In his sermon 'A Worthy Walk', Carl Provost explores the theme of living a life that reflects the Christian calling, as outlined in Ephesians 4:1-6. He discusses how Christians are called to walk worthy of their vocation, emphasizing virtues such as humility, meekness, long-suffering, and love as pivotal to maintaining unity within the church. Provost explains that unity is achieved by adhering to the doctrinal foundation laid by Christ and passed through the apostles. He highlights the importance of both doctrine and practical application, refuting the idea that doctrine divides by asserting its necessity for right living. The sermon also contrasts the Western Church's tendency to divide over non-essentials with the unity seen in persecuted churches. Provost stresses the role of the Holy Spirit in bonding believers and calls for a Christ-centered life marked by peace and honest relationships. He concludes by urging believers to embody these virtues for a unified representation of God's power on earth.

Please open your copy of God's Word to Ephesians chapter 4. Starting in verse 1. I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you, the Ewok worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit even as you are called and one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism.

One God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all. Heavenly Father, we come before you, Father, as we open this word, Father, as we see this transition that Paul has made, as he now applies what He has taught to the Christian walk. Father, we pray that Your Holy Spirit would illuminate hearts, help us to see and to live according to Your Word. We pray in Your Son Christ Jesus' name, Amen. When one joins an organization or a club, they agree to abide by a certain standard.

When one becomes a citizen of a foreign country, he must abide by the laws of the land. When one obtains new employment, he must abide by the rules and the standard of his employer. If one participates in an organized sport, he must abide by a set of rules or there would just be chaos on the field. The concept of abiding by a set of rules or a standard is not foreign to us. We're all aware of it.

We live life that way. However, oftentimes, the level of commitment to be unified around a standard seems to be lacking in the Western Church today. We also, many of us, have a great desire to be a part of a group, a part of some group that identifies themselves in different ways. We see this oftentimes. I think of the college kid who goes to college and he decides to join a fraternal order of some kind.

What he oftentimes will put himself through to be accepted by the others. Oftentimes, developing friendships that will last for years. I think of those who might set up other kind of clubs. Clubs where they gather together to help others, and they set out rules and standards. I think of those that gather together even for different reasons.

People that have such a desire to be a part of a group that young boys oftentimes join gangs. And are put through all types of initiation rights to become a part of that gang. People who like to identify with a group are willing to follow different standards. We see this often times on Sundays, we see the motorcycles that are out and we see large people gathered together, large groups, around the basis of those who enjoy to ride motorcycles, often times having clubs that they're a part of, having standards that they must adhere to, rules. But yet, often times, the church does not exhibit the same unity that we see even in groups outside.

At least in the Western Church where there is a lack of persecution, where there is a lack of a real desire and understanding of what it means to be community. We oftentimes are too quick to divide over non-essentials. Paul spent the first three chapters of this book laying out a doctrinal foundation of what it means to be in Christ. What it means to be unified. What it means to be one church, both Jew and Gentile.

The next three chapters, as we begin to look at chapters 4, 5, and 6, are filled with the obligations and requirements to being a child of God. When we become part of God's family, we act like a new people. We are in Jesus Christ. His purposes become our purposes. His standard becomes our standard.

His desires are our desires. His nature is our nature. Oftentimes you'll find two types of people. Some that like the doctrine. In fact, they would be okay with the doxology at the end of chapter 3.

And they love the doctrine and the theology, but oftentimes they lack the practical application. But if you look at Paul's letters, this is a pattern. He always teaches the doctrine, lays the foundation, and then he teaches the practical application of that theology. As we look at the Christian life, as a Christian, the Christian life is becoming what you are. And that's what we see in this text today, is it's becoming what we have been called to be.

The title of the sermon today is, A Worthy Walk. So how do we walk worthy? As we look at this text today, we will look at a call to a worthy walk, the virtues of a worthy walk, and the source of a worthy walk. The call to a worthy walk, verse 1. It says, Therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called.

If you ever take a class in hermeneutics, which basically means biblical interpretation, One of the first things you will see or you're taught is to recognize the use of different words. In fact, one terminology that I've heard repeated many times is whenever you see the word therefore, you should ask, What is it there for? It's always a transitional word pointing back to a previous text. And what we see here is the vision of Paul recognizing now that he has laid the foundation for the church of Christ. He is now shifting over to this obligation of the church.

He's gone from a positional truth to the practical truth. He does this oftentimes in his letters where you see examples of this in Romans 12.1, where he switches from the positional truth to the practical truth, where the first 11 chapters are laying out the foundation of soteriology, of how the church is established and set apart for Christ. And then the last chapters, how one might live this out. We see this again in Galatians 5.1, where the first four chapters are laying out the liberty that we have in Christ Jesus. And the last two chapters are how we live a life of liberty.

We see this in Thessalonians 4.1. This is how Paul teaches because it is important to understand that the one must come before the other. Some say that it is doctrine that divides. You will hear people in churches, I've heard that many times, oh let's don't talk about theology, let's don't talk about doctrine, that just divides. But actually that is not the case.

When one has to write doctrine, it is essential to Christian living. It is essential to right living. For one does not know how to live according to God's Word if he doesn't know God's Word. There are those also that would set aside Christian theology and just want to say we just need to love one another. And they have no theological understanding and often times they come together with a false peace, a false unity, not based upon any true standard.

And without Christian theology as a foundation, there is no standard of Christian living. Those who focus only on theology, apart from the application of God's Word, end up developing churches that are just cold, dead faith. They don't do anything for Christ. They exist and they take part in a set of rules and standards, but yet they never apply it to their life. They never apply it to the ministry.

They never apply it within their community. And so what we see is you cannot have one without the other. And so as we think about this transition that Paul makes, we must recognize that that foundation has a purpose in everything that we do, the way that we walk. In order to walk worthy of our calling, we must walk according to that doctrinal foundation that was laid by Christ Jesus. That doctrinal foundation that was given to the apostles and passed on by the apostles to the church.

We also see that Paul reminds them that he is a prisoner of the Lord. He does this once again as he did earlier in the earlier chapters. He is reminding the Ephesians again that he is well aware that a worthy walk comes at a high price. For at this time, he is sitting in prison in Rome, but yet he recognizes that he is a prisoner of the Lord, and that at that time it is the desire of the Lord to have Him there in prison. That oftentimes, the Christian walk has a high cost to it.

We don't see that often in the church in the West. And I would venture to say that that's one reason that we see that the church divides so easily here. But when you look around the world where persecution is at, when churches have to hide underground in order to meet, when there is a threat of death, there is a unity among them that we never see in this culture, oftentimes. See, Paul is pointing out that He was completely a captive to the Lord. His motives, He was a captive to His standards, His objectives.

Everything, every thought, everything that Paul did was in relation to His Lord. And Paul said that he was called to beseech the church for the cause of Christ. He says, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation with which ye are called. To beseech or to entreat or to exhort. He's calling them to live the life, to walk worthy of their calling.

The term walk worthy is describing how one lives. To walk worthy is to be moving in the right direction. Think about this, it's just day to day living. Now I don't want to take this illustration too far because he also uses the term to run with endurance, the race set before us. But think about walking.

Think about walking somewhere. We don't walk much anymore because of cars, but often times in the past, if somebody had to go somewhere, think about soldiers. And you read any history, and you think about the long areas and expanses that these men had to cover without horses. And it was just a long, steady walk in a direction. And they had to get in position.

They had a set goal. There was a certain time they needed to get there. And they just put one foot before the other, day after day, until they reached their location. And they made the preparations for war. That's what the Christian walk is often like.

Some of us get really excited when we first become Christians and we run out the gate, we quickly lose steam, we quickly become discouraged, Because we don't realize the day-to-day walk. It's about maintaining our vocation and our call in our life and moving forward in Christ Jesus. It's not about the way we start, but it's about the way we finish. A friend of mine once told me about, he likes to go on these trail rides. And he was telling me the difference between a horse and a mule on a trail ride.

And he said at the beginning of a trail ride, everybody gathers together and The horses are just almost about to burst out. The riders are having to rein them in and hold them back. And he said that he always preferred a mule. He said the mule just stands there calmly waiting. Some of them pulling wagons, some of them with riders.

He said, whenever they start, these horses take off. They're excited to get started And they're all out ahead of the mules. He said, as you move along the trail, you slowly come along, these horses, towards the end of the trail, heads hanging exhausted, No longer able to see the end anymore. Just overwhelmed by the tiredness because they spent their energy early. They didn't keep their eyes upon the goal.

But the mule, He said, is still moving along at a steady pace. And the mule oftentimes beats the horses to the end. Because it's just a steady walk. And I think oftentimes the Christian walk is like this. Sometimes we get all caught up.

Maybe we have a spiritual high moment. We run out the gate. Yet persecution comes against us. Discouragement comes against us. And we forget that the Christian walk is about putting one foot in front of another day by day with our eyes fixed upon Christ Jesus, living a life according to the call that Christ has put on our life.

See, Paul pleaded with the Ephesians to do what was right. And we recognize that this is the job of the minister. To exhort God's people to do what is right. To exhort them to walk worthy. This means that there must be a standard or a right way to walk.

In Philippians 1.27, in speaking to the Philippian church, Paul said, only let your conversation be as it becomeeth the gospel of Christ, that whether I come and see you or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel. Now what Paul is saying there is that their walk must be seen by others. And then even though he desires to come to them, that even if he's not able to, he should hear of their walk. It should be a worthy walk. It should be a walk that stands apart from the pagans and the culture around them.

There should be something different about this Christian walk. And the term walk is just about how we live, how we live our lives. He says, if you are beseeched to walk worthy, that is the exhortation on us. How or where do we walk? See, it's not part of a church that we all walk in our own direction.

We don't all have this individual direction that we're going. We're all going the same direction, for we have one head. Christ Jesus is the head of the church. And when we walk, when we live according to the Spirit of Christ, we should be moving in the same direction. The idea here is that there is a unified walk.

And it says it's of the vocation wherewith Ye are called. Now the word vocation here can also mean calling. We all have a general call and a unique call in our life. We see this in God's Word. The call, the general call in our life was established in chapter 2, that we, while we were enemies of God, that God looked down upon us and He saved us, not because of anything that we did, but because of His grace and mercy.

And that He called us to do good works that were laid out beforehand by Him. And so we recognize that we all, if we are Christian, if we are those who profess Christ, that we all have that general call to be a part of the family of God, to walk in unity and love by His Spirit. But there also is a unique call as well in each of our lives. See, we have all been uniquely gifted to serve in the body of Christ. Some have been set apart for leadership, for teaching, for ministries of service.

But others have been called to work in their vocation, their calling. See, oftentimes we lose the idea that we all have a call, And that one call isn't greater than another's call. That we all have a purpose. That we are the body of Christ. And no one person is less important than another.

We all can't be teachers. We all can't be leaders. But we all have a purpose and a call in order to function as the body of Christ. Martin Luther was good on this. He talked about the vocation, that everyone had a call.

He didn't like this division between the clergy and the laity. For he recognized the priesthood of believers. He recognized the call that everyone had in their life. He recognized this idea of vocation, and that everyone had a call from God in which they must fulfill. And whatever job God places us in, whatever vocation He places us in, in order to provide for our families, in order to raise godly children.

And in fact, if there is one call that you could probably lift above all others, it's probably raising godly children. And in fact, if you look at the qualifications for leaders, it says, unless a man manages his own household well, unless his orders in his own home are, unless his home is an order, He is not qualified for the ministry. For it recognizes that as a Christian community, we are a covenant community with covenant children that must be trained in the fear and ammunition of the Lord. But we recognize that no one gift is more important than another. And that we, as the church of Jesus Christ, should be those who walk in a manner worthy of our calling and our vocation.

So how do we walk a worthy walk in this unity as one people of God, as a Christian community. In verses 2 and 3, we will see the virtues of this worthy walk. It says, With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace." With all lowliness, so the word could also be translated humility. See, humility was not a virtue in the first century with the Romans or the Greeks. They were a proud people.

In fact, it's believed that this word here was probably coined by Paul. I'm not sure of that, but the Greeks did have an adjective for humble, but it was not an honorable word. It was reserved for those who were not honorable, or those that were base or of no repute. It was not considered a virtue to be a humble man within Greek or Roman society. In fact, it was a virtue to be proud, to have prideful hearts in their nation, in their people.

See, Jesus' humility would have been viewed as cowering, cringing, servile by the Roman standard or the Greek standard. But I would say that humility is not a virtue in today's culture either. We are the culture of self-esteem. In fact, you can go to the Christian bookstore and find countless self-help books that will tell you that the reason why you sin, the reason why You just can't quite live that righteous life. It's because you don't think highly enough of yourself.

You have low self-esteem. You just need to think more highly of yourself. But That's the opposite of what God's Word teaches. God's Word teaches that pride is the source of all divisions and conflicts. Pride comes before the fall.

We all think too highly of ourselves. But God's Word raises up that the main Christian virtue here is humility. Humility is one of the highest Christian virtues. We see it described in Christ as given the ultimate example of humility. In Philippians 2, 7, and 8 it says, But Jesus made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, and being found in the fashion of a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." See, the cross to be hung upon a cross meant to be cursed.

And He took the humblest of deaths upon Himself to save His people. We also see Him displaying humility when He takes the water and the towel to wash the disciples' feet. We see Him constantly putting Himself in the place of servant, displaying humility as an example for The apostles, recognizing the pridefulness that was oftentimes in their hearts. James and John are arguing about who will be first in the Kingdom of God. Peter first telling Jesus He would never wash His feet, and then saying, wash my whole body.

Pride was getting in the way of their understanding of what Jesus was teaching them. Just as it gets in the way of our understanding, it gets in the way of our unity. And it brings about divisions within the church. Missionaries often have to humble themselves physically to reach the people for Christ. There's a story of missionaries that were reaching out to the slaves and the Indies.

And the slaves were so far below them that they weren't open to hear the message. And there was two missionaries that went and lived among the slaves, worked alongside of them. And it wasn't long they had gained the ear of these slaves and was able to share the gospel with them. These missionaries understood what it meant to humble themselves, to not see themselves as higher than another, and then recognizing that the pride of a system where we view others as lower than us will never allow us to reach a people that we see as below us. It takes true humility to reach out to a lost and dying world.

It takes true humility to share the Gospel with those on the street. Those living lifestyles that God's Word teaches are an abomination. See, oftentimes we compare ourselves to others that we believe are below us and we start to think highly of ourselves. See, what God's Word teaches is that we are to compare ourselves to Christ. And when we compare ourselves to Christ, we are humbled.

In fact, we must humble ourselves in order to become a Christian. We must recognize that we are sinners with no hope, and that the only hope that we have is to confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord. To believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead, confess with our mouth that He is Lord, that we might be saved. We must humble ourselves, recognizing there is nothing good in us. We cannot save ourselves.

But we also see that The second characteristic mentioned here is meekness, or oftentimes also translated as gentleness. This also was not a virtue in the first century either. I've heard some say meekness is not weakness. Jesus was meek, yet we also see Him clearing the money changers out of the temple. Meekness is not fully understood.

Some would say that meekness are those who are too weak to defend themselves. But yet, this is saying that it's those that have the strength to defend themselves, but choose not to. In fact, meekness is the surest sign of humility. One cannot be meek without humility. Aristotle described meekness as the man who is always angry at the right time but never angry at the wrong time.

This is a man who has his passions under control by the power of God. We see this displayed in David. David displays meekness when he refused to kill Saul in the cave near in Geti. Remember, Saul was seeking to kill David, hunting him down. And David's hiding in a cave, and Saul enters that cave.

And David had it within his reach to take Saul's life, the one that was pursuing him and hunting him down. But he refused to lay a hand upon God's anointed. He exercised meekness. All of His men would have thought no less of Him. In fact, would have probably thought more of Him if He would have taken Saul's life at that time.

But he understood trust in God and God's timing. And he realized it was not the way that he was to take the throne. He again displayed meekness when he refused to retaliate against the malicious taunts, curses, and stone throwing Hashimei. I oftentimes wonder about this taunting, thinking the king, one who at the command could have your life taken. Yet there were those malicious taunts and curses, but yet he chose not to retaliate.

We also see that with long-suffering. Long-suffering, or oftentimes translated as well, patience. See, this is the virtue of never giving in. In fact, the Romans were known, this word was used to describe the way that they went out to battle. See, they could lose a battle or even a campaign, but yet never admit defeat.

Because they understood that in the long run, They were going to win. They had the numbers of soldiers. They had the advantage. And so they never allowed this to discourage them. And they dominated the world with their military.

The Christian is one who never gives up, even in the midst of persecution or suffering, in the midst of disappointment or discouragement, But He persists to the end. We are told that Noah worked on the ark under the taunts of his neighbor for 120 years. That's long suffering and patience. That's trust in God. Abraham was told that of his descendants would be like the stars of heaven.

But yet he was given the Son of promise after the age of 100. Yet he understood in God's timing that God would fulfill his promise. Chris Altham defined it as the Power to take revenge, but never does so. Lightfoot defined it as one which refuses to retaliate. So we see descriptions of this word similar to that of meekness.

And so we see they go together, humility. One cannot be meek without humility. And then within meekness we see the longsuffering and patience displayed of those who wait upon the Lord. See, we exhibit patience when we bear an insult or injury without bitterness and without complaint. H.M.

Stanley was converted to Christianity by watching the example of David Livingston. He said that David Livingston never shared one word with him, but yet he saw the patience that this man had with the Africans. He saw him deal with their pagan beliefs and their backward lifestyle, but yet he continued to have patience with them and long-suffering with them and minister to them in order to take the gospel to them. And he was so moved by the long-suffering and patience that he saw in David Livingston that he became saved himself by the example of this man. In fact, one cannot endure Unpleasant people without graciousness, without this long suffering and patience.

We also see that they are to have forbearing love. Forbearing love. Love that is forbearing. See though one might injure or insult us, we will never feel anything but kindness towards Him. We're told to love our enemies.

How can we do this apart from the Spirit of Christ? Oftentimes we have a hard enough time loving those in our community, in our church. But yet we're told to love our enemies. This word that's used, agape, is an unconditional love. It's saying that we are called to love apart from conditions.

We are to love as God loves. It's a recognition That the love that we have for somebody is not dependent upon what they do for us. We take our focus off of self and we put it on the needs of that person. And we recognize that our lives must exhibit this type of love. Think of a Christian community, a community that responds to one another in humility.

A community that's meek with one another and longsuffering and forbearing love. That is what unity is built upon. And this last virtue we see here in the text of this community is endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

See, this is the obliteration of the self. It's not about self-esteem. A friend of mine used to teach a message he called Christ Esteem. And the point of his message is that the only thing we should boast in is Christ and Him crucified. And that we should esteem others as higher than ourselves.

And that will bring about the unity of the body of Christ, the obliteration of self. See, we will never have unity without these characteristics or these virtues that are listed here. For pride brings divisions among us. And we're told endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. This is what it means to be a peacemaker.

The word endeavoring there can also be translated to make every effort. See, we are a people that oftentimes are too prideful. In fact, we are called to love the unlovely because we are the unlovely. We are those sinners whom Christ looked upon. And not because anything that was good in us, But because of His grace and mercy, Christ died for us.

And because of His righteousness, we are called together as the body of Christ, as a covenant community. And we are called to live in unity with one another. And to keep this unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. See, to be a peacemaker is characterized by honesty. It's characterized by being honest with one another.

The prophet Ezekiel warns us against claiming that there is peace where peace does not exist. If we are going to be unified as the body of Christ, we have to be able to exhibit these virtues with one another. See, If we are going to be unified as the body of Christ, we have to be able to exhibit these virtues with one another. See, if we are going to be unified, we can't sweep every misunderstanding and failure under the rug, and pretend like everything's okay. We must make every effort, it says endeavor, make every effort to be at peace.

Honesty with one another, trust and willingness to risk pain for the cause of pursuing peace. The peacemaker will be willing to risk making trouble for peace. See that agape love is to love our brother or sister enough to tell them the truth. When a brother or sister is in sin, we should love them enough that we don't want to see them remain in that sin. But we want to come alongside them and encourage them, lovingly rebuke them, to return to a right relationship with Christ.

And we should be a community Where we would be one if you're the one in sin, or I'm the one in sin, that we would receive that rebuke as if it is a rebuke from Christ Jesus Himself. And receive it understanding that it's been brought in love because we care for one another. We want to see each other living a life that's worthy to our vocation and calling. The visible church is fractured and fragmented because oftentimes we are unwilling to live in this way. When the Christian church exhibits these virtues of humility and long suffering and meekness And love, peacemaking is possible.

Unity is possible. This is the point and source of our unity. For the Spirit is The glue that holds it all together, that bond of peace. In fact, as we look at this next point in our text, the source of a worthy walk, we see that things are kind of flipped in reverse order than what we're used to seeing in God's Word. Normally we see God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

But here, He starts with the Spirit. In verse 4, it says, There is one body and one spirit, even as you are called, in one hope of your calling. The Spirit is the one who unites us together with others in the universal church. We can't do this in our own strength. It's the Spirit working in us that allows us to overcome our pride.

The Spirit of Christ in us that allows us to love our brother even when he's unlovely. It is the Spirit of Christ that bonds us together. It is the Spirit of Christ that bonds us together. It is the Spirit of Christ that applies the Word to us and sanctifies us and makes us more like Christ. We are a part of the universal church.

And the church is bigger than the crown and covenant. It's bigger than covenant-presbyterian church. For it covers multiple nations, multiple denominations, worshiping in multiple languages. But yet, there is one church. The visible church is fractured and fragmented, but the invisible church is one body.

Those terminologies are used by the Reformers to help explain what it means. For those that are clearly in the covenant community, visibly by baptism, but yet there are those who are truly in Christ. We recognize that there is a mixed nature to the church, this side of eternity. And that there are tears in the church, but yet, we desire to move in unity, to walk in unity, even as the visible church. In fact, we're called to exercise church discipline for the purity of the Bride of Christ in order to bring those to repentance that need to repent, in order to remove those who are not truly of the elect.

And this is all done for the sake of the unity of the body of Christ. For proper church discipline is an act of love. An act of a desire for the better of the person. Paul speaks of that one who must be put out of the church in Corinthians, in the Corinthian church, because of sin in his life. And it's said he is to be delivered over to Satan in order to potentially save his soul.

We see later him telling the church to bring a man back in to receive him. We recognize the purpose of the church and the community and the covenant and living according to a standard that Christ Jesus has given us in His Word. Christ through the Spirit bonds us together. And this is the consummation of Christ's Kingdom. As the church spreads throughout the earth, We see the triumph of Jesus as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

We also see that there's One Lord, one faith, and one baptism. Matthew 6, 24 says, No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else He will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God in mammon." See, what this is recognizing is there is only one Lord. This is Lordship salvation. If we are truly going to be the community of Christ, we must look to Him as Lord.

And there is only one Lord. And there is only one faith. See, there might be various factions based upon differences in doctrine and opinion, But there is only one faith that's been handed down by the apostles, and that is the standard for the true church. In fact, the true church today recognizes that there is a set of beliefs that they consider orthodox. Those that define who the true church is.

In fact, what you would clearly see in those that we would call cults is they do not hold to the orthodox faith as given to us by the apostles. There is a universal, essential set of doctrine that is recognized by the true church. But yet there are variances between us. There are some that are Baptist, some that are Presbyterian. And many different denominations.

But yet we recognize the universal church and we recognize those differences, but they all hold to the essentials of the faith as the true church of God. We also see there is only one baptism. What this is pointing out is that there is only one initiatory right into the visible church of Jesus Christ. And that is through baptism. And what you will see in all those true churches is they practice some form of baptism.

Now in our understanding of God's Word, we practice it according to what we believe God's Word teaches. But we do see that there are others who vary in how they practice this. But yet, we still recognize the essentials of the faith in these churches. We recognize the universal church within these churches, even in those we disagree with. We also see that our unity is based upon the unity of the Father.

See, it points out the absolute supremacy of God here in verse 6. It says, "...one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. See, God is over everything. There is nothing higher. He is over everything.

God permeates everything. He's everywhere. God is in everything. We can't escape Him. And if we are His children, we are unified by His authority.

For He sent forth His Son to redeem a people that He gave Christ, of which Christ said He would lose none. And Christ came and lived the life perfectly, obeying all of the commands, willingly went to the cross, for love held him there, the love that he had for those whom he came to save. And he redeemed us. And he said that he must depart in order to send a helper. And the Holy Spirit came upon the church and empowers the church.

And it's by the power of the Holy Spirit that we are unified in the unity of the Spirit by the bond of peace. And so if we're going to be unified, we must be those who practice humility and meekness and long-suffering and love towards one another. And we must be those that endeavor to be those who keep the peace. We must be a church that's honest with one another, trusting one another, encouraging one another, rebuking one another, loving one another. For that is when the Spirit of Christ is evident in us.

And that is when we become a unified representation of the power of God on this earth. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, we come before You, thanking You Father that You've given us this Word, the richness of this Word Father, as we see the love that You have for Your people and this love that we must have for one another. And Father, I pray that You would help us to become more unified under the headship of Christ. That we would clearly display the virtues of the Christian walk, and that our walk would be seen as worthy before You.

And we pray, Father, in the name of our precious Savior Christ Jesus, Amen.