Growing Together

Well, good morning.

Once again, my name is Wes.

I was here last week.

If you were here with us, it was great being with you.

I'm excited to be back to bring God's word for us this morning.

So if you want to open up in your Bibles

or look in your bulletin at Ephesians chapter 4,

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

we're going to be looking at verses 7 through 16 this week.

And if you were here last week,

you heard me kind of give the caution

that as we come to this passage,

we need to be reminded that

as in many of Paul's letters,

he spent a lot of time building out for us

the core truths of the gospel,

the grace of Jesus given to us

before he gets to these gospel therefores.

And so we're looking at a passage

that has a lot of implications for how we should live,

how we should interact with one another.

But those how-tos are rooted

in what Jesus alone has done for us in the gospel.

What we are striving to do in our efforts to love one another,

in our efforts to paint a picture to the world of the unity

that Jesus has already created by his sacrifice,

is not efforts to save ourselves.

It's not efforts to earn our salvation.

If you're here this morning,

and you're not sure where you stand

in relation to this Christianity idea,

you're here perhaps as a visitor, as a skeptic,

we're so glad that you're here with us.

We're honored.

I'm honored that you would even listen to what I have to say.

This is not a how-to-earn-God's-love message for us this morning.

This is a how-do-we-respond-to-God's-love-for-us-in-Christ.

And so I hope you're encouraged by that,

and you're reminded of that as we go to this passage.

I'm gonna read this for us as we begin Ephesians chapter 4,

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

starting in verse 7.

And then I would invite you to go to the throne of grace with me,

that we would go together in prayer

to ask God's blessing on our time together in his word.

And so let me read this for us as we begin our time together

in God's word this morning, starting in verse 7.

But grace was given to each one of us

according to the measure of Christ's gift.

Therefore it says, when he ascended on high,

he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.

In saying he ascended, what does it mean

but that he also descended into the lower regions, the earth?

He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens,

that he might fill all things.

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists,

the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints

for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.

Until we all attain to the unity of the faith

and of the knowledge of the Son of God,

to mature manhood to the measure of the stature

of the fullness of Christ.

So that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves

and carried about by every wind of doctrine,

by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes.

Rather, speaking the truth in love,

we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head,

into Christ, from whom the whole body,

joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped,

when each part is working properly,

makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

Let's pray together.

Gracious Father, once again,

we thank you for the chance to gather together in your name this morning,

that you are a God who speaks,

and in your speech and in your action,

you have called a people to yourself,

a people that was not a people,

but by the blood of Jesus,

you have claimed us as your own.

You have cleansed us.

You have redeemed us.

You have given us a new name.

You call us your children.

And so as we gather together as your family this morning,

Father, you know where each of us is coming from.

You know the burdens we carry.

You know the particular ways that we come to this passage this morning,

wondering about the grace of Jesus,

reaching for that grace,

or perhaps afraid of what that grace might mean

in terms of the change that it can bring into our lives.

Father, would you draw us near to you by your spirit?

Would you give us eyes to see and ears to hear?

Would you help us see the sweet gifts of the risen and ascended Jesus

given to your church this morning

that we might pursue that unity that we saw last week,

that we might pursue that love and service of one another

because of your love and service to us?

Father, we ask these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

When I was in seminary,

Kelly and I had a very unique housing situation.

We had a parent of a teacher in high school

that had a country house on the state line.

I was going to seminary in Charlotte in North Carolina.

My wife kind of got her dream job as an oncology nurse.

Back in the town, we were from Spartanburg, South Carolina.

So we were living in between these two cities

and we were on this old farmhouse

that was being rented to us at a very affordable rate.

It was very kind of a Lord to provide that.

And one of the things that came with this house was like,

all right, we have all this land.

What are we going to do?

Well, there was this plot of land that was perfect for a garden.

And so we had a garden

and not only did we have this garden,

but I had my Meemaw.

And if you can't tell by that name,

Meemaw was just like a walking farmer's atlas.

She knew how to plant everything and when to plant it.

And so my Uncle Greg and my Meemaw

helped me actually have a successful garden,

which was a sweet thing to have.

And I kind of enjoyed that.

It was a fun thing to have.

It was fun to bring people tomatoes and things like that.

But when we moved to Georgia,

I was like, oh, so like I'm a gardener now.

You know, like I can do this.

So we get to our house

and it's a pretty similar place

in terms of like, you know, the weather and the soil.

There's not that much different from where we lived.

But it is a neighborhood.

So I'm going to do the cool thing

and do a raised bed garden.

So I do everything kind of the same

as I had done it before.

Everything started to grow and it looked nice.

But one thing was different

about our first house in Georgia.

And that was it had a lot of trees.

It had a ton of trees.

So many trees.

Like when I think back on how many trees we had

and now that we live in Colorado,

I'm like, man, can a place have that many trees?

And it did.

It had that many trees.

And so one thing our garden lacked

was the one thing it had to have.

It just did not have much sunlight, right?

And in my wisdom, my expertise as a gardener,

I failed to see that until after I had built

the raised bed garden and put in the time and effort.

And so even as things grew some,

there was very little fruit that was yielded.

And I just mentioned that story just to say,

once again, it is essential that we have

the light of Jesus shining on us.

That without that light shining on us,

there is no hope for fruitfulness.

And yet part of what Paul is doing

in the passage we're looking at

is he's saying that the light of Jesus is shining on you.

If you are in Christ and you have his spirit,

that light is shining on you.

And now we can begin to talk about

some of the other things that go into growing

and producing fruit in Christ.

We can start to talk about some of the other gifts

that King Jesus has given us

in order to pursue each other and care for one another.

And as we begin to move towards each other in Christ

and serve each other,

one of the things we have to recognize

is that because Jesus is a generous king,

a king who delights in giving his people good gifts

because our father in heaven is a good father

who delights in giving his people good gifts

because he hasn't withheld the most precious gift from us.

He's already laid down his son's life for us.

How can he withhold any gift for us now in Christ?

That this community is a gifted community.

It's a community that Jesus longs to see

pursue each other by the gifts that he's given,

that a community seeking unity in Christ

actually has a diversity of gifts from King Jesus

to pursue that unity.

And that's what we're gonna look at this morning.

It's what I want us to be challenged by,

but I want us to never lose sight

of the light of Jesus that we need,

that this is an overflow of the abundance

of the grace of Jesus given to his people.

And I want us to begin looking at verses seven to 10

and to see this idea that the church of Jesus

is a gifted church.

Not it will be a gifted church,

not maybe it could become a gifted church,

but there is a diversity of gifts

that Jesus has given his church.

And when we begin to embrace that,

I think it actually changes the way

that we move towards each other.

If you look at the passage with me in verse seven,

there's a distinct shift, isn't there?

Especially if you have a Bible open,

you can kind of look back at the passage

we were looking at last week.

This comes out of that famous statement

of the unity of the gospel,

like the one Lord, the one faith, the one baptism,

the God and Father of all,

who is ruler over all and through all and in all.

Up to this point that therefore,

the walking worthy of the gospel

and the push towards unity

has been an invitation to see our oneness in Jesus.

Notice that in verse seven,

Paul now shifts to our individuality, doesn't he?

There's a but each one of us.

Despite this call to unity,

it doesn't mean that now who we are

as individuals doesn't matter.

This is not a call to kind of abandon

all of our gifts and personalities.

Instead, Paul wants us to see

that grace was given to each one of us

according to the measure of Christ's gift.

That part of the plan of King Jesus

and calling a people to himself

is that that people would have a diversity of gifts.

And this is actually a really big idea in Paul's writing.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 12,

1 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

we can see in verses five and six

that there's a variety of service,

varieties of service, but the same Lord.

There's a variety of activities,

but it's the same God who empowers them all and everyone.

In Romans 12, we can also go and see

that the different measures of faith

lead into a discussion of different functions

of the members of the body.

Later in this passage,

he's gonna use this metaphor

that speaks to the different purposes of the body.

This is a huge idea

in Paul's understanding of the body of Christ.

To be a member of this body

is to be a member of a body

that has a variety of gifts.

And where do those gifts come from?

Paul says they come from the ascended Lord Jesus.

And he gives us this image

that comes from Psalm 68, right?

You ascended on high,

leading a host of captives in your train

and receiving gifts among men,

even among the rebellious,

that the Lord God may dwell there.

This image from the Psalms of a conquering king

who having conquered,

who having won victory,

now has a host of captives

and a host of gifts to give to his people.

The idea that in Jesus,

our principal enemies,

sin and death itself have been conquered.

And now Jesus has ascended on high

and sits at his father's right hand.

And from that place of power,

Paul wants us to see

that part of his purpose in ascending

is so like an ascended king

who sits on his throne

and now has authority granted to him.

He gives good gifts.

He gives good gifts.

And there's a variety of gifts

that can come out of that.

And yet one of the things I think we have to do

is before we even get into some of the specific gifts

that Paul mentions in this passage,

we need to ask ourselves,

do I believe this of the body of Christ?

When I come to church,

am I thinking,

all right, here I go.

I'm headed to the place

where there's a bunch of gifts

of the risen ascended Lord Jesus at work,

ready to serve me and my family and my children,

ready to serve me and my neighbors,

an opportunity for me now

to serve uniquely as a child of God, right?

There's a diversity of gifts.

There's a diversity of tools

and it's actually a beautiful thing.

A lot of people in Colorado love to bike.

They love to ski.

I will just raise my hand and confess,

I too fall victim to those wonderful hobbies.

And there's a joke among those hobbies

and it's funny

because both of them kind of have the same joke

and that's that the right number of skis

or the right number of bikes is N plus one

or N is the number you currently have.

Now that's not necessarily a good thing,

but it does speak to this idea, right?

That when we get into something

and we love something and we enjoy it,

as we're drawn into that,

we often just wanna have more and more things to enjoy, right?

And you think at first like,

oh, if I just have a set of skis,

I could ski down this mountain.

You're like, no, no, no, no.

What sort of conditions are we dealing with here?

Are we looking at powder?

Are we going back country, right?

If we're riding a bike,

are we riding a mountain bike to do road bike riding?

Heaven forbid that would happen, right?

There's a variety of tools.

There's a variety of things we would use to do certain things.

When we went to Japan on this mission trip,

I thought we wanted like a Japanese knife.

If you're a cook, if you like,

you might know like Japan is one of the knife capitals,

but honestly, I was overwhelmed

with the types of knives and the shapes of knives.

I was like, how can there be this many knives?

And yet I'm someone who loves

that there's that many skis and that many bikes.

And so there's so many hobbies and things we can get into

where we're like, man,

if I could just have more of these things.

And I think there's something beautiful about that, right?

That as we get into a craft, as we get into a hobby,

we see the different ways that things can be enjoyed.

And one of the things that I hope you're encouraged by

is that Jesus actually looks at the church and says,

there is almost an unending number of gifts

and people that I can use in my kingdom.

You might be sitting here this morning

and thinking about your personality and your giftings

and thinking, well, I'm not that sort of person.

You might have a vision of a very gregarious,

outgoing person.

And you might think that in order to serve the church,

Jesus is really looking for this type of person,

this sort of relational ninja.

You might be thinking about someone sitting next to you

that you're like, I could never know

as much as so and so about the Bible.

You might be thinking of someone here this morning.

You're like, if I could pray like them, I mean.

But I can't.

I'm not that sort of prayer warrior.

And it's not that these things aren't admirable things.

I mean, many of us should be aspiring

to grow closer to the Lord in prayer.

And yet one of the beautiful things

about the body of Jesus

is that we get to acknowledge

that he's given us each different measures of faith

and gifting and personality.

And really the only kind of prerequisite for that

is the prerequisite that's happened already

in Ephesians, humble hearts

that recognize their need for the grace of Jesus.

That if we come to the Lord Jesus in humility,

confessing our sin,

believing that his grace alone can redeem us

and give us a new identity,

God can work with humble people

dependent on the grace of Jesus.

And not only does he work with them,

but what Paul wants us to see

is that he actually is intent on giving them gifts.

Right?

This should affect every aspect of our life

as the body of Christ.

It means that on the days

where we're perhaps worn down

about the struggles at home

and our parenting,

I mean, I love the way that

in our membership vows,

we take vows as a community, don't we?

If you're here this morning as a visitor

and you don't know what I'm talking about,

one of the things that happens

when someone joins our churches

in our denomination

is not only do they take vows

about what they believe,

but the congregation takes a vow of commitment

to care for them and their children.

It's a beautiful reflection

of this New Testament idea

that we are all called to the body of Christ

and we all need the variety of gifts

in order to love and serve each other

and our children.

If you think about outreach,

I hope we think about outreach

as the body of Christ.

It can be so discouraging, can't it,

to think about evangelism and outreach.

And we might look at ourselves and say,

well, I'm an introvert

or I have this kind of personality

or I have no interest in that biking and skiing

that he's talking about.

Is God calling me to reach all of the bikers

and skiers in Colorado Springs?

No.

I have a variety of theological reasons

for saying that,

not just this passage.

Right?

But the beauty is,

is that Jesus invites us into a community

where there's other people

to help us love and serve our neighbors.

Right?

That you might have the opportunity

to get to know people

where God has placed you

and say, you know what?

I don't know if I'm very gifted,

but I know someone in my body of Jesus

that actually could really serve you well right now.

And I actually believe

that that's part of what King Jesus wants us to do.

In order for this to happen,

I hope this is obvious to us,

but I'll just mention it.

It just, it can't happen

unless we get to know each other.

Right?

Like if I don't know the body sitting around me,

if I'm not beginning to move towards

the people around me

and get to know who Jesus has called

to my particular church,

it'll be very hard for me

to actually practically live out

this idea of the gifting of Jesus.

And this is a place where,

we're about to talk about elders in just a moment,

but this is a place where you could perhaps

go to the leadership of your church

and ask some of these questions.

If you're wrestling with something

or you're struggling with something

and you're wondering,

well, how has the church gifted?

How has Jesus gifted this church

that might actually speak to this area?

This might be a great place

to get to know your elders.

And they might have a better idea,

a better grasp on the ways

that King Jesus has already gifted this church.

Oh, well, so-and-so is actually

like this fantastic prayer warrior.

And they would probably love

to come alongside you in prayer.

Let's start with going to Jesus in prayer.

Because as we accept the giftings of Jesus,

the fact that the body of Christ

is always a gifted body

because King Jesus loves to give gifts,

that actually moves us to be an equipped body.

And that's the second thing

I want us to see in this passage.

That as we begin to accept the idea

that King Jesus gives gifts,

it actually leads us to long to be an equipped body.

And it begins by seeing what gifts Paul mentions here.

And this is actually, I'll just mention this.

This is a passage I love to go to with college students

to kind of explain the importance of the local church,

why Jesus is calling them to the church.

Because this one, I think always,

I've never mentioned this passage to a college student

and not had some degree of surprise at this point.

But I want you to ask the question,

what gifts does Paul mention in this passage?

Let's look at verse 11, right?

After talking about the risen, ascended Jesus,

he says, and he gave.

What did he give Paul?

The apostles, the prophets, the evangelists,

the shepherds, and teachers.

I just want to stop there and say,

the first thing he names

is probably not the thing you or I would name, right?

Like if we were just like,

hey, what sort of gifts does Jesus give the church?

We'd probably be quick to run to spiritual gifts.

We might run to some of the character qualities of Jesus,

the fruit of the spirit.

That would be, those are wonderful answers.

But here, Paul goes to church offices.

That's not my first thing.

I am in a church office.

The way REF functions,

I'm actually a teaching elder,

ordained in the same way our local pastors ordained

and then sent to the college campus.

I am in a church office

and I would never first answer,

say, what gifts does Jesus give church offices?

Right?

Here he's saying that Jesus has actually given

specific roles to his people,

specific offices to actually help them be equipped

and encouraged and built up.

The first we are actually seeing

as we look at scripture together.

When we look at God's word together,

we are seeing the gifts of that apostolic office,

that specific office of people

that were sent out in the early church,

witnesses of Jesus,

to give authoritative scripture.

We don't have time this morning

for me to make the more kind of full-orbed argument

for how that word apostle really speaks

to that specific revelatory office,

but I'm sure your elders would love

to sit down and talk to you about that.

So that's one thing that is mentioned here.

Another thing that's mentioned

is evangelists, church planters,

those who have a special gift

in planting and growing churches

and doing evangelism and going to places

and sharing the gospel.

I'll just admit,

sometimes when people are like,

what do you do?

Why do you do it?

How do we make sense

of why you should even be doing what you're doing?

Sometimes I'm like,

you know, I struggle with that question too,

just to be honest.

But sometimes, like,

I do kind of point to this idea

that even in the early church,

there was this idea of the church

sending out evangelists to places.

Go to this place and spread the gospel.

And there is the hope of,

often of planting churches,

but the idea of like going to the college campus,

go beyond the college campus

and preach the gospel

and reach our covenant children

and help equip them

to reach and serve their classmates

and bear witness to Jesus.

All right.

The one I want us to focus on this morning

just to be mindful of the most,

I think,

because it's so relevant

in the local body of believers,

is the shepherds and teachers.

Jesus actually gifts his church

with this office of shepherds and teachers

because at the heart of the idea of church

is this idea of the gathering

and perfecting of the saints.

That's language that our confession uses

to kind of summarize

that the purpose of the church,

this idea that King Jesus

is drawing his people to himself.

And as he draws his people to himself

through the ministry of the word and prayer,

he's then equipping them

to serve one another

and to serve the world around them

to his glory.

Just as we've confessed, right?

It's getting back at that chief end of man

to glorify God,

to enjoy him forever.

Jesus has gifted these offices

to draw us together

so that we might enjoy

and delight in God

and point others

to that matchless glory,

that worthy God and Savior.

And just,

I want us to see

just the weight of this call

and this office

and the role it has.

In Acts chapter 20,

Acts 20 · chapter mention

I think it's a special place for us to go

because we're in the book of Ephesians.

Paul is kind of saying his last words

to the elders of Ephesus, right?

The same people that he's writing to here.

And notice the weight

that he gives them to this office.

And it's actually a place

where he uses these words

that we often use interchangeably

like elder, pastor,

even overseer, bishop.

Those words all appear

in verb or noun form

in this short kind of exhortation.

But in Acts chapter 20,

Acts 20 · chapter mention

speaking to the Ephesian elders,

Paul says this,

now for Miletus,

he sent to Ephesus

and called the elders of the church

to come to him.

And then in verse 28,

this is what he says,

pay careful attention

to yourself

and to all the flock

in which the Holy Spirit

has made you overseers.

It's that bishop word.

To care for the church

of God,

which he obtained

with his own blood.

Right?

From the early days

of the church,

King Jesus has been

gifting people,

calling them to this unique office

to care for the flock of God.

To care for the flock

that Jesus shed his blood for.

And so I think

there's a lot of application

here for us

as we see Paul

in Ephesians 4 say,

part of the giftings

of Jesus

are these offices

is how do we encourage

or support these offices?

In other words,

are we availing ourselves

of the gift of Jesus?

Have you in recently

or in the past year

thought to yourself,

well, you know,

I'm trying to grow

closer to Jesus.

I need to avail myself

of the gift

of the elders

and deacons

of this church.

once again,

I'll just raise my hand

and say that's not

something I normally go to.

When I sit down

and ask students,

like,

how are you doing spiritually?

When we kind of get into that,

how do you evaluate

that question?

You know,

how do you gauge that?

What does it look like

for you to actually

be doing well spiritually?

I don't think

I've ever gotten the answer.

You know what?

Like,

I'm really enjoying

the body of Christ

and especially

the gifting of the offices

that Jesus has given

the church.

I would love to have

that answer sometime.

I'd be like,

wow,

that's really mature

and not expected.

Right?

And one of the reasons

I'm excited about being

in this passage with you

is Matthew continues

his sabbatical,

but you're getting closer

to the time of him returning.

I'll just say that

I think it's beautiful

that your church

is practicing

a biblical pattern

of rest

and caring for

the gifting of Jesus

of this office.

But I'll just also confess

that as a pastor

with lots of pastor friends,

I have heard for many say

that like sometimes

coming back from sabbatical

can be really hard.

What does it look like

to reintegrate

into the church?

What does it look like

for you as a congregation

and for other elders

to help Matthew

reintegrate well?

To maybe not be flooded

on day one

with all of the problems

that you think

need to be fixed

right away,

immediately

from everything that happened

while he was gone?

There's a lot of things

that you can be praying about

and thinking about.

Well,

if this is a gift of Jesus,

how can I reflect

that gifting

in the way that

I care for Matthew

and the other elders here?

But this is obviously

a passage that speaks

of the weight

of what we're doing

to the elders as well,

right?

What does it look like

for you elders

and deacons

who are called

to serve the church

and the needs

of the church

and those who are

on the outside

or those who are

in need of mercy,

the leadership

of the church,

what does it look like

for you to care

for this flock?

There's a pastor,

William Still,

one of our seminary professors

because he knew him personally,

he called him Willie.

I just thought

that was so funny.

But William Still

had this beautiful line

about this idea

that in order

to feed the flock,

we must be fed men.

We must be feeding others

out of that drawing,

out of the grace

that Jesus is offering

to us ourselves.

Are you being fed

from the hand of Jesus

so you can turn

as under shepherds

to the flock

and feed them

and care for them as well?

I just want to point out

that the real authority

of this entire model

rests in King Jesus'

authority, doesn't it?

That all of our authority

is subservient

to King Jesus

who is the ascended leader

and this is a beautiful passage

to go and see that.

But it's a challenging passage,

right?

It suggests that there

are many gifts

that Jesus has given

the church

and that it even includes

some of these offices

and people.

I don't often quote

our book of church order

when I preach.

In fact,

I almost never do

and it's probably

a dangerous place

to go at times

just to get lost

in headiness

and ideas

and church government.

But our BCO

beautifully says,

the head of the church

is Christ

and that all of these

offices and gifts

are subservient

to Christ

and his purposes.

And so that the government

of our church

says that Jesus

is the head

of the church

and that image

even of Jesus

being the head

of the church

comes from passages

like this one

where Paul says

that even these giftings,

what are they aimed at?

What does a gifted

and equipped community

aim for?

And that's what we look at

in the final part

of our passage

starting in verse 13,

starting in verse 12 really,

right?

It's an aim

of growing

into loving maturity.

That a gifted church

that believes

that Jesus is calling

it to be

an equipped church

is ultimately aiming

to be a loving,

mature church

that grows

into Christ.

And it starts

in verse 13

with this aim,

right?

And I think

this is so important

for us to begin there

because this is one

of the key verses

in a passage

that once again

is heavy on things

we can be doing

and thinking about

and pursuing.

This is one

of the verses

that I think

gets us back

to the grace

of Jesus,

right?

Until we all

attain to the unity

of faith

and of the knowledge

of the Son of God

to mature manhood

to the measure

of the stature

of the fullness

of Christ.

To go back

to verse 12

and ask this question,

right?

How long do we do

these equipping things?

What does it look like

for us to be seeking

to be equipped

and submitting

to the equipping work

of those God

has placed over us

and for us to begin

moving towards each other

with the hope

of speaking truth

and love

like it's a natural

question to ask,

well,

how long do we do this?

What's the parameters,

right?

Here's the goal.

The measure

of the fullness,

the stature

of the fullness

of Jesus himself.

Now,

if you

are a follower

of Jesus,

I hope your immediate

reaction to that

is,

oh,

forever.

If your reaction

to that verse

is not,

oh,

forever,

like we might need

to go back

to earlier parts

of Ephesians once again

and talk about

what the gospel is.

Right?

This idea

that none of us

is able to save ourselves.

All of us

are sinners

in need of the grace

that Jesus alone offers.

Right?

The measure

of Jesus

is perfection.

It is his fullness

and his holiness.

In other words,

Paul is saying

this is the life

of a Christian.

This is not just

something we do

for a season.

This is what it means

to be a Christian.

It's having been redeemed

by the grace of Jesus

the rest of our lives

we are working together

to grow into maturity,

a maturity

that we will not attain

in this life.

That we will not attain

until Jesus comes

and makes all things new

and every last bit

of sin in the fall,

every sadness,

every tear

is pushed back

and cast into the lake of fire.

Until that happens,

we all are in this process

of growth

and sanctification

and drawing near

to each other

with the hope

of speaking truth

and love

with the goal

that we would grow

into loving maturity.

In verse 14,

right,

is this image

that Paul gives us

of being anchored,

of not being tossed about

and blown about.

I don't know

if you've ever been out

on a large lake

or an ocean

when a storm is coming.

It is a terrifying thing.

One thing we experienced

growing up in South Carolina,

sometimes we'd go out

in the intercoastal waterway,

sometimes in our fairly small boat

we'd venture out

probably further than we should,

is once that storm

starts to blow in,

if you thought your anchor

was set and it was not,

you're done.

Like,

it's getting dragged.

It is a terrifying thing

to try and get that anchor set

once the waves

get to a certain point,

right?

And one of the things

that Paul wants us to see

is that we do,

we Christians have always,

since the fall,

lived in a world

that is tossed to and fro,

that there are doctrines

that are at times

of evil origin,

there's human cunning

and craftiness,

there's deceitful schemes.

That is,

and some of you

might have read this,

looked at this passage

this morning

and been like,

oh man,

that really feels like

it hits right now.

And our temptation

sometimes is to be like,

it's never been as bad

as it is now.

And notice that,

Paul's saying it's pretty bad,

isn't he,

in the early church times.

That there are all sorts

of forces and powers

at work

that would love

to deceive us,

that would love

to blow us astray,

that would love

to blow us,

to crash into one another

in violence,

in conflict.

That,

in other words,

this sort of loving maturity,

this sort of growth

isn't natural to us

as fallen people,

as sinners in need

of God's grace.

I laugh sometimes,

you heard me talk

about my failings,

my lack of a green thumb

earlier.

It's popular,

especially,

I think,

among current generations

to talk about

things happening organically

and authenticity

is like a big thing

right now,

I think,

for young people.

And sometimes

that word organic

is thrown around.

Like,

I just like to let things

just kind of happen

and I'm like,

man,

do you know how hard it is

to get stuff to actually grow

that you want to grow?

I mean,

if we're talking about weeds,

sure,

let's just do organic stuff.

But sometimes organic

is used as just kind of like

lack of intentionality,

let's just see what happens.

And that's not the picture

we get here,

is it,

of growth in Christ?

It's a fight,

it's a struggle.

There are things

seeking to draw us

away from the truth.

And instead of being blown about

what Paul longs for us to do,

we see in verse 15

that that maturing love

is a desire

to speak truth in love.

to speak truth in love

so that we can grow

into Christ.

In other words,

one of my chief purposes

as a follower of Jesus

is to long to see

those people around me

in the body of Christ

grow towards Jesus,

to look more like him,

to see more and more

how his grace

is offered to them,

how his spirit

is at work in them,

that that is a calling

of every believer

so that we can actually

work together.

And he gives us this image,

doesn't he,

in verse 16

of a body working together

of joints and ligaments

and this idea

that regardless

of those who might,

some who might be called

to this office

to equip the saints,

going back to verses 11 and 12,

that at the end of the day,

all of us in the body of Christ

have an essential role to play

to be a healthy,

functioning body.

And we might tend to look

at certain parts of our body

and say,

well,

this part's not very glorious,

this part's not that important.

It's all important.

And sometimes it's just

a simple one bone

being out of place,

right?

And we can be in great pain

and we can realize

how hard so many things

in life are.

One of the most hard things

about our trip to Japan,

one of our students

dislocated her hip

in Japan.

Wasn't on my bingo card.

I was like,

this cannot be happening.

I've skied with students

and biked with students a lot

since we've moved to Colorado

and I've never had

this traumatic of an injury happen.

And just that joint

being out of place

and a small fracture

on the femur head

and it was bad.

Overnight stay

in a hospital in Japan.

It was just a reminder,

right?

Like just one little thing

out of socket,

just a few ligaments

out of place

and you could be

in such pain

and so debilitated.

And part of the reason

I share her story

is while that was true

of her physically,

like she,

she just loves Jesus.

And so she got her crutches

and she just crutched

around Tokyo

pursuing Japanese students,

talking to them

about the love of Jesus.

At one point we were

at a dinner

and I just like

walked by her table

and overheard her talking

about who the Holy Spirit is.

And just,

I mentioned this last week,

like there are just,

there are no Christians

almost in Japan.

All of these students,

except for two of them

that we met with

were just not Christians

and yet she was pursuing them

and she was not letting

her physical malady

prevent her from seeing

that King Jesus

was excited to work

through her as well.

That there's a variety

of giftings in the body

and that he was going

to make his name

great and glorious

even through her

as she was hobbled

and hurt.

You are desperately needed

not because

there's anything

lacking in Jesus

but because King Jesus

has chosen

to work through

his people

because the body

of Christ

is his plan

for the advancement

of his kingdom

and you,

you can get it,

right?

Like I get it.

We look around

at each other

and we're like,

I don't know Jesus.

have you seen

the ways that I

continue to fail

and struggle?

Have you seen

the conflict

we're capable of?

Like are you sure

you want to hit yourself

to this wagon?

Right?

And yet that is what

Jesus assures

his people

that he is going

to do.

It's actually,

he says it's better

for him to leave

to his disciples

because he's going

to send his spirit

to work among them.

Jesus is doing

something incredible

among us

as we draw near

to him.

And so I hope

you're encouraged

this morning

by this idea

that Jesus

is at work

among his people,

that this vision

of unity

we talked about

last week

is actually

going to be realized

by the gifting

and grace of Jesus

worked out

in the lives

of individuals

seeking to love

one another

and serve one another.

This can only be done

by the gifting

of Jesus.

Would you pray with me?

Gracious Father,

once again,

we just thank you

that you are

a good, good father

and you love

to give your people

good gifts

and too often

perhaps we are prone

to listen

to the voice

of the accuser

and to deny

your grace to us

and to say to you,

no father,

not me,

like Moses,

like don't you want

someone that can speak

better?

And yet,

you are a faithful king.

you are faithful

to work through

the lives of your people.

Your gifting

is greater

than our sin.

Your grace

is greater

than our sin.

You are at work

through humble,

dependent,

needy people

by the grace

of Jesus.

Would you help us

to love each other

to your glory?

Would you help us

to point one another

to Jesus

so that we might grow

into this loving maturity,

this fullness,

the stature of Jesus?

Would you help us

to labor towards that

as your people

this morning

we ask in Jesus' name.

Amen.