we got most of the Bible. But now we have the full revelation. We don't need any more to hear from God that way. Hebrews 1.1, God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in times past by the fathers, has in these last days spoken to us by his Son, whom he has appointed heir of all things. that through whom also he made the world. Number three, and this is a real problem. I had talked to this man a few years back, and this same man told me that he believed that there was a race of people on this earth before God made Adam. And this creates all kinds of theological problems and difficulties. And he also told me at the same time, that he believed that God heard the prayers of Muslims and other faiths because he had heard this Muslim man pray and this prayer was so sincere, he said, God had to hear him. I told him, John 14, Jesus said, I'm the way and the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. And I said all this to refute this delusional, mystical notion of calling. When God calls you, you won't hear an audible voice because it's not necessary. When God calls you to salvation, effectively, your heart will hear it, as the Word of God is either preached to you or somebody is witnessing to you in the gospel. And when you hear it, brothers and sisters, you will willingly respond to it if God has effectively called you to himself. Now, I just want to talk this morning, before we go too far, about the basic biblical doctrine of calling, because there's a general or universal call that is made to everyone. throughout the world. Acts 1730, he says, God now commands all men everywhere to repent. There's a universal call that goes out from the church to the whole world to repent and believe the gospel of Jesus Christ. And this call is a summons or an invitation to believe and follow Christ. And in this general call is presupposed the Great Commission. He said, in the greatest condition, go into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned. Another scripture, Matthew 22, 2 to 14, the parable of the marriage feast, shows that some were invited and they did not come. And he concludes this, I'm not going to read this passage of scripture, but he concludes this with these words, many are called, but few are chosen. So some theologians refer to this general call as what they call an external call. And this general call or this external call is preached to all men indiscriminately, not to any specific nation, not to any specific class of men. It goes throughout the world, not to any specific time in history or any age. This is a call that goes out to all men at all times. And what it is, it's a call to the world to earnestly to accept Christ. by faith in order to obtain forgiveness of sins and eternal life. Now this call is seen in the Old Testament as well as the New Testament. I'll give you a few scriptures that you already know. Isaiah 55, 1. Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. And you who have no money, come and buy. Yes, come and buy wine and milk without money and without price. That's the call. Isaiah 45, 22, look unto me and be saved, all ye ends of the world, for I am God and there is none other. That's the call to all men. And there's others in the Old Testament. In Matthew 11, 28, that's a great one. Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And then the Bible ends with a call, Revelation 22, 17, and the spirit and the bride say, come. And let him who hears come, and let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take, he says, let him take the water of life freely and come to the Lord Jesus Christ. The universal call goes forth from this pulpit every Lord's day. It may not be in the same form or the same manner, but every Lord's day. And there's some who sit here today that are saved, that heard this call over and over again, but they never heard it. You say, how can you hear something but never hear it? One day they heard it, and they heard it externally with the physical ear, but to put it in simple terms, one day they heard it with their hearts. One day God's grace caused them to hear the gospel in order to be saved. The question is always asked, how could you sit up under such a message like that of this priest and not be moved? How could they not hear that? Y'all ever say that? How could they not hear what was said? Jesus said in John 5, 25, Most assuredly I say to you that the hour is coming and now is when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. He's talking about spiritual life. They didn't hear it because there was no spiritual life in them. Y'all with me this morning? Sometimes you wish you could just beat people into salvation, you know, just jerk them. You can't do it. God has to make them alive by his Holy Spirit. This brings us to what theologians call the effectual calling. Actually, there are not two calls that go out, but the calling of God is one call with two aspects. Now, once passage of Scripture, 2 Thessalonians 2, 13 and 14, you can put that in your notes, but you can read this. He ends it up, he says, to which he calls you by our gospel. for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is talking about the effectual call. So the same universal call that is preached to all universally, indiscriminately, that is heard externally, many reject it, but some respond to it and are saved. And brethren, whatever Pastor Jim, or Pastor Bob, or Pastor Charlie, or John Minetta, Rick Kelly, or Ryan, or Brother Grant, or whoever is in this pulpit preaches, You've got to hear beyond their voice, and you need to hear the voice of the Son of God calling you to come follow Him. You say, why do some not heed it? Why do some heed it and others don't? I'll give you one simple reason. Because of the Spirit of God. And it's by the saving work of the Spirit of God that this universal call of God becomes effective unto salvation. Theologians debate over the order of salvation and which one comes first, calling or regeneration. And I see both sides of the argument, why they argue over this. But to be safe, the call becomes effective when the spirit of God works in the heart of a person and enables them to believe the gospel. Only by the saving grace of God do any ever hear the call of saving. Jesus said in John 6, 44, No man can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. So this tells us there's power in the call which draws a person and he cannot and he or she will not come without that power in the call. I thought it was striking and very interesting in Luke chapter 5 verse 17. He says that now it happened on a certain day, talking about Jesus, that he was teaching that there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by who had come out of every town of Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem, and then they say this, and the power of the Lord was present to heal. Y'all know where I'm going with that. I believe that the power to save is in the call, and sometimes more than others, because of the sovereign reign of God. John 3 says the wind blows where it will, and we don't know when it comes or when it goes. But I believe, brethren, that sometimes the power to save is in the house of God, and sometimes it's more evident sometimes than it is others. Y'all with me? Because, I mean, the gospel is preached over and over and over and over again. And that's why we pray that God would send his Holy Spirit and that he would save sinners. People do not get saved because the preacher or the preaching is good. I've heard people say, oh, if they could just hear so-and-so, oh, if they could just hear so-and-so. You can bring somebody up in the casket and they can preach to them all day, they will never get saved. You can bring the best preacher in the world in and they will never be saved unless the Spirit of God moves safely on their heart and move them and give them a heart to believe. There's quite a few young people in this church who profess Christ and profess that God has saved them. Now, most people don't want to believe that young people can get saved, but I believe that they've been saved. Y'all with me? And some of these parents say, well, I don't know about that, because I asked them to clean the room the other day, and they wouldn't do it. Please. I mean, if we look at our life, well, anyway, I'm not even going to go with that. But you understand what I'm saying, that mentality and that attitude. I believe it, brethren, because they sit here, and they heard tons of gospel. And they've been in God's presence, meeting after meeting with his people year round. And why couldn't it be? that they was here the day that the power of God was here to save. Who are we to say? You know, they may not know exactly when it happened, or what day it happened, or the hour that it happened, but one day the wind blew. And they looked up the next day, and they believe in on Christ. Because it's a miraculous thing that is done. And the power of God was here today. And so they were here one day, and the gospel was going forth, and the saving power of God was here to save. They heard the gospel First time in their lives, they've heard it all the time. This is the first time they've really heard the gospel. Now they can believe it, and now they're saved and confessing Christ. No man can perform it, only God. Y'all with me? It's real simple what happens. Acts 16, 14, the account of Lydia. It says, the Lord opened her heart to heed the things that were spoken by Paul. And all he's doing here is describing the opening of the heart to receive. the gospel of Christ. Ephesians 2.1 says, and you he made alive who was dead in trespasses and sins. Y'all with me this morning? Dead men cannot hear nor see. I thought about the other day, if a man or woman in a funeral home lying in a casket, you can talk to that dead body all day long, but they cannot hear you. You can tell them good things. You can promise them great things, mighty things, wonderful things, but they cannot respond. I mean, that's what goes forth when the gospel is being preached. Good and mighty and great things are promised to people, but they don't respond. You can bring in the most elegant speaker in the world, the most pervasive and convincing person you've ever listened to, and they won't move, and it's because they are dead, and they need to be called to life to be able to respond. That's the picture of a sinner, spiritually, before God saves them. That's why Jesus said, no man can come unto me except my father draw him, or no man can come unto me unless it's been granted unto him by my father. And we have two great illustrations in the word of God concerning this, Ezekiel 37, 1 to 14, the vision of the dry bones calling the dead to life. And then John chapter 11, when Jesus called Lazarus from the dead, who had been dead four days to come forth. The power was in the words spoken by the son of God, effectually to raise him from the dead. As many people said, because he heard the voice of the Son of God, he had to rise from the dead, and he had to say his name specifically, or they all would have come forth. So when God regenerates and effectually calls one to himself, what God does is, one man says, he implants a spiritual ear in them that enables them to hear the call of God to the salvation of their souls. Now they hear from Christ, they receive with their heart, they no longer resist the call to the gospel, and they obey the word of God. That's a blessing this morning. You wonder why we strive in prayer meetings on Wednesdays and any time we're praying for God to move and save? Because if anybody is ever saved, it's by the sovereign hand of Almighty God. And it's serious that we pray that. I mean, even we as believers need our ears open again and again. The Word of God says, take heed how you hear. You know, a lot of things, I'm sure Pastor James preached tons and tons of sermons that we've let fall by our heads because we heard it, but we really didn't listen to it with our heart. Romans 8, 29, 30 says the call of God is not only a good call, but it will lead effectually to the glorification of your soul. It not only stops at the call, but it will be our way to glorification. So just to say a few things this morning, in application, the first thing I'm going to say is that the call that God has on the life of his people brings with it great blessings. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Nothing can go beyond that. Everything that we need has been given to us in Christ, and because we're in him, he's in us. We must never forget this fact that We must live a life that illustrates this and walk worthy of this call. Second thing, brethren, God has not called us to, you know, chosen us that we might simply not go to hell and not only know that our sins are forgiven, but he's chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him in love. He's predestined us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto himself. He has called us unto something. What has He called us into? Into the family of God. And if you're in the family of God, we need to be living a life that respects and reflects the glory of that family of our Father. You ever heard people say, don't shame the family name? Don't shame the family name. We've been taught well in this place. And I thought the other day, you know, to whom much is given, much is required. You know, we've talked to be a holy people, a zealous people, a people that's separate from this world. And it seems like, you know, in the days that we live in now, Christians are running more to the world. And what the gospel should do is separate you more from the world, even though you're in the world. And we're not like the world. We shouldn't be conformed to the world, but we should be conformed to the Lord Jesus Christ. Number three, to walk worthy of this call, Our inner disposition must be that of Ephesians 4, 2-3, that we walk in lowliness and gentleness of heart, because to every born believer, this is what Christ is like. He's neat and he's lowly in heart. And this will cause us to endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. Brethren, when we're not walking worthy of our calling, I guarantee you there will be dissension and strife amongst the people of God. It's because of this humbleness, this humility, this spirit that is completely the opposite of the world is what God has called you to be. God has not called you to flaunt your stuff. God's called you to stuff your stuff and get it out of the way and put it away. Everything that you think you were, you're not now. You with me? Doesn't change your personality and all these things, but you know how people carry themselves in the world and we live in the age of complete self esteem and all these things. Everything points to self. That's why I so hate rap music. It is so selfish. You know what I mean? It's just I'm this and I'm that and all this kind of stuff. You ain't all that. And you know what God can do? One germ. Bye-bye. That's how much everybody is. I heard a man say one time how pitiful humans were. He said, you know, a dog can go out and drink water out of a ditch and anywhere he wants to and live all day long. We drink it and we dead in five minutes. maybe six minutes, maybe four minutes. Now, brethren, we need to strive for the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. And a house that is fighting all the time does not display the glory of the gospel. Number four, honor, reverence, and respect to this calling in your life is the priority of your life. Look with me at Luke chapter 9 quickly. I didn't look at no scriptures today. This calling is a priority of your life. Are you with me this morning? Nothing comes before this call on your life. Jesus takes this seriously. Luke chapter 9 verse 57. I just want to show you the priority and cost of discipleship. And as it happened, as they journeyed on the road, there's someone said to him, Lord, I will follow you wherever you go. Jesus said to him, foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. Then another said to him, then he said to another, follow me. But he said, Lord, let me first go and bury my father. Jesus said to him, let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God. And another said, Lord, I will follow you, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house. Jesus said to him, no one having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. The priority of your life is commitment to Christ and the gospel. That's the priority of your life. And brethren, I have to say, as plain as I've said this morning, nothing else or nobody else can come before it. Because if they do, you're not walking worthy of it. You know, Jesus says, you put mother, father, sister, brother before me. You're not worthy of me. That's what he said. And that sounds hard sometimes, but what he's saying is, is that you don't put them above him. That's all he's saying. And to be walk worthy of this calling, this call comes first. You know, it's the priority of our lives. It's to get the respect and the dignity of our lives. Many Christians in this day and time, they don't respect the church. They don't respect The Word of God, they don't respect the call of God in their life, they don't respect God. Let me tell you this this morning, this is just my opinion. I don't see how you can respect God without respecting the people of God and the Word of God. How? And what we try to do as individuals, separate this, you know, when I serve God the way I want to, I'll do this the way I want to. The Bible doesn't teach it that way. Now we all have this call in our life, and he says you need to walk worthy of this calling because this is a privileged call. This is a respectful call. This is the greatest privilege anybody in the world has, and we need to put it before anything or anybody else in this world. As time comes to pass, you find fewer and fewer people who walk in respect of this privilege that God's given us. Now these days we live in, it's very shaky, very shaky. I remind you of the parable of the Great Supper. Luke 14, 15 to 24. We're not going to read that. I'll just tell you what it says. It's the parable of the Great Supper. Many were invited to the feast. All things were ready. And this is what verse 18 says. But they all with one accord began to make excuses. Now you read this parable and you'll see that the excuses that they made were for legitimate things in life. And they all rejected God's invitation to come. Jesus said, cast them out. Go out and by ways and highways, go find some people that will come to this great supper and accept this great invitation. Now, brethren, this call is special. It's worthy of all we have and all we are. This call is special. This call is a privilege because the Word of God says, many are called, but few are chosen. Yet the word chosen means privilege. Few are privileged to have this call on their life. Well, just to unbelievers this morning, real simple, Christ says, come. Come. He says, if you're thirsty, come. Whoever desires, let him take up the water of life freely. He who has ears, let him hear what the Spirit says. Come. He just invites you, because this is a great invitation. And like I said, no man can come except the Father draws him. But just pray, God, have mercy on me, a sinner. God can savingly draw you to himself. But to our brethren this morning, to go into 2011, make your calling a privilege and not a burden. Whenever you begin to get burdened with spiritual things, you're going the wrong way. Are y'all with me? I remember when you first get saved, you're so happy, you're so blessed, you want to learn everything, you want to read every book, you want to pray every prayer meeting, you want to go to every Bible study, and it doesn't mean you know you have to get wisdom in that, you can't do everything. But it's a shame that your commitment weighs down to absolutely nothing. And then you get to a point in your life where you don't want to do anything spiritual. And this calling on your life, there's no respect for it and everything, it just turns into a big glob. This is a privileged calling. And this calling God has on our life is worth everything we are and everything we have. And the only way to prove it is to live like it is. Are you living like that today? As you go into 2011, is this a privilege? It's a privileged calling. I look back at the people I grew up with and, you know, as far as I know, many of them are not saved. If not, well, maybe one or two. And I'm going, why did you pick me out of all them? I was worse than many of them. And you know what? I look at it as an absolute privilege to be called by God. Because many are called, but few are chosen. You're here this morning in the house of God. And even if you're a sinner this morning, you're privileged. You say, how can I be privileged? I don't have nothing. Yeah, you do. You just heard the gospel. And you'll get to hear it again, Lord willing. And I pray. that you respond to the gospel. That's a privilege. And we don't need to take these things lightly, because everybody doesn't get to hear it. So brethren, walk worthy of the call that's on your life. Don't disrespect this call. Dignify this call. Make this call the priority of your life. And walk in this call until you go to your grave or the Lord Jesus comes. That's the priority of your life. Let's pray. Father, we do thank you this morning that you called us by your gospel. And Father, we thank you for that blood that was shed on our behalf that we may be called the sons of God. And we do ask this morning, Lord, that once again, that you would move savingly amongst sinners in your house. And maybe today's the day that they will hear the call to come to Christ and be delivered from their sins. Father, we ask that you would give us grace and strength as we go into 2011. Father, we pray that we would be a more dedicated and committed church, and that, Father, as people look at our lives, that they would see the beauty of the gospel, that we would walk adorned in the gospel, and, Father, that many will flock to Christ. We pray that he would be lifted up, that he may draw all men unto him. Father, we ask it in his holy name. Amen.