Unified Ministry - Ephesians 4:1-17

Alright.

Key word, perseverance.

Whether sung or spoken, but best lived out.

Thank the Lord for our our King's kids um always uh inviting us to God and um somebody dropped the uh first page of my uh notes today, so I don't know where that went.

They wanted me to play it on the piano today, I guess.

So we're gonna sing our little sermon here.

We uh thank the Lord for what he's doing here at CBC.

Thank you all for coming out if it's your first time.

CBC, raise your hand.

All right, one of you.

Awesome.

Yeah no welcome.

You're not this is not your first time.

No, he showed up at our uh a bunch of guys came out yesterday for our men's uh workout, um cookout.

Some just came for the cookout, but some of them did work out.

We uh accomplished at least 15 projects in one quick afternoon and had some good burgers and dogs and fellowship together too.

So thank you all to all those guys who came out.

Um you are one of the best examples of our uh sermon title today, which is Unified Ministry.

And as we work together in God's kingdom, we do find uh that unity under Christ Himself, of course, who is the head of the church, his body, the bride that he gave his life for, and now he wants us to give it back, and in a in a sense, right, to um hand back some of that love that he's poured into our hearts and uh do it with those folks that he's put into our lives.

So the Apostle Paul begins as we're walking through this Ephesians uh series to chapter four, he begins with one of his favorite uh words, therefore.

He says, I therefore.

And if you know uh from prior passages, we see the Apostle Paul doing this all the time.

What he's doing, he's connecting the thing he said before to the thing he's going to say now through the Holy Spirit.

And so whenever you see the word therefore as you study his word, find out what it's therefore, right?

And uh this in this case, chapter three, uh closes with his description of what he describes as the mystery uh of the Gentiles.

So, how many of you here are Gentiles today?

Yep, not ceiling tiles.

We worked on those yesterday.

Gentiles.

Yes, um these are the ones who are not Jewish by descent, right?

So it's pretty much if you're not Jewish, you're a you're a Gentile.

And the mystery was that now God has opened the way to all peoples, which was always his design, his desire, his heart.

But he did so by first pulling one people group out for himself called the Jewish nation, the Hebrew people, because Abraham first settled in Hebron, so they were called Hebrews.

And then uh he taught through them uh what uh what faith was all about, right, through Abraham, the father of faith, and how to respond to him in obedience and walk in his ways.

And he did so in a uh amongst nations that were not following him.

Extremely, extremely sinful nations had become depraved in their nature from their flesh.

And so he called a people to himself to represent uh lawlessness or law lawfulness, which is the law of God, the Ten Commands.

And then he uh opened that way up through his son, Jesus Christ, so that all may be saved.

And that includes you and me.

Someone look at your neighbor and say, Amen to that.

So that was the mystery.

And then his closing prayer, chapter three, was for strength and the knowledge of the great love, the surpassing love of Christ Jesus.

And then Paul says, Therefore, so in light of all of that, right?

The opening of this way, the great love of God, through the knowledge of Jesus Christ the Son, he wants us to get to know him, folks.

Don't be that one at the gate that says, Lord, Lord, I, you know, I did all these things in your name, and he says, I don't know who you are.

Like I never had a relationship with you.

Who are you?

No, he knows who you are, he's calling you to himself, he's knocking at your door, he just wants you to open your heart to him.

And today you have that opportunity.

So in Ephesians 4, verse 1, it says, I therefore, Paul enters into what he saw as his current ministry.

Ephesians 4:1

He calls himself the prisoner of the Lord.

Uh not only was he writing this from a prison cell, but he believed he was a servant of the most high God.

How many of you already know that's the greatest calling in life, right?

Servants of the most high God.

You can wear that as a badge of honor.

It's not a depraved title.

It's actually, in Christ's economy, a sign of a leader, right?

Jesus said it himself.

In my kingdom, if you serve more people, you're a greater leader, right?

We serve from the bottom up, right?

His His kingdom uh teaches this humility that we're going to see today.

So, Paul, this prisoner of the Lord, says, I beseech you.

This is a very strong old English word meaning, I plead with you from the innermost part of my being.

I beseech you, he says, to walk worthy of the calling with which you are called.

How many are worthy today?

No, no hands go up, right?

We're not worthy.

What he's saying is we have to walk in a worthy manner, in the way that Jesus walked this earth.

And he describes it for us in the verse two.

He said, with all lowliness and gentleness, quite opposite from the way of the world, right?

How many of you have seen the peacock strutting down the sidewalk?

He's he's 18 years old, you know, he just graduated high school and he thinks he's got the world in his hand.

He's he's all that, right?

And you see his walk, and you're like, oh my word, I used to be that guy, you know, uh, thinking everything was mine.

And it, you know, I remember even being a senior in high school, and like we owned the school, you know, we we sent the freshmen to the wrong buildings and things like that.

You know, we we owned the hallways, we were we were in charge of that school.

Uh well, us and the principal, of course.

But um it's weird here.

Paul's flipping this idea of true life and true peace and true uh comfort into something called lowliness and gentleness with long-suffering, bearing with one another in love.

And he says, I beseech you to do this, right?

Endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.

And I was saying earlier how yesterday was just a beautiful picture of that guy's running around, you know, cutting bushes, chopping wood, painting picnic tables, cleaning up uh uh fans.

So thank you for the nice clean air today that we're breathing from uh some of the filters that you changed, all different things like that.

But we're seeing a peaceful rendition of what it means to work together in unity, to minister, which I think it's a high title.

It means serve.

That's what it means.

It's pretty simple.

If you're a minister, you're a servant.

And Paul understood it very well.

He was also a prisoner of the Lord, and he was in prison because he was giving out the gospel in places where Jesus was not welcomed.

And they said, You're gonna be quiet, we're gonna put you in chains.

But you know what?

He never shut up, he was never quiet.

He said, Now my ministry is to prison keepers and to uh officials of the Roman government, you know, and he was preaching to them.

They never shut him up, he never stopped.

He said, The gospel is not chained, right?

He was in chains, but the gospel was free to roam, even in a prison.

So wherever you are today, wherever your life has taken you, wherever God has placed you right now, you have the freedom to speak his word.

And if you do it, God will bless your life.

He will uh bring converts, he will uh reap harvests through through your word, through your witness.

Uh the Bible tells us clearly, right, how can they hear except someone tells them?

And how will someone tell them if they don't go?

You know, they need feet, uh feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace to travel into places where others will not go.

In a moment we'll share a little example.

Uh, a friend of ours, uh, we had a uh little uh pizza time with our friend Anthony V from he was our missionary of the month last month.

Uh we were recognizing Southern Jordan, one of the most difficult spots on the planet right now to be a Christian, right?

I mean, it's scary.

Pastor Andrew has traveled there a couple times actually, and uh we were asking Brother Anthony all these questions, you know, what is that like?

I mean, take your family, little kids, I think another one on the way, and you're bringing them into this godforsaken place where God is not welcomed, and it's like smuggling the gospel in almost, you know, and your life is in danger.

And he said something very provoking to each of us in that room.

He said, What is our God worthy of?

What is he worthy of?

And he said it in a personal way.

Like, I have to ask God all the time.

He said, What is God worthy of to me?

You know, as a father, as a husband, is he worthy of my praise?

We just saying that he is?

Is he worthy of us speaking about him in a marketplace or in a difficult spot?

Is he worthy of us going somewhere that we might not go otherwise?

And when you're a missionary on foreign soil, you have to pray this prayer a lot.

Lord, are you worthy of this sacrifice today?

Because this might be my last day here, right?

And my my kids really need a dad, you know.

So, Lord, you're gonna have to take care of me, but I know you are worthy.

I think that was the resounding understanding behind that question.

He's still going back, you know.

He may or be headed back, I'm not sure, but he was just here for a few weeks.

And um, so the uh the the apostle Paul says, That's who I am.

I'm the prisoner of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Christ was worthy to him.

Right?

He was worthy of anything, uh, or whatever he would call him to do.

So say to yourself this morning, is my God, the God that I serve, is he worthy of some suffering?

Is he worthy of me sharing the good news with someone who has never heard it before?

I think Rhode Island's the most wide open uh harvest field of any state in the Union where he is just not known here.

Why is that?

I would have to say the churches must be pretty silent, otherwise they would have heard somehow, somewhere through someone, that he is worthy, he's worthy of it all.

Uh but how long does my uh long suffering go?

Paul is now moving into that.

Uh are we shaken, not stirred?

You know, can we go through difficult circumstances and not have our faith be rattled?

Because we know the God we serve, the one we pursue, is worthy of whatever we're doing for him.

And and even more, right?

At many times.

Or am I this normal person who's just easily offended?

You know, oh, you bumped me.

What are you doing?

You know, you cut me off.

Why did you do that?

Uh I'm just gonna go packing.

This is too hard, right?

So when it gets difficult, do we stick it out?

Like like Brother Andrew and like Brother Anthony and Ashley, his wife, do we just stick it out?

He told us that once he was asking her, you know, what if God draws me to the mission field?

She goes, Well, I'm gonna be there, so if you don't go, you better decide what you're gonna do.

Something like that.

I was like, wow, I think you found the right lady uh for your call, brother.

And she's not only uh ready, she's she's already there, you know.

In her heart, her mind, she's ready to serve God, whatever it takes.

But is our God?

We know he's holy, we know he's loving, we know he is gracious, meaning he gives things to us that we do not deserve.

Uh is he worthy of the walk that the Apostle Paul is describing, the humble walk, the meek walk.

Paul describes here a life that is marked by humility and gentleness, long-suffering to others in the name of Jesus Christ.

And here I believe, as I was reading through this, I'm like, wow, this sounds an awful lot like someone else in the Bible.

Who is that?

Oh, yeah, it's Matthew 11, verse 29, one of my favorite passages of scripture where Jesus comes to his disciples and basically saying, Are you ready?

Matthew 11:29

Are you ready to follow me?

He says, Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.

They didn't get my icon up there.

It had a big, a big horse yoke.

I was going to ask Brother Ray to bring uh bring a yoke into the church to let us see what that looks like.

Big wooden bar with two holes in it.

One's for the head of the strong beast and the other one's for the head of the follower.

Right?

And this is what Jesus is saying.

I'm working, I'm plowing this field.

Will you come along with me?

Will you put your head in the yoke?

My yoke is easy and my burden is light.

But here, uh Matthew 11, 29, learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart.

Often said, this is the only time we hear Jesus describing what his heart looks like on the inside.

Really beautiful heart, isn't it?

The gentle heart.

He's a my dad used to say he's a gentleman.

He's gonna knock at your door.

He's not gonna knock it down, but he wants you to answer it.

He is calling your name out of grace for you.

And he's Jesus says, here's the result, and you will find rest for your souls.

And it might be in a prison cell, right?

I told you guys often it'll probably be the pastor you're meeting there, so bring me lots of bread and water, okay, so I can survive because the uh Satan loves to strike the shepherd so the sheep, sheep will scatter.

Don't scatter, right?

He is worthy of staying together, he's worthy of the call, he's worthy of our best effort, whatever it is we can give.

Uh, you know, he doesn't deserve anything less.

God is not afraid of your of your hard work.

There's just no merit in how well you do it, right?

So he just wants you to be as excellent as you can be.

Do it, go for Jesus, work hard, sweat a little bit.

Yesterday it was about 90 in the shade out there.

It was a pretty hot day to be trimming bushes and stuff like that.

But you know what?

In the end, it was good to be in the house of the Lord, right?

To develop some things that others can benefit from as the call goes out.

Someone just said earlier, you know, wow, this is a great problem.

Look at this.

We don't have to have room seats in the back of the church.

I said, Yeah, it's a great problem unless you're the pastor.

Then it becomes a real problem because you got to find some space.

So maybe celebrate next week.

Uh, our design company's coming to talk about phase one, which is our parking and maybe cleaning up some things in here, maybe expanding some walls and things like that.

So uh pray for that meeting this Thursday.

I believe it might take place.

But Jesus saying, My yoke is easy, my burden is light.

So the result of this type of living is a deepened rest in your soul.

How many would like to have that?

Amen.

Isn't that what the world is searching for?

They just don't know where to find it.

They would never expect to find it under this rock here, the rock Christ Jesus, where where lowliness and meekness and long suffering live, right?

Where people can cooperate with other people even when they're hard.

Told people like the best part of my job is the people, by far.

I mean, I used to do like accounting work in a little cubicle, and I'm like, I can't I can't live here, I can't do this.

And uh I knew God was calling me to people ministry, right?

But the worst part of my job is people.

Just saying.

You know people, you've been around people, people are hard, people are tough.

If it wasn't for people, we'd have probably no problems at all, right?

So I'm pointing to myself too.

So um when we learn uh meekness, humility, this ability to suffer long and still be kind, right?

We are learning from Jesus.

We're learning what he is like.

We're getting a picture of his heart molded into our heart, and we will then find the rest that he had, right?

He didn't seem to be ever worried or in a hurry, right?

He was he would just travel by foot or donkey or whatever, but he wasn't he wasn't flying down the streets, folks.

He was taking his time, and he still accomplished everything he came to do in the timing of the Father.

The challenge here is am I learning with him?

Right?

If you take that verse to heart, am I learning gentleness and humility from the Lord Jesus himself?

I was gonna go on to this whole example of uh ministry in the past for the last uh fifty years for me, but I'm gonna I'm gonna skip over that because um I just want to get to these points.

Number two with uh Ephesians chapter four, verse seven, about this enormous grace of God, as Brother Randy kind of took care of that part of my sermon.

So if you've been walking this way long enough, you know that God has been gracious to you, right?

You you have a history you can look back and you can see, wow, when I was over here, I thought we were done for, and then God did this, and then this showed up, and it was just right on time.

Sometimes he makes you sweat it out, right?

Lord, are you gonna come through and you're wondering, you know?

And then I I think his main goal there is just to get you looking up, right?

To say, hey, I need some help, Lord.

That's the the word he enjoys hearing the most, right?

Help.

Just help me.

Have you ever prayed that recently?

Come on.

I had an old uh friend here at the church.

He did uh I think he was our church treasurer for like 50 years and never took a dime, but he counted a lot of dimes, so that's pretty much what was coming in back then.

And he said um something like uh how did it go?

Um yeah, that was it.

Same, same here, same here.

No, it it was more like um no matter where I go, what I've seen, what has happened, he's always been right there.

And sometimes we don't sense his presence, but it was close.

It was close by.

That was our older Uncle Harris.

I don't know if you some of you remember him, lived up into his high 90s, and uh he was probably one of our longest-term members here at CBC.

But the man learned gentleness.

He was one of the meekest guys you'd ever met.

Like just we called him the salt of the earth, or something like that.

You know, that's just who he was.

But think of this.

Now Jesus came down from the holiest place of all, down to the dirt here, and then according to uh Ephesians four, he went even deeper than that, even into the depths of the earth.

He was buried in a tomb.

Ephesians 4 9.

Now this he ascended.

What does it mean, Paul says, but that he also first descended into the lower lower parts of the earth.

He who descended is also the one who ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.

And this uh kind of sparks in my mind the words of Christ when he says, I'm gonna go away for a while, you won't see me, and then you'll see me, and then guess what?

I'm gonna go away again later, he says, right?

And then he says, But I'm but I'm coming back, right?

The second coming or whatever he's describing.

But but he says, When I go away, if I do not go, I cannot send him, and he's gonna send to us a helper.

He's describing for us the Holy Spirit, right?

So here Paul is talking of some of that, I believe, when he says, the one who ascended far above all the heavens that he might fill all things.

We read through Scripture that the Holy Spirit came upon people in the Older Testament, but after the book of Acts, right, and we see the day of Pentecost, forty days after the resurrection of Christ, that he comes and fills the hearts of each and every believer forever.

And he will never depart, the Bible says, that he might fill all things.

And I think one day we're gonna see the fulfillment of all of that, where he fills everything, and he is the ruler of all, and Satan is then fully cast out, right?

He's been defeated at the cross, right?

The blood has atoned for every sin that's ever been committed to those who will believe in him and look to him and trust in him and call upon him.

But Satan one day will be vanquished forever.

Someone say amen to that.

That has not yet happened.

He's still roaming and uh still doing some pretty bad stuff.

If you've met up with uh Satan or his emissaries lately, you know what I'm talking about.

He's much more evil than anyone can describe.

And if you're in the pit of That and you understand he's coming against you or your family or our church, you know he means business, he's working hard to destroy, to kill, right?

That's what he does.

But one day uh he will meet his fate and Christ will uh show him where he belongs forever.

So keep that in the back of your mind.

It's not going to be forever.

But Jesus describes for us in John 14, verse 16, another helper, right, will come.

John 14:16

And he said that he may abide with you forever.

That just keeps striking me and striking me like once he comes, he doesn't disappear.

Right?

Jesus had to come for a time.

He visited with his people, he taught them the truths, he walked with them three and a half years, right?

And he basically buried the New Testament church.

It began right there with these early fishermen, most of them, right?

One was a tax man, another guy was a doctor, but most by and large, most of them were just blue-collar guys who just wanted more out of life.

They wanted to see when will this Messiah come.

The Apostle Paul describes for us this early church and what God did at the very beginning to start this work rolling.

And one was to call people to himself.

You are called, you are enlisted, you're in.

If your name is in the book of life, uh there's a document there.

That means you belong to him.

So uh, whatever it is you give or do, it's it's for him, it's in him, it's with him.

And I don't think you can wiggle out of that too much.

You know what I mean?

Like I struggled when I was younger guy.

I tried to pull away a little bit and do my thing, and like all of a sudden I'm realizing, wow, he keeps tugging me back, you know.

I almost got into some really bad trouble, and then God just miraculously swept in and changed the situation.

Looking back, I know it was just his grace, right?

He was just being gracious to me.

I didn't deserve it.

He just like, look, you're not gonna go down that road.

It's not gonna happen for you, right?

Not right now, you know.

I got something else for you.

But I mean, part of that is pouring through his word.

I mean, I remember this right after college, just like, what do you want me to do with all this?

You know, you've taught me things, I just need to know where you want to plug me in.

And guys, if you're wrestling with that now, keep wrestling.

He will he will show you, right?

But always work where you're planted too.

You know, I never stopped doing the ministry of the church, the local church.

So now it's been, you know, 64 years I've been in this church, and uh never regret a day of it, never regret it.

I mean, there were times when I was like, wow, am I the only one who wants to serve God in this way?

You know, when it's hot out and the bushes need to come down a little bit so we can see the door, you know, things like that.

Um, but God gives gifts to people so they can use those gifts.

Uh Ephesians 4.11 says, and he himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, gave some to be apostles, right?

These are the sent ones, right?

He sends them to go.

Brother Anthony, Sister Ashley, they go.

I mean, they don't just stay put, they're moving for Jesus, they're carrying something.

It's a beautiful message of truth and of salvation.

And boy, if we're afraid to bring that to people, what will we ever bring people?

If we can't give them some good news, like people are longing for that, let me tell you.

Not just one person or two.

Everybody wants to hear some good news.

Sometimes you turn on the news just to see if you could see any, and you just don't sometimes, right?

It's like, man, I'm just gonna turn this off.

I didn't hear one good thing.

Once in a while, they'll throw a little human interest story in there or whatever.

You know, this girl found the lost dog and brought him back home, and you're like, ooh, that was that was good.

How about the lost sheep or the lost person, right?

When you start hearing stories like that in your life, boy, that'll wake you up every morning early, right?

Who is he gonna bring into my life today?

That's one of our final challenges today.

Keep that in your in your back pocket for a second.

He gave some to be apostles, some prophets, the forth telling and the foretelling of what God is doing.

Jesus said, I call you not just servants now, but friends, because I tell you what I'm up to.

I'm telling you what I'm doing and what I'm about to do.

He gives us some inkling of where he's headed.

And sometimes you can see it with your eyes, but some people can't see it.

But God is moving and he's moving right here.

You know, if you open your eyes, you'll see it.

Are we going with him or are we going against?

Are we stopping the flow or are we assisting with it in some way, shape, or form?

That's what these gifts are for.

He gave gifts to members of his church, some evangelists, right?

These are uh the gospel-oriented speech, right, which calls people to Jesus Christ.

Are you an evangelist?

Can we all be an evangelist of sorts?

Uh my wife and I, we finally had an encounter with one of our neighbors, and uh she came to us, actually, rang our doorbell, basically.

I actually I think I, yeah, I answered the door and we started talking.

We ended up praying.

We invited her to the summit.

She came out to church.

The next week her mom, her aunt were here.

The next week after that, two more people.

And I think last Thursday, a young girl she brought to the summit.

I said, I think we just found the the newest evangelist in our church.

And she was like a like a wannabe a couple weeks ago, you know what I mean?

Like, so yeah, don't underestimate what God can do right at the start with you, because I think when you first come out of something that's dangerous or hard, you want to tell everybody and his brother, right?

And that's an exciting thing.

So you're a you could be a powerful evangelist without a lot of training.

You just say, Hey, I I know where Jesus is, come and see, you know.

Uh one old pastor he said, I'm just one beggar telling another beggar where I found the bread.

But he's the bread of life, right?

He's capable of sustaining your soul, the things that count, things that matter.

So uh third um evangelist, number three.

Uh, then some pastors and teachers, and it couples them together.

Uh the leading of sheep, right?

The tending of people's lives and helping with uh the weddings and the funerals.

And the Pastor Andrew and I could tell you, boy, this this month is a rough month for us.

Uh everyone wants to get married, and a few people don't want to be around in earth any longer, so you know it is what it is.

But we're there for families, we're there to guide, to lead, to instruct, to help.

And you chuckle, but I'd rather do the funerals.

So, Pastor Andrew, you can have all the weddings that you want.

And uh, because at the funeral, people are actually listening about their soul.

Like they want to know what's going on after when I have to go in that box, you know.

And they're, I'm serious, people are very aware of death and the brevity of life.

So it doesn't take a great preacher in that situation to say, I know one who promises life eternal, right?

And I know his name.

And his name is Jesus.

It's not something else, it's Jesus.

And if someone's telling you another name, they're wrong.

Um the ministry of pastoring teaching, really shepherding, or we call it under-shepherds around here because he's the good shepherd.

He's also called the great shepherd of the sheep because he laid down his life already for the sheep, right?

He gave the ultimate, the ultimate price, his own precious blood for the sheep.

He he lays, as it were, in the gate and he protects the sheep from the wild animals and from the wolf, right?

And from the attacker and the enemy who wants to scatter the sheep.

He's there.

He is the great, great pastor of the church.

And then there are teachers.

Um that was my my first role as a 14-year-old with a couple of Cambodian kids in my class, and we were just going through the older testament stories together, how God worked with the smallest, weakest of things and did some of the most miraculous uh events of all time.

The greatest stories you'll ever read are in the scriptures.

That's why this book is still a number one bestseller, and it will never be outsold by any other book because it's special.

The Bible is God's book, it's his holy word, and we should follow it, learn it, listen to it.

If you are teaching it, you are privileged, but that privilege comes along with it a great responsibility.

So beware.

Don't be just jumping in here, I'll be a teacher.

Well, yes, you will if God calls you to it, and I pray that you do.

Uh remember, when you're leading other people in truth, you have to check that truth out, right?

Make sure that it's um and always let the little children come unto me.

You don't have to run out.

That's okay.

Oh, it's time for some milk, I guess.

Yeah, there we go.

Yeah, there's the uh meat of the word and there's the milk of the word, right?

But and he Paul tells us uh this the purpose for these things.

It's not just for anything, it's not just to give you something to do.

He said it's for the equipping of the saints.

So we're here to be equipped.

I remember that in my college days, that's what it was all about.

How do I get the tools to do the jobs that I'm gonna do?

I need to learn, I need to study.

My dad said, you gotta sit in the seat of learning.

If you're gonna learn, you gotta keep your seat in the seat and pay attention, you know, and that's what I tried to do.

I wasn't always a straight A student, but I tried, I was always trying to do my best, and uh sometimes it worked out.

Um, I just found once it was God's word, and I was taking biblical courses, it was like like this stuff is easy, like this is great.

This is like rock candy.

I would chew it up and I'd swallow it down, and it just stuck.

And I was like, wow, this is way better than cost accounting.

I don't know.

Uh don't take that class if you can avoid it, please.

Um for the ministry, yeah, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry.

That that word we just defined earlier as serving, right?

You think it's this high calling be a minister?

You're a servant, and he is greatest, is the servant of all, right?

So serving, um, and that can be done in many, many different ways.

I believe Paul's highlighting here a spiritual service, though, when you're guiding souls into truth in God's word as a teacher or as a pastor.

Uh, for the edifying of the body of Christ.

Just a big word for building up, right?

When you edify something, you're not tearing it down.

You are building it up, right?

You're enhancing it.

When you come, it looks better after you go, right?

That kind of thing.

You're not coming here to destroy or to kill or steal.

You're coming to build up the kingdom.

And it's his kingdom, after all.

And it is, and never forget, it's a kingdom of hearts.

It's not just about the building or the structure, although, you know, we do need a place to meet once in a while.

I I really love it when you open your home and meet there in your house.

I think that's that's how the early church started it.

It's happening here at CBC, but we can continue to do that.

I think someday this building will not be allowed, right?

And let's just face it, some countries you cannot meet like this.

So thank the Lord we can.

But the edifying of the body of Christ, he's talking about the real big sea church right there.

Not the building, but the people and the hearts.

Until we all come to the unity of the faith.

Here's where this unified ministry title came out for me.

Paul's talking about how can we get along together in a unified way.

It's because we have one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

When we all accept that, it automatically creates a unity.

But we need to preserve that, right?

We need to praise that, we need to encourage that when we get together, right?

Remember who centers us.

Remember, and when you pull in this driveway and you see on the sign it says a Christ-centered church, read that and take it to yourself.

Say, yes, that's where I want to go.

That's where I want to be.

I want to be at the center of what he's doing, and I want him to be at the center of what I'm doing.

Uh praise his name forever.

Uh, into the unity of faith and the knowledge of the Son of God.

There's that personal connection right there.

Do we know him?

Does he know us?

You know, the best way to check that is to say, if I call on you, Lord, do you know who's speaking?

Have you heard my voice in a while?

Our sister Ella was plugging me this morning, like, how about prayer?

Is it isn't it important to speak it out loud?

We're like, absolutely, right?

Even if it's in your closet of prayer, you can say it out loud.

God, he wants to hear your voice every day.

You husbands out there, what if you didn't speak to your wife for a week?

What's she thinking?

What are we, roommates here?

Come on, you gotta talk to me.

Come on, guys.

I'm I'm the worst at that, I'm telling you.

Like, I need people to remind me, just talk a little bit more.

You know, it's good to listen, but she wants to hear your voice.

She wants to hear that I love you very often, right?

Have you said that to Jesus lately?

Just I love you, Lord.

Come on now, church.

Come on.

You can do it.

I know you can you I know you love him.

I know you know what he did for you, but you gotta say it sometimes, you know, the more often the better.

So these ministry gifts, working together to equip, to edify, to build up the body of Christ in service like ministry, but also in unity and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, God's Son.

So he is the one who does the unifying.

It's just automatic, right?

What would a Christian marriage be without Christ in the middle?

It wouldn't be unified, I'll tell you that, right?

I often tell the couples that I counsel with, if he is right here and you're getting closer and closer to him every day, guess what happens to the two of you?

Right?

And we're merging in him.

We're we're getting closer together because we're both agreeing he is the one.

When we have a problem in our home, who do we go to, right?

Who do we call on?

When our relationship is struggling or someone's stepping on our toes, who do we tell about that?

Or maybe who do we talk to together about that?

You know, there are great Christian counselors out there, marriage counselors as well.

I mean, we pastors do a little bit of that, but it's not our full-time job, but it does it does consume quite a bit of our time.

But we want to see families doing well, right?

We want to see husbands.

I asked at least two couples today, how's how's that man treating you lately, right?

These are some of our newlyweds here.

And then I looked at the guy and said, now, how is that woman treating you?

You know, it's it goes both ways, right?

Uh when it's not happening properly, some of you brothers and sisters need to speak up and get around that couple, right?

We agree at our weddings that the the audience watching on is going to support that marriage as it goes forward.

So it doesn't end on the wedding day, right?

That's when all the issues begin, probably, right?

Because now you get to know this person in a different way, and you're finding out, ooh, that opposite thing that attracted me is now repelling me.

Just kidding, just kidding.

It can happen, but hey.

I tell the guys, it's a good thing she doesn't look like you, that's for sure.

You're not that identical, right?

All right, lastly, let's close with this.

I know I'm I'm pushing it here.

Not to mention uh, yeah, no one's coming for me to me for marriage marital counseling anymore.

Here we go.

The function of these gifts, right?

We already said that they do tend to build up, to edify, to unify.

But here um the the the main function is to lead believers, as Paul would say here, to a maturity in Christ, right?

We all start out as babes and you know not knowing a whole lot.

Some people know enough to be dangerous, right?

So be careful with that.

Don't get into a deep, dark conversation if you don't know your scriptures well.

But it says, by speaking truth uh in love, in loving ways, right?

That's the sign of a maturing believer right there, according to Ephesians 4, 13, second part of that verse, which is the call to the church leadership, right?

This is our directive.

When I'm uh helping with this church and doing things that I feel God is calling me to, it's almost almost always leading to this point.

I want to see God being matured in your life.

I want to see you turning into a mature Christian, you know.

And when you are, my job is done.

You know what I'm saying?

Like I don't have another purpose but to point you to Him.

When I see young people grabbing onto Jesus by themselves and now they have a personal relationship, I know my job is gonna get a lot easier, right?

They're gonna be agreeing.

When I call them on the carpet, they're gonna say, Yep, you're right.

Or if I say, way to go, they're gonna give me a high five, like little Tommy Jr.

Jr.

over here this morning.

He gave me the biggest high five.

You know, he knew he was doing God's will.

He was singing for Jesus and sharing his verse to the rest of us who need to memorize these verses.

Uh he says, Paul says, To a perfect man.

That doesn't mean we don't make mistakes now.

That means we're mature, we're coming full circle, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

And who knows, maybe that's when he takes you home.

I don't know.

When you get to that point, he's like, okay, I could do more work on you up here than down there.

But it says that we should be no longer children tossed to and fro, right?

A child doesn't always have great discernment or understanding which path to take.

And these parents who say, Well, I'm just gonna let my kid decide for himself.

I'm like, lady, this kid is 12 years old.

He's not gonna have a brain until he's at least 24.

And you're gonna let him choose any kind of God he wants to choose.

Are you crazy?

Like, don't you learn something from your own experience that this is a good path that you're on?

Wouldn't you want them to at least follow that until he gets to the age of understanding and now he can make an irrational choice?

Goodness, uh that that just irks me when I hear a parent say that.

I'm just like, what?

Because I know what I was like at age 12 or 13, and my dad was a pastor, you know what I'm saying?

So uh to a perfect man, the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

Boy, that is a high calling.

The image of Jesus Christ, right?

That that's what the Holy Spirit is attempting to do in all of us.

That we should be no longer uh children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine.

That means any kind of teaching, which is very prevalent on the internet and on your phones, right?

You can get any kind of thing you want to hear, and the more you say it in there, the more it comes back to you, right?

In the same manner.

It's not teaching you anything uh how to discern that or how to determine what is true.

And I think that's why our summit meetings on Thursday nights are packed out because they want some solid young people to be able to explain this is why we go this way.

You know, these are the reasons why we say this is true and this is not good.

Um, you need people like that in your life, you need speakers of the gospel, we need these roles in the kingdom, teachers and pastors and others.

But it says that they wouldn't be tossed about uh with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men and cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting.

Didn't we see that in the last few years quite a bit?

Right?

I think that's why young people are coming in waves now, because there was a lot of deceitful plotting going on, and now we're seeing those lies exposed and the light is coming to it, and they're like, wow, that was quite a quite a story we were being sold right there.

Uh, and now we're finding it's not even true, right?

But do we have the word of God to weigh it out?

Do we have something that's true all the time that we can use as our lens, as our sieve, you know, to pour through all this junk and find out what's real and what is true?

I think people are craving truth right now.

Instead, Paul says, but speaking the truth in love.

I mean, describing Jesus again here, right?

Isn't that what he always did?

He spoke truth.

He was always loving, it came out of a compassionate heart.

And here's the result that we might grow up in all things into him who is the head, even Christ.

So Christ uses these gifts and these giftings to speak loving truth, to identify, and Paul's talking about here, exposing false teachings and doctrines of men and cunning craftiness, right?

Where people are actually living to deceive, you know.

There are people who do this full time, they just want to trick people.

I don't know what gets you on the other side of that track, but it's not a good thing, whatever it is.

When you decide, okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna be a professional thief or whatever, you know.

Like, why would you make that decision?

I I know there's a long road to it.

We won't go there, but the way we exercise these spiritual gifts, I believe I just want to highlight this, is very important to God.

Not just having a gift, but knowing how to use it properly and decisively, but at the right time, in the right timing, in God's timing, and in a loving manner.

So Jesus Christ is our great model, as always.

Uh He always spoke truth, but He always did so out of a heart of compassion, didn't He?

In fact, when they described Jesus, they said he was a man uh filled with grace and truth.

And it's interesting how grace always came first, right?

And immediately the thought of the the uh situation where uh an adulterous woman was thrown in front of Jesus one day to see what he would do.

You know, they they just tested him.

They they threw her out there, said this woman was caught in the very act of adultery.

What should we do with her?

And they knew right well the law of Moses said she should be stoned.

You know, it's been verified.

We know she did it, where she was caught in the very act, they said.

He said, Who is without sin in this group?

You you pick up the first stone, right?

You you throw the first stone at her, right?

And we know how it ends, right?

They each drop their stone one at a time and they leave, right?

From the oldest to the youngest.

Very interesting there.

And uh Jesus, I think, was peering at each of them.

He knew what they did, they knew what they had done.

And who are they to be throwing stones at anybody?

Have we ever thrown stones, folks?

Yeah, because we're perfect, right?

We've never made a mistake, we've never erred in a certain way.

And I tell you, when God is gracious enough to forgive you about a certain uh type of sin or level of sin, and you come out of it and you are forgiven and you accept that forgiveness, and you drop that load of guilt, and then someone comes to you and say, Brother, sister, I've been caught up in this.

Do you not have more compassion for that person?

And say, What Jesus said, Neither do I condemn you.

Go and sin no more.

So he spoke the grace first and then the truth.

Right?

The truth was she shouldn't be doing that in the first place, right?

Don't do that again.

Don't go down that road.

You know what's at the end of that.

And today it could have been your earthly life right now.

But because I'm here, Jesus is clear.

His he didn't come to kill or to destroy.

John 3.17.

He uh came to save the world, not to condemn the world.

In fact, the world was already condemned, weren't we, from our sin and our deprivation.

And he came to wipe that away, to take it upon himself, uh, to take the sin of the whole world and to slay it, as it were, on that cross.

Lastly, thank you for the cue, Jake.

Lastly, and most importantly, perhaps, what is God's ultimate goal?

Um, why does he knit us together within his son Jesus Christ?

Why is he pulling this group together?

This crazy group of people who have so many varied interests and directions that we came from to this one place, right?

To worship him and to follow him.

It's crazy how many roads lead to the cross, isn't it?

But once we're there, boy, we are we're blood brothers and sisters, right?

Because we're bought with the same blood and we have the same head, right?

And he has one goal.

He doesn't have many directions, he has one direction, and it's to bring glory, honor, worship to him.

So Paul closes this thought in verse 16.

We will end today.

Ephesians 4.

From whom, the Lord Jesus Christ, the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies.

Talking here of all the various gifts and ministries and giftings to the people of God, that we might use them all together.

But we have to be knit together so every joint is supplying something, right?

Whether it's the finger or the toe or the right hand, or uh today, brother Tony and I, we've we put in that last air conditioner that we forgot to pop in yesterday because there was a class in that room.

And uh, as as I'm sliding the thing in, Tony grabs the air conditioner and I shut the window right on his hand right on his hand.

Boom.

And he's like, Oh, thank you, Pastor.

And it was still on his arm when he said that.

So then I proceeded to lift it back up, grab this side of the air conditioner, and Tony pulled his hand out, and my finger was still in there, and then he shut it down on my finger.

And I was like, hey, hey, we're even, bro.

I don't have a right hand, you don't have a left hand, so together we can work, right?

But alone, we're in trouble.

So I said, I'm gonna preach with one hand today.

There we go.

Um, from whom the whole body joint joined and knit together by what every joint supplies.

I love that.

Everyone has something to bring to the table.

We saw it yesterday.

20 guys, some electricians, carpenters, painters, we had cleaners, we had uh guy uh doing repair work on a sign out front, and it's looking great.

Thank you.

Um Tom with the electrical over there, so we now have parking lot lights on Thursday nights.

Um, but what every joint supplies according to the effective working, so this is how we can be effective for the kingdom, by which every part or every person, you could say, does its share.

Let me say that again.

Every person does his share.

Your name is in the book of life.

You're on the roll, you have been enlisted.

What are you doing with that?

You're inscripted into service, right?

You don't have a choice.

Back in the day, I used to say, oh, remember, we were saying a volunteer for Jesus, a soldier, true.

Others have enlisted, why not you?

It was a call, you know, evangelistic song to come and join the join the army, the salvation army, right?

The army of God.

But what I forgot is we don't enlist ourselves, he enlists us.

You read 2 Timothy, whom he has enlisted and scripted as a soldier.

He does not entangle himself with the affairs of this life.

He doesn't get too tangled up in the junk around us because he has a new focus, a new goal, a new calling, a new call, and that is to fight for Jesus, to shun the wrong, to do the right, to wear the breastplate of righteousness, to walk in the in the road of righteousness for his name's sake, David said, because who is he?

He is the righteous one.

So that's how we walk.

We are soldiers for the cross.

We are not volunteers for Jesus.

He's already, we're in his service.

We are we're already in the, you know, we're in the in the in the army, right?

And we know he is the head.

So we take our orders from headquarters.

Amen.

Uh I've changed my tune on that.

As a younger pastor, I I thought I was leading a group of volunteers.

I said it's one of the most difficult things in the world.

Won't you tell people you're not a volunteer, bro?

You're supposed to be here.

What you're doing, that might be different.

You know what you're called to might differ from him or her, but we're all got to be doing something, or we're not really a part of the body, are we?

We're not we're not part of that service if we're not serving.

So find out your niche, listen to God, work it out, read it out, get that book open, say, Lord, what are you calling me into?

I mean, I did this when I was about 20 years old, but it took me a while, you know.

Um when each member aligns and unifies with Jesus, sharing its spiritual gifts with the body, our work in Him, Paul says, becomes effective.

And you know what it causes?

It causes the body to grow and to be built up and to be edified in love.

So that we can be presented pure and holy before him one day.

It's his bride.

He's perfecting his bride.

Why?

So that he can present to himself a glorious church.

We'll get to that one in Ephesians chapter 5.

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

A glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she, the bride of Christ, the church, should be holy and without blemish.

That's what God is seeing in the future.

Can we see it?

We see it happening.

Only if our eyes are open to it, right?

So I just wanted to open our eyes a little bit today and just uh let's close with this uh challenge and then we'll sing a song and pray, and you may go.

The challenge is let us do it, let us serve diligently.

There's nothing wrong with diligence.

Uh you will never regret it, as Brother Randy said.

It is uh that God's gracious gift that's been given to you.

And the first and primary one is the gift of faith.

He gave you the gift to trust in him.

Do that, trust in him more, right?

Take steps of faith every day.

Let us stand and sing.

Lord, we sing that with honesty in our hearts.

Help it to be true, Lord.

Help us to just surrender each and every piece, every part, even the things that we uh reserve for ourselves or for our own uh flesh, Lord.

May it go and be offered up to you, a spiritual sacrifice.

Father, thank you for the unity of your spirit, the bond of peace we enjoy in you.

Thank you for all uh those graces that your word describes, the spiritual gifts and giftings poured out into your people.

And we thank you, Lord, for both the anointing and the appointing us to the work with you.

As you said, uh, your yoke is easy, your burden is light.

It is the greatest privilege and purpose in our lives.

Without you, there is no purpose.

There's just a selfishness that ends in depravity and depression, Lord.

Help us to all grow together, Lord, as we share what you're doing both in us and for us and with us.

Lord, please knit us together in your love and continue to mold us into the image of your perfect Son.

His name is Jesus.

In his name we pray.

Amen.

God bless you.

Don't forget, be available, be available.

We love you guys.

God bless.

Prayer time, 7 p.m.

tonight.

And communion too.