1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:03,560 Now I want to begin by sharing one of our one of my favorite 2 00:00:03,560 --> 00:00:06,280 movies. A couple weeks ago my wife and I 3 00:00:06,280 --> 00:00:09,720 sat down with the kids and we watched the movie Incredibles. 4 00:00:09,760 --> 00:00:12,320 Anybody OK, a few of you enjoy it. 5 00:00:12,320 --> 00:00:14,720 The Incredibles, it's an awesome movie. 6 00:00:14,720 --> 00:00:17,760 It's kind of an all time classic, one of the strongest I 7 00:00:17,760 --> 00:00:20,680 think of of Disney and so on so forth. 8 00:00:20,720 --> 00:00:25,960 And it's a story about a family, and it's a story about a family 9 00:00:25,960 --> 00:00:29,640 that has superpowers. And basically the plot line is 10 00:00:29,640 --> 00:00:32,800 this, that there's a bunch of superheroes out there and 11 00:00:32,800 --> 00:00:36,480 everyone loves them. They're heroes, They are saving 12 00:00:36,480 --> 00:00:39,520 the world, They are solving problems until they start 13 00:00:39,520 --> 00:00:43,200 getting sued because of their abilities and gifting. 14 00:00:43,200 --> 00:00:46,200 So they have to kind of go into hiding and it's a whole thing. 15 00:00:46,760 --> 00:00:49,440 And so Mr. Incredible, he's the father of this family. 16 00:00:49,440 --> 00:00:51,760 He's the strongest one, right? He's the leader. 17 00:00:52,040 --> 00:00:56,120 He goes from rescuing people out of burning buildings and saving 18 00:00:56,120 --> 00:01:01,720 lives to having to go into the mundanity of office work and 19 00:01:01,720 --> 00:01:03,360 selling insurance. OK. 20 00:01:03,840 --> 00:01:07,720 And you can see in this picture just kind of the the life being 21 00:01:07,720 --> 00:01:13,000 sucked out of him as he goes from living on mission using his 22 00:01:13,000 --> 00:01:16,080 giftings into just the the day-to-day world. 23 00:01:17,000 --> 00:01:20,000 He go, he's he's off on his own, he's distracted. 24 00:01:20,000 --> 00:01:22,800 There's this scene at the dinner table where the mom's trying to 25 00:01:22,800 --> 00:01:25,680 hold everything together. But the family is disjointed. 26 00:01:26,160 --> 00:01:29,400 They're not unified and they are divided. 27 00:01:30,560 --> 00:01:35,680 And what we see is that even though Mr. Incredible is a 28 00:01:35,680 --> 00:01:40,080 strong leader, even though he had his glory days at one point, 29 00:01:40,400 --> 00:01:43,200 he's no longer living into the mission and the calling. 30 00:01:43,480 --> 00:01:46,200 And So what happens is he gets a call to go to this sort of 31 00:01:46,280 --> 00:01:50,040 sketchy organization, to begin using his superpowers again for 32 00:01:50,040 --> 00:01:53,440 good. And what he does as he goes off 33 00:01:53,520 --> 00:01:57,840 on his own to a secret island in order to use his gifts again, 34 00:01:57,840 --> 00:02:01,000 right? Relive the glory days, live on 35 00:02:01,000 --> 00:02:03,240 mission. The problem is he leaves his 36 00:02:03,240 --> 00:02:06,280 family behind. His wife suspects there's some 37 00:02:06,280 --> 00:02:09,000 kind of affair or something going on, and so she hops on a 38 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:11,240 plane to come and rescue her husband. 39 00:02:11,800 --> 00:02:14,600 So there's a scene where the wife is in a plane going to this 40 00:02:14,800 --> 00:02:17,360 this island, but the kids have stowed away. 41 00:02:17,360 --> 00:02:21,080 They're also in the plane. And what they don't realize is 42 00:02:21,080 --> 00:02:24,440 that the island they're flying to is actually the island of the 43 00:02:24,440 --> 00:02:27,160 villain. Missiles are fired towards the 44 00:02:27,160 --> 00:02:28,600 plane. The mom's freaking out. 45 00:02:28,600 --> 00:02:32,600 The mom's trying to to tell her children to use their gifts to 46 00:02:32,600 --> 00:02:37,120 save the plane. The problem is the kids have 47 00:02:37,120 --> 00:02:39,720 never been trained to use their giftings. 48 00:02:40,200 --> 00:02:43,160 They've never been trained to live on mission. 49 00:02:44,560 --> 00:02:49,040 So here you have this strong leader going off on his own, 50 00:02:49,720 --> 00:02:53,000 leaving his family behind. You see these kids who have 51 00:02:53,000 --> 00:02:56,640 giftings, but they haven't been trained how to use it yet. 52 00:02:57,240 --> 00:03:01,360 And I bring this up this morning to say in many ways, this is a 53 00:03:01,360 --> 00:03:04,920 picture of the modern day church. 54 00:03:05,800 --> 00:03:09,280 Often times you do have these strong, gifted called 55 00:03:09,280 --> 00:03:12,720 charismatic leaders, but often times they get distracted. 56 00:03:12,720 --> 00:03:15,520 And So what do they do? They run off to chase their own 57 00:03:15,520 --> 00:03:20,440 dreams, to chase their own agendas to to preach to the 58 00:03:20,440 --> 00:03:23,520 podcast in the pulpit rather than preaching to their 59 00:03:23,520 --> 00:03:26,680 congregation or doing it for the book sales or what have you. 60 00:03:26,680 --> 00:03:29,560 They have their own agendas. They've lost the mission. 61 00:03:30,640 --> 00:03:33,480 Not only that, but within the family of God you have a number 62 00:03:33,480 --> 00:03:38,360 of people who have been given spirit empowered gifts, but 63 00:03:38,360 --> 00:03:41,560 they've never been trained how to actually use them. 64 00:03:42,440 --> 00:03:45,000 So you have leaders running off on their own, neglecting the 65 00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:48,400 family of God that the congregation and not equipping 66 00:03:48,400 --> 00:03:51,640 them to use their God-given giftings. 67 00:03:52,480 --> 00:03:54,640 There's all these different denominations and all these 68 00:03:54,640 --> 00:03:57,400 different podcasts and all these different networks and so on and 69 00:03:57,400 --> 00:03:59,520 so forth. And if we're honest, at times it 70 00:03:59,520 --> 00:04:01,320 can feel a little disjointed, can it? 71 00:04:02,160 --> 00:04:05,520 As a church, when you think about the global church, most of 72 00:04:05,520 --> 00:04:07,480 the people looking at us wouldn't say that we're a 73 00:04:07,480 --> 00:04:10,440 unified body. They'd say we're divided. 74 00:04:11,520 --> 00:04:14,760 They'd say we've been distracted maybe from the true mission of 75 00:04:14,760 --> 00:04:19,240 God to live for the Kingdom. And so today we're going to 76 00:04:19,240 --> 00:04:22,440 continue in our Ephesians, Ephesians series. 77 00:04:22,440 --> 00:04:25,880 We're looking at the second-half of Ephesians, chapters 4 through 78 00:04:25,880 --> 00:04:29,640 6, and we're calling this series the Good Church. 79 00:04:30,320 --> 00:04:35,200 We're asking the question, how can we become all that God has 80 00:04:35,200 --> 00:04:39,400 for us as a church? How can we be a unified church 81 00:04:39,400 --> 00:04:41,160 that's living on mission for him? 82 00:04:41,160 --> 00:04:44,880 Everyone using their giftings. And so if you have your Bibles, 83 00:04:45,360 --> 00:04:48,000 we encourage you to turn to Ephesians if you could. 84 00:04:48,000 --> 00:04:51,480 It's in the New Testament. And we always encourage physical 85 00:04:51,480 --> 00:04:52,880 Bibles. But if you don't have those, 86 00:04:52,880 --> 00:04:55,200 that's OK. It'll be on the screens as well. 87 00:04:55,400 --> 00:04:57,040 You can look at it at your phone. 88 00:04:57,160 --> 00:04:59,920 We just encourage you to get that in front of you if you 89 00:04:59,920 --> 00:05:02,600 could. OK, so Ephesians chapter 4, 90 00:05:02,800 --> 00:05:08,160 towards the end of your Bible, what we talked about last week 91 00:05:08,600 --> 00:05:12,400 was we talked about how Paul is painting a picture of a unified 92 00:05:12,400 --> 00:05:17,440 church that's living on mission as one body, and he's appealing 93 00:05:17,440 --> 00:05:22,320 to the oneness of God himself, the oneness of the Trinity. 94 00:05:23,360 --> 00:05:25,640 So before this passage that we're going to get into today, 95 00:05:25,640 --> 00:05:27,680 Paul talks about how there is only one body. 96 00:05:27,680 --> 00:05:31,600 There's one spirit, there's one hope, 1 Lord, 1 faith, one 97 00:05:31,600 --> 00:05:38,360 baptism, one God and Father. So 1111111 over and over Paul is 98 00:05:38,400 --> 00:05:43,760 emphasizing unity. But then in verse 7, there's a 99 00:05:43,760 --> 00:05:47,200 shifting point. He now turns the attention to 100 00:05:47,640 --> 00:05:50,320 the individual. So take a look in Ephesians 101 00:05:50,320 --> 00:05:52,720 chapter 4, verse 7. This will be our passage for 102 00:05:52,720 --> 00:05:55,440 today. This is what it says, the 103 00:05:55,440 --> 00:06:00,960 apostle Paul writes, but to each one of us grace has been given 104 00:06:01,440 --> 00:06:05,560 as Christ apportioned it. So let's pause right there. 105 00:06:06,440 --> 00:06:08,320 So notice the language out of the gate, he says. 106 00:06:08,320 --> 00:06:13,320 But each one of us, he's talking to the believers, talking to 107 00:06:13,320 --> 00:06:15,320 people who are in Christ. Does he say some of us? 108 00:06:16,440 --> 00:06:20,440 No, he says each of us have been given grace. 109 00:06:20,440 --> 00:06:22,960 Each of us have been given giftings. 110 00:06:23,440 --> 00:06:26,120 So Paul is moving a shift or marking a shift here from a 111 00:06:26,120 --> 00:06:30,040 corporate unity, appealing to the oneness of God himself. 112 00:06:30,320 --> 00:06:33,600 But now he's moving to the individual giftings and 113 00:06:33,600 --> 00:06:37,960 responsibilities and roles within this newly formed and 114 00:06:37,960 --> 00:06:39,480 diverse church. Does it make sense? 115 00:06:40,080 --> 00:06:44,880 So let's continue on verse 7 through 10 here verse 7 through 116 00:06:44,880 --> 00:06:48,400 10. But to each one of us grace has 117 00:06:48,400 --> 00:06:50,480 been given as Christ apportioned it. 118 00:06:51,160 --> 00:06:56,280 This is why it says when He ascended on high, He took many 119 00:06:56,280 --> 00:06:59,520 captives and gave gifts to His people. 120 00:07:00,280 --> 00:07:04,000 What does He ascended mean except that He also descended to 121 00:07:04,000 --> 00:07:08,360 the lower earthly regions? He who descended is the very one 122 00:07:08,360 --> 00:07:12,960 who ascended higher than all the heavens in order to fill the 123 00:07:12,960 --> 00:07:15,840 whole universe. Wow. 124 00:07:16,920 --> 00:07:19,440 So what you'll, you'll notice here in this passage, it's on 125 00:07:19,440 --> 00:07:21,040 the screen and maybe you see it in your Bible. 126 00:07:21,200 --> 00:07:24,560 See how there's that section in quotations that's indented? 127 00:07:25,000 --> 00:07:27,840 When you see that in the Bible, usually that means it's a direct 128 00:07:27,840 --> 00:07:30,760 quote, often times from the Old Testament. 129 00:07:30,760 --> 00:07:32,560 Does that make sense? So whenever you see that little 130 00:07:32,560 --> 00:07:34,040 chunk, that's what that means there. 131 00:07:34,440 --> 00:07:37,080 And So what we see here is that Paul is actually quoting from 132 00:07:37,080 --> 00:07:41,280 the Old Testament, from the book of Psalms, chapter 68. 133 00:07:41,960 --> 00:07:46,440 But here's what's interesting. It's not an exact direct quote 134 00:07:46,920 --> 00:07:50,000 like you might expect. So take a look at this next 135 00:07:50,000 --> 00:07:51,360 slide. This is a side by side of 136 00:07:51,360 --> 00:07:54,320 Ephesians 8, our passage and Psalm 68. 137 00:07:54,720 --> 00:07:59,040 And you'll notice that where Paul says he gave gifts to his 138 00:07:59,040 --> 00:08:03,960 people, Psalm 68 says you talking about Yahweh, you 139 00:08:03,960 --> 00:08:09,920 received gifts among the people. OK, So what Paul is doing is he 140 00:08:09,920 --> 00:08:15,440 is adapting this Psalm and he's condensing the whole Psalm down 141 00:08:15,440 --> 00:08:19,080 into a section and he's appropriating it to talk about 142 00:08:19,240 --> 00:08:23,080 the Messiah. So Psalm 68 is all about this 143 00:08:23,240 --> 00:08:28,680 victorious Yahweh king who rules and is ascended on high to Mount 144 00:08:28,680 --> 00:08:31,040 Sinai and eventually to Mount Zion. 145 00:08:31,440 --> 00:08:34,159 If you're familiar at all with the story of the Old Testament, 146 00:08:34,600 --> 00:08:39,440 you see that there's this group of people who God had chose to 147 00:08:39,440 --> 00:08:41,919 be His representatives and blessings to the nations. 148 00:08:41,919 --> 00:08:44,760 They were called the Israelites. The problem was they were 149 00:08:44,760 --> 00:08:49,640 entrapped under slavery by the Egyptians, this evil empire that 150 00:08:49,640 --> 00:08:51,960 was using them for slave labor, slave labor. 151 00:08:52,520 --> 00:08:55,880 And the whole story of Exodus is that that God who is on high 152 00:08:56,520 --> 00:08:59,720 hears the cries of his people. And So what does he do? 153 00:09:00,520 --> 00:09:05,440 He moves closer towards them and he rescues them out of slavery 154 00:09:05,440 --> 00:09:08,080 himself. He proves that his might and 155 00:09:08,080 --> 00:09:12,640 power is far above the the evil empire of the Egyptians. 156 00:09:12,840 --> 00:09:16,680 He sends the plagues to basically demonstrate his power 157 00:09:16,680 --> 00:09:17,960 over them. And then what does he do? 158 00:09:18,280 --> 00:09:22,880 He takes his people, redeems them out of slavery, and then he 159 00:09:22,880 --> 00:09:26,880 goes in a victory processional through the wilderness with his 160 00:09:26,880 --> 00:09:29,200 people. He rescues them into freedom, 161 00:09:29,200 --> 00:09:33,840 rewriting their story. He ascends to Mount Sinai to 162 00:09:33,840 --> 00:09:37,320 preside over them, giving them his presence and his gifting and 163 00:09:37,320 --> 00:09:40,520 his filling. And So what Paul is doing here 164 00:09:41,200 --> 00:09:45,160 is he's saying that is similar to what Christ has done for us 165 00:09:45,160 --> 00:09:48,800 as well. Christ was up in the heavenlies 166 00:09:49,320 --> 00:09:51,280 and he heard the cries of us, his people. 167 00:09:51,280 --> 00:09:52,600 So what does he do? What did he do? 168 00:09:53,240 --> 00:09:55,440 He descended. He became man for us. 169 00:09:55,440 --> 00:09:59,280 He lived a perfect life and He was willing to go as low as you 170 00:09:59,280 --> 00:10:02,280 could possibly go. He was willing to go to his 171 00:10:02,280 --> 00:10:07,840 death on a cross for you and for me to atone for our sins. 172 00:10:07,840 --> 00:10:11,800 And that anyone who puts their faith in that work, anyone who 173 00:10:11,800 --> 00:10:14,640 asks and repents of their sin and asks for forgiveness from 174 00:10:14,640 --> 00:10:19,120 Christ can now be reconciled back to God, be brought back 175 00:10:19,120 --> 00:10:22,160 into relationship with Him and live into the Kingdom. 176 00:10:23,080 --> 00:10:25,560 So Paul is taking an old, old, well known Psalm. 177 00:10:25,560 --> 00:10:28,120 He's adapting and appropriate and saying this is what Christ 178 00:10:28,120 --> 00:10:31,600 has done for you all. He has come from a distance. 179 00:10:31,760 --> 00:10:35,920 He is rewriting your story. He's delivering you and 180 00:10:35,920 --> 00:10:39,040 redeeming you out of slavery and into freedom. 181 00:10:40,480 --> 00:10:45,640 And so because he descended, he was elevated above all things. 182 00:10:45,640 --> 00:10:47,440 He then ascended back into the heavenlies. 183 00:10:47,440 --> 00:10:53,440 He was now the, the victorious triumphant Yahweh giving gifts 184 00:10:53,960 --> 00:10:58,080 to everybody. So imagine for a moment that 185 00:10:58,080 --> 00:11:00,880 you're, you're outside on your front porch and all of a sudden 186 00:11:00,880 --> 00:11:03,120 a plane drops over. This is like an just a little 187 00:11:03,120 --> 00:11:08,400 bit of an analogy. A plane drops, a package comes 188 00:11:08,400 --> 00:11:10,760 down, lands right there on your front porch. 189 00:11:10,880 --> 00:11:13,520 Imagine that you open it up and it's the world's largest 190 00:11:13,520 --> 00:11:16,480 firecracker, world's largest firework, let's just say. 191 00:11:16,480 --> 00:11:18,720 And So what do you do? You set it up, you light the 192 00:11:18,720 --> 00:11:24,200 fuse. All of a sudden that firework is 193 00:11:24,200 --> 00:11:26,000 destroyed. It explodes, right? 194 00:11:26,080 --> 00:11:28,520 Poof. It flies into the air. 195 00:11:28,520 --> 00:11:30,400 Higher, higher, higher, higher, higher. 196 00:11:30,480 --> 00:11:32,920 And then what does it do once it finally reaches its peak? 197 00:11:35,560 --> 00:11:38,760 And imagine just for a moment, that that firework just rains 198 00:11:39,080 --> 00:11:44,280 down upon the entire sky. This is kind of a similar 199 00:11:44,280 --> 00:11:45,640 picture to what happened with Jesus. 200 00:11:45,880 --> 00:11:48,200 He ascended down. He dropped down to earth. 201 00:11:48,400 --> 00:11:50,480 The fuse was lit. All of a sudden there was an 202 00:11:50,480 --> 00:11:52,760 explosion. With his death and resurrection, 203 00:11:52,880 --> 00:11:56,840 He ascended back on high. And then he fills the whole 204 00:11:56,840 --> 00:11:59,720 universe. And what comes down, according 205 00:11:59,720 --> 00:12:03,720 to this passage, what is raining down over the entire sky back 206 00:12:03,720 --> 00:12:06,800 down to us? Gifts. 207 00:12:06,840 --> 00:12:13,880 It says God has given us gifts because He's victorious, because 208 00:12:13,880 --> 00:12:17,040 He's on top. He now rains down gifts. 209 00:12:17,760 --> 00:12:20,880 So the question is, what are the gifts? 210 00:12:21,480 --> 00:12:25,800 What are these that He actually gave us and gave His church? 211 00:12:26,360 --> 00:12:29,040 This is what it says in verse 11, Ephesians 4, verse 11. 212 00:12:29,400 --> 00:12:33,960 Here are the gifts so Christ himself gave. 213 00:12:33,960 --> 00:12:38,080 These are the gifts Christ himself gave the apostles, the 214 00:12:38,080 --> 00:12:42,920 prophets, the evangelists, the pastors, and the teachers. 215 00:12:43,960 --> 00:12:50,360 So the gifts are people. The gifts are these different 216 00:12:50,360 --> 00:12:52,400 people that Christ has given to us. 217 00:12:52,400 --> 00:12:54,760 In other words, they're the leaders for the church that 218 00:12:54,760 --> 00:12:58,960 Christ is building. Now, there's four or five 219 00:12:58,960 --> 00:13:00,640 different roles here that are mentioned. 220 00:13:01,080 --> 00:13:04,280 There's an acronym for these, these five here called Apest 221 00:13:04,360 --> 00:13:08,440 APEST. And this is kind of their 222 00:13:08,440 --> 00:13:10,520 different roles and functions. I'm going to move really quickly 223 00:13:10,520 --> 00:13:13,160 through these, so just bear with me because we're a limited time 224 00:13:13,160 --> 00:13:17,680 here, but #1 the apostles. The apostles role is to govern 225 00:13:17,800 --> 00:13:21,560 the foundation of the building of the church, often times the 226 00:13:21,560 --> 00:13:24,520 the capital. A apostles were the OG sort of 227 00:13:24,520 --> 00:13:27,520 12 disciples that were following Jesus around. 228 00:13:27,920 --> 00:13:32,040 So Jesus had many disciples, but there were 12 apostles that were 229 00:13:32,040 --> 00:13:35,480 instrumental who saw the risen Christ and built the church. 230 00:13:35,960 --> 00:13:39,680 Today, those who have an Apostolic gift are passionate 231 00:13:39,680 --> 00:13:41,920 initiators. These are the people who are 232 00:13:41,920 --> 00:13:44,960 going out and planting churches. They're starting ministry 233 00:13:44,960 --> 00:13:46,160 centers and they're doing the work. 234 00:13:46,160 --> 00:13:49,600 They're sort of pioneers. Next you have the prophets. 235 00:13:49,600 --> 00:13:52,240 The prophets role is to guide with revelation. 236 00:13:53,040 --> 00:13:55,520 These are the people who are able to discern the will of God 237 00:13:56,000 --> 00:13:59,800 for specific groups and address them with authority. 238 00:14:00,680 --> 00:14:03,360 Next, you have the evangelists. Their role is to gather the 239 00:14:03,360 --> 00:14:05,600 lost. This is a very rare term in 240 00:14:05,600 --> 00:14:08,600 Scripture, but it's essentially the people who are going out 241 00:14:09,080 --> 00:14:12,840 sharing the good news, heralding that Christ is risen and the 242 00:14:12,840 --> 00:14:14,640 Kingdom is here. And what do they do? 243 00:14:15,360 --> 00:14:18,680 They win converts, and then they gather them back into the fold. 244 00:14:19,240 --> 00:14:21,960 So they're going out bringing people into the church. 245 00:14:22,080 --> 00:14:26,600 They're literally gospelers. OK, next you have the pastors. 246 00:14:26,600 --> 00:14:28,240 This is maybe one we're familiar with. 247 00:14:28,360 --> 00:14:30,280 Their role is to guard the flock. 248 00:14:30,840 --> 00:14:33,240 The word for pastors is the word shepherds. 249 00:14:34,000 --> 00:14:37,160 And so these are the leaders of local congregations and their 250 00:14:37,160 --> 00:14:42,080 job is to care for, to nurture, to train, to correct and to 251 00:14:42,080 --> 00:14:45,000 equip the church for the works of service. 252 00:14:46,120 --> 00:14:49,280 Now in the Greek, pastors and teachers here are are linked 253 00:14:49,280 --> 00:14:51,080 together. So some say there's only four 254 00:14:51,080 --> 00:14:54,480 roles, Maybe you call them pastor teachers or teacher 255 00:14:54,480 --> 00:14:56,960 pastors. But teachers, their role is to 256 00:14:56,960 --> 00:15:00,280 ground in the truth. So their job is to instruct 257 00:15:00,280 --> 00:15:03,680 knowledgeably, to interpret and apply Scripture to their 258 00:15:03,800 --> 00:15:06,200 audiences. All right, got all five. 259 00:15:06,240 --> 00:15:08,880 You good. Memorize those five different 260 00:15:08,880 --> 00:15:12,200 gifts, these different people that Christ gave to build the 261 00:15:12,200 --> 00:15:13,960 church. I'm going to give you a really 262 00:15:13,960 --> 00:15:17,200 quick way to memorize these. OK, picture it like, like 263 00:15:17,760 --> 00:15:20,920 picture it like a hand. So the apostles, the first one 264 00:15:20,920 --> 00:15:23,880 is like the thumb because they're hitchhiking their their 265 00:15:23,880 --> 00:15:25,880 way on to the next thing. They're always going, they're 266 00:15:25,880 --> 00:15:28,640 always moving, right? They're always starting next. 267 00:15:28,640 --> 00:15:32,120 You have the index finger, OK. The prophets are the ones who 268 00:15:32,120 --> 00:15:34,560 are pointing to God, always listening to him and pointing 269 00:15:34,560 --> 00:15:37,200 the way. The next is the middle finger. 270 00:15:37,320 --> 00:15:40,200 This would be the evangelists. They're usually the most 271 00:15:40,200 --> 00:15:43,400 prominent and the most loud. They're out there, right? 272 00:15:43,960 --> 00:15:46,640 They're the ones going on the front lines and sharing the 273 00:15:46,640 --> 00:15:48,840 gospel even with people who don't want to hear it. 274 00:15:49,280 --> 00:15:52,360 So sometimes they can also be the most offensive of all the 275 00:15:52,360 --> 00:15:55,520 fingers. It's a little joke. 276 00:15:55,520 --> 00:16:00,480 OK, Next you have the pastors. They they're kind of like the 277 00:16:00,480 --> 00:16:01,720 ring finger. Why? 278 00:16:01,720 --> 00:16:05,040 Because they are dedicated to the bride of Christ. 279 00:16:05,160 --> 00:16:07,040 So picture a wedding ring on a ring finger. 280 00:16:07,040 --> 00:16:08,400 They're all about the bride of Christ. 281 00:16:08,640 --> 00:16:13,040 Finally, you have the teachers. They may not be as flashy or as 282 00:16:13,040 --> 00:16:15,680 prominent as all the other roles, the apostles and the 283 00:16:15,680 --> 00:16:20,080 pastors, but did you know, fun fact, the pinky is actually one 284 00:16:20,080 --> 00:16:22,280 of the most important fingers for grip strength. 285 00:16:22,840 --> 00:16:26,520 So the teachers hold them all together with the truth. 286 00:16:26,840 --> 00:16:28,920 So you got all 5 memorized. Great. 287 00:16:28,920 --> 00:16:30,080 All right, we're going to move on. 288 00:16:30,240 --> 00:16:37,600 That is for free and here we go. The gifts that Christ gave us 289 00:16:37,720 --> 00:16:42,040 are the people, the founders and leaders of the church. 290 00:16:42,680 --> 00:16:47,240 Now, many of you probably know some pastors, maybe you've 291 00:16:47,240 --> 00:16:50,280 experienced some leaders who think they're God's gift to the 292 00:16:50,280 --> 00:16:52,960 world, right? They are kind of elevate 293 00:16:52,960 --> 00:16:57,440 themselves to be prominent or they use their position for 294 00:16:57,440 --> 00:17:00,880 their own benefit. But here's the thing, the 295 00:17:00,880 --> 00:17:06,280 singular purpose of God giving these gifts, these people is to 296 00:17:06,280 --> 00:17:13,079 serve and equip the Saints. Their sole purpose is to serve 297 00:17:13,119 --> 00:17:17,160 the church and the and to train the church up to use their 298 00:17:17,160 --> 00:17:18,440 giftings. Why? 299 00:17:19,280 --> 00:17:22,280 Because as the passage we just read says, each of us has been 300 00:17:22,280 --> 00:17:26,200 given a grace by God to be used. So it's not about just the 301 00:17:26,200 --> 00:17:27,800 leaders. You may look at that list and be 302 00:17:27,800 --> 00:17:29,560 like, wow, they must be the important ones. 303 00:17:29,560 --> 00:17:31,920 No, no, no, no. The leader's job is to come 304 00:17:31,920 --> 00:17:35,840 underneath and support and lift up and build everyone to use 305 00:17:35,840 --> 00:17:41,680 their God-given gifts in Christ. This is the role of the leaders 306 00:17:41,680 --> 00:17:45,000 of the church. And we also need to recognize 307 00:17:45,000 --> 00:17:48,480 that it's only by grace that any of these leaders would be called 308 00:17:48,480 --> 00:17:51,880 into these positions. This is not a position that is 309 00:17:51,880 --> 00:17:54,600 earned. This is not a position based on 310 00:17:54,600 --> 00:17:58,080 merit or based on skill or based on ability. 311 00:17:58,560 --> 00:18:00,800 In other words, if you're a leader in the church, it's 312 00:18:00,800 --> 00:18:05,000 because Christ has appointed you and given you the grace to do 313 00:18:05,000 --> 00:18:06,440 that, not because you're something special. 314 00:18:08,120 --> 00:18:12,120 Does that make sense? No one has room to boast in in 315 00:18:12,120 --> 00:18:15,480 leadership in the church. This is why at Presence Church 316 00:18:15,480 --> 00:18:18,040 we talk about the phrase servant leadership. 317 00:18:18,840 --> 00:18:21,840 OK, if you want to be a leader at Presence Church, you have to 318 00:18:21,840 --> 00:18:25,600 be the first who's willing to get down and wash feet like 319 00:18:25,600 --> 00:18:29,520 Christ and serve His church. When we're trying to identify 320 00:18:29,520 --> 00:18:31,760 leaders at our church, we are looking for the people who are 321 00:18:31,760 --> 00:18:36,240 most willing to serve even in the lowest positions at this 322 00:18:36,240 --> 00:18:37,040 church. Why? 323 00:18:37,040 --> 00:18:40,640 Because that is the nature and the call of spiritual 324 00:18:40,640 --> 00:18:43,680 leadership. Imagine for a moment, you know, 325 00:18:43,680 --> 00:18:47,080 you've got this this person who's new to the church, they 326 00:18:47,080 --> 00:18:49,080 come in and they've got all the giftings, right? 327 00:18:49,680 --> 00:18:52,840 I mean, they can, they can preach, you know, with charisma 328 00:18:52,840 --> 00:18:56,680 and they can, they can sing like Whitney Houston on the stage or, 329 00:18:56,680 --> 00:18:58,040 you know, or whatever it is right there. 330 00:18:58,040 --> 00:19:00,000 There's the phenomenal giftings, right? 331 00:19:00,760 --> 00:19:02,880 And imagine you go up to that person and you're like, oh, man, 332 00:19:02,880 --> 00:19:04,960 we're so glad you're here. We're going to put you on the 333 00:19:04,960 --> 00:19:06,760 stage to be a leader of the church. 334 00:19:07,360 --> 00:19:10,080 If you can come in at 7:00, that's when we set up and 335 00:19:10,080 --> 00:19:13,120 imagine for that person is just a moment is like, oh, oh, oh, 336 00:19:13,960 --> 00:19:15,760 setting up at 7:00. Yeah. 337 00:19:16,320 --> 00:19:19,320 That actually isn't part of my spiritual gifting that God has 338 00:19:19,320 --> 00:19:21,360 given me. So I need to pray about that. 339 00:19:21,360 --> 00:19:23,680 You know, I can just imagine if that was the case for a moment, 340 00:19:23,680 --> 00:19:25,920 that'd be a red flag, wouldn't it? 341 00:19:25,920 --> 00:19:29,200 That'd be huge red flag. Why? 342 00:19:30,200 --> 00:19:32,760 Because it's not about the ability, it's not about the 343 00:19:32,760 --> 00:19:37,320 gifting, It's about their willingness to live like Jesus 344 00:19:37,320 --> 00:19:39,560 and serve the church and build it up. 345 00:19:39,680 --> 00:19:42,200 Does that make sense? So when we're identifying 346 00:19:42,200 --> 00:19:45,920 leaders, we're looking for those who are willing to go lowest. 347 00:19:47,480 --> 00:19:49,720 Those are the people that Christ wants to elevate. 348 00:19:49,720 --> 00:19:53,000 Does that make sense? So how do we do this? 349 00:19:53,000 --> 00:19:56,040 What is our role here? Let's carry on in verse 12 here, 350 00:19:56,080 --> 00:20:00,040 Ephesians 4, verse 12. So God gives these gifts Christ 351 00:20:00,240 --> 00:20:02,320 because he's victorious, He fills the whole universe. 352 00:20:02,320 --> 00:20:05,200 He rains down these gifts as people to do what? 353 00:20:05,200 --> 00:20:09,560 Verse 12. To equip His people for the 354 00:20:09,560 --> 00:20:13,480 works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 355 00:20:13,880 --> 00:20:17,120 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of 356 00:20:17,120 --> 00:20:22,160 the Son of God, and become mature, attaining to the whole 357 00:20:22,160 --> 00:20:25,320 measure of the fullness of Christ. 358 00:20:26,240 --> 00:20:29,000 So the primary role of these leaders, these gifts that that 359 00:20:29,360 --> 00:20:34,600 God has given us is to equip. This word for equip is actually 360 00:20:34,600 --> 00:20:36,760 quite interesting. It's only used once in the New 361 00:20:36,760 --> 00:20:38,960 Testament, which is, which is pretty rare. 362 00:20:38,960 --> 00:20:40,760 So that's kind of something to pay attention to. 363 00:20:41,240 --> 00:20:44,080 It's the word Qatar tismas in the Greek. 364 00:20:44,600 --> 00:20:47,240 And like I said, it's a rare word, but it can mean to 365 00:20:47,240 --> 00:20:52,920 restore, to equip, to perfect, to prepare, and to mend. 366 00:20:53,880 --> 00:20:58,000 Whenever you see a word once only used once in the Bible, it 367 00:20:58,000 --> 00:21:00,760 can be helpful to go outside of the Bible to see how that word 368 00:21:00,760 --> 00:21:02,960 is used. So outside of the Bible, that 369 00:21:02,960 --> 00:21:07,760 term can refer to the setting of a broken bone, getting it back 370 00:21:07,760 --> 00:21:10,200 into place in order to make it useful again. 371 00:21:11,120 --> 00:21:14,080 It can also refer to supplying of an army. 372 00:21:14,440 --> 00:21:16,440 So this is the idea of like corporate strength and 373 00:21:16,440 --> 00:21:19,160 refreshing the body or refreshing an army that's on 374 00:21:19,160 --> 00:21:22,720 mission and the one I want to focus on today. 375 00:21:22,720 --> 00:21:25,640 The third use outside of scripture for for this 376 00:21:25,800 --> 00:21:30,560 particular word for to equip is referring to the outfitting of a 377 00:21:30,560 --> 00:21:33,880 ship or a vessel. In other words, making it 378 00:21:33,880 --> 00:21:38,960 seaworthy and ready for a voyage or for military activity. 379 00:21:40,280 --> 00:21:43,520 And perhaps this is the idea that Paul maybe had in mind, 380 00:21:43,520 --> 00:21:46,160 maybe seeing some of the great Roman ship and all the ways that 381 00:21:46,160 --> 00:21:48,840 they're connected, and this could be what he had in mind. 382 00:21:49,080 --> 00:21:50,480 And we'll get to that in just a moment. 383 00:21:50,480 --> 00:21:51,840 We might have an indication of that. 384 00:21:53,120 --> 00:21:57,240 So part of our roles as leaders is to build the ship of the 385 00:21:57,240 --> 00:21:59,960 church to be seaworthy. Does that make sense? 386 00:22:00,680 --> 00:22:05,920 But the question becomes, what kind of ship are we called to 387 00:22:05,920 --> 00:22:08,720 be? There's a lot of different 388 00:22:08,720 --> 00:22:12,240 options out there and we see different types of ships. 389 00:22:12,240 --> 00:22:15,040 I think all around, all around America. 390 00:22:15,800 --> 00:22:18,920 Number one, I think we see the church as a cruise ship 391 00:22:18,920 --> 00:22:22,360 sometimes. This is basically the idea that 392 00:22:22,360 --> 00:22:25,880 people kind of come in, maybe they pay their fare, they sit 393 00:22:25,880 --> 00:22:28,200 back and relax and they say, all right, feed me. 394 00:22:28,200 --> 00:22:30,480 You know, they're just kind of sitting back. 395 00:22:30,480 --> 00:22:32,440 They're they're, you know, they're not really steering the 396 00:22:32,440 --> 00:22:34,960 ship. It's it's kind of they're being 397 00:22:34,960 --> 00:22:37,760 entertained. They're well fed, but they don't 398 00:22:37,760 --> 00:22:40,240 really do anything. They just kind of lounge around, 399 00:22:40,240 --> 00:22:42,280 right. This is the cruise ship church. 400 00:22:42,480 --> 00:22:44,200 There's plenty of those that you can find there. 401 00:22:44,200 --> 00:22:46,320 There's lots of entertaining churches out there. 402 00:22:47,080 --> 00:22:48,640 Is that the type of ship we're called to be? 403 00:22:49,480 --> 00:22:51,880 Probably not. The next ship is a little bit 404 00:22:51,880 --> 00:22:53,880 more on mission. This would be like a battleship 405 00:22:54,640 --> 00:22:58,800 and at first like this could be, this could maybe be the picture 406 00:22:58,800 --> 00:23:00,760 we have in mind. After all, the battleship is on 407 00:23:00,760 --> 00:23:03,840 mission. The battleship has powerful guns 408 00:23:03,840 --> 00:23:06,400 to sort of attack the enemies of darkness or whatever. 409 00:23:08,000 --> 00:23:10,960 And in in these types of churches, often times they're 410 00:23:10,960 --> 00:23:14,280 led by a commanding team. Maybe it's like that, you know, 411 00:23:14,360 --> 00:23:16,840 the pastor or the leaders do all of the work. 412 00:23:17,000 --> 00:23:20,400 They call all of the shots. But the people of the church, 413 00:23:20,400 --> 00:23:23,000 their job is just to obey commands, right? 414 00:23:23,000 --> 00:23:26,480 Their job is just to, you know, make sure that the guns are 415 00:23:26,480 --> 00:23:28,720 pointed in the right way. Their job is to just kind of 416 00:23:28,720 --> 00:23:30,360 clean the poop deck or whatever it is. 417 00:23:30,360 --> 00:23:34,000 OK, I wasn't in the Navy, so ask, ask Brett and Sarah or 418 00:23:34,000 --> 00:23:35,640 someone. But I don't know how it works. 419 00:23:35,640 --> 00:23:39,160 But the point is this. The point is this. 420 00:23:39,160 --> 00:23:42,040 The the commanding officers are the one who are, are kind of 421 00:23:42,040 --> 00:23:44,480 doing all the work and calling all the shots, but the people 422 00:23:44,880 --> 00:23:46,920 are just kind of grunts. Does that make sense? 423 00:23:46,920 --> 00:23:49,200 So I don't know if that's the best option. 424 00:23:49,200 --> 00:23:52,720 Then there's a third option, and this is the church as an 425 00:23:52,720 --> 00:23:58,720 aircraft carrier, where it's entire purpose is to equip and 426 00:23:59,160 --> 00:24:03,640 to and to launch individuals out to go on mission. 427 00:24:04,960 --> 00:24:08,560 The entire structure of an aircraft carrier is designed for 428 00:24:08,560 --> 00:24:13,200 people to get in the planes and to go into the battlefield, into 429 00:24:13,200 --> 00:24:16,600 the mission field in order to seek out the targets. 430 00:24:17,360 --> 00:24:20,520 They come back into the ship to refuel and to be equipped. 431 00:24:21,040 --> 00:24:25,040 And I think this is probably the best picture of the church that 432 00:24:25,040 --> 00:24:29,560 we can think of. We as a church are called to be 433 00:24:29,560 --> 00:24:32,400 the ones who are equipping individuals to go out into their 434 00:24:32,400 --> 00:24:35,480 individual workplaces, into their families, into their 435 00:24:35,480 --> 00:24:41,760 communities, doing justice, bringing rescue and coming back 436 00:24:41,760 --> 00:24:47,440 together to be encouraged and to be fed and to be built up again. 437 00:24:48,360 --> 00:24:52,040 The type of church that I believe God is calling us to be 438 00:24:52,040 --> 00:24:55,000 is more like an aircraft carrier than a cruise ship. 439 00:24:56,920 --> 00:24:58,640 Ben Witherington the Third puts it this way. 440 00:24:59,200 --> 00:25:03,200 The point is that the gifted persons listed in verse 11 serve 441 00:25:03,200 --> 00:25:06,120 as the foundational gifts that are used for the immediate 442 00:25:06,120 --> 00:25:10,880 purpose of preparing all the Saints to minister. 443 00:25:11,480 --> 00:25:13,920 Thus, every believer must do the work of ministry. 444 00:25:14,960 --> 00:25:15,960 I'm going to say that one more time. 445 00:25:16,320 --> 00:25:20,280 Thus, every believer must do the work of ministry. 446 00:25:20,720 --> 00:25:23,720 The final goal evolves from the last, namely that the work of 447 00:25:23,720 --> 00:25:28,440 ministry by every believer is to build up the body of Christ. 448 00:25:28,600 --> 00:25:30,960 In other words, you and I have a job to do. 449 00:25:32,000 --> 00:25:34,800 It's to build up the body of Christ. 450 00:25:37,200 --> 00:25:38,680 And what will be the result of this? 451 00:25:39,200 --> 00:25:45,640 Verse 14, Verse 14? Then after the equipping takes 452 00:25:45,640 --> 00:25:50,200 place, after where the readiness happens, then we will no longer 453 00:25:50,200 --> 00:25:54,880 be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves and blown 454 00:25:54,880 --> 00:25:57,760 here and there by the every wind of teaching and by the cunning 455 00:25:57,760 --> 00:26:01,440 and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. 456 00:26:02,560 --> 00:26:07,240 How many of you guys know that? Our current cultural moment in 457 00:26:07,240 --> 00:26:11,280 the digital age that we live in, it is really easy to be tossed 458 00:26:11,280 --> 00:26:15,840 back and forth, right by the winds of teaching, by people's 459 00:26:15,840 --> 00:26:20,400 opinions, by trends on social media, whatever it may be, 460 00:26:20,400 --> 00:26:22,280 right? It seems like every day there 461 00:26:22,280 --> 00:26:25,880 is, there's a new news story that that presents itself on our 462 00:26:25,880 --> 00:26:28,160 phones that we're supposed to be outraged about, right? 463 00:26:28,720 --> 00:26:32,400 And we're just tossed back and forth continually, even in our 464 00:26:32,400 --> 00:26:34,960 political sphere, both on the right and the left, it seems 465 00:26:34,960 --> 00:26:38,840 more and more that we're getting gas lit, you know, by by people 466 00:26:38,840 --> 00:26:43,120 who who are saying, Hey, I know you saw it one way, but 467 00:26:43,120 --> 00:26:46,080 actually, let me tell you what you're actually seeing. 468 00:26:47,520 --> 00:26:50,760 The truth has spin on it. And we see more and more that 469 00:26:50,760 --> 00:26:54,080 blame shifting is occurring to other people or to AI or 470 00:26:54,080 --> 00:26:57,200 whatever. The point is this, even in the 471 00:26:57,200 --> 00:27:01,080 church, there are people out there who are only after their 472 00:27:01,080 --> 00:27:06,200 own gain. It is easy to be tossed back and 473 00:27:06,200 --> 00:27:07,800 forth. There's so much confusion out 474 00:27:07,800 --> 00:27:10,520 there. There's so many narratives out 475 00:27:10,520 --> 00:27:12,640 there. There's so much noise. 476 00:27:14,680 --> 00:27:17,080 But here's what's interesting about an aircraft carrier. 477 00:27:18,000 --> 00:27:23,400 Did you know, fun fact, that there's no record of a aircraft 478 00:27:23,400 --> 00:27:26,600 carrier ever capsizing due to weather or due to waves or 479 00:27:26,600 --> 00:27:29,040 storm? Did you know that it's pretty 480 00:27:29,040 --> 00:27:31,000 amazing? Even in 1944, there was 481 00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:33,880 something called the Cobra Typhoon event, which is like the 482 00:27:33,880 --> 00:27:37,200 coolest name ever, by the way. But it's this massive storm that 483 00:27:37,200 --> 00:27:40,080 like wiped out multiple battleships and destroyers. 484 00:27:40,320 --> 00:27:43,680 And, and the The thing is, even though this, this storm was 485 00:27:43,680 --> 00:27:47,200 torrential, the only ship that survived was an aircraft 486 00:27:47,200 --> 00:27:48,640 carrier. Isn't that amazing? 487 00:27:49,640 --> 00:27:53,080 And what's interesting is it's because of the way it's built, 488 00:27:53,880 --> 00:27:56,520 you see, because of its center of gravity and because of its 489 00:27:56,520 --> 00:27:59,720 center of buoyancy, because the very structure itself is 490 00:27:59,720 --> 00:28:03,440 designed to launch the individuals out into the mission 491 00:28:03,440 --> 00:28:07,480 field, it allows it to stay balanced even in the fiercest 492 00:28:07,560 --> 00:28:11,280 waves. May we to be a church that is so 493 00:28:11,280 --> 00:28:15,680 focused on launching you, the Saints, out into the mission 494 00:28:15,680 --> 00:28:20,320 field that we as a body can withhold and weather any storm. 495 00:28:20,720 --> 00:28:22,760 That is the type of church that we're called to be. 496 00:28:24,680 --> 00:28:30,320 So many of us church, so many of us are still playing around in 497 00:28:30,320 --> 00:28:34,120 our own little dinghies, our own little boats that were just 498 00:28:34,120 --> 00:28:37,960 rowing against the waves and the storms, rowing like crazy, just 499 00:28:37,960 --> 00:28:42,280 trying to survive, just trying to raise families, living on our 500 00:28:42,280 --> 00:28:46,080 own mission, on our own calling. But here's the truth. 501 00:28:47,320 --> 00:28:52,480 Every person needs a family and every person needs a mission, 502 00:28:53,720 --> 00:28:55,160 and the church is meant to be both. 503 00:28:56,400 --> 00:28:57,600 That's the strength of the church. 504 00:28:57,600 --> 00:29:04,080 That's the strength of the body. So how can we be a unified 505 00:29:04,080 --> 00:29:06,480 church that's not tossed back and forth by the waves? 506 00:29:06,480 --> 00:29:10,960 And how can we remain anchored and stable even in the fiercest 507 00:29:10,960 --> 00:29:14,280 weather? Verse 15 gives us the answer. 508 00:29:14,520 --> 00:29:20,360 Let's move on 4:15 instead and meaning instead of being tossed 509 00:29:20,360 --> 00:29:24,040 back and forth, instead of being a blown around like a balloon in 510 00:29:24,040 --> 00:29:27,400 the wind that got let go at a kids birthday party, instead 511 00:29:28,360 --> 00:29:33,000 speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every 512 00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:36,920 respect to the mature body of him who is the head that is 513 00:29:36,920 --> 00:29:41,440 Christ speaking the truth in love. 514 00:29:42,760 --> 00:29:45,600 That's how we do it. That's the answer here. 515 00:29:46,240 --> 00:29:49,800 The the word in the Greek is literally truthing in love. 516 00:29:50,680 --> 00:29:53,840 If you ever heard of the phrase always be closing ABC, right? 517 00:29:54,000 --> 00:29:57,040 I'm going to switch it to abt always be truthing. 518 00:29:57,240 --> 00:29:58,960 That's what our call is as Christians. 519 00:29:59,760 --> 00:30:05,400 You see, speaking and living the truth in love is both the means 520 00:30:05,400 --> 00:30:08,320 to maturity and the mark of maturity. 521 00:30:08,880 --> 00:30:12,880 What do I mean by that? Speaking the truth in love is 522 00:30:12,880 --> 00:30:16,400 how we as a body actually become more and more mature. 523 00:30:16,920 --> 00:30:20,160 When you and I are willing to encourage one another to share 524 00:30:20,160 --> 00:30:23,240 God's Word with one another, we are built up into maturity. 525 00:30:24,320 --> 00:30:26,920 How do we know that we have a mature church, a mature body? 526 00:30:27,600 --> 00:30:30,000 We have a group of people who are willing to speak the truth 527 00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:32,520 in love to one another. So does that make sense? 528 00:30:32,520 --> 00:30:34,920 It's both the mark and it's both. 529 00:30:34,920 --> 00:30:40,080 The means and the mark of maturity in a church always be 530 00:30:40,160 --> 00:30:44,280 truthing. But here's the thing, we have to 531 00:30:44,280 --> 00:30:48,840 have both. We have to have both truth and 532 00:30:48,840 --> 00:30:52,920 love together. Truth without love is just 533 00:30:52,920 --> 00:30:54,560 harshness. Would you agree? 534 00:30:56,600 --> 00:31:00,480 How you say something often times matters even more than 535 00:31:00,480 --> 00:31:03,320 what you say. Proverbs 15 one reminds us of 536 00:31:03,320 --> 00:31:06,640 that. The wisdom says a gentle answer 537 00:31:06,640 --> 00:31:12,000 turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. 538 00:31:13,000 --> 00:31:17,000 How you say something matters, the opposite is also true. 539 00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:20,760 If we just have love without truth, well, that's just mere 540 00:31:20,760 --> 00:31:23,960 sentimentality, right? There's no real substance to 541 00:31:23,960 --> 00:31:25,920 behind it, It's just all emotions. 542 00:31:26,760 --> 00:31:29,880 What we see in Romans 2 is that the Apostle Paul reminds us that 543 00:31:29,880 --> 00:31:37,080 God uses both to win souls. Romans 2 reminds us that God 544 00:31:37,080 --> 00:31:41,280 used kindness in order to lead us to repentance. 545 00:31:42,360 --> 00:31:45,360 With you and for me, God was abundantly patient. 546 00:31:45,360 --> 00:31:50,400 With you, He was abundantly gracious With you, His love, it 547 00:31:50,400 --> 00:31:52,840 was never ending. With you, He was continually 548 00:31:52,840 --> 00:31:55,600 calling you, even while we were yet sinners. 549 00:31:55,880 --> 00:31:58,480 Christ was patient. It was His kindness that led you 550 00:31:58,480 --> 00:32:00,120 back to repentance. Does that make sense? 551 00:32:01,080 --> 00:32:03,680 And it wasn't just love, it was also the truth. 552 00:32:03,680 --> 00:32:06,720 It's kindness, which is love, but it's also repentance, which 553 00:32:06,720 --> 00:32:08,680 is truth. We need to be a church that's 554 00:32:08,680 --> 00:32:10,440 committed to both. Does that make sense? 555 00:32:11,520 --> 00:32:14,360 Being willing to call out and confront sin, but be willing to 556 00:32:14,360 --> 00:32:18,280 go the distance relationally in love, to walk with people 557 00:32:18,520 --> 00:32:20,560 through it? Does that make sense? 558 00:32:21,240 --> 00:32:25,080 This is the church that God has called us to be speaking the 559 00:32:25,080 --> 00:32:29,200 truth in love. So which one are we in danger 560 00:32:29,200 --> 00:32:31,520 of? Truth minus love or love minus 561 00:32:31,520 --> 00:32:34,240 truth historically? I think the the church 562 00:32:34,240 --> 00:32:38,640 historically was in danger of being more on the truth without 563 00:32:38,640 --> 00:32:41,080 love side. We saw legalism, we saw 564 00:32:41,080 --> 00:32:43,680 harshness. I think the same is true today, 565 00:32:43,680 --> 00:32:45,320 but only on the Internet. Right? 566 00:32:46,080 --> 00:32:48,480 Like there's a lot of people who are willing to like blast people 567 00:32:48,480 --> 00:32:51,080 with the truth on social media and then just log off and walk 568 00:32:51,080 --> 00:32:54,400 away with no relationship with no loving motivation behind it 569 00:32:55,640 --> 00:32:58,800 in person In today's church though I think. 570 00:32:59,200 --> 00:33:02,640 I think honestly the issue we face the most is is love without 571 00:33:02,640 --> 00:33:05,160 truth. I think people are afraid to 572 00:33:05,160 --> 00:33:08,640 offend in person. I think people are afraid to 573 00:33:08,640 --> 00:33:11,160 have an awkward moment with in in person. 574 00:33:11,760 --> 00:33:15,880 I think people today are far more likely to just run away and 575 00:33:15,880 --> 00:33:19,480 cut ties in relationships than to actually like, hear the truth 576 00:33:19,760 --> 00:33:21,880 and still remain committed in relationship. 577 00:33:22,040 --> 00:33:23,880 OK. I think we're starting to see an 578 00:33:23,880 --> 00:33:26,880 unraveling of the social sort of fabric in that way. 579 00:33:28,160 --> 00:33:31,880 But we need to be reminded that we have to have both. 580 00:33:33,080 --> 00:33:37,960 In other words, in a culture of superficiality, we have to 581 00:33:37,960 --> 00:33:42,320 become a people of substance. May we become anchored deep in 582 00:33:42,320 --> 00:33:44,480 love while others remain shallow. 583 00:33:46,240 --> 00:33:52,400 Church, you cannot separate truth from love because God 584 00:33:52,400 --> 00:33:56,240 Himself is both truth and love. Does it make sense? 585 00:33:56,720 --> 00:33:59,440 So if you think you're speaking the truth, you're dropping truth 586 00:33:59,440 --> 00:34:01,760 bombs on social media or whatever, right? 587 00:34:01,960 --> 00:34:04,720 But you're not doing it in love. You're not actually giving the 588 00:34:04,720 --> 00:34:06,800 truth. Because the two are married. 589 00:34:07,320 --> 00:34:10,600 They're linked to each other and if you think you're being loving 590 00:34:10,600 --> 00:34:12,719 by just permitting certain things from going on, even 591 00:34:12,719 --> 00:34:14,960 though your friend is struggling with whatever addiction or 592 00:34:14,960 --> 00:34:17,679 darkness stuff we've all done, stuff we've all gone through, 593 00:34:17,840 --> 00:34:20,080 and you're never actually helping them to say, hey, I 594 00:34:20,080 --> 00:34:22,760 don't believe this is God's will and his and his plan for your 595 00:34:22,760 --> 00:34:24,480 life. Hey, can I help you and walk 596 00:34:24,480 --> 00:34:26,800 with you out of that? Can I pray with you out of that? 597 00:34:26,960 --> 00:34:29,440 If we're not willing to do both, then we're we're not doing 598 00:34:29,520 --> 00:34:30,880 either. Does that make sense? 599 00:34:31,159 --> 00:34:35,000 God is both truth and he's love. We have to be willing to speak 600 00:34:35,000 --> 00:34:38,320 and live out both as a church with one another daily. 601 00:34:39,159 --> 00:34:41,639 And it has to be in the context of loving, committed 602 00:34:41,960 --> 00:34:45,880 relationship. Paul continually talks about the 603 00:34:45,880 --> 00:34:48,840 power of unity within the church, calling people to be 604 00:34:48,840 --> 00:34:50,920 gentle and humble with one another. 605 00:34:51,520 --> 00:34:54,639 Why? It's in environments of 606 00:34:54,639 --> 00:34:59,120 unconditional grace and love and honesty where we can be truly 607 00:34:59,120 --> 00:35:02,640 transformed and healed. This is the power of marriage. 608 00:35:03,520 --> 00:35:06,520 My wife knows the ugliest parts about me, right? 609 00:35:07,080 --> 00:35:10,680 The other day I had a speaking engagement and I had a speaking 610 00:35:10,680 --> 00:35:13,400 engagement and I got done and I was kind of like, how did that 611 00:35:13,400 --> 00:35:15,360 go? So I asked my wife and I said, 612 00:35:15,360 --> 00:35:19,560 hey, what were your thoughts on my little talk that I did there, 613 00:35:19,560 --> 00:35:21,560 Susan? And she did one of these things. 614 00:35:21,560 --> 00:35:26,720 You, you maybe encountered this before She did the you know what 615 00:35:26,720 --> 00:35:28,640 I mean? How did it go? 616 00:35:29,840 --> 00:35:33,320 You know, And immediately I knew there was something there and I 617 00:35:33,320 --> 00:35:37,160 was like, OK, how did it go? And she's like, well, you know, 618 00:35:37,160 --> 00:35:39,120 and she's got kind of did that thing. 619 00:35:39,240 --> 00:35:43,280 And so finally, finally, I had to just say be honest, like tell 620 00:35:43,280 --> 00:35:46,880 me how it actually went. And then she did. 621 00:35:46,880 --> 00:35:51,440 And it hurt my feelings. OK, She told the truth, but I 622 00:35:51,440 --> 00:35:54,160 needed to hear it, right? That's the beauty of marriage, 623 00:35:54,160 --> 00:35:56,920 and that is the beauty of true community. 624 00:35:57,360 --> 00:36:00,400 That is what the church is meant to do, to provide an environment 625 00:36:00,400 --> 00:36:04,760 of unconditional love and security of family, and yet also 626 00:36:04,760 --> 00:36:08,920 the honesty of truth. There's power in that. 627 00:36:09,760 --> 00:36:13,240 I need people to call me out on my crap, right? 628 00:36:13,600 --> 00:36:16,080 You need people to call you out on your crap. 629 00:36:16,360 --> 00:36:18,480 But I don't need people to call me on my crap who don't actually 630 00:36:18,480 --> 00:36:19,400 love me. OK? 631 00:36:19,600 --> 00:36:21,680 So if you're coming up to me and be like, Ben, your sermon should 632 00:36:21,680 --> 00:36:24,000 be shorter and you don't actually love me, forget about 633 00:36:24,000 --> 00:36:24,720 it. I don't want to hear it. 634 00:36:24,720 --> 00:36:26,680 OK, All right. I know they should be shorter, 635 00:36:27,760 --> 00:36:30,000 but here's the point. Here's the point. 636 00:36:30,000 --> 00:36:33,920 If you love me, I might actually be more willing to listen to 637 00:36:33,920 --> 00:36:36,160 you. OK, As a church, we need to have 638 00:36:36,160 --> 00:36:37,400 both. This is true in marriage. 639 00:36:37,400 --> 00:36:39,480 It's true in singleness, it's true in relationships, it's true 640 00:36:39,480 --> 00:36:41,040 in work. It's just a reality. 641 00:36:41,320 --> 00:36:43,240 May we be a church that lives out both. 642 00:36:43,520 --> 00:36:46,720 And by the way, this is This is why we believe there's so much 643 00:36:46,720 --> 00:36:50,480 power in the environment of a discipleship band. 644 00:36:51,040 --> 00:36:53,600 At Presence Church, we have these groups of two to four 645 00:36:53,600 --> 00:36:56,080 people that are that gather regularly. 646 00:36:56,520 --> 00:36:59,760 And the commitment is that they would be transparent spaces 647 00:36:59,760 --> 00:37:03,960 where you can be fully known and fully loved, centered around the 648 00:37:03,960 --> 00:37:06,680 truth of God's Word, but open enough where you can actually 649 00:37:06,680 --> 00:37:09,080 confess your darkest sin and not be judged for it. 650 00:37:10,680 --> 00:37:13,000 Still held accountable to it through prayer and through 651 00:37:13,000 --> 00:37:15,320 loving relationship and through encouragement and grace. 652 00:37:15,320 --> 00:37:18,640 But it's an environment where you can actually grow and be 653 00:37:18,640 --> 00:37:22,880 transformed. The security of love and the 654 00:37:22,880 --> 00:37:25,960 empowerment of truth. This is the power and This is 655 00:37:25,960 --> 00:37:29,760 why we believe in transparent spaces like discipleship bans. 656 00:37:31,040 --> 00:37:35,400 The call of the apostle Paul was to live a life worthy of the 657 00:37:35,400 --> 00:37:39,040 calling we've received to grow in our identity that's already 658 00:37:39,040 --> 00:37:43,640 been afforded to us. In Ephesians chapter one through 659 00:37:43,640 --> 00:37:47,520 three, the first half we see over and over Paul is just, he's 660 00:37:47,520 --> 00:37:49,920 just blasting us with identity statements. 661 00:37:49,920 --> 00:37:53,000 Take a look at this next list. Paul reminds us that we have 662 00:37:53,000 --> 00:37:55,680 been blessed with every spiritual blessing, that we've 663 00:37:55,680 --> 00:37:58,760 been chosen, we've been adopted, we've been redeemed and 664 00:37:58,760 --> 00:38:01,120 forgiven. We were included in Christ. 665 00:38:01,120 --> 00:38:03,280 We were loved. We have been made alive. 666 00:38:03,280 --> 00:38:05,480 We are God's handiwork. We're brought near, we're 667 00:38:05,480 --> 00:38:08,520 reconciled to God, we're heirs together, and we have access to 668 00:38:08,520 --> 00:38:10,040 the Father with freedom and confidence. 669 00:38:10,200 --> 00:38:12,240 Is anyone excited about that today? 670 00:38:12,600 --> 00:38:14,640 This is the reality with which we live. 671 00:38:14,640 --> 00:38:19,040 It's already been given to us. This is what Christ accomplished 672 00:38:19,040 --> 00:38:21,200 on the cross and with his ascension. 673 00:38:21,200 --> 00:38:27,000 And so now as a church, our job is just to simply live into 674 00:38:27,000 --> 00:38:29,920 these things more and more and more every single day. 675 00:38:31,000 --> 00:38:35,360 As a church, our job is to recognize that Christ has 676 00:38:35,360 --> 00:38:37,880 already attained this for us if we're in Him. 677 00:38:39,200 --> 00:38:41,400 And now we become like Jesus together. 678 00:38:43,840 --> 00:38:46,000 Ephesians 5 again, turning back to the Scripture. 679 00:38:46,000 --> 00:38:48,600 Instead speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in 680 00:38:48,600 --> 00:38:51,720 every respect the mature body of Him who is the head that is 681 00:38:51,720 --> 00:38:55,240 Christ. From him the whole body, joined 682 00:38:55,240 --> 00:38:59,400 together and held together by every supporting ligament, grows 683 00:38:59,400 --> 00:39:05,640 and builds itself up in love. As each part does its work. 684 00:39:06,800 --> 00:39:12,000 As some parts do its work. No, as each part does its work. 685 00:39:12,920 --> 00:39:16,200 Two quick application points and then I'm done #1 Every believer 686 00:39:16,200 --> 00:39:20,080 is called to use their God-given gifts in service for the growth 687 00:39:20,080 --> 00:39:22,960 and building up of the church. Every believer. 688 00:39:24,080 --> 00:39:27,000 Our church is not going to be a cruise ship, right? 689 00:39:27,520 --> 00:39:30,400 And and no church is meant to be a cruise ship and no church 690 00:39:30,400 --> 00:39:33,560 probably intends to be a cruise ship, but it just just happens 691 00:39:33,560 --> 00:39:35,640 naturally. Instead, we will be like an 692 00:39:35,640 --> 00:39:39,960 aircraft carrier, training and equipping y'all to go out and be 693 00:39:39,960 --> 00:39:44,320 on mission and to rescue souls. But we don't do it by our own 694 00:39:44,320 --> 00:39:47,040 power and our own strength. Instead, we recognize Christ is 695 00:39:47,040 --> 00:39:50,520 the head, which means He is the source of all of our 696 00:39:50,520 --> 00:39:53,080 empowerment. He is the one who allowed the 697 00:39:53,080 --> 00:39:57,160 Holy Spirit to come and fill us and give us the gifts needed to 698 00:39:57,160 --> 00:40:00,800 fulfil this mission. He is the one who gives the body 699 00:40:00,800 --> 00:40:03,360 the supply of nutrients it desperately needs. 700 00:40:03,600 --> 00:40:07,560 And like a body that grows and divides, like cells in a growing 701 00:40:07,560 --> 00:40:09,640 body. And like a body that needs to be 702 00:40:09,640 --> 00:40:13,960 moved and exercised to grow and build itself up, so the church 703 00:40:14,400 --> 00:40:20,520 is fulfilled by Christ and builds itself up #2 every leader 704 00:40:20,520 --> 00:40:24,160 is called to equip the church for the works of service. 705 00:40:25,200 --> 00:40:27,480 So if you would like to be a leader at Presence Church, if 706 00:40:27,480 --> 00:40:32,240 God has given you that gifting and that grace, the first 707 00:40:32,240 --> 00:40:36,120 prerequisite is certainly the call, but the second is that 708 00:40:36,120 --> 00:40:39,080 you're willing to go lower in service for others. 709 00:40:40,360 --> 00:40:43,320 At Presence Church, we're going to continue to equip people in 710 00:40:43,320 --> 00:40:46,200 training them in God's Word. This means we're going to 711 00:40:46,200 --> 00:40:48,960 continue to emphasize discipleship bands, which are 712 00:40:48,960 --> 00:40:51,800 centered around Scripture first and foremost. 713 00:40:52,400 --> 00:40:54,960 It means we're going to continue with our equipping calls every 714 00:40:54,960 --> 00:40:57,080 month. We're going to continue to have 715 00:40:57,080 --> 00:40:59,520 youth group on Wednesdays where they're learning about prayer 716 00:40:59,520 --> 00:41:02,720 currently. We're going to continue to train 717 00:41:02,720 --> 00:41:07,000 up people to to teach our kids how to learn about the Holy 718 00:41:07,000 --> 00:41:09,800 Spirit like they are today, learn how to pray and become 719 00:41:09,800 --> 00:41:12,360 friends with God. We're going to continue to 720 00:41:12,360 --> 00:41:15,400 center our Sunday services around God's Word through 721 00:41:15,400 --> 00:41:18,960 sermons and through teachings. Not only will we center around 722 00:41:18,960 --> 00:41:22,600 God's Word, but we're going to help people discover their gifts 723 00:41:22,600 --> 00:41:24,800 and then deploy their gifts more and more. 724 00:41:25,320 --> 00:41:28,640 As a matter of fact, right after service, new to presence, we're 725 00:41:28,640 --> 00:41:31,640 going to be talking about how to identify your gifts and how to 726 00:41:31,640 --> 00:41:34,800 deploy them not just within the church, but beyond it. 727 00:41:35,520 --> 00:41:38,080 We're going to continue doing intentional mentoring and small 728 00:41:38,080 --> 00:41:40,400 scale environments. We see people meeting together 729 00:41:40,400 --> 00:41:42,520 every Saturday right now for that. 730 00:41:42,680 --> 00:41:46,760 And every Wednesday we see we're going to continue to emphasize 731 00:41:46,760 --> 00:41:50,160 whole church ownership, emphasizing our serve teams to 732 00:41:50,160 --> 00:41:52,920 build them up. And guys, let me just say, I'm 733 00:41:52,920 --> 00:41:57,520 so glad and impressed with how many of you have already stepped 734 00:41:57,520 --> 00:42:00,320 into serving. The percentage of people who are 735 00:42:00,320 --> 00:42:03,640 serving at our church is, I would say, disproportionately 736 00:42:03,640 --> 00:42:05,360 high. It's, it's incredible to see how 737 00:42:05,360 --> 00:42:08,000 you guys are just stepping in and leaning into that. 738 00:42:08,840 --> 00:42:14,240 But the need is still great. There's still a need for more 739 00:42:14,240 --> 00:42:18,920 people who are willing to come in at 7:00 AM and set up, more 740 00:42:18,920 --> 00:42:22,080 people who are willing to be trained how to lead our kids, 741 00:42:22,880 --> 00:42:26,000 trained in other areas and then to be sent out as well. 742 00:42:26,800 --> 00:42:30,040 And so if that's you today, if you're like, man, I want to use 743 00:42:30,040 --> 00:42:32,560 my gifts. I want to be useful in building 744 00:42:32,560 --> 00:42:34,120 up the church. I just encourage you like grab 745 00:42:34,120 --> 00:42:37,680 that connect card Mark serving. Let's make it practical. 746 00:42:37,680 --> 00:42:41,720 Let's take a next step because each of us are called to use our 747 00:42:41,720 --> 00:42:44,320 giftings for the building up of the body. 748 00:42:46,760 --> 00:42:53,920 As I close and as I invite Garrett to come back up, I 749 00:42:53,920 --> 00:42:57,440 opened with the story of The Incredibles, how Mr. Incredible 750 00:42:57,440 --> 00:42:59,880 was kind of off on his own chasing the glory days. 751 00:42:59,880 --> 00:43:02,360 But the the children, even though they had gifts, hadn't 752 00:43:02,360 --> 00:43:03,480 yet been trained how to use them. 753 00:43:03,480 --> 00:43:06,200 And there's this moment at the end of the movie where finally 754 00:43:06,200 --> 00:43:09,520 they all come together. The parents train their kids to 755 00:43:09,520 --> 00:43:13,400 use their giftings and they rally a family coming together, 756 00:43:13,400 --> 00:43:16,280 working together. The leaders are leading. 757 00:43:17,600 --> 00:43:21,440 All of them are using their gifts, and people's lives are 758 00:43:21,440 --> 00:43:24,280 saved. Even though they're radically 759 00:43:24,280 --> 00:43:28,640 diverse in their gifts, they're unified as a family in love, and 760 00:43:28,640 --> 00:43:31,200 because of this, they're a force to be reckoned with. 761 00:43:32,080 --> 00:43:38,280 In the same way, church, you and I are called to use our diverse 762 00:43:38,280 --> 00:43:45,280 gifts under the leaders that God has given with the bond of love 763 00:43:46,280 --> 00:43:48,880 in order to go and be sent out on mission. 764 00:43:49,000 --> 00:43:54,680 To rescue people from lostness and darkness, to confront issues 765 00:43:54,680 --> 00:43:58,840 of injustice, and to do whatever it is that God has called us to 766 00:43:58,840 --> 00:44:01,280 do. To make disciples, to live on 767 00:44:01,280 --> 00:44:04,160 mission, and to build His church. 768 00:44:05,720 --> 00:44:08,040 This is the good church that God wants to build. 769 00:44:08,040 --> 00:44:11,240 It's a fruitful family with the bond of love, willing to 770 00:44:11,240 --> 00:44:14,240 sacrifice for one another and living on mission for the 771 00:44:14,240 --> 00:44:17,440 Kingdom to see Ankeny as it is in heaven. 772 00:44:20,880 --> 00:44:24,480 Love is the spiritual mortar that holds us together. 773 00:44:25,440 --> 00:44:28,440 So may we may. May we be a church that is 774 00:44:28,440 --> 00:44:32,600 always truthing one another. May we keep the unity and the 775 00:44:32,600 --> 00:44:35,560 bond of peace. May we choose gentleness and 776 00:44:35,560 --> 00:44:39,960 humility above all. And first and foremost, may we 777 00:44:39,960 --> 00:44:44,600 do it in love. Let's build this house together. 778 00:44:45,440 --> 00:44:49,400 Let's grow this family in unity. Everyone of you has a part to 779 00:44:49,400 --> 00:44:52,640 play. No one's on the sidelines. 780 00:44:53,960 --> 00:44:59,160 Everyone's on mission. That's the dream, because Christ 781 00:44:59,160 --> 00:45:03,720 descended, was willing to go to the cross lower than anyone has 782 00:45:03,720 --> 00:45:06,840 ever gone. He was raised victorious and 783 00:45:06,840 --> 00:45:10,480 ascended above all things. And from that position of 784 00:45:10,480 --> 00:45:15,000 victory and authority, he rained down gifts the people to build 785 00:45:15,000 --> 00:45:19,200 his church, that they would fully equip all the Saints into 786 00:45:19,200 --> 00:45:26,080 maturity so that we together would be the very presence of 787 00:45:26,240 --> 00:45:29,600 Jesus himself and a lost and dying and hurting world. 788 00:45:30,960 --> 00:45:34,000 That's the call of the Church. That's who we're meant to be. 789 00:45:34,360 --> 00:45:35,480 I pray we'd live into that.