To be a Good Christians

Ephesians 4:1-16 To be a good Christian 19th Sunday Year B August 2, 2015 Our lesson for today is from the book of Ephesians. I want to share with you an easy way to find Ephesians in the bible – eat peaches and cream – that stands for ephesians, phillipians and colossians. In the bible, the gospels always come first, then romans because it is the longest letter in the bible, 2 chapters of Corinthians, Galatians and then Eat peaches and cream. Whenever I preach from Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, and Ephesians, it is the same message. So I feel like I preach this same sermon that I am going to preach today, about 5 times a year.but that is okay – because it is an important message. That message that in Christianity, it is not about what you do, it is about how you do it. Going to church is not about how well you sing, or howmany hours you spend at the church, or even how much money you give. Being a Christians is about who you are as a person. How you treat people, how you make decisions, and how you handle difficult people and difficult situations. Last week I felt that I had a conversation with one of the biggest jerks in the world. A person who came to me and told me later, I knew that I was lying to you – but I felt that it was okay. And the thing that bothered me, was not so much that this person was a jerk, but that this person was a jerk who goes to church every Sunday. Sits in church, gets their praise on, listens to the sermon, gives their money, and ll thinks that it we is okay to lie and cheat to get what they want in life. Or the person who just started going to church last month, who is challenging me and making me realize that they are so mucha better person then I am because their pastor is better than me. And I am thinking competing against one anotherisnot the point of church. But Paul’s message to us is that does not a matter what gets us in the door of a church, but once we get there it does matter what we do once we get there. We all have one task – and that is to grow and to mature in our Christianity. Maturing in Christ is called discipleship. Jesus does expect us to change our behavior once we get here. We should all be striving to be better persons, once we get here. I want to share this passage from Ephesians from the Message bible. Most black people use the king james version of the bible. We read the new revised standard version from the pulpit. The message is a version written by Eugene Peterson, a Presbyterians pastor, who paraphrases the bible in everyday language. So what he is saying is much easier for us to understand. Ephesians 4:1-16The Message (MSG) To Be Mature 4 1-3 In light of all this, here’s what I want you to do. While I’m locked up here, a prisoner for the Master, I want you to get out there and walk—better yet, run!—on the road God called you to travel. I don’t want any of you sitting around on your hands. I don’t want anyone strolling off, down some path that goes nowhere. And mark that you do this with humility and discipline—not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love, alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences. 4-6 You were all called to travel on the same road and in the same direction, so stay together, both outwardly and inwardly. You have one Master, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who rules over all, works through all, and is present in all. Everything you are and think and do is permeated with Oneness. 7-13 But that doesn’t mean you should all look and speak and act the same. Out of the generosity of Christ, each of us is given his own gift. The text for this is, He climbed the high mountain, He captured the enemy and seized the booty, He handed it all out in gifts to the people. Is it not true that the One who climbed up also climbed down, down to the valley of earth? And the One who climbed down is the One who climbed back up, up to highest heaven. He handed out gifts above and below, filled heaven with his gifts, filled earth with his gifts. He handed out gifts of apostle, prophet, evangelist, and pastor-teacher to train Christ’s followers in skilled servant work, working within Christ’s body, the church, until we’re all moving rhythmically and easily with each other, efficient and graceful in response to God’s Son, fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ. 14-16 No prolonged infancies among us, please. We’ll not tolerate babes in the woods, small children who are an easy mark for impostors. God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love—like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do. He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love. The Message (MSG) We are called to live according to the life we are called to. We are to walk, if possible run to the life that God has in store for us. Christianity calls us to be better than 99% of the people that we meet in the world. The gospel story tells us of Jesus intentional journey to save us. He intentionally and prayerfully went to the cross. He was so spiritually prepared, that in times of the most painful experience of his life, he was able to respond from the God place inside of himself. He did not do or say what was natural, he said the right things, the God things to say. Being a Christians means that we are intentional about how we deal with people and with life. That we don’t say what is natural – that we say what God asks us to say. That everything that we do be measured upon these five virtues – humility, gentleness, patience, love and peace. Galatians calls them the fruits of the spirit. Ephesians says that everything that you do or say, in every situation, good or bad, should exemplify those five virtues. 2305 Sweetest Music From Smallest Birds Have you ever thought of it, that only the smaller birds sing? You never heard a note from the eagle in all your life, nor from the turkey, nor from the ostrich. But you have heard from the canary, the wren, and the lark. The sweetest music comes from those Christians who are small in their own estimation and before the Lord. —Watchman-Examiner It is our quiet strength that makes a difference A seminary professor of another generation retired early because of his health, and died at the age of 58. The last ten years of his life were spent in and out of hospitals. Toward the end of his life this teacher traced the steps and stages of his ministry. He said: “When I began I thought of myself as standing upon the bank of the stream of life, shouting instructions to the swimmers who were down below. I was the expert. The second stage of my ministry, I thought of myself as the rescuer. If I saw someone going down for the third time, I would plunge into the water, rescue them, get them started in the right direction again, then I would return to the bank. But the last ten years of my life, I was in the water, and we were fellow-strugglers with arms around each other, trying to help one another make it to the shore.” I submit to you that that’s what Christ is calling for – from you and me, from this church, to put our arms around each other in the waters of life and swim together to make the Kingdom of the world the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are all different, we all have different ideas of what it means to be a Christian. And sometimes we cant judge what others do. Because we are all sinners. We are all different but we only serve one god. ephesians says that we should are different, but we are called to serve in unity. There are 7 places where our unity should shine - body of christ, in community, in the spirit, in faith, in baptism, in the lord, in confidence. Ephesians says – (repeat the ones). We talk so much about what the church needs, and what we need to do to fix the church, when if we are not able to get Jesus right, then the church does not matter. When we learn and practice the lessons that Jesus taught us- then the church will fall into place. We have to grow and mature in the ways of Christ – that is the whole point of us coming to church. a man that walked into a doctor's office with a cucumber up his nose, a carrot in his left ear, and a banana in his right ear. He said, "Doc, what's wrong with me?" The doctor said, "Simple, you're not eating right." Well, if you will feed on the word of God, you won't be like a leaf on a tree blown by the wind, or a cork in the ocean tossed by the waves; you'll be like a rock in the ground that cannot be moved. If you do not have humility, gentleness, patience, love and peace in your life, then you are not going to church right. 2312 Simpson’s Most Valuable Discovery In the year 1847, a doctor from Edinburgh, Sir James Simpson, discovered that chloroform could be used as an anaesthetic to render people insensible to the pain of surgery. From his early experiments, Dr. Simpson made it possible for people to go through the most dangerous operations without fear of pain and suffering. Some people even claim that his was one of the most significant discoveries of modern medicine. Some years later, while lecturing at the University of Edinburgh, Dr. Simpson was asked by one of his students, “What do you consider to be the most valuable discovery of your lifetime?” To the surprise of his students, who had expected him to refer to chloroform, Dr. Simpson replied, “My most valuable discovery was when I discovered myself a sinner and that Jesus Christ was my Saviour.” That has been my lesson for this week. Norman Cousins said that life is a journey in forgiveness. There are always going to be people who need to be forgiven. There are always going to be jerks in the church, There are always going to be people who have a different perspective of what Christianity means. But there is only one Lord,one faith,one baptism, onebody. I cant change other people, and I have to remember that is not my job. They have to change themselves, and I have to do the same. I have to grow, to mature, to claim Christ for myself. Sometimes that is why God sends those jerks on my path – so that I can practice what I preach. And learn to practice humility, gentleness, patience, love and peace for myself and my own maturity. When the Treasury Department is training its agents on how to spot counterfeit money, they do not show them the techniques of counterfeiters; they don't show them samples of phony money. What they do is drill into their minds what a real dollar bill looks like. They want them to know the real thing so thoroughly that it is second nature to spot the phony. Jesus is the real thing, the bible is the real story. The name Carl Lewis is synonymous with gold. In the 1984 Olympics he won four gold medals in the 100 meters, the 200 meters, the long jump, and the 4X times X 100 meter relay. The only other person ever to do that in history was Jesse Owens in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. In 1988 Lewis won two more Olympic gold medals; in 1992 he won another two gold medals; in 1996 he won another gold medal, for a grand total of nine. In 1991 he set a new world record in the 100 meter dash, covering it in 9.86 seconds. Now, to put that in perspective, that would be like running the 100 yard dash in 9.02 seconds. For you football fans, that would be covering the 40 yard dash in 3.61 seconds. But the interesting thing about Carl Lewis is that even though at one time he was the fastest man in the world, he was also the slowest starter in the field. If you go back and look at his races, he always started out behind because he was a notoriously slow starter. The reason why he was winning at the end is because he was the best finisher. Carl Lewis is walking living proof that it is not how you start, but it is how you finish that counts. Now part of our Mission Statement is "to make disciples of all people…equipping the saints for the work of ministry." Now making disciples leads to maturity, and equipping the saints leads to ministry. Our job is to bring people to the Master. But when we bring people to the Master, our job is not finished, it is just beginning. Because then we are to bring them to maturity and also to ministry. It is not how you walk in the door of the church that matters, it is what you take with you when you walkout. The longer you sit in the pew, the more you should grow as a person. Every time you come, you should take with you more humility, gentleness, patience, love and peace. Let us pray....... Children’s sermon… Props: A piece of cardboard about six feet tall, a felt-tip marker, and a ruler. We all grow differently, when we’re children. Some grow faster than others. That doesn’t mean that fast growers are better or that slow growers are better. It just means that children grow differently. To show you that children grow differently, I’ve brought this tall piece of cardboard. Can you guess what I’m going to do with this cardboard? I’m going to measure you on it. I have a felt-tip pen to make a line on the cardboard to show how tall you are. Next to the line that shows how tall you are, I’m going to print your name. If you’ll please stand here next to me, I’ll start by making a line right where the top of your head comes. I’ll lay this ruler on top of your head to show where to make the line. Then, you walk away from the cardboard and I’ll print your name next to the line that shows how tall you are. Then, when I’m through making all the lines, we’ll see that we have children who are different sizes in our church. (Measure the children.) Now we can see that we have shorter children and taller children in our church. Does God love the shorter children? Does God love the taller children? Does God love all the children? God loves all sizes, doesn’t he! More illustrations…. “I do not seek a kindness equal to that given to Paul. Nor do I ask the grace granted to Peter. But that forgiveness which Thou didst grant to the robber—that, earnestly I crave!” —Glad Tidings Life is an adventure in forgiveness – Norman CousinsA seminary professor of another generation retired early because of his health, and died at the age of 58. The last ten years of his life were spent in and out of hospitals. Toward the end of his life this teacher traced the steps and stages of his ministry. He said: “When I began I thought of myself as standing upon the bank of the stream of life, shouting instructions to the swimmers who were down below. I was the expert. The second stage of my ministry, I thought of myself as the rescuer. If I saw someone going down for the third time, I would plunge into the water, rescue them, get them started in the right direction again, then I would return to the bank. But the last ten years of my life, I was in the water, and we were fellow-strugglers with arms around each other, trying to help one another make it to the shore.” I submit to you that that’s what Christ is calling for – from you and me, from this church, to put our arms around each other in the waters of life and swim together to make the Kingdom of the world the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ But to grow in spirit, in mind, in heart, in attitude, in understanding, in wisdom – this demands decision. It doesn’t just happen; we milk. 1 Cor. 3:2 tells us that God's word is solid food. Ps. 119:103 tells us that God's word is honey. What a menu from which to grow. I think I know why most Christians are not growing. They are Children grow at different rates, but no matter what their size, God loves them.