Live A Life Worthy Ephesians 4:1-3 Ephesians 4:17-19 Ephesians 4:22-32 Ephesians 5:8-10 Colossians 3:23-25 Colossians 1:9-14 Ephesians 5:15-17 Ephesians 2:9-10 09.09.20

 

LIVE A LIFE WORTHY

BREAD

¹ As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. ² Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. ³ Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.  Ephesians 4:1-3 (NIV)

 

¹⁷ So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. ¹⁸ They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. ¹⁹ Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.  Ephesians 4:17-19 (NIV)

 

²² You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; ²³ to be made new in the attitude of your minds; ²⁴ and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. ²⁵ Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. ²⁶ “In your anger do not sin” : Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, ²⁷ and do not give the devil a foothold. ²⁸ He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need. ²⁹ Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. ³⁰ And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. ³¹ Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. ³² Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Ephesians 4:22-32 (NIV)

 

⁸ For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light ⁹ (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) ¹⁰ and find out what pleases the Lord.  Ephesians 5:8-10 (NIV)

 

²³ Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, ²⁴ since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. ²⁵ Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for his wrong, and there is no favoritism. Colossians 3:23-25 (NIV)

 

⁹ For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. ¹⁰ And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, ¹¹ being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully ¹² giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. ¹³ For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, ¹⁴ in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.  Colossians 1:9-14 (NIV)

 

¹⁵ Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise, ¹⁶ making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. ¹⁷ Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. Ephesians 5:15-17 (NIV)

 

¹⁰ For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.  Ephesians 2:9-10 (NIV)

 

BUTTER

“That is a very cheap sort of virtue; bullying other people’s vices. The easiest thing in all the world is to be constantly denouncing popular faults; but to wring the neck of one of my own bosom sins is a harder work by far, and a much better sign of conversion. To be earnest against the sin of others may be praiseworthy, but it is no sign of grace in the heart; for natural men have been some of the greatest leaders in this matter. To loathe my own sin, to humble myself on account of my own personal faults, and to endeavour in the sight of God to renounce every false way, is a work of something more than human nature.”   Charles H. Spurgeon

“Our world is hungry for genuinely changed people.  Leo Tolstoy observes, ‘Everybody thinks of changing humanity and nobody thinks of changing himself.’  Let us be among those who believe that the inner transformation of our lives is a goal worthy of our best effort.”   Richard J. Foster

“Part of the whole process of walking worthy of God’s call is the active engagement of our will in resolving to do righteousness.”  John Piper

“God is God, and since He is God, He is worthy of my worship and my service.  I will find rest nowhere else but in His will, and that will is necessarily infinitely, immeasurably, unspeakably beyond my largest notions of what He is up to.”   Elisabeth Elliot

 

“How strange the world is!  It speaks evil of men because they will not do evil.  Yet it has always been so.  Those of whom the ‘world was not worthy’ mentioned in Hebrews 11 Hall of Fame, have been the people of whom the worldly have said, ‘He should not be allowed to live’.  The world’s verdict concerning Christians is of little value.”  C. H. Spurgeon

 

“There is a difference between brokenness over one’s sin and living in shame for the rest of our days.  A broken and contrite heart the Lord will never despise.  This means one agrees with the Lord that the sin was wrong and desires not to continue on in it.  It is a turning from it into the ways of the Lord through His power, for His glory, for our good.  This leads to peace with God which passes all understanding not continued shame over the transgression.  Guilt is Satan’s trademark and often keeps the forgiven believer paralyzed in their walk with the Lord believing themselves to be unworthy to be used in kingdom work or even approach the throne of grace through prayer.  If Satan can’t keep us from being saved, he desires to keep us from being used and from feeling the comfort of God’s love and forgiveness.  Believers are accepted in the Beloved.”   BHY

 

“Cheered by the presence of God, I will do at each moment, without anxiety, according to the strength which He shall give me, the work that His Providence assigns me.  I will leave the rest without concern; it is not my affair.  I ought to consider the duty to which I am called each day, as the work that God has given me to do, and to apply myself to it in a manner worthy of His glory, that is to say, in exactness and peace.”  Fenelon

“If you would grow into the beauty of the Master, you must accept the conflicts, and fight the battles. You can live easy if you will, by declining every struggle — but you will then get little out of life which is truly noble and worthy. The best things all come after the battle — you must fight your way across the field to get them. Heaven is only for those who overcome. No one gets the crown — without the conflict!”   J R Miller

“Oh that God would give every mother a vision of the glory and splendor of the work that is given to her when a babe is place in her bosom to be nursed and trained! Could she have but one glimpse in to the future of that life as it reaches on into eternity; could she look into it’s soul to see its possibilities; could she be made to understand her own personal responsibility for the training of this child, for the development of its life, and for its destiny,--she would see that in all God's world there is no other work so noble and so worthy of her best powers, and she would commit to no others hands the sacred and holy trust given to her.”  JR Miller

“When it’s hard to hold on, no one holds on to what is cool. They hold on to Christ. When it’s hard to hold on, no one holds on to what is hip. They hold on to Him who is holy and healing.  When it’s hard to hold on, we don’t hold on to what’s trendy. We hold on to the True Vine. We don’t hold on to the prevailing and the popular, we hold on to the Prince of Peace, the true Perfecter of our Faith.  We only rise because of the Gospel — the astonishing news that grace has grabbed the unworthy, and Christ cleans the unbearable, and God redeems the unlikely, and we live the unexpected.”   Ken Shigematsu

“Before we speak we should put our words through the sieve of:  Is it true?  Is it noble?  Is it right?  Is it pure?  Is it lovely?   Is it admirable?  Is it excellent?  Is it praiseworthy?  Is it necessary????”  BHY   

“The invitation to enjoy God is not icing. It is the cake of Christianity. If he is not enjoyed in real measure, then he is not truly believed, trusted, feared, obeyed, or worshiped. God is not seeking disinterested praise, but “worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24). He isn’t enlisting dutiful soldiers, but those who will serve with gladness (Psalms 100:2). He is the kind of God, so rich and full, so free and secure, that he will not settle for human compulsion and going through the external motions. He calls, and effects, the willing and eager. He wants, and is worthy, to capture the heart. The trust he wins is not disinterested faith (as if that were really possible), but the kind of faith that enjoys him (2 Corinthians 1:24; Philippians 1:25; Hebrews 11:6).”  David Mathis

 

“Strengthen me Lord according to Your glorious might.  Give me great endurance and patience and joy so that I may walk in a manner worthy of the Gospel.  May I please You in all that I say and do.  You alone are faithful to keep me from falling and to equip me for this so great an endeavor.  May I, through Your great power, leave the aroma of sweet Jesus in my every encounter that I may change my sphere by bringing Your Presence to every circumstance You present me with today.  Always for your glory alone and my good.”  BHY 

HEART SAVOR

• ·         Believers are called to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord.
• ·         It is He that we are to please – not the world.  We live our lives for an audience of One.
• ·         If you are a child of the King, walk as one.