Growing Up And Working Properly (Oct 31, 2021) Nathan Penny

Hello and welcome to the Redemption Church Podcast.

We're a church in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada that exists to glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission and the spirit of the Great Commandment.

Thanks for joining us today.

Well, let's pray, church.

Let's pray.

So, Father, here we are.

And God, I pray right now, we pray together, Lord, that you would take your word and that you would use it to accomplish all of your purposes in our hearts and in our lives this morning.

Holy Spirit, you see everything.

Everything about our hearts.

Everything is wide open to you.

You see where each one of us are at.

And so we pray.

Speak to us.

Lead us.

Help us.

We are weak and we are needy.

I am weak and I am needy.

We need you.

We need to be refreshed by the Spirit of God.

So please use your word to do that this morning.

We pray.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, good morning.

Good morning.

My name is Nathan.

I'm one of the pastors over at Hope Oakville.

And it is a real privilege to be here with you today.

So open up God's word.

And speaking of God's word, if you have a copy of God's word, please go ahead and open your Bible up to Ephesians chapter 4.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

Ephesians chapter 4, verse 15.

Ephesians 4:15

And as you're turning, let me ask you: have you ever been in a situation with someone where you were pleading with them to do something that was for their own good?

Maybe it was a friend or a family member, maybe it was a child, and you're pleading with them to do this thing, to do something that was for their own good.

Maybe it was something to do with their health.

Maybe it was something to do with their well-being in some way.

And there you are, and you're pleading with them.

You're like, please listen to me.

Do this thing.

This was for your own good, please.

Have you ever been in that situation before?

Well, if you can relate to that, if you can think of a time like that, then then you can relate to what's happening in Ephesians chapter 4, because this is what's happening, but this time it's God, and He is speaking to us.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

It's God speaking to us today, through His Word, saying to us today, listen to me.

Listen to me for your own good, listen to me and do what I say.

And today we're going to hear from the heart of our good and perfect Father saying to us today, this is what you need.

This is the way, my child.

Walk in it.

And to help us understand what God is saying to us today from Ephesians chapter 4, he's given us a picture.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

And here's the picture: it's the picture of a head and a body.

And Jesus Christ is the head, and we are the body, and the body is made up of all of these different parts that have all been designed to do different things for the good and the blessing and the welfare of the body.

And when each part of the body is working properly, then the body is healthy and the body thrives.

This is such a helpful illustration for us, because just consider the human body for a second.

In the human body, there are trillions of cells.

There are 206 bones.

There are over 600 muscles and 78 internal organs.

And when each part of the body is working properly, then it positively affects all of the other parts.

When one part of the body works properly, it helps all of the other parts work properly as well.

I mean, just consider, for example, me taking a drink of water, right?

If I want to have a glass of water to take a drink, first of all, the bones in my arm need to remain stable.

The muscles in my arm, they need to need to flex properly.

The tendons in my hand need to be able to grab hold of a glass of water.

As I bring that to my lips and I drink, it's not just my arm that gets blessed, but my whole body is blessed and gets hydrated.

Likewise, when each part of the body of Christ is working properly, then it will positively impact every other part, helping the whole body to be healthy and to thrive.

Now that's the positive side.

But of course, there's also a negative side.

So consider again this analogy of the human body.

What if one part of the body isn't working properly?

That's how people usually end up at the doctor, right?

That's how people usually end up maybe even in the hospital.

What if there's several parts of the human body not working properly?

Or what if many, many parts of the body are not working properly?

What will be the outcome for that body?

Well, it won't be healthy and it will not thrive.

Likewise, when the parts of the body of Christ are not working properly, it will affect the health of the whole body and the body won't thrive as it should.

So, question.

If you are here today, you are saved in Jesus Christ, if you are part of the body of Christ, question are you working properly?

Is your life being used by God right now in this season to bring health and to bring blessing to the body of Christ?

Or truth be told, are you sitting on the sidelines?

Because if you are saved in Jesus Christ, if you are here today and you are part of the body of Christ, then here's the truth.

You have tremendous potential in Christ to be powerfully used right now, in this season, to produce a ripple effect of blessing throughout the body of Christ.

Let me say that again.

If you are saved in Jesus Christ, if you are here, you are part of the body of Christ, then that means you have tremendous potential in Christ to be powerfully used right now, in this season, right now, to produce a ripple effect of blessing throughout the body of Christ.

Here's what I mean up on the screen.

Consider for a moment a body of water.

Now, what happens in a body of water when there is a sudden surge of activity?

What happens?

Well, there is a ripple effect, right?

There are waves from that surge of activity, there are waves that extend outward in every direction, far and wide.

And so it is in the body of Christ.

When one part works properly, it sends a ripple effect throughout the body of Christ, a domino effect, a chain reaction where one person impacts another person, who impacts another person, who impacts another person.

Now imagine if this isn't just happening for one part of the body, but imagine if it's happening for many up on the screen.

Imagine if the body looked like this, where every part is working properly, creating ripple effects of blessing everywhere from all sides, all throughout the body of Christ.

Imagine if this was Redemption Newmarket.

Listen, in many ways it is.

Amen?

It can be all the more.

And so here's the truth.

In this season, if you and I are going to be used to send ripple effects of blessing throughout the body of Christ, here's the first thing that needs to happen.

We need to keep growing.

And this is point number one.

If you and I are going to be used to send ripple effects of blessing throughout the body of Christ, then every part of the body needs to keep growing.

Here's the question: Am I growing?

Am I growing?

Have a look now at verse 15.

Ephesians chapter 4, verse 15.

Ephesians 4:15

Paul says this.

He says, rather.

And let's stop right there.

Because by saying rather, what Paul is referring to is what he's been already talking about in chapter 4.

So let's back up a little bit further, all the way to verse 11, so we can read verse 15 in context.

So chapter 4, verse 11, look what he says.

And he, referring to God, 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, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that, notice this, 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 in deceitful schemes.

So here's what Paul is saying.

He's saying that all of us, each one of us in the body, we must continue to grow.

We must continue to grow up so that we are no longer spiritual children.

Because if we remain spiritual children, then we will be easily deceived by lies and we will be carried away into very, very dangerous places.

Because here's the truth: whether we know it or not, every single day you and I are living under a constant barrage of lies.

Lies from the sin within us, lies from the world around us, lies from the demonic, lies from false teachers.

And what are these lies about?

Everything, literally, everything.

Lies are coming at us from all directions, lies about God, lies about ourselves, lies about other people, lies about our circumstances, coming at us from every side like waves of arrows every single day.

And if we're not careful, if we're not holding up the shield of faith, if we are forgetful of what God says in His Word, then those lies, those arrows can so easily penetrate the heart, and we can be carried away into very dangerous places we never thought that we would go.

And so, what does that look like when lies enter the heart?

Well, it looks like this up on the screen.

When lies enter the heart about God.

Lies like God doesn't care, or God isn't good, or God is far away, or God doesn't love you, or God is not enough for you, which can lead us to places of confusion, anxiety, anger, despair.

Very dangerous place to be.

Or when lies enter the heart about ourselves up on the screen, who we are in Christ.

Lies like you're just a loser or you're not good enough, or you are somehow unacceptable, or you don't have any purpose.

Can lead us to places of shame, insecurity, fear, just feeling like giving up.

Very dangerous place to be.

Or how about this when lies enter the heart about other people?

Lies like other people in the church, they just think you're a loser, they think you're a joke, they think you don't matter.

It can lead us to places of even further isolation, anxiety, anger, despair.

Very dangerous place to be.

Or how about this when lies enter our heart about our circumstances?

Lies like our circumstances are totally out of control.

God's not sovereign over this.

This is like a spiraling chaos.

Out of control.

And it's too hard.

God's grace is not sufficient for this.

This is impossible.

It can lead us to places of anger, confusion, feeling trapped, despair.

Again, a very dangerous place for us to be.

This is what happens when lies enter into the heart.

Lies from the sin within us, lies from the world around us, lies from the demonic, but then also this: lies from false teachers.

Lies from false teachers that abound in our day, that twist the scriptures and preach gospels of salvation by works, and preach gospels of prosperity, and lead people so far away from the truth of the Bible, lead people so far away from the truth of who God is and what he has done and what he has promised and what he has commanded.

Lead people so far away from any foundation of truth whatsoever.

Very dangerous place to be.

Sometimes when we use that phrase, we gotta speak the truth, what we mean is we gotta say the hard thing.

And sometimes we do need to say the hard thing.

But that's not what Paul's talking about in Ephesians 4.

When Paul says speaking the truth, what he's talking about is speaking the truth of the Bible.

That's what he's talking about.

When he said we need to speak the truth to each other, he's saying we need to speak the truth of the word of God.

We can think of it this way up on the screen.

The truth that we are to speak to each other is the truth of the four W's.

What are the four W's?

Here they are.

We need to speak the truth of who God is, what God has done, what God has promised, and what God has commanded.

This is the truth that we are to speak to each other.

We're to speak the truth of who God is.

That God is holy, holy, holy, that he's awesome, that he's perfect, he is love, he is life.

We need to speak that to each other.

We need to speak the truth of what God has done, that Christ died to bring us to God, that if you are in Jesus Christ, you are forgiven, you are clean, you are covered.

We need to speak that to each other.

We need to speak the truth of what God has promised, that he will never leave us, he will never forsake us, he will never stop loving us, he will bring us into glory.

We need to speak that to each other.

We need to speak to each other about what God has commanded, that He's commanded us to love Him, to love each other, to live for His glory.

This is the truth that you and I are to speak to one another, the truth of the Bible.

It's a question.

How do we become people like that?

How do we become people who speak the truth to each other?

Well, there's only one way.

If you and I want to be people who speak the truth, we first must be people who are filled with the truth.

Because when we are filled with the truth, that's when we will speak the truth.

If you think of it like this, if you take a sponge and you take that sponge and you put it in a sink full of water, and that sponge is saturated in the water, and you pick it up out of the sink, it's dripping all over the counter, drips all over you, drips all over the floor.

Likewise, when we take our hearts and we submerge them into the word of God, and our hearts are saturated in the word of God, then the word of God starts to come out of our mouths.

We can't help it.

And this is what Paul longs to see in the church.

That the Ephesian church would be a people who are filled with the truth of the Word of God, and then they speak the truth to each other.

This is why he begins his letter to the Ephesians with a whole ocean of gospel truth.

It's intended to fill the hearts of his listeners with gospel truth so they become a people who then speak the truth to each other.

Here's a sample of that up on the screen from Ephesians 1 and 2.

First of all, that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing.

If you are saved in Jesus Christ, then God has blessed you in every possible way that he could bless you spiritually.

Maybe thinking like what?

Well, like this list.

How about this?

God chose us before he created the world.

Before God created anything, he chose you.

He chose you.

Or this, that God ordained that we would be holy and blameless before him.

Think about that.

No one is entering into the presence of God unless you are holy and blameless.

And we are sinful.

So how can we enter into the presence of God?

Well, there's only one way.

God sent his son.

God sent his son, who gave himself over to the cross.

And as Jesus Christ hung on that cross, all of the sin of all who would ever place their faith in him was transferred to him by God as he hung on that cross, and the suffering that we deserve, the wrath of God was poured out upon him in full until he paid for all of our sins, so that through faith in him we could be made blameless.

But not only that, Jesus Christ also lived the perfect life, a perfect life of obedience, so that through faith in him, his perfect record of obedience could be credited to our account as though we did it, so that we could be made holy, we could be made blameless before God and then enter into his presence.

That's the gospel.

That's the good news.

God has made you holy and blameless before him.

How about this?

God also predestined us for adoption.

You are now his child, and God Almighty is your father.

God redeemed us through the blood of Jesus Christ.

We were enslaved to sin, but he broke us free from our slavery through the blood of his son.

God has forgiven us for all of our sins.

Think about that.

All of your sins for your whole life, forgiven because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross.

The third person of the Trinity lives in you.

God lives in you as a deposit, as a down payment of the future glory that you will experience when you see Jesus Christ face to face.

God has chosen to love you perfectly.

He could not love you any more than he does right now.

He loves you perfectly.

And he has promised to show us the immeasurable, immeasurable riches of his grace for all of eternity.

Which means the moment we step into glory and we see the immeasurable riches of the grace of God upon our lives, that moment of worship will make our greatest moment of worship in this life look like a drop in the ocean.

And when our hearts are filled with this truth, we can't help but speak the truth.

We can't help it.

When our hearts are filled with this truth, that's when we speak the truth, and we speak the truth to one another.

But there's more.

Because we are to do more than just speak the truth to each other.

Look back at verse 15.

Verse 15, rather, speaking the truth.

Notice, what does it say?

What does it say there?

In love.

In love.

Speaking the truth in love.

This is God's plan for us, that we wouldn't just speak the truth, but rather we would speak the truth in love.

So what does it mean to speak the truth in love?

Well, here's what it means: it means to speak the truth of the Bible for the right reasons.

It means to speak the truth of the Bible with right motives.

It means to speak the truth of the Bible, not to try to look smart, not to try to appear super spiritual, not to condemn people and beat them over the head.

But rather, speaking the truth in love means this.

I'm gonna repeat this a couple of times.

Speaking the truth in love Love means to speak the truth of the Bible so that others would be strengthened in their faith, that others would grow in their relationship with Christ, and others would become more like him in character.

That's what it means to speak the truth in love.

It means to speak the truth of the Bible so that others would be strengthened in their faith, grow in their relationship with Christ, and become more like him in character.

One more time.

This is what it means to speak the truth in love.

It means to speak the truth of the Bible so that others would be strengthened in their faith and grow in their relationship with Christ and become more and more like him in character.

This is what it means to speak the truth in love.

And why is it so important that we do this?

Well, here's why.

Because there is literally nothing more important for all of us than growing in our relationship with Christ and becoming more and more like him in character.

Like this is the most important thing.

There's nothing more important than this.

Therefore, we must do this.

We must speak the truth of the Bible to each other so that we are strengthened in our faith and grow in our relationship with Christ and become more and more like him in character.

This is what it means to speak the truth in love to each other.

Because listen, you and I have not been designed by God to grow in relationship with Jesus Christ in isolation apart from the body.

That's not God's design.

God's design is that we would grow in our relationship with Christ through the help of the body by speaking the truth in love to each other.

That's God's design.

As Paul Tripp puts it, our walk with God is a community project.

Our walk with God is a community project.

By God's design, we grow best and we grow most in community as we speak the truth in love to each other.

Because as we do that, as we are intentional about doing that, God grows us up in every way.

Have a look back at verse 15.

Paul says, rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way.

So what does it look like to grow up in every way?

Well, he tells us right there in the text, look again at verse 15.

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

Therefore, as you and I speak the truth in love to each other, God uses that.

He uses that powerfully, he uses that profoundly to grow us so that more and more our character reflects the character of Jesus Christ.

Now, when you think about it, in any family, as children grow up, they begin to take on the family resemblance.

It's inevitable.

As children grow up, they begin to look more and more like their relatives, right?

So people will say to little boys, they'll say, Hey, look at you, you look so much like Uncle So-and-so, or grandpa, whoever.

And they'll say to little girls, look at you, you look so much like Auntie so-and-so.

And kids, especially teenagers, will cringe, right?

I don't want to look like Auntie So-and-so or Uncle So-and-so, but it's inevitable.

As kids grow up, they begin to take on the family resemblance.

Likewise, as you and I speak the truth in love to each other, God uses it to grow us up so that we take on the family resemblance of the character of Jesus Christ, which looks like growing in love for God, and growing in love for each other, and growing in patience, and growing in mercy, growing in grace, growing in peace, growing in joy.

This is what happens.

This is what God does as we are intentional about speaking the truth to each other, he uses it to grow us up so our character becomes more and more like the character of Christ.

And therefore, because speaking the truth in love to each other is so very, very, very important to our growth in Christ, here's the question.

How do we do this well?

How do we do this well?

How do you speak the truth in love well?

Because surely speaking the truth in love is a lot more than just kind of like randomly walking up to someone with your Bible, opening up to a random page and just reading a verse.

Surely it's more than that.

So, what does it look like to speak the truth in love with skill in a way that's applicable to someone's life and someone's situation?

Well, consider what Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5 up on the screen.

Look what he says.

He says, And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.

So notice here that Paul doesn't have a cookie-cutter approach to ministry.

He's not saying just take the same approach with everyone.

You know, he's saying, hey, hey, in your church, he's saying, I see at least three different groups of people.

I see that there are idle people, they're not doing anything.

They need to be admonished with the word.

He says, and then there's uh some faint-hearted people over there.

They need to be encouraged with the word.

And then there's weak people, they need help.

They need help, they need to be helped with the word.

And he says, be patient with them all.

In other words, this is gonna take some time.

This is gonna take some effort.

Speaking the truth in love with skill means we're gonna have to sit down with people and spend some time with them and listen to them, listen to their stories, listen to what's going on in their lives, listen to what's going on in their hearts.

It's gonna take some effort so that we speak the truth in a way that's applicable to their life.

Therefore, our guiding principle in speaking the truth in love up on the screen is Ephesians 4 29.

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up.

Notice, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

So growing and speaking the truth in love means speaking the truth in a way that fits the occasion, which again is going to require listening to people.

It's gonna require making the effort to hear what's going on in someone's life and seeking to discern from God's word what truth best fits their situation.

So maybe you're there with someone, you're sitting across the table from them, and they're pouring out their heart to you.

They're like, this is what's going on in my life, and you're sitting there and you're thinking, okay, so like what truth best fits their life situation right now?

Is it a truth about who God is?

Is it a truth about what God has done?

Is it a truth about what God has promised?

Is it a truth about what God has commanded?

What truth best fits this occasion with this person at this time?

And listen, none of us are perfect at this.

None of us are perfect at this, and yet, this is supposed to be happening everywhere in the church.

This is supposed to be happening in marriages, this is supposed to be happening in parenting, this is supposed to be happening in friendships, it's supposed to be happening in groups, it's supposed to be happening everywhere in the church because this is God's plan for our growth.

It's for us to speak the truth and love to each other in a way that fits the occasion.

This is God's plan for our growth.

So, what do we do?

In this moment, with this person pouring out their heart, how do we how do we speak the truth in love to them?

Well, praise God that He has promised to give us wisdom when we ask.

Amen.

James chapter 1 up on the screen.

James 1 · chapter mention

If any of you lacks wisdom, yes, Lord, I lack wisdom.

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach.

Look at the promise.

And it will be given him.

But let him ask in faith with no doubting.

So there you are, you're sitting across the table from someone, they're pouring out their heart to you, you're thinking, well, I don't know what to share with them exactly.

What do I do?

We pray.

We say, God, I want to love this person well, I want to speak the truth in love to them.

Please lead me.

Give me wisdom right now.

God, I believe you are here.

I believe you are gonna help me in Jesus' name, amen.

And guess what happens?

He does.

He does.

And Proverbs 13 happens up on the screen.

Look at Proverbs 13 says, the teaching of the wise.

Who is wise?

God is wise.

Who gives wisdom to us?

God does.

The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life.

As you sit across the table from someone, you can be a fountain of life.

A fountain of life as you speak the truth and love.

Look at this.

That one may turn away from the snares of death.

You can be used to help someone turn away from the snares of death.

You can be a fountain of life.

This is what happens as we speak the truth and love to each other.

We are rescued from dangerous places and we grow up in every way.

This is what God does as we speak the truth in love.

Now imagine being part of a group where this is happening.

Imagine being part of a group where everyone is growing and speaking the truth and love to each other in a way that best fits the occasion.

Now that would be an exciting place to be.

That's where massive transformation will be happening.

And listen, this is God's plan for you.

This is God's plan for me.

This is God's plan for our growth, that we would be together, growing together.

So we have two options.

Here's the first one.

We can choose to avoid community altogether.

We can choose to relationally isolate ourselves from other believers.

We can choose to put ourselves in a place where we're not really sharing what's going on in our hearts and in our lives, and we're giving no one the opportunity to speak the truth and love to us, and we're not listening to what's going on in other people's lives, and we're not speaking the truth in love to them.

And by doing so, we can totally turn away from God's plan for our growth.

We can make ourselves increasingly vulnerable to the lives of sin and the lies of the world and the lies of the demonic and lies of false teachers, and we can increase our chances of being carried away into very dangerous places.

That's one option, we can do that.

It's a terrible option.

Or there's option number two.

We can embrace God's plan for our growth by choosing to be intentional about being with the body of Christ and putting ourselves in a position where we are sharing what's going on in our hearts and lives, and we're giving other believers the opportunity to speak the truth in love to us.

And we're listening to other people and we're speaking the truth in love to them so that together we all might be strengthened in our faith and grow in our relationship with Christ and become more and more like Him in character.

Those are the two options.

And listen, the second one is awesome.

The second one is God's plan for our growth.

So, question Are you in a group right now?

Are you in a group right now?

Because if not, you can be.

You can be.

All you need to do is go here up on the screen to redemptionnewmarket.ca backslash ministries.

And that page will walk you through the steps of how you can get connected, how you can be in a group in this church.

Because if our lives are going to be used to produce a ripple effect of blessing throughout the body of Christ, then we need to keep growing.

Each part of the body needs to keep growing, and we do that not in isolation, but together.

We do that together by speaking the truth and love to one another.

Amen?

So important.

It's so important.

But not only that, not only that, if our lives are going to be used to produce a ripple effect of blessing across the body of Christ, then every part of the body also needs to keep working.

This is our second point.

Every part of the body also needs to keep working.

Here's the question: Am I working properly?

Am I working properly?

Let's have a look at verse 15 again so we can read verse 16 in context.

Verse 15.

Again, Paul says, Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, notice, when each part is working properly.

In other words, Jesus Christ has made and he has placed each part of the body exactly where he wants it to be.

And now he's calling and commanding us as each part of the body to work properly.

So what does it mean for each part of the body to be working properly?

What does it mean for you and I to be working properly in the body of Christ?

Well, to answer that question, we need to look all the way back to verse 7.

Look at Ephesians 4, verse 7.

Ephesians 4:7

Ephesians 4, verse 7.

Ephesians 4:7

Paul says, but grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.

In other words, if you are in Jesus Christ, then the moment that you were saved, you were given at least one spiritual gift to be used to serve the body of Christ.

The moment you were saved, you were given at least one spiritual gift that is to be used to serve the body of Christ.

Maybe you're thinking, well, what do you mean by spiritual gifts?

Well, here's what I mean up on the screen.

Here's some gifts outlined in the New Testament: prophecy, service, teaching, exhortation, generosity, leadership, mercy, wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, tongues, helping, administrating.

These are some of the gifts that are outlined in the New Testament.

Now, why has God given these gifts to his church?

Here's why.

1 Peter 4 up on the screen.

As each has received a gift.

This is speaking about us.

This is us.

As each has received a gift, look at what it says.

Use it.

Use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's very grace.

So as parts of the body of Christ, we've each been given different gifts to use to serve the body of Christ.

So here's a question.

How do you figure out what your gifts are?

How do you know what your gift is?

Well, here's one way to find out, and maybe it's the best way.

You just have to start serving.

You just have to start somewhere and start serving.

Because as you start to serve, inevitably, in some way, in some fashion or another, you will begin to exercise your gift.

And when the body sees you exercising that gift in some way or another, the body will affirm that gift.

When the body sees gifts, the body of Christ affirms gifts.

And so people will say things to you like, hey, I really see that you've got the gift of service, or I really think you've got the gift of teaching, or I really see the gift of leadership in you, or I really think you've got the gift of mercy.

And when enough people say the same thing to you over and over and over again in the church, there's a very good chance that is your gift.

Because when the body sees gifting, the body affirms gifting.

So it's not so much about trying really hard to figure out what my gift is so I can start serving.

Rather, you start serving so that you can figure out what your gift is and begin to exercise it more and more.

So if we want to discover our giftings, we have to get into community and we have to begin to serve others.

And again, one way we can do that is by joining a group.

Joining a group where people are sharing what's going on in their lives, listening to each other, and speaking the truth in love so that we can be strengthened in our faith, grow in our relationship with Christ, and become more and more like Him in character.

And in that group, we can also do this.

We can serve one another.

We can care for one another.

We can help one another.

We can look to meet needs.

We can be the body of Christ to one another.

This is what it looks like to be working properly.

And we can also do this.

We can serve in the church.

We can serve in the church.

All you need to do is go here up on the screen to redemptionnewmarket.ca backslash ministries.

And you will see different opportunities for serving.

There are needs in the church right now.

There's needs in youth ministry.

There's needs on the setup and teardown team.

There's needs in the worship ministry and on the prayer team and in redemption kids and in production on the integration team in office and admin support.

There's lots of opportunity right now to begin serving.

This is what it looks like to be working properly.

We can think of it like this up on the screen.

At first, it begins with understanding who you are.

You have to know who you are.

This is who you are.

If you are a Christian, then you are united to Jesus Christ and you are part of his body.

That's who you are.

That's who you are.

That's where it begins.

What we do flows out of understanding who we are.

This is who you are.

If you're a Christian, you are united to Jesus Christ and you are part of his body.

Therefore, up on the screen, this is what we are to do.

We are to speak the truth in love to our brothers and sisters so that we are all strengthened in our faith, grow in our relationship with Christ, and become more and more like him in character, and we are to serve the body by exercising our gifts.

This is what God has called us to do in the church.

Because this is who you are, this is what God has called you to do.

This is what it looks like to work properly.

So ask yourself, in this season, in this season, think maybe the last six months, have you been working properly?

Have you been speaking the truth and love to the body of Christ?

Have you been serving the body of Christ?

Because as each one of us works properly, God causes amazing things to happen.

Amazing things to happen.

Look at verse 16 again.

When each part of the body is working properly, notice, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

So consider this.

As you and I work properly by speaking the truth in love and by serving the body by exercising our gifts, God will use our lives to send ripple effects of blessing throughout the body of Christ that causes the body to grow and build itself up in love.

Let me say that again.

As you and I work properly by doing these two things, by speaking the truth in love to each other, and by serving one another, by exercising our gifts, God will use our lives to send ripple effects of blessing throughout the body of Christ that causes the body to grow and to build itself up in love.

This is God's plan for our growth.

And listen, this is why your life and your ministry matter so much to this church right now.

You are not here by accident.

God has saved you.

He wants to use your life to literally send ripple effects of blessing throughout this church that causes the body to grow and build itself up in love so that together our lives look more and more like this up on the screen.

This is how God wants to use our lives right now.

This is how God wants to use your life right now.

And listen, we have no idea how God might use any one of us.

You might have a conversation this week that changes the direction of a family for generations.

We don't know.

We don't know what God might do, but we know this that his plan for building up his church in love is each one of us working properly by being intentional about speaking the truth in love and being in community and being intentional about serving the body and exercising our gifts.

This is God's plan for our growth.

This is what he's calling us to do now, more than ever, for our good.

For our good.

So, Holy Spirit, would you fill us?

Holy Spirit, would you lead us?

Holy Spirit, would you cause each one of us to work properly?

Amen.

Let's pray, let's pray.

God, we need you.

We need you.

Lord, this is what you are calling us to do.

Sometimes we ask that question, Lord, what is your will?

What do you want us to do?

What do you want me to do?

Do you want me to go left?

Do you want me to go right?

What do you want me to do?

Lord, you're telling us right now what you want us to do.

You want us to speak the truth in love.

That's what you want us to do.

You want us to move.

Toward one another and speak the truth in love.

You want us to serve each other in exercising the gifts that you have given to us.

And you want us to do all of this as worship.

You want us to do all of this in light of the gospel, in light of the amazing love that you have shown to us.

In light of the reality that we were dead in our sin and living in darkness, and you came into our lives and you saved us, you rescued us, you made us new creations, you've given us this wonderful, glorious inheritance that was purchased at the greatest cost in the universe.

In light of that, in light of that, you've given us a heart of worship, a heart to love, a heart to serve.

Help us to live it out.

We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.