Ephesians 4:15-16, NIRV (New International Reader's Version)

¹⁵Instead, we will speak the truth in love. So, we will grow up in every way to become the body of Christ. Christ is the head of the body. ¹⁶He makes the whole body grow and build itself up in love. Under the control of Christ, each part of the body does its work. It supports the other parts. In that way, the body is joined and held together.

Prop: Small bicycle that resembles a first bike a child would learn to ride.

Theme: Patience

Bike theme: Learning to ride takes practice and patience.

Message

Several weeks ago, when we began this series in worship, we also talked about what we needed to learn to ride a bike. When I mentioned the goal was to ride a bike by the end of the summer, did any of you think that is a long time to wait? It takes time to learn something for the first time. Sometimes it may seem easier to just jump on the bike and take off. But if we do that, we risk getting hurt or doing damage to the bike. Even if we are on the bike and the loved one that we talked about last week is holding on to the bike, we may think that person could just let go and we can ride like the wind down the sidewalk. But honestly, we are not ready yet to ride by ourselves. We still need to practice pedaling with the support of someone holding us steady. What would happen if you said for that person to let go pf the bike but you weren’t ready yet? That’s right; you might get hurt, and you might get upset with the person for letting go too soon. During this time of learning to ride, we also must learn to practice patience.

Paul reminds us in his letter to the Ephesians that we should also practice patience when we speak to someone. He instructs us to speak to someone in truth. If we speak to others in truth, we also speak in love. Sometimes it is hard to speak to someone in love. Maybe you feel that someone has wronged you or made you angry. Paul tells us that we learn to love those difficult to love by practicing patience. So, love is indeed a good thing. What if someone was helping you ride a bike, but you felt angry and then spoke angrily to that person? Not speaking out of line or angrily to someone takes patience. Our words reflect how people see God in us. We must continue to practice using our words to be more like Jesus.

We must continue to practice keeping our balance on our bike while someone that we love and trust holds on to the bike.

Prayer: God of love and trust. We ask that you give us patience. We ask for patience and understanding when someone treats us wrong. We ask for patience when learning something new like riding a bike. While we are waiting, God, we also know that we should continue to practice. Practice being a better bike rider. More important, we should practice being more like Jesus. It’s in his name, we pray. Amen.