Ephesians 4:1-6 | When Your Faith and Your Life Don’t Match

I praise God. We are in ephesians, chapter number four. Let's read a few verses of Ephesians 4 together. It says, as a prisoner for the Lord, then I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling that you have received. Be completely humble and gentle. Be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. Oh, Amen. That's so powerful, isn't it? That is so powerful. And we started last week on verse number one, where Paul is saying that he was urging them, pleading with them even to walk a walk or to live a life is the way the NIV puts it. To live a life, to walk the walk that is worthy of the calling that you have received. We're just going to touch on that. We were there last week. We're just going to tease it out a little bit more. That word worthy is a word that in Greek is meaning to bring the scales up into balance, to have equilibrium. Because, you know, some Christians, some of us are wobbly. We are imbalanced because we have our belief in Jesus, we have our faith, we have our Bible, we have our church attendance. But the other side of those scales, that is about walking the walk, not just talking, the talk is out of balance. And so when Paul is saying, live a life or walk a walk that is worthy, he's saying, let there be equilibrium. Let there be some consistency between the faith that you profess and the life that you live. So he says, worthy, but then he says, worthy of the call that you have received or the calling that you have received. And you may remember that last time we were together, we said, although it is true that people that come to Jesus are saved, the Bible says that to be safe from sin, to be saved from all the consequences of it, as well to be saved from this generation. It sometimes says it that way. Saved out of darkness into light. It certainly talks about being saved, but far more than being saved, the New Testament talks about being called. And so Paul talks about this calling. Each and every one of us is called. We cannot, and you know, we cannot be a people that are that that are saved if we are not called. Those two things go together. We were in a burning house, and we have been saved and called out of the burning house and into something entirely new, a new way of living a new way of thinking. Thinking a new way of acting, a new way of relating to God, a new way of relating to people, a new way of relating to ourselves. We have been called, and I want to. Although we shared a little bit last week, before we get into the rest of this, I really want to drive that home with each one of us, that if you are a believer in Jesus, if you are a Christian, you are someone who has been called. You haven't just been saved, you haven't just been given a ticket to heaven, but you are someone who has been called out of an old way of thinking and being and living into an entirely new way of thinking and seeing the world around you and seeing yourself in the mirror and seeing. Seeing people around you. A whole new way of seeing everything and a whole new way of living. My question to you before we go any further is, are you conscious that you were once in darkness and now you're in light? That you used to think a certain way and now you think differently because you met Jesus? You used to live a certain way and now you live differently because you've met with Jesus? Are you aware of a calling, something which not just said, you know, oh, don't worry about all of the things you are doing. Don't worry. Though you are lying, I forgive you. Though you are stealing, I forgive you. Though you are lustful or whatever it was, I forgive you. Are you aware of something more than forgiveness? Are you aware of a supernatural calling where you met with Jesus and you felt yourself being called out of an old way of living and into a new way of living? Or did you just feel like God just put a seal of forgiveness on your behavior and now you just keep repeating the. The cycle. In some faiths, people will be in the habit of going into a confessional box and confessing their sins once a week or once a month, or if they're not so serious, every few years, and they'll go in there and they'll say, forgive me for I have sinned, and then they will repeat the pattern over the next week. It's like you have to build up an audit of things that you have done and then you take them and you just like we go out and we put the rubbish out, that kind of thing. But no, that's not what salvation is. That's not what Paul is talking about. What Paul is talking about is something radical that has happened in the life of a person, even if you were five years old. Something radical that has happened in the life of a person that he met somebody and that somebody was Jesus. And everything changed. Because whenever you read about people meeting with Jesus in the New Testament, something happens. Either they turn into his biggest enemy or they turn into his biggest follower. But people never remain the same again. Something has to happen. Think of Isaiah. That's the classic one. When he met with God in that sanctuary. Think of Peter when he met with Jesus. Think of Zacchaeus. Think of so many. They met with Jesus and they weren't. Oh, thank you very much. I can just go on living however I like. And you've just given me that forgiveness, you know, it's like that. It's like you've got a trump card. What is a trump card? A trump card is when you're in the World cup and you get a red card, you know, and then you have a trump to come along and cancel that red card. No, that's not what. That's not. That's not what salvation is. That's not what salvation is. Salvation is. Is a calling out of a way of living. So the world lives a certain way. The world lives a certain way. The world is the way it is. Because en masse, humanity has a certain nature. The Bible calls it a sinful nature. And they are living out of that. But something has happened to those of us that are saved. And we are called that. Are you conscious of that calling on your life? Are you conscious that you were somewhere and now you're somewhere else? It's a calling. And a calling tells you that you're coming out of certain things. But a calling also tells you why you. You are here, why I am here, what we are about. Hallelujah. I know when living in African culture for so many years, I know that when mom or dad calls you come, Hallelujah. And how many times do you get? You get three times, right? How many times did I call you? Three times. Hallelujah. But you know, you know, you used to be playing on Xbox and now you are doing the washing up. You used to be reading your magazine or browsing on the Internet, but now you are doing your chores. You have been called out. When God calls you, he calls you out into. Not just out, but in. Into something, into a whole new way of living. There's something about your living that has direction. It has direction. And he says, live a life that is equal to the calling that you have received. Are you living a life that is equal to. To the calling that you have received? Let's look at this, because Paul unpacks this and he Gives us a picture of exactly what a worthy walk looks like. What it looks like when somebody. When the whole church. Actually, that was his concern. When the whole church walks worthy of the calling that to which it has been called. He's going to start here by talking about some of the characteristics, some of the character traits of someone when they're walking worthy. And as we go through Ephesians, he's going to zoom in on different areas of family life, of church life, of relationships, of all kinds of different. Different relationships. And we're going to be able to apply that. But right now, today, he begins to talk about some of the attitudes that somebody has when they're walking a life that is worthy of their calling. And let me tell you, spoiler alert, they're all pretty much impossible. That's why I want you to stay with me because we're going to get to the solution. We're going to get to the mechanism. But I want you to realize some of the things you're going to hear are just honestly difficult. They're just difficult if we were to do it on a human level. But stay with me because Paul has something to say. So he begins with the easy one, and he says, be completely humble. I love that. Truly, I love that. Be completely humble. And if he'd have said be humble, we might have thought to ourselves, I think I can. With a bit of effort, I can be there, you know. But of course, the moment you declare that you are humble, you've lost. Be completely humble. Wow. You see how hard that is. But Paul's not just being. Paul's also being very counterintuitive. Because in those days, in the ancient world, and as many power cultures like this around today as well in the ancient world, that word was always a negative. Always. It was a horrible thing to be humble. It was kind of to be weak and servile to be humble. And I have to say that there are cultures today that I would call power cultures, and even today in the Western culture, more and more. Humble is not a word that people want to live by. I was once in a meeting where it followed on from an election. There'd been a lot of election violence and houses had been burned and people had been killed, and we just about escaped ourselves in a car. It was after a certain president had been elected in a very interesting and corrupt manner, and we had to flee in our car. And as soon as it happens, the person driving us couldn't figure out which was the clutch and which was the accelerator and which was the Brake. It was quite a thing to escape. But I remember I had to deal with one particular Christian man who had taken a day off from his religion to stand up and declare that people from a certain tribe ought to be killed or burned or something of that sort. And I never forget what he said to me. He said, my pride will not allow me to apologize. Isn't that quite something for somebody to say that my pride will not allow me to apologize? You see, it's possible in some quarters, in some places that you can be proud of your pride. I know no one in this room, no one in this room filled with Jesus as you are, would be guilty of such a thing. But even if we are not guilty of. Of Nebuchadnezzar level pride, as some are, even if we are not quite at the level of Nebuchadnezzar, some of us are trying. But humility. See, humility is. It's actually, it's not because we think of humility as something, you know, we can. I'm ever so humble, you know, and somebody will ask you, they'll say, I remember the story of one individual who did a beautiful worship set. And someone said, you know, my brother, that worship was. That was just amazing. And he said, no, no, no, it was all God. And they said, it wasn't that good. It wasn't that good. You see, that's a false humility. When someone says to me, that was an amazing sermon, you know what I say? I say, thank you all. Glory to God. But I never say it was all God. Because, see, there was that joke I made that didn't quite hit. There was that thing that my wife will speak to me about on Wednesday when she notices something that I said and she's like, no, no, I just. Because that's what wives are there for, right? Some of you are looking at me like something. That's what wives are there for. To speak to you. Not on Sunday, you see, because Sunday, I'm tired. But. But on Wednesday, Pastor, you know, it was a great sermon, but there was one thing you said. I want you to think about this. So I can never say it was all God. I can say, thank you. I can take the compliment. But equally, I can't, you know, because that. It's all God. It's just a way of looking humble. But how many times have you said to people, oh, no, how many times? It's all God. And inside you're thinking, yeah, I did that. It's just. It's not real. It's not humility. Humility is having an honest and accurate assessment of yourself. That's what humility is, is. It's when I can say, yeah, I think I'm a good preacher. I do. I can look in the mirror and I can say, I'm a good preacher. I can also look in the mirror and say, goodness, sometimes I drop that ball. Sometimes I say things and I get it wrong. I read the room wrong. Sometimes I need to study more. Sometimes I need to learn, to grow. And it will be the same for each one of us that if we have humility, it's looking in the mirror and having an honest and accurate assessment of ourself. And we'll tell you where to find that mirror in just a while. Humility. Complete humility. I think he says that just in case there's someone foolish enough to think they have a reasonable portion of humility. So he says, complete all humility. So that every single one of us can say, surely I'm not there yet. I'm not there yet. Maybe Paul was there, but I'm not there. He says, be completely humble and gentle and gentle. You know, humility and gentleness go together. It's a word that in the Greek they would use of a kind king or a lenient judge or a sage facing insults. It's not a weak word. You know, sometimes when we think of gentle, we say, oh, they're very gentle. And what we mean is they have no backbone, Right? It's not that it's a kind king or a lenient. It is power, restrained. Gentleness. You see, Jesus, I think he showed gentleness on the cross when they said, come down from there. Hallelujah. I'd have gone Arnold Schwarzenegger in that very moment if it was me. Oh, come down. Okay, let me show you. I'd have come down. So what do you say? What are you talking about? You said, come down. What, now I'm down. But no Jesus could have done that. He really could. He could have said, this whole project is over. But he withheld. He was gentle with them. He said, father, forgive them. They know not what they do. Never confuse gentleness with weakness. Never confuse gentleness. It's a fruit of your salvation. And the next one that we read about is patience. Now, none of us struggle with patience, right? Hallelujah. You know, I've never been tempted to stand here. Lose it. See, there's something that happens when you preach. You come to a verse, you come to a verse, and then you're. What was that song? And you and you and you. You're gonna love me. It's like you get to a verse and you're like, and you, and you and you and you. You're gonna find me. Sometimes you just. Oh, that restraint is needed. Sometimes you just struggle. Anyone struggle in the car. Oh, my goodness. In the car. Because you're in that bubble. You're in that bubble. You think no one's seeing you, no one's hearing you, but you're freaking out. I have something to control road rage, and it's this. There's something that can happen to a pastor. You have a moment with somebody, a moment of man to man communication between one driver and another. And then on Sunday morning, you are welcoming the new faces. And who do you see? That is why I will never have Christian stickers on my car. Patience. But patience is also, if you know who knows the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians, chapter two. Peace, Patience, Patience. Kindness, gentleness, Love, Joy. Peace. Patient, kindness, Goodness, gentleness. Self control. Long suffering. That's an old King James 1 right there. Long suffering. Hallelujah. Long suffering. We sometimes say that, don't we? We say, brother so and so, and his long suffering wife, Patience. But don't forget where we are. Paul is saying, this is what a Christian actually looks like when they are walking a walk that is worthy of the calling to which they are called. Why are we laughing right now? We're laughing right now because each and every one of us knows that we're falling short. Anyone not falling short, please lift your hand because there's more to come. I've got one for you. We all know that we fall short. And Paul is saying, when you get to the place where you are walking worthy, this is what it's going to look like. Patience. Bearing with one another in love. Hallelujah. Actually, it's not pronounced bearing with one another in love. It's pronounced bearing with one another in love. Who knows that your fellow Christians are not always easy to love? Hallelujah. And if you got the first one right, that's humility. You'll also say, I'm not always easy to love either. It's not easy for us to get along. It's not easy for us. Sometimes people do things and we are flabbergasted. We don't understand why they behave the way they do. But patience, long suffering, as Alan said, and bearing, bearing with one another. Jesus talked about that when he said to his disciples, how long will I bear with you? How long will I bear with you? Have you ever said that? How long Will I bear with that, brother? How long will I bear with that, sister? Every time I see them when that. You, You've just been through a week where you know everyone has died, you've lost your job, you've been arrested for something you didn't do, your house has collapsed. And then when someone comes to you and says they're really suffering and they tell you their story and you. And they ask you to pray for them and you're like, how long will I bear with you because you can't find the, the food you want or some, some trivial thing that, that you're annoyed about. They've, they've cancelled the program you were watching or. I don't know, people come with the most trivial reasons for suffering. And then you're like, you don't know my story. You don't know my, my story. We have what we call many, many of us here. Many of you here are migrants and you've probably come to know since you've been here something that we like to call first world problems. First world problems. Pray for me. And then you're like, let me just bear with you and pray for you in your problem because you know, we have to bear with one another. It's not easy, but Paul says, this is what it looks like when we walk worthy of that calling which we have received. The calling. I like the way the ESV puts it. It doesn't say that you have received, it says the calling to which you have been called. I think that brings it out more. The calling to which you have been called. Be patient, bearing with one another in love. I love. You know, we don't think about that word too often. Agape. Agape. Some people say agape, but it's pronounced agape. Agape is a word that the Christians used. And what happened was agape was a word for love in Greek, but no one ever used it. They had words like phileo and like different words that they actually had four different words, words for love. But the word agape was never used really. It was one of those, you probably know some words, that's how we know when someone's used AI, because AI uses all these words, these obscure words that we never use. But it was a word no one ever used. And they thought, right, we'll have that one. And they chose it because it's a self sufficient, sacrificing love like no other. It's the love of God. It's the only kind of love that you cannot generate from within yourself. There's all kinds of love, friendship. There's that, romantic love. There's all those things there. But agape is the only kind of love that. That a man or a woman cannot generate by themselves. And that is the love that makes us to bear with one another, to be patient with one another. And then he says, make every effort. Every effort. Says in the esv, you'll notice I preach from the NIV because it's an easier translation, but I normally read the esv and the ESV says, eager. There's an urgency to this. An urgency to this. When Paul says, be eager or make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace. And I want to talk to you about this unity for a minute, this unity of the spirit. There is something that is supposed to tie us together. There is something that is supposed to hold us together in unity. And the problem is, when people talk about unity so often, what they actually mean is, we're not fighting. There is unity where together we've managed to be in one room without fighting. And you see this in church. If you go to a church in any place where there are different groups of people. And we have different groups of people here, right? We have English, few of us, anyway. We have Nigerians, we have Ghanaians, we have Filipinos, we have Botswana, we have. Can I end the list there and not offend anyone? We have a lot of different groups of people. We know that we have unity when they're not in little groups all the time. That doesn't mean you can't sit with your countrymen. Don't get me wrong. But when you begin to see. I was talking with someone about this the other day. I think it was Victor. We were talking about how we know there is unity when there begins to be that crossover, when there begins to be that intermingling, when people are finding the love of. Of God for one another. It's not just, you know, you eat what I eat and you wear what I wear. So I feel a connection with you, but I have a connection with you because of Christ. There is a deep unity that we have. There is something that pulls us together. That kind of unity is the unity that Paul is talking about. And he says it's in the bond of peace. And that word for bonds was a word that they used for all kinds of things. They used it for the sinews of the body, the sinews that hold everything together. They used it for the ropes that they tied around the ship to hold a ship together. It's that something that holds us together, that we are more than just a group of people who congregate, but we are a group of people that are bound together. Unity, he said, be eager. Not just unity would be a fine idea. Not, shall we just stop fighting and agree to disagree and then we can sing our songs and go home and. No, but a unity, something that pulls us together as a body and makes us one people. Jesus said, you read it in the Book of John, that the world will know. The world will know when you love one another. And he prayed that prayer. He said, father, let them be one as you and I are, are one. Not let them be one sort of. In a vague kind of way. Not let them be one. In the way that we just kind of get together for pizza or something like that, or because there's a match on. People find themselves in the pub watching the same match. You'd think they're all together, right? Just because they're going England, England, England. Yeah. But, you know, they have no problem with migration at that point. As they look at the makeup of the team, there's a kind of strange unity that happens at that point. But this is more than that. This is something, this is unique bond that is supposed to exist. And isn't it a challenge when we think about that and we look at the ties that we actually have to one another? If you look around the room, what are your ties? What are your ties to the other people in this room? What are your connections to the other people in this room? And I don't say that to condemn. I say that for us to think and say, do I know anything of this unity? But Paul says, when we start walking worthy of the calling that we have, not as individuals, but as a body, when we start walking worthy, we'll be eager to pursue the bond of peace so that we might have a Holy Spirit kind of unity. Making every effort, eager to keep the unity of the Spirit. And there's the thing, by the way. It's the. The unity of the Spirit. It's not the unity of a great idea. It's not the unity of a talented band or talented singers. It's not the unity of having the biggest building. It's not the unity of being the best church in town, though we are. No, I'm just kidding. There's lots of good churches out there. It's not just that kind of unity. It's. It's a different kind of unity. It's a unity of the body, of the spirit, when we truly have the spirit. You see, sometimes People claim to have the Spirit because of power. Isn't it interesting that Paul talked about the power of the Spirit? Sure, at times, but he talks about the unity of the Spirit. There are so many people who claim to have the power of the Spirit, but there is no eagerness for unity. There is no eagerness to make connection. What spirit do they really have? That's the question. Eager to keep or the ESV says, maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. And that's where we switch up to the next thing. Because every one of those items, every one of those items that signifies a worthy walk, we fall short, isn't it? Every single one of them, we fall short. What do we say about that? How do we get to walk a walk that is worthy? How do we, as a church walk worthy of the amazing calling that God has placed upon our lives? How do we do that? And he says this. This is the first clue. He doesn't say eager to create the unity of the Spirit in the bond. He doesn't say create. He says, maintain something that you maintain is something that you already have. I was looking. I have two cars. I have the new one and I have the old one. And I was looking at the old one the other day, and it is showing signs that it is no longer maintained as it once was. And I have to decide what to do about it. Something that is maintained is something you already have. So what is Paul saying? He's saying you already have all this, but it needs to be maintained. He's not asking you to create it. He's not asking you to create this heart attitude. He's not asking you to create this humility. He's not asking you to create this unity. He's asking you to maintain a peace and a unity and a calling that you already have. What does he mean? Paul said this to the Corinthians. There are some things in the Bible that are not easy to understand. They are somehow paradoxical. When the Corinthians were misbehaving, as they occasionally did, regularly did, Paul wrote to them and he didn't say, change who you are. He said, this is not who you are. They already had the Holy Spirit. They already had the new man. They already had the reality that they are a new creation. They already had all of that. And he says here, maintain it. Why? Because as we get to verse four, he gives us the foundation on which we live out this worthiness, this unity, this peace as a church. He says, there is one body that's us. And One Spirit. Just as you were called to one hope when you were called one Lord, one faith, one baptism. What's he saying through all of those ones? He's saying at the centre of it all is Christ, At the center of it all is Jesus Christ. That's where it comes from. I've used the illustration with you before. Like the spokes of a wheel that the closer we get to Jesus, the closer we get to each other. Just as the spokes of the wheel get closer to the hub, closer to the center, they also come closer together. At the center of it all, there is one Lord. And from that one Lord, we have one faith, one hope, one baptism, one God and Father of all. That's where we get it from. And I want to ask you today, is your life built upon this? Because it's when you have that one Lord. And we know when someone has a Lord, don't we? You see, Jesus is Savior and Lord, right? Jesus is Savior and Lord. So you will see whether he's my Lord. By the way that my life is lived. It means either my eyes are focused on him or they're focused somewhere else. But as long as my eyes are focused on Him, I'm going to begin to see a change. I'm going to begin to walk a walk that is worthy as long as the church is focused on Jesus. I was watching a video the other day, I. Of someone being baptized with a water slide or some crazy thing like that. Have you seen some of the theatrics that are happening in some places where I can't even describe. I saw one the other day that I can't even describe what I saw. It was crazy. Some of these theatrics that. That are happening in the churches, but when a church is focused on one Lord, one faith, one hope, one baptism, then things begin to change. Then there is a walk that is worthy of the calling. Because God has not just placed a calling on you, he has placed a calling on us. Church. My wife was talking about this this morning. There is a calling on us. It's for each and every one of us to serve. Not just serve. Pastor Sean, Pastor Joyce, whoever. It's to serve Christ together. Together as one body. And I've been thinking a lot. I want to. I want to read you a scripture real quick. Is that okay? I just want to go to. I just want to go to 1 Corinthians. Can we do that? I just want to read you something that really spoke to me the other day. It's 1 Corinthians 11 and sometimes we misunderstand this. They usually read this passage during communion to scare you. You know, they say, everyone take the cup and the bread. And if you take the cup and the bread in an unworthy manner, you shall be smitten of the Lord. And you hesitate with that cup. And you think, okay, what have I done this week? Am I right with God? If I drink this, will I perish immediately? And we think it's that, but it's not. Let me show you what I mean. 11:2. He says, I praise you for remembering me in everything and for holding to the tradition just as I passed on to you. But I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ. Actually, let's go to verse 17. It says in the following directives, I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you. And to some extent I believe it. No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God's approval. So then when you come together, it is not the Lord's supper you eat. For when you are eating, some of you go ahead with your own private suppers. They used to eat a full meal. And the rich people would come and have a banquet in the corner, and the poor people would eat dust in the other corner. That's how they were behaving. He says, for when you're. As a result, one person remains hungry and another one gets drunk. Don't you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God by humiliating those who have nothing? And then he goes on to talk about the Lord's Supper. And we all know the part, don't we, when he says, if anyone eats and drinks the cup in an unworthy manner, he eats and drinks judgment on himself. And he talks about not recognizing the body of. Of Christ. And we think he means that bread. He doesn't mean that bread. He means those people, that you're not recognizing that part of the body. When you're eating your lobster thermidor and they're eating rocks over there, you're not recognizing the body. And here's what really spoke to me. Many of us today recognize Jesus Christ, but we don't recognize the body. That's what Pastor Joyce was talking about this morning. We don't see the connection with the body. Come to church and collect the blessing and take it home. Like those people who went out to collect the manna. They came out of their tent, they got the manna, and they went back with their manna to their family. We're like that. We come and we get the blessing, and we go home, and then we have our prayer closet at home, and we do our business with God at home, and we receive our blessings from God. And if we come to church, for some people, you know, coming to church, I've seen this many times, is sometimes people come to church to show their blessing. Yeah, we are like, you know, the designers that do the fashion shows, you know, they do their design and then they. They come and they. They have a public meeting. Sometimes people do that. They go and they pray and they get their blessing and, you know, and then they go, what do I do with all this blessing? Oh, yeah, I go to church and I show it. But. But that's not what church is for. Church is where it is at. We are a body, and we are supposed to not just be connected to Jesus, but connected to each other in some powerful way, serving one another, serving the calling and the mission and the purpose of the church. That's why I get so tired of people saying, I don't need church to be a Christian. Listen, you don't need church to be a Christian. But, you know, it's like saying, I don't need children to be a dad. I don't need a wife to be a husband. It's an oxymoron. You can't talk about it like that. A church is a group of people who have been called out together to be one body under one Lord, with one baptism, with one faith, with one purpose. So my question this morning, and it's a challenging one, is, have you acknowledged Jesus but failed to recognize the body? Are you a private Christian, or are you a body of Christ Christian? Paul talked about the consequences of not recognizing the body. He said that they were not recognizing their brothers and sisters. And so when they drank the cup, they were eating and. And drinking judgment on themselves. One God and Father of all, who is overall through all and in all we come under one father. Some of you will know that one of the greetings that you sometimes hear, you don't hear it here in England. It'd be a very unusual greeting here in England. But sometimes people will say, this is my brother, my sister. We are all the children of one mother. We are all the children of one father. We are one in Christ. We are joined together and we need to be eager. He says, when you walk worthy, you pursue that you unity. Hallelujah. Let Me, leave this thought in your head, which I said just a moment ago. I know you've recognized Jesus. Have you recognized the body? Hallelujah. And with that, let's stop. And I want to pray for you. Let's stand up on our feet. And if you're watching at home, I want to encourage you. You know, if you don't have a church right now, you know, it's good to be part of a Christian community. It's good to be part of that one body. You're so welcome to join us on a Sunday morning here in the heart of Colchester. But let me just pray for those in the room and those online that we will know what it is to be a people that are connected to Christ. And because we're connected to Christ, we're also connected to one another. Father, in Jesus name, we thank you for the unity that can only come from you. We thank you, Lord, that you didn't bring unity just by giving us a rallying cry. You didn't give us unity just by giving us a powerful speech, but you gave us unity by hanging on a cross, by giving your life. And we are all united together because of that cross, because of what you were willing to pay for. Lord, there was no one so eager as you to see unity, to see people united under one God. You were willing to pay for it with blood. And Father, we pray today that, Lord, you were put into our hearts as we look to you. That, Father, you were put into our hearts. A measure of that eagerness to see your body unified, to see one people in your spirit, under your headship, for your glory. Father, in Jesus name, Lord, will you bind us together? Lord, will you take us from being just a group of people that sit in a room, that sing in a room, that gather in a room and make us a people that are joined together powerfully, a united people, a people that are looking out for one another. Prayer, praying for one another, concerned for one another, caring for one another, and ready to walk together, to have fellowship together, to minister together, to pursue the plan and the purpose of God together. Father, only you can make us one. Help us, Father, put that eagerness in our heart. We pray by your Holy Spirit. Spirit, in Jesus name, and we all say amen.