For those who stand before the people of God to proclaim the truth of God's word. It is not a light thing you do not take it lightly and Just before I came up this morning one of the sisters said to me. I hear there's an office speaking this morning and she's right He is an office. I've been speaking for over 40 years probably But every time I get up if you like an office I feel like I'm just learning I feel like I'm just beginning And so I appreciate those of you who said they would be praying for me today Appreciate very much I'm going to pray in a little while but before I do and before I get into the message itself I wanted to spend a little bit of time letting you know who I am because some of you know me very well Probably too well, right?
But the rest of you many of you have never really known me you're new to Northbrook And you're probably thinking who is this guy standing up here this morning? What are the good preachers? Where are the guys who are used to seeing? My name is Clyde Renard.
That's what's on my tag, but that's just my name. All right. That's not who I am I am your brother in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's who I am.
That's my identity I am one who has trusted if you have trusted Christ as your savior. I'm your brother I have trusted him too. He is my Lord and Savior and As far as my own history is concerned I was born many many years ago when you're still cooling and at the age of 17 I came to know Christ as my savior Before that time I had grown up in a Sunday school. I go into church Sunday after Sunday I had heard the message of the gospel, but I had held up my hands and said no no no no not yet Not yet not yet And I tremble as I mentioned at the Lord's up for this morning I tremble when I think about the years that I spent in vanity and pride carrying not my Lord was crucified And I tremble at the thought of the position I held of condemnation before God And I want you to know first thing this morning that you do not have to say any condemnation before God you can this morning Trust Christ Jesus the Lord who died for you at Calvary and be saved for all eternity.
Do not put it off Do not put it off as I did anything could have happened to me I had some close calls with life and death before finally the gospel messes sunk into my heart And I said I need to get I need to get things right with God I need to repent of my sins and trust Christ as my savior And if you would do that this morning if you would just simply say to God God God I understand that I've been going the wrong way all my life I understand that I've been walking in rebellion to you and I understand that because of that I have no standing before you in fact I am condemned I am guilty if you would know it's that to him and just simply say I've realized though that you love me so much You sent your son to die in the cross of Calvary and if you'll trust that savior that one who died at Calvary for you Jesus the Lord Jesus Christ you can have your sins forgiven and know you're on your way to heaven as I do and as many do here this morning I grew up in a place called Glenwood beautiful downtown Glenwood and trophless of Glenwood population 30 and It's Glenwood is part of a little English enclave down in the south shore Nova Scotia surrounded by a Francophone population we're surrounded by frank up on speaking people French speaking people and predominantly Roman Catholic people we grew up in that environment They're wonderful people there are neighbors and we love them but we have this little English enclave down there and a number of years ago back in the late 70s God began moving in our area amongst the Roman Catholic people and Predominantly spearheading that movement was a brother by the name of Harold Smith And you've those of you who know me have heard me speak of Harold Harold was a courageous believer who went door to door Talking to people about Christ now. He was a door to door for a black brush or Raleigh at one of those products salesman So he was going door to door anyway But he didn't carry just a briefcase full of products He carried his Bible and a message of the gospel and God began to touch lives and Precious people who were caught up in religion and darkness began to turn the Lord Jesus Christ French speaking people Roman Catholic people and when I first became associated with the assembly down there Having grown up in a Baptist church and being saved in a Pentecostal church I found out about an assembly and I found out what the assemblies of God stood for what the assembly is brethren if you will Movement stood for and I decided to throw my my support in with them as God would lead and I began to meet these people God was calling out these people some of whom as French speaking people had a problem with the Diagraph T H That sound not good with so I became known not as brother Clyde But brother Clyde and if you want to call me brother Clyde, I'll be happy with that I'll feel right at home. I'm brother Clyde in 2001 My family and I moved here to the Dartmouth area we began fellow shipping at North Brooks I've been here for over 20 years. I met and married a beautiful lady by the name of Jerry some you know She's from Toronto 5.5 million people Compared to my 30 so it's the country mouse and the city mouse right, but I'm so glad God brought her to me and I to her Love her very dearly and We're making it we're making a go of it.
So that's me. It's day frost. We say back home. That's me.
That's enough of me I want to talk to you about this morning The book of Ephesians it doesn't say that on there. There's a fancy Greek word up there not that I know Greek But I just wanted to be fancy Axios and I'll tell you what that means in a while But it's from the book of Ephesians and I want to talk with you about the book of Ephesians if you've been introduction to the book of Ephesians if you will and Why Ephesians? back in the era BC before COVID My wife and I Jerry and I were privileged to to have a college and careers group spend about a year coming to our home and praying and singing and reading the scriptures together eating which is a good part of it and We were studying at the beginning of it a book called don't waste your life by John Piper and after that was done It was question Well, what should we do now? What should we say now?
And they were of agreement that we should study the book of Ephesians together We started that and then came COVID and then came masking social distancing self isolation and all those good things and The group kind of fizzled we just didn't have the ability to stay together for that But I continued in the book of Ephesians It had lit a little fire in my heart to continue reading and studying that book And so when David contacted me a few weeks ago and asked if I would consider taking a Sunday sermon I suggested to him that well, I'd like to do a series on Ephesians He was only asking me for one Sunday, but I was going to take a series if I could he hasn't agreed to that yet So we'll see but we'll start anyway today in the book of Ephesians. That's where I am That's where I'm reading that's where God is speaking to me and if the Lord wills who go on from that now about the book of Ephesians Ephesians is one of 13 epistles or letters that Paul the apostle wrote in his recorded in the scriptures That's fully one half of the entire Numerically of the entire New Testament, right? And Ephesians is one of those some of those epistles that were written were written to individuals like first and second Timothy Titus by Lehman Written to individuals to instruct them others of these epistles were let into were written to church groups In certain localities church groups that needed instruction Remember my Bible on the back page of it reminds me that the word of God also If you're given by inspiration of God it is profitable for teaching for reproof or correction and training and righteousness second-time of the three sixteen and so God instructed Paul to write to these letters to the churches to instruct them about what it meant to be a Christian and what it meant to live as Christians in community the epistles are about the church Ephesians is different for most of those epistles because Ephesians was not written to correct some problem Ephesians was written to advise and to teach about the church what the church really is in its essence and so it's a wonderful Epistle, it's a beautiful thing to read and to understand two of the oldest manuscripts for this book and there are many manuscripts for the book of Ephesians Two of the oldest manuscripts there still extant Do not have the word Ephesus in the beginning where it says to the saints word Ephesus The word Ephesus is not there. It's just a blank to the saints who are at Wherever and this has led many?
Theologians many people who study the scriptures to believe that perhaps this was a cyclical letter that was meant to go out to a number of different churches Not just Ephes, Ephesus was one But probably to many of the churches that were then in what was called Asia at that time Asia Minor today Turkey today And so many churches probably received this letter and read it and it was addressed to all of them because it's a general Epistle teaching about the church in general and so I think I think it would be all right if we said to the church of God at Northbrook I think we could say that and I think it would be proper for us to do that to make application to our own lives as we read this This is a letter to the church in Northbrook The theme of this epistle I have a number of commentaries on it I think William McDonald has has nailed it when he said that the theme of this epistle is the mystery of the church the mystery of the church And I'm gonna talk to you now. This is brand new to me. So if this goes haywire, okay Don't be surprised now. I'll my brother in back there will bail me out if something happens, but anyway, let's press the go button That's the end of that page.
There we are See they are helping me. Thank you very much. I want to talk to you about what a mystery is This is a part of the message. This is just prologue.
All right a mystery Sometimes when we think about the word mystery we think about a who done it story, right? I wonder who did it. I wonder who did it right a murder mystery or something in this new testament the word mystery doesn't mean that In the New Testament the word mystery as it says here It denotes not the mysterious as our English word we can but that which is being outside the range of unassisted natural apprehension It can be made known only by divine revelation and it is made known in a manner and in a time appointed by God into those Only who are illuminated by his spirit in the ordinary sense a mystery implies knowledge withheld but in its scriptural significance It is truth revealed so the mystery of the church when we talk about the mystery of the church is not that it's a mysterious church Sometimes we think it's pretty mysterious the church right it's pretty you know people at least are mysterious odd peculiar But we're not talking about that kind of a mystery. We're talking about something that was not known in the past But it has now been revealed in the Old Testament.
You do not read of the church. You will not read of the church You'll read of Israel you'll read of the Jewish people and you'll see how God interacted with these people How God and how God had a plan and he was going to call the Gentiles it's very clear that the Gentiles were in God's eyes He hadn't forgotten the Gentiles. He was going to use the Jewish people to reach out to the Gentiles But there's no mention of the church until we get to the New Testament and we hear the Lord Jesus saying upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it And then in the book of Acts we see the beginning of the church and the day of Pentecost and we see the not only the birth of the church but the growth of the infant church in the book of Acts and then we come to the epistles the letters Where we read about the doctrines where we read about how the church is to behave where we read about how we're to conduct ourselves in the church of God All right So the mystery of the church is not mysterious is just something that wasn't known before what is now known I think there's a scripture text at the bottom of this one as well There it is and this text really enlightens that idea Colossians 126 where Paul says this mystery Which has been hidden from the past ages and generations has now been manifested to his things hidden before but now manifested Didn't know about it before but now we know about it and Paul was greatly commissioned of God to give us that information All right now we pray all right with that background. Let's pray Lord.
Thank you for this privilege and opportunity today Just a look for a brief time in your word and to and to think about the church and think about who we are As believers in what you're calling us to It's only a start But I pray to your God that your Holy Spirit will speak as a brother prayed for me this morning before the meeting Your God that it will not be just Clyde speaking Rather the Clyde will be hidden and that Father Jesus Christ will be heard that his name will be glorified that his person will be exalted For he is alone worthy. You pray that since in his precious name amen Ephesians Chapter one we're going to begin interestingly enough at the beginning This is a little bit of housekeeping But there's things in here that is important for us to understand and I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to do the John MacKyn thing again David we're gonna do some literations all right We're gonna do a's a's and we're gonna talk about first of all the author as we read this passage the first two verses Is Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God? I there's a little bit of a ring here I don't know if that can be taken out but Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God to the saints who are at Ephes And who are faithful in Christ Jesus grace to you in peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ the author Paul back in ancient times some of you won't be able to remember this but I'm ancient so I can we used to write letters by hand Can anybody here remember doing that writing letters by hand? Yeah, that's some of you ancient we wrote letters by hand right and I scribble out my letter you really needed to be a hieroglyphic specialist to be able to read my handwriting still I would write my letters out and at the beginning the greeting was do so and so right the greeting was You this is to you.
This is for you and then at the end was the salutation where I would say, you know client, you know from me the salutation Apparently back then when they wrote a letter they put the salutation at the beginning Paul so that when you open the letter You know right away who written it? I think that's a great idea. I think it's a great idea Of course anybody in my handwriting would know who it was with me. I'm a letter but but Paul Paul Now his name means small and I don't know why Saul changed his name to Paul Saul means asked for desired or Requested but Paul means little little I don't know whether he was a little man or whether Paul just wanted to say I'm really nobody I'm really nobody But Paul was not little in our eyes was he Paul is giant When we think of what that brother did in the name of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ We stand in awe of that small Paul and his weight his name carried a lot of weight in these churches Because it was when when Paul and his third missionary journey was in Ephesus that the gospel went out from that center all over Asia Minor and many many many it says the whole place Was infiltrated with the gospel so Paul Names mean small but it means small but he's a giant in us in our eyes.
That's the author then his authority Paul and apostle Apostolos it's a transliteration from the Greek it means one cent fourth and He was chapter three verse one our Lord Jesus Christ is called the apostle of our faith. He's apostle He was sent forth to was name God sent our Lord Jesus Christ into this world to be the Savior of sinners Paul was sent forth into the world to proclaim that wonderful message of salvation. He was sent forth He was an apostle now Peter in Acts chapter one verse one when remember when when Thomas committed suicide and he decided Peter Peter said You know it's we should have twelve now. There's only eleven.
We should have twelve apostles That's picking apostle He said here's what an apostle should be it should be somebody asked one twenty one somebody who was accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus Christ went in and out among us now Paul did not qualify With that he hadn't traveled with Jesus if you know the story of Paul he had not traveled with Jesus, right? But Paul was still sent out That's how he's an apostle Paul was commissioned sent forth by the Lord Jesus Christ and you remember the story in that Shepry 9 when he was on the road to Damascus and that great light Sean all around him and knocked him down and he became blind and They had to take him by the hand to Damascus. He was going to Damascus who arrest Christians It wasn't in his mind to join them. He was going to arrest them and they took him to Damascus And you remember that there was a dude by the name of Ananias living in Damascus and God spoke to him and said Hey Ananias get up and go to straight Street to the house of Judas And you're gonna find a guy there by the name of Saul of Tarsus and I want you to pray for him He's seen a vision and someone's gonna come and pray for him And he's gonna receive a sight and ananias did what you and I do when God gives us an assignment lots of times He said hang on God let me tell you a little bit about this guy Saul of Tarsus There's probably information you don't have God if you ever don't have a God try to explain to him how his idea really you know He needs some tweaking.
I've heard about this guy God. He's a bad guy I know what he's done to the things that Jerusalem and another thing is kind of Damascus to arrest Christians I'm Christian and you're sending me to Saul and God said go Here's what he exactly said. He said go for he is a chosen instrument of mine to bear my name before Gentiles and kings in the sons of Israel He is a chosen instrument of mine. He is an apostle and his authority his authority comes from me Doesn't matter what he's done doesn't matter what his past is.
This is what he's going to do Brothers and sisters. It doesn't matter what your past is It doesn't matter how mixed up and messed up and how you failed God has a plan and a purpose for you and it might not be to do what Paul did But whatever it is to do it is worth doing in the name of Christ His authority his assignment He says here that he is an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God God assigned his apostleship God assigned him to that position Paul did not choose apostleship as a career He did not come to the end of his education and say you know what I think I'll do I'll become an apostle That wasn't Paul's decision. That wasn't why he that was a farthest thing from his mind He was going to prosecute Christians his apostleship was by the will of God by the call of God Isn't it something to be called by God? Do you ever felt like you've been called by God?
Some of you have you've known that call and some of the rest of you are thinking I Don't think so or I really wish I had that call in my life Newslash you have been called by God Every one of you who's a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ have the calling of God upon your life And we're gonna see about that in a few minutes when we look at the another verse here in Ephesians The address we've looked at it the author the authority the assignment now the addresses The saints to the saints who are at our Bible says Ephesus as I said before there's a blank there So the saints who are at North Rock to the saints who are at North Rock and the only question that remains is who are the saints? At Northbrook. What is that word conjure up in your mind? You say the word saint I came from a moment Catholic area The saints well they were stuck on the dashboard of people's cars, you know sort of these lovely things They were on medallions around her next they were posted on the wall saint so and so I say so if you go through Go back you drive your go back.
What do you see? St. Everybody's listed here along the highway st. Louis da ha ha the patron say to comedians.
I guess I don't know who that guy was Saint what is the saint in the woman Catholic Church? You somebody who's dead Somebody who's dead who while they were alive Probably performed some kind of miracles or they think they did and the pope said yep should should be venerated I'll canonize this person you can you can venerate that person you can pray to this person they're saint That's not the biblical definition of saint Paul wasn't writing to dead people he was writing to living people people in these churches who were believers in the Lord Jesus Christ That's who saints are people who are believers in Lord Jesus Christ in the same he just set apart set apart for God's purposes And you are set apart for God's purposes therefore you are saying he taught us that a couple weeks ago We need to listen he should be called saying e me all right And and he was just you know being funny, but but he's being true. He is saying e me I don't recommend you go around calling him that because you know in the on the street or something But he is saying to me he's not a saint because he's saintly He's a saint because of his position in Lord Jesus Christ No as a saint as a person in the Lord Jesus Christ He should be saintly and very much as but he's not a saint because he's saintly and you're not a saint because you're saintly because of how you act You're a saint because of who you're in in your position in the Lord Jesus Christ as we're hearing about this morning Those are the saints so the saints at Northbrook are all of us who have trusted Christ as our Savior That's us for saints for saints Every true believe in the Lord Jesus Christ Years ago when I entered into grade six so I can imagine how long ago that was After my first day in grade six I came home and my dad asked me So who's your teacher this year and I said my teacher my teacher is Mrs. Goodwin and he said what's her first name?
You know Mrs. Goodwin you're in a lasting basis with you and I thought I think it's Helen And he said oh the saint and I thought in my childish, you know conception of who was ain't is she's not dead You know I'm pretty sure she's not dead anyway, I'll tell you the story Mrs. Helen and the funny thing was she her middle name was Elbert It wasn't her middle name, but there were many Helen Goodbens in her community So they named her after her husband Helen Elbert Goodwin. That's who she was Mrs.
Goodwin was a Christian she's with Christ now and Mrs. Goodwin was in a church meeting probably a fair meeting and in the fair meetings They had back then the pastor would usually have some kind of a devotional beforehand And then they would play afterwards and in the devotion he may have been reading from this portion right here I don't know but it was a portion in which the word saint was mentioned and he said how many hear her saints in Helen Elbert Goodwin put up her hand and all the oxygen went out of the room You know everybody went what? Why is she singing right? She was the only one in the room that knew the truth about what an interview seemed she was a saint not because she was saintly She was a saint because she was in Jesus Christ and from that time on that's what they called her Bully the saint You were a saint You were called you were set apart under the Lord Jesus Christ just like Mrs.
Helen Elbert Goodwin was and Who are faithful in Christ Jesus? The two words who are are in italics So it's and the faithful in Christ Jesus that the saints are those who have trusted Christ in other words So that's defining who the saints are they're believing ones God's will is that of course our practice should match our position the saints should be saintly for sure now I have one more a I'm cleaning tenaciously and probably tenuously to the a based alliteration here when I say verse number two we have his Aloha It's the best I could do Aloha his hello. All right when we greet someone we say a variation of a lot Don't we we just went around this group and we were shaking hands and hey, how you doing? Hey good morning?
Good morning. How you doing? Stop dog. I don't understand all kinds of things we say hello.
We say hello listen to Paul's Aloha Grace to you and peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ That's a proper Aloha, isn't it right? That's not a sub dog. That's not a you know, hey, how you doing? Which is as far as we get most times, right?
I'm not demeaning that you know We have a lot of people shake hands with so but Paul wrote to these people he said grace to you and peace From God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I think I have a typo there God our father grace and peace grace and peace these two words go together in the New Testament grace and peace grace and peace They go together sort of like peanut butter and jam, right? Macaroni and cheese How about beans and weiners hamburg and fries apple pie and ice cream? I have a problem with food.
Okay, I acknowledge it All right. It's obvious Those things go together. That's my point grace and truth grace and peace. I'm sorry grace and peace go together They go together and they go in that order as we were hearing earlier this morning grace Grace these people these Christians that already receive the grace of God when they came to salvation They already receive that and if you've trusted Christ as your Savior, you've already received that grace To be saved but as believers will you not acknowledge with me that the path is sometimes rough Will you not acknowledge with me that when you trust Christ as your Savior?
That does not mean that everything's gonna be roses? We're not gonna be walking along on pelse, right? We're not gonna be sleeping on comfy beds all the time sometimes things are rough in our lives Sometimes life can be really bitter and we need at that time God's grace For problems for trials for sorrows. We need God's grace to strengthen see us through all that life throws our way That in our him book this one called hymns of truth and praise There's a there's a beautiful old hymn that there's a favorite of my brother Gabriel It reads this way.
He give us more grace. You know this song when the burdens grow greater He send us more strength when the labors increase to add a deflection He added his mercy to multiply trials his multiplied peace And when we have exhausted our sort of ignorance when our strength has failed here the day is half done When we reach the end of our holy resources our fathers will give in this only begun his love has no limit his grace has no measure His power has no boundary known in demand for out of his infinite riches in Jesus. He give it and give it again That is the grace that Paul is wishing that is the grace that you and I need for our daily lives the grace that God be so upon us day by day Grace to you divine help for daily life and peace the rest in our spirit in the midst of the changing experiences of life in the midst of the Difficulties of life peace grace is first and then peace Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ Romans 5 1 And once we have peace with God that we can we can rely upon God's peace in our daily lives as we come to God in prayer As we bring our burdens before him casting all our care upon him because he cares for us We can have peace in our hearts knowing that God is in control peace flippings four verses six and seven that says it surpasses all Understanding is the kind of peace that our sister and is experiencing right now Peace that passes understanding and it is a testimony to us and a testimony to those who are ministering to her in the hospital Is and witnesses daily to the grace and the peace that is hers in Jesus Christ the Lord God's almighty arms around me peace peace is mine Grace and peace now grace was a characteristic Greek way of saying hello grace cuss grace Peace in Hebrew is Shalom, which is their characteristic way of saying hello, and so you have the Greek and the Jew It is the green of the Greek and the Jew grace carrots Shalom peace Paul was identifying with these two groups of believers in the churches there put them together And you have Jew and Gentile agreeing for Jews and Gentiles from God our Father in the Lord Jesus Christ God the almighty our father Our father join those two words together God and father and you have the most amazing staggering truth at the heavenly father But God of all creation is ours and equally so the Lord Jesus Christ I remember when I was teaching a hell of ice Christian Academy and Nick may remember this There was a missionary from Asia and very old man an old brother who came and spoke to us and And his whole message was this He is the Lord Jesus Christ Don't call him just Jesus. He is the Lord Jesus Christ Calling by his full title give him the honor of his name and he ministered on that for the entire chapel time This was his message to the young people and us old guys as well.
He's the Lord Jesus Christ Acts chapter 2 verse 36 is Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ this Jesus whom you crucified Lord absolute sovereign and master Jesus our Savior Christ our divine prophet priest and king. He is the Lord Jesus Christ Now in the last few minutes that I have I want to talk to you about Paul's purpose in writing this letter Well the theme of the letter is the mystery of the church Paul's purpose in writing this letter is given I believe in chapter 4. Thank you rather chapter 4 verse 1 if you have your Bibles and you're turning there if you have your devices you can turn there If you use the fourth verse 1 therefore I the person of the Lord employee to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with Which you can call I truly believe that this is the key verse of this book This is what Paul is writing about. This is what he wants us to consider He wants us to consider our walk.
It's a practical thing that he wants to talk to us about The word worthy is the Greek word axios That's why I had that in on the title page axios and the Greek word axios means having the weight of having the weight up weighing as much as That's from w. Vines New Testament words and if you go to the next slide Thank you brother It may or may not fit on the screen, but there it is. This is what this word is referring to it's a equal arm Pan balance it's it's a scale right and this is a very primitive type of wing things But if you can scroll up just a little bit further you'll see that there are weights there Right and you know maybe in ancient times if you grew up and I did you might have even used one of these with these weights and so on And as an ability to you can put something in the pan and then you can put the weights on the other side You can find out how much what you put in the pan ways, but Paul isn't talking about that He's talking about the other way around he's talking about putting the weights in the pan and then putting something in the other Side of the scale to balance that off right and when he's talking about any fusions first of all He's gonna talk about God's blessings in our lives What God has done for us and that's the weight of God's blessing the weight of what he's done He's gonna put all the weights in the pan and then he's gonna come over here and say now Here's how we balance this in our lives I'm gonna put this on our in our pan until this comes up to balance and when it comes to balance It's axios or is this translation that I'm using says worthy worthy it is balanced All right, that's what Paul is talking about the balance is a worthy or axios walk God wants us to walk worthy of our calling now Just consider in the end the standard for our walk. That's the next slide brothers the standard for our walk And we're gonna have to eventually school school on walk worthy of the calling with which you have been called So our calling the word calling is the Greek word Clasis and it doesn't mean our vocation or our job our career That's not the calling that he's talking about you may be uploading maybe a carbon or you may be a statistician You may be an engineer you may be a nurse you may be a teacher You may be whatever that's your career not necessarily your calling your calling our calling our places is the invitation of God That he is given for us to know him to follow him to live for him.
That's our calling now I want to give some more A lot of patience here. They're gonna start with with H We're gonna define or describe our calling in the last few minutes first of all our calling is a is a heavenly calling Hebrews chapter 3 verse 1 therefore holy brethren Protectors of the heavenly calling consider Jesus the apostle and high priest of our confession. It's a heavenly calling This is this is a plaque that you probably can't see from where you are. It's it's dark and it has dark lettering on it But I'll read it to you.
It says he received verse 1 therefore We're for a whole brethren or takers of the heavenly calling consider the apostle and high priest of our profession Jesus Christ This plaque was given to me back in 1982 when I was doing a series of meetings down through the New England states and the first place I went to was a place called Union Main and I'd never been there before I didn't know the people I'd never met them I just was given an address and said show up all right show up and speak I was 25 I think at the time and never driven down through the states before so I was driving down through and no GPS None of these things right just a map with a you know something that said the road to Union and and I went down that road looking for my church and I found the civic number painted on a mailbox and it wasn't a church it was a mobile home and I thought oh Do I go to do a knock on the door? I mean it was it was time for the meeting like I I didn't stay overnight in Union and go with somebody to the meeting I was showing up for the meeting It was a right number so I went in I knock on the door and this lady came to the door and opened the door She said I hope for the future and I said I hope this is a child and she said it is come in and when I came in They were already singing that the meeting had already studied and when I came in this is the first time only time this has happened They clapped they were so glad to see somebody here right somebody is gonna hit me here So we had a week of meetings one of the one of the brothers that was there his name is Joe Paradise and Joe Was a pair of Legion you've been an accident and he had used his arms but not his legs and at the he was there every single Meeting he was there and Joe at the end of those meetings Call me to one side and he said I want to give you this I want you to give you this not only to remember me by But to remember your calling that you have been called This has set in I've lived in ten different homes since that day and this has been on my wall in my home in my study Whatever room I use for my study ever since currently it is occupied on the wall opposite the couch that I said on in the morning When I get up and have my time with God every morning This is opposite me so that when I raise my my my gaze from my Bible or from prayer my eyes focus on this And it reminds me that I have a heavenly calling it reminds me that I am to consider To pay attention to give notice to think about my Lord Jesus Christ first thing in the day every day a reminder Brothers and sisters you have a heavenly calling you might not have known that you might not thought about that But you have a heavenly calling it's heavenly in its origin because it's a calling from God It's heavenly in its nature because it's not about everything. It's about heavenly things right? We live in this world We do earthly things.
Yes, we do we have to But our objective is a heavenly objective our destiny is a heavenly destiny the origins It's heavenly the nature is heavenly and the destiny is heavenly. We have a heavenly calling we also have Second-time each after one verse nine a holy calling says God who has saved us and called us with a holy calling That makes sense doesn't that that a holy God would give a holy calling that a holy God? I am whole be holy for I am holy God wants us to be set apart Our brother John minster this to a couple of weeks ago about how sin corrupts sin destroys and sin will destroy your life God wants you to be holy God wants you to be set apart for him God wants you to walk and holding this you and me and We can do it in the power of the Lord Jesus Christ the Holy Spirit dwells within us we can't do it We can say no to sin no and live in holiness. It is a holy calling beloved It is also a high calling Philippians 3 verse 14 Paul said I pressed toward the mark for the prize of the high calling in Christ Jesus It is a high calling this isn't something that we can just say well, you know I'm a Christian and I'll go to church on there Maybe I'll go to prayer meeting on Thursday or you know, and then it's part of my life No, it's not it's not part of your life brothers and sisters.
It is your life It is a high calling you are called to be ambassadors for the Lord Jesus Christ I'm an ambassador for the Lord Jesus Christ and you think well client. I'm not worthy of that of course you're not Why but we've been called notwithstanding years ago And the assembly that I was attending at the time a gentleman came to preach and his name is Jay Boyd Nicholson Anybody here ever met Jay Boyd Nicholson? You met Jave maybe he was here. Yeah Jay Boyd Nicholson is senior if ever there was a statesman and ambassador for Jesus Christ.
He was it right? When I met him he was an elderly man straight as an arrow He looked the part of an ambassador beautiful white hair crystal blue eyes an orator Par excellence and he came to a little assembly in our gah a handful of people and he spent a week with us Ministering who got to us he told the story quickly Jay Boy Nicholson was on his way to Victoria British Columbia He was in Vancouver and he had to catch a ferry to get to Victoria on Vancouver Island There were two theories departing that that her one was going to Victoria and one was going up the eastern coast of Vancouver Island to another village Boy just got there when the fair is about to leave so he he boarded the ferry and about ten minutes into it He was looking around saying this don't look like to me. I'm going in the wrong direction He was on the wrong ferry So boy Nicholson went to the area where they steer the ship where the captain was knocked on the door Guy came to the road said got to the captain the guy said I'm sorry You can't go to the captain he's busy driving the ship steering the ship sailing the ship and he said no I had to speak to the captain I am an ambassador for my king in my country and I am scheduled to speak in Victoria tonight And this ship is not taking me to Victoria Like I said just a minute he got the captain the captain came he told the captain the same story the captain got on the radio called the other Chef and in a few minutes time those ships reside by side void was crossing the gangplank and What do you mean? Oh heading for Victoria did he lie?
Oh, no He wasn't ambassador for the king He was bearing a message to the king's people in Victoria His was a high calling you and I have that same calling. I don't look like boy Nicholson I probably wouldn't get away with it. I told somebody I was a master boy did But we have that high calling brothers and sisters and finally it is a hopeful calling Ephesians 4 verse 4 Just as you were called in one hope of your calling it is a hopeful calling our hope is in the coming king We're looking for that blessed hope in appearing on the glory of a great god in saviour Jesus Christ Titus 113 Titus 313 excuse me That hope is not something that you know, it's not the kind of hope like I hope the Nigerian football team wins this game It's not that kind of hope, you know, they may they may not you know, we'll see it's not that kind of hope I hope the Edmonton Oilers won't know no no This is a hope that a step fast and certain this is a hope that is sure The only part of us hope that we don't know for sure is when we don't know the time the day of the hour But we know what's gonna happen and I believe it's gonna happen soon I didn't talk to God about this recently it would be nice of it or soon Lord It would be nice of it or soon negotiating with them. I don't know how I'm doing, but I still negotiate It is a it is a hopeful calling.
We have so much to be hopeful about so much to look forward to Bosses, I want you to walk worthy of this calling this heavenly holy high hopeful calling walk worthy of it The word walk is perot petao it has two meanings one is a little meaning to walk if you read the gospels and book of acts That's the word perot petato walk just walk little walking but also has a figurative meaning and that meaning means Simply live your life live your life in a way that reflects who you are in Jesus Christ Live your life in a way that is worthy axios of your calling in Christ Jesus Finally I said finally three times finally there are two necessary things in order to walk in a manner where you must know who you are in Jesus Christ That's Ephesians 1 2 and 3 those three chapters tell you who you are in Jesus Christ And the second thing is you must learn to walk is one who is in Jesus Christ Learn to walk just like a child learn to walk Ephesians 4 5 and 6 half of the book is about who you are the other half of the book is about how to walk I Would love to be able to share some of the things that God has shown me in this the last verse of scripture I want to share with you a second Corinthians 5 15 and he our Lord Jesus Christ died for all Why did he do that so we could go to heaven? Yes? Yes, but this verse says so that they who live those believers born again ones Might no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and rose again on their behalf Let me ask you brothers and sisters and me who are you living for? Are your lives occupied with yourselves?
your Your little kingdom the things you want or are you living and walking for the Lord Jesus Christ? Are you living for him who died for you and rose again on your behalf? That's our calling that's who we are and that's who God wants us to be as we walk worthy of our Lord Jesus Christ Let's pray Lord. Thank you for the opportunity to share today.
Thank you for people the people of God Thank you for their attention and I pray God that your Holy Spirit might speak to hearts Bringing the truth of what we have shared today to our hearts and that we would indeed walk in a manner worthy of Our calling in Christ Jesus forgive us for when we have not and strengthen us to do so in the future we pray in Jesus name