Maturity & Fullness | Pastor Drew

Community Covenant Church, it is a joy to be with you this morning as we close out the third part of this series on measuring church success.

Measuring church success.

First week of the series, we covered Ephesians chapter 4, verses 1 through 16.

Ephesians 4:1–16

And we looked at, the first week we looked at unity.

Unity in the body.

We talked about this idea of unity and oneness.

Last week, we looked at unity.

gifting and equipping and talked about the five leadership gifts or the five gifts in the church.

There's more gifts of the Spirit, but these five are important for a healthy church, for a church to be healthy.

And so in the lobby area, even after service, it's going to be up there for another week or two.

That way we give people time to write down names.

I would invite you all to write down a name of someone else that you see who has one of those five gifts in the church.

Somebody in our church that you see has one of those five gifts, and some of them might have multiple gifts as it relates to the apostolic gifting, the evangelistic gifting, the teaching gift, the shepherding gift, and the prophetic gift.

These are all important for us to have unity in the body, and so last week was about gifting and equipping.

And then this week, we're going to look at maturity and fullness.

Maturity and fullness, as we close out this series.

Remember what I said early on is that in Ephesians, this church was a Jewish and Gentile church.

It was made up of Jews and Gentiles in a very polarized society, a very politically polarizing society, right?

We could use the opposites in society, rich, poor, black, white, male, female.

One of the things that I think I like about Rusty Hawkins, Dr.

Hawkins' thing is this idea of MAGA Republicans and leftist Democrats that in the midst of this polarization, the display of Jesus Christ in the fullness of him and who he is actually is in when these two parts who are separate come together as one body where Jesus Christ is the head.

Some of you might be like, man, you're crazy.

Jesus is crazy, not me.

The Holy Spirit is crazy, not me.

God the Father is crazy, not me.

The idea that two people who hated each other in the world become one in Christ.

This is actually evidence that Christ's presence through the church in the world fills all things in heaven and on earth.

There's a quote by Esau McCulley.

I want you to see it.

I think it's important.

There's a quote that should be in there.

Hello?

Hello?

Christ's presence through the church in the world fills all things.

Evidence of success in the church is the diversity of people coming together, using the diversity of the gifts to serve one God in Christ Jesus.

This is a mandate that is crazy, much like our vision statement.

And so with that, let us read Ephesians chapter 4, and for the sake of this message today, I'm going to read verses 11 through 16.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

If you have your Bibles out, Ephesians chapter 4, verses 11 through 16.

Ephesians 4:11–16

And it reads as follows,"...and he gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, some as pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry for the building up of the body of Christ." As a result, we are no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of people, by craftiness and deceitful scheming.

But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into him who is the head that is Christ." From whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

Lord, we thank you and love you and we invite you to have your way in our lives.

to have your way in our minds, our hearts, our desires, our souls, and our bodies.

And we invite you, Lord, Holy Spirit, would you encourage, would you convict, would you give us insight, would you comfort us?

Would you comfort your physical body here on earth as it is in heaven?

In Jesus' name, amen.

This whole idea of measuring church success...

And the whole thing behind this is I say sometimes we're using the wrong scorecard or the wrong scoreboard.

Imagine a basketball game that keeps celebrating how many shots they take, even if they miss most shots.

Can you imagine that, Elijah Farmer, that you would be able to gauge success?

We would be able to gauge success based on how many shots you take in a game, even if you don't make it.

And if you take 100 shots in the game and you end up with four points, we're like, man, that's great.

He took all of these shots and he missed 98 of them.

That's a great measure, right?

Or a business that celebrates the size of their office but never actually serves their customers.

That's how the American church can be when we celebrate buildings, budgets, and branding instead of measuring maturity.

Paul reminds us that the goal of the church is not to look impressive but to grow into the fullness of Christ.

How do we do that?

What is the goal, Pastor Drew?

What's the goal?

The goal, the first point that I have for you is unity, knowledge, and Christ-likeness.

This is the goal.

He says, That's a whole lot right there.

Let me break it down for you.

Unity of the faith.

Unity is not uniformity, but it's shared trust in Jesus.

The Jews and Gentiles were divided in Paul's day.

Today, there are many different people groups in America that are divided amongst any set of division that you want to put out there.

There is a division.

But maturity means that we don't let those labels be our primary, our identity, we are still one in Christ.

Again, Paul in 2 Corinthians says, consider no one from their former nature.

But he says to look at everyone who's in Christ as a new creation.

If you're in Christ, God, through Jesus, already looks at you as the new creation.

The challenge is living into it by grace and faith, and that's why we need those five leadership gifts in the church to function, because sometimes, Pastor Farmer, sometimes We see some people that's living out of order, and every now and again, you've got to have a prophetic voice in the church to say, hey, sister, hey, you need to get that together.

Hey, brother, hey, young people, hey, chill out.

Stop being disrespectful and rude.

Consider others more than you consider yourself, right?

You've got to have some people to do that in the church.

You have to have these gifts, and you have to have people who see people who are hurting and walk alongside of them and care for them and listen to them and love them and nurture them.

You've got to have people like that.

And then you've also got to have people who are saying, hey, we've also got to reach the lost.

We've got to be missional.

You have to have evangelists in the church that say, okay, we can sit here and be inward all day long and do this, but we also have to be missional.

We also are called to reach the lost.

Then you've got to have people who say, okay, how do we do that?

Well, we've got to have teachers teaching, but in order to teach, you've got to be able to build relationships with people and actually like people.

You don't have to love them, but at least like them.

No, you have to love them, maybe not like them, right?

And then you have apostles, people who start new mission, new ministry, people who see a void and they start something new because there's something.

Now, we need all of these things happening in the church, and we don't have them.

What happens is the church lacks, and it may not be that we don't have it.

Maybe some people don't know what they have.

Maybe some people don't know they're gifting or don't understand how God has called them to be a leader in the church.

But let me tell you something.

Just because you have the gifting doesn't mean you ought to operate in it.

I grew up in a Pentecostal church.

I love the Pentecostal church, by the way.

Hear me clearly.

I learned faith.

I've seen miracles.

I've seen healing.

Let me tell you, I've seen some real, I wish that some of our church would experience some deliverance.

I'm just telling you, I love all of the church, and I'm able to see all of it and how it all fits together into God's story, right?

But one of the things that I noticed growing up in the Pentecostal church that I grew up in is we had this thing, it's like if somebody gave an outward expression by speaking in tongues in the church that they were filled with the Holy Ghost, then that just meant that they were free to do whatever else they wanted to do in the church.

They could just lead here, lead there, but anytime conflict happened, they might cuss somebody out or get mad at somebody, or they might avoid confrontation because that other person somehow was demonized in their mind or written off, right?

They don't know how to sit.

Some of them didn't know how to sit in difficult places.

Now, if we got all this Holy Ghost, why can't we handle conflict?

Right?

If we got all this spiritual power and we see all this faith and all these wonders and signs and miracles, then why can't we sit in places with people that sometimes rub us the wrong way?

You got all that power, right?

Or sometimes what we would do is we would allow people to serve who weren't mature.

And then before you know it, we're just looking to fill needs.

We got this need...

Anxiety, and sometimes I've noticed in church and spirituality, we confuse anxiety for spirituality, the Holy Spirit moving, right?

But it's really our anxiety.

We don't want to talk about that though, right?

I've done that before.

And so what does this mean?

This means that in order for us to be healthy, we got to be mature.

Sometimes we focus on growing without growing, right?

We focus on growing outward and not going deeper.

And we can do the other thing, too, where we focus on only going deep and we don't go outward.

That's the challenge.

And so God has called us into something as a church.

Unity, knowledge, and Christ-likeness.

But we need some maturity.

And so the knowledge of the Son of God is important to how we understand maturity.

Paul uses a word here that's important for us to understand this word for knowledge.

Because if we just look at the word knowledge through our American lens, our English grammar, if we just look at this, we're like, oh, he means like basic word knowledge, right?

Just basic understanding, an intellectual grasp.

This must be what Paul's talking about, something that's in my mind.

I can articulate a truth about God, right?

We can see this in the academic halls, right, sometimes, and even in the churches sometimes.

We're just giving knowledge.

I just know this thing.

It's just knowledge, right?

This is the in the Greek, gnosis, right?

It can mean awareness, intellectual grasp, or learning, right?

It's a more intellectual and abstract term out there.

It's important.

That's not the word Paul uses here.

Paul uses a different word.

There's another word for wisdom, another word for knowledge, which is wisdom.

It's a knowledge applied with skill and discernment, right?

That's not what he's talking about.

There's another word, synthesis.

It refers to the ability to put things together, comprehension and discernment.

That's another word that Paul uses for knowledge.

He uses it in Colossians chapter 1.

Colossians 1 · chapter mention

That's not the word for knowledge here.

The word that Paul uses for knowledge here is is the word epignosis.

What does that mean, Pastor Drew?

It means full knowledge, but it means experiential knowledge that transforms your life.

I've seen many times in the church, people come to church, people do church, but sometimes I wonder, have we experienced the risen Lord?

I think one time on a porch a couple years ago, I had the opportunity, it was a hot day, and one thing that I learned of about chai tea or anything hot is that when it's hot outside, if you actually drink something hot, it cools you down.

I'm sitting on the porch with Elder Chip, hanging out with him on his front porch, drinking chai on a hot day.

And I'm like, can I get some water?

Man, I need some cold water.

I'm hot.

Chip says, how about you just drink some chai?

It's hot.

It will cool you down.

I'm like, what?

What?

I drank it.

In about five minutes, all of a sudden, I can feel my pores cooling down.

And I'm like, I have been radically transformed and changed.

So anybody, if you're hot and we're outside, I'm going to say go find some coffee, some hot tea, some chai preferably, because you drank that while you're hot outside.

It doesn't make sense, but I promise you it will transform your life but part of me and chips conversation went on we talked about experiencing God and I never forget this conversation one of the things that ships said to me that I still hold on to and I feel very very convicted by this if he said this it is impossible to experience God and walk away from God It is impossible to experience God and walk away from God.

I wonder in our churches.

is the problem with us is that we've had gnosis.

We've had this idea about who God is.

It's very intellectual in the Western world.

We're very much formed by intellect in the academic world, which is also in Paul's day, the philosophers were influencing society.

I sometimes wonder if part of our problem in the American church is that we're so informed by intellectualism that we have not had an experience with Jesus Christ because that experience is not something you can think your way through That experience is something that you encounter, and it radically transforms your life.

And so my question to you today is do you struggle with just knowing about God, or do you know God through the birth, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ?

Has Jesus become so real to you that you're willing to follow him no matter the cost?

Are you at that place?

And if not, I want to ask you the question.

Have you encountered the risen Lord?

Because if we're just going to church, stop going to church.

If we're just going through the motions, man, go back to the world.

Go commit to something, man.

Here, God absolutely wants to encounter you, and when he encounters you, and when you encounter God, it is something that no matter what you go through in life, no matter what obstacles, no matter what you face, it is something that will hold you and will keep you through all times.

I don't understand sometimes.

I've been through a lot of trauma and a lot of pain in my life.

I have been, and I ain't got time to tell you about it today because it ain't about me but one thing that I do know is that God is real man I know that Jesus is real he got a hold of my life one day man and he turned me around I don't understand sometimes the things that are in society and I think sometimes what we do is well let's just question it let's be yeah be patient question but you better have faith to keep you man because if not you might go with them too Church.

One thing I love about the immigrant church, the Latino church, they meet here Fridays and Sundays.

And in the midst of what's going on in this country, I'm talking about people with real faith.

I'm talking about people that still trust God.

In the midst of what's happening in this world, in this country, with our leadership, I'm talking about people who still trust Jesus when their lives at risk I'm talking about real faith man do you have a knowledge about God or do you know God there is a difference that doesn't mean you won't go through hard times That doesn't mean you won't question or doubt along the journey.

That's part of our humanness.

But one thing that I do know, what Paul's talking about here, the knowledge of the Son of God is something that is meant to be experienced.

It is meant to be tangible, practical, and that experience actually transforms your life.

People have hurt me.

People still hurt me.

I still love Jesus.

Pastors have hurt me.

I still love Jesus.

People have abused power.

Guess what?

I still love Jesus.

I'm able to distinguish what is Jesus and what is not Jesus.

And I pray and hope, church, that in the middle of this world that we live in that's chaotic and confused, I hope and pray that you have an encounter with the risen Lord.

Because if not, it will be the thing that will cause you to live on shifty sand.

Paul goes on to say that we are able to reach the unity of faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God.

He's saying because maturity in Christ is not just about information, wisdom, or insights, it's about a deep experiential relationship with the Son of God that transforms us and continually transforms us, and we need the church to have this kind of experience.

This is why when people tell me they love Jesus and they're not connected to the body.

This is modern-day Gnosticism.

Call it what it is.

It's a disembodied faith.

Call it what it is.

Implications for today.

Facts.

Gnosis focuses on facts.

Epignosis focuses on a living encounter with Jesus.

Even Sophia has good strategies, clever ministry ideas, the Greek word for wisdom, Sophia.

But in epignosis, Christ is always at the center.

There are some things that you'll go through in life, in ministry, that knowledge will not save you from.

Only knowing Jesus through dark times and hard times will keep you.

Aaron, where you at, Aaron?

You in here, sister?

Where she at?

Our new preschool director.

It's going to be this kind of knowledge in this preschool, in this time that we're in.

It's going to be this kind of knowledge that will continue to lead you and carry you in this time that we're in.

And God is with you, Aaron.

You've got this, sister.

You're going to do it.

God is with you.

And this is what we need to do.

And we better know God and not know about God.

Church, the full knowledge, right?

It's understanding this experience with Jesus.

And this happens, this full development, this mature manhood, or mature manhood is for all people, not just men.

It's this idea of full development, completeness.

In the Roman world, maturity meant independence.

But for Paul, maturity means Christ-dependence and interdependence with the body, right?

Church success isn't how fast we grow in size, but how deep we grow in Christ.

But there's a danger, church.

I just mentioned it.

Next slide.

Immaturity leaves us drifting.

It's important for us to grow in our faith because if we don't grow in our faith, we just got these gifts and we're immature.

Eventually, it'll lead you to drifting.

This is a sign of bad discipleship, which I don't think the American church has done a great job of discipleship, and I want to continue growing it myself.

But when we don't disciple well through relationships, what happens is it leads us into drifting.

Drifting, right?

So that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes.

Paul compares immaturity to children in a stormy sea.

They were vulnerable.

easily deceived.

In the first century, traveling philosophers, mystery religions, they were false teachers.

They were out there and they were given all kinds of junk.

And if you weren't grounded in the church and grounded in Jesus, man, Paul's addressing this stuff because it's a problem, right?

These philosophers had this great idea and they mixed a little bit of the current age with a little bit of Jesus and you got a whole lot of brokenness and a whole lot of nothing, right?

And Paul has to defend this.

He cares about this young church that he planted, and he has to get them right.

He has to give them some correction and some instruction.

He has to let them know that he's a pastor who cares about them and loves them and desires for them not to be sifted like wheat.

In our day, we got these TikTok theologians, conspiracy theories, celebrity pastors, and and political idolatry.

These things are influencing the church more than Jesus himself.

This is sad because I promise you, church, this simply will not hold.

Without maturity, the church will always be reacting to culture instead of standing firm in Jesus Christ.

Do we find ourselves being more reactive than proactive?

No.

When we're standing firm in Jesus, it causes us to be proactive because we already know who is the one that holds it all together.

Or do we find ourselves constantly reacting?

When we react sometimes, there's things that we need to react to.

Injustice, we need to respond to, but we respond to it because we know who Jesus is, not because it's just the next thing out here that seems popular, right?

No, we respond because this is out of order with God's good intention for all of creation and humanity.

We're being proactive and we respond to things.

And there's some things that happen that we're not expecting.

We've got to respond and react.

But oftentimes what I find is that people aren't grounded in the Scriptures, aren't grounded in the truth of God, and they react because they don't know the Word of God.

And then before you know it, they're way over here.

That's the danger, church.

This is also a danger in Paul's day.

It will be a danger in every single generation.

Gnosticism continues to reform and reproduce itself under another lie and a new idea.

This is part of the culture in which we live.

It's really gnostic thinking.

It goes back to Paul's day.

It's disembodiment.

This idea that I think that I can be on church, I can be a Christian, and I go to church onto But nobody sees my life.

Nobody is physically with me.

Nobody is challenging me.

Nobody is calling me out.

Nobody is loving.

As a matter of fact, I can do whatever I want to do in this digital world.

And I can go to church on Sunday by watching this church.

That is not church.

That's a disembodied understanding of what the church is.

Our bodies in bodies with bodies matter.

Our body in the temple with other people worshiping the resurrected Lord is a real thing.

There's a reason why we gather each week in an embodied kind of way.

This is why many of us struggled during COVID, because it took us away from each other.

It disconnected us.

People tell me, I got people in the church, in the community that say I'm part of your church.

No, you're not.

No, you're not.

I love you and I'll show up for you, but you're not.

Because I don't see you.

I'm not with you.

You're not with me.

We're not with each other.

In your mind, you have a gnosis that you're part of our church, but the reality is, no, you're not.

You know that TikTok?

No, you're not.

No, you're not.

You know what I'm talking about?

No, you're not.

Church, immaturity leaves us drifting.

The process.

The next part of this is the process.

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.

The process of maturity isn't about perfect sermons or flashy programs.

It's about community that learns to hold truth and love together.

Truth without love, it crushes.

And then love without truth, it deceives.

I just love them.

Just listen to them.

Just listen to them.

I just love them.

There's some folks in my life that helped form who I am today because they love me.

and pulled me to the side and said, young man, your life is headed for destruction.

As a matter of fact, I'm not sure we fully understand love if we're not able to tell the truth to people.

Because sometimes I wonder who it's really about.

Is it about you or about the other person?

Because when it's about you, you're getting something out of the relationship.

And you just keep listening and you keep listening under the pretense of love.

And I'm listening and I'm loving and I'm listening and I'm loving.

And that's important.

But there's got to be some truth telling.

There's got to be some honesty if we love each other.

Clock that T.

Clock that T.

Tell the truth.

I watch the young people who watch a lot of TikTok.

Hear me clearly, church.

We need both.

And I have erred both ways at different times.

And if I'm not careful, I can err on the side of truth with no love.

That ain't of God.

I'm an alliance.

I'm an ally of the enemy when I do that.

And I got to repent, change my mind about the way that I talk to people, and say things in love.

This is my ongoing work, but the thing about it is I'm committed to a church that can call that out in me and help me to see that.

This is why the church is so important, because when we're in relationship with people...

People can help us to see ourselves.

When we're out here rolling solo, I can guarantee you it's going to lead to a problem.

God did not create us to live solo.

Grow into Christ.

Jesus is our standard, not Pastor Drew, Pastor Ryan, Reverend Melissa Sprock, not Debbie, not anybody, not Elder Chip.

Jesus is the standard, not our favorite leader, not another church, not cultural success.

The standard is Jesus Christ himself.

That is the standard.

That is what we're aiming for.

And so the result then, if we live this kind of way, The result is a healthy, working body.

This is the result.

From whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it was equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

Christ is the head.

He directs and he sustains us.

Every part of the church matters.

This is not a place for spectators.

This is not a place for benchwarmers.

When one part doesn't function, the whole body suffers don't tell me you care about racial justice in our church and you come from the privileged party in society and you come here and you don't show up and you do nothing don't tell me you care about racial justice you can go find many other churches to do that at you kind of sneak in the hive Here, we need bodies, people who are committed to one another and committed to living out the gospel together.

If not, that's just another form of Gnosticism.

It's a disembodied faith and it doesn't work.

We can't say that we're committed to each other and we're not present.

No, maybe what you need to do is go commit to the thing that you're having a hard time with and find out that that doesn't work, and then we'll be right back here for you, waiting on you to give your full self.

Right?

I'm saying this because I love you, church.

We're in nine years.

We're going into ten years.

Playtime's over.

It's time for us to grow up and be the church that God has actually called us to be.

Growth happens through love.

The sign of maturity isn't control, it isn't fear, it isn't manipulation, it is love.

And Paul uses a common Greco-Roman image, the body.

Rome said Caesar was the head of the empire.

Paul flips the script.

Christ is the true head, and his body grows not by domination, but by love.

So what does maturity look like in our church?

Next slide.

Do we love each other across dividing lines?

Are there still people that you won't move towards to because of their ideology?

You would have a problem in the church of Ephesus, and you will have a problem here at Real.

Are you being equipped and equipping others or just consuming religious goods?

Part of the culture in which we live in, consumerism is a big part of our culture.

And are we just reduplicating that back in the church?

I'm connected to this church, but you're not present.

It's consumerism.

We got to call it what it is.

Are we anchored in truth or being tossed by every new cultural wave?

Are we building each other up in love or tearing each other down with gossip and division?

Is it comfortable for anybody in this church to talk about somebody else to somebody else?

Do you listen or do you challenge it?

My hope for this church is that this would be a place where nobody is comfortable talking about somebody else.

That we're actually pointing people to biblical reconciliation according to Matthew 18.

This is something we all got to work on.

Even some of this stuff behind, I just need to process something.

That actually leads to gossip.

Just call it what it is and quit playing.

You process for three or four people, it's gossip.

Are we building up each other in love, or are we tearing each other down with gossip and division, but we're calling it something else?

What are we doing?

Here's God's scorecard.

It's unity that reflects the heart of Christ.

It's knowledge that flows from intimacy with him.

It's maturity that resists deception.

And it's love that builds up the body.