Battle Ready: "Growth Thru Truth" Ephesians 4.15-16 Pastor Daniel Reese

Good morning.

Good morning.

The other Bibles will be in chapter four of Ephesians

as we finish up this one part of this chapter.

Here in chapter four, Paul has been writing about

the unity of the church through these first 16 verses.

He's doing this after three chapters of doctrine,

after three chapters of explaining exactly who God is

and what he has done for us.

In the first three chapters, he completely takes

out of our hands the work of salvation

and he puts it in God's.

God is the one who chose us.

He is the one who provided a way for us to have

a relationship with him.

Then because he is God and because he is generous,

we then get to partake in the spiritual blessings

that are offered in Jesus.

I had three boys as most of you know

and we give them gifts every so often

and we have countless, through the years,

have had countless balls and bats

and they have been used well.

The problem with giving boys balls and bats

is that they get used for a short time

for what they were created for.

They baseball bat is used for hitting baseballs.

A basketball is used for shooting into a basket

but within less than a day of having those things,

the basketball then becomes a dodge ball

where we're hitting each other with it.

The baseball bat is used for anything else

besides hitting baseballs.

It's hitting rocks or used as a weapon

or is used as a sword.

They get left out in the yard and they get rained on

and then they get another one.

As they've gotten older and the baseball bats

have gotten more expensive,

we've gone from plastic bats that you can use inside

to the metal bats that they have now.

When they give the expensive stuff,

we make sure that they understand the value of them

so that they don't treat them

like they've done everything else.

So we're replacing them every month.

I give them warnings, I tell them

that if they treat that bat like they have everything else,

it's mine and we'll give it to somebody else

that'll appreciate it or I'm not buying the next one.

If I see them hitting rocks with it,

then that bat is now mine.

So after, for three chapters,

Paul has been describing this gift

that has incredible value.

And here in chapter four,

he's telling us the proper way to use the gift.

Several years ago, someone gave me a cast iron Dutch oven

and I'd never had one before.

We take it camping.

Well, we use it the first time

and like a good responsible husband,

I take it and I clean it out

and I throw it in the dishwasher.

Yeah, all your faces is exactly what.

You get that thing out and it looked pretty bad.

It's all rusty and I didn't know

that's not how you clean a cast iron, anything.

So maybe you believe everything that Paul has said

about God in the first three chapters,

but you've never understood how to use the gift

that he has given you.

You've never understood how to use the gift

of your salvation.

This chapter and the next two

are Paul carefully outlining how to use your gift

in a way that's honoring to the Lord

so that you can get the most out of it.

So this morning, let's look at the last couple

verses of this section and then we'll break it down.

Starting in verse 15.

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

when each part is working properly,

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

So last week, we looked at the gifts

that Jesus is able to give us and we ended with us,

we ended with making sure we're not divided,

that we're not deceived by false teaching or by Satan.

This week, Paul gives us a way to make sure

that doesn't happen.

So instead of being thrown around

by every wind of doctrine that comes our way,

we are to grow up in Christ who is the head of the church.

So we begin to grow when we understand

that Jesus is both the source and the point

or goal of our growth.

Like babies have this giant head, right?

And they have to grow into it.

We as believers, we start out as infants

and need to grow into the head which is Jesus.

Babies can't support their head on their own.

New believers can't fight off bad doctrine on their own.

It takes the process of maturity to get there.

As believers, Jesus is our standard

by which we should measure our growth.

When I was in college, I had these phenomenal professors

and I remember sitting in my chair,

listening to them speak, thinking,

man, I hope one day that I can know the Bible

as well as they do.

But that shouldn't be the standard.

Dr. Heflin, as much as I love him, is not the standard.

We should desire to know God like Jesus does.

So we don't compare ourselves to other believers

because we compare our growth to Jesus who is the head.

I've known a lot of believers who seem to be great

on the outside.

They're walking with the Lord on the outside

but their lives are a train wreck.

We've all heard of pastors who have these churches

with lots of people coming to their church.

They seem to be doing great things in the community

and we begin to think that there's something special

about them but it ended badly

because they weren't dealing with some sort of sin.

Our goal is not another believer.

Our goal is Jesus.

Now, verse 15 is one of those verses

that's taken out of context all the time

and people misuse it.

People use it to justify their critical tone

when speaking to others.

Most of the time when I hear somebody say,

they're just speaking the truth in love,

very rarely is there any truth to it or is there any love in it?

They just want to let you know how they feel

about a certain situation

and they make it spiritual by quoting this text.

The word Paul uses here could literally be translated

truthing.

It is the idea of a person who continually and consistently

not only speaks the truth but lives the truth.

Now, the truth that Paul is referring to here

is the same truth he spoke about in chapter one.

It is the gospel of salvation

and the gospel is centered on Jesus.

It is only in Jesus that we can find truth.

Jesus described himself as the truth in John 14.6

when he was speaking with Thomas.

So, speaking the truth in love is simply another way

of Paul describing the importance of making Jesus

the very center of everything that we do.

Because if you notice without Jesus,

the body doesn't grow, the body doesn't mature.

He is the source.

If you do not have Jesus as the center

of everything you do,

your spiritual growth is going to be stunted.

If you think that by reading books and coming to church,

you will grow in your maturity.

That's like getting into your car with no gas

and then expecting it to get home.

Now, I'm all about reading books

and I'm all about coming to church.

But the reason is because you want to have more knowledge

or the reason is because you want to have a good standing

in the community, then what's going to end up happening

is you're not going to grow spiritually,

you're going to grow intellectually

and you're going to have a good reputation.

If we as a church think that by doing a bunch of programs,

that we are going to grow,

our church growth is going to be stunted.

The purpose of everything that we do here

from programs and Bible studies has to be centered on Jesus.

Or we're just going to be another statistic of closed churches.

Jesus has to be the source

and has to be the goal of everything that we do.

We also grow when we are connected to others.

Now, Paul says that every joint holds together

the body.

The Greek word comes from a word that means to connect.

I actually prefer the word ligament.

Some of your translations might say ligament here

because the ligament is actually what holds the body together.

If you don't have a ligament, you're not going to function correctly.

I mean, we all know athletes that have torn a ligament

and their season is over, right?

It takes surgery, it takes a lot of rehab

to get their knee or whatever ligament they have torn

back into working order.

When we are not connected to others,

we are not going to function the way that God created us to as a body.

The body can no longer function properly,

and the body is unable to mature as Jesus intends.

So we need to make sure that we maintain those connections within the body.

I can give you an example after an example of why being connected to the body

is vital to our spiritual growth.

I've said it many times, because I know it to be true,

I don't know how people survive without the church.

As many of you know, last Sunday,

Sina and my son River stayed home

because we thought he had the stomach bug.

We didn't want to be spreading that all over the place.

By early evening, we began to be concerned that he was dehydrated

because he wasn't taking on fluids,

so Sina took him up to the hospital to get some fluids.

I stayed home with the rest of the kids.

I was concerned, but I kept going about my day.

I got the kids fed, I was watching a football game,

just kind of going through the day, waiting for them to get home.

Long story short, River had DKA, Diabetic Keto Acidosis.

They were going to have to airlift him to Iowa City.

Now, when you get helicopters involved,

the seriousness of the situation really begins to set in.

I texted our staff, I texted our prayer team and our family

to please, please, please be praying for River.

In a few moments, all of our needs were met.

My other three kids were taken care of.

Pastor Mark had met us in the hospital in DeWitt.

Sina got on a helicopter with River,

and I got in the car to head to Iowa City.

I hated that Sina was going to be there all alone

before I could get to her.

As I rounded the corner in the ICU,

I see that Pastor Drew's there, Pastor Paul's there,

and they're with her.

I had Bible verses being texted to me like Psalm 91.

He shall call upon me and I will answer him.

For an hour in the car, that's all I could do.

That's all I could do.

I needed that reminder.

I needed the truth of God's word to be prayed over my family.

I needed it to be reminded to me,

because in that moment, all I could think about was the worst.

Don't ever underestimate,

don't ever underestimate the power of God's word

from someone who was praying for you.

This week has been hard,

but it would have been so much harder without this church,

without people praying for us, feeding us,

picking up my slack, and allowing us to focus all of our attention on River.

I was in a desperate situation,

and God has grown me through it.

I have a terrible time asking for help.

I don't know if any of you are like that.

I have a terrible time asking for help,

because I can do it on my own.

I can handle the situation on my own.

I finally sent a message that said,

I'll take any help I can get.

Any help I can get, I'll take it,

because I was desperate,

and God's people stepped up to show me that I couldn't do it on my own.

I could give you a bunch more examples of how

being connected to the church has gotten us through some hard times.

I'm sure that many of us have stories

about how God has used His people

to carry the load

and how we have grown through that.

If you are living in a bubble,

and you are not doing life with other believers,

you're missing out.

If you are unable to show vulnerability,

if you are unable to be real when you are down,

you aren't using the gift of your salvation correctly.

Jesus didn't save us when we were at our best.

He saved us while we were still sinners and at our worst.

Why do we think that changes once we become a believer?

We don't have to put on a show.

We don't have to pretend.

I need Him just as much today as I did the day He saved me.

Because in my weakness,

He has proven strong through His people.

Get connected to other believers

who will care for you

and support you and walk with you.

I will tell you, and so will Sina,

being connected here,

being connected to the church

is one of the most valuable things in our lives.

I can give you example after example where that proves the case.

How do we get connected?

Thankfully, Paul tells us how to do that in this passage.

We grow when each one does their work.

You have to do the work to which you are equipped.

We talked about the importance of every member and minister,

and we should all know that Christianity is not a spectator sport.

But Paul is emphasizing here,

the body can only grow as God intended

when each part effectively carries out the purpose for which it was created.

This is going to be determined by how we use the gifts that God has given each and every one of us.

This is connected to Matthew 25 and the parable of the talents.

Jesus said in Luke chapter 12 that everyone who has been given much

Luke 12 · chapter mention

much will be demanded.

And the ones who have been entrusted with much,

much more will be asked.

Jesus has entrusted some of you in this church with five talents.

Some of you with three talents, and some of you with one.

What he is asking from each of us is that we be faithful

with whatever he has given us.

He will never compare you to someone else.

His only measuring stick will be what you did with what he entrusted you with.

We see this throughout the Old Testament.

In the building of the Tabernacle, everyone brought what they had,

whether that be money, whether that be a skill,

they all contributed to the building up of God's house.

In Joshua chapter 6, everyone marched and shouted for the walls to come down in Jericho.

Joshua 6 · chapter mention

In Nehemiah, each family was given a responsibility of building a section of the wall.

Some built, some kept guard, some blew trumpets of warning.

In all of those examples, every part was important for God to carry out his purposes.

As a believer, we should feel that connection with one another.

If not, maybe you need to begin asking the question,

why do I not feel connected?

Why do I feel isolated?

Maybe it's because you don't know who you can trust.

Maybe it's because we've been burned in the past.

Maybe it's because we don't think we have time.

Whatever the reason is, take this text as a challenge to take a step.

I mean, this is the heart of discipleship right here.

You should never feel alone.

You should never feel isolated because you are doing life with people who care for you.

I mean, a lot of people knew who Jesus was, but very few knew his heart.

He had his 12, right?

And even inside his 12, he had his three.

If you are not in a discipleship relationship, whether that be a degroup,

whether that be a life group, whether that just be a relationship where you can be who you are,

share your struggles, share those places where you're vulnerable,

you are never going to know how you fit into this body.

Now, last week we said that it is our job as a staff, as pastors to create these opportunities for you,

but it's your job to take advantage of those.

Last week we collected a bunch of needs, right?

We've made those public.

We'll send an email out with the link.

We got the QR code, and we are asking you.

That once you see those needs to jump on those.

Maybe you've been waiting for an opportunity like this to come your way

because you don't know how God wants to use you.

And now we have a list.

Maybe it's on that list.

Jump in and try it.

Maybe you feel isolated, and you need a place to connect to others.

Pastor Paul would love nothing more.

Pastor Paul would love nothing more to help make that connection for you.

We will continue to provide ways for you to be connected,

but you have to be the one to take the step.

Have you ever seen one of those pictures, or probably on some medical show,

where they take a part of the body and they graft it into another part of the body

in order to maintain blood flow and eventually save it.

Have you seen those pictures or seen those stories?

I heard a story of a man who had his hand cut off,

and they saved his hand by attaching it to his leg until they could reattach it to his arm.

I saw a picture of it. It's kind of gross and weird looking.

Some of you might be a hand, but you are attached to the leg.

You're surviving, but you're not functioning properly.

If you aren't connected to the point where people know you,

where they know your heart, they know your strengths and your weaknesses,

then you are going to continue to not function correctly in this body.

We need people around us to say, hey, you belong on the arm, not the leg.

That looks funny. This doesn't fit at the last church.

I was at, we had this lady, she's awesome.

She was always willing to serve, always willing to do whatever needed to be done.

She was just one of those, always around the church, always doing something.

She tried to do a women's conference because she thought we needed one.

She would try to lead women's Bible studies.

She was doing all of this really great stuff, but nothing would ever gain traction.

As I got to know her better, I realized that she was not a woman.

I realized that she was not functioning in the right area.

She was trying to be a leg when she really was a hand.

Now she loved to cook and she was phenomenal, where she still is, phenomenal at it.

She found joy in it.

At this time, we're doing a Bible study on Tuesday nights,

and for some reason I was putting the meals together every Tuesday night for a Bible study.

I hated it.

It stressed me out, it made me miserable, it probably wasn't that good.

One week I simply asked her if she would take that job from me.

Now that might seem like a small thing, but when I wasn't doing it,

and she was, our Bible study doubled.

I had more time to prepare.

She was making phenomenal meals, and people looked forward to it.

But if we didn't have a relationship where I knew her strings, it never would have happened.

And when she stopped trying to do everything else,

it gave others the opportunity to function like God created them.

Other women stepped up to lead Bible studies.

And the church as a whole got stronger because of it.

We need every person functioning in the way that God created them.

If you are in ministry and doing things because no one else will do them,

and it is making you miserable, you're probably in the wrong place.

You're probably in the wrong ministry.

You might be keeping someone else from filling that role.

Which means to me to my last point.

When we are connected to Jesus and others,

and we're all functioning the way God created us, growth will be automatic.

For those of you that have children, you understand this, but those of you that don't,

there's this weird thing that happens, this weird phenomenon that happens when you have children.

They come out of these little things, right?

And you feed them and you nurture them,

and then you blink, and they're walking, or driving, making their own decisions.

It happens so quickly, you don't even realize it, am I right?

This is a weird thing that happens.

The same is true for the church.

As you were being cared for, and learning to use the gifts that God has given you,

you're going to blink and realize that we have grown immensely.

I'm not talking about numerical growth, but growth in our spiritual walk with the Lord.

It took me failing at a lot of things before I truly understood the gifts that God has given me.

I tried children's ministry, I was a children's pastor.

I tried youth ministry, I was a youth pastor.

I have been the janitor, I have been the church administrator.

Before I realized that none of those roles were for me,

but I had to try other things to figure that out.

I didn't just wake up one day and have it all figured out.

I needed others in my life that knew me well enough to see me function in those places and say,

yeah, that role is not for you.

Probably shouldn't put you in charge of children.

I needed others in my life to see me in different roles and say, that's it, that's where I see you come alive.

That's where I see God using you.

So don't wait until you, what you think is the right opportunity comes along.

Jump in and try things even though they might not work out.

Be okay with failing and give something else a try.

So let me leave you with a few challenges this morning.

Potentially, potentially, there are some of you in this room

that have never connected to the head, which is Jesus.

You've been coming to church for a long time or a short time and you're going through the motions,

but you've never placed your faith in Him alone and surrendered to Him.

That's your first step.

You don't need me to say a prayer for you.

He can save you right there in your seat.

If you feel in your gut that something needs to change.

If you feel like you need a fresh start, call upon the name of the Lord.

Admit and understand that you are a sinner.

Put your faith in the fact that He died for you and be willing to submit to Him.

If that's you this morning, I would love to talk to you after our service or during our response time.

Don't leave here with doubts about your salvation.

There are some of you here this morning who have never made the commitment to become a member of this church.

Maybe you haven't done that because you want to keep your operation.

You're not going to be able to do that.

Maybe you need to begin to ask why.

There are some of you that have been coming here a long time.

You're a member, but if you're real honest with yourself, you haven't been doing your job.

You're not going to be able to do your job.

You're not going to be able to do your job.

You're not going to be able to do your job.

You're a member, but if you're real honest with yourself, you haven't been doing your part.

And maybe the reason is you don't know what your part is.

That's where me and the rest of the pastors come in.

If we need to start a ministry, if you need to know where the needs are, if you need guidance, we will help you.

Listen, I've taken a bunch of spiritual gifts inventories before.

I've taken those tests and they're useful, but the best way that I've found to figure out what my gifts are,

is just by jumping in and serving where there's a need.

When that didn't work out, I would try something else, but it always helped me gain clarity.

It helped me feel connected to the church.

Now, if you hear anything today,

I hope that it is that you need to be connected to Jesus and to the church.

If that's all you hear today, hear that.

Your walk with the Lord is personal, but it's not private.

I want people to know when I am struggling, when I'm doubting.

I want people to know when my kids are wearing me out.

I want people to know when my wife and I are just not seeing eye to eye.

Because I want people to be praying for us.

I want people to come alongside me and say, yeah, my kid went through that. Here's how I got through it.

Yeah, my wife and I, we've had that argument. This is how we got through it.

I want their perspective because there's times in my life where I have these blind spots

and I need somebody else to point them out to me.

I have that because I'm connected to the church.

So if you're not connected, man, please take that step today.

If it is surrendering your life to Jesus today, let me celebrate with you.

Let's celebrate that fact.

If it's baptism, then let's get you in the water.

If it's membership, let me answer any questions that you might have.

If it's being isolated, if you're isolated, let us help you make some connections.

And finally, if it is figuring out a way to function correctly in this body, let us equip you.

So as we respond, we'll sing one more song.

As we respond, I would love for you to answer the question,

am I connected to the body in a way that's going to help me grow?

Am I connected to the body in a way that's going to help me grow?

And if the answer is no, please let us help you take the next step.

Let's pray.

Father, thank you.

Thank you for this church.

Thank you for the people that you bring here.

Thank you for Jesus.

Thank you for the gifts that you've given each and every one of us.

God, I pray that you will, as we respond, as we sing, that you will speak to our hearts

so we understand how we are to function in this place.

How we are to function in your kingdom here on this earth.

And so Father, we ask you to guide us as we speak.

And so Father, we ask you to guide us as we take steps this morning.

I pray for the individual that might be in this room that has never surrendered their life to you, God.

I pray that you speak to their heart right now and help them know without a doubt that you are calling them.

We pray for salvation to come to this place today.

And we pray for those that are on the outside looking in, God.

We pray that we will be able to connect in a way where they can function properly.

God, I pray that you will reveal to us your giftings that you've placed in us.

And help us use those things in this place.

God, help us be a body that functions correctly.

Help us be a body that sees you as the source and the goal of our growth.

God, I pray that you make us healthy.

I pray that you use us.

So as we sing, Father, I pray that you'll speak.

Fill this place with your presence.

Help there be no doubt in any of our minds that you are speaking to us.

Help us not be distracted by the lies the enemy throws at us.

Help us not be distracted by every wind of doctrine.

But God, I pray that you will help us focus on you and your voice as you speak.

Ask all these things in your name. Amen.