For the rest of us, I invite you now to open your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 4, as we're going to be looking at Ephesians 4, verses 11 through 16. So we're still hanging out in the book of Ephesians, but we're going back a couple chapters, as we are in our series called, This Is How We Fight. And we're going through this series because We want to know, how can we practically make a difference in this world? Because there is real, tangible evils that are in effect in the world around us, and so if there are real evils causing us trouble, then we want to be able to, on behalf of God, do a real good. so that those evils would have no room to live and thrive and spread. And so what do we do as a church? And so we started with the end of Ephesians, because I really love that imagery of the armor of the Lord in the practical language we see in there of us being people of the Bible as the sword of the Spirit, that word of God, but also being a people of prayer. That's a very fundamental idea. So we talked about we want to be people who read our Bibles. We want to be people who pray. We pray before we read, and then we pray about what we have read. But we might still have, at this point, a lingering question in our mind. Okay, I get that idea of read the Bible and pray. I've heard that one a lot, but how is that supposed to really make a difference in the world around me right now? This is a great question, and I pray that as we do study His Word that we'll have more of an answer for this. It's a long conversation. There's a lot that can be said, but we're going to have more of that this morning. But as we do look to lean upon the truth that comes from Jesus and not our man-made imaginations, let us offer this prayer. So, Great Heavenly Father, we pray that you would bless us and strengthen us so we don't have to live according to our own ideas. Because our ideas have got us into so much of the trouble that we are in today. Because we think of ourselves as being so clever. but our wisdom is nothing like yours. So bless us with your wisdom from your word that we may be built up for your namesake. And so we pray this in Jesus name, amen. So my brothers and sisters, I invite you now to stand in body or in spirit as we look together at God's word in Ephesians chapter four, starting with verse 11. Hear the word of the Lord. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ. from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. My friends, the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. You can be seated. So, I suspect one of the toughest connections we're trying to make in this series of This Is How We Fight is really thinking about, okay, we talked about some of these real tangible evils that are in the world. The fighting that is happening, the deception, the lying, the stealing, there's so many things that are going on, wickedness around us. But you told me to read my Bible and pray. How is that going to help bring an end to some of the evils that I see happening out there? And maybe we have a temptation to think of like really like I'm supposed to read my Bible and pray, kind of go home, do this. How is that supposed to fix the problems out there? Because I'm a pretty nice person. I'm pretty cool. I don't need me to be changed. My problem is the people out there. How can we change them? They're the ones who are giving me the headaches. So what are we going to do about the people out there? Well, this temptation to think that our problem starts with somebody else... is actually one of the fundamental reasons we are in the problem that we are in right now. And we've bought into a lie that started with Satan in the Garden of Eden, trying to divide Adam and Eve from God, but we see that right now, this type of thinking of being angry with somebody else, is being promoted by the religion of Marxism. As I've said, Marxism, I believe, is a religion. And if you don't believe me, that a lot of the teachings in this world are religion. Maybe you've seen the statue that was put on top of a courthouse in New York. Does anyone know what I'm talking about this week? There was this golden idol of a woman with tentacles coming out of her head, coming out of a lotus blossom with Ruth Bader Ginsburg kind of neck doily thing, a weird kind of idea, but what was being said is that We need to have in our legal system a representation of the religion of this day. Recognizing that this Marxist type thinking that is coming upon us right now truly is a religious thing. So you can look up that strange statue later, but it is actually a fertility goddess that is being worshipped by some. But that being aside, Right now, there is a lie that is being taught, not just by Marxists, but by others. The lie is this. Someone else is the cause of all your problems. Someone else. They're the reason why we've got all these problems that are going on in the world today. So if they would just fix their problems, then I can go on and be a happy person. But this does not actually fix the problems when we try to shift responsibility onto somebody else. We want to abdicate our responsibility and participation in this world into the hands of other people. And I can see the effects of this. Particularly, I'll just give an example of the war on poverty. There's a lot of people who are saying, oh yeah, the reason why I don't have a lot of money is somebody else's problem that's out there. And yet, what is the effort that is done? We have people who are trying to engage in the war on poverty, and yet the places where we are spending the most money to try to end homelessness or the places that actually have the most homelessness that is abounding there. And where we lived recently in Washington State, it was a common sight to see young healthy men begging for money in front of businesses that had help wanted signs in front of them. And so I, wanting to get to know the community, trying to make a difference, I'd ask these young men who seemed to be of able body, The sign is looking for work right now. If you need money, and they need somebody to give money to, why not get a job there? And the answer was always some version of, oh, it's a corrupt system, and the man is trying to hold me down. It's like, OK. If you think it's so easy to make a business and that you know a way to do it that's not corrupt, then why don't you step up and make a good business so people don't have to go to these corrupt institutions over here? But instead, what would they do? They would get politicians to come and fix their problems so that they didn't have to do the work while this whole time. What are the politicians doing? They are forking so much of the money into their own pockets of this idea of one for you, one for me, one for you, one for me, while you get certain people who are leading these organizations are getting richer, while we see more people getting poorer on the streets. And so, okay, I'm getting a little out there at the moment, but bear with me, but I'm trying to show that the kinds of problems that we are frustrated with today really are coming down to a spiritual issue. The problem, one of the many big problems, but one of the fundamental problems, is people being used by the lie that It's somebody else's problem and they need to fix it. I have no responsibility in the matter. I'm just gonna do my own thing over here. If that's the idea that we have, then yes, we are going to have a problem when we look at how is my reading the Bible, how is my praying, how is my being strengthened and made to be a mature person supposed to make a difference in this world? Because friends, This Marxist lie that we do not have a responsibility over our brothers and sisters who are around us, this Marxist lie is incompatible with the Bible. Because what do we see? Even in the very beginning of scripture, we see in the very beginning that God created Adam and Eve and called Adam to be responsible for the taking care of this whole world, everything living and moving within it. He and those who belong to Adam are created to rule, not to hide, not to cower, not to let somebody else step up, we, have been created to rule over the world that God has made. And we see this thinking being brought forward even into the New Testament. In 1 Corinthians 6, verses two and three says, or do you not know that the saints will judge the world and the world is to be judged by you? Are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more than matters pertaining to this life? And so we see that we are called to be judges. You know, what is this idea? It's those who are ruling on behalf of righteousness, showing people the way of truth and holding people accountable to living according to the truth. Now there's an interesting phrase right there, the idea of judging angels. What does that mean that we're supposed to judge angels? I don't have a good answer for you right now on what that one is, but I can say that this is some big noble task that God has for us, that if we someday in the new creation are going to be judging over the angels, whatever that specifically means, The argument that he's making here is that whatever that is, if we're supposed to do that then, then certainly we should be able and active to rule in the context that we are living in right now. Because he says, you know, if we're going to be able to do that in the future, how much more then are we supposed to be judging in matters pertaining to this life? And so if you're someone, you're listening to news, you're watching television, or this or that, you're having conversations with people and you're saying, this world, it's like a train running off the rails. We're going to crazy town right now. What is happening in this world? Won't somebody do something about it? Brother, sister. The ones who God has called to do something about it is you and me. We are the ones who are supposed to be guiding and leading people in the ways of righteousness. Amen? So if we're frustrated and we see that somebody is taking their hands off the steering wheel and now we're steering off course, who's ultimately responsible for that? That's you and I. When the church does not do the work that God calls the church to do, the problems we see in this world are the inevitable results of us trying to pass the responsibility on to someone else, especially when we pass on our God-given responsibilities to those who do not submit to the Word of God. So, So one of the things I want to make clear up front when I talk about this idea that we need to be workers for the Lord. We need to bring changes into this world. I do want to give another principle right up front so you do not misunderstand anything that I'm saying. When I say that we are called to do the work of Christ, it is not because we believe that our salvation depends on how well we can work. Because friends, there is no amount of good that you and I can do to earn our own salvation. Because there is a moment in life in which we do have to say, I can't fix my own problems. Because we are all people who are born into sin. We are all people who are responsible for the evils that we have brought into this world. And the only way that we can find salvation is when we let someone else, Jesus Christ, be the one who heals us and restores us. Because there is only one person that can bring us salvation. That is Jesus Christ, because he is truly God and he is truly man. Meaning, as God, he has the power to bring redemption to us, but as man, he had the ability to stand in our place, to die on the cross and pay for the penalty of our sins. So yes, when it does come to salvation, we must be a people who says someone else is going to have to fix this problem. But the conversation we're going to have now from this point on is, as saved people as a redeemed and restored people we have been saved to do his work we are God's handiwork to do good works for Jesus Christ so what does this good work look like what do we as mature believers what are we meant to do now because when we are matured And we make many mature believers in our communities. There will not be any room for evil to do what it has been doing in the recent years. So, a little bit longer of an intro before we get to the text, but again, I really want to make sure that we're connecting to the dots. What we are talking about, this spiritual warfare, is the warfare that leads to the consequences of all the evil or, Lord willing, the righteousness that is going to take place in the society around us. So coming to the main text we're studying this morning, so Ephesians chapter 4, starting with verse 11, we see that God gives us gifts by which we can be made strong. And he begins by saying, he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherd and teachers. So just pause right now that We could have a long conversation on what each of these roles are, what they mean, what's different between them, but the text does not highlight the distinctions between them, so we're not going to spend a lot of time talking about the distinctions between each of these roles. We want to focus on the main focus of this text here. But I do want to just say, at the moment, so you know a little bit more of what we believe and how we interpret the Bible, We see mention of the roles of the apostles and the prophets. We as a church do not believe that these are roles that continue in the world today because the apostles and the prophets, they were given to the church in the days of the Bible because the Bible had not yet been fully written for us. We did not have all the knowledge of who the Lord is that we needed. And so what do you do in the meantime when you don't have the full counsel of God's Word? So the apostles and the prophets were the ones who were to speak and teach on behalf of God, giving His Word to the people. But nowadays, since we have the full Word of God, which is sufficient, we don't need the roles of the Apostles and the Prophets. The Word has been given, it has already been verified and authenticated through the miraculous works of those Apostles and the Prophets in those days. So, because we don't need more new scripture, we don't need new Apostles and Prophets. And yet, we do see the role of the evangelists and the shepherds slash teachers. And looking there at the Greek, I'd argue that shepherds slash teachers, it's one role, just two different titles given there for it. But this idea of the evangelists and the shepherds slash teachers Their role is not to give us new words from the Lord, but to communicate the word that has already been given to us by the Lord. And so since we are people who continually need to hear the given word of the Lord proclaimed to us, we do still need the evangelists and the shepherds slash teachers. Again, not getting too much in detail of the particular roles, we see that they are given to us as a package here of the principle that God gives us mature, authoritative leaders to bless the church. And we recognize that we still have some of these kinds of leaders today. Again, thinking of the evangelists, the shepherd teachers, We recognize these as being men who have been given a special authority, and we call them, in our language today, we talk about them as elders, or overseers, or pastors, different titles, but these are men who take on a covenantal burden, a responsibility for other members of the church. So again, thinking about the idea of what is the model of what Satan was teaching or the Marxist religion is, give the authority to somebody else. I don't want responsibility. And we see that God, he blesses the church by calling some to take responsibility over others. and by these mature men, qualified by some of the qualifications we see in the Bible, that they are to be a blessing. God gives us people to be a blessing to us. But, okay, if these men are gonna take responsibility for us, does that mean that the rest of us, we don't need the responsibility. We can wash our hands of it, they're gonna take care of the problem, not me. Is that what the passage is teaching? Not so. Verse 12 says, you know, why did God give these authoritative leaders? To equip the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ. So we see that these teachers are given to us to teach with authority so that all of us, as we become mature, are able to teach in what is ordinary. So yes, there are some who teach with authority, but all of us are called to teach in the ordinary, in the ordinary places. And so we see that all of us are called to do the work, all the saints equipped for the work of ministry. But he talks about this as being a part of the body of Christ. And this makes us think of 1 Corinthians chapter 12, where the Apostle Paul talks about the followers of Jesus Christ as being many parts of one body. That some of us are like an eye, some like an ear, some like a hand, some like a foot. But not one of us as an individual has this fullness of the maturity of Christ when we are by ourselves. But each of us with our gifts, when working together, we do become one mature body together. But the church has a variety of gifts. Some, yes, have the authoritative teaching roles of like the shepherds slash teachers, but all of us with our different gifts are vital and must be strong for the well-being of the whole body of Christ. And so maybe you can think of, as we get older in life, and I realize I'm not that old yet, so maybe some of you are a little more familiar with this principle than I am, but as we get older, we start having certain parts of our body don't agree with us the way that we would like. So, I know that at certain times in my life, maybe I'll strain my back. And even though it's just one section of my body, it's not like a vital organ or anything like that, but as long as my back is out, I start acting like a zombie because now I'm all stiff and groaning. It's like... But it's just like one little part of my body, but everything has been affected by it. And maybe you're someone who's had other parts of your body, just a little part of your body, just this tiny little section that, as it's not working, now has brought pain to every other part of your body and what you're doing. It's amazing. With all the things that can go wrong with these bodies, it's amazing and a miracle of God that any of us are alive at all, right? Some of you may, I laugh because you're a little more familiar with that than others, But I think we can all understand this principle that the body is only strong when all parts of the body are strong. So we want to see the building up of all of the saints, not just the shepherd teachers, And we want to see everyone being built up until, what we see in verse 13, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the mature stature of the fullness of Christ. So we see this idea of maturity being described in several different ways, but is this this one big idea here, but we see that as we become mature, each and every single one of us becoming mature in this body, there are several benefits that we gain. And one of those is unity. As we all become mature, we become a more united people. And that's a good thing. Because does anyone actually like fighting? Well, the reality is that we don't like it when people fight with us. But our human nature is one that we do tend to fight with others, right? So thinking about this idea that we like to pass on responsibility to other people. We like to pass on responsibility to other people because when somebody else is responsible, then now I, as a person just sitting back, I can criticize all I want to, right? If I was doing that, I wouldn't do it that way. I would do it this way. Well, if you're not the one who actually has to do it, it's really easy to criticize. And so, if the body of Christ is made up of only a few mature people and everyone else is kind of in this childlike state of our spiritual maturity, then we have a lot of people who are sitting back and criticizing, and not a lot of people who are actually leading. But if you're somebody who, somebody catches you and you say, oh, if you were going to do it, you would do it differently, well then, by all means, friend, come and do it for me. Once you're the person who has a responsibility in leading and guiding, it's not so easy to make criticisms anymore. In fact, we turn around and we say to the other people, like, oh, come on, I'm just one person. Cut me some slack. I'm not Jesus. I'm not perfect. I can't do everything right. And yet, if we're all people who are growing into maturity, then now we're all people who are realizing the burden. that is put onto our shoulders when we become responsible for the people who are around us. And so, as we become more mature, we also become more humble, and we see that there is a unity that is produced within us. Now, is this kind of unity some sort of, you know, as we become mature, we learn to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. You know, it's a good old bootstrap-ism, like, you know, if you're just, if you're a good enough person, then now we won't have any problems. That's not what he's teaching here. That's not the kind of maturity that we are called to, because what comes along with this idea? What is the real source of this faith and this unity? It's the knowledge of the Son of God. As we talked about Jesus Christ, He is the one who saves us. We cannot save ourselves. At the end of the day, He's the one who needs to fix our problems of our sins in the sight of God. And so if we're people who realize that we can only belong to the Lord because of what Jesus Christ has done for us, then We're going to recognize, of course, all of us are flawed. All of us are failed. None of us can do enough good. There is no one righteous. No, not even one. And so if we have that right and true understanding of who the Son of God is and what He's done for us, none of us are going to be bragging of thinking that I've got everything figured out. No, we are all people who together are trusting and leaning upon Jesus Christ and the cross that has brought us salvation. And so this is not, again, some sort of self-helpism of if you're just a good enough person, then all of our problems will go away. No, it is a recognition that is us leaning upon our own strength that has brought us the problems that we have. So if we want unity, a unity of faith, then we must be people who are filled with the knowledge of the Son of God. And so as we are people who are united around the person of Jesus Christ, what is the result? We receive maturity. We become a mature people. Even to the point of that we together as one body can be measured by the stature of the fullness of Christ, which is a perfectly high standard. And yet we can be compared to him when we, all together, taking up our individual roles, are matured as one. And so, again, I'm trying to talk about that this individual act of maturing and then participating in this unified body together, us doing our church thing is supposed to help us in the warfare against the evil that's happening outside the church. All right, pastor, make again for me the connection. I'm a little cloudy on this one. Well, here we see in verse 14 the cause and effect. When all of us are becoming mature, what happens? We want to be mature, verse 14, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. And so we see that we need to become a mature people so that we will not be misled by lies. Because when we are an immature people, we will mistake craftiness for truth. Well, it sounds smart, so it must be real. And yet, there are so many lies that are given to us with clever words, with crafty arguments. That is really a foolishness. And let's just think of some of these examples. Right now, there are deceitful schemes that tell us that boys can be girls and girls can be boys. And if we remove the genitals of children, that is gender affirming. What kind of craziness, upside-down thinking is that? We're in a world right now where we say that killing girls, baby girls while they're still in the womb, is a way to protect women's rights. Insanity, again. This crafty thinking, these weird arguments. We're living in a time where we say, if you want to protect democracy, then you need to give all your freedoms over to the government. Or how about this? Because I've seen this argument this last week. This is kind of touching a little bit on the five police officers that were abusing a man until he died. But this argument that yes, even black men can be white supremacists. Now, I don't wanna, I don't know a lot of what's going on in that particular case with the police officers and that man, so I don't wanna speak too much into it. Whatever evil, wherever evil has done, that needs to be condemned, but just the premise that I've seen here and in other places that, you know. Black people can be white supremacists, or just this idea that if we want to heal racial relations, then what we need is a good healthy dose of segregation. There are so many crazy arguments that are going out into the world right now, where things are being turned upside down on their heads, and are causing evils to be propagated into this world. And yet, we're thinking, how can anyone buy into any of these lies? The reason why these lies are being bought into and why they are being spread around us is because we have people who do not have a foundation of truth. They are not even just spiritual children. They are spiritually corpses. They are dead. They cannot see truth for what it is. And when we do not have eyes to see the truth or to know it, then yes, we will be tossed to and fro by the waves carried about by every wind of doctrine and human cunning. And so even those of us who are Christians, who have been given a spiritual life, if we let ourselves stay as spiritual infants, then we are no better off than those who are spiritually dead, when lies are taught to us. We will believe them, because if we do not know what is true, then we will mistake craftiness for truth. And yet if we all become mature in the word of the Lord, if we know what He has proclaimed, if we are being built up together, then when lies are taught to us, we will know lies for what they are. and they will not have room to grow in our lives, in our families, and if we are all becoming mature, then they will not have room in our own communities. And so this is very important for us to realize that All of us are people who need to know this truth. Every single one of us. Because if I just take the approach that, oh, God gave me a pastor slash teacher, so I don't need, I don't need to know this stuff. My pastor knows this kind of stuff for me. That'd be kind of like saying that you're going to be going off into warfare and someone's going to give you a rifle, but you have no idea how to use that rifle. But you're like, it doesn't matter. My commander, my commander knows how to use the rifle. It's not going to do much good for you when you're the one who's out there in the field. So that means that all of us need to be people who know the sword of the Spirit. All of us need to be people who know the knowledge of the Son of God so that we, as individuals, can stand firm against all the craftiness that is being proclaimed in this world because we have as a goal as a mature people to become what is spoken in verse 15 rather speaking the truth in love we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head into christ so we see as a mature people that All of us are called to the responsibility of speaking truth. Not speaking truth in a way that we are trying to destroy others and tear them down, but to speak truth in love. That we would know what is truth, but then by the speaking of the truth, we would build up people, that we would restore them, that we would help them to become a humbled person who is looking to Jesus Christ in all things. But we, All of us as mature people need to know how to speak truth, not just the pastor slash teachers. and thinking about the responsibility that all of us have in this participation together, it really brings to mind one of the key distinctions between what is different between an adult and a child. There's a lot of different things we can point to, but one of the key things that is different between an adult and a child is that as a newborn infant, we can do absolutely nothing for ourselves. We must depend on somebody else in everything that we do. But as we grow older, As we become more mature, as we enter into adolescence, one of the things that marks adolescence is that we can start doing things for ourselves. I don't need my parents to cut my food for me. I don't need them to brush my teeth for me. As an adolescent, I can do these things for myself. But what if you're somebody who, you even enter into your 30s and your 40s, and you're only taking care of yourself, and you're only thinking about yourself, and you are doing nothing for others? And even if you're in your 30s, your 40s, or however old we're talking about, you're still an adolescent. Even if your body is becoming more mature, you, as a person, are not yet mature. Because how do we mark maturity in others? One of the key things that marks maturity in someone is that as we become adults, we now become responsible for others. Because, like I said, a young child can do nothing for themselves. An adolescent can do things for themselves. But those who are mature are able and active in doing things for others. So we see this as a parent taking care of children. We see this in people. Maybe you don't have kids, but maybe you have a business. and you've got people who work for you that you care for, or customers that you take care of, or just doing things to help the community around you. When we become adults, when we become mature, we take responsibility for those who are around us. And so recognizing here that as we become mature Christians and mature believers, we're not just people who have others who teach us the Word of God. We're not even people who just read the Word of God for ourselves, but that we are able to take the Word of God and now speak the truth of God to those who are around us, so that we would grow up into every way into Him who is the head, that is Jesus Christ. And so thinking about this idea of maturity is when we now build up and bless other people around us. Think about the implications of this. If you become a mature person and in your maturity you are leading other people in your homes or in your other places where you go. If every single one of us who is a member of this church was able to disciple and mature two other people over the course of our lifetime. And let's just say two people at a bare minimum, and every Christian everywhere in the world did this over the course of our life, only matured two other people in our lives, it would not take long for every person in this world to become a mature believer. Because that's just the way the math works. And if everyone everywhere is a mature believer, then how many people are going to be pushed to and fro by the deceptive teachings of this world? There will be no room for it anymore. And so I hope you start to see why the spiritual warfare that we are training each other for is the thing that we need to be fighting in if we want to make a difference in the kinds of problems that we see spoken about in the news that is around us. So Paul, he goes on and he keeps speaking about this responsibility that we share together. And he talks about, he says in verse 16, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every join with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. So not just in this verse, but in other places, but we see this emphasis of every single one of us. He says the whole body, every joint, each part. I hope it's clear to you that if we want to change this world, All of us need to be participants. All of us must be made a mature person. So you kind of see I'm hitting the same theme over and over again. Part of that is because, you know, if we hear something once, it's not going to sink in. Another part of it is Paul seems to be hitting the same theme over and over here, but we need together Figuring out our individual gifts, our individual roles in this greater body, but we need to work together if we want to make a change. And so what are we going to do? What are we going to do? Thinking in practically, what is the action that we are going to do? We are going to have the focus of becoming mature. Just think about it, something tangible. Am I a mature believer? If not, find somebody who is and say, brother, sister, lead me, guide me. Young men, find older men. Young women, find older women. Somebody who's mature and say, lead me, guide me, show me the word of God that I may become mature as well. Because what happens when we are mature? What do we say is different between an adult and a child? Mature people are those who take responsibility for others. And if our responsibility is to teach and train others, then we see this principle that mature people are a multiplying people. And that is what we want. That is the effect that we're going for. We want to be mature so that we can multiply this maturity into the lives of many other people. So that once you've become mature, what do you do? What is a mark of maturity? You are teaching someone else. So find at least two people, and don't try to find too many people, it's overwhelming, but you find a few people that you can know well, that you can share the Word of God with them so that they would become mature. You know, if you've got a family and there are people in your house who are not yet mature, that's where you start. That is our mission field number one, our own homes. But once you have been able to do that, then you look to other people in this church. Do you see people in this gathering, in this room right now, who need somebody to lead them and guide them? That's you. Brother, sister, Older men, take younger men. Older women, take younger women. Raise them up in the ways of the Lord. And once we get to a place where everyone is mature here, let's start looking to those who are outside this community because they have been living in darkness. And right now, they think lies are truth because they see cleverness as truth. We do not want that deception to go on any further. And so this is the practical. The earthly battle that we're fighting is actually a spiritual battle. So we will read our Bibles and we will pray as we grow. But we are not going to do this as individuals. We are going to grow together. Like I said, if you are not mature, find someone who is. And when you are mature, find someone to lead. But there's also going to be this transition point where you're kind of between that maturity and immaturity, and there's going to be a little bit of time where you're going to need to lead in order to become a fully mature person, because that's one of the marks. You know, we often say the people who learn the most are teachers. So teach under the guidance of someone else who already is a mature person. So this is the practice. We're laying out here practical steps. We are going to read the Bible, and we're going to pray. Before we read the Bible, we're going to pray about what we have read in the Bible. And once you have done that, Now find somebody that you can share what you've read and what you've prayed about. Someone that you can share these things with. If you have a house with people, start in your house. If you've got people who are in your house, all healthy, mature, you find someone outside your house. And if you've got somebody in your life who you are trying to mature and you see them on a daily basis, then you do this a little bit each day. Because if you try to make it a great big ordeal every single day, then you're gonna get tired, you're gonna get exhausted, and you're gonna stop doing it. But if you see this person every day, you have a blessing. little bit each day, we're going to encourage one another. If you don't have people in your house that you can mature like this, or people that you see on a daily basis, then find people that you know and you love. You can get together with them on a weekly basis. And if you see them once a week for this purpose, spend a little bit more time. But what are we going to do? We're going to talk about what we've read in our Bibles, and we're going to pray about what we've read and ask each other, how can we be lifting up each other's burdens? Because if this is a rhythm of our lives, if we are sharing this, engaging in this spiritual battle with each other, it will multiply because a mature people are a multiplying people. When the sin that is within us is put to death by the cross of Jesus Christ, when these temptations are held back as we are growing in his word and being held accountable by each other, then these schemes will have no power over us. And when we bless the people who are living in darkness and as they are being shared the light of the ways of Jesus Christ, then these lives will have no power in the community as well. So this is, again, practical steps. Read the Bible, pray, and share with someone else. And we've got some ways that we're creating opportunities by which you can share the Word of God with others. I know like right now with With the men's Bible study that we do on Wednesday evenings, we are talking very specifically about building up these kinds of relationships. And I know the women have a couple of different Bible studies where you're able to read and pray and build one another up. But if you don't have something, we've got opportunities available for you. Do not neglect them. Find somebody, even if it's not in this church, just find somebody anywhere that knows the Word of the Lord and is willing to share it with you. Because when we engage in that spiritual warfare, we will not lose because this is not the nature of Jesus Christ to lose. He is the victorious one. Let's bring that victory into every place of our lives. And I'll just say this, recognizing, right now it feels like we're on the losing side of a battle. We're not losing, because Christ doesn't lose. It feels like that, but let's look back at church history. The Western cultures that we live in were once pagan nations. What brought these pagan lives to their knees? It was the simple multiplication of believers. Few at a time, disciples making disciples. That's how the Western nations have been changed. And right now we see this power, this power of the gospel making inroads and victories into other places in this world. The method we're talking about right now, we can see, look at the scoreboard. When we follow these principles, it has been victorious every time and it is victorious in other places of this world right now. Why does it feel like we're losing? Because we're not following these principles as a church. We stopped following them and we waited to say, let's let the paid people who work for the church do things for me. That is insufficient. But we can win and we will win the spiritual battle, which means we will win the physical battle around us. How and why? By following the principles that have been clearly laid out for us in God's word. So don't be afraid. Don't be discouraged. We are more than conquerors. Let us follow the ways of the Lord and see the way it brings victory all around us. Let's pray. So Father, you are faithful even when we are not. You are effective even when we are not. But we pray right now, as we ask for you to do miracles on behalf of us, that you start by doing those miracles within us. Because we are a people born dead into our sins. So thank you for the grace that has come through the cross of Jesus Christ. But even when we come into a living faith, do not stop those miracles within us, but continue to put the sins within us to death, that we may grow more into your likeness and into your maturity, but that it would not stop within us, that it would multiply and spread because we are so wearied by the way that evil is spreading around us. Do not let it have its way much longer. So do your miracle within us so that we may proclaim your miracles to others. Lord, we desperately need this soon. So we pray, come Lord Jesus, come, asking this in his name, amen.