Lowliness

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast, making Theology Central. Good morning everyone. It is Friday, August the ninth, twenty twenty four. It is currently eleven oh one am Central Time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Now, before we do anything else, I do want to just I was going to do like an entire podcast episode about this, but I'll just throw it out as a quick announcement. If you go to Beta dot Sermon Audio dot com Beta dot Sermon Audio dot com, look up Theology Central. I don't know exactly where it's located, but there's a section now for articles that I can publish that I can post.

0:53 I could post a link, I could post, you know, a devotional whatever I want. I can do anything I want there. I don't think it shows up on the Church one app yet. I don't think it shows up on the Sermon's two point oh app yet. But go to Beta dot Sermonaudio dot com. You'll see a section for articles. I did a test one and so, and I can add artwork, and there's other things I can do. I don't know exactly how to utilize that yet I don't know how much I'm going to utilize it, but it's there. Sometimes that would be, you know, make it things very easy, like if I tell everyone, I mean, I can also send the link out through notices where it goes directly to the Church one app, and so I can send links that way. But I could also publish an article. Let's say I talk about a book, and I can be like, hey, the book, I just the book I just talked about in this episode. Put a link to the episode. Here is the book. Put a link to the book, or whatever the case may be.

1:52 I think I could find some ways to utilize it. We will see. Look, the more tools they give you the better. How to utilize those tools in a way that actually is beneficial is always the challenge, but I'll always I'm always looking for ways to use the tools that they're offering. I'm grateful for everything Sermonadio does. I am very grateful because there's I mean, for small ministries, for small Christian podcasters. All the things Sermonadio offers for the price they charge is really pretty remarkable. Because you have the Church one app that you can put everything into series. I mean, you can broadcast live everything you can do. It's really good. For sixty dollars a month, it's really I'm really happy with all the things they offer.

2:43 But that's a new feature. I did one test on it, and so we'll see if I can come up with some other ways to utilize that. I don't know yet, but it's there. Go to Beta dot Sermi Beta dot, sermonadio dot com and then search for Theology Central and then you will find it. Yeah. See, I'm giving the announcement now just because I have to see if my brain is functioning properly after all the all the seizures. But I think I think I'm doing pretty good. I think I'm doing pretty good. So there we have it. Now, speaking of sermon audio, see anyone remember that we're in the middle of a sermon audio sermons two point oh sermon challenge, the Sermon's two point oh app, which is of course sermon audio app the Sermon's two point oh app sermon challenge. Yeah. See, this is going to be challenging this morning, but that's okay. I can stumble over all of this, but when we get to the teaching, I'm gonna be ready to go. What do you think you want to put money on it? We do? We do do we do some batting? Okay, no, we're not.

3:43 I'm not promoting gambling. Okay, all right. But the point is we're in the middle of the Sermon's two point oh app sermon Challenge, and we have all realized, if you've been paying attention this year, that sometimes sometimes listening to sermons oh wow can be maddening, frustrating, discouraging, disappointing, depressing, maddening, possibly lead me to driving to the local liquor store. It can be. It can be, and I don't like to be so negative, but sometimes it's just like, what is happening? Right? You're listening to a series of sermons on Saw eighty three that goes like thirty one, thirty two to thirty three parts, and I don't know in those thirty three parts if they ever actually covered Saw eighty three. It was it was insanity, it was crazy, and sometimes it gets frustrating. Now, on the one hand, I'm still grateful we're doing the Sermon's two point zero apps challenge because it gives you the opportunity to hear what is happening in churches all across the United States of America and around the world. That's good. You get to hear different perspectives, you get to hear different hermeneutical approaches to the text that there's nothing but benefit that comes from that. And also one of the things I've tried to do, and sometimes the criticism I have received about this series, it does bother me because some of those people who offer the criticism obviously hasn't been listening.

5:13 They just jumped in, offered criticism, and then ran off. They just did a drive by, right, But if they would have stuck around, I think I feel this is true. You can tell me if you don't think it's true. I feel that every single time we're listening to a sermon or to a series and I'm telling you to listen to it. If it goes really, really bad and my reviews become maybe more negative than I would like them to be, and I'm more critical, I almost inevitably try to then turn that around into something positive where I'm no longer reviewing. I'm now teaching. I moved from criticizing and reviewing to say, let's dig in. The most obvious example is how many hours have we worked on SSAW eighty three. Now, yes, was I critical of the original series? Absolutely? Was I frustrated in almost being driven to insanity but not understanding. Absolutely, But at some point I'm like, okay, enough of that. I told you to listen to all of them, right, I told you to listen to all of them. But after that, what did I do? Let's work on SAW eighty three. And we have dug in and we've looked at everything, right, and we still got a little ways to go. So I turned that negative into hopefully something positive. Well, this week has all been about Ephesians chapter four because of the twenty twenty four Salt and Light Conference, where the key, the key verse, the theme verse is Ephesians chapter four,

6:43 verse five, where we read these words one Lord, one Faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all, and in you all. And I'm like, okay, they're going to work on Efesians four five. All right, I'm assuming they're going to work on Ephesians four five in the context of the Book of Ephesians. So hey, everyone go listen to all of those sermons and the conference, there's about thirteen that's the twenty twenty four Sultan Light Conference. Go go listen to all of them. I will review some of them, and hey, let's start reading Ephesians four over and over and over all week. Right, So I wanted to even from the outset, I tried to turn it into something positive. Right, That's what I always attempt to do. I gave some other assignments about salt and light, and there's a lot of things. I gave everyone a very important Greek word that you were supposed to be walking around your house and saying it to your husband and to your kids and to your dog. Right, hopefully people have been doing that. So I tried to find something positive in all of it. But as you are very aware, the sermon reviews have been absolutely frustrating, and you could times you've heard basically my because I'm sitting there going wait a minute, this is on Ephesians four or five. Why are we not dealing with Ephesians four or five? Why are we not actually dealing with the text? So what did I do in the midst of my frustration? I tried to turn it into something positive.

8:16 I gave you the structure of Ephesians Ephesians one, two, and three. That's the philological exposition. Starting in chapter four, five and six, that's the practical exposition. The practical is connected to the philological. So I challenged everyone, as you read Ephesians four, connect it to the philological exposition in chapters one, two and three, again trying to do something positive with it right well, even and the sermons that we reviewed, even though they didn't really deal much with the text, they did keep saying over and over and over this section deals with unity. Unity. Are we are to be unified in Christ Jesus? Now? That unity to me comes from chapters one, two and three, because there is the positional unity. If you believe in Christ, and I believe in Christ, we are unified. We are one in our position. Now that positional unity, How is it to be seen? How is it to be made manifest in our practical lives? How do we maintain unity from that positional unity? And I talked about all the difficulties with unity and how we do that and what does that mean? And all those different things, and I raise lots of questions, but I was getting more and more frustrated by it. And in one message, if I remember correctly, they mentioned Ephesians chapter four, verse three, where it says endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the

9:48 bond of peace, we have toavor. So this means positionally we don't have to do anything. I believe in Christ we are unified the end, but practically I have to endeavor to keep the unity. I have to endeavor. And remember that amazing Greek word. Does everyone remember that word? Look Ephesians four to three. Does everyone remember it? Oh? Come on, I need all of you yelling at and remember you're supposed to slap your hands. Remember it's this Greek word. Remember it's an awesome Greek word. Strongs g forty seven four. Spoo doodzo, spoo doodzo. Spoo dodzo, spoo dodso. Remember you're supposed to walk around spoot dodso, spoo dodjo. You're supposed to be saying it to your dog spoot dodzo, your kids spoo dodso, your husband's spood dodzo, your wife spoo dodso, your relatives spoot dodzo, strangers at the you know who's driving in front of you, spoo dodso. You're just supposed to be going around everywhere saying it because what is this word meaning? Well, spoo dodso carries the idea to use speed, to make effort, to be prompt, earnest, to give due diligence, to be diligent, to endeavor, to labor or to study, to haste, and to make haste, to exert oneself. Hey, spoo dodso, I need you to hurry up. I need you to study.

11:09 I need you to give due diligence. I need you to put forth effort. I need you to make haste. I need you to exert oneself. Spoo dodso. So. I love this because the philological exposition says, Hey, we're one in Christ, and it is nothing that you do. In Christ. The wall that separates us is broken down. There's neither jewe, there's neither gentile, there's neither male, there's the female. Our race doesn't matter, where we're from, doesn't matter, nothing matters, because we are one in Christ. Because by putting our faith in Him his imputed righteousness to us, we are declared perfect righteous, holy, and we are perfectly unified. Now we have to endeavor, we have to spoo dodso to try to bring forth unity in a practical way.

11:56 What does that look like? How does that work? Well, obviously, two thousand years of church history, we're yet to figure it out. Right, there's church splits, there's a division. Nobody can agree on everything there. We don't agree on baptism, we don't agree on the Lord's Supper, we don't agree on salvation. We don't agree literally on anything. So how can we endeavor to keep unity? Well, I made the argument. Well, wait a minute, let's go back to verse one. Paul says, I, therefore the prisoner of the Lord. Now, originally we worked on the word therefore. That led us to two and three.

12:36 That's the philological exposition, therefore serves as a transition to the practical exposition. All right, I think we did pretty good covering that. I wanted to work on the word the prisoner or prisoner. I really wanted to work on that. But the prisoner of the Lord beseech you. Now we did talk about besiech plead beg. Come on, listen, I need you to do something that you walk work worthy of the calling with which you were called. All right, we were called with a sovereign call, an eternal call in a sense, an eternal call. We were called with a holy calling. However you would like to describe it. We could talk about that calling. But we are to walk worthy of it. Now this is the practical. See, Positionally, I'm already worthy. Positionally I'm made worthy in Christ. But now practically I'm to walk worthy. I'm to call to walk worthy. Well, how do we walk worthy? Well, he says, here are the attributes. Here are the things that we need to do if we want to walk worthy, look walk worthy of the calling with which you were called with all. Here's the elements, the attributes, the characteristics, loneliness, gentleness, long suffering, bearing with one another in love. Now, what I love about that is that typically when people say, hey, you are to walk worthy of the calling. Therefore you should not be watching right at R movies. You should not be listening to rap. You should not be doing this.

14:08 You should not read Harry Potter, you should not do this. You should not go here, you should not do that, you should not wear that. You are to walk worthy. Well, none, the walking worthy here doesn't have anything to do with all these list of external rules. This talks about some characteristics and attributes lowliness, gentleness, with all, long suffering, bearing with one another in love. Now that those are the attributes, and then it immediately it flows in endeavoring to keep the unity. So my argument is, if you're in a conference and you're talking about unity, well then you don't need to go to all these other verses. We need to stay right here. How can I endeavor to keep the unity? What is the what are the Let me ask it this way. What are the fundamental and key at tributes that would be required to be in me?

15:03 Forget anyone else to be inside of me that would allow me not only to walk worthy, but would lead to me being able to endeavor to keep the unity. Because I cannot endeavor to keep unity unless I work on these attributes. So remember I told everyone to write those attributes down, right, Remember do you have memorize yet? Lowliness, gentleness, long suffering, bearing with one another in love. I told you to write those down. Let me state them again. Lowliness, gentleness, long suffering, bearing with one another in love. Put those Write them on your refrigerator. Okay, put them on your refrigerator, hanging them up, put them all over the house. This if we want to walk worthy, this is the attributes we want to have if we want to endeavor to keep unity, these are the attributes we need to have.

16:05 There cannot be any hope of unity, there can be no hope of walking worthy until we strive for these attributes. Loneliness, gentleness, long suffering, bearing with one another in love. So today, I know I've already spent sixteen minutes, but that's putting this all back together. What I want to demonstrate is even when I'm critical, and this is and I want you to learn whenever you hear a sermon and you can't you're frustrated, you're irritated by it, you can just be a critic, or you can take what was given to you, no matter how bad it was, and you can turn it into something positive. That's what I because people are you just criticize, No, I don't. I take whatever they offer. I may disagree, but then I immediately take it and try to turn it into something positive.

16:58 And so that's what we're going to do. I don't know why they didn't cover it this way, but that's okay. Obviously that people can handle text anyway they want. I just think if you're if you're gonna deal with this section, and you're gonna talk about unity. Unity cannot be discussed without these attributes. Without these attributes, can there even be any hope of unity? So you're ready to look at the first one, Let's look at lowliness. All right, let's look at the only one we're going to look at in this this episode is lowliness. Are you ready? So here's what we're gonna do. First. Let's just go ahead and get the Greek word out of the way. Let's go ahead and get the Greek word out of the way. It's this Greek word. Oh, it's a doozy.

17:39 Here we go, strong G fivey twelve tapai now fras sune tapai noa fra. Sune tapaienfrau rasune. Who's that's Listen to that one again? When that one's a big one? Okay? Strong G fivey twelve tapai now fras sune topaif rasune? Wow? What a what agreed? That's a Greek word. You may want to walk around the house today say top i enough rasune. Wow. That that one. That one is a mouthful. Right. It's used seven times. It's translated humility three times, humbleness of mine one time, humility of mine one time, lowliness and lowliness of mind. Now listen, here is basically it's a humiliation of mind, modesty, humbleness of mind, lowliness of mind. This, this is the outline of biblical usage to have a humble opinion of one's self, a deep sense of one's moral littleness, modesty, humility, lowliness of mind. I want you to hear that again. To the lowliness is where you and I have a humble apinion of our self and we have a deep sense of our own moral littleness.

19:13 If we're going to walk worthy, if we are going to endeavor to keep unity, it begins by not looking to anyone else. It begins looking in the mirror. And what do you see when you see yourself? Do you have a humble opinion of what you see? And do you have a deep, deep, deep, deep sense of your own moral littleness? Do you understand how little you are in your morality, in your morals? Do you understand your own In other words, you see you're so deeply aware of your own sin, of your own failure, of your own shortcomings. Now, loneliness, we can obviously it's translated you mis at least three times. This Greek word is it's at least three times. So let me state it this way.

20:05 I've stated this so many times. Humility. Being humble is the impossible task of being more aware of your own sin, of your own failure, of your own shortcomings, than you are of anyone else's. You. You constantly are aware of your failure, not everyone else's, And we live our life always aware. We look we this is so crazy. We typically only think about ourselves, right, We think about well, wait a minute, you you did this to me, I'm mad at you. You did were always it's always about us, us us us us us. We're selfish, self seeking, narcissistic.

20:53 People only think about ourselves, and we never think about anybody else or how anything else may even hurt them. But when it comes to this attribute, we only think about everyone else. Isn't it amazing? We only think of ourselves when it comes to how other, how things impact me? How when we get mad, we're only worried about ourselves. When we get hurt, we only worry about We only worry about ourselves. We don't care about anybody else. We're selfish, we're self seeking. We're narcissistic. But when it comes to humility, see this is where we look we are. This is where we are focused on ourselves. But we're focused on ourselves. In this way, we are focused on ourself and being aware of our shortcomings. Our failure are our brokenness. We are more aware of our own moral littleness than anybody else.

21:44 When we see someone else's failure, we are Our first thought is, I can't believe they did that. Our first thought as well, if people knew what I really felt, if people really knew what I really thought, if people really knew what I wanted to do. When it comes to humility, you do put the focus on yourself, but the focus is on your shortcomings and your failures. We love when when it comes to other people's failures, we love to point at them, condemn them, point them out, use them against someone, throw it in their face. We love to do that, but we we rarely want to look to ourselves and go, well, you know, instead of worrying about them, I probably should worry about my own actions.

22:25 Don't worry about anybody else's actions, worry about your own. Lowliness is where you have a humble opinion of yourself and you have a deep sense of your own moral littleness. It's it's just the way our pride works. Our pride, it's all. It's all about us us us us us us us and what. And we we get upset the second someone does something the way. We don't like it, and we want it to be done our way, and we want things to be our way, no matter, no matter what it means to anybody else. But then when it comes to this area, we're like, no, no, no, no, I'm not gonna look to my own I'm not going to look to my own weaknesses and my own failures and my own shortcomings. No, in this case, I'll look to everyone else. Humility is where you become more aware of your own shortcomings and your own failures, so that you have a humble opinion of yourself, that you have a deep, deep sense of your own moral littleness. This is what's required to walk worthy, and this is absolutely required to endeavor to maintain unity. Now, let's do a little bit more work on this phrase. Let's do a little bit more work on this So are you ready?

23:45 All right, let's see what we can do here. All right, I've kind of given you the definition of the Greek word. I've given you the definition of the Greek word here, right, okay, which contains the idea of humility of mind. Let's do a little bit more work on this word, right, Let's kind of just go beyond just the Greek here the basic idea. Typically in the Bible, lowliness is often translated as humility, which we've already demonstrated. It refers to a modest view of one's own importance. It is an attitude of the heart that prioritizes others over one self and recognizes one's dependence upon God. So it's a humble opinion of one's self. It's a deep sense of one's own moral littleness. But here's the very thing. It prioritizes others over yourself. It puts others over you. You're not worried about what well, what about me? What about what about them?

24:45 What about their life? Stop worrying about what you want? Stop worrying about what you dec do you not care about anybody else other than yourself? Well, our tendency is to only think about ourselves, because that's our name. And this lowliness you recognize your absolute dependence upon God. You understand you are dependent upon God. Look, you will never be good enough to please God. And of yourself. You realize your own failure, your inability to keep the law which will make you, will keep you becoming self righteous because you'll know that your self righteous is nothing but filthy rags. You won't promote your righteousness, you won't brag about it, you won't point to it. You're gonna when someone says, how do you know you're saved because of the righteousness of Christ imputed to me? You will not point to your own actions because lowliness will say, I'm not gonna point to my actions because I know the deep sense of my own moral littleness. I understand, I have a humble opinion of myself, and I understand my failure.

26:02 That's that's what lowliness is. We must have that if we want to walk worthy, and if there's any hope. Can you imagine a family, a husband and wife that both have lowliness as an attribute. Can you prioritizing the other person over themselves, seeing their own failure, not getting not worried about someone else's failure, worried about their own. Can you imagine if those attributes was in a home. Can you imagine those attributes inside a church. Now, don't worry they see immediately when I say church, you're going to think of all the people in the church who needs this attribute. No, no, no, no, no, no, you don't see you're not worried about other people. You're worried about yourself.

26:56 So I think I think we did a lot of work there in the definition of lowliness. Now, let's look at the biblical context. Ephesion's four to two reads and according to this translation, to have in front of me with all lowliness and meekness, with long suffering, for bearing one another in love. In this context, lowliness in this context is Paul's encouraging believers to live in a manner worthy of their calling. Highlighting lowliness is as essential for maintaining unity and peace with the Body of Christ. See, just as I understood the text, here's a commentary that does the same thing. It's connected to two parts. Walk worthy lowliness is required, and if you're going to endeavor to keep unity, you need lowliness. So that biblical context there right, there's the Paul is encouraging hey, walk worthy and keep unity. What is required lowliness. Now, how do we obtain this lowliness? How do we obtain this lowliness? Well, we recognize God's sovereignty is a good place to start, right.

28:07 We acknowledge that all that one has and is comes from God. This understanding leads to a humble posture before him. We understand God is sovereign. We are not God is all powerful. We are not God is holy, we are not. Oh. We just recognize the supremacy of God. And when we look to the supremacy of God, hopefully we then are overwhelmed with a deep sense of our own smallness, our own weakness, our own littleness. That's the whole concept. See when God says be holy as He is holy, Christians write books about how you can be holy as God is holy. No, the point is, I'm like, well, I will never be as holy as God is. I am broken and humbled. What can I do? I run to Christ and faith in His holiness is imputed in my account.

28:53 I stand before Him holy. But practically I am reminded every day He is holy and I am a sinner. I'm a man of unclean lips, I'm a man of unclean hands, unclean thoughts, unclean desires, and I am broken and humbled by it. If I will maintain a proper understanding of God's sovereignty, I will then find myself in the right position of broken and humbled and lowly. So recognizing God's sovereignty being reminded of it is a step in the right direction. Self examination is also a good thing to do. If you regularly reflect on your own life, your own thoughts, your own actions, and light of God's holiness, it should lead you to recognize your own shortcomings and your need for God's grace. The more you examine yourself, the more you will be like, I'm a piece of trash. Okay, i am a mess. And Christians typically develop an attitude of self righteousness, of arrogance of it's always them, they They're ungodly. Look at them, look at them, them, them, them them them. It's never look at us. We're the problem.

30:16 The Church always wants to blame the world for being so ungodly, but we somehow have it all together. We are just as ungodly, just maybe in a different sins, but we are still just as sinful. It just manifests itself differently because now we we cover up a lot of our sin with our own self righteousness. So if we recognize God's sovereignty, you know, then we look to ourselves. In fact, what should happen? The more we know I'm getting you know what I'm getting Ready to quote, I'm I'm gonna be paraphrasing Calvin's institutes. I've stated it so many times. It's when you truly see God as he is, that you will see yourself as you truly are. The more you look to God's perfection, the more You're perfection will become absolutely clear. Look, if I compare myself to you, I may think I'm pretty good. I may think I'm pretty good. I may think, you know what, well they do this? I didn't they I'm doing. I mean, at least I'm I'm at least equal, if not a little bit better, right, I mean, and I'm well, don't mean to offend you, but I'm saying I can look to other people and always kind of feel like I'm pretty good.

31:25 But the minute I stop looking at people and I look to God, then I realize, WHOA, that's that's pretty bad. See, if I'm sitting in a classroom of students, if I look to the students who who have the worst grades. I'm a I'm pretty good. I'm pretty good, but I have a look to the people who have the perfect grades. Then I'm gonna feel inadequate. Look to God and then you'll see how inadequate you are, which will bring you to lowliness. So recognizing God, sovereignty and self examination will help you slowly begin to obtain some level of lowliness.

32:06 It should. Now, how can we begin to grow in lowliness? How can we begin to grow in lowliness? Well, I think the way we begin to grow in lowliness is to be constantly that we constantly look to our own feelings, our own shortcomings, we are more aware of it, and then we endeavor every day to put others before ourselves. It's not easy to do, ladies and gentlemen, it's not easy to do. We have to just constantly look to God see and we just be constantly aware of our own feelings, and then we just seek to basically serve to put others before us, to put others before us, to think about others, think about their situation, think about their difficulty, think about their pain, think about their suffering.

33:24 It's hard to do that because we are always preoccupied with self we live. Our lives are live not in a lowly way. Our lives are lived as we think. Look, no matter I know. As adults we should figure this out. Teenagers we don't figure this out, but as adults we should. The world doesn't revolve around us. We're not the center of the universe, but we live every day as we react to how things impact us. We respond to how I'm impacted. We respond to how I feel. I respond to how what I want, what I want, what I want, and then I get mad when I don't get what I want, and I get frustrated if things don't go my way. It's me, me, me, me, me, me me.

34:11 There's nothing lowly about that. That is arrogance, that is narcissistic, that's prideful. Lowliness is aware of our own shortcomings. Think of it this way. Lowliness is aware of our own smallness, our own weakness, our own frailty, our own sinfulness. We have a humble opinion of ourselves. So lowliness is very aware of our own shortcomings. But it is very aware. It is more aware of the needs, pain, suffering, and hurt of others than it is of itself. On one hand, lowliness, you're more aware of your own shortcomings, your own failures.

34:59 You're more aware that than you are of others. But then you are more worried. Then you're more aware of other people's paying need and suffering than you are of your own wants and your own needs. That's lowliness, that will, that's what it. See. See, isn't it easier to say walking worthy means don't read Harry Potter? Oh yeah, well, wow, look at me, I don't on you rad at our movies. Woo, I'm walking worthy. No, walking worthy is lowliness now that see, you can't you can just stop doing certain thing. Well, I don't listen to rock and roll. You didn't listen to it before you got saved. So don't act like you're doing anything great now, all right? That those are easy?

35:46 Those are external things. That's what the Pharisees did. They love those external things. They look at us, I tithe, I do this, I do that. And they were not lowly. They were arrogant, self righteous, and conceited and prideful, and they only cared about themselves. Lowliness as mentioned in Ephesians four is a fundamental Christian virtue that involves a humble view of oneself in relation to God and others. It is characterized by a heart of humility that seeks to serve rather than be served. It reflects the attitude of Christ.

36:30 To obtain and grow in loveliness, one must acknowledge God's sovereignty and engage in self examination. Cultivating loneliness is an ongoing process, requiring a conscious effort to live out this attribute daily, always looking to Jesus as the perfect model of humility lowliness. If you want to walk worthy, if you want unity, we need homes filled with individuals who are lowly. If we want unity in churches, we need individuals who are lowly. Now here's the question. There's the million dollar question. Remember there four and chapter four, verse one.

37:30 That's the transitional word that takes us from the philological exposition to the practical exposition. The practical exposition is, hey, guys, I beseech you. I beseech you walk worthy. I look, I'm challenging you. Remember the English word here, endeavor to keep unity. Come on, walk worthy, endeavor to keep unity. Now, how is this going to be done, will you need lowliness? Now? Guess what this lowliness I believe should flow from. Should arise from a correct philological understanding. The theology of chapters one, two, and three are is the key knowledge that should help produce the lowliness. All right, if we were to look at chapters one, two, and three, remember here are some of the truths and the first three chapters that should lead and support the development of lowliness. For example, chapter one of Ephesians understanding of God's sovereign grace. Look at Ephesians Chapter one, Verse three. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing and heavenly places in Christ. You have every spiritual blessing in Christ. But why do you have these? Why do you have all of these blessings?

39:00 How did you obtain them? Verse four? Just as He chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him and love, having predestinated us to the adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise the glory of his grace by which he made us accepted and the beloved. Your salvation is because of God's sovereign will, and he chose you, And it says, where did he choose you before the foundation of the world. Look, your salvation has nothing to do with you. It's because of God's eternal choice before the foundation of the world. That should absolutely make you lowly. Now, for some weird reason, it is many of those who are reformed and are calvinistic, who hold to the sovereignty of God in salvation, who tend to become the most arrogant, condemning, self righteous jerks on the face of the planet. And the sovereignty of God should go should have an opposite effect, It should break you going. Whatever I am is not because of me, It's all because of God. You should be the most lowly of all because you realize your salvation is not because you chose, It is because God chose you. Not

40:33 only that, listen, having predestined us to the adoption. Okay, look at verse seven and him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace, which he made a bound towards us. In all wisdom. We have redemption through his blood. You should have lowliness because someone died to redeem you. You could not redeem yourself. Someone literally had to shed their blood, and that someone was the eternal Son of God, had to shed his blood for you. If that does not break you and humble you, I don't know what can now. You can go through here and find the rest. But then we could jump to this. We all know this verse.

41:18 We quote it all the time, right. We quote it for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that is not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works. Lest anyone should boast. Your salvation has zero to do with what you do. Your salvation is not proven by what you do. Your salvation is proven. Your salvation is obtained. Your salvation is preserved by the works of Christ, which is given is imputed to you by faith alone, not by works that should bring lowliness of mind. I want you to go through today Ephesians one, two and three and find everything that should bring lowliness of mind to pass. We want unity, we need lowliness.

42:14 Do you want to walk worthy? We need lowliness. What is lowliness? Well, it's to see yourself. It's to have a humble opinion of one's self. It is to have a deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep deep sense of one your own moral littleness. It is to put others before you. You are more aware of others. Here's the thing, lowliness. You are painfully aware of your own shortcomings and failures, far more than you are of anyone else's shortcomings or failures. Do you see your husband's failures before you see your own? Do you see other people's failures before your own? Are you worried about their failures?

42:54 Are you worried about your own? You shouldn't even worry about anybody else's failures. You should be so consumed by your own. And then are you more aware and consumed by other people's situations and their needs and their pain and their stuff? Are you just worried about what you want and you getting what you want? No loneliness, no walking worthy, no loneliness, There will be no unity. Now I can honestly say that I have grown. I do feel like I have grown in this area. I do feel like I have some I can honestly say that the majority of my Christian life I didn't have loneliness.

44:00 I had self righteous arrogance. I think over time, becoming more aware of my own failures, my own shortcomings, my own depraved desires and wants, my own depraved needs, all the things inside of me, becoming more and more painfully aware of that. Slowly but surely, you begin to break, and you begin to realize I'm maintaining a facade. I think I was good at cleaning the tomb. I think I was good at washing the outside of the cup.

44:41 I'm still selfish. I still think about myself more than others. I think I am. I do feel like I have a deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep sense of my own moral littleness. I don't think anyone needs to tell me that. I'm very aware of it. Pesians four is great, But if we want to walk worthy and we want the unity that's being spoken of, unity is not just hey, guys, there's one faith, there's one Lord, there's one baptism. Hey, let's just focus on no no no no no no no no that one all of that, one faith, one baptism, and none of that matters. If we don't have the right attributes going into it. There's too many people who walk around it and can say one faith, one Lord, one baptism and say it so, and then we fight for what that who, that one God is, that what that one faith is, what that one baptism is? Wait, but listen, we got to enter into that discussion from the position of first lowliness. Now, there's other attributes there.

45:50 We just looked at lowliness. That's all. We've spent forty five minutes looking at lowliness. The next one is gentleness, but it starts with lowliness. No, here's what I want you to do. I want you to figure out all the things in chapters one, two, and three that should lead you to being lowly in mind, having lowliness. But here's what I want you to do. I want you to think of three things you can do between now and Monday where you can demonstrate you can put into practice the attribute of lowliness in a practical way. What can you do with your kids or your husband? What can you do with people you know? What can you do to show true lowliness? Now, some of the things you can do, like nobody else may be able to see, right, and maybe just like this for the next three days, I'm not going to worry about anybody else's failures, anybody else's shortcomings. I'm not going to criticize anyone else. I'm not going to complain about anyone else. I'm just going to simply remind myself of my own failure and my own moral littleness. I'm not going to gossip. I'm not going to slander. I'm not gonna talk about people. I'm not gonna condemn people. I'm gonna keep my self righteous, arrogant opinions to myself. That's a good place to start. Two, I'm gonna try to focus on other people's needs and not my own. Three. When things don't go my way, I'm not gonna immediately react and get upset and be petty and act like a kid. Now it's easy for

47:28 me to tell you to do those things. I'm probably gonna walk away from this going, well, all right, who's going to serve me today? Who's going to take care of me today? That's what I'm gonna leave here, going, come on, now, come on, I've got wants and needs. Who's gonna care about me? All right? It's easy to feel that that's where you fall into some self pity now lowliness. Also, we do need to acknowledge lowliness being becoming aware of your own shortcomings and your own ken You've got to make sure we maintain a right balance there, because you can also become so discouraged and depressed and almost hate yourself. We do have to maintain a right perspective here. Remember, no matter how lowly I am, see this is the way it's work. The more aware I am of my shortcomings and my moral failures, the more I am broken over my lowliness. I don't make my identity. Listen, my identity does not come from my lowliness. My lowliness drives me to Christ, and my identity is found and what I am in Christ Jesus. But I am to be reminded that what I am in Christ Jesus is true positionally, It's not true practically. See when I tell people I'm a new creature in Christ, the oldest gone, and all is new, I know that has nothing to do with my practical life, because I know that's not true.

48:45 I know that that's true positionally. So I am broken and almost depressed with lowliness of mind. But I run to Christ and find out what I am positionally, That's where I find my comfort. That's where I find hope, not in what I am, but what I am in my position, not what I am practically. Lowliness should drive you deeper to find that peace and comfort in Christ, not to try to pretend to be something that we're not practically, because that doesn't who are we. Foolly doesn't require more fig leaves, more robes of self righteousness, requires just being what I am practically is a mess. What I am positionally I find peace and comfort in. But your positional reality should not lead you to become arrogant.

49:40 It should maintain your lowliness because you realize you only have that positional reality because of what Christ has done, not because of what you do or even what you are. All right, forty nine minutes. I hope that all made sense. I think the I think I could have outlined it a little better. Kind of I went straight to the Greek word. What I should have said is, hey, let's start with the definition, and now let's begin with the great. I kind of I said, let's go to the Greek word. Then I said, let's define it. I kind of already define, so I kind of messed up my outline a little bit. I do apologize. So if I if I out if I outlined it this way, if I outlined it a correct way, what I should have done is like, here's the definition of lowliness. Then we go to the Greek word.

50:30 Then we look at the biblical context. I did that. Then we look at how to obtain it, which we did, how to grow in it, which we did, and then how does it relate to Ephesians Chapters one, two, and three. That was kind of the outline I was going with, but I jumped the gun and went directly to the Greek word instead of saying, okay, number one, let's define it first by going to the Greek word. I apologize there for messing that up. All right. I feel like I need to say something profound here, but I don't have anything profound to say. So I've given you a lot to think about. Convicting stuff is all I know. Man, Just I don't know. I can't imagine what life would be with a bunch of people who truly have this attribute of lowliness. What would a church look like, what would a family look like? What would it really look like?

51:30 What would it sound like now. The reality is will never probably ever truly experience it. All we can do is pursue it. Thank goodness, we have everything is taken care of care, Everything is taken care for us by Christ because man. But we can still strive, all right. You can email me news yahoo dot com. That's news f yahoo dot com NEWSI F the yahoo dot com. Thank you for listening. God bless h