In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of making progress and moving forward in our good works. The book of Ephesians is divided into two sections, with the first three chapters focusing on our relationship with God and the next three chapters focusing on our relationship with others and the world. The preacher urges believers to walk worthy of their calling, reflecting the character of Christ and being ambassadors for Him. He also highlights the need to differentiate ourselves from the world and not walk in the same futile ways as unbelievers.

We spoke about walking in the Spirit from the book of Galatians and this week I'm going to speak about walking in the book of Ephesians. So let's read together from Ephesians chapter 2 and the first 13 verses, verses 1 through 13 of Ephesians chapter 2. And you he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked according to the course of this world according to the prince of the power of the air the spirit who now walks in the sons of disobedience among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature children of wrath just as others but God who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in trespasses made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved and raised us up raised us up together and made us to sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness kindness toward us in Christ Jesus for by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God not of works lest anyone should boast for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them therefore remember that you once gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision made in the flesh by hands that at that time you were without Christ being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world but now in Christ Jesus you who once were a far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ let me just recap for those who weren't in Sunday school that the book of Ephesians has many many themes one of the themes that he has is the theme of sitting walking and standing and here in chapter two you read that he says that we have been made to sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus so our position and our relationship with God we are seated in heaven but then he speaks about the fact that we are walking in this world and then in the last chapter chapter six he speaks about the fact that we are standing before the enemy and so when we come face to face with the devil we don't sit before him we don't walk we don't run but we stand on the of the work of the cross of calvary defending the the ground which is ours and so the middle part of this little theme that you find flowing through is the is this word walk and it appears seven times in the book of Ephesians and there are many patterns and many things that are there by design and one of the things that Madeline made reference to in a prayer that we saw in the bible study this morning is that he speaks about seven reasons for our unity and she mentioned them in her prayer and so there are seven reasons for our unity now here are seven things that we need to take note of concerning our walk and of course he's speaking about the way that we live and the way that we conduct ourselves this is a wonderful book which has tremendous and if and i mentioned that it is it is called the queen of the epistles it is it is a wonderful book it's very very easy to read and yet it has layers and layers and layers of depth and of meaning um and of intricacy and and very fine detail and uh and so he uh he he when he speaks about walking he he is speaking about the the practical issues of our daily living it contains the book contains some of these very deep and profound theological ideas as to where we were and how he has translated us into the kingdom of his son and how he's brought us from death to life and how that we who were gentiles who had no part with the of the covenants and the blessings of god have been brought into a relationship with him and have been brought into a position of blessing and of privilege with him and so even and so he has these these these very wonderful theological and and very deep ideas but then he also has some very practical things that he deals with and you remember that chapter six he speaks about husbands and wives and chapters sorry chapter five and then chapter six he speaks about children and parents and masters and servants and so there are some very very down-to-earth practical issues and when he speaks about walking when he speaks about sitting that's a that's a very profound thought that's a very profound thing to understand that we are seated in heavenly places and yet now when he speaks about walking that's very down-to-earth that's very very practical and so the the first two of the times when he speaks about walking are in chapter two and we read them chapter two in verse two of verse one says and you he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked according to the course of this world according to the prince of the power of the air the spirit now works in the sons of disobedience so he's reminding us that there was a time when we walked according to the course of this world and of course a course is a is is a is a path that's a way it's a road um it's a it's it's where you where you're going and he says once we were walking with the world we walked the way that world walked we lived the way that they they live we had the same goals and the same destination we had the same purpose we had the same everything that the world had but we have been taken out of that situation and we've been brought into a relationship with him and so in verse 10 he then reminds us for we are his workmanship created in christ jesus for good works which god prepared beforehand that we should walk in them so once we were walking in the course of the world we're walking in the direction of the world but now he says god has done this wonderful work of saving us and bringing us into his kingdom and now that we are in his kingdom we now have a responsibility to walk in good works walk in good works too many christians and one of my concerns is that many many christians uh whole faith just revolves around the theory they'll come to church occasionally and they'll read their bible sometimes and they'll they'll speak about the wonderful things that god has done that he has saved us but it's all theoretical it's all hypothetical it's all spiritual it's all airy fairy pie in the sky there's not very much reality and practical uh living out of that faith and of that uh of of the theory that they the theology which they believe but paul is now speaking about the real issues and he says that we may walk in good works walk in good works he didn't just save us to stop doing the bad things he saved us that we may begin to do the good things that we may do the right things you know so many christians are so concerned about as long as i don't do the wrong things then everything is okay now it's christianity is far more than just not doing the wrong things it's about doing the right things and even if we stop doing all of the wrong things you never do a wrong thing again in your life you still will be sinning because sin is not just not doing the wrong things sin is also not doing what i should be doing and in the episcopalian churches or anglican churches every sunday morning they have a confession which they make as a congregation and of course we know that it's just a ritual there's not much life to it and yet there is some there is truth in it and they speak about forgive us for the sins of commission in other words sins that we committed and sins of omission things that we omitted to do things we should have done and we did not do and so those are equally wrong and so you can you can say well i you know i've i've i'm saved i'm born again i love the lord i don't do this i don't do that i don't do the but but if if it's all if you've done nothing wrong but you've done nothing good you really haven't got anywhere and so he's saying we need to walk now remember we said last week that walking indicates progress you can't walk and be in the same position unless you're going the wrong way on the escalator if you go the wrong way on the escalator or in the airports they have these um what do they call them these conveyor belt things that you walk on mobile walkway things and no no no they're flat they're flat so because you have to walk such long distances they have these flat moving walkways and so if you walk on this thing this thing you know if you just stand it'll take you where you want to go and if you really want to get there fast you walk on this thing and you can really move and get from one terminal to the other but now if you go the wrong way on this thing of course you can you can walk and get nowhere um in fact you may even walk and go backwards now that's only technology but generally if you're walking you're making progress you're making headway you're getting somewhere and he is saying not only should we be doing good works but we should be making headway we should be making progress we should be moving forward in our good works now the next one is in chapter four and verse one now for those who were in the adult bible class we we said that the book was divided into two sections the first three chapters and then the second three chapters one through three and then chapters four through six and in the first three he's dealing mainly with our relationship with god and then the next three he's dealing with our relationship with one another and with the world and so here in chapter four verse one he says i therefore the prisoner of the lord beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you are called with all lowliness and gentleness with all long-suffering bearing with one another in love that word beseech is a very strong word and paul uses it from time to time you remember romans chapter 12 he says i beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of god that you present your bodies living sacrifice now here he's he's using the same word he's not just asking he's not making a suggestion he's pleading he says i'm beseeching you and and that really is the heart of a preacher not just wanting people to hear the message but wanting people to do what they should be doing and so he says i'm i'm pleading with you i'm beseeching you and you'll see that he he he explains who he is as though they didn't know he who he was paul had spent a long time in ephesus he spent over two years in this church and um even when he was away the two letters to timothy he had written to timothy while timothy was in ephesus so he had an ongoing relationship with him and one of the last churches he visited before he before he went to jerusalem and from there to rome uh was the church of ephesus or they certainly met with the elders of the church of ephesus so he had a very close relationship with them but why does he say the prisoner of the lord i the prisoner of the lord beseech you to walk worthy why doesn't he not just say i paul why doesn't he does he not just say i beseech you why does he say i the prisoner of the lord well he's reminding them that there is a price to be paid if we're going to do what we should be doing if we're going to walk in good works it doesn't mean that everybody's going to slap us on the back and say oh that you know that you're such a great person you you live such a wonderful life and you do all the right things sometimes when we do the right things there are terrible consequences and those consequences are because the devil doesn't like us living the way we should be living that the world doesn't like that and in fact it was here at ephesus that there was a riot that broke out because paul was preaching the gospel and uh and people really many people didn't like him in fact he was thrown out of the synagogue in ephesus and he had to go and preach in another place and so he's reminding them there are consequences and those consequences of living the life that we should be living are not always positive that the world is not always going to going to slap us on the back and say you know that's a that's a wonderful thing the world may in fact imprison us but he's also reminding us of his commitment of the fact that he was willing to be come a a prisoner and ultimately a martyr for the faith so he's saying i'm not asking you to do something that i have not been willing to do he's saying to them i have preached the gospel to such an extent i've lived this life i've walked worthy of the calling that god has placed upon my life and that has resulted in me being imprisoned but he's saying now i'm asking you to follow in my footsteps and so he says i therefore the prisoner of the lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the calling with which you are called now in chapter one he speaks about this calling and we have a very high calling in romans chapter eight you remember remember he reminds us exactly in very clear words what our commission or what our calling is what god's purpose for our lives are that we should become like jesus that's really god's purpose for us that is our calling god has called us and saved us not just so we can be saved and escape hell but he has saved us that we might become like jesus because this is my beloved son he says in whom i'm well pleased the only one who ever pleases the father who ever has pleased the father is jesus now he wants us to be like jesus i suppose that in some families you have that children are different and in some families there are favorite children and sometimes mother has a favorite child and i see it in the guitarist home that doesn't happen but it happens in other homes and sometimes we wish that all the children could be like that child and i'm sure james has kids in his school and in his class at school that he wishes that all the kids if they would only be like this one working faithfully never giving him grief always doing the right thing and so the father has a similar desire now that's not there's nothing wrong with saying looking over the congregation and saying i wish everybody would serve the lord like this person because because we're saying not everybody is doing the right thing not everybody is serving the lord equally well and some serve better than others and if we could all serve in that way that would be wonderful and the father has a similar desire and he says that there's one ideal i just wish he says that every christian would be like jesus because jesus is perfectly obedient jesus has a perfect relationship with his father jesus never sinned and so he wants us to be like jesus that's our calling that's a wonderful calling that's a high calling that god has placed upon our lives god has great great designs on our lives has great ambition and gold and a purpose for us he doesn't save us just so we can save and just be sort of half-baked um wishy-washy iffy christians who maybe make it or maybe don't god has a great purpose for us and he wants us to be like jesus he wants us to be victorious he wants us to be overcomers he wants us to know his word he wants us to be faithful he wants us to be obedient he wants us to to love perfectly he wants he has so many desires for us and it's not because he is selfish but because at the end of the jesus is the the highest expression of god's glory and he wants us to be like jesus now that's the calling that is placed upon our lives and so he says that's where god wants us to be but now we need to walk worthy of that calling we need to live lives that reflect the call of god upon our lives we we all have our ideas and standards of of what is acceptable in the world and last night on the news i saw and i forget which city it was but the mayor of this particular city was sitting in his deck chair outside uh singular or at&t uh lining up for um for the iphone and many people were saying well you know this is not what we expect of our mayor to be sitting on the sidewalk queuing up or lining up for a for an iphone he he has better things to do now that's whatever you think about that that doesn't that doesn't matter but we we have certain expectations of certain people and what these people were saying is we don't expect our mayor to be sitting on the sidewalk and i think that we have certain expectations of the president we wouldn't expect him to do certain things you wouldn't expect him to be sitting in the gutter drinking whiskey out of a brown bag that it doesn't fit with the job it doesn't fit with the office and paul is saying the same thing he's saying god has a high calling upon our lives and there are certain things there are certain parts of certain lifestyles which are just not fitting for people with this kind of calling it's just not right if god has called us to such a high calling for us to live a different kind of life and so he's saying we have this high calling now what we need to do is we need to match our lifestyle with that calling we need to be living as people who have that calling upon their lives this is something we we i think understand very well because we we often people say well it's beneath me you you hear that expression it's beneath me to do that in other words it doesn't fit my position or my status in life we all have an idea as to certain things that are befitting people of certain status certain positions but you know the sad thing is that as christians we often live below our status we live below who we really should be and you remember we spoke about the the first few chapters chapters one and three this morning where paul has praise for the he has two prayers for the ephesians and one of the things that he prays both times for them is he says i pray that you would understand your position in christ that you would just your eyes just be opened that you just understand what privilege we have to be saved what privilege we have to be believers what privilege we have to be in a relationship with god that we just understand how far he has brought us out of the and translated us into the kingdom and into a relationship with his son that we who were far off without god without hope in the world that we have been brought near and that we've been placed within the beloved just that we would understand and i think that when we understand maybe we'll match our lifestyle with who we really are and so he says i i beseech you i plead with you walk worthy of the calling with which you have been called and folk every one of us don't tell me oh no but i'm just a young person i'm just this or i'm just that i you know no we've been called every one of us has been called into a relationship with him every one of us have been called to reflect his son every one of us have been called to be ambassadors for christ in this world and we need to match our lifestyle with the calling that is upon our lives and then in chapter 4 and verse 17 this i say therefore and testify in the lord that you should no longer walk as the rest of the gentiles walk in the futility of their mind having their understanding darkened being alienated from the life of god because of the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart who being past feeling have given themselves over to lewdness to work all uncleanness and greediness but you have not so learned christ and so he says that you should no longer walk as the rest of the gentiles walk in the futility of their mind no longer walking like the gentiles now that would seem to be a a strange thing for paul to write to these particularly these christians because remember that these guys were the one church that had no problems he doesn't address any serious issues in this church no doctrinal issues no holiness issues no no no practice issues in the church there were really no problems that he has addresses and he writes to them at a at a spiritual level that he does not write to other churches in fact you remember he writes to the corinthians and he says i could not write to you as to spiritual people but he writes to the ephesians as spiritual people and yet in spite of them being at being very good spiritually at what they were doing at the same time he feels the need to remind them that they should no longer walk like the gentiles now if that was necessary for paul to write to the ephesians then it is necessary for us to be reminded again today we've been saved we used to walk with them we should no longer walk like them we should no longer walk like them and folk you know this is a thing a theme that i keep coming back to is that so many christians claim to be saved claim to be born again and yet there is no difference between their lifestyle and the lifestyle of the world they're walking just like the world when you watch their behavior in their jobs when you watch the way that they spend their money when you watch their way that their families operate when you watch every aspect of your lives of their lives you say well there's no difference between this man and the man who lives next door to him who is not a christian but we should be different we should be walking worthy of the calling that god has placed upon our lives we should no longer be walking like the gentiles and when he speaks about gentiles obviously he's not meaning gentiles as in the sense of christians or jews and gentiles but he's speaking about gentiles as unbelievers and so and and then he lists some of the things but he speaks about that we should no longer walk as the gentiles who walk in the futility of their minds the futility of their minds this is something he speaks about in romans chapter 1 and he speaks about the fact that they became futile in their thinking futile means empty going nowhere going around in circles and the gentiles way of thinking goes around in circles it goes nowhere it leads nowhere they they have their their thoughts are not any greater than the little thing that it revolves around and what is that me i and myself every thought they have comes back to one point me everything that they think about comes back to the same point me never leads anywhere never takes them anywhere it has no higher aspirations now we have been translated from this futile way of thinking that revolves just around me and my little world we've been brought into a lifestyle and into a way of thinking where suddenly god has opened up where eternity is we've begun to understand when the things of god suddenly we begin to to have have some comprehension of when suddenly all of the world we begin to see things in a different way now he says why do you want to walk like the gentiles who walk in the futility of their mind they're just going around in circles just comes back to me comes back to me i my desires my needs my ambitions my my flesh whatever it is no he says don't be like that don't walk in a futile way that leads nowhere walk with purpose head somewhere must be the most it is the most frustrating a few times in my life i've got lost either driving or walking and the most terrible thing about that is that you come back to the same point and you say but i've been here before i i've been i've been walking or driving for all this time and i've got nowhere i'm still in the same place and remember this was the problem the people of israel had 40 years they went around the wilderness kept coming back to the same place kadesh baniya year after year they come back to the same place the same place never going anywhere in fact this is this is one of the reasons why many christians lose interest why many christians backslide is because they don't get anywhere you remember samson when they put his eyes out what did they make him do they made him grind corn in the prison house and so there he was and i'm sure you've seen pictures of these big millstones and then there's a big wooden beam and normally they have an ox or an animal that that pushes this thing around and around but in this case they had samson pushing him are you going around in circles day in and day out just this terrible grind and folk there are many christians whose lives are like that day in and day out the same stuff the same issues church and christianity and serving the lord just becomes a ball it becomes a grind because it's the same old stuff all the time why because they're not going anywhere because they're following and they're walking in the futility of their mind going around in that same little circle all the time and paul says he says i you have a great calling now walk worthy of that calling that calling is going to take us somewhere it's taking us to heaven it's taking us to be like jesus it's taking us into a deeper knowledge of his word and to a deeper relationship with him into a deeper sense of of purpose and and of of meaning to our lives why do we want to go around in circles and walk like the gentiles who never seem to get anywhere i'm sure we're all sick and tired of hearing about paris hilton and yet there's just such such a blatant illustration of the futility of the mind of a gentile because in one word they tell me she has suddenly become spiritual and then what's the first thing she does when she comes out of prison she has hair extensions she is so profoundly spiritual that the most important thing in her life is to have her hair extensions done but how small is your world how futile is your thinking and yet god has something far greater for us far more important than just my little stupid endless ritual of serving myself now in chapter five verse two he says walk in love as christ has also loved us and given himself for us and offering a sacrifice to god sorry an offering and a sacrifice to god for a sweet smelling aroma and sorry verse one says therefore be imitators of god as dear children and walk in love walk in love and so while we have this great calling and we need to be walking worthy of that calling we should no longer be walking like the gentiles just going around in circles we need to be walking in love in our relationship with one another you see we can be so goal oriented and we i'm told that there are really two kinds of people those who are people oriented and those who are task oriented people who are task oriented really don't care much about people as long as they can get their achieve their goal now it's possible for me as a christian to become so goal oriented i'm so focused on becoming everything that god has for me that i'm not a very nice person to live with i've become so spiritual and i've become so condemnatory of everybody around me and my standard becomes so high and i'm everybody else if you don't if you can't measure up to my standard of christianity you you really are not a christian and so on and so on now he's saying while we have this high calling and we're walking worthy of that high calling we also need to walk in love in our relationship with one another understanding that not everybody can walk at the same pace understanding that not everybody is walking directly to that goal many people and most of us take long detours and it's easy for us to condemn those who are on a detour over there chasing rabbits over there and going down that way and somehow not really making headway in their christian walk and so even though we we have this high standard and and folk i i don't want you to feel that we should lower our standard that you should lower your goal and say i you know no you you chase after what god has called you for and you chase after the calling of god on your life but at the same time walk in love to others who are maybe not as good at walking that walk as you may be and so we need to walk with love and in love with those around us then in chapter 5 and verse 8 for you were once darkness notice that he doesn't say you were in darkness but he says you were darkness that's a that's a big difference one thing to be in darkness it's another thing to be darkness but that's where we were we once darkness but now you are light now you are light in the lord walk as children of light walk as children of light in other words he's saying walk openly walk openly don't walk concealing things be open in your relationship with god be open in your relationship with others and do the things that you're not ashamed of remember the scripture warns us that those who do bad things do them at night burglars don't often break into houses during the day they do it at night people don't get some do but really most drunkenness is at night most crime happens at night but he's saying we're no longer darkness we're now light and we need to walk as those who are in the light and so we need to be doing the things that we are not ashamed of that we shouldn't be doing anything that we feel we need to hide that we need to hide from god or that we need to hide from one another all the things that we do we should be able to say my life is open you can look at every area of my life including my thinking my deep thoughts they should be open they should be thoughts of light they shouldn't be anything that i want to hide and i don't want anybody else to see and i should be walking before god in that kind of way and i should be walking before other people in that kind of way and folk as christians we should be we should be simple and i don't mean by that stupid but we should be uncomplicated we shouldn't need to confuse and hide and manipulate and try and duck and dive because our we don't want anybody to know our true agenda we don't want people to really know how we think or what we feel we should become simple and open with one another we should be walking in the light here i am this is who i am this is this is what i mean this is what i desire this is who this is my purpose this is my goal we shouldn't be hiding things we shouldn't be hiding things from god you know the strange this is this is a strange thing is that we think that god that we can hide things from god now we can we can hide things from one another but there is everything remember the scripture says all things are open before him with whom we have to do there is nothing that god doesn't know and yet sometimes in fact often i think we we live and we say well god can't see this and we think he doesn't see no he does so let me be open with him and when i sin let me be open with him let me not try and find excuses and say well god you know no let me just be open lord i've sinned remember david i've sinned just as simple as that and so let's walk as children of the light let's be open with one another let's be open with god let's do the things that are done during the day let's not do things that we feel we have to do under the cover of darkness or under the cover of of of that we don't want anybody to see and then finally in chapter 5 and verse 15 is the last of the seven chapter 5 and verse 15 see then that you walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise redeeming the time because the days are evil now you remember one of the previous ones he says don't walk like the gentiles who walked in the futility of their minds but now here's the other side the opposite walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise the word circumspectly means carefully that's all walk carefully now why should we walk carefully well because there are many pitfalls there are many stumbling blocks there are many snares there are many byways there are many false signs that point in the wrong direction and so we need to be walking carefully don't just blindly think i'm going i'm serving the lord and everybody else is loving the lord and so we're all just merrily going in the right direction but in fact the next chapter he reminds us that we have an enemy who has many tricks and who's going to do everything he can to dissuade us and discourage us and to tempt us from following this this goal that god is in our lives and so let's be wise let's be careful about how that we live and so one of the things that he says that we need to be careful about is about the way that we use time now you can see how practical he's getting and so walk wisely or circumspectly not as fools but as wise redeeming the time you'll see there's no there's no full stop at the or period at the end of 15 it's just a comma and so chapter verse 16 is the same continuing redeeming the time because the days are evil what does it mean to time remember redeem means to buy back so when you put something in hock or in the pawn shop you go back and you suddenly i've got somebody's attention you you go back and you redeem the item you gave him the watch and he gave you ten dollars now you go back and you pay the ten dollars plus the interest and you redeem the watch or when you redeem the mortgage you're buying it back now he's saying we need to buy back the time in other words he's saying time is precious time is valuable it was a benjamin franklin who said time is money time is valuable don't squander the time time is a precious resource that god has given to us sometimes we look at time as something evil we say well you know that's part of this life let me just get through it and let me somehow just get to heaven no he's saying god has given us the time that we have and what i need to do is i need to i need to buy that time i need to use that time profitably that's walking wisely that's walking carefully because one of the things that the devil is going to try to do is to steal and to rob us of our time remember that's what he does he robs he kills and he destroys and if he can rob you of your time if he can rob you of opportunities to serve the lord of opportunities to worship the lord of opportunities to read his word of opportunities to do the things you should be doing then he can succeed at his at his work of destruction don't allow the devil time an opportunity to steal your time and we know how easily that happens how easily we procrastinate and we'll do it tomorrow manana and it never happens never happens and oh i'm good we have every intention and i know how it goes i still have the same struggles you have every intention to achieve certain things today and then this happens and this phone call and this and we're distracted and we get to the end of the day and we never did what we were supposed to do yeah we were busy all day but we never did what we were supposed to do we need to redeem the time that's walking wisely that's walking carefully and so even in let me walk worthy of the great calling with which god has called us and if you've been called to a very important job in an important position remember we spoke about this mayor of the city who was sitting outside on the sidewalk lining up for his iphone and people were saying that's not what we pay you for you have more important things to do than to sit on the sidewalk lining up for a phone and folk we have more important things to do than some of the things we do sometimes now there is time we have to rest there are times that we need to recreate there are times that we will go to the beach like on saturday but there are times we have to do other things let's be wise let's be doing what god wants us to be doing at every moment of the day and now we come full circle to where we ended last week walking in the spirit means just doing every moment of the day what god wants me to be doing at that moment that's walking in the spirit same message here walk carefully walk wisely redeeming the time why because the days are evil the time will be stolen the time will will just disappear as sand through your fingers and when you see again the day is gone the year is gone and i'm over through most half more than half of my life and i don't know what happened to many of those years remember that old song wasted years wasted years oh how foolish don't waste your time redeem the time walk wisely walk carefully because we have a high calling father we thank you for your word we thank you lord for the practical aspects as well as the profound aspects of your word and lord as we speak about practical things today we pray that you would help us first of all to be grateful for the fact that you've saved us you've taken us from a futile senseless lifestyle and brought us onto your highway lord that you've given to us a great purpose and a great calling but now we pray that you'd help us lord to walk worthy of that calling to be the people you want us to be to do every moment of the day what you want us to be doing and lord that at the end of the day we may please you and so father we pray that you'd help us to make progress not to be standing still not to be going backward but to be making progress in our lifestyle that lord it may every day be a little bit more like jesus and a little bit more in your direction and so we thank you for these things lord we pray for those who's going to come to your table this morning lord to remember what jesus has done we pray that you would make us profoundly and deeply grateful for what you have done in our lives and lord for those who have to leave we pray that you'd go with them and that you'd partner us with your blessing we ask this in jesus name amen