Equipped to Equip

Well, if you have gone, some of you probably have gone to the

Contarelli Chapel at the Church of Saint Louis of the French in

Rome. Anybody been there?

There's a couple hands. That's amazing.

If you go there, there, there's three paintings on the wall.

They're called the Matthew Cycle, and they represent the

the Apostle Matthew's life from his calling to his commissioning

to his martyrdom. And if if you look at those,

those are beautiful, you should go, you should visit.

But I want to draw your attention to the painting on the

left. All three of these are the work

of a man named Caravaggio, and they come from the 1590s.

And this one that you see now is called the Calling of Saint

Matthew. It is the visual representation

of what we've been talking about, your salvation from

Ephesians 4, where we heard Paul record last week.

Ephesians 41I therefore a prisoner for the Lord urge you

to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have

been called. Calling to which you have been

called, you are now called to walk.

Worthy says you once walked according to the course of this

world. You walked according to the

darkness, your former life, you had your life, your schedule,

your worldview, your plans, and then you were called.

And as is depicted here by the light of divine grace pouring

into the room, it was interruptive on your life.

And if you look on the right as Christ points his finger, this

is the decisive moment that He calls Matthew to follow him.

And divine grace is entering from outside the room.

And grace is external to us. It's otherworldly and it's

shine. It's pictured as a brilliant

light shining in the dark room. What Carvaji was teaching in

images and not in words is that Christ calls sinners as they

are. There's a whole movement after

him where there's it's depicted He calls people out of tax

offices and he calls people out of pubs.

And it happened to Matthew when Jesus interrupted him extorting

his own people for financial gain.

It happened to you, Ephesians chapter 2, verse 2.

Ephesians 2:2

You were walking in darkness, following the course of the

world, and then you experienced grace, which is why the only

commandment that came in chapters one to three, the only

imperative verb that came in chapters one to three was

remember. Remember where you were.

And I will ask you, where were you when God called you?

Where were you when grace interrupted your life?

What were you doing? What was your life like then,

and what is it like now? And Matthew in this picture

points at himself, who we think is Matthew points at himself as

if to say, Is it me, Lord? Could you be calling me?

And the men left of him, you can see the sudden and unexpected

nature of his calling by the surprise on their face.

Into Darkness comes this light. And even when you see this, this

painting, people debate over which one Matthew is.

Is it the one who's surprised or is he actually pointing at

someone else? Where these men are just

distracted, counting their money.

They're too distracted by their money to even realize they're

being called. And some say Caravaggio did this

on purpose because he he could be calling any one of you.

And that's the point 2nd Corinthians 4/6 for God, who

said light, the light, let the light shine out of darkness, has

shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the

glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

I bring up this painting for two reasons.

Number one, to frame our text and to help remind you of the

words of Paul in their context. He has called you to a calling

and you are called to walk worthy of that calling.

And the second reason I bring up this painting is because there

was a time in very recent years, but years past, where I had no

value. I ascribed no value to artists

or to painters or to paintings. And I would say, according to

First Corinthians 12, to borrow their language, I have no need

of you. And what I've said to

Caravaggio, I would have said to him, you have a lesser gift.

I have no need of you. There is no room for you.

Why don't you be a pastor or a church planner or do something?

Because there's no category in my mind for how you could build

up the church. And we're going to see in this

passage that there's a a diversity of giftings in the

church. Think of Exodus 31.

It was the painters and the Craftsman that God fills with

his spirit so that they could build amazing things for him,

his temple, for his glory. And it's a diversity of giftings

in the church. It's whether you're a painter or

whether you're a pastor, a singer or musician or a

sculptor, God has a means for you of highlighting and building

our unity in this church for His glory.

Turn in your Bible to Ephesians 4, verse 7.

Ephesians 4:7

We're coming off of verses 1 to 6, which you, if you remember,

describe the unity of the church. 1 Lord, 1 faith, one

baptism, one God and Father who is over all and through all and

in all. And then the very next words

Paul's going to say, within that unity there is an incredible

diversity. It's not unity does not lead to

uniformity. It's not like Jesus is the

model. We're all being conformed into

this exact replica of each other.

No, the the conforming to Christ is moral and how we worship him.

And our spiritual giftings are incredibly diverse.

There's amazing diversity and it's by design.

Paul says to the Corinthians, there are varieties of gift, but

the same spirit. There's varieties of service,

but the same Lord. There are varieties of

activities, but it's the same God who empowers them all in

everyone. To each is given the

manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

He apportions to each one individually as He wills.

So as diversity of giftings from a diverse group of people

working in concert to buttress and support the ministry of the

gospel. That's Ephesians 4.

Read it with me beginning in verse 7.

But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure

of Christ's gift. Therefore it says that Psalm 68,

When He ascended on high, he led a host of captives, and He gave

gifts to men. In saying, He ascended, what

does it mean but that He also descended into the lower regions

of the earth? He who descended is the one who

also ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all

things. And He gave the apostles, the

prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip

the Saints for the work of the ministry, for building up the

body of Christ. Look back to verse 6.

There's a diversity of giftings, but we share in it says 1 body,

1 Spirit, 1 hope, 1 Lord, 1 faith, one baptism, one God and

Father who is over all. And the transition again from

1:00 to 6:00 to 7:00 to 12:00 is a transition from discussion of

unity to a discussion of diversity.

So it's still tied to last week, but we're now talking about the

diversity of the giftings. And he makes that transition by

saying, but each one of us has been gifted.

So he's we're talking about the one church.

But now each one of us in the church, the individual members

have been given to steal his language, a stewardship of

grace, a responsibility so that we might continue on the

ministry of Jesus Christ in his absence.

He ascended that he might fill us with all things.

And so he reminds you by quoting this Psalm that Christ ascended

and he sat down at the right hand of God the Father.

And when he did, he poured out gifts on his church.

And then by his grace, he gave gifted men to equip the Saints

so that they might use those gifts.

And so we're going to divide the verse in half, Verses 7 to 10.

We'll, we'll, we'll put it this way.

He gave gifts to men and then when you look to verses 11 to

12, he gave gifted men. So he gave gifts to men and then

he gave gifted men to his church.

Read with me or look with me again to to verses 7 to 10.

We'll we'll start here with he gave gifts to men.

And when we say this, this is spiritual gifts, spirituals,

grace gifts. And Paul quotes the Psalms

because he wants to tie this not only theologically but

chronologically to Jesus ascension where he is taken up

into glory, He ascends into heaven, he sends out his spirit

and he pours out his gifts on his church.

When I was a youth, I remember reading just the Gospels and you

know, it talks about Jesus. He comes, this is what we're

celebrating at Christmas, that he's born in a Manger.

He's born as the God man and he lives and he dies and he's

resurrected. And I thought to myself, I

wonder if what happened to him after that.

I wonder if anybody knows what happened to Jesus after he was

raised from the dead. Has anybody looked into that?

And then come to find out, we're missing a huge, this is the the

pinnacle, right? He goes to be coronated, to be

crowned king and to pour out his gifts.

There's all these things that come with this ascension.

And Paul quotes Psalm 6818 to remind you of this beautiful

theology. Again, theologically,

chronologically, Psalm 6818 says when he ascended on high, he led

a host of captives and he gave gifts to men.

And it's helpful to understand the context there so we can see

kind of what Paul is doing. He does something shocking and

what he's doing is he's he's quoting these these verses that

lead up to verse 18 is all about a, a historical retelling of

Israel as they come to conquer Canaan and they conquer the the

promised land. There's this long historical

retelling of history, a historical survey which ends

climactically in verse 17 with God moving from Sinai into the

Temple. And interestingly, it says in

verse 17, the Lord is among them.

Sinai is now in the temple. Sinai is now in the sanctuary.

Remember, Sinai is where the 10 commandments came.

It's the mountain where there was Thunder and there was

lightning and there was fire and the people weren't allowed to go

near it and they were terrified of it.

If you touched the mountain, you died.

What does it mean when the psalmist says that Sinai is now

in the temple at Zion? And Don Carson says it means

that the image, the God whose power was, was so much evidence

that Mount Sinai, it's the same God with the same power that's

now at work in his temple on Zion.

And the Psalm is apparently referencing these victories as

Israel is going into the promised land and to Canaan to

occupy it. And the Psalm says that God

leads a host of captives in his train and receives gifts, which

are literally the spoils of war of all these people.

He says there's going to be trees and vineyards that you did

not plant. They're going to be yours.

He's receiving tribute because in the ancient world, the normal

political decorum when a king conquers is that the the rest of

the world brings gifts lest they too be conquered.

You bring gifts so that you can earn favour with the conquering

king. And Paul does something

interesting with that context. He changes the language of the

Psalm when he quotes it. He changes the the word you

receive gifts to you gave gifts. And Paul reverses the words.

He's saying Jesus has risen as the conquering King and rather

than receiving gifts from men, he gives gifts to men.

Michael Allen, the theologian says the triumphant Messiah

messianic King gives rather than receives.

The verb is shifted from passively receiving gifts after

triumphing in glory to actively granting them as our Lord does.

Because this is God's character. Why does he change it?

Because our God. It's what's happening all

through Psalm 68. He gives gifts to men.

He doesn't conquer so that he can receive for himself.

He conquers so that He can fill all things is what Ephesians 4

says. And this, this should tie

together several theological points in your mind.

I hope you can kind of attach these together in your mind's

eye. The first thing I want you to to

remember is the ascension of Jesus Christ.

It's bringing that up. He descended to the lower

regions of the earth so that he might ascend and fill all things

and give gifts to men. That's the first.

And the second thing I want you to attach to His ascension.

That doesn't always go together in our minds, but it should is

that He pours out spiritual gifts to us.

He's equipped you for Christian service in his absence.

He did that at His ascension. And then third, this leads to

the third thing I want to have in your mind.

It's what we call theologically the priesthood of all believers.

Every believer is now a priest because Christ's ascension is

not Him leaving us, but Him filling us with all things.

It's what your Ephesians 4 passage says, that He might fill

all things, verse 10. So he ascends and he graciously

distributes spiritual gifts among his diverse church

membership. The gifts come by the power of

the Holy Spirit directly from the throne of the resurrected

Christ. That's where you got your

equipping, which means that no Christian is ungifted.

Nobody's belong. Nobody can't be in the gifted

and talented program in the church.

You're all gifted, you're all talented.

It came from Jesus. He ascended, and now this is

important. His priestly body carries on his

work, and so as Christ, he said to his disciples, as the Father

has sent me, so I am sending you.

That's what he tells his disciples.

He equips his disciple or his apostles, and his apostles tell

the disciples, go. The authority passes from the

disciples into the local church. This Is Us.

We are the priesthood. And Christ ascends in victory

because he defeated heaven and hell.

And then gifts proceed from the throne as he fills all things

and the believers carry on the ministry of Jesus Christ through

their faithful Christian service.

And there's emphasis that Scripture puts on your spiritual

gifts. We've we've seen it in the weeks

past. The first emphasis was that

they're not for you. Remember our our metaphor,

taking it even to the womb of the woman's body.

That's not for her. The womb is not for the woman.

It's for filling the world with worshippers.

It's for other people to nourish them.

And the same is true with your spiritual gifts.

They're not for you. They are for other people.

It's for the common good. Scripture says it's for others,

it's externally focused. That's the first emphasis.

And the second is that the gifts are many and they are incredibly

diverse. And that's what this passage

with First Corinthians 12 there's, they're saying there's

a diversity to our activity and our ministry and what we do.

The church is lacking if somebody doesn't walk worthy of

their calling. Paul says in First Corinthians

12 for again, hear this again, there are varieties of gifts,

but the same Spirit. You hear all the Trinity in this

as well. There are varieties of service,

but the same Lord, varieties of activities, but it is the same

God who empowers them all in everyone.

So with that, inferred is no one has all the gifts which we want

to think of ourselves. Yes, I'm a skilled administrator

and I can sing and I can preach and I can.

That's not meant to be any one of us.

Nobody gets all the giftings, which means we need one another.

We have if and if any part is missing, the church is lacking

and we fall short of our potential when people fail to

serve and, and this is the state of the church.

You read the Barnes studies. Half of the church is not

engaged in meaningful Christian service.

This is everywhere. Richard Cokin says most local

churches look more like soccer matches than churches.

And what he means by that is he says there's 22,000 people in

need of exercise that are watching, and there's 22 people

on the field exhausted that need rest.

And he says it ought not to be that way.

And I'll make a point when we say that we're to to be serving

and building up the church according to your gifts.

That means much more than you making coffee on Sunday morning

or handing out a bulletin on Sunday morning or distributing

doughnuts. Those are amazing ways to serve

the church. That's not what we're talking

about. I want to give you some

expressions of this in our church.

I want to linger here for just a minute because when we teach in

our membership class about faithful Christian service,

we're talking about sacrificial, costly service on behalf of

other people, meaningful service.

And some of the ways that this, that this happens at our church,

comes through our jail and prison ministries.

There are people in this church who go into Lexington Prison,

into Park County Safety Center every week.

There are some who help mothers who are inmates stay in touch

with their children while they're in jail and in prison.

Several are seminary professors who go to Lexington prison and

teach in the Prison Divinity program.

And many of us are evangelists who preach on Thursday and

Sunday afternoons to evangelize and disciple the inmates.

And there are some who are here who are employers who

intentionally hire ex cons so that they can give them a leg up

and care for them as vulnerable people and share the gospel with

them. And some of us work at the

homeless Resource Center where our church contributes so that

we can give birth certificates and IDs and food to individuals

who are in our community. It's just right over here, just

a few blocks away. We have those serving, providing

a safe place for them to be. Many, many in our church are

involved in caring for vulnerable children and we have

many who are fostering. We have many who are adopting.

We have many who are opening their home to Safe Families, to

care for kids and to care for vulnerable.

I'm so proud of Becky who has opened her home recently for the

first time, and then the second and then the third.

I'm so proud of the joins who are taking in their first kid at

Safe Families. I think this week soon, roughly

half of our church is on the care portal platform,

cooperating with all the other churches and ministries in town

to care for vulnerable. Many in our church are involved

with the Child Evangelism Fellowship where they host clubs

and local schools to share the gospel with the kids.

We have some 14 individuals now going through formal and highly

rigorous counselling training so that they can pour themselves

out not only for the people in this church, but those who are

in our community. There are several who have run

for public office so that they can enact structural change in

our community and create an ecology of righteousness for the

church to flourish. There are many in our church who

pair up and just go evangelize. They take the books from

downstairs, what is the gospel, and they go into the streets and

they go to the mall and they share the gospel and they do it

weekly. Some are at work among the

nations, which for this church, for whatever reason, North

Africa, it's Oklahoma that supports it.

We don't know why, we haven't figured it out yet, but Oklahoma

supports it. We have a group going in a few

weeks to spend a week evangelizing.

Others will be going in January to spend 2 weeks in Liberia.

There's a member of this church who's going with a one way

ticket indefinitely or who knows how long this individual will be

in Liberia. And we have others who are

training with the IMB now to buy a one way ticket.

They may never come back from supporting them.

That's the calling. Many are entrepreneurs who are

light to the city and fund the church.

Many serve with our non, our partner nonprofits, Legacy

Parenting, World Haven, Cargo Ranch, Hope Pregnancy.

Not only that, they serve on the board as board members for those

ministries and the newest ministry initiative is a support

group for those caring for special needs children.

What amazing ministries that we're involved in, what diverse

ministries. And this is nobody does these

things on their own. You don't just happen to be

going by and suddenly this is the work and the fruit of

supernatural energy. This is God's Holy Spirit

empowering our church for the work of the ministry.

And you can hear the modern fulfillment of Paul's words.

There's varieties of gifts, there's varieties of service,

varieties, activity of activities.

But it's the same God, the same Lord, and the same Spirit who

empowers all of it. And this reminds me of the words

of Peter. As each has received a gift, use

it to serve one another. As good stewards of God's varied

grace varied is the word multi colored, multi colored grace.

He's poured out all kinds of gifts on this body, multi

colored multifaceted and so that doesn't exclude you from also

making coffee and handing out bulletins and serving in the

nursery. We but pour yourself out for

others and consider how has God equipped you?

What are you to be doing in this body?

Consider the stewardship that God has given you.

There's no such thing as a Christian consumer.

It's an oxymoron where you come and you consume coffee and you

consume doughnuts and you consume lessons and music and

sermons and you enjoy the AC and you enjoy the plumbing and you

enjoy people loving on your children and loving on you and

serving you. There's no category for a

Christian that enjoys being served but doesn't enjoy

service. And on the night that Jesus was

betrayed, that was the attitude of his disciples.

They wanted to be served. They wanted their feet to be

washed and they wanted the room to be arranged for them.

They wanted the bitter herbs prepared and they wanted the

lamb roasted, and they wanted their supper served for them.

They wanted to recline at the table.

And it's in this setting that the words are recorded of Jesus,

or it is recorded of Jesus. It says Jesus, knowing that the

Father had given him all things and he'd come from God and he

was going back to God, rose from supper.

He laid aside his outer garments and he took his towel and tied

it around his waist. And he poured a water basin and

began to wash the disciples feet and to wipe them with the towel

that was wrapped around him. And so we are now the disciples

of Jesus and we still expect to be served.

And Jesus said, it shall not be so among you, for even the Son

of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give himself

as a ransom for many. So you have been given the

language of Paul and Ephesians, a stewardship of grace, a

responsibility to serve in Christ's absence.

Works have been written for you in eternity past that you might

walk in them. You've been given spiritual

gifts and grace that you might serve.

And you were gifted with pastors and teachers who are here to

help equip you so that you can serve.

Ian Hamilton says the Church of God's not like a train where all

the passengers sit comfortably and passively until they arrive

at their destination brought by the giftedness of their

spiritual leaders, but rather they are an orchestra where all

members play their part and contribute to the melodic

Symphony of service to God. And if you look ahead to verse

12, what are you to do? Your pastors are equipping you

for the work of the ministry. That word ministry is so

important for your service. It's the word diakonos where we

get our word Deacon. It means literally table waiter.

That's your function in the world.

You are a Deacon. You are a table waiter, you are

a servant. And so the very next passage

after Jesus speaks the words, the Son of Man came not to be

served, but to serve. 5 verses later, a need is brought before

Jesus. And I want his words to be your

word. As you go out of this place

Monday to Saturday, make his words your words.

He comes and says to the man who asks of him.

She says, what do you want me to do for you?

That needs to be your mantra. What do you want me to do for

you? And then what they say, you go

and do it. HB Charles, one of my favorite

pastors, my professor said that he was taught in his church

growing up. There's two basin theology.

You either take up the basin of Jesus and you wash the feet of

the disciples, or you take up the basin of Pontius Pilate and

you wash your hands of Jesus Christ.

There is no in between. Pick which one you'll do.

And so if you are a consumer, let me remind you of your higher

calling, that Jesus in victory has ascended into heaven, that

you might minister in his place. Hear this quote from Thalman.

He says Christ to his extended victory over all opposing forces

and his sovereignty over all creation, is the very one who

himself now equips the church to join him in his sovereign rule

over creation. And he says he does this through

gifts to discreet groups of people.

That's you, that's this church, that's this body.

What can we do for you? And Jesus ascended so that every

believer would be a priest, every Christian would be a

minister, the ministers of the church are you every church

would be a training church and every church would be a sending

church. And so if you are a Christian,

you are gifted for service. And the question is in your

mind's eye, where do you see yourself serving over the coming

years? What is God calling you to do?

What works Has he written out that you might walk in them?

Because this is the, the, the question that your pastors are

asking of you. As we look to our second point

in verses 11 to 12, we want to equip you.

We're called to equip you. What is it that you were

supposed to do? What is God calling you to do?

Because first we said God gave gifts to men.

And now in verses 11 to 12, now God gives gifted men.

Read, read these two verses again with me.

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

shepherds, and the teachers to equip the Saints for the work of

the ministry, for building up the body of Christ.

This is apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds,

teachers. The acronym that's become famous

to describe this is apest. If you hear people talking about

apest, this is what they're talking about.

And really interesting when we're talking about apest, what

we're giving in is, in summary, a history of God's Bible

teachers. This is how God has built up His

church from the 1st century until now.

It started with the foundation of the apostles and the

prophets. That was Ephesians 220.

Just a little over a chapter ago.

He says that the apostles and the prophets were how the church

began. And this wasn't the Old

Testament prophets. We established this and then

Christ's apostles. This is Christ's apostles who

wrote the Word. We're the bedrock foundation for

the church. And then the 1st century

prophets who went out into the world proclaiming the will of

God and planted churches with the evangelists.

That's the foundation of the church.

And once you lay the foundation, any subsequent building is not

the foundation. You're building a first story

and a second story and a third story.

The foundation was laid by the apostles and the prophets.

Now we have pastors and teachers and arguably evangelists.

We can't be dogmatic about whether they were the 1st

century or today. But whatever an evangelist is,

whether that office has passed as a formal office in the church

or not, they are the ones that go out and they win the world

and they bring the disciples into the church where the

pastors and the teachers build them up and send them back out

into the world. That's how this all fits

together. The apostles and the prophets

built the foundation. The evangelists gather in the

pastors and the teachers build them up.

Galatians 419 My little children, whom I'm in the pains

of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.

That's the idea. We equip you for the work of the

ministry. And the last two shepherds and

teachers are the only two that are linked by the Word.

And this, this conjunction. And this has LED some people to

say that pastors and teachers is is really one.

This is just one office. It's hyphenated, it's pastor

teacher and meaning that there are there are pastors and

there's teachers. Not all pastors or all pastors

are teachers, but not all teachers are pastors.

And so there's kind of two ways to see that you can, you can

divide it up or you can even see it as one office.

The common way of taking it is two different offices.

Again, saying not all teachers are pastors, but all pastors are

teachers. And so God gives these pastors

to make sure that we are all shepherding our gifts well.

And I, I had an insight this week as I was studying this, I

realized that most large churches begin to err toward not

unity in diversity, but uniformity in their unity.

And so I, what I mean by that is I think there are, there are

churches who the bigger you get, the easier it is to hire a Bible

major and then more Bible majors and they hire Bible majors.

And before long you're not bringing people up out of the

workplace and you're getting these, this uniform picture of

what a man of God is. We have to be careful that we

don't fall into this. But I I think smaller churches

may have this right where they're pulling their pastors up

from the marketplace as much as they're hiring Bible teachers.

And I was thinking about the subject of pastors and diversity

in the church. I began to consider our pastors

and I wrote down the occupations of our 10 pastors as we were

pulled from the marketplace. Are you ready for the diversity

that God has brought here? We have a marketing professor, a

sign hanger, an engineer, a used car salesman, a plumber, the

director of an education technology company, a chocolate

chemist, a counsellor, A musician, and an IT specialist.

I challenge you to come up with a more diverse list of people

than that. What can God do with a diverse

congregation like this? And the answer is a lot, right?

He can do abundantly more than we ever could ask or imagine.

This is amazing diversity that God brings in His church.

And yet, in all this diversity among the pastors and among the

congregation, we are united in our confession of Jesus Christ

as Lord. That's what we said last week

when we went and took the Lords Supper together.

We were united in theology and doctrine.

We're united in our core values. And Ephesians 411 to 12 is one

of the favorite passages of the elders of this church because

equipping the Saints of the work of the ministry is a core value

of this church. We have 5 core values.

This is the second one, theological education.

Theological education is the first.

Equipping the Saints for the work of the ministry is second.

Advancing the gospel, ministering to the vulnerable,

and seeking the welfare of the city.

And so our elders retreat this year that we got back a few

weeks ago. That was all we talked about.

That was the forefront. We can't we had James Wilder

came and preached a sermon on Ephesians 4, equipping the

Saints for the work of the ministry.

And he said this is what you do. This is what to look for.

Here are some tools so that you can do this well.

And before we left, we asked every team lead of this church 5

questions. The justice and mercy team, the

children's, the youth, the tech, the worship, the college, the

men's, the women's, the assets team and the counselling team.

We said what is your vision for your ministry in this church

over the next three years? Who are you equipping in your

role as a ministry leader? Number two.

Number three, what is your team need to grow in maturity in

Christian service #4 is there any resource or training or

support that we can give people in your area so they can better

minister to others? 5 What do you believe equipping

the Saints for the work of the ministry looks like in your

ministry context? And we read all of those

together. And that was the fuel that led

our entire prayer and our whole weekend.

And the reason we prayed that. And the reason we do that is

because we're commanded to here. This is the command of pastors,

equip you for the work of the ministry.

But it's because we don't want to move where God is not moving.

If God is walking through this door, then we want to walk

through this door. If God's equipping you to go

here in this season, then we want to equip you to go here.

We don't want to move where the Spirit is not moving.

And so today our churches are not given apostles and prophets.

They're given pastors and teachers and it's not the job of

the pastors to do the work of the ministry.

As a matter of fact, it feels like we do less.

It's your job to do the work of the ministry and we come

alongside and build you up almost like coaches.

And we share in your glory and we share in your victories.

And when we're equipping you for this, for the work of the

ministry, the word equipping is a rare word.

This is important for the pastors in the room.

Equipping was a word. It's only used here in the New

Testament and it means they're actually, it's used in medical

textbooks. It means literally straightening

or setting a a joint or a broken bone.

That's what equipping meant medically outside of the medical

field. It meant outfitting a guest room

with furniture. And probably how Paul took it to

mean specifically was it was the preparation of woof and warp.

Before you weave a garment, you're setting your machine,

you're, you're getting it all tuned up.

And then comes the service and the labour and the work.

And that's what we're doing. We lay the foundation, we

prepare you and you go and do the work of the ministry.

Because it says in Ephesians that God is building a building

and all the Saints are involved in the construction.

All Saints are Oikonamiya house managers.

That's your role. And which means that every time

a new member comes into the church, the whole dynamic of the

church shifts because now we're adjusting to those spiritual

gifts you hear in in John 3. The Spirit blows where it wills.

We don't choose what giftings get brought in.

We don't choose what God's going to call you to do.

We adjust as he leads sovereignly.

And so these are glorious things to a pastor.

Our glory is your fruitful service.

And never be jealous of one gift over another.

Never be jealous of the work of the pastor.

It's like the player being jealous of the coach when when

there's success, the the coach and the player share in the

success and they share in the glory.

There's nothing more that we want to hear as pastors than you

are engaging in fruitful ministry.

Paul says this too. 1st Thessalonians 219.

What is our hope or joy or crown of boasting?

It's you. This is what he says to the

Corinthians in 2nd Corinthians 3.

You yourselves are our letter of recommendation written not with

ink, but with the Spirit of the living God.

The highest compliment I ever was paid was Myles Britt.

When I was kind of pouting because I didn't get to do

another degree like I wanted to, he came to me and he said you

don't need a PHDI am your PhD and he's what that means.

You don't have to go chase another credential.

I am your credential. You're equipping me for the work

of the ministry. You don't need another letter

after your name. And so his fruitful service is

my grounds of boasting. It's written not with ink, but

with the power of the Spirit. So Jesus ascends to heaven.

He gives gifts to his Kingdom of priests for the continuation of

ministry. He gives shepherds to shepherd

those people with their diverse giftings.

He gives men. And when everyone is doing this

part, Ephesians 412, the blessing of Ephesians 412

happens. There's the building up of the

body of Christ. You can look down to 416 where

we'll be next week. It says when each part is

working properly, when everybody's serving, it makes

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

And one of the most convicted that I've ever been in a sermon

was in a sermon on Ephesians 4 at Super Summer a few years ago.

Many of the youth here were in the room and he was preaching on

at the diversity of gifts that God's given the church.

And his point was that was so convicting to me was that God

gives different personalities and different people and

different giftings. And yet we we try to fit all

these gifts and personality into these little molds that we want

to force other Christians into. And his application was that we

think my wife is too eccentric or my husband doesn't laugh

enough, he's too serious, or we think, why is she so intense or

talk so much? And he says, you can't force

people into this little box you've made for them.

The same in the Western church that we've kind of forced

Christians into a box saying a good Christian can do one of two

things. You can go plant a church or you

can evangelize and tithe. Those are your options to be

faithful in your Christian service.

And I would have said to Caravaggio, the painter, years

ago, why can't you just be a church planter and make yourself

useful? And everybody in his generation

said, why can't you just paint like everybody else?

Why do you have to paint this this weird stuff, these

Christians in Taverns? And it was actually the

unorthodox style of Caravaggio that influenced the culture and

built the church because he brought the gospel to new

audiences who could see themselves in their paintings

for the first time. And the church was increased in

the pastor at Super Summer taught me you can't hide the

people. You can't change the people who

are around you to fit your mold. That's not the point.

He gifted them in this way for a reason.

It's not an embarrassment to you.

You're not supposed to change them.

You're supposed to steward their gifts for the Kingdom.

And so the apostles, as we look through this history, they wrote

the Word, they established the church, the prophets preach the

Word as the foundation to the church.

The evangelist won the hearts of and souls of men, and the

shepherds build them up and equip them for the work of the

ministry. All believers and their various

gifts have a part to play. And the church is a living

diversity. It's like a forest ecosystem.

It's like a coral reef. It's alive and teeming and

changing. And diversity is what makes it

beautiful. It's like the music of the

spheres is saying to us, diversity is a good and

beautiful thing. And so Paul says again, I want

you to hear this one more time. To the Corinthians, there are

varieties of gifts but the same spirit, varieties of service but

the same Lord, varieties of activities, but it's the same

God who empowers them all in everyone.

To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for

the common good. He apportions to each one

individually as he wills. We have all received a measure

of grace and we confess. Like Paul, I am what I am, but

the but by the grace of God. I am what I am, but by the grace

of God. And so remember his words in

First Timothy 4. Do not neglect the gift that you

have. His grace has shown into the

world and we must respond in service Church, please pray with

me, God. Help us to do what we were

called to do, Lord. When every member is functioning

properly, when it's all in order, when everyone has been

inspired, inspired to serve, when we're a Kingdom of priests,

then amazing things happen. Lord, we're a Symphony that the

church builds itself up. The vulnerable are cared for.

The word is preached. There's adequate resources in

the church to do all that we've been called to do.

It's the Lord give us the the courage to to be selfless, to

not take up the the basin of Pontius Pilate, but to take up

the basin of Jesus Christ, to gird our loins and to serve, to

ask, what can I do for you? Beginning first with the

household of God and pouring out into the world.

Show us now, even as we sing and respond, what are you calling us

to do? And whatever it is, Lord, may

the pastors equip, may the people respond in service, and

may you be glorified. It's in Christ's name we pray.

Amen. Thanks for listening.

To learn more about Heritage Church or if you'd like to

respond to this sermon, visit our website at

www.heritageshawnee.org.