If you have your Bibles today, I want you to
look in Ephesians chapter 4. This is our key
verse here, chapter 4 verse 1. The message that
I had felt the Lord give me for today, we're
gonna land there. But with everything that has
happened this week, I have altered it a bit.
With the assassination of Charlie Kirk this week,
this verse has just been resonating within me.
And that is, as a prisoner for the Lord then,
I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling
you have received. I urge you. He's not saying
I'm hoping you will he's saying I am urging you
as a prisoner of the Lord To live this life of
yours Worthy of the calling you have received
With the With the death of Charlie Kirk who was
31 and I feel that a little because it's just
a little older than my oldest son And if you're
not familiar with him, I'm sure you've been seeing
it all over the place this week. But he was a
conservative political activist. He was an author.
He was a media personality. He was a voice in
politics. He was a leading voice in politics.
Interestingly, he had no college degree. Sometimes
we sit there and we disqualify ourselves because
we don't think we have some kind of adequate
certification. One of the most influential men
in the nation had no college degree. He lived
his life out loud, his faith out loud, regardless
of the consequences which we saw this week. And
while you may or may not agree with his political
stances, he undoubtedly loved his country and
he worked hard to empower the next generation.
This is a person that has lived his life worthy
of the calling he received. Even as I was thinking
about his life, the death of it I was recalling
another young man Dietrich Bonhoeffer great one
of the greatest theologians of our time and He
was 39 years old when he was hanged For his work
against the Nazi regime regime He was a pastor
and he also, I find the similarities interesting
because he also worked greatly with the next
generation of his time. He loved his country,
Germany, to the point of being hanged. He was
one of the last group of people, prisoners, to
be hanged before the Nazi regime collapsed, one
of the final few, and then it all ended. That
was after a one and a half year prison sentence.
And today, his voice is one of the loudest within
especially the world of spiritual formation,
discipleship. 39 years old. And we look at that
and we see, okay, we have this young man, Charlie,
which I find interesting that just a few months
ago when asked the question, what happens if
this all goes away? And he says, if I die, what
do I want to be remembered for? The courage of
my faith in Jesus. And we look at this, a 31
-year -old with such influence. We look at Dietrich
Bonhoeffer, 39 years old. He had immense influence
in his nation as well. And we are like, what,
Lord, is going on? There is this mystery of it
all. And in our human logic, we don't understand.
There is this thing called the mystery. But what
I do know is that the ways of God are different
than the ways of this world. And what I do know
is that the God that these two young men served
is not a god of waste. Right? What I do know
is that the way the kingdom of God works that
is unless a seed dies and falls to the ground.
And so what I know is that their deaths are not
the end. Their deaths actually cause their voice
to be even louder, their message to go even further.
And so today I want us for a few moments to look
at these lives. then to take a moment and to
look at our life because what these two men understood
even at these young ages is that we do live in
a battle. We do live. We have not all died and
gone to heaven yet. There is a kingdom of darkness
and there is a kingdom of light and there is
a battle for souls that is happening today. And
so I want us to reread our text again, and this
time I want us to read it in the Amplified. So
I want you to listen closely to this. So, and
this is Paul. The Apostle Paul is writing to
the church of Ephesus. So I, Paul, the prisoner
for the Lord, I appeal to you to live a life
worthy of the calling to which you have been
called. That is to live a life that exhibits
godly character, moral courage, personal integrity,
and mature behavior. A life that expresses gratitude
to God for your salvation. What I do know is
that these two young men are in good company
with the Lord Jesus Christ who at the age of
33 died upon a cross. He was one of the most
controversial men of his time and died at the
age of 33. Listen. The ways of the kingdom, we
cannot put these things into a box of our own
earthly understanding. What these two young men
got is that the Lord Jesus at age 33 died for
them. And because Jesus died for them, Their
response was to live a life worthy of that death.
This is the calling. This is the living with
gratitude. My life is defined and lived as an
offering of gratitude to my Savior. To live this
life worthy. What that actually means is... is
what we were saying. It's to live in a manner
that is honoring. And so the way I live my life
either honors the sacrifice of Christ or it dishonors
it. That is what it is to live worthy of the
calling. This life that I have I only have because
of Him. And so when I live it, Worthy unto His
sacrifice, I'm honoring the sacrifice. And let's
think about this word, calling, because we use
this word when we're talking about like calling
to ministry. But Paul was writing to a church.
He was writing to you and to me. To just whoever
so heard these words this calling is a calling
to a lifestyle That is marked by the Lord Jesus
Christ And so today my call to us is to examine
our lives and say, am I living in a way that
is honoring the sacrifice of Christ? Am I living
in a manner that is worthy of the calling that
I have stepped into when I said yes to Him? It's
just not a matter of us showing up at church
on Sunday mornings. There's a lot of people in
this world that do that. And they know nothing,
really, of walking worthy of the calling of Christ.
Charlie and Dietrich are men that lived this
verse out. They, to me, are people of inspiration.
They are, I love people. of inspiration. And
so my question today is, what does it look like
for you and for me to live this verse out? What
does it look like for you and me on Monday morning
to walk worthy of the calling? What does it look
like for you and me when everything is falling
apart in life? It feels like your life is just
one crisis after another. Can I say to you that
these are men that were not living a life of
ease? Paul himself is a prisoner. And he's saying
this is not about what is going right or wrong
in your life. This is in the midst of what is
going right and wrong, living worthy of the call.
And so, are we living? What does it look like
for us to exhibit godly character? What does
it look like for us to exhibit moral courage?
Because we need moral courage today. What does
it look like for you and I to exhibit personal
integrity when it's more important now than ever
that the world sees us living in integrity? We
are behind closed doors who we are in front of
everybody. What does it look like for us to exhibit
mature behavior? to maybe finally grow up in
the Lord. What does it look like for you and
I to live a life that expresses gratitude to
Him? This is our question for today. And so I
want us to take a moment and look in Philippians
chapter 3. This is one of my all -time favorite
chapters, one of my life verses, one of my life
chapters. And Paul is also writing this to the
church of Philippi. And so I hope you have your
Bible because I want you to really get into this.
In chapter 3 verse 12, Paul says, now Paul is
a very gifted guy. He's very well educated. And
he says in verse 12, not that I have already
attained or am already perfected. But I press
on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ
Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do
not count myself to have apprehended, to have
grabbed hold. But one thing I do, and this is
what you need to hear. forgetting those things
which are behind and reaching forward to those
things which are ahead. And listen, Paul had
a lot to forget, didn't he? He was killing the
Christians. That's what he did before he had
his Jesus moment. And he's saying, I can't imagine
having to carry that. knowing that you had overseen
the people dragging Christians out of their homes
and watching them be stoned to death. Can you
imagine that kind of guilt that you would bear?
And yet he says, listen, this is not him just
being callous. He understands the cross. And
so because of that, he's able to say, I forget
those things which are behind and I reached forward
to those things which are ahead. I press toward
the goal for the prize of the upward call of
God in Christ Jesus. This is an upward call.
Let's lift up our eyes, friends. We are pressing
on. toward this upward call. There is something
in us, and I love that the word says that the
earth is waiting for the sons and the daughters
to be revealed. There is something that has been
deposited in you when you were created that is
made for this upward call of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It should pull some kind of string inside of
you that says I am not for the mundane of this
earth. I'm not for the common things of this
earth. I have a higher call. I have been called
upward in Christ Jesus. There is a more that
he has called me to. There is a life he has called
me to. But it's he won't just do it for you.
He won't just drop it in your lap He's waiting
for you to put those things behind you and to
begin to press forward onward toward that call
and in verse 15 he goes on to say Therefore let
us as many as are mature I think we would all
like to say, I'm growing in maturity. This is
the goal, right? We don't want our babies, Sabrina,
to remain a baby forever, do we? You would like
to sleep at night, right? You would like them
to start feeding themselves a little bit, wouldn't
you? We don't want them to remain babies forever.
The goal is spiritual maturity. And so he says,
have this mind. And if in anything you think
otherwise, God will reveal even this to you.
Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already
attained, so whatever maturity you've already
attained, let us walk by the same rule. Let us
be of the same mind. Okay, this here is our transitional
moment. There is this call to live your life
worthy of the calling and It rests our ability
to do that rests right here in these passages
To begin with what we have attained to to begin
to walk it out By the same rule and by the same
mind. What is a rule? We hear the word rule and
some of you like if you're like my husband or
like I don't like rules Rules were made for me
to break I'm giving him a hard time because he
threw me under the bus with a bunch of pastors
this week. So He has it coming They told me that
Yesterday he kind of threw you under the bus.
So I'm throwing him under I'm going to quit doing,
we're going to quit doing this when we're both
in the same room together as Pastor Jack gets
moved over to Petersburg. But a rule is not a
bad thing. All a rule is, is a standard. That's
what a rule is. It's a standard for behavior,
right? If I had a household of four kids that
I was homeschooling and we had no rules, no standards,
I wouldn't have survived, it would have been
chaos. And I don't do chaos well. A rule is simply
a standard. It isn't, what is the standard? He
said it in Ephesians, live worthy of the calling
of Christ. He is the standard. These rules these
activities that happen in our sphere There are
things that enable us to press on to the prize
of Jesus If you are how many of you were athletes
here you competed in what basketball football
basketball Basketball football and baseball.
All right He's a true athlete. Wow, we have a
very athletic. Well, I know Kristen is a softball
player. I don't know by sight because she ditched
on me, but I've heard she's a softball player.
She ditched on my team. I'm not offended at all.
That was like a year ago. I need to move on,
let go of the past and move onward. Okay. I won't
ever refer to it again. I will. She has such
faith in me. Okay. So nobody else are athletes
in here? Okay. There we got a few hands. Okay.
Do athletes do whatever they want when they are
in training? No. Are there things that you do
not do? Are there things that you do do? Yes.
Because they help you to become a competitive
athlete. Nobody wants you on the team if you're
gonna not do the things you should do and if
you are gonna do the thing, not do the thing,
you know what I mean. If you're gonna do or not
do, they're not gonna want you on the team, right?
They want your team, once you engage in the rules,
the standard that the team sets to participate
and to compete. I've got a short clip. We're
going to hear about this in the words of Charlie
Kirk. And so I want you to turn to the screen
for just a moment. And did you catch in there
that one point of a device is set a rule for
yourself. What was he saying? Now, don't get
all religious on me. Oh, that's religious behavior.
That's the Pharisees. No. What we're talking
about today is setting a standard in your life.
Setting a rule. One of the people that I love
is St. Benedict, and he raised up a system of
monasteries and and he what is called is the
rule of st. Benedict and and what it was is he
wrote out to be a part of this here's what it
looks like to live here here's what it looks
like to work here here's what leadership is here's
our daily schedule here's what we're doing for
spiritual growth what was he doing he was setting
a standard I have rules in my life. Now see,
Darren gives me a hard time because at age 20,
at age 30, at age 40, and at age 50, it's like
I don't like those decade moments, but they truly
are evaluation points for me because I truly
try to live intentional. I want to make the most
of this one life I have been given. And so I
do, I have rules that I've set into my life.
I have rules of nutrition that I have set into
my life. I have rules about the kind of flour
that is allowed in my house. I have rules about
the kind of dairy that is allowed in my house.
I have rules about where my meat comes from.
I have rules about grains and them being sprouted
or unsprouted. I have rules about my nuts being
soaked and dehydrated before I eat them. Now
am I legalistic about this no if you invite me
into your home like Mike and Suzanne did a couple
of weeks ago I don't think about my rules. I
enjoy the beautiful meal that you with great
joy and A lot of times I'm eating food that I
don't normally eat and I enjoy that But it is
a standard I've set in my life. I Have rules
for our lifestyle I don't buy paper products
We don't eat off of paper plates and silverware.
I just don't even buy it because I don't want
the temptation in my house. I have a hard time
with my big laundry detergent jugs and all that
plastic, so I buy eco sheets. It's a rule for
me in my life. Reusable lifestyle. When we're
traveling, I have rules. If at all possible,
we pack it. We pack our food because I want to
know what I'm eating and I don't like to eat
at restaurants if I don't know where the food
is at. I have a reusable water bottle. We fill
a five gallon jug and we just keep refilling
our water bottles. I hate plastic water bottles.
What is that? That's a rule that I have set.
in my life. I have rules about my eye gate and
my ear gate, what I watch and what I listen to.
I have no problem with you looking through all
of my Netflix or all of my apps. I have no problem
with you getting on my YouTube and looking at
what I'm listening to and watching. It is an
open book. because I have a rule, I have a standard.
Now, I have rule of my devotional life, how I
engage with the Word, how I engage in worship.
I take communion every morning on my way to work.
These are all, I have no expectation for you
to do what I'm doing. This is the standard for
my life. You are free to do whatever you want.
It's your life These are rules that are subjective
They're not necessarily good or bad spiritually
speaking these are my personal choices However
There is a rule that is not subjective There
is a rule that I don't get to define and you
don't get to define. And that is the rule of
Rabbi Jesus. There's this beautiful saying and
it comes from an ancient Jewish text actually
before Jesus was ever on the earth. The text
is the Mishnah. This writing is a writing that
is describing the student of a rabbi. So this
blessing says, may you be covered in the dust
of your rabbi. Let's say that. May you be covered
in the dust of your rabbi. So that Jewish blessing
comes from an exact, I'm gonna give you here,
the exact writing from the Mishnah. And what
it truly means, and this is what discipleship
truly is, is that you are walking so closely
behind your Rabbi, your teacher. that as you
walk down the road following him, the dust that
he kicks up falls upon you because you're so
close to him. And so the full writing is this,
let thy house be a meeting house for the wise.
I love that. I'm just super, I gotta have continual,
I love putting inspiring people around me. I
love listening to people that are doing what
I'm not doing so I can learn and grow. And I
love this. Let thy house be a meeting house for
the wise. And powder thyself in the dust of their
feet. And drink their words. with thirstiness.
Can I ask, is our house filled with the presence
of Rabbi Jesus? Are we coating ourselves with
the dust? I think of Mary sitting at his feet
and Martha, come on, Martha, or Mary, let's get
busy. No, no, I'm gonna sit here at his feet.
I'm gonna learn from him. Are we drinking up
the words of Jesus with thirstiness? Are we hungering
and thirsting? There is one rule that is not
subjective. There is one rule that you don't
get to define and I don't get to define, and
it is the rule of Rabbi Jesus. I gave you two
examples today of modern men that have lived
out a life of obedience to the calling to which
they've been called. There are others though,
as I was writing this, that came to mind from
the Bible, and I'm amazed that almost all of
them are young people. In their early teen years,
almost all of them. I find that fascinating.
And I think of Daniel, a young man captured into
slavery. He had the courage to say, I will obey
the ways of my God. He said that to his captors.
He became a high ranking official in the land
of his captivity because he had the courage to
say, I will obey. I think of Joseph, another
young man sold into slavery by his brothers.
And in the face of his captor and then prison,
he had the courage to obey the ways of his God
in captivity. He became number two in the land
of his captivity. I think of Noah commanded by
God to build a massive ark to save his family
and the world from a flood. Noah obeyed God.
He persevered for decades in his obedience. No
experience building ships. No great floods had
flooded the earth. And he says, yes, he had the
courage to look a little crazy to the men and
the women. He was a prophet to the men and women
of his time. I think of Queen Esther, a young
girl who becomes just a young Jewish girl that
gets favor and becomes queen of Persia. And Esther,
in order to save the life of her Jewish people,
has to approach the king when she had not been
called on. And he could have said, she's gonna
die. And she had the courage to step up. And
she saved her people. Think of Mary the mother
of Jesus this young teenage girl when Gabriel
comes to her and Says she's gonna conceive the
son of God as a virgin. It wasn't like today
You're not gonna get you know pregnant at age
16 and have a baby shower thrown for you This
is not what was happening in her time She could
have been stoned to death by Joseph Mary humbly
and obediently says, behold, I am the servant
of the Lord. Let it be to me. According to your
word, I will obey. Here's the real heart of obedience.
And I think it is what gave these men and women
the courage to obey. And it's found in the words
of Rabbi Jesus himself in John 14. And it simply
is this, if you love me, if you love me, we just
sang about loving him. It sure is easy in this
nice air -conditioned room looking all pretty
to say, I love you, Jesus. But when he calls
us to obey him and his ways, he says, if you
love me, keep my commands. What I'm talking about
today is not some kind of religious outward behavior.
It brings me joy to please my husband because
I love him. It brings me joy to please my children
because I love them. It brings me great joy to
please God because I love him. Where there is
love, there should be an auto desire. to please
that one. And in this case, it's to obey. And
he goes on to say in verse 16, and I will ask
the Father, and He will give you another advocate
to help you and be with you forever, the Spirit
of truth. I love that Jesus in this verse is
acknowledging That this is not always easy The
call to obedience is not always comfortable think
of that rich young man who said Jesus What do
I need to do to be saved and he said sell everything
you have give it to the poor then come follow
me Well, that was uncomfortable for him That
didn't make him feel good He he wanted to come
to God on his terms and when Jesus Said no, you're
gonna come on my terms. What did he do? He walked
away and Jesus loved him Jesus is acknowledging
that we need an advocate. We need a helper to
obey The spirit of truth the world cannot accept
him Because it neither sees him nor knows him
but you know him for he lives with you and will
be in you You have been given everything you
need to live according to the standard of rabbi
Jesus everything We have been given, it lives
and resides within us. And so when we look at
John 14, what we see are three things. That obedience
to God is out of a love relationship. We see
that the help of the Holy Spirit is given to
show the way to the truth and how to walk in
the truth. And we see that the source of courage
for walking out this obedience is that He lives
within and dwells within us. We have everything
that we need. I'm going to ask if the team will
come back up. We're going to finish here in Hebrews
12. In Hebrews 12 verse 1, it says this, and
this is profound because of the context, but
also because I think that the great cloud of
witness continually gets bigger and bigger. I
think that Charlie Kirk is now part of our great
cloud of witnesses that is saying, come on, come
on, finish your race, finish your race. And in
Hebrews 12 .1, it says, therefore, since we are
surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses,
Let us throw off everything that hinders and
the sin that so easily entangles. And let us
run with perseverance, the race marked out for
us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and
perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him,
he endured the cross, scorning its shame. and
sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Consider him who endured such opposition from
sinners so that you will not grow weary and lose
heart. This is written right after, obviously,
Hebrews chapter 11, the great hall of faith.
All of the men and women That by faith did awesome,
amazing things for God. That ran their race to
the fullness. And it's amazing to read those
stories. But there's a part in there that talks
about those that saw death. Those that paid great
consequences to walk out their faith obedience.
And you know, I find the most encouragement from
those. The ones that did not receive what they
were believing for. The ones that saw their sons
and their daughters killed, their husbands killed.
They are part of this great cloud of witnesses
that Hebrews 12 is referring to. And while we
honor the races of these men and women, However
long or short their lives were, we are not guaranteed
tomorrow. And when a 31 -year -old is killed,
I think that more than any other age, that reminds
us we are not promised tomorrow. You don't know
what your life is gonna look like tomorrow. However
long or short, what these people did is they
ran their race wholeheartedly. They ran with
perseverance to the end. And even now, they encourage
us to run our race. The cost of obedience is
worth the victory of finishing our race well.
And so, this morning, what is the race that has
been set for you? Your race? It's all a race
of faith, but what those races look like are
all different. Your race is different than my
race. And one is not better than the other. They're
just different. The only reason one is better
than the other is because one runs wholeheartedly
to the end. And so what is the race set before
you today? God is on the move. Holy Spirit is
doing something in the land. And this life is
so short. It's a blink of an eye. It's a shooting
star, and it's gone. And that, that just says
to me all the more, I gotta run wholehearted.
I gotta embrace this moment, because I'm not
gonna have it again. I have all of eternity.
But this moment on this earth is a flash and
it's gone. And so, is it worth the cost of disobedience?
Is it worth carrying a bunch of junk trying to
run this race for such a short moment of time,
of all eternity? My call is the call to fresh
obedience. My call is the call to fresh renewal.
to following in the ways of Rabbi Jesus, who
has set the standard. My call is for us to live
life worthy of the calling which we have received,
and we each have received it. And so this morning,
what I'm gonna do, we're gonna have a moment
of worship here, and I want you to just stand
with me. And listen, you may not be doing some
kind of big act of disobedience. You may be struggling
with some stuff. You may be struggling with some
addictions. You may be struggling with some sins
that have become strongholds. But maybe you just
have some attitudes that have been keeping you
in disobedience. Maybe you've been talking in
a certain way that is not up to the standard
of Rabbi Jesus. Maybe we've been engaged in prayerlessness.
It doesn't always have to be some major thing,
but what I'm calling us to is a fresh coming
upward to the standard of Jesus. So we can run
our races unhindered, full on out to the end.
And it'll kind of hurt. I've been doing sprints
and I was in pain the next day. Sometimes it
hurts to run the race, but the prize is worth
it. The prize is worth it. And so the team is
going to lead us in a moment of worship. Listen,
this is an all church moment. I want us to honor
this room is an altar. And so I want us to not
distract one another, but I want us to engage
in this moment of worship. If you need to make
your way to the altar, the altar is a beautiful
place to lay it down, those things. and to take
up the standard of Christ. And so in this moment,
let's just make this an altar moment of saying,
I'm hearing you, Jesus. I hear your call. I see
your standard, and I am rising up toward it.
I'm pressing on toward it. I'm pressing on toward
you. In Jesus' name, in Jesus' name. If you need
to come to the altar, come on while the team
begins to lead us.