Ephesians 4:2

You have your Bibles open with me to Ephesians

chapter four.

Turn there or look on the screen, either one,

we'll have the verses for you. And don't

forget,

keep reminding of you, the first three

chapters of Ephesians give us heavy theology

and doctrine of

who Christ is and who we are in Christ. And

then the second half of the epistle to the Eph

esians

is now that we know who we are, how are we to

live? So it's divided right in the middle. And

so

now we're moving into how are we now to live?

If you look there in verse one, Paul implores

us.

Remember, that word in the Greek is begs,

literally, to walk in a manner worthy of the

calling

with which you have been called, the high

calling to come to repentance and faith in

Jesus Christ

and be a Christian. And we took two sermons to

consider. What does it mean to walk worthy?

And in general, walking worthy means living a

life that matches our position in Christ.

And how do we learn to live up to who we are?

How do we do that?

If you remember from last time, I told you

that the Greek word for worthy has to do with

balance, one of my favorite words I say to you

all the time. It's a word used of equalizing a

scale.

We are to equalize our behavior in accordance

with our identity as Christians. If you

profess

with your lips to be a Christian, how are you

living out that profession? Paul is calling us

to live as who we are. We are children of the

king of kings, to live up to our position.

So again, we ask the question, okay, brother

Philip, how do we do that? How do we walk

worthy?

Well, the answer comes next, as it often does,

in verses two and three, and let's read them

together.

How do we walk worthy, Paul? With all humility

and gentleness, with patience,

showing tolerance for one another, in love,

being diligent to preserve the unity of the

Spirit

in the bond of peace. Those are five things in

there that are characteristics of the worthy

walk. Look here, humility, gentleness, also

translated in other translations, meekness,

and patience, also translated long suffering

in other translations, showing tolerance in

love

and in unity, five characteristics. This is

where it starts, and humility, the first one,

is basically the overarching principle, and it

really encompasses the other four.

They really all fit together, one another, and

yet, yet at the same time, they're different.

And so we're going to walk through a

progression with these characteristics.

Wherever you find true biblical humility,

there will be gentleness, there will be

patience.

It will result in tolerance for one another,

in love, with the end result being that last

thing in verse three, unity. So they're all

tied together, but there's shades of

differences.

But again, the key to the whole thing is

humility. Now, true humility

is a very elusive thing. We talk a lot about

humility in the Bible, but do we really

understand it?

Just exactly what is humility. Somebody said,

"It's that thing that when you finally got it,

I'm humble," then you lost it right there.

Like I said last week about the humble brag,

remember? So maybe it's when you don't know

you've got it that you really got it,

but that isn't necessarily true either,

because some of us know we haven't got it,

because we know it's proud. So it is a very el

usive reality, and yet at the same time,

it is a very necessary thing if we are going

to walk worthy of the calling with which we

have been

called. Now, a prime example is, of course,

Jesus, the self-existent second person of the

Trinity

who created all things, who sustains all

things in the universe. He came here before in

glory,

exalted infinitely above any human being who

ever lived, and yet Paul says this in Philipp

ians 2,

verse 8, about Jesus being found in appearance

as a man. He, look at that word, humbled

himself

by becoming obedient to the point of death,

even death on a cross. I want you to think

just that he became a man. Starting as a fetus

in his mother's womb, consider the condesc

ension

of the one who existed from all eternity as

God, allowing himself to become totally

dependent

upon his earthly mother as a fetus, as an

infant, as a toddler. It's extraordinary.

It's mind-boggling. There's no reality like it

in all of human history. And in Matthew

chapter 11,

verse 29, he said, "For I am gentle and humble

in heart." Consider Jesus born in a stable.

After he left home to start his ministry, he

never owned a home. He never owned property.

He never accumulated any wealth. He was buried

in a borrowed tomb.

And it's extremely convicting to know what

John teaches us in 1 John 2, 6,

the one who says right here, he abides in him,

ought himself to walk in the same manner as he

walked. And there's that word walk again,

lifestyle. He walked in humility every day.

And that is something that is so opposite to

the culture of our society in this day and age

.

Our culture does not accept humility. We exalt

pride, especially here in America.

When do you hear great speeches from any

politicians about humility? Never.

In fact, all through history, with Satan

behind the scenes, of course,

most societies have looked down on humility as

weakness, as something to be despised.

We think of the humble person as the milk

toast beta male who's afraid of his own shadow

. That's

what comes to our mind as Americans in the

culture. But does that define true humility

as we learn about it from Scripture? In our

country, we love to talk about the things that

we are proud of. We always say how we're proud

of so and so. And there's a place for that,

certainly with your children, especially in

your grandchildren. They do make an

accomplishment.

We're proud of you. I'm proud of you. You

should say that to your children and

grandchildren. But

we take here in our country boasting and par

ading and exalting people to a whole other

level.

We are forever pinning awards on everybody. I

mean, today every kid gets a trophy just for

participating. It wasn't like that when I was

a kid. Hollywood and the music industry love

giving

out awards. And millions of people watch the

award shows and watch them be awarded when

they do.

You have to understand why this is. We are

proud by nature. As sons and daughters of Adam

as fallen people, we come into this world

fallen and we're proud by nature. But here in

Scripture,

God has called us to the exact opposite. He

has called us to humility

while the world throws pride at us constantly.

As you know, pride was the first sin ever

committed.

The angel Lucifer decided that he would exalt

himself above God. You can read about it in

Isaiah 14. You can read about it in Ezekiel

chapter 28. The whole story is in both those

texts. And

remember, you've heard many preachers say this

and I'm going to say it again. He got the eye

disease.

I will be like the most high. I will be ex

alted. I will, I will, I will five times he

said it.

And then one time God said, no, you won't and

threw him out of heaven. Pride was the first

sin.

I will be exalted. I will exalt myself and

people are still staying and doing that.

Today, C.S. Lewis said this, for pride is

spiritual cancer. It eats up the very

possibility of love

or contentment or even common sense. But in

Proverbs 11 verse two, it says,

when pride comes, then comes dishonor with the

humble is wisdom. Proverbs 16 five says this,

everyone who is proud in heart is an ab

omination to the Lord. Assuredly, he will not

be unpunished.

Proverbs 16, 18, pride goes before destruction

and a haughty spirit before stumbling.

Proverbs 21 for haughty eyes and a proud heart

. The lamp of the wicked is sin. So the

scripture is

clear about pride. On the other hand, true

humility, biblical humility is a virtue of the

Christian.

It should always grieve believers to see other

Christians or even ourselves engaged in pride.

So how do we overcome pride? Well, let me tell

you, if you really sit and think about it and

you

don't see it overcoming pride as a battle that

you have to engage in with yourself every

single day,

you are a long ways away from getting to what

we're dealing with here. It's a battle. It's

in us.

Pride is a sin because it is the sin of

competing with God. Pride lifts me up and

steals from God

his glory. In fact, God says in his book, I

will not give my glory to another.

In fact, if you think you can compare yourself

with God, Isaiah two has a word for you.

In verses 10 and 11, listen to what he says.

Enter the rock and hide in the dust

from the terror of the Lord and from the

splendor of His majesty. The proud look of man

will be

abased and the loftiness of man will be

humbled and the Lord alone will be exalted in

that day.

Whether you believe that or not, it does not

affect the reality of it and one day every

knee

will bow. Every tongue will confess that Jesus

Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

The scripture promises that every president,

every king, every prime minister, every low

person,

every high person, it doesn't matter. It'll be

every human being who ever lived in history.

God alone is worthy of exaltation. God alone,

no one, ever, else, nothing you've ever done,

nothing I've ever done, nothing we've ever

done or will ever do that's worthy of glory

or worthy of honor in comparison to God.

Nothing. The Puritans were right to place the

emphasis

from scripture on designating all of us,

including themselves as worms compared to God.

We are worms. We are lower than worms. If you

don't understand that,

you're not understanding the God of the Bible.

All right. It says next in Isaiah 2.12,

"For the Lord of hosts will have a day of reck

oning against everyone who is proud

and lofty and against everyone who is lifted

up that he may be abased." That is a serious

word.

The same theme goes on for the rest of that

chapter. And what he is simply saying is this,

God is going to judge pride in particular. The

people of Israel and Isaiah's day,

go back and read. They paraded pride just like

we do today.

I mean, think about our nation for a minute.

Keeping up with the Joneses. That is a

uniquely

American saying that many people are wholesale

engaged in, whether they have a lot or a

little,

as far as earthly terms are considered. So

many people in our country are very concerned

about having the best car and the biggest

house and the best clothes and the newest

electronics

and the nicest stuff. They're consumed with

that. And the underlying reason for that right

there

is pride. Thinking of ourselves is better than

other folks. Looking down on others,

because through your stuff, you are trying to

display how successful you are and how others

below you are not. Now, don't get out of

balance. There are things that we need, right,

to survive,

to live. But as you well know, there is a big

difference between what you need and what you

want.

Big difference. And when getting what you want

is for the sake of having more

and better than other people so that you can

exalt yourself, that's pride.

And also don't get out of balance with making

good money and enjoying the blessings of God

when you do make good money. Making a good

living and having nice things are not a sin at

all.

There's no virtue in poverty for poverty's

sake, but it's what you do with what you have

that is the issue. If you're a Christian and

you're living your life with the prime

motivation

of bringing glory to God with your life, what

you do with what you have will be very

different

from keeping up with the Joneses. You won't

care about the Joneses, one eye open, if you

're living

for the glory of God. Remember James 4-6, "God

is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to

the

humble. God is against pride. God is for

humility." Proverbs 15-33, "The fear of the

Lord is

instruction for wisdom and before honor comes

humility." Proverbs 27-2, "Let another praise

you

and not your own mouth, a stranger and not

your own lips." Let somebody else do that.

If you have any tendency whatsoever to be

proud, go back and read Ephesians 2 and who

you were

before you came to Christ, dead in your tresp

asses and sins, by nature a child of wrath and

it goes

on and on. And the only reason that we've been

changed, the only reason we have faith in the

Lord Jesus Christ is the sovereign hand of God

invaded our life to change us. And really,

if you think about it, every sin before God

really has its root in pride. If you trace it

all the way

back, because all sin is a defiance of God and

His right to be God. Wherever you find

problems,

whether in the family, in the workplace, in

the church, if you trace the root of the

problem at

some point in your tracing, you're going to

find some pride. That's why when anybody used

to go to

a brother Huey Mote with a problem that they

had with another person, most of the time

before you

left, you were the problem according to him. A

lot of times people didn't go back with a

problem

about another person for the second time. They

got enough dose in that first time. No matter

what

you've done in your Christian life by way of

ministry or service or Bible reading or church

attendance or prayer, if you have never walked

in humility, you have never known what it

means to

walk worthy of the calling with which you have

been called. That's why the very first point

Paul

brings up here in verse 2. How are we going to

walk worthy of this calling? Paul verse 2 with

all humility. I mean, you can't be saved

without humility. Jesus said in Matthew 18,

verses 3 to 4, "Truly I say to you, unless you

are converted and become like children,

you will not enter the kingdom of heaven."

Whoever then, look at that word,

humbles himself as this child. There's your

example. He is the greatest in the kingdom of

heaven.

When you come to Christ in repentance and

faith, you don't bring anything with you,

but your sin. That's all you have to offer him

. You acknowledge before him that you deserve

nothing

except his wrath. You recognize in yourself

your complete spiritual bankruptcy at that

moment.

You come with no works whatsoever to present

before him. You come as a beggar seeking only

mercy and grace from him. You can only

approach God for salvation in complete

humility as a sinner.

That's why the gospel offends so many people

when you give it to them. That's the only

right attitude that you can have in order to

come to Christ on his terms is humility.

And then when the miracle of regeneration

happens and you repent, you believe in Christ,

and once you're in the family by grace through

faith alone, there's no other way to walk

worthy

of this great calling once you're in humility.

The primary standard of Christian living, the

very

top characteristic of every Christian should

be humility. Now go back to our text.

Remember, there are five characteristics here

in verses two and three of a worthy walk, so

don't

plan to get too far into the five. The goal of

everything though here is in verse three,

the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace.

That's the goal that we're heading to. Paul

continually wants us to know that God desires

unity in his church. We saw that over and over

here in the first three chapters of Ephesians.

Remember, we are one man, one body, one family

,

one household, one habitation of the spirit.

We are to be opposite of the world in the

church.

You know yourself because we all live here.

The world is full of disharmony. How many

people

do you encounter in workplace, wherever you

are, Monday to Saturday, on social media,

full of bitterness and anger and resentment?

And here in our culture, it's every man for

himself most of the time. But we, as the

church, we are to be an oasis of unity on

display before

the outside world. Even though we are a small

church here, one of our greatest traits as a

church

is that here we have unity. And that's not a

statement of pride, it's just the truth.

We do. We know it. We're here every week. We

live in this church family because remember,

the bigger the church, the more problems you

have. The last possibility of unity you have.

And we just happen to be a whole lot less

sinners bumping into one another every time

we come together than many other churches. But

we do have unity. There are churches as small

as ours that don't have unity. So we have to

strive more than anything to keep the unity

that we have in our church. So that we can say

to others outside, not look what we can do,

but rather look what Christ can do with a

group of sinners saved by grace, but sinners

still.

You can have unity in this church that you

rarely find in the outside world with groups

of people.

Because for sure, if everybody in a church is

walking in pride, you'll never have unity in

that church. When everybody is out for what

they want and what they can get, unity is out

of the

picture. But where you have people walking all

individually in humility, there you will find

unity. And as always, listen carefully, not in

perfection. Perfection for any Christian

doesn't happen until you get to heaven. Not in

perfection, but all of us walking in humility

in the direction of our life. Not perfectly,

but striving for that goal. Sometimes att

aining it,

sometimes not. Getting back up on the horse

and trying again when you fail. Paul exhorts

us in

Philippians two, three, do nothing from

selfishness or empty conceit. Look at that

word, but with

humility of mind, regard one another as more

important than yourselves. Unity happens in

a church, in a family, in a workplace. Peace

happens. We are all together regarding one

another

as more important than ourselves when we are

looking first to the needs of others before

our own needs. That brings about a unity and a

peace that is naturally, humanly, unexplain

able.

It doesn't exist outside a group of unified

believers. That just doesn't happen in the

world.

But that is what God wants in his church, that

kind of unity. And for sure, that's something

that we

have to work at and be intentional in because

it does not come naturally to us. But for

Christians

and the power of walking in the spirit, it is

possible. You can. Now, this phrase here in

verse two, look at it all humility. In the

Greek, that means total humility, nothing else

,

no exception in everything. Man, that's very

convicting. This means that the standard that

Paul is giving us is humility in every

attitude, every relationship, every act, every

deed he is

saying we are to to manifest humility. And if

you don't think you have to struggle and

battle

and work at that every day, again, I'm going

to tell you one more time, you're a long way

from it.

And here's the second part to that Greek. It

means low. It sometimes refer to as for poor

people,

low, low class in society. It's also used to

speak of unimportant.

And what it's getting at is that is how we're

to think of ourselves as low

as unimportant. That's directly opposite of

how the world wants you to think of how our

culture

wants you to think. Think about all the people

on social media wanting to be Facebook and

Twitter

famous. Think of all the people who actually

strive to boost their self-esteem based on the

number of likes that they get on social media.

That isn't especially a big problem with our

young people. When social media engagement

goes wrong, it can lead to suicide. And it has

many

times based on the likes and shares that

somebody doesn't get or based on the bullying

on social

media. When somebody posts something, it's a

terrible problem. And the root of it all,

pride.

I wish we could go back to no social media. I

put us out there on social media because that

's

where the people are. That's the public square

now. But putting us out there means putting me

out

there. And I would just rather it be like the

old days and it just didn't exist. So I didn't

have to do it. But those days are gone forever

. They're not coming back. And we have to be

wise

about what we put out there on social media.

And always we have to ask ourselves some

questions

before we hit share or send or whatever the

button is you're pressing. First question is,

before I put this on there, will this glorify

God?

Or how about will this bring reproach upon the

name of God that I'm fixing to share?

Or how about will this affect my witness as a

Christian before I share it? Let me tell you,

I'm far from perfect with that, especially on

Twitter. I get a little more dicey on Twitter

if

you follow me on Twitter, especially in a

political year like this one. But I'm striving

to be better.

But that should always be the standard that we

're striving for in all of our engagement,

both inside the church and out. The world says

we ought to always think of ourselves as

something

great. Big emphasis on self-esteem has to be

high. And you want to raise good confident

children who

are confident in their self, but Scripture

tells us self is our problem. It's exactly the

opposite

of what psychology tells us. The Scripture

says we are to live selfless lives. The

Scripture calls

us to die to self. And Paul is telling us here

to think of ourselves as love. Remember, he

says

in Romans, we are not to think more highly of

ourselves than we ought to think. How ought we

to think with all humility? An interesting

note here is that the word for humility was

coined by

Christians because that word never appears in

classical Greek. Neither the Romans or the

Greeks

had a word for humility. They didn't have one.

And the reason why? They despised

the attitude of humility. They just used a der

ogatory word in its place. They saw humility

as cowardly and they mocked anybody who

thought of themselves in that way. But in the

Christian life,

it's the opposite. Humility is to be the

primary virtue. What did Paul say? Even though

he was,

wow, extremely very well educated, he had

traveled the world. He was extremely gifted as

a speaker

and as a writer. He said, there's only one

thing I boast in. It's Christ. If I'm going to

boast,

I'm going to boast about Christ. I'm going to

boast in Christ. And of course,

just look at the life of Jesus, the standard,

acquainted with grief, hated without a cause,

homeless, betrayed, condemned, mocked,

numbered with criminals beaten and nailed to a

cross.

It was his life. Even though he was God in

human flesh,

he walked in total humility when he was here

as a man, tempted in all points,

as are we yet without sin, the Bible says. And

look at Psalm 138 in verse 6.

It says, although the Lord is exalted, yet he

regards, look at that, the lowly,

but the haughty he knows from afar. You see?

That's what we're to be striving for. It's all

over

the Bible. Not exalting ourselves, not

thinking we've made it. We're big time looking

down on the

people below us. It's the opposite. And we are

to think of ourselves, listen carefully, not

as

doormats for people to run over. That's not

what we're talking about. That's not the idea,

but as low in biblical humility, with

understanding, with wisdom.

As Paul says, "Enact serving the Lord with all

humility of mind." If you don't see yourself,

Christian, as anything more than a humble

servant of the King, you will never walk

worthy of the

calling with which you have been called. "I am

what I am by the grace of God," Paul said.

That has to be our mantra every day. That's

what our attitude should always be.

Now, let me close out with just three short

points of application for you.

I'm going to give you three characteristics of

true humility. Okay, you ready? Number one,

self-awareness. You ever met anybody with no

self-awareness? We all have, right?

True humility starts with self-awareness. Hum

ility is, one commentator says,

"The virtue by which a man becomes conscious

of his own unworthiness."

Humility starts with really looking at

yourself honestly. And that involves, listen

to me,

a daily, honest confession of your sins before

God. You don't have to go to anybody else but

him.

One mediator between God and man, the man

tries Jesus.

Now, at this point, I've got to take a little

break and remind you,

there's two levels of forgiveness in the

Christian faith. Number one,

you come on Bible repentance and saving faith

to the Lord Jesus Christ. Imposition,

judicially, you're forgiven of all of your

sins. Past, present, and future. Christ takes

all of your sin upon himself on the tree, on

the cross. Now, all of God's wrath is poured

out

upon Christ as your substitute on the cross.

All of his righteousness is imputed to you,

and all of those sins are forgiven. That's imp

osition, but there's a second level

of forgiveness. We're living here. We're

breathing in and exhaling out God's air,

and as we do as Christians, our inner redeemed

spirits are completely and always wanting to

do every second of every day that what is

right and fitting before God, but we're enc

ased in

bodies of flesh, of spirit wars against the

flesh, the flesh wars against the spirit.

That's how God has ordained for us to grow as

Christians, to go through this struggle.

And so therefore, since we do sin every day as

Christians, saved by grace, but sinners still,

we need to go before God in daily prayer and

acknowledge that reality. And then you can

turn and say, "And I thank you, Lord, that all

my sins are forgiven." You get to go right to

the gospel and preach the gospel to yourself,

which you should do every single day, because

we

can mask who we really are, not only with

others, but do you know we can even deceive

ourselves?

We can convince our own selves, even as

Christians, you know, really, I'm doing pretty

good. I read my Bible this morning, I prayed.

I mean, that's why daily you need to get real

with God every day. As I've said many times,

think about, just think about it for a second.

There is no sense putting on a show for God.

He's omniscient for heaven's sake. He knows

what

you are going to say or think before you do.

So you might as well just lay it all out there

for

Him, because He knows it all anyway. And be

honest with Him every day, on a daily basis.

Look, as Christians, we are always pressing on

toward the mark, as Paul teaches us, but don't

kid yourself. You are not at the mark. I am

not at the mark. We are not at the mark. We

have not

arrived. We don't arrive until we get to

heaven, but we are striving. We are striving.

We don't

obtain the prize this side of glory, but we

are striving to live in a way that brings

glory to

God. So proper self-awareness daily about

where you are right now in your Christian life

when you

pray and you should daily, when you get away

from daily, I can tell you that's where you

start doing

things like comparing yourself with other

people. That's what you start to do. I mean,

we can always

find people worse than us, right? Really, I'm

not that bad. I'm like that guy, right? Kind

of like

when you're in school as a kid and you brought

home a C, and what did you say? Well,

everybody else

got Ds and Fs, right? There's always a lower

standard that you can compare yourself to. Don

't do

that. Just compare yourself with yourself. It

's bad enough when you go before God in prayer,

deal

honestly with Him. He wants you to do that. He

doesn't want you to put on a show before Him.

If you do that daily, I promise you you will

be headed in the direction of a healthy,

mature,

spiritual Christian life. Number two, Christ-

awareness. If you are not the standard who is,

Christ is.

When we compare ourselves with others or even

with our own selves, that's when we get proud.

But compare yourself with Christ, and you'll

go straight to humility when you do that.

Remember, I quoted earlier, I'm going to say

it again. This is very convicting. 1 John 2-6.

The one who says he abides in him, ought

himself to walk lifestyle, live in the same

manner as he

won't. There's your standard. That's the high

bar that you're to be reaching for. And if you

ever

say, "I've reached it," you need to go back to

the starting gate because you haven't in this

life,

but you're to be reaching for it. Comparing

yourself with Christ is the most spiritually

healthy thing that you can do because it keeps

you in check with who you really are.

And then we broaden it out to number three,

the last one, God-awareness. What's the

difference?

Well, I want you to think about this. When we

see Christ in the Scripture,

most of the time, except for parts of the book

of Revelation and other parts in the epistles

and

stuff, but most of the time, especially in the

Gospels, when we see Christ and we encounter

Christ in the Scriptures, we see him as a man.

Think about it. We just went over the feeding

of the 5,000 last week in the book of John. We

see him there as a man with this great miracle

,

and he was the only perfect man. But as a man,

he always gave the right answers.

We give so many dumb answers, especially me.

And he always said the exact right thing at

the exact right time, every time. He always

had the perfect attitude in response to every

single

situation. I fail at that so often. He knew

exactly in every case how to help everybody

who needed help in exactly the right way that

they needed to be helped. And I fail at that

too,

in so many ways. But we see him in the Word in

every situation as a man acting in all those

ways

and more. And there, as he was a man when he

was here, there's our standard, our ultimate

standard

right there. But then you broaden it all out.

After you read another amazing account and

another

amazing account of Jesus' life and how Jesus

navigated life when he was here, as you do

that,

you begin to realize this is God. That's how

he can behave this way.

This is God who came to earth in human flesh.

We weren't expecting to act any other way.

And when you back it all the way out, then you

really become aware of your lowliness.

What happened when Isaiah compared himself

with God? When he saw God high and lifted up

on his throne in Isaiah 6, the very first

words out of his mouth, "Woe is me." Remember?

He saw God and he said, "Woe is me, for I am

undone. I am a man of unclean lips, and I

dwell

amidst a people with unclean lips." That was

his first reaction to being in the presence

of a holy God. How did you get that immediate

awareness, Isaiah? How did you come to that

humility? He says next, "For my eyes have seen

the king," he said. And instantly, "Woe is me

."

That was his reaction. That's the right

perspective. When Paul said, "I am the chief

of sinners,"

that's the apostle Paul who wrote two-thirds

of the New Testament, who wrote this epistle

of

Ephesians. That was self-awareness from Paul.

Do you remember when Peter looked at Jesus

after he pulled in that huge net of fish after

fishing all night and they hadn't caught

anything?

And Jesus said, "Put it on over on this side."

And Peter said, "Okay, just do what he wants."

When Peter saw all those fish in that net, he

said, "First thing, depart from me. Oh,

Lord, get away from me, for I am a sinful man

," Peter said. That is Christ-awareness of who

he is.

When Isaiah saw God and he said, "Woe is me, I

am undone," literally, it means, "Woe is me,

I am literally unraveling before you as I look

at you." That's God-awareness. It's the

attitude of

Psalm 8-4. "What is man that you take thought

of him and the Son of man that you care for

him?

Who am I in comparison to God Almighty? I am a

worm." That is a good start, but that didn't

get to

the full reality. Humility, chief perspective

that we're to have. We're calling. We're going

to

walk in the way Paul is calling us to. Now,

next time, we're going to move on to verse 2.

And gentleness. It's also translated there, me

ekness. Meekness is not weakness. And we're

going to

learn that if you come back after next Sunday

when we're at Foster Road, Lord willing, and

we'll be

back in this book of Ephesians. Let's pray

together. Father, in heaven, we thank you for

amazing and profound teaching from the apostle

Paul. It sets us straight in the primary

characteristic of humility. Lord, help us.

Help us to strive every day to be humble.

Help us to strive every day for unity in our

church. Help us to strive every day to walk

worthy

of the high calling which we have been called,

the Christian faith, servants of the king,

children of the king, adopted by grace into

the family of God. What a wonderment it is

to be a part of God's family by faith. I pray,

Father, for your blessings upon your people

here today. I pray if anyone here has not come

to Bible repentance and saving faith,

that you would draw them with your spirit. And

for the rest of us today, Lord, maybe go

back out into the world to live for your glory

. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.