This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) - Hi and welcome to Daily Drive Time Devotions. We are in
Ephesians chapter four this week. First three verses of that chapter today.

And in many ways, as we come to Ephesians chapter four, we're turning the corner
in the book of Ephesians. Let me read for you verse one of Ephesians four. Paul
writes, as a prisoner for the Lord then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the
calling you've received.

In many ways, Ephesians chapter four verse one, it looks back and it also looks
ahead. This verse looks back to chapters one through three, the first part of
the book of Ephesians. It looks back as he talks about the calling you have
received.

It looks back to our wealth in Christ. All that God has done for us, the calling
he has given to us, our wealth in Christ. But Ephesians four one also looks
ahead to chapters four to six.

Because of this calling that you've received, Paul says I want you to live a
life that's worthy. That's our walk in Christ. And our walk in Christ always
grows out of our wealth in Christ.

First you understand who you are in Christ, what he's done in your life. That's
the first three chapters of the book of Ephesians. And then you understand what
he wants you to do with your life.

That's the last three chapters of the book of Ephesians, chapters four through
six. Now remember as we enter into chapter four, I, Paul, as a prisoner of the
Lord, remember that's how chapter three started. And then in chapter three, Paul
was reminded of some things that he wanted to say, inspired by the spirit to be
reminded.

He says those things all through chapter three. And then chapter four verse one,
he gets back to where he was going. And Paul begins this talk about our walk in
Jesus Christ.

And the first thing that he talks about as he talks about our walk as believers
is our walk together with other believers. The importance of fellowship in a
church. One of the most important things when it comes to your walk, the way you
live your life as a believer, is your fellowship, your relationship with other
believers in Christ.

When I look at my own life, for better or for worse, the reason I have been able
to grow in my relationship with Christ is I've been around other believers who
are growing in their relationship with Christ. As Paul begins to talk about the
church in these verses, he's talking about what makes for a great church. What
makes a great church?

Is it the size? Is it the buildings? Is it the programs?

No, not at all. Paul says here's what makes for a great church. One word, unity.

True unity in Jesus Christ. You see, Jesus taught us that they'll know we are
Christians by our love. And since we know that's true, that's how people know
we're Christians, by the way that we love each other, where do you think Satan's
going to attack us?

In the way that we love each other. He's going to go after our unity. You can
count on that, but he cannot win because we have God's clear strategy for
victory.

What can I do to make my church a great church? If you're part of Saddleback
Church, what can you do to make Saddleback Church a great church? Whatever
church you're a part of, what can you do to make your church a great church?

These next few days, we're going to talk about what every one of us can do.
Beginning in Ephesians chapter four verse two, beginning with the development of
three attitudes in your own life. You want to make your church a great church?

Develop these three attitudes. Ephesians four verse two. Be completely humble
and gentle.

Be patient, bearing with one another in love. Humility, gentleness, and
patience. That's what makes for a great church.

Because in a church, we're together with other people. And when we're together
with other people, our human pride can rise up. When we're together with other
people, our human tendency towards selfishness can begin to take the lead.

But not when we're humble and gentle and patient. Humility. Humility is not
seeing yourself as less important.

It's seeing others as more important. Humility is not putting yourself down.
It's lifting God up.

Humility has to do with how you see things. How you see yourself in relationship
to others. And how you see yourself in relationship to God.

And then how you act based on what you see. Paul says be humble. And then he
says be gentle.

Gentleness to many of us is a weak word, but when you read the Bible, it is not
weak at all. Moses in Numbers 12 verse three is called gentle. Jesus is called
gentle in Matthew 11, 29.

Some of the greatest leaders that ever walked this planet in the Bible are
called gentleness. And the actual idea behind this word gentleness is power
under control. The pictures behind it are a soothing medicine or a cult that has
been broken, a wild cult that's been broken.

Or a soft wind. In each case there is tremendous potential power there, but it's
come under control. And God says the power that I've given into your life, the
ability to work and think and do, it needs to be under my control.

That's gentleness. Humility, gentleness, and patience. Patience is instead of
being short tempered with people, being literally in this word long tempered
with people.

Picture it as having a long fuse instead of a short fuse. God says that's how
you're to treat people in your life. You see, the church is a family.

And for a family to work, we have to learn to put up with each other. That's how
this verse ends. Bearing with one another in love.

And these are three attitudes that you and I are challenged to work on for the
rest of our lives. And I don't know about you, I'm going to have to work on it for
the rest of my life. One of the things that I can do to make my church a great
church is develop these attitudes of humility and gentleness and patience with
people.

You want to develop those attitudes? If you're feeling a little frustrated,
wondering how you're going to get there, here's my encouragement. Look at Jesus.

Look at how he treated people. Learn from the master. He had humility.

He became a man. He had to learn to walk. He had baby food, even as God in human
flesh.

And then on the day of his death, he suffered the insults on the cross without
retribution. There's humility there. Jesus had gentleness.

Let the little children come to me, he said. Jesus had patience. You see it in
his relationship with his disciples who sometimes didn't get it, but Jesus was
always patient.

You want to learn these attitudes? Follow him. That's what makes for a great
church.

As we walk through Ephesians four, there's a second thing that makes for a great
church in our walk in Christ. Ephesians four, three says this. Make every effort
to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace.

Make every effort. First, you develop those three attitudes we just talked
about, and then you give it your all. You make every effort.

Not some effort, or even a good effort, it doesn't say. It says every effort.
And that's saying to me that unity is in church.

True unity is not always easy. In fact, unity is hard work. It's hard work
because it doesn't come naturally, it comes spiritually.

Now when I say hard work, hard work does not have to be unpleasant. It's
enjoyable when you see results that are worth the effort. I like it when I've
worked hard on a project and I can see the results.

And you're going to see the results of your efforts towards unity. You'll see the
results of that for an eternity. It is worth it.

Make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit. When we talk about make every
effort, remember the unity is the spirit's unity. So the effort that I have to
make, do not miss this, is to trust in the spirit, in God's spirit and what he
can do.

If it's just my effort, all I'm going to get is what my effort can give me. And
that's not much unity. But it's my effort to trust in him.

Because notice, we're not creating unity here. We're keeping unity. Make every
effort to keep the unity of the spirit.

So we're holding on to what he's already given to us. This is not the effort to
do something on my own energy. This is the effort to give my all to trust in him
for unity.

Now, how does this work itself out in a practical way, this making every effort
to keep the unity of the spirit? Well, the next few verses talk about how God
accomplishes this, how God accomplishes unity in his church. And it really leads
to a third truth about how I can be used by God to do something great within my
church.

I need to develop three attitudes. I need to give it my all. And then I need to
appreciate, appreciate the diversity that strengthens our unity.

Because unity is not uniformity. It's not us always being alike. Unity is not
anarchy, everyone doing what they like.

Unity is recognizing that we're all different. And God has made us like that so
that together we can never be by ourselves. The differences that we have in our
abilities and our gifts, they're not some mistake.

They're not an injustice. They're not a matter of chance. The Bible teaches that
our differences are planned.

And let me tell you, there is a tremendous difference between planned
differences and unplanned differences. With planned differences in color, you
get a Mona Lisa. With unplanned differences, you get finger painting splotched
on a piece of paper.

With planned differences in weaving, you get a beautiful tapestry. With
unplanned differences, you just get a tangled ball of yarn. With planned
differences in tone, you get a Beethoven.

With unplanned differences, you get a junior high garage band. There is a
tremendous difference between planned and unplanned differences. You plan the
differences and follow God's plan, you get unity.

But with unplanned differences, you see chaos. Now tomorrow, we're going to look
more deeply into God's plan for unity. How does he use our differences?

And how does he work us together in the church to be unified in his plan for our
lives? But today as we end, I want to take a moment to pray for those three
attitudes that we talked about earlier. I don't know about you.

I need to pray for these every day of my life. Let's talk to him together. Jesus
Christ, I need humility.

I need gentleness. I need patience. In my relationship with others today, Lord,
instead of expecting them to meet my needs, help me to look to meet their needs.

And if I'm going to do that, I ask once again for those three attitudes, humility
and gentleness and patience. Help me to look to you, Jesus, to follow you, to
find strength from you. Thank you that you love me.

And I pray that out of your love for me, you would strengthen me to love others
today. In your name, amen.