Characteristics of the Walk, #2
Walking Worthy!
Characteristics of the Walk, #2
Ephesians 4:2
 
We are examining what it means to walk worthy and I want to apologize for the lack of continuity. I think the best way to study a passage is all together but that isn’t always possible.  So we’re going to have to work hard at keeping our thoughts focused on what Paul is saying here in the opening verses of Ephesians about walking worthy of our calling.
 
Paul says here that we are to walk worthy of the vocation to which we are called.  That is an extremely important calling.  And we've already looked at the call to the worthy walk in verse 1.  We went through that word by word.
 
Then we began last week looking at how we do it.
 
Most of, if we were going to describe walking worthy would say, “Well, I think the first thing you ought to do is join the church.” But that isn't what Paul says. Well, I think the first thing you ought to do is read your Bible one hour a day. That isn't what Paul says either.  Well, the first thing you ought to do is make sure you say your prayers every day, if you're really going to live the life, walk the worthy walk. That isn't what he says.  Well, the first thing you ought to do is witness. No, that isn't what Paul says.
 
Look what he says:
 
Verse 1-3
 
The worthy walk is predicated on the right attitudes. And Paul here is talking about you cultivating the right attitudes in the heart.
 
If we are the children of God, if we are blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies, if we were chosen before the world began, if we have been redeemed, forgiven, made wise, given an eternal inheritance, been placed in the body of Christ, made alive from the dead, raised to sit in the heavenlies, if we have been granted an inheritance and given the earnest of the Spirit, if we have been designed by God unto good works, if we've been made fellow citizens with all the saints, if we are the habitation of the Spirit, if we are partakers in the promise of Christ, if we're all these things then we ought to live like it. And living like it means we start with the five characteristics of the worthy walk in verses 2 and 3.
 
The first thing that characterizes a Christian who is walking worthy is
  • All lowliness
That mean total-total humility, total humility.  At we covered that at great length last time we met and I intended to move on to the next one tonight, but instead, I want to finish up on the first one tonight.  And the reason I want to stay here a while is because this one is so critical to the others.  If we can get this one down, then the others will be much easier to develop.
 
So let’s return to the concept of humility and look at that word once again.
Paul says if you’re going to walk worthy, it begins with all loneliness.  What does it mean?
 
When Jesus began His earthly ministry, His first and primary message was, “Repent!  For the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
 
The essential meaning of that statement is, “Get saved.  Be converted.”
 
Then, as soon as He had the first little gathering of converts, He began to share witht hem the basics of being in His kingdom.  He did that through the Sermon on the Mount.
 
Listen to the very first thing He said to these new converts:
 
Matthew 5:1-12
 
Did you notice what was first on the list?  Poor in spirit.  In fact, it literally says, “poor”.  That's where it all begins.
 
Have we not got that reversed in our time?  We're so busy in exalting people and making superstars out of them and patting them on the back and handing them awards and degrees and notoriety and fame and making something out of them that we have got the whole thing completely reversed.
 
I think that beginning attitude of humility is what Paul has in mind as he writes to the Ephesians.
Who is it that walks worthy? It's the lowly.
 
Last time we said that involves a self-awareness;
seeing yourself for who you really are and honestly  dealing with your own sin.
 
Secondly we said Christ awareness. As we look at Christ we see just how far we have to go.  We’re not nearly as holy or righteous as we think we are and as you focus on the majesty of Jesus Christ you get a true picture of yourself in relation to Him.
 
Finally, a God awareness.  There is nothing more humbling that to be in the presence of God as Isaiah found out.   When I know what God is like and what I am in Hs presence, I come out humble.
 
Those are the perspectives that drive the heart to humility. You're not going to get humble by sitting in a corner wishing you were. You'll gain humility by sitting in confessing your sins before God and  opening the pages of the Bible and seeing Jesus Christ and God and all His majesty.
 
Now that’s where we quite last time.  It was more of a motivational message to encourage us to develop humility.  Tonight I want to pick up there and do a little study with you on the concept of lowliness and why it’s so difficult to develop.
 
It seems to me there are several areas where Satan tempts us to be proud and he is so subtle about it.  So maybe if we can identify the weaknesses, then we can overcome the temptation.  So let me share with you some very practical obstructions to humility.
 
First of all, we are sometimes tempted to be proud about what we do.  Let’s call it
1. Ability Pride
 
There is a strong temptation to be proud of what we are blessed to be able to do.  We get proud of our abilities.  I’ve never had any temptation to be proud of my fantastic mathematical ability. I don’t even want to discuss what I got on my ACT, but I can tell you it wasn’t too good so I’m not tempted about that.
 
But there are some other things that I do pretty well at.  And there can be a great temptation to be proud of those things, especially if you are around someone else who’s not gifted in that area.  Just let me walk in a room and look at how the trim or cabinets are installed and I can find all kinds of things wrong with someone else’s work.
 
You know who’s the worst in the world about doing that?  Preachers comparing themselves to other preachers.  “Well he obviously didn’t handle that verse correctly.. . .”  “If only he’d shared this thought or that explanation.”
 
We're tempted to exalt ourselves in our own abilities. I don’t suppose there has been anyone who struggled with pride any more than did the Apostle Paul and with good reason. 
 
Paul was well-educated man. He had studied at the feet of Gamaliel.  He was trained in the Rabbinic traditions.  He knew the Old Testament. He had a tremendous philosophical mind.  He was an intense, fiery man of tremendous courage.  He could preach the wallpaper off the wall.
 
But listen to his testimony in 1 Cor. 2:1-5
 
Here was a dear man who avoided the temptation to have his strengths turned into sins. Later on in 2 Corinthians 12 he says to these same people, he says, “I rejoice in my infirmities because when I am weak then I am strong.”
 
We're all tempted like that. We're tempted where we have some strength to abuse it. We're tempted where we have some ability to want to flaunt it, to want to make a big thing out of it and parade it around.
 
And that’s an area of temptation that, if you give in to it, it will keep you from walking worthy of your calling.  Ability pride.
 
By the way,, the only way to stay humble is to remember that whatever you do you do it because God gave you the ability to start with. Any gift, any talent useful to God is a gift of the Holy Spirit. There's nothing to be proud about because it's all a gift of God.
 
Let's go to another area.
 
2. Economic Pride
 
This is a real temptation, especially in our part of the world.  There’s probably not much reason to preach this point in Malawi.  They wouldn’t know much about economic pride.  But in America, it’s a real temptation.
 
We like to put our stuff on display.  There is this temptation to boast and brag and parade around our riches and possessions.  That's pride. This is the pride that says, “Look what I have! I must be somebody to have what it takes to have this.”
 
Turn to Deuteronomy 8 for a minute and we’ll see an illustration of this.
 
Deuteronomy 8:11-17
 
Moses says you're going to go inherit all these wonderful things in the Promised Land. God's going to give you so much. You’re going to have beautiful houses.  You're going to have herds and flocks and silver and gold and you know what's going to be the tendency? You're going to think you did it with your ability and forget where you got it.
 
God had all this good stuff in mind but the day will come when you'll forget what He took you out of and you'll think you did this. And you'll forget what you went through and you'll forget how for 40 years God made you absolutely dependent on Him and showed you that every good thing you ever had was from Him, every meal you ever ate was from Him. Every drop of water you ever drank was from Him.
 
But the day will come you'll get your beautiful house and you'll get your fancy clothes and you'll have your gold and you'll have your silver and you'll forget the source of it all. And the point is you'll get proud and  want to parade those things and say, “Look what I have done.”
 
verses 18-20
 
Everything we have God gave us and we would be wise to never forget that!.
 
I’m afraid we may have forgotten that.  We parade our stuff around as if we created it all ourselves and we’re kidding ourselves about Who is the source of it all.
 
The church at Laodicea was rebuked by the Lord because they said, “We are rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing and didn’t realize they were wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked." They had it all backwards.
 
So there is the pride that comes from our abilities. There is the pride that comes because of our economics. Thirdly, there's a temptation to
 
3. Verbal Pride
 
What is verbal pride? That’s just old fashioned bragging.  The Greeks had a word for it that described a man standing on the shore looking out at the fleet of ships in the harbor in Greece. And a fellow walks up and he says, “Those are lovely ships, who do they belong to?” “Oh, those are my ships and I own those ships and we've sailed the seven seas and I've been here and there. We've carried the greatest cargo ...and he goes on and on with this big long deal about his fleet.”
 
And the man is overawed at what he possesses and finally the braggart walks away and the stranger is still awe-struck and he says to a person standing by, “Did you know that all that belongs to him?” And he looks and he says, “Oh, no,” he says, “He’s just the village idiot.  Those ships belong to Mr. so-and-so.” The braggart is just the guy who’s always  shooting off his mouth about the stuff he doesn't even own or do.  He’s just a big mouth braggart.
 
And lest we be too critical of him, all of us can get to a place where we say things about ourselves that aren't even true or we lead people to believe things that aren’t true.
 
It's amazing how great we are the further we get away from the actual event. Have you noticed that? How the story gets better and better, year after year? Every time you tell it there's a new little wrinkle that sweetens the story a little.
 
Talk to many middle-aged fat men who used to play sports in high school and you will be amazed at how they missed a career in the NBA or the NFL.  I always seen to have the misfortune of sitting near them at ball games.  And all they want to talk about is how great they were when they were the ones of the field. The problem is none of the record books back up their claims!
 
That’s verbal pride, boasting words, bragging words, words of arrogance, making sure you tell everybody what you want them to hear about you.
 
It surfaces in two areas:
 
- Sometimes we brag about what we have done. You know the first liar never has a chance right?  We would do well to heed the counsel of Hannah found in  Samuel 2:3, listen to Hannah, she says, "Talk no more so very proudly; let no arrogance come from your mouth for the Lord is the God of knowledge and by Him actions are weighed."
You'd better keep your mouth shut because God's the One who knows what you really did and what you really are.
 
In fact, Proverbs 27:2 says, “Let another man praise you, and not your own mouth”
 
Want a little test to see how you are doing in this area?  Try to go a whole week and never once talk about what you've done.
 
When people do that, it is very noticeable. The irony of that is the fact that people who don't talk about what they've done say volumes about themselves.
 
Sometimes we brag on what we've done.
 
- Sometimes we brag about what we're going to do.
 
We do a lot of that. “We’ll if I’m ever in that position, I'll tell you what I'll do.”  “If I ever see that guy, am I ever going to tell him a thing or two.”  “Well, I can tell you this:  If I were the pastor of that church. . .”
 
I love a little verse in 1 Kings 20.  Beh-Had is king of Syria and he sends word to Ahab who is king of Israel and says, “When I get through with you, there’s not going to be enough left of Samaria for my people to carry home a handful each.
 
In verse 11 Ahab says, You tell him the one who is putting on the armor shouldn’t brag like the one who’s taking it off.”
 
 
Isn't that good? Don't tell the tale when you're getting the armor on.  Wait and tell it when you're getting it off. When the battle is over you might have something to say. But we are so tempted to talk about what we're going to do and about what we have done.
 
Psalm 12:3 says, “May the Lord cut off all flattering lips and the tongue that speaks proud things."
 
Several years ago I read the account of a guy picking  up a girl planning to seduce her.  She was a rough girl from down in Los Angeles. He was trying to get her to go to a motel with him and he tried to kiss her and she had a razor blade in her teeth and cut off his lips.
 
I never read Psalm 12:3 without thinking of that. What a vivid thing. Brag, and God will cut your lips off!  There's no reason for us to brag about what we've done or what we will do. No reason for us to have verbal pride.
 
There's another area I want to mention, fourth area, I don't know what to call this but let's call it
 
4. Class Pride
 
There is a tendency is to look down on people of a different class than us.  It might be economic class or social class or racial class or even educational or mental ability class.
 
We get to a certain place in our society and think we can look down on or be judgmental of someone else because of their position in society.
We think of them as sort of a lower class.  We don't want them in the neighborhood.  We wouldn’t want to have them over for dinner.  They aren’t welcome at our church.
 
We don't want to bring those people over they might soil the place or something.  You might have to sweep up after they leave. They might mess up the carpet in God’s House.
 
Or we think we can just talk to them any way we want to or criticize them and be mean to them.  After all, they are beneath us.  I find that to be particularly true of people with disabilities, whether it is physical or mental.
 
It’s like they are lower class citizens.  They really don’t even have the right to be around us.  We just kind of tolerate them as long as they don’t get in our way or mess things up too much.
 
But you've forgotten something very important and that is that God loves poor people. In fact, one fo the final judgments upon mankind is in regard to their treatment of those who are the least of the brethren of Jesus.
 
James says, “When a man comes into your church with a gold ring and fine clothes and behind him comes a man in filthy clothes, vile raiment and you say to the man in fine clothes - Hey, sit down here in the front seat, man, and make yourself at home. And you say to the man in the dirth clothes , “Just try to stay out of the way. You are a respecter of persons.”  “Have you forgotten,” he says, “that it is the rich people that oppress you? Have you forgotten that it's the rich people that abuse you?
Have you forgotten the royal law of love?” Listen, there is to be a recognition of equality among men, especially in the church!   Jesus said He was no respecter of persons and we aren’t to be either.
 
Now we generally aren’t that open and demonstrative with our prejudice, we just don't let them in our world.  We don't love him, you don't embrace him, you don't take the much that you have and meet his need with it. That’s class pride and it’s ugly in the sight of God.
 
There's another kind of pride, I call it
 
5. Appearance Pride
 
Now I’m not talking about being modest or appropriate or dressing nicely.  We are certainly supposed to be proprietary.
 
In fact, if you look too crummy you call attention to yourself in a bad way. In fact that's what the Pharisees used to do. Whenever they wanted to be really pious, they put on old torn, shredded stuff and they'd dump ashes on their head and they'd go around looking so rotten everybody would say, “Oh, they must be holy, they have no thought for the things of the world.” There's a balance.
 
But on the other hand, we are always tempted and particularly in our culture today, to dress to call attention to ourselves. Many in our society are like cattle at the packing house trying to buy all the junk the fashion industry keeps sending down the trough so we might appear to be trendy and hip and fashionable.   
 
In I Timothy the Apostle Paul confronted that thing. In those days when a woman wanted to show off, she let her hair grow real long and then she'd wind her hair all over the place and wind up everything she owned in it. So it would be full of gold combs and tortoise shell combs and stick pins and pearl things wrapped all the way through it, and she'd literally have a fortune on her head.
 
Then when she showed up downtown at the gala, it wasn't a matter of comparing whether you got this dress at this place or those shoes at this shop, you just looked at each other's head and you knew who was the queen of the whole deal.
 
That's why in I Timothy 2:9 Paul says that women should adorn themselves in modest apparel. And it doesn't mean only modest in terms of the way it fits, it means terms of modest in what it cost.  And, he says. not with hair all entangled with every kind of decoration in the world.  Instead she should be adorned with good works.  
 
Solomon spoke of the deception of charm and beauty.  Lucifer was the most beautiful creature God ever made and his beauty was his downfall. God has made some very physically attractive people and that can be the greatest device that Satan can use.
 
We want to show ourselves off as better than other people. It's an evil thing. Appearance pride.
 
Then there's another kind of pride and that is
 
- Power Pride
 
This is the pride that comes from position. This is the temptation that says, “Look who you are! You deserve better treatment than that.” You know, everybody's got some position and everybody's tempted to use it.
 
Most every home has a pecking order.  We see it with our kids.  Even the dog gets in on it.  If you’re older and stronger, there is a temptation to control an boss the younger and weaker.
 
Zig Ziglar used to tell the story of a top corporate executive who got o up one morning, put on his shirt and realized a button was missing.  He chewed out his wife and went off to work angry.  When he got there he blessed out the secretary.  She in turn got the janitor, who passed it on to the switchboard operator who went home and got on to her son who went outside and kicked the cat.
 
That's the way it is.  Whatever our position in the world we can find somebody that we can oppress.
 
You know the Old Testament says a lot about oppressing people. When God gives you a position of leadership, whether it's in your home or whether it's in your job or whether it's just sort of a natural recognition of leadership in a group of peers, you can always be tempted to oppress people with an over-exaggerated sense of your own importance.
To the Romans, Paul said in 12:3: For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.
 
Then there is
 
- Intellectual Pride
 
I love the sarcasm of many of the major players in the Bible. Job is a good example of that.  In chapter 12, after listening to all the stupid advice of his friends, he says; "Well, you are the people and wisdom will die with you."
 
What he was saying is “it's too bad when you die we'll all be ignorant forever because obviously you are the only ones who know anything!”
 
I used to worry about what was going to happen when T.J left for college because I had a resident source of all the information in the world living right there in the house with me.  But fortunately I have several others standing in the wings to take his place!
 
Oh, it's so easy to be intellectually smug and think, well, I've got all my theology, I've got all the answers, I know everything.
 
Listen, I've been studying the Bible as a Christian for 34 years now.  I could add to that several more years as a child in Sunday School and church. And you know what I found? The more I get to know about the Bible, I realize how little I know about the Bible.  In fact, sometimes I feel like I’m just scooping water out of the ocean with a thimble.  Every time I open God’s Word I realize I hold an uncharted ocean in my hands.  I don't know much. In fact, I know very little. And I'm still learning.  How dare we develop an intellectual pride.  Let me leave you with one more and it is the ugliest of all.  It is
 
- Spiritual Pride
 
Jesus just literally blistered the Pharisees in the 23rd chapter of Matthew for their hypocrisy.  They were the biggest phonies around.
 
You know, as faithful church-going, God-loving people you can do that. You can come to Trinity Baptist Church and look real spiritual.  All you have to do is carry a Bible and say the right words and come to the services and take part and smile and be nice and nobody will ever know what a phony you are.  Don't be spiritually proud and walk around like you've arrived and you’re God’s greatest gift to the church.  That is the worst kind of pride there is.
 
If we will be like Christ, then we must walk in all lowliness.  He is the perfect example for resisting every type of pride:
 
If you want to talk about ability pride, as we learned this morning, He is omnipotent.  He has all power.  Nothing is impossible to Him and yet He came into this world and used that power only to bless and help.  No ability pride.
 
No economic pride.  He is the riches of Heaven, but He lived like a pauper.  In fact, for our sakes He became poor living out in the desert without even the comforts of a pillow.
 
No verbal pride.  He owns the cattle on a thousand hills, the hills and the mineral rights under the hills.  But He didn’t go around bragging.  Once or twice, He mentioned what He could do like rebuilding the temple in three days or rising from the dead, but it wasn’t brag, just fact.
 
Certainly there was no class pride.  It didn’t matter who you were, Jesus treated everyone the same; a rich young ruler, a poor widow giving her offering, a sick woman with an issue of blood, social outcasts like Zaccheus and Mary Magdalene, the upstanding and the downtrodden, Jesus even had time for the demoniac living in the cemetery.  Everyone was important and valuable to God.
 
And no appearance pride either.  When He came to the end of His life, He owned five pieces of clothing and they were most likely homemade.
 
No power or intellectual pride either.  When you are the Sovereign of the Universe, you are certainly in a position to brag about, but not Jesus.  When you are omniscient, you can probably take your place at the table as well.  But Jesus was the epitome of “all lowliness”.
 
And when it comes to the spiritual side of life, don’t you know there was a real temptation for Jesus to put folks like the scribes and Pharisees and Saducees in their place?  He did, but not by comparing them to Himself, but to God’s written Word.
Well, Satan is going to tempt you to be proud in your abilities, your economics, your words that you say, your class, your strata of society, your appearance, the position you hold, your social desires, your spiritual life, your intellectual knowledge and all of these things are going to attack your humility.
 
And when you lose humility you've lost ingredient number one in a worthy walk. Listen, if we will walk worthy, it all begins with humility.
 
Let's pray.