This Changes Everything

Yeah, my name is Carter Lacy. For those of you who haven’t met me, I get the privilege of leading the youth ministry here and also the local outreach ministry. And yeah, just before you know, everything gets started, I just really want to say like from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for all the support and the love that you guys have given me over my last year here at Sauldam. I didn’t expect so many opportunities and just the yeah, the things that I’ve gotten to do and the relationships that I’ve gotten to build and all the people that I’ve gotten to meet. I mean, man, it’s just it’s blessed me so much. And just to be standing here a year after I first came down last May, it’s amazing. And so, yeah, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. Thank you for all of the prayers. Please keep praying for me because I work with sixth grade boys. Amen.

And, man, but I’m just I’m excited to be here this morning. I’m excited to get to preach this morning. Jeremy, Skip, Town, and Stanley. I don’t know where they’re at. No, I’m just kidding. They’re up in Lexon. But I’m excited to be with y’all this morning. I want to start with a story. So I graduated college this past May from Anderson University. And as a graduation gift, my family, we all went out west to see some of the national parks out there. And I can remember in the middle of the trip, we were taking a trip from Nevada to Utah to go to Zion National Park. Anybody been to Zion National Park? Maybe. Maybe a few of you. Most people know. But anyways, we were going to Zion National Park and we had a horseback tour scheduled there, right? And so, our horseback tour was scheduled for 9:30 a.m. All right. So, you know, I was ready to get my rodeo on. I was ready to ride some horses, man. And so, we leave the hotel in Nevada at 7 a.m. We’re trying to get there at 9:00 a.m. The horseback tour is at 9:30. So, a little 30 minute cushion, right? And so we leave the hotel. The drive is beautiful. We’re all taking pictures out the window. The weather’s beautiful. We had this awesome minivan that we rented. Me and my brother, we were jamming to some music in the back, right? I mean, it was awesome.

And about halfway through the drive, my dad, he’s like, “Is that right?” You know, one of those like stressed out voices. We’re like, “Is what right?” Like, “Is that right?” And we’re like, “What are you talking about?” He’s like, “Does it say 9:00 on your phone?” And you know, he looks at his phone, it says 9:00. And I look at my phone, it says 9:00. My brother says nine o’clock. My mom said nine o’clock. Mind you, we’ve only been driving an hour. We left at seven. So, it’s supposed to be 8 o’clock and it says nine o’clock on everybody’s phone. And we quickly realized that there was an hour time difference between Nevada and Utah. So, instead of having a 30 minute cushion, we were now going to be 30 minutes late. And so, my dad starts speeding. My mom’s over there crying, calling the horseback place. Me and my brother like we’re not jamming in the back of the minivan anymore. So this reality of the time change changed everything about the car ride, right? Like everything was going great and then all of a sudden we when it was 9:00, man, not good. Not good at all. And it just it changed everything about that experience.

And today I guess what I want to talk about is that the reality of what God has done for us, the reality of what God’s done for you should change everything about the way you live. So, I’d love to pray and then we’re going to jump into the passage today. Lord, thank you for this morning. God, I thank You for all the people here this morning. Thank You for the opportunity to open Your word. God, I just pray that You would make us doers of Your word and not just hearers. Lord, please make us people who would obey Your word and God, just live our lives for You and help us to take that next step with You, whatever it looks like today. Thank You. Amen.

So today we’re going to be in Ephesians chapter 4. And so if you have your Bible, you can open up there. Ephesians chapter 4, verses 1-6. We’ve been going through the book of Ephesians the past few weeks. And one thing to note before we really get into the passage is that the book of Ephesians is broken up into two parts, two halves. Chapters one through three is doctrine. And that just means like what we should know about God. And then chapters four through six, the second half of the book is our duty. What we should do about it.

You can think about it like know it is chapters 1 through three, what we should know about God and what He’s done for us. And then chapters 4 through six is show it. And so there’s actually 41 commands in the book of Ephesians. 41 things that God says, “Hey, do this.” And only one of them is in chapters 1 through three, and the other 40 are in chapters 4 through six. And so chapter 4, what we’re going to be looking at today, serves as this bridge between God’s truth and what He says about Himself and what Jesus has done for us and how we should live it out.

All right, so here we go. Ephesians chapter 4, verses 1-6. I think we might have it up on the screen, but this is what it says. It says, “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you’ve been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”

And so we look at this first verse, verse one. “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you’ve been called.” This therefore, it means in light of all God has done for you, in light of all that we’ve seen in chapters 1 through three. And just to remind us of a few of those verses that we looked at, chapter 1 verse 7 says this. “In Him, in Jesus, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace.” Chapter 2, verse 8 and 9. “For by grace you’ve been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing. It’s the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Chapter 2, verse 13. “But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” And chapter 3 verse 20 and 21. “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

So, in light of what God’s done for us, we should walk in light of what God’s done for us, we should live in a way that’s different than how we were living before we met God. And so, it talks about this word calling. What is this talking about? This calling, it’s a calling to unity. And there’s two callings here. The first is unity with God. And the second is unity with others.

So, unity with God. You see, the Bible makes it really clear that God wants us to be united with Him. God wants us to be made right with Him. John 3:16. I’m sure most of you could say the exact words I’m about to say because you’ve learned it in Sunday school or growing up. John 3:16. “For God so loved the world, He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” For God so loved you and me and every single person on this planet so much that He gave up His Son Jesus so that everyone, no matter what you’ve done, no matter where you came from, no matter what you look like, no matter anything, whoever would believe in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.

You see, our sin and disobedience has separated us from God and made it like this big gap between us. But God loved you and me so much that He did something about it. Right? What we’re talking about this whole thing like we should do something about it. God did something about it.

that gap, that that huge gap, inseparable gap between us and God. He sent His Son Jesus to pay the price for that sin. And Jesus willingly did because He thought you were worth it. He thought that having you, having us, was worth the cost that He went through, the death that He died. And He rose again so that anyone who placed their faith in Him could be reunited with God and have a have a relationship with God. That changes everything about the life we live here, but also we get to live with Him forever.

You see, this word “calling” actually refers to an invitation. And so if you think about getting a wedding invitation, man, like it’s an exciting invitation. You’re invited to be with God and to be made right with Him. And so I just like I got to ask you a question this morning. Have you been united with God? Have you accepted His invitation to be made right with Him? Have you surrendered your life to Him? Because that’s the invitation on the table this morning.

And if you have, if you say, “Man, I’m in the room. I’ve accepted this invitation. I’m in a relationship with Jesus.” Like, if that’s true, if you’re a Christian in the room, then we’re called to live like it. We’re called to represent Him.

How many How many Gamecock fans I got in the room? Few. Come on. Come on, people. Few. Most of my family. Here we go. Here we go. Any Clemson fans in the room? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, I’m a I’m a Carolina fan. Coach Beamer, he actually called me. He offered me a position for the season, but I turned it down. I said, “I’m liking Sauldam. I’m liking Sam.” No. But but this is going to be our season. I’m telling you. And but but for the Clemson fans in the room, we’ll go with that because most of you are Clemson fans.

Imagine you’re a Clemson fan and you go to a Clemson game and you’re wearing Carolina gear and you talk trash about all the Clemson fans. I would hope that your friends and your family or the people around you would say, “You are out of your mind. You are being ridiculous. What are you doing?” And they would probably say, “Are you even a Clemson fan? Are you even on our team, bro?” Like it doesn’t make any sense for you to be a Clemson fan and wearing Carolina stuff, right? And in the same way, man, if we’re on Jesus’ team, if we’ve been united to God, then we’re called to live in a way that’s different. We’re not called to live just like we’re part of the world anymore, just like how we lived before we came to know God. And so the team we’re on should change everything about the way we live.

So we see this first part of the this call to unity with God. And our unity with God motivates our unity with others. Our unity with God should motivate us to be united to other people. You see, I read this verse a little bit ago, but in chapter 2 of Ephesians, chapter 2, 13 and 14 says this: “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility.”

There’s some bigger words in there and and kind of confusing stuff, but we talked about it like there’s two groups of people that that the book of Ephesians is kind of centered around. It’s the the Jews, God’s special people, and the Gentiles who are kind of excluded from God’s plan. But in Jesus, God’s plan was to unite them together, to bring them into one family. And Jesus did this by His work, His death on the cross and His resurrection. And so we’ve been united into one family. God has made us into one family as believers. We’re all family in this room if we’re Christians because we’re united in Jesus because of our faith in Jesus. And now our job as Christians is to live united with one another.

And so what are the characteristics of unity? Like how should we live trying to be united with our brothers and sisters in Christ? In chapter 4, verses 2 and 3 is kind of where we’re going now. It says, “With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace.” So, which One of those characteristics sticks out to you the most? Maybe it’s patience, maybe it’s gentleness, maybe it’s bearing with one another in love. For me, it’s eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. I think it’s it’s just yeah, it’s just what jumps out to me. I don’t have time to talk about all of them, but I really do want to focus on this eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace.

You know, you think about the word eager. We talked about it in Sunday school this morning with the youth, but when you think about eager, what comes to your mind? I I think about my friend Bobby. He’s in the back right now. He told me not to call him out, but I got to. He it was his birthday last week and and I love Bobby, man. And he’s like, “Man, we got to go fishing for my birthday.” And so he’s like, “Bro, we should go up to Columbia, your neck of the woods. We’ll go and we’ll catch some striper. We’ll go fishing.” And I’m like, “All right, let’s let’s make a plan. We’ll do it.”

And so we get a plan together and we’re going to go up to Columbia. And he’s like, “Dude, I’m so excited. I’m pumped.” And he lives right across the street. So I get all my stuff loaded up. I go over to his house and I’m I’m I kid you not. I’m rolling down the driveway like like far away. I see him standing outside his door ready for me. I get up there. He’s standing with his fishing pole in one hand. He’s standing with his pillow in the other. He’s got a backpack on. Man, he’s eager. He doesn’t even say bye to Stephen Becky. Like he just gets in the car. He’s ready to go fishing. He’s eager.

Man, I think about maybe some of you with young kids. Like think about me myself as a as a young kid. Like on Christmas morning, I was eager to open my presents up, eager, excited, wanting to open my presence. When it comes to unity and and being united and and standing with our brothers and sisters and not letting anything come in the way of us, are you that eager to maintain unity? Because I’ll tell you, man, it’s it’s hard. Like, it’s it’s not easy.

And this yeah it’s easy to see that Sauldam has become more diverse. Like anybody else seen how Sauldam’s grown more diverse and more people like like different walks of life over this last year? I know that I have. Yeah. And it’s a great thing. It really is. But it’s easier to become more divided when there’s more diversity rather than becoming more unified. But that’s what God calls us to. And it’s worth it. It’s worth pursuing unity. And this passage reminds us that what unites us is more powerful than what could divide us.

I want you to notice in verses four and four through six how many times it says the word one. Counting your head maybe. I don’t know. Here we go. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you are called to the one hope that belongs to your call. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who’s over all and through all and in all according to my calculation is seven times. Yep. All right. Seven times. It says the word one in there in just three verses. One. One. One. One.

This is what a Bible commentary says. Matthew Henry says, “You can’t live in division when your faith is built on the same unshakable foundation.” Man, I love that. In verse five, it says, “One faith.” I think that that part is what sticks out to me the most in the passage, man. Like, one faith. We’re in God’s family, a part of God’s family, not because any of us have earned to be there. We put our faith in Jesus. Just like that last song was talking about, you’re the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus is the only way to get into God’s family. It’s not doing a bunch of good things. It’s not being the nicest person. It’s not going to church all of your life for this many years. It’s believing in Jesus. That’s what gets you into God’s family.

And so, no one has earned it. And so, that should affect the way that we see other people, not as less than or like they they deserve it more. It’s all because of Jesus and what He’s done for us. Jesus changes everything.

About the way that we pursue unity with other people. In verse six, it says, “One God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. God is over everything.” He’s working through every situation and He’s in every believer. And so when you look at your brother or sister, a Christian, when you look at them and how you treat them and how you talk about them, it’s a reflection of what you think about God because God’s inside of them. And so when we just talk bad about people and when we, you know, just call people names, like I think about the student ministry, man, I’m always calling people names. I’m like, man, it’s it’s kind of like, you know, stupid, funny, right? But like at the end of the day, what we think about our other brothers and sisters in Christ, it’s a reflection of how we think about God because God made them and God saved them if they’re a Christian, right? And so the way that we treat them is a reflection of what we think about God.

So there’s kind of a few like calls to action here. Instead of this, this whole chapter 4 is kind of this bridge between truth and practical living. And I I think that I’d just be doing a bad job if I just told you a bunch of good things or things that sound nice or you know whatever. But we didn’t talk about, man, what’s the action step that we could do based on based on these things. So I think that there’s a few action steps from this passage.

The first is to be united with God. Jesus has done all of the work for you to be united to God. Jesus paid the full price for unity with God. He died on the cross and then three days later rose from the dead so that we could have a relationship with God. So how will you respond to His invitation? Will you accept it or will you just push it back? Like you think about sometimes you get invited to like a birthday party and you don’t really know the person. You’re like, “Man, do I got to get him a gift?” Like, I don’t really want to go. This invitation that God gives you to be in a relationship with Him, man, we’d be foolish not to accept it because nothing nothing is worth your relationship with God. There’s no sin in your life. There’s nothing like nothing too good that you should say, “Man, I choose this instead of Jesus.” There’s no relationship in your life to say, “Man, this is better than having a relationship with Jesus.” There’s nothing worth staying back. There’s nothing worth staying apart from God. So whatever it is, whatever it is that’s keeping you from your relationship with God or keeping you from entering into a relationship with God, Jesus has paved the way for you to move past that and for you to be united to God.

And so maybe that’s your action to step in the room. You say, “Man, I’ve never accepted that invitation. I’d love to talk with you.” We have a bunch of people who’d love to talk with you, but I just encourage you to talk to someone about what God’s doing in your heart. You be like, “Man, I feel like maybe maybe I haven’t accepted that invitation.”

The second I wrote down penny in the shoe. Maybe some of you know maybe maybe some of you have heard of putting a penny in your shoe if you want to remember something important. I encourage you either put a penny in your shoe this week or write down on a sticky note a Bible verse or something to remind you of God because who knows, man, that it’s easy to focus on God on Sunday morning, but really hard to focus on Him on Thursday night. Yeah. Like it’s it’s just kind of like, man, you start here with Sunday, you get you get to worship and everything, and then like as the week goes on, man, it’s just like you get distracted by things. It’s easy to do that, but God calls us to remember Him and to live for Him.

And so, how can you be reminded of what God has done for you throughout the week? It can be like you write down a Bible verse from the book of Ephesians, like this big thing of what God’s done for you, or it can just be you know, you write down something God has done for you in the last week. Just, man, it was a hard week last week.

God, I remember how You got me through it. God, I was feeling a little sick last week, but thank You for healing me, and now I’m good. To remember God and to walk with Him. And then thirdly, I think that this is, man, such an easy step, but also one that kind of makes us the most uncomfortable maybe, is talking to someone outside of your normal church circle. It’s easy to talk to people that are your same age, same interest, same, you know, live in the same area type thing, but it’s hard to go outside of your own circle. So, what would it look like for this week, either Wednesday night or next Sunday, or if you have someone’s phone number, that you get someone’s phone number from church, like to call someone or to talk to someone who’s outside of your normal church circle? It’s easier to stay with the people that are just you’re tight with and that you talk alike and think similar things. But if we are actually one family because of what Jesus has done for us, then, man, how could I not know my brother or sister’s name? And like you would think about that in a family. You’d be like, “I don’t know my brother’s name. That’s crazy.” But that’s what God calls His family. And so we’re called to know each other and to care for each other. Think about what’s going on in each other’s lives, right? Pray for each other. And so I just encourage you to take a step outside of your normal church circle and try to talk with someone that’s different than you. I challenged the students on Wednesday night to talk to an older person because it’s easy for them to just stay clumped up, right? And so if you guys see one of the students, please go up to them and introduce yourself because I encourage them to do the same.

So these are just three action steps, but what’s God putting on your heart to do? Jesus changes everything. Our relationship with Jesus should change everything about the way that we live. Sam read it for us this morning. But this is what Philippians chapter 2 says. Philippians chapter 2, verses 5 through 12. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. So we see what Jesus did for us. Verse 12 says, “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” So in light of all that God has done for us, let’s be people who are doers. Let’s be people who live out what God has done for us and live out of a place of loving God and responding to Him because of what He’s done for us.

Yeah, let’s pray. Lord, thank You for this day. Thank You for this time together. God, we’re thankful that You have done all of the work to unite us with Yourself, Jesus. Thank You for making a way for us to have a relationship with You, Father, and for, yeah, just giving that to us, Lord. Thank You for every single person in the room, God. I pray for those who want to enter into a relationship with You, God. I pray that You would give them confidence and that You would continue to speak to them. Lord, I pray for those of us in the room who are already Christians. God, I pray that You would help us to act like we’re on Your team, God, because You’ve united us with Yourself. Help us to live like we’re on Your team. And God, I pray that each of us this week, we wouldn’t leave Sunday and just say, “All right, I’ll wait till next Sunday to think about God again.” But that we would be people who live for You day in and day out. God, would You change The way we think and the way we live and the way we act, the way we talk to one another. And God, may may our unity with You motivate our unity with with other people, Lord. Thank You. Amen.