Ephesians Week 6

Welcome to the North Iron Church Podcast.

Our mission is to take the gospel from the Upper Peninsula to the ends of the earth.

We pray this message will inspire and encourage you in your faith journey.

Enjoy our Ephesians series where we break down Paul's letter to Ephesus.

Good morning, everyone.

Want you to grab your Bibles.

My name is Pastor Mark, the lead pastor here at Northiron.

We're right in the middle of a series, walking chapter by chapter, scripture by scripture in the book of Ephesians, one of the most important books that you as a believer can dive into with understanding.

And if you need a Bible, raise your hand.

We have a great Bible for you.

It's free to you.

Someone will hand you one.

If you're new to God's word, you're gonna find Ephesians in the latter part of your Bible in something called the a section of books called the New Testament.

And you're gonna find that after Romans or Galatians, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, uh, the book of Acts, pretty large, then Romans, but you're gonna find Galatians and then uh Ephesians.

And we're gonna be in chapter four this morning, in some really hard-hitting uh practice that Paul is explaining to a fairly new church that was created by missionaries who walked in and began to preach the gospel to a place called Ephesians, which is an Asian minor modern-day Turkey, kind of in the middle of on the coast of Turkey, a very important uh area, very spiritual place, a some would say a very demonic place, full.

I think there's over in the city of Ephesus, there's over 50 different temples to different gods.

It was multicultural, and God did an incredible work there.

And people were getting so, so many people were being uh saved and healed that it created this incredible movement, and the apostle Paul uh eventually shows up and begins to teach them what it's like to be a follower of Jesus because their culture that they grew up or they inherited by wherever they lived was different than the culture of Jesus Christ.

And that's uh true a couple thousand years ago, that's true today.

Many of you find yourself in this exact same place that the Ephesians did.

And as you dive into God's word and what God loves and what God hates, you you find yourself probably at crossroads where the Holy Spirit is speaking to you and maybe challenging you in your spirit, in your mind, and in your heart, as we say.

Man, God's saying to you, maybe you should live this way.

Or not maybe should, you should, you, you, you, you need to live this way.

And that that that always comes at a at a cost, where you drop your old culture, your old patterns, your old values, your old beliefs, your old actions, and you take on the culture of God because ultimately, and I say it all the time, and you if you've been here a while, you you understand this that God is smarter than you.

And uh, welcome if this is your first time.

And that's always a challenge, and that always causes, like, as I say, white water in your life.

And this, as Paul's speaking to the Ephesians, this is really a hostile area in their lives where they're living because it comes up against the culture of the world, the culture of God.

And so this is very true in the atmosphere we live in today.

The first couple chapters, one through three, is really about salvation.

Maybe you haven't experienced that, but God has chosen you.

Maybe why you're here today doesn't mean that if you're here, you're saved, but God has pursued you, he's chosen you.

Big Christian word or theological world would be predestined, and yet he's chosen you, and Jesus comes to the cross and he accomplishes that redemption, he pays for your sin because you're dead in your sins, you are a sinner.

I know your mom told you you were awesome all your life, but you're not.

And yet, when that process happens in us surrendering ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ, because first he's Savior, then he's Lord, then we have the Holy Spirit that's alive and active even today, working out our discipleship or as followers of Jesus, as we walk along with Jesus, it's developed within us.

He changes the way we think, he changes our hearts, we have a different worldview.

And because of that, um, man, Paul says you are in this privileged position.

I don't even know if I want to use the word privilege, but you're in a humble, gracious position of understanding that God's doing something radical in your life, he's changing your heart, he's changing you and putting you on purpose from here to eternity.

And he's here to accomplish that in your life this morning.

And I would pray, even at the end of the service, that if you haven't made that decision, that you would make that decision and surrender your life to Jesus and ask for the forgiveness of the sins in your life that you committed and no one else.

I'll give you that opportunity at the end of the service.

But that process is what we call spiritual growth.

You maybe you've heard this term discipleship or being a follower of Jesus, meaning there's an active pursuit of the things that God loves and the things that God hates.

That's called discipleship.

And there's no greater gift to me as your leader and pastor, but to watch you walk through spiritual growth.

And you hear me again and again say it, man, your life will change being in the presence of Jesus, being being active in reading his word, getting your hands dirty, being on mission, your life will radically, radically change.

And I get the privilege of watching that happen in your life.

I came across this really powerful, powerful statistic this week in talking about how you should consume God's word in your life.

And that's always a goal for me.

I I want you to consume God's word.

I want you to live it.

I want you declaring it in your life.

There's a very important study uh by the Institute of Biblical Studies a couple of years ago, looked at if followers of Jesus would read the Bible one time a week, or maybe two times, three times, four times, five times a week, what was the difference?

And they they went to over uh close to 200,000 people and created created this this statistic that really if someone just read the Bible one time a week, and you open up God's word and you read it, it really didn't have too much of a of a spiritual or physical effect on your life.

Matter of fact, if you read it twice a week, nothing really changed in your life.

If you read it three times a week, nothing really changed.

But the marker, the difference is when you got to four times a week.

If you consistently opened God's word and read it four times a week, these it opened a door, uh a door of maturity and spiritual health in your life.

Matter of fact, they they laid it out this way, it's it's fascinating that that if you if you read God's word four times a week or more, you 30% felt less lonely, or 32% you didn't have anger issues, or bitterness in relationship drops 40%, alcoholism or getting drunk 50 to 62, sex outside of marriage 59 to 68, feeling spiritually stagnant drops 60%, or viewing pornography uh 61%, or gambling drops 70, 45 to 74 percent, and it begins to change your actions.

That's that's incredible, but look at this.

Sharing your faith jumps to two jumps 200% in your life, discipling others 200%, memorizing scripture jumps 400%, everyone.

There there's a there's a power.

There's a power in God's word that that's hard to grasp, but if you if you're consistently following Jesus and and living by his word and maybe opening it and just reading it, and that's Mark, I don't even know what I'm reading.

It's okay.

The Holy Spirit will come and you'll learn.

I'm just telling you, just consume it, just live it, just declare it over your life.

Get that habit in your life.

I promise you, your life will begin to change in a better way.

And you need to understand that's that's why Jesus died on the cross.

He died on the cross, obviously, that there would be salvation, but really to create disciples.

That's why Jesus goes to the cross to create disciples and worshipers.

So I gotta ask that question as Paul's looking at the church in this chapter.

He's looking at the church, speaking about the church, those who find themselves followers of Jesus.

Are you a disciple and a worshiper?

And Paul gives us some pretty hard-hitting word pictures when he's speaking about the followers of Jesus inside the Ephesus church, and he begins to use some pretty strong language when it comes to the maturity of what it's like to be a disciple and worshiper of Jesus.

He says something in verse uh 14 and 15 of chapter 4.

He says, Listen, I want you to grow up in every way.

I want you to no longer be children in the faith.

And that resonates with me because I have four children and they're all in their 20s.

Praise the Lord.

Can you guys remember?

Now I love the little burrito that we received from the hospital, but I didn't want to stay at that stage very long because what does a dad really do other than change diapers at this level?

Right?

I wanted my kids to advance.

I wanted them to start walking.

Do you guys remember that level or that phase?

Like I was excited for them to get beyond that phase, or or they they they stopped uh they that no more stroller phase.

Can anyone say, is there any men who would like to say amen to that?

Like we would have a vacation home in the Bahamas if it wasn't for the multiple strollers we've had in our lives.

Or I remember like the level of No More Diapers where you walked into the level of potty training.

Can you guys remember that right?

Man, it was it was an incredible.

Uh I still remember Silas.

Uh, you know, I'd be downstairs watching TV and I'd hear all the way from upstairs, Dad.

Silas was, I don't even know, he was obviously could talk, but I don't even know how old he was.

Dad, come and wipe my butt.

And he would, if I ignored it, he would just keep on, Dad, come and wipe my butt.

Come and wipe my butt, Dad.

And I'd get up out of the chair and go all the way upstairs, and he would be poised with his little white behind straight up in the air, like in the position, just waiting for me to come and wipe his hind end.

I was glad to get out of that phase.

Or when I taught Noah how to go to the refrigerator and get me a Coke.

Woo! Or to mow the lawn or to cut wood and stack wood, or even one of the greatest ones for parents is when your oldest learns how to drive and you're no longer the Uber dad.

Those are all really cool levels.

I don't think anyone wanted our children.

Listen, I know that I even say this too when I see the craziness of some of you who have, you know, 15 kids under the age of 10, and it's just chaos for you.

And I always come up because I don't have to live with you.

And I say, man, you guys really need to cherish this moment.

I think some of you uh recognize that I say that all the time because I I do miss the craziness.

I don't have too many kids at my house anymore, other than the 15,000 young adults that are there every week.

I don't know why they're there, but they're there and they drive me crazy.

Anyway, uh I forgot what I was saying.

I I I love the idea of cherishing, but you know, cherishing goes away when you have to get up at three o'clock in the morning and change sheets in your child's bed.

And you just want your kid to always mature.

There's really nothing worse than a 10-year-old that's still acting like a four-year-old.

Even though we cherish those times, I don't want my four-year-old to really be a 10-year-old.

Sometimes it feels like that, or even worse, I don't want an adult to act like a child.

I mean, no girl wants to marry a 30-year-old who lives in his mom's basement playing World of Warcraft till 3 o'clock in the morning.

I thought there would be more amens.

I know there are amen in me in Lots.

But there's there's nothing worse than an adult that's acting like a child.

May it be at your school or in your business, maybe even in your marriage.

And this is what Paul is is trying to pull out.

That that that that a lot of who he was speaking to, a lot of you here have come in newly into the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Salvation has entered into your life and you're on a new spiritual journey, much like a child is.

Some of you have been serving Jesus for year years, and you're still a child spiritually.

Those are the hard words that Paul is saying.

And so Paul is saying, Listen, uh I want you to grow up.

I want you to grow up in your spirituality.

I want you to mature in your spirituality.

The Lord doesn't want you just to sit where you're at, but that there should be an active maturing happening, phases and levels in your walk with Jesus.

And so we find in in chapter four, verse one, again, Paul starts the same way that he starts in in chapter three, and he starts the same way to point something out to us that all these chapters are kind of linked together.

That the chapters of one, two, and three talking about the salvation that we experience as the people of God through Jesus Christ ultimately move into chapters four, five, and six, the practice of what Paul is talking about in one, two, and three.

Four, five, and six is how you should walk with Jesus.

And so he's linking them all together because he's speaking about the church within the church here.

He says, therefore, he's linking it all together.

Therefore, he goes on, and I've asked you this question because last week we talked about the church.

The last couple of weeks we talked about the church and the importance of the church, that it's not man created, that that Jesus created the church, it's the vehicle for your maturity that you're gonna find in Christ.

And I I asked you this question, I should ask it again before we move on.

Can you grow in Christ and be a good Christian outside of the church?

And let me tell you, per scripture, the answer is absolutely no.

Absolutely no.

And you've heard me use this before, I'll I'll say it again, that it's much like, well, we know that Jesus, can I say this is this is his the the church is his girlfriend, it's his fiancee, it's his coming bride.

And Jesus uses this word picture and metaphor for marriage with the church, and if you don't love the church, and I I get it, sometimes the church has a black eye and she's missing the tooth.

But Jesus loves her, and he gives his life for her.

It'd be like you and I wanting to hang out, and you come in to me and say, Pastor Mark, I love you, but I can't stand that girl, Jennifer.

I don't want to hang out with her.

Of course, that would never happen.

It's usually the opposite.

But I'd have to say, no, man, man, that's my girlfriend.

That's my wife.

There's no difference between us.

There's no difference between us.

You you believing always moves to belonging, everyone.

And the church is the vehicle for you to accomplish what God has called you and for God to accomplish through you what he has predestined to do through you to change this world.

That's important for you to understand.

Those who leave the church, and granted, there are various reasons to leave the church, but ultimately it is always a selfish idea that I find.

I've been in plenty of churches that weren't run well, but I'm I'm really in relationship with Jesus.

Not pastors and not individuals, I'm in relationship with Jesus and hell and high water, I'm gonna be in his church.

Why?

Because God ordained it for me.

So Paul says, I therefore, within the church, I want these things for you.

I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling, and worthy of the calling is really talking about that gospel calling in your life, this redemption that you have in your life.

It's not by accident, it's powerful, it's life-changing, even generationally.

So don't waste it.

God has saved you, He's redeeming you, He's transforming you.

Therefore, live a life in response to the gospel calling in your life.

Don't waste the moment that you have.

And this is how you should walk within the church as you follow Jesus.

You should do it with all humility.

If you really understood the level of depth that Jesus reached down to grab you out of the pit of sin, Paul mentions it as a representation of your sin in kind of this word picture.

He says you're as dirty as a menstrual rag to God.

And when you understand your depravity, if you understand the depths that Jesus reached down and sacrificed to bring you life, to breathe life into you.

You weren't partially dead, you weren't semi-dead, you were dead as a doornail, as Charles Dickens says.

And in our walk with Jesus, sometimes, at least for myself, I think, where did that come from?

Where did that thought come from?

Why did this action come into my life?

It's a constant battle between the spiritual and the flesh that is evil and sinful in our lives.

And I that creates this understanding of humility in your life.

And and also, he says, I want you to walk in gentleness with patience, bearing one another's burdens.

If you know the length of what God God did in my life to redeem Mark Broberg and the patience and the gentleness, even in my walking with Jesus, of falling down and tripping up and getting back up and following Jesus and making mistakes and misspeaking and misstepping, the amount of grace and mercy and patience and gentleness that he's had for Mark Broberg.

Maybe I should be a little bit more gentle with the people around me who are walking the same way I am.

That's what Paul's saying.

And eager to maintain this incredible unity that is created within the church, not by a group of believers, but created by the gospel.

That's why he's telling us just to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

I want you to maintain it.

It's not created by you, it's created by the gospel, by the Holy Spirit as He knits us all together in this powerful movement and force with different gifts and ability.

And he's gonna dive into that in just a moment.

But you need to understand that it's a delicate thing.

So don't be people of conflict.

Don't be people who are cynical or critical.

Maintain the peace that the Holy Spirit, the Prince of Peace, has come into your life.

And because of it, there's a byproduct of peace and unity within the church.

If you're always fighting, if you're always cynical or critical, it's possible that you don't understand the gospel.

And you need to maintain, you're not gonna create it, but you're gonna you're gonna be people of peace.

Now, this is within the church, you need to understand.

But there are there are there are many people and many organizations, many churches, and I use that word not in a positive way, who are outside of the gospel.

I'm not talking about those people.

I'm not talking about those, as Paul, if you remember where we started in Acts, as Paul says, when I when I leave, he was warning the elders of the church, when I leave, wolves are gonna come in.

Wolves are gonna come in, and they're gonna be men who who are twisted and they're speaking twisted things.

And you need to be alert, you need to be grounded in God's word so you can recognize those wolves when they come in.

I love the internet.

I love memes.

Some of you older people don't know what they are, it's okay.

They're little word pictures or little situations that people put other meanings to them, it's foolish, but it's like the entertainment of today.

And I love when I see, it's typically a lady.

When I see a lady in California or somewhere, and she's out jogging, and she takes a picture and she puts it on Facebook or Instagram, and it's a it's a picture of a small uh kitten-looking kind of animal, and she'll say, Oh, look, I found this male nourished little kitten on the side of the road.

I was, I was, I was jogging, and and I decided to take it home and and love it and make it a part of my family.

And then, you know, she'll post this little cute picture of this little scared uh little kitten thing, and and someone will post under who's a little bit more mature of what's going on here will post, lady, that's that's a bobcat.

And and I was just thinking about that the other day, and this this comes up, and and then I find this happening in Marquette yesterday.

Okay, someone posted this on Facebook.

Aaron and I were walking the dogs in Marquette today, and this stray barking mutt kept on following us, couldn't see a collar, and seemed to be sort of aggressive.

I'm sure he's just missing his home.

He was so cute and fluffy, we named him Cheddar.

Our dog Snoopy, Mocha, and Luna welcome him into the family with a few quick chases.

And then someone looks at the picture that they posted.

They said, Lady, that's a wild coyote.

So awesome.

I love that stuff.

Lady, you just picked up a wolf.

You can call him cheddar all you want, ma'am.

But he's going to eat your face in the middle of the night.

I'm just saying.

Kennel that wild beast.

But the problem is, listen, we've we've invited wolves into our home.

We've invited wolves.

There can be no unity with wolves.

I don't care what you say, you can't tame a wolf.

You can't invite them into your home, you can't invite them into your marriage, you can't invite them into your children's lives.

You cannot invite wolves into the church and expect there to be any kind of unity.

This is what Paul is warning us.

Like years ago, you need to understand that years ago it was a pastor in a pulpit.

But today, if you go to a church, you don't know what kind of wolf is gonna stand up and teach God's word or what his opinion of God's word is to you.

Like this is happening.

You hear me, I'm harping on this, I'm preaching it all the time.

Because it used to be a church with a pastor.

Now I have to compete with 50 foolish pastors out on the internet.

Well, Pastor Mark, can I just read the book of Enoch?

No, don't be stupid, it's not in God's word for a reason.

How about you just read the book of John?

Well, Pastor Mark, this listen, you are allowing wolves to come into your life.

I'll use an old term that needs to happen within the church.

Listen, I understand outside the church there that it's Satan's realm, but for whatever reason, and maybe we'll know later on in life, there's something has happened to the church where we've gotten away from the preaching of the gospel and God's word, and every which way, every to and fro, every wind, every wave moves people around in their understanding of God and his perfect plan for your life.

I say, purge the heretic, kill the wolves in your life.

Because Paul says, like, what can darkness have in relation to light?

We even see this later in chapter 5.

Paul gets into it.

You were once darkness, but now you're in the light of the Lord.

Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness.

Or for 2 Corinthians, Paul again is warning the church, do not be yoked together with unbelievers, for what does righteousness and wickedness have in common, everyone?

Maybe you got a little baby wolf in your backyard that you're feeding, or you're listening to.

This is why Paul says there's got to be unity, and he uses this word pitcher again, almost a physical word pitcher for you.

There's one body and one spirit.

One body and and one spirit.

It's important.

There is a unity.

There is a unity with your hand, everyone.

You probably haven't thought about it, but it's all put together, it's it's connected.

You wake up in the morning, your mom says, get ready for school, and say, Mom, I'm a little late.

I'm putting the unity of my hand together before I go.

You don't have to do that.

Why?

It's organic, it's already created.

I don't have to put it together.

Listen to this.

I just have to maintain it and not use the bandsaw and watch TV at the same time.

Because I'll create some disunity in my hand.

You just have to maintain.

This is what Paul is saying.

Let me go through quickly this incredible portion of scripture that we find here, and I'll read through it and try to pull some things out.

But listen, I was just saying this morning, I could probably speak a whole year on the book of Ephesians.

It's so powerful, everyone.

And you need to go back.

This is just an introduction of what I want.

I want you to dive deep in this.

Just as you were called to one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, and the Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

And then he moves in how this should function within the church.

That there's this grace, the word there for grace is a Greek word that really is linked to the word charisma, which is this divine gifting and talent that God gives you to function within the church.

But this charisma was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.

Therefore, it says, when he ascends on high, and these are all a little bit uh confusing here, but this is powerful.

He ascended, what does it mean?

But that he also descended into the lower regions of the earth.

He was high king, everyone, and he came into this sinful ground.

He was the omega and he was the beginning and the end.

He he made all things, he created all things, he spit the stars into the existence that that that we're a part of today.

He extended, but he also came down and was human.

And he was a part of our lives, and he descended into the lower regions of the earth.

He who descends is the one who also ascends far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things, meaning you, that he might fill you with his power, with his charisma, with his giftings.

And so says, he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors.

This is actually the only place, 411, that we find the word pastor.

He gives the pastors and the teachers to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for building up, look at that, for building up, growing up the body of Christ until we all obtain to the unity of the one faith, of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the statue of the fullness of Christ.

And he wants that for you because he doesn't want you swaying.

He doesn't want you to stay children anymore, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, or by craftiness and deceitful schemes.

And I want you to do it in truth.

Truth.

Truth and love.

Now, here's the thing you need to understand right now that there are those who speak truth and love, and then there are those who don't speak truth, but they just speak love.

It's just you just gotta love everyone, Pastor Mark.

I agree.

But truth and love is the statement.

Well, Pastor Mark, this is our truth.

You have no truth.

Unless it's God's word, there is no truth in your life.

Flat and simple.

And it's truth and love.

We are to grow up in every way unto Him who is the head into Christ, for whom the whole body joined and held together, that unity, by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, all of us together with our giftings, our spiritual gifts working together, it automatically the body grows when each part is working properly properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

So let me ask you a question.

What are spiritual gifts?

This charisma we're talking about, this grace, as Paul calls it.

What are the spiritual gifts and how do I know what mine are?

Let me give you a definition because there's many.

Matter of fact, in rooted right after our second service, there they happen to be talking about spiritual gifts today.

If you want to be a part at Antonagdin Lant or Ishbeming, but here's a definition spiritual gifts are an experience or an ability God has given to you that He uses to build up others.

Again, but grace or that charisma was given to each one of us for the building up of the body or the church of Jesus.

That's important.

And when each part works properly, man, it sets the church on fire everywhere.

And that's that's powerful, and it needs to happen within the church.

I think I I asked this question, I think it might even be in my notes again.

Man, you need to be a part of the church, it's where God's power resides.

And let me give you an example.

If we each of us play our role and he gives us different roles, listen, if you're not playing your role, something's not being done.

The kingdom of God is not advancing because we know from scripture that God has predeemed in Ephesians 2.10, he has predained the work you're to do here.

That's how powerful and unique you are.

I'll talk about that in a second.

But it here's an example.

If you're looking for the power outside of the church, you're looking in the wrong place.

That's that's the point of the church.

And so if you're praying, Lord, I need I need your power to accomplish this, Lord, I need you to heal this, Lord, I need you to rearrange this, and you're doing it outside of the church, then then your prayer is meaningless, in my opinion.

If if if you have an itchy elbow, you send a message, though you know it or not, up to the brain and you say, Man, I got an itch.

And then the brain doesn't do anything other than go to the finger and say, I want you to go over and itch the elbow.

That's how the church works.

It's how the church works.

That through you, through me, we experience Jesus in in different ways.

And those some of those ways even become visible.

Matter of fact, uh, 1 Corinthian Paul says it this way in speaking about spiritual gifts, that spiritual gifts are a manifestation of Jesus.

Some of you speak something into my life, some of you help me with your hands, some of you have this incredible spirit of evangelism, or being a missionary, or being a healer.

I mean, we can go on and on and on, and we all experiencing the manifestation where Jesus becomes physical for us through each other.

And that's a powerful thing.

And if you're not a part of that, something is missing out.

Well, Pastor Mark, what is the difference between the physical talents and abilities that I have and these spiritual ones that you're talking about?

Let me say it this way, and I hope this helps a little bit.

But talents are given to you when you're born, but spiritual gifts are given to you when you're born again.

And I can say that sometimes they intertwine, they intertwine, but oftentimes they don't.

And probably some of you recognize that with me.

I have the spiritual gifting of preaching, and I have no natural ability or talent in this area.

Your pastor failed speech class in college.

You hear me say it all the time, and you can even recognize it that I don't, I'm not great, I'm not a smooth talker.

You know, those kind of individuals, when you listen to them, you're like, ooh, that's like sweet music.

I'm not like sweet music, I'm a bumpy backwards ride down a country road.

And for whatever reason, maybe it's my own humility.

I told you last week, if I could just speak, I would rule the world, but I can't.

God comes in and he uses me because I'm obedient to him and he uses me through the spiritual gifting of preaching.

But you need to know that you have one.

And most of the time you recognize because you start to use anything within the church.

And what I mean by that is you lay your hands to anything to begin to work.

Sometimes you can take a spiritual test that we've actually used and rooted that will help you indicate.

But really, the way you know is by other people coming to you.

Have you ever said, man, it's like the hand of God is on you.

You watch someone do something or say something or walk into a room.

Maybe it's even you where you're like, I don't even know where those words came from.

How did how did I even speak?

I can't remember what I said.

I just I felt like it just flowed.

That's the Holy Spirit coming upon you.

And grace is given to each one of us, that spiritual gifting.

And it's critical, and I've already mentioned this, it's critical because you're more than we we use this term one in a million, it's even more important, and that's the second why.

That's the sick, it's it's critical for you to be involved in your spiritual giftings because it's not one in a million.

Your DNA, the difference between our DNA is one with 200 billion zeros after it.

That's how unique you are, and it's the same with spiritual giftings.

God created you, He positioned you to accomplish something for you.

He wants to do that through you.

And this is why we need to be involved in the church.

No greater privilege than to be a part of a soon-to-be bride who will arrive in eternity without spot and wrinkle.

Black eye will go away.

She'll have dentures probably.

And can I say it this way?

It might freak some of you out.

We'll be married with Jesus for eternity.

That's what the church is.

Be a part of the church.

Again, grace is given to each of us.

Paul in chapter 9, verse 22.

Something happens in Paul's life.

Matter of fact, in chapter 9, Paul gets saved.

His name is confusing a little bit to the people who are beginning to read God's word.

Paul was a vicious Jew who was persecuting the church.

The church had just started, Jesus had left, Holy Spirit came, people were getting saved, like a lot of people.

By the third and fourth chapter, I think 10,000 in Jerusalem.

10,000.

You talk about a megachurch.

10,000 had been saved.

It was turning the world upside down, and the apostle Paul came in and just started persecuting, slaughtering Christians.

He was uh very famous for this action that he would just go around in Jerusalem hunting Christians.

And then we find in chapter 9 that he has this experience with Jesus.

The end result is his surrendering to Jesus on the road to Damascus, and we find that he um God he receives this calling from God.

Now, what's interesting in chapter 9.

Ultimately, Paul begins to preach about Jesus, but something happens in chapter 9, verse 22.

Between verse 22 and 23, there is a white space.

Matter of fact, if you'll look at your Bible, it'll probably look like this.

It's the the the writer of Acts, Luke, does it for a reason, and I'm glad he does it.

Pastors call this the white space or the paragraph break, or even theologically, they actually call this area right here.

Matter of fact, if you want to draw a square box in there, it's important for you because I'm going to show you in a minute what that means.

This is a time period in Paul's life.

He's just experienced Jesus, a powerful miracle.

He's ready to go, he's ready to preach, and yet he disappears.

Paul disappears, and we don't see Paul reappear until Acts chapter 11.

Acts 11 · chapter mention

Matter of fact, even this phrase, when many days had passed, that actually represents three, fourteen, seventeen years of Paul being gone in the desert, being discipled.

God didn't say to him, Hey man, I want you to go out and plant these churches.

Hey, I want you to go and I want you to start to write the 13 books that I'm gonna have you write to all these churches.

Hey, I want you to go on this missionary journey.

He doesn't, he leads Paul to the desert for 17 years, everyone.

Paul was in discipleship, he was in maturity, he was in what they call the white space, the waiting space.

Like for God to use you in a mighty way, it takes God to bring you to a place of waiting.

And maybe you're here that right now and you're feeling that.

The frustration of that.

Maybe you're like, Pastor Mark, I've been single.

And people are like, well, maybe you have the gifting of singleness, and I don't think I do.

I don't want the gifting of singleness.

And you're waiting and it's frustrating.

Maybe you are married and you thought you were gonna have kids pretty easily, but it's not happening.

Or maybe God has given you a specific calling and he's put it in your spirit, and you want to just pull that trigger and make it happen.

You want to kick doors open like John Wayne.

I have a little bit of that problem.

What a lot of people do is when they wait on the Lord, they they wonder.

Or they worry or they whine.

When, Lord?

When is it gonna happen?

Or Lord, how is it going to happen?

Or Lord, why hasn't it happened?

My heart's in the right place.

My spirit is, I want, I want to accomplish incredible things to you.

I want to bring hundreds of people, I want to, I want to do this.

You place this in my spirit, Lord.

Why I'm in, why am I in this white space of my life?

And you need to understand that waiting is not passive, waiting is an action.

And instead of asking the how Lord or when Lord or why, Lord, you should ask the question, what Lord?

Jesus, what what do you want to do in my life?

Lord, what what do you need to heal?

Lord, what kind of maturing?

What do you want me to give up to better position me?

Is it part of my personality?

Is it part of my finances or my physical activity?

Or my spiritual activity?

Lord, what you need to approach.

Have you ever been to a really expensive restaurant like Culver's?

That resonated with someone to my right.

Anyway, but like a really nice restaurant, like where the waiter is almost a little bit obnoxious.

Like, you know, you use your napkin and you set it down, and he's like, he's right there with a new napkin.

Or it doesn't happen, but if you go to like a pristine place, like they train those waiters, like they're waiting, they're just like, they're like, oh, they're like, they're like cheetahs on behind you, just waiting to serve you in some way.

That's what it's like and should be like when you're serving the Lord.

Jesus, what do you want me to do?

I'm here, I got an hour.

Tell me.

Like I all the time I tell you kind of these things.

When I walk into a store or where I'm moving, like my prayer is, Lord, how are you gonna interrupt me?

I want you to set up my my time.

There's someone in Target in the fluffy pillow area that needs to hear from me.

So that waiting time, and listen, some of you, this is why I am your pastor.

The philosophy of North Iron is that I'm here.

My role as a pastor starts with an E.

Sounds like whip whipper, but it's equipper.

Like it's not about me coming up here and showboating, it's about me equipping you with maturity of God's word and experience and spiritual gifts so that you can go out and do ministry in this world that desperately, desperately, desperately needs you.

39 out of the 40 miracles in Acts, that's a lot, are done outside of the church.

39 out of the 40, only one within the church.

And God has a plan for your life.

That is the philosophy of the ministry at Northiron.

I'm here to instruct you, to love you, to lead you, to correct you, to mature you.

And then you're turn around and touch this world in a powerful way.

The majority of the advancement of the gospel did not happen by the apostles, but it happened by business people traveling to cities, and wherever they went, they began to preach God's word, and people started to get saved.

And after that's why Paul, by the way, this is why Paul is in Ephesus.

Because the gospel had gotten there, and lives had been changed, and people begin to use their spiritual gifting.

So Paul arrives and says, Hey, this is how you should lead your life.

Watch out for these pitfalls, watch out for this demonic activity in your life.

Let me set you up with the word of God.

And I again I want you to consume these things in Lantz and Antonogdan and Marquette Ishming, wherever you find yourself, man, you need to open up God's word in your life.

You need to seek Him in prayer, you need to serve Him in His mission.

And I again, for all of you who are wanting to do something powerful for God and it seems like you're hitting the wall, it's you're probably approaching it in the wrong way.

It should be what, Lord?

What?

Because when God begins to posture you, no one can stop you.

No one can stop you.

Waiting season is not a wasted season.

God wants to do something powerful through you and He wants you to mature.

And simply He wants you to grow up.

So let me pray with you.

I want you to stand as you leave.

We're gonna open up this front.

Some of you need God to move, some of you need some maturing, some of you need to surrender your life to Jesus.

We'll pray with you.

We're gonna worship just for a few minutes, but you're fine to go if you need to.

Father, right now, people are moving towards you in all ways, Father, in their spirit, physically, Lord.

Lord, there's there's wounds and problems that we're all faced and situations and environments, Father.

Lord, we want you to reign in all of them.

And so we surrender them to you, Father.

And ultimately, Father, we come to you and say, What, Lord?

Lord, where do you want me to take a step of faith?

Maybe it's into your word, maybe it's into your presence, Father.

Maybe it's down my street to have conversations and love the people around me, Lord.

Lord, my question is, what, Lord?

Where would you move me?

My spirit, my heart, my mind is open to your movement, Father.

I'm following you, that your will and not Proverbs' will would come about, Father, as I surrender my life to you, Lord.

This is our prayer as Northmire.

So we ask all of this in your mighty, mighty name as we move towards you this morning in Jesus' name, amen.