The Basis of Our Church’s Ministry

Transcript

GRM 940
8/21/2005
The Basis of Our Church’s Ministry
Selected Verses
Gil Rugh


We’re going to look into the book of Ephesians. Thought this would tie in, it’s a passage probably that we’ve looked at more than any other single passage in the years that I have been pastor at Indian Hills. It really is the core and backbone of our ministry as a church and shapes all that we do and how we understand what the ministry of the church of Jesus Christ is to be. It’s simple, it’s clear, there is nothing complicated about it, although it is miraculous, supernatural. But for us as God’s people the pattern set down for us to follow is amazingly simple and clear. And yet for some reason the evangelical church continues to drift and drift and drift, and think that there must be something we must find with every new book and every new idea comes out and how we can be more effective and how our ministry will be more effective and what would honor God. But the simple thing is just to turn to the Word of God and find out what God has said. And some things don’t change.

The plan that God has for His church is the same as it has been from before the foundation of the world. In fact that’s where the book of Ephesians begins. Paul’s normal pattern in his letters to lay the doctrinal and theological foundation and then the latter part of the letter to show how that doctrinal truth is to be lived out in the life. None of the teaching of the scripture is given just to satisfy intellectual curiosity or make us wiser than other people. It is given so that we might know more of the living God and His purposes and plans, and might so shape our lives that we will live in a way that is pleasing to Him. So while we often distinguish between doctrine and practice, in reality there is no true doctrine that does not result in practice, and there is no conduct in behavior that is honoring to God that is not an outworking of the ministry of the Spirit in our lives with the truth of God.

Paul began his letter to the Ephesians in chapter 1 by telling them that the salvation we have in Christ was planned by God for us before Genesis 1:1, before God created the heavens and the earth. Ephesians 1:4, He chose us in Him, in Christ. God, the Father, chose us in God, the Son, before the foundation of the world, indicating as the chapter will unfold, that the work of Christ, of course, was planned by God, that He might be the Savior who through His death on the cross would pay the penalty for sin, to make possible by the work of God’s grace for men and women to trust in Jesus Christ and His work on the cross and be saved. God sovereignly made that plan and then chose from sinful people a group who would experience that salvation before the world was ever created. And that is consistent with God’s work, and we don’t have time to work through any of the details here.

But jump down to Ephesians 1:11, pick up on the second phrase there, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will. Amazing. God counseled with Himself, determined within Himself that this is what He would do, and then He did it. And part of that work of salvation prepared and provided for us was the provision of the Holy Spirit. With the result of the death of Christ on the cross and His subsequent resurrection and ascension to heaven, the Holy Spirit would be sent to take up residence within the body of each individual person who comes to trust Jesus Christ as their Savior from sin.

So the end of verse 13 says, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who was given as a pledge of our inheritance with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession to the praise of His Glory. Which basically says the giving of the Holy Spirit to each person who trusts in Christ is God’s down payment, God’s guarantee that He will bring our salvation to its final conclusion, its completion with our glorification in the presence of His glory. All planned by God before He created the world and now unfolding. And we are experiencing it as the gospel is being proclaimed and men and women are believing it.

Down at the end of Ephesians 1:22, and God the Father put all things in subjection under His feet, the feet of Christ. Now note this, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. The book of Ephesians is about the church, the body of Christ. We’ll talk more about some of the details of that in a moment. Jesus Christ is the head over all things to the church. The church is His body, it’s under His authority. And it is to be obedient and bring glory to Him.

Chapter 2 you see a contrast about how we live. In Ephesians 2:2 he refers to you who formerly walked accordingly to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air. The way you used to live you life before you experienced the power of God’s saving grace through faith in Christ, you lived one way. That’s the way you walked, you conducted your life. Then down in verse 8 he tells us we’ve been saved by grace through faith, not as a result of our works but a result of God’s grace. Verse 10, we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works. Now note this, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. So the truth of God’s sovereign work in planning and carrying out our salvation, in having His Son die to be the Savior, in providing His Spirit to live in the life of those who trust in His Son, all inseparably joined together into the total transformation of those who come to salvation in Christ. They don’t walk the way they used to walk, they don’t live the way they used to live. Now we walk in the good works that God prepared beforehand, determined beforehand that His people would live in them.

Then he begins to talk about the marvel of the church, the body of Christ, over which Christ is the head. And it’s something totally new and totally unique. And the rest of chapter 2 and into chapter 3 he talked about the fact that Jews and Gentiles alike are being brought together in a relationship of oneness through faith in Christ. And now they are one with Christ and one with God the Father and one with one another. And these people, so different, such enmity between them, Jews and Gentiles, now they are brought together in a relationship of oneness and they together make up what is called the body of Christ, the church.
Come over to chapter 4. Chapter 3 concluded, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations. Absolutely essential we understand that the work of God in the world today in the context of salvation and redemption centers in the church. Now you may be sure that there are distortions of this doctrine, and corruptions of it, but the fact is God’s work of redemption centers in the church. Remember Jesus Christ while He was on earth said, I will build my church. And that’s what Jesus Christ is doing today, building His church. And as we’ve noted in our study in I Corinthians as well as other studies, the focus in the New Testament is on local churches. We talked about the universal church, made up of all believers everywhere from Acts chapter 2 down to the present time. It will be brought to completion at the Rapture. But the New Testament is concerned with its focus on the local church. So Paul is writing to the church at Ephesus. We’ve been studying the letter to the church at Corinth. Local churches which are the manifestation of the church in the world.

To Him be glory in the church. Now Paul makes a change in Ephesians 4:1, therefore I the prison of the Lord implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called. In light of these great theological truths that go back before the creation of the world, now I beg you walk consistently with the calling you have from God in Christ Jesus. Then let’s talk about how that walk is to be carried out. Down in verse 17, so this I say and affirm together with the Lord that you no longer walk as the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their minds, darkened in their understanding. We are not saved by works, but the saving work of God in a life totally changes a life and makes you new. You can’t live the way you used to live because now the living God lives within you and has made you new.

So Ephesians 4:1, he exhorts them to walk in a manner worthy of their calling. This means walk with humility, gentleness, patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. This is at the heart of what he’s going to be talking about. The unity of the Spirit, the unity that the Spirit of God has created among those who have been brought into the body of Christ, the unity that was talked about in chapters 2 and 3 particularly of this letter. One body. We are to preserve that unity and when we walk in humility and patience and tolerance and love, that promotes unity. There is one body, one Spirit, one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all. But to each one of us grace was given. So emphasis here, there is one body and we are to do all we can as we walk in humility and patience and gentleness and tolerance to preserve that unity. And it’s not created by us, it’s created by the Spirit. We are by our actions to promote that unity, encourage it, recognizing that oneness that is elaborated in verses 4-6.

But that oneness does not mean a bland sameness. There is one body and within that body there is a variety of parts, there is a great diversity. The analogy is with our physical body obviously. It’s one body, but it’s comprised of a diversity of parts, different and special and all contributing something that will enable the body to function as one body should function. It is an organic unity. I can have this book in my hand, but this book is not part of my body. But my fingers are part of my body and they have a role to play. And if they function as they should then the unity of the body is enhanced and all the parts of the body benefit accordingly. So he’s going to move from the unity of the body to the diversity of the body to then how the diversity promotes the unity.

Pick up with verse 7, to each one of us, talking to believers, every single individual believer, no exceptions, grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. The gifts of the Spirit are called gifts of grace. We call them charismatic gifts. The word charis is the Greek word for gifts or charismatic gift is a gift of grace. They are given by God’s grace through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. You don’t earn this gift, you don’t merit it. You’ll note at the end of verse 7, was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Christ has measured out a particular gift to a particular degree to each individual. For example, measured to me a teacher of the Word of God. My gift is a teacher, and even with that there is a measure of that gift. I may not have that gift to the extent that someone else does, who would be a better teacher than I am. That’s why we have to be careful comparing ourselves. I can learn from someone who is more gifted than I, but I can’t measure up to them. But then again I’m not called to measure up to them. I am called to function to the full measure of the gift that God has given to me. And that’s true of each one of us, whatever our gift is. It’s measured out by Christ according to grace.

And it’s unfolded down through verse 7 how this happened. As a result of Christ descending to earth, suffering and dying on the cross, being buried and raised from the dead and ascending to the Father, He sent the Holy Spirit. And remember His last night on earth with the disciples? He told them it is good that I go away for unless I go away the Holy Spirit can’t come, but if I go to my Father I’ll send the Holy Spirit to you. In Acts chapter 1 Christ ascended to the Father, in Acts chapter 2 the Holy Spirit is sent. And He takes up residence in believers. And with His coming and taking up residence in a believer, He also brings what Christ has measured out for a gift for that believer, so he can function as part of the body. A baby doesn’t just come into the world as a bag of parts. Well let’s see, over time I guess somebody will figure out who wants to be what. No he comes with all the parts, they’re there. It’s amazing, isn’t it? It’s a development that takes place as a result of conception in the womb and here comes a baby—fingers, feet, ears, all these parts. No one gets to choose, they’re just there. This is Christ, it’s His body so He has sovereignly measured out parts as a result of His finished work on the cross. It only applies to those who have entered into a relationship with Christ through faith in His death and resurrection. But it applies to everyone who has experienced the saving grace of God through faith in Christ.

Now verse 11, he’s going to develop how these individual gifts work together to build a body, the church, that is pleasing to God and brings Him glory. It’s not difficult, it is not complicated, it is not easy. It’s not hard to understand. And so really we have here what we’ve called the theology of the church, how the church is to function and here we have it in capsule form. The plan of God through His Son, who is the head of the church, for how the church ought to function. It’s simple and it’s clear and I trust we’ll keep it before us.

Verse 11, He gave some as apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. All right verse 7 said to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Now here are some of the gifts, verse 11, that Christ measured out in grace—apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. They’re not all the gifts, we’ll get into this in more detail in our study of I Corinthians. I Corinthians 12, Romans 12 give more extensive lists that the gifts in this. Paul under the direction of the Spirit for his purpose has selected out certain gifts to show the role they play in relationship to enabling the other gifts. We’re not going to work through the details of these gifts. Apostles, those appointed by Christ to oversee the church in its formation and to give new truth to the church. Prophets, they were the recipients of revelation from God.

Back up to Ephesians 2:20, talking about the church, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ being the cornerstone. In our day cornerstone in a building is usually laid last and is something of an honorary activity, as you put things in the cornerstone. In biblical times the cornerstone was the foundation stone laid down, the first stone set. And it determined the lines of the building and everything would be measured accordingly. Jesus Christ is the cornerstone, everything is measured by Him. The apostles and prophets are the foundation. These gifts. We’re not talking about the apostles just as men because it’s not Paul’s personality that’s the foundation of the church, it’s the truth that was revealed to these men and the ministry God gave them in the formation of the church, and upon which we are building. We are studying the letter of Paul the Apostle to the Ephesians, still continuing to build on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Those two gifts have passed off the scene, and again we’ll talk more about this in detail in our study in Corinthians, with the completion of the New Testament. There is no new revelation being given, in spite of what some people think today.

Evangelists, that’s a little bit difficult to define with any breadth because it is only used about three times in the New Testament. It’s our word gospel, the gospelizers. But there is general agreement it seems the evangelists were those who carried the gospel to the lost. Now in the context here we’re going to see a key part of their ministry as evangelists is to equip and help prepare the saints to share the gospel with the lost. So they’re involved in carrying the gospel to the lost, taking the initiative, carrying the gospel to new people and new places and other places so that people could be saved. Then these people will be cared for and nurtured by pastors and teachers. These gifts are closely related pastors and teachers grammatically and seems to be coming concensus that all pastors would have to give to teaching, but not all teachers have the gift pastoring. A pastor is a shepherd and he would have the responsibility of the oversight, the leadership. The teaching has to do with the communication of truth, and part of the oversight of the shepherd who is to see that the sheep are fed. They would do that, not all teachers, though, have to be pastors. Some of those being pastors have the gift of teaching, are responsible in that way.

Now the thing that unites all these gifts in verse 11—apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers—they are all involved in the oversight or the oversight and communication of God’s truth, the oversight of God’s people, the leadership of God’s people and the communication of God’s truth to God’s people. So these gifts involve, as we’ll focus on it, presenting the Word of God, teaching the Word of God.

This is so, verse 12, that it’s for the equipping of the saints. So you have men gifted by God to lead God’s people and see that they are nurtured and nourished with the Word of God. Like you have a newborn baby. There is a person responsible for their care, and that care to see that they are fed properly and nurtured and nourished so that they can grow to maturity in their development. This is for the equipping of the saints. That word to equip means to make something fit, to prepare it for proper use. You are aware of some of the uses. In Matthew 4 it is used of mending nets that had been torn, so they mend them so they are prepared to do the activities that they are supposed to do. In Hebrews 11 God prepared the world that we live in. This kind of idea, to make something fit, to enable something to function as it should, to equip the saints. We’re talking about believers here. Unbelievers need to hear the gospel, be told the truth that they are sinners on their way to hell and that Jesus Christ is the only Savior, and through faith in Him they can experience forgiveness.

But the ministry of the church and its development within is through the teaching of the Word of God. Unbelievers come and they hear the gospel as part of what is being taught, but the ministry of these gifts is to fit the church to do what it should do, part of which is to carry the gospel to the lost. But it is to function in such a way that it will grow to maturity, to equip the saints for the work of service. So as I teach you the Word of God and others teach you the Word of God and this work is led by gifted men, the purpose is that you would be rendered fit and prepared and equipped to do the work of service. In other words so that you can exercise the gift that Christ has measured out to you and thus function more effectively, to do what God has called you to do when He brought you to salvation in Jesus Christ.

The work of service. Two words that ought to tell us what it is, it’s work, it’s service. The word service, sometimes translated ministry. We get our English word deacon from this basic word. It’s a service. And it’s work. So we are being led and nurtured on the truth so that we can serve God by doing the work that He wants us to do. It’s not a complicated formula. May not sound very exciting, we like to emphasize the fun part of jobs, but God lays it out for us. It’s work, it’s service. That doesn’t mean there’s not joy in it, that there’s not excitement in it, there’s not passion in it. But it is the work of service. God has not called us to fun and games, He has not called us to a Disneyland kind of life. He’s called us to a work of serving and He has a plan for us to be equipped and enabled to be effective in that. This is to the building up of the body of Christ. Could be no more important goal. Jesus Christ is the head of the church, we saw at the end of chapter 1. The church is His body, His fullness. Now we’re talking about building up the body of Christ so it will be all that Christ intends it to be. That’s accomplished by the church functioning under the leadership of the gifted men appointed, who are seeing that the church is nurtured and nourished in the truth of the Word of God, so that the saints are fit and prepared so that they can use the abilities that Christ has measured out to them in their work of serving, so that the body will grow to maturity. You’ll note the emphasis here is not on the individual developing, it’s on the body developing. We get an individual focus today, we start thinking about what I like, what I don’t like, all about me. And we lose sight of hearing God’s plan for the development of the church is for the development of the body, to build up the body. Now as I am functioning, doing the work of serving under godly leadership, being nourished in truth, I will be growing in that context. Just like in my body. The individual parts grow in the context of the development of the body. Correct? You get a distortion of someone’s arm continues to grow, grow, grow, grow, but the rest of the body is not growing. Something is wrong. There is a proper balance in the body that enables the body to grow together and that necessitates that each part is doing its work of serving. So the focus is to be on Jesus Christ and on the body and its development.

This is to go on, verse 13, until we all attain to the unity of the faith. Now there’s our word unity. He talked about in Ephesians 4:3, preserve the unity. He talked about that unity of the church in chapters 2-3, brought about by God through Christ in the ministry of the Spirit as a result of the finished work of Christ. Now the goal in this maturing will come to the unity of the faith, the faith, the truth that God has revealed. We talk about our statement of faith, we talk about the faith. That’s the theological truth that God has revealed. We are to come to the unity of the faith. It’s become popular in evangelical circles to try to say well let’s take just some of the essentials that we have to agree on. Then we can have broad unity and there’s room for disagreement. Remember where Paul started Ephesians 1? By the time you’re into verse 3 you’re into the doctrine of election. And he’s going to talk about predestination. Oh, we’ll never have unity. I mean that’s the truth he’s been unfolding in the first 3 chapters—the uniqueness of the church and distinction from Israel, and the role of Jew and Gentile now in the body of Christ, and the role of the gifts of the Spirit through the proper functioning of the church and being nourished in truth and the body functioning as it should. We should be coming to unity in the faith, in the truth that God has revealed.

And of the knowledge of the Son of God. The truth that has been revealed is a revelation of Jesus Christ. We’re coming to know Him, and that’s the purpose. Just not facts about some inanimate object, we’re talking about Jesus Christ, we’re talking about the body of Christ. We’re increasing in knowledge of Him and how we grow together in Him. You cannot do it on your own. God didn’t save you and place you into the body so you could do your own thing. It’s so obvious, it seems like such unanimous agreement. I mean you just cannot cut off your hand and say all right the hand is going to grow over there by itself. It won’t happen. The hand will cease to develop as it should, and the body will be hampered. You have to have the body function together. I fractured 2 toes. One of them is my little one, you know it’s only a little guy. It’s grown a little, but it’s only a little guy. You would think it doesn’t matter. You put it on the scale, it doesn’t weigh anything compared to the rest of my body. Then size-wise it’s a nothing, it’s just the top of what your little finger is. I’m amazed at how two toes can control the whole body when they’re having a problem. I can’t even put my shoes on. ??????????? I just don’t want to walk. What do you mean? The whole rest of the body is good. ??????? doesn’t amount to anything, cut them off and throw them away. I didn’t tell the doctor that. Let’s be careful here, they’re my toes. And when something is wrong in one little part of the body, the whole body is affected and to an extent, limited. My whole body is limited to what it can do because these little parts are having a problem. There’s a reason the Spirit of God directed the analogy of the church as the body of Christ with something that even…… people like us by God’s grace could begin to comprehend. We see the importance of every part. He has measured out a gift and it has to be functioning as it should, and it has to be functioning in the context of the rest or we are going to have trouble. There is balance, growth and development. Having a heart is good, having an enlarged heart is not good. That’s true of all the different parts, they have to be in proper perspective. So we are growing up as the balanced body in the knowledge of Christ. We are becoming more like Him, manifesting more of His person and His truth in our life as a church.

Until we all attain to the unity of the faith, the knowledge of the Son of God to a mature man. Now you’ll note here, the mature man is not the individual Christian, the mature man is the church. The church is pictured as a single body. The mature man is that church. The end of verse 12, it’s the building up of the body of Christ which is the church. So you continue that analogy, it’s a mature man because we’re talking about a single body. That’s the goal—the maturing of the church. He’s talking about the church at Ephesus, the church at Indian Hills in Lincoln, Nebraska is to be growing to a mature man. We are to be growing in our unity and oneness in the faith and in our knowledge of Jesus Christ. We are to be maturing as a church, the mature man.

To the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. That’s the standard. As Christ measured out the gifts, so we are measured by Him. Remember we saw in chapter 2 that Christ is the cornerstone, that stone laid down by which the whole rest of the building would be measured. So our growth as a church is measured by Christ, the truth concerning Christ, that unity of the faith, the knowledge of Christ, the character of Christ, the humility, the gentleness, the patience, the tolerance in love that he talked about at the beginning of this chapter. So the truth, we’re going to see in a moment, is to characterize us in all areas—the truth in our theology and the truth in our practice. We are becoming more like Christ, He is the standard. …….up to the measure of Christ.

II Corinthians 3:18 says that as we are beholding in the mirror of the Word of God we are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory. It is by the work of the Spirit. Something supernatural going on. It’s elaborated here by Paul because as we are nurtured in the truth of God and the various parts of the body are functioning as they should, now the body begins to develop as it should.

As a result, or the purpose in all of this, verse 14, we are no longer to be children, infants. Can be used of babies, can be used of what we would call grade school kids. What’s characteristic of infants and children? Instability, change, gullibility, I mean you don’t expect a two-year-old to sit down and concentrate for the next three hours on one project. They have a short attention span. So we have to be aware of that and we don’t expect them to. But by the time they are 32 we hope that they’ve made progress. You know immaturity demonstrated, and some people who have grown old in years but never learned to concentrate and they’re just all over everything. Soon as it’s not fun, they’re on to something else. A mark of immaturity, we would say. As our kids get older they’ll say I don’t like doing that, I don’t want to go to school. Oh don’t go to school, go out and play. How many people’s kids would ever get to school? You say well, that’s what life is, sometimes you have to learn to do things that you really don’t want. Sometimes you have to do things that aren’t the most fun. So children are characterized by instability, characterized by immaturity, characterized by gullibility.

It is the intention of Jesus Christ for His church is it not be childish. I wonder what we’re doing when advertisements for church is the fellowship of excitement, it’s the fun place. We’re not to be childish. We want people to know how much fun it will be if they come. It’s not what is held out here. We are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves, carried with every wind of doctrine. You know the instability would be characterized in those days by ships, they weren’t power driven and you get in the waves and wherever the wave was going, the ship is going there. The wind blows, that determines which direction we’re going, we’re just going with the flow. And whatever is the latest fad, we’re with it. And for today it will be this book and this plan and this procedure, we’re on it and it will be the 40-day program today and the 50-day adventure yesterday, and the 7 steps tomorrow. And here we are, here we go, we’re really into all the excitement. Just bring us the new thing. We’re not to be children tossed here and there by waves, carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men by craftiness and deceitful scheming. ……concern, the church is constantly influenced by those from within who use trickery and deceit to confuse the people of God. We have the people, of course, on the outside, but from within is the great danger. Paul had to write to the Corinthian church in a second letter and say I’m concerned about the false apostles, and you give them a hearing. That’s bringing division and confusion to the church.

We are not to be children. And you see God’s plan. It’s not to keep the church on the edge of excitement, keep our services going and interesting and moving so everybody just feels good. That’s the way you do with children—watch this, watch this, keep this moving. You know we start out with having them in a crib and you put that thing that goes spinning around up, and there is so much activity that little baby can just lie there and go goo-goo. You don’t want a 32-year-old lying there watching this mobile spinning around up there. But you know we get our own version. Everybody wants their Las Vegas, their Disneyland………we’ve got to have fun. A break in doing something crazy or fun, that’s fine, but all of a sudden it becomes our lives. The more prosperous, the more successful, the more life is the fun. Pretty soon we won’t have to do jobs we don’t like. And if work is not fun, quit and go do another job, because you shouldn’t do something that is not fun. And pretty soon we’re thinking well, my church ought to be fun, church ought to be exciting. And we lose sight of what it is all about.

We’re no longer to be children, this is serious business. We’re dealing with matters relating to eternity, people suffering torment day and night endlessly. People experiencing glory in the presence of God endlessly. We’re living lives today, perhaps in difficulty and pain and trial and trouble, but are pleasing to God, and it is His work being done in us. No longer to be children. I didn’t become a pastor to become the entertainment director for the church. I’m not a Michael Eisner in miniature to see if we can’t do the newest and best thing that will keep God’s people coming back for more. We have to come to the Word of God and find out, what does the Word of God say? What is the church?

But speaking the truth in love, verse 15, participle, truthing in love. That means speaking the truth, living the truth, truthing in love. Love is to characterize us as we are characterized by truth. I mean truth is what we are about and that functions in the context of love, which puts others first. We’re talking about the body. You know I walk on my toes, my feet. They might like to change places with my ears. You know what? They’re in it for the long haul, they were born toes and they will die toes. Sorry to tell you. Bad deal. Stuffed in the shoe, buried in the socks, smelly, sweaty, people kick them, step on them, break them. They’re toes. I mean I need them, but don’t expect me to give a long discourse on toes. There are no sonnets written to toes, they write them to something else—eyes or something.

We’ve all gotten gifts. Christ has measured out and what He has given to me is right. Had a pastor ask me who pastors in a large ministry in a very popular place. He said Gil, why do you stay in Lincoln? My Dad told me why before he passed away, he said, nobody else would have you. I said, I don’t know, Duane, it’s where the Lord put me, where He’s using me, where I belong. I’d probably fail someplace else because it’s not where He put me. What else can I say? I mean why do you do what you do? Why do we have people that grind it out working with babies, nursery???????????? There’s Gil up there getting all the glory, here we are changing diapers. Whoop-de-do! Well praise God He has given some people gifts in the area of service, yes? I say yes. The body needs it, so we can’t measure by looking at how prominent it is.

You’re speaking the truth in love and that means we function for the good of the body. I find myself getting unhappy, …… I have to stop and think, Lord, you placed me here for the good of the body. I’m not here for me, I’m here for you and the body of Christ. I benefit from it because once I get turned around and I begin to function again, as verse 2 said, with humility and gentleness and patience and tolerance and love, all of a sudden things begin to come together again in proper perspective.

Speaking the truth in love we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ. And all parts of the body are to be growing up into Christ. I mean He is the measure of growth, remember. He is the head, He’s one who is sovereign over it, who determines its course. So as we function according to His will and His plan every single part of the body is maturing as Christ intends it, so that the body is a true reflection of Christ. We get so caught up with our individuality that we become a problem for the body. We have our own course, our own way and I need to think, how can I contribute more to the body. And in that I will grow. I’m not minimizing individual growth, but you understand how individual growth takes place. And each of us are functioning as Christ intended us to function involves the taking in of the truth, assimilating that into our lives and looking how can I make the body. Somebody wrote a book a number of years ago called Exit Interviews. They are recommending you interview people leaving your church to find out why they’re leaving you. We don’t formally do that, but I often hear from people who leave and they share why they’re leaving, sometimes good reason, sometimes not. You know I have to think about that. Why do I go, what do I contribute? Sometimes I say well I don’t know, I just don’t………. Then they have a complaint about it, the church isn’t this, the church isn’t………. I say well if you leave God’s evidently given you a desire or an interest in that area and you don’t do something to correct it in the church, you’re saying we’re just going to leave the church crippled. I mean if God has measure out to me a gift in the area of teaching and I get all upset and say there’s no teaching going on, I’m going elsewhere. Well maybe I ought to look to teach. This needs to be done. Well maybe it’s the Spirit of God burdening me not to run around so I can watch somebody doing what I think ought to be done, but so that I can contribute. I’m not saying God never moves people on to other ministries for His purpose. This is His church, another church is His church, He’s brought some of you from other churches for His purposes to serve here. He’s moved people from here to other places to serve there, fine. But sometimes our moving around is like children just going from here to there because we just have gotten a little unsettled.

And yet we need to see that we are to be growing up in all aspects, and that includes all of us. All the body, all its parts growing up into Christ, from whom the whole body being fitted and held together by that which every joint. Some commentators prefer every connection, joints are connections. But we are joined together, all the parts are connected together. I can’t grow as I should without you, and you without someone else, and all of us together. That’s why God brought us together. That which every joint, every connection supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part. That causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. So Christ is sovereign, He’s doing it, but He’s doing it according to the process that He has built into the body. How do you mature? He’s placed you into the body, now I submit to the leadership He has provided, take in the teaching of the truth, and now say Lord, how can you use me. Maybe I don’t know for sure what gift He has measured to me. I look and say, here’s a need, here’s an opportunity, here’s something I can do. I’ll start. Doesn’t mean I can only do my ……and as I function and develop I’ll find there are areas where I am more effective, where God seems to use me. Now I’m going to pour myself into that and do all I can to make the body of Christ and this place as strong as it can be and as mature as it can be so we continue to grow together. And my growth takes place in the context of the growth of the body.

Isn’t it a beautiful, simple plan? I received a notice in the mail this week that it was one of my last opportunities because they were going to close the door on this opportunity here in the next few weeks. At a reduced rate I could get in on getting material at a reduced rate that will make my church totally different. And at half price. Seemed expensive until I realized it was half price. You know they tell you it’s half price, then it looks like a good deal, even though if you didn’t know it was half price, you’d think it was expensive even at half. And I’m sure all the material they give cost a lot of money to put together and all that, but I think, are we so lost that we don’t know what the church is to be doing, that this is what we ought to do? Here is something else and they say it will work, and if we buy into this and we could get all this material at half price and we get our church on that program…………

And here it is so simple. Yeah, but you know we’ve been doing that a long time, I’m ready for something new. Be careful. That’s how we are, we take our health for granted, we take our body for granted, then something goes wrong. I didn’t appreciate the help when I had it, now I would appreciate it. Didn’t appreciate those toes when they worked, now they don’t work. I say I’ll be really glad when the toes work again. And you go to the doctor and have an organ in your body that’s been influenced by a disease and you say, all of a sudden now I’m concerned about that. Makes a difference in our thinking, we need to be careful about the church. We take it for granted. The plan of Jesus Christ for His church hasn’t changed. He had the plan set, remember, before the foundation of the world. So I’d better be careful that I don’t get bored with my God. He is not a boring God. The work of Jesus Christ today is not a boring work. Sometimes what has happened, is my spiritual fire has begun to dim. We have to be like Paul tells Timothy, to stoke the fire again and get my focus off myself and onto what I should. And say Lord, I need to step up, because God’s not going to change the plan. If you find a new plan, you’ve found a plan that is not God’s plan because here is the plan. I certainly don’t want to step off God’s plan to buy into man’s plan, because I cannot experience the fullness of God’s blessing. There is no other way but the way God has planned it.

God has blessed us. What a privilege to be part of the church of Jesus Christ. What a privilege to know I’m a working part. Lord, how can you use me even more greatly.

Let’s pray together. Thank you, Lord, for your church. We are here today as a testimony of your grace. Each and every one of us, lost and on the road to hell, walking a path according to the course of this world, in obedience to the prince of the power of the air, not knowing our hopelessness, our lostness. Lord in grace you sent messengers to bring to us the truth of the gospel. You moved on our hearts and brought us to faith in Christ and placed us into His body. You gifted us so that we might function in a necessary way to contribute to the health of the body and its growth to maturity in love, so that together we might manifest the beauty of your Son, Jesus Christ who is our Savior. Lord, I pray that it might be true of our church, that we indeed manifest the person of Christ, the beauty of His truth, the moral character of our Savior in all aspects. May we be a clear manifestation of the presence of the Savior who has redeemed us and works in and through us. Thank you for our time together today, thank you for your Word. Use it so that we might be more effective in glorifying you. In Christ’s name, amen.