God has created each person differently. We all have different abilities, gifts, strengths, weaknesses and all these God given traits are directed given to accomplish God's will for our lives.

           Paul writing this Epistle to the early churches urges the believers to walk worthy of their vocation.

I. Walk worthy of your Vocation. Eph.. 4:1-6

A. Paul begins this part of his discourse to the Ephesians and the other churches in which this Epistle was to be distributed by a strong appeal. His appeal is to "beseech" them. The word means to "call near." It is like someone who has something special and important to say to you and leans over and in a compelling voice urges you to listen to what he has to say.

B. He strongly and with compassion and with the conviction and experience of one who knows....compels them to "walk worthy of your vocation."

           To walk, means to be intensely occupied with something. It is defined as "deporting oneself." To deport oneself means to "BEHAVE, act, perform, conduct oneself, acquit oneself; bear oneself, carry oneself, hold oneself; rare comport oneself." (iFinder Dictionary 2.1)

           To walk worthy refers to living a godly life. It involves accomplishing God will.

           The word "vocation" refer to one's calling. As a believer in Jesus Christ and one who professed to be His child we should live like God's child.

ILLUS: A good illustration came be found in what happened when the company founded by Andrew Carnegie was taken over by the U.S. Steel Corporation in 1901 and it acquired as one of its obligations a contract to pay the top Carnegie executive, Charles M. Schwab, the then unheard of minimum sum of $1,000,000. J.P. Morgan of U.S. Steel was in a quandary about it. The highest salary on record was then $100,000. He met with Schwab, showed him the contract and hesitatingly asked what could be done about it.

          "This," said Schwab, and he took the contract and tore it up! That contract had paid Schwab $1.3 million the year before. "I didn't care what salary they paid me," Schwab later told a Forbes magazine interviewer. "I was not animated by money motives. I believed in what I was trying to do and I wanted to see it brought about. I cancelled that contract without a moment's hesitation. Why do I work? I work for just the pleasure I find in work, the satisfaction there is in developing things, in creating. Also, the associations business begets.

           The person who does not work for the love of work, but only for money, is not likely to make much money nor to find any satisfaction in life."

ILLUS: In 1969 I went to work for a mechanical contracting company as a electricans helper. There were about three of us who worked with electricans and were in apprentiship to be electricans.

           One of the young men was named Leon. He complained about everything we did from the time we arrived at work till we left in the afternoon. On one job it was especially unpleasant. We were working under a house wiring a complicated heating and cooling system that had individual controls for each room. It was a large house and we had to install a lot of wiring to control the system. It was wet under the house and we had to sit on card board to stay dry, but in time it became soaked and our behinds got wet. Leon got mad about having to work in these conditions and complained to high heaven to the electrical foreman. He then told Leon he did not have to work under these conditions and told him to go back to the shop. When Leon arrived they gave him his pay and fired him.

           The rest of us finished the job. I learned a great deal on that job. I wanted to be an electrican and learn all I could. Wiring that HVAC system was fasenating to me, so I did the job...wet bottom and all.

           Two years later I was a department head with my own department and men who worked for me. I was actually higher in the company than the man who hired me.

           Leon became a tow motor operator and the last I heard of him he was still driving a tow motor.

           God is Ephesians 4 is talking to believers and urging them to live like what God has called them to be. By urging believers to walk worthy of their calling in Christ....God is revealing that a believer can live his life outside the blessings and instructions of God. He will be the poorer for it and will never grow and mature in the faith. Many a believer's life is marked by not experiencing the peace, joy and satisfaction that comes from living for the Lord.

B. He defines what walking worthly means in the following verses. Eph. 4:2-3

          Christians should live lives in lowliness and meekness with longsuffering.

          Lowliness is having a humble attitude. The opposite of humility is pride. Pride is the sin of Satan which causes his fall. Pride will destroy us mentally and give us a distorted picture of life and of our relationship with others. It will separate us from God and from each other. A prideful man is a miserable human being. He can never be satisfied because he thinks himself superior to other people and feels he is not recognized for his being better than others.

          In Ephesians 3 the Lord explains to us that we are all equal in God's sight and they we are to have fellowship and to server one another. You can only do that if you have a humble spirit.

C. The motivation for living a life of meekness and longsuffering is that we are to love the brethren as Christ has loved us.

          In Ephesians 5 God says to us: "And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour." (Ephesians 5:2)

          John said, "Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another." (1 John 4:11)

A. To "endeavor" means to try very hard to do something. Endeavoring means to earnestly and industriously put forth the effort to attempt and achieve something. It means to do one's utmost. The word is taken from the archaic word "devoir" which means "one's duty."

B. What is our duty and calling is to earnestly work hard to keep the unity of the Spirit.

          Keeping the "unity of the Spirit" means being in unity with the Holy Spirit and His goals and plans for our lives. It means living willingly letting the Holy Spirit guide us. It means living "filled with the Holy Spirit" as Ephesians 5:18 says, "Be not drunk which is access, but be ye filled with the Spirit."

          If a believer is not living in God's will, and is not filled with the Spirit then he is at odds with God. He is in fact opposing God's plan for his life and thereby losing God's blessings. When you are outside God's will, a believer will never be happy, satisfied or accomplish anything for the Lord.

          The believer's gets his peace, joy and satisfaction from God. If he rejects God's leadership, which is the guidance of the Holy Spirit he will never experience the wonderful life God has for him.

C. Note that God says "keep the unity in the bond of peace."

          The word bond means to join something together. Barnes the commentator explains it this way: "The meaning here is, that they should be bound or united together in the sentiments and affections of peace. It is not mere external unity; it is not a mere unity of creed; it is not a mere unity in the forms of public worship; it is what the Holy Spirit produces in the hearts of Christians, when he fills them all with the same love, and joy, and peace in believing. "

          When the love of God is truly in our hearts it will produce a unity with the Spirit in our lives.

A. There is one body. The body is the Body of Christ. Believers are all a part of that body. 1 Corinthains 12: explains this to us. Note that the context of telling us about the Body of Christ is in explaining the spiritual gifts given to believers.
"For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many." (1 Corinthians 12:12-14)

          God says in verse 25-27, "That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular." (1 Corinthians 12:25-27)

          Many church members do not see themselves in the context of their local church. They see themselves as individuals who are free to do as they please and have little or not commitment to their church body....and thereby show they have little or no commitment to Jesus Christ the one they claim as Savior.

B. There is one Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God and His function in the God Head to carry on the work of God. He provides the power and strength to do God's work in people's lives. The emphasis in this statement is that God has one purpose and the Holy Spirit is seeking to carry out God's will.

          When we are not led of the Spirit...we are not one with God. We are outside His will.

C. One hope of the believer's calling.

          The hope here is not referring to heaven, but rather there is one hope in carrying out our calling or will of God in our lives. The word used here for hope is "elpis" (el pece') and means to anticipate, something usually with pleasure.

          The reason some believers and in turn churches do not accomplish much for the Lord is they are not really "hoping for or anticipating" for God to do anything.

IILUS: I have someone write me this week and ask could I explain 1 Peter 3:3. "And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." (1 John 3:3) Someone who is looking for something the Rapture will prepare for it. A believe who has not real hope for the future will do nothing to get ready for it.

          If we want souls saved, Christ honored in our lives, that will motivate our actions and our lives. What we hope for we work for.

D. Unity means being one with the Lord in all things. (Eph.. 4:5-6)

          Paul says, there in one, Lord, faith, baptism, God, and Father. He is stressing the need of being in unity.

           Sadly, in most churches it is a handful of people who do most of the work. Only a few who will put forth the effort to build the church. Most feel that it is the pastor's job to do build the church up, win souls, teach, preach, keep everyone happy, add solve all the problems that come up.

          Rarely, do most pastors have anyone come up to them and ask is their something to do. Rarely, will people volunteer. The grass need cutting....the comment is made, "The grass needs cutting, the side walk cleaned, yard raked, church cleaned, something fixed...and it goes on and on." Rarely, does someone take the initiative and goes and does the work.

          I often hear, "Joe, needs the Lord. He needs a visit." But often the person seeing the need will go do it....they want someone else to do it.

E. The importance of doing God's will for our lives is shown in the fact that God is above all. Nothing is great than God and nothing greater than doing the work of God. Nothing we do is more important than doing God's will.
God is above all and "through all." "Through all" means we can do nothing for God apart from God. We must be in unity with His purposes and then we must be willing to go, dependent upon His strength and direction.

F. God is in every believer. The Holy Spirit indwells every believer. This begs the question! If He is in us....why are we not allowing Him to control and guide us. Why are we not seeking to accomplish His will in our lives and in our church?!

          The truth stated here is that believers ought to be one in unity, working everyone together to accomplish God's task. If God is in us all why are we not all working for the Lord?

1. This message is to those who profess to be Christians. It is presenting us a paradox. It is saying....If believers are one...why are we not all working together as one. Why are so many who are pew warmers

2. May I suggest the two is two fold. Some who profess to be saved have never really by faith committed themselves to the Lord. They really do not believe God. Their actions show they have a problem. If the really believed....wouldn't they then obey the Lord in faith and live for Him?

          Secondly, some believers are out of God's will. In simple terms they love the world more than the Lord. They are simply sitting on the side lines watching every thing go by. They are missing the blessing of the Lord. They are being a discouragement to others including their pastor, other believers and have not testimony for the Lord.

           1 Corinthians 3:10-15 says that believers will one day stand before the Lord in judgment. Some will be greatly rewarded and what a wonderful thing it will be to see the Lord say to these faithful Christians, "Well done thy good and faithful servant." What a joy it will be for that believer to honor Christ by his good works.

          Sadly, there will be those there who will "suffer loss." That means some will suffer detriment as it is revealed to them what a great loss they have suffered. It too will be a terrible time when believers who were saved by Christ's suffering and death for them....repay the Lord with nothing to honor Him or show they are thankful for what He did for them. It will not be a happy time for many.

          Whatever you situation, faithful, unfaithful God is beseeching us to walk worthy of the salvation He suffered and died to give us. Will you examine your life....will you yield to the convicting power of the Holy Spirit and get the matter settled right now. The Lord is reaching out to us all....desiring to strengthen us and give us His wonderful blessings. Will you receive it?