You Can Do It!

Sermon Summary:

This powerful message challenges us to move beyond surface-level Christianity and embrace intentional discipleship. Drawing from Ephesians 4:1-3, we’re reminded that spiritual birth is just the beginning—what follows is a lifetime of learning to walk worthily of our calling. The metaphor of walking appears throughout Paul’s letter, emphasizing that Christianity isn’t just about belief but about daily choices in how we live. The ancient marketplace imagery of balanced scales provides a striking picture: on one side sits everything God has done—creation, redemption, the life and resurrection of Jesus, the gift of the Holy Spirit. On the other side is our response. The question isn’t whether we can earn our salvation, which comes only through grace, but whether our lives reflect gratitude and obedience to the One who saved us. We’re called to walk humbly, rejecting our culture’s obsession with self-promotion. We’re called to walk together, patiently bearing with one another despite our differences and difficulties. And we’re called to stay together, protecting the unity that the Spirit creates. This isn’t about perfection—it’s about progression. Where are we on that scale today? Are we still on the ground, or are we lifting our side through faithful, humble obedience? The encouraging truth is that with God’s help, we can do it.

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Sermon Points:

Key Takeaways:

• Birth must be followed by growth—both physically and spiritually
• Jesus used birth as a metaphor for becoming “alive to God” (born again/born from above)
• Paul’s instruction to “walk worthily” means living in a way that balances with God’s calling
• The Greek word “axios” (worthy) comes from marketplace scales, representing balance between God’s calling and our response
• Salvation is by grace alone, not works—this teaching addresses how to live after salvation
• Three practical ways to walk worthily: Don’t strut (be humble and gentle), Walk together (be patient and bear with one another), Stay together (protect the unity of the Spirit)
• Humility means thinking of yourself less, not thinking less of yourself
• Christianity is both personal and interpersonal—we cannot do it alone
• We don’t create unity; we protect the unity that God’s Spirit creates
• With God’s help, we can walk worthily—it’s possible

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Scripture References:

• Ephesians 4:1-3 (primary text)
• Ephesians 4:17 (walk not as Gentiles)
• Ephesians 5:2 (walk in love)
• Ephesians 5:8 (walk as children of light)
• Ephesians 5:15 (be careful how you walk)

Stories:

• The pastor’s childhood memories of his mother Naomi teaching him where to walk, including disciplining with a switch on the calves to make him think about his actions
• Reference to a mother celebrating a baby’s first steps, connecting to the role parents play in teaching children both how to walk and where to walk
• Denzel Washington’s story about visiting his mother after becoming successful—when he boasted about his achievements, his mother humbled him by telling him to mop the windows, reminding him that he didn’t achieve success alone but had many people praying for and supporting him
• A pastor friend’s humorous comment that “ministry would be awesome if it just wasn’t all the people in the church,” illustrating the challenge of bearing with one another

Sermon Transcript:

Everybody said amen, right? Kind of felt like Easter Sunday today, you think? Charles and Rosemary, thank you so much. Choir, orchestra, worship ministry. Our three young Korean friends who let us in worship today, Jay and Sue, Bean and cj all three just graduated and are headed back home to Korea.

And so they have been such a blessing to us along with so many our friends there, and we’re grateful for them. Well, today we are continuing our journey. We are in a multi year journey here at First Baptist Arlington. And it is flourishing together. It’s more than just a theme.

It’s our hope, it’s our desire that we truly will come to a deep and rich understanding of what it means to flourish. From a Biblical perspective, as we have said several times, flourishing doesn’t mean everything is just perfect in our lives. It really has more to do with how we’re encountering the life that we’re in. And our theme for this year is Transformed on the Jesus Way. So each liturgical season we have pause and focus on a different facet of flourishing together.

And so for Eastertide, our theme is shaped by the Spirit. And this is the season between Easter and Pentecost. It will culminate on Pentecost Sunday. And as I shared with y’ all already, most Baptists, at least from my perspective, don’t celebrate Pentecost Sunday. In fact, most Baptists call Pentecost Sunday Sunday.

It’s just another day on the calendar, but it actually is on the liturgical calendar. And so we’re going to honor it this year. So one of the things that we are learning more about is what we’re calling intentional discipleship. And here’s what I know about Satan. Satan does not want any church to be filled with intentional disciples.

In fact, it would be Satan’s desire for our churches to be filled with what I would call shallow, satisfied, surface, focused, immature Christians. However, what I would contend is I hope and pray that for us, we’ve made a decision together that we are going to intentionally continue to be discipled. And I want to encourage you today, you can do it with God’s help. So I’ve entitled the message Today We Can Do It. And the text is found in Ephesians 4.

So if you have your copy of the New Testament, I’d like you to look at that with me. Just a short little snippet, really, from Paul’s writing here in Ephesians. This is such a profound letter from Paul to me. It’s one of the most influential pieces of literature ever penned. It’s had such an impact upon our understanding of Christianity, our understanding of the church and the nature of the church, and what God has done for us in Christ.

And so, with that said, let’s look at this text, Ephesians 4, where Paul says this as a prisoner for the Lord, then I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. It’s a little play on words in the Greek text. I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling with which you have been called, is what it says in the Greek text. Verse 2. 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. So this morning, I’d like for us to follow up on what I shared with you last Sunday morning, but it’s actually found in this text as well. You can continue to grow as a disciple. You can, and that’s God’s desire for you.

But in order for us to do it, let me just remind you, watch your step. That’s exactly what Paul says. Let’s keep your Bibles open. And let’s look at this. Look at verse one, when the NIV translates it like this.

I urge you to live a life.

It’s a word that Paul uses several times in his writings, and he uses it several times in the book of Ephesians. The word is peripeteo, and peripateo just means to walk. And so a lot of translations translate it that way. I urge you to walk in such a way. Paul uses the same word in chapter four, verse 17.

He says, I am encouraging you. Don’t walk as the Gentiles do. Don’t walk that way any longer. In chapter five, verse two, Paul says, walk in the way of love. In chapter five, verse eight, he says, walk as children of light.

And then chapter 5, verse 15. We looked at this last week. Be careful how you walk. Well, you know, today we dedicated these babies, and this is Mother’s Day. And so happy Mother’s Day to all of our moms today.

And I think about these faithful moms throughout history. Moms play such an important role in our lives. And many times that mama is there when a baby takes that first step. I think I have a photo of that happening where a mom is just rejoicing with that baby. Any of y’ all remember your baby’s first step?

Well, you know, it’s. To me, as a mom, as a dad, it is our job to help our children learn how to walk. But you know what? We also have to teach Them where to walk. Now, you know my mama was sweet.

Y’ all knew. Many of you remember Naomi, sweet as she could be. But I’m just going to tell you right now, she could be something else. My daddy spanked us with a belt when we were kids, okay? And it was one of those things.

The threat of it was actually worse than the experience of it. My mama didn’t do the belt thing. My mama switched you with a switch. I don’t know if any of y’ all remember that, but when my mama got onto us, what you’d have to do is go out in the yard and find a little switch. She didn’t do it.

You had to go get it. You would go get it. You come in the house, and here’s what she did. She didn’t spank like daddy did. My mama switched you right here on your calves.

And I’m just going to tell you right now, that was a good method to make you think about where you were walking, okay? So whatever y’ all think about sweet Naomi, I knew a whole nother side of it, Naomi, that y’ all didn’t know. And you know what? I’m glad she was my mama, and I’m better off for it. And so it’s a role that moms play.

Well, the point is, what mother knew was it wasn’t enough to give birth to me.

As miraculous as that is, that wasn’t enough. She knew that giving birth to me gave her some responsibility to rear me in a certain way. And I’m grateful for that. Well, I want to. I want to read to you this little introduction to Eugene Peterson’s book.

It’s called Practice Resurrection. I love this book. He wrote five books on spiritual theology. Let me read to you what he says in his introduction to this book. And it’s really a commentary on Ephesians.

Peterson says, all of us are born, no exceptions. Birth brought us alive, kicking and crying, into a world that is vast, complex, damaged, demanding, and beautiful in increments. Day by day, we begin to get the hang of it. We drink from our mother’s breast. We go to sleep and wake up one day.

On waking up, we stand upright and amaze everyone with our pedestrian acrobatics. It isn’t long before old hands and language using nouns and verbs with the best of them. We’re growing up. Jesus used the birth event as a metaphor for another kind of birth. Becoming alive to God.

Alive to God. Alive. Life. Vast, complex, damaged, demanding and beautiful. Alive to God’s holiness, God’s will God’s kingdom, God’s power, God’s glory.

There’s more to life after birth than mother’s milk. Sleeping and waking, walking and talking, there’s God. Jesus introduced the birth metaphor in a conversation with Rabbi Nicodemus one night in Jerusalem, telling him, you must be born from above. The metaphor can also be translated born anew, born again. So birth, then growth.

The most significant growing up that any person does is to grow as a Christian. All other growing up is preparation for an ancillary to this growing up. Biological and social, mental and emotional growing is all ultimately absorbed into growing up in Christ or not. The human task is to become mature not only in our bodies and emotions and minds within ourselves, but also in our relationship with God and other persons. I would say a hearty Amen to that.

When Jesus said, you must be born again, it was a metaphor that we could all understand. Birth, then growth. And so let me just ask you a question. How intentional are you in watching your step? You see, you’re in charge of it.

We can come alongside you as a church and as friends, but at the end of the day, we’re all responsible for how we walk and where we walk. And so I want to encourage you to give it some consideration. And I realize that when we go through various seasons of life, walking can be very challenging. But you can do it. So let me offer you some encouragement from this note from Paul.

Here’s what Paul says about it. He says, walk worthily. Now, Paul is in his letters, it’s very common for him to begin with what theologians call theological indicatives. In other words, here’s who God is, here’s what God has done, here’s what God is doing, here’s what God will do. It’s an explanation, if you will, of.

Of all things theological. Then Paul often transitions to what are called ethical imperatives. Because of all of this. Now you do this, you live this way. And so it’s interesting in the letter to the church at Ephesus, which was a circular letter, by the way, it was to be distributed among churches in that region.

When you’re reading through the first three pages of that letter from Paul, there’s only one imperative. An imperative is particular in the Greek language. It’s a certain mood in Greek. You can always find it. It’s pretty easily discernible.

There’s only one of them in chapters one through three. It’s found in chapter two, verse four, when Paul says, remember, that’s the only imperative in chapters one through three. Then you come to Chapter four. And Paul makes a turn. Now, he’s going to start offering some imperatives.

And here’s his main imperative, Chapter four, verse one. He says, walk worthily. Live a life that is worthy. Now, that word worthy. We’ve talked about this before, but let me just remind you, since the New Testament is written in Greek, that word is axios.

We get our word axis from that word, but the word axios is a metaphor. It’s a word that contains a picture within it. And Paul took that word from the Marketplace. Because in Paul’s day, whenever you went to the Marketplace to purchase something like flour or sugar or whatever the commodity was, the person who owned the shop had a set of tested, measured weights. And there was always a set of scales in the Markets.

And so the tested, measured weights will be placed on one side of the scale, and then the commodity that you were purchasing was on the other side of the scale. And so whenever the scale balanced, then you knew whatever you were buying weighed this much. Does that make sense? The word that was used once the merchant could finally balance the scale was axios. It means balanced.

It means that now, what’s over here that you’re buying weighs this much. And so now you pay according to how much it was worth by its weight. So Paul says, on one side of the scale is your calling, the calling with which you’ve been called. That’s what God does. God calls, God invites, God directs, God prompts.

And the calling of God is always personal. It’s always consistent with his word. It’s his truth. It’s his message, and it’s what he has done. And that’s his calling on your life.

Now, the other side of the scale is our response. Okay? So I want to make sure we hear this carefully. We’re not talking about how to get into heaven, because I’m just here to tell y’, all, you ain’t going to be able to come up with enough good words to get into heaven. I don’t care who you are.

Billy Graham is in heaven right now, but he didn’t work his way there. Martin Luther, who wrote this great hymn, A Mighty Fortress is Our God. He’s in heaven. He didn’t work his way there. The only way you get to heaven is through the grace of God, through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

That’s how we get to heaven. So I’m not talking about getting to heaven. I’m talking about your life after you’ve been saved, after you decide to follow Jesus. That’s what this text is about. And so here’s what Paul is saying to us.

On the one side of the scale is the calling of God. Well, what is that? Well, God has created everything that is. He’s breathed life into this universe. He’s created humanity in his image.

He has responded to the brokenness of humanity with judgment and with grace. He has placed his great plan of redemption. He is engaged in salvation history. He has chosen Abraham’s family. Through Abraham’s family, all the world will be blessed.

Jesus is a descendant of Abraham. Jesus lived the perfect life. He modeled it for us. He taught us how to live. He established the kingdom of God on this earth.

He died on the cross for our sins. He was raised from the dead to defeat death. He’s been ascended into heaven now, and he leads the great plan of redemption from heaven itself. He sent his spirit to guide us, to fill us, to heal us, to empower us. That’s on the calling side.

Now. The question is, how are you going to respond to God’s call in your life? When you first become a Christian and you ask Jesus into your life, your scale looks like this. That’s not even enough. It really kind of looks like this.

Does that make sense? The question is, what are you and I going to do in response to what God has done for us? That’s our walking. And we are to walk in a personal relationship with God. So the goal is, when it’s all said and done, that you don’t show up in heaven like this.

Right? In other words, when God finally has that time of judgment in your life, you’re already saved. You already have eternity. And when God says, well, let’s take everything you’ve done, the life you’ve lived, the way you’ve walked with me, and let’s put it over here, because what I’ve done is already on record. You don’t want to stand before God like this, do you?

Don’t you want at least be a little bit? I mean, at least have lifted the thing off the ground a little bit, don’t you? Wouldn’t it be awesome if you could? Even now? Y’, all, come on now.

I mean, to get here, seriously. But could. What about here? I mean, where are you right now, Some of y’? All, you’re still on the ground over here.

It’s time to wake up and walk worthily. That’s what Paul says. Because when I die, I don’t want to be that person where all the weight of the calling of God’s still on the ground. Want to have lived a worthy life. Well, are y’ all still with me?

So how do you do it? Well, okay, we don’t have time. It’s a whole lot. Can I just give you a. Just.

I mean, just. Just right here. Let me tell you just real quick what Paul says. Paul says, don’t strut.

Don’t strut. Funny how some Christians just show up on parade. Look at this. Look how humble I am, man. I’m so good at this.

I’m so proud of my humility.

Wow, look at what he says. Look at verse 2. Be completely humble and gentle. See, that’s kind of your. Be lowly of mind.

Be gracious in spirit. That means that, that you recognize early on it’s not all about me. And when you start living that way, it’s amazing the contrast between that lifestyle and the lifestyle of my culture, because my culture is all about me. Look at me. Let me tell you about me.

It’s really important that you know what I think. Even if I never have a conversation with you, I’m going to put it on social media because what I think is incredibly valuable. Your life will be better off just by reading what I think. Because, you see, I’m right at the center of my universe. That’s who I am.

My culture just promotes all of that. Well, be completely humble, lowly of mind. It doesn’t mean that you think less of yourself. It just means you think of yourself less.

That’s really what humility is. And you’re gentle. You just reject absolute self importance. Denzel Washington said when he got. Once he got really successful, made a bunch of money, said he went home to visit his mama one day and he said, he went and he said, mama, can you believe it?

Can you believe how successful I’ve been? Isn’t it crazy? Look at how I’m able to provide for all of y’, all, provide for you, the rest of our family. His mother said, I’ll tell you what. Go in there in that closet and get that mop bucket and get that mop and fill it with water and go out there and clean these windows.

You see, you can do that by yourself. Everything else you’ve had, help you think you got to where you are all by yourself. You know how many people have been praying for you your whole life? Do you know how many people I’ve talked to who help support you to get you to where you are? You think you’ve done this all by yourself?

She said, go clean those windows. Denzel Washington said, message received. Don’t Strut. That’s what Paul says. Then he says, walk together.

Do you notice that? Look at what he says. Be patient. Macrothumia is the Greek word, means long suffering. And then it’s, I love how the NIV translates this.

Bearing with one another in love. That’s a polite way to put it. It’s literally. It says, just put up with each other.

And I’m just going to tell y’, all, putting up with each other. Some of y’ all require more putting than others. I’m just being honest. One of my pastor friends the other day called me about something’s going in this church and I said, how’s it going? He said, ministry would be awesome if it just wasn’t all the people in the church.

I get it. Putting up with each other is hard, yet that’s what we’re told to do. Put up with each other, bear with each other, be patient. That word, patient there is not the word for bearing up under circumstances. That’s hupomona.

It’s a different word. This word means to be patient with each other because we do this with each other. Do you know, 40 times in Paul’s letters he uses that word, one another, bear with one another, be patient with one another. Christianity is personal and interpersonal at the same time. And then finally he says, stay together.

Don’t just walk together, stay together. Look at verse 3. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit. He doesn’t say, create the unity of the spirit. That’s God’s job.

God creates the unity of the Spirit. That’s a gift from him. We don’t create it, we don’t manufacture it. We protect it. That’s our job.

We pay attention to it. Peace, the bond of peace is connected to humility and gentleness and patience and not always getting our way. That’s. That’s the path of walking worthily. And so I want to encourage y’, all, with God’s help, with God’s spirit.

Guess what? We can do it. Let’s do it together. May it be so. Let’s pray together.

Well, Father, we are grateful for your word. I thank you, Lord, for how you speak directly to us through your word. And today we’re mindful of the fact that you have given us an admonition, challenge, literally a command. And that is to walk worthily of the calling we’ve received. I pray, Lord, we’ll take it seriously and that we really will walk in a way that honors you.

May that be so. In Jesus name.