Good morning. What a delight to be with you today to join you in meaningful Christ-honored worship. Thank you for the time to share with you today, to join you in honoring Christ our Savior this morning in music and worship. Sandy and I had a great trip up from Ankeny today. We had a good trip driving here safely and are glad to be here, delighted to be part of your dedication Sunday. It's a good thing to do to put a pile of rocks and say we remember what happened here. It's a good thing, life kind of runs together, good thing to dedicate this time to the Lord. You can pray for Sandy, not because she lives with me, though that's probably a good thing to do. She's the Dean of Women of Faith in her fourth year mentoring young ladies, and God wired her for this ever since she was a mother that loved training children, so now God gave her 140-some college-age women to invest in, to train, to mentor, and she does a great job, by the grace of God, and lives are changed. Kids are saved, and lives are changed by her mentors. We pray that God would bless her ministry. We're a fellowship of 94 churches since we started six and a half years ago. 42 of them have called a new senior pastor. And so I get to work with many of them to walk them through the roadmap of calling a pastor, try to do an assessment of the church's past and history and future. And I enjoy doing that and I think it makes a difference in our churches. And we currently have 14 churches looking for pastors. As of June we had eight, now we have 14. So four in the month of September. So I get an opportunity to work with pulpit committees and with deacon chairmen and a couple other churches that are struggling through difficult times. And so just pray for me as I work with them. God has opened a great door of ministry to help them walk through these meaningful transitions and ministry with other mission agencies to help them do that. So please pray for me as we work through these time with our churches. Take your Bibles with me to the book of Ephesians. Our text today will be Ephesians chapter four, verses one through 16. And we're gonna honor God by reading his word this morning and let his word speak to us and meditate as God speaks to us this morning through his word. We're to give heed to the public reading of scripture, so we'll do that this morning, beginning in Ephesians chapter four, verse one. Paul says, I therefore a prisoner for the Lord or in the Lord urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called with all humility and gentleness with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all. who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore it says, when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men. And saying he ascended, what does it mean but that he also had descended into the lower regions of the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens. He might fill all things. And he gave, he gave some to be apostles and prophets and evangelists and the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for the building up of 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 ways and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way unto 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, according to each part working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this time to be together as a church family, to worship together, to honor Christ, to dedicate these leaders, and now to look into your Word. Father, we thank you for the Word of God. We thank you for the Spirit of God who gives us, who illuminates our heart, gives us understanding, convicts us of our sin, and show us how we can apply these things to life. So Father, we pray that we would be good students of the word with open hearts, receptive hearts, to receive the word with meekness, that it might deliver us and equip us. Father, we commit this time to you, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. I love your big pulpit, by the way. All this is spread on all my notes. I love your earpiece. It actually fits, I don't think I have a normal ear, but it fits a normal ear. This is really amazing. Put it on, don't have to tweak anything. Thank you for that. Simple things in life are a blessing, right? We love your pastors, by the way. You have good pastors. And you know that, right? You encourage them and pray for them in tangible, material ways and let them know how, but this has been a tough year as a church family. I mean, between the COVID and the social unrest and the election, all that woven together and everyone with only, it's just been a tough, tough year with fatigue and frustration, but God is still working in our midst. God is still on the throne working in spite of this, maybe even in and through it. And so we just thank God for the churches in our fellowship averaging 50 to 75% of pre-COVID numbers. So just encourage you, that's what we see across the board. And I wanna encourage you today in the word as we think about dedicating to leaders. And I know you're working through with Baptist Church planters, with revitalization ministers, and I'm grateful that you're doing that. I want to encourage you today along those lines about a thriving church, what does God expect of me? I want to answer the question through the text. It's kind of the central, meaningful text in a church. The body is growing, it's causing it to grow. We need to understand all of that dynamic. It's God who saves people, but by what means? Well, he uses his spirit and his word and he uses his people to bring people the gospel. Christ promised to build his church in Matthew 16. He said, I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And then he gave Peter the keys of the kingdom. So by what means? Well, he'll build it by his word, his spirit, and by his people, redeemed people with that message in jars of clay. He will save people, add them to the body, grow them so they can do the same with other people. He will build his church and is still building his church till he comes again, amen? And you want him to keep building this church. In our text, it's Christ who makes the body grow. When something says this makes the body grow, I wanna know what that means. If you look at the end of our text today, something makes the body grow. I would want to know, because I wanna be a part of what makes the body grow. It is Christ who makes the body grow. It says, from whom? the whole body grows, so he is the life source of the church, he's the one that builds his church, he saves people, he makes the body grow, but by what means will he do that? We learn that it's by his spirit, by his word, and by his people. To what degree will he do that? We'll learn that according to the effective working of every part is the capacity for church rests in each one of us, according to the degree to which we work for him. Wow. The focus here is not merely on the body, but each and every one of us as members of his family, members of his body, part of the building. It matters how we invest in this church. God's gonna use that to build a church. So how much do you want your church to grow? What are you willing to do to make that happen? Do we understand what God expects of us, an imperative that we do? You may have a half sheet of paper in your bulletin for sermon notes front and back. You're welcome to follow along in that, fill in a few words here and there. But in a nutshell, this is my sticky note message. We have to work together. We have to walk worthy of our calling and wait upon Him to do the work. We're gonna walk worthy, work together, and wait upon Him. That's the message. The rest is details, so please don't go asleep. But that's where we're going. That's the journey we're taking. We're gonna walk worthy of our calling. We're gonna work together and wait upon Him to build a church. That's what God expects from me. Let's flesh that out. First of all, God wants us to walk worthy of our calling. Now Paul identifies himself in chapter four, verse one, as a prisoner for the Lord. He did that also at the start of chapter three. What's he mean by that? He says, for this reason I, Paul, chapter three, verse one, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles. He was a prisoner because Christ made him one. His sovereign grace made him a prisoner. That's why he was in prison in one of the prison epistles. But it was on behalf of the Gentiles, it's his military preaching to them that got him in trouble in the first place. And I think it also means for their benefit, on behalf of them, for their benefit, for their help, he was in prison. A prisoner on behalf of Christ, on behalf of the Gentiles, for the Gentiles. Now chapter four, verse one, he says it again, therefore a prisoner for the Lord or in the Lord, And what he means here, in means within the sphere, like being within this room. It means because of a connection to Christ, he was in prison for no other reason. He had not committed any crime. He was there because of being identified with Christ. That will get you in trouble sometimes, being identified with him. His crime was preaching Christ. He was there because of his identification as a Christian. He was also there on behalf of Christ to serve him there. Paul in Philippians chapter one spoke about his imprisonment was for Christ. And even there in his lockdown, the gospel was even advanced. Isn't that amazing? And he occurs then that what happened to me and this stuff just happened to us this year, just came out of nowhere and just happened. God knew it but it happened. He said in this happening, the gospel has actually been advanced. Even to the household of Caesar, there were now believers there that got saved, chained to Paul, change of the guard every four hours, now who's the prisoner? Okay, and so people get saved, they go to Caesar's household. So Paul was a prisoner because of his connection with Christ, and on behalf of Christ, we serve him where he sends us. This is not to serve sympathy, but to give perspective on being a prisoner. Paul also pleads with them, he says, I urge you, it means I beg of you please. Now Paul could have commanded them with apostolic authority, but he didn't do that here. As a fellow brother, a fellow believer, he pleads with them to urge them that they would walk and they would work together. Now why would he do that? Well I think because it's important. And he may get some pushback from this. The old nature wants none of what we're gonna talk about today. Walking in humility and gentleness and serving, the old nature pushes back against that. So when we are doing what God wants, we're gonna get pushback from the old nature. He pleads with them because it's important and he may be expecting some resistance. And also just note that this whole letter is very personal. It's talking about the body and Christ as the head but individually members of it. There's phrases like each one has a gift. The phrase mature man speaks of an individual believer becoming mature in Christ. It'll later talk about the working of every single part, each and every one of us. So the focus here is not merely the body collected, but each one of us as members of it. So this is where you do take this personally, in a good way. This is for you and I together, individually, that God wants me to walk and to work and to wait upon him. Now with that in mind, let's talk about what it means to walk worthy of our calling. Letter A, our walk is the manner of our life. The word walk is a metaphor, an analogy about living life. It's the word peripeteo, but peri means perimeter. It means to walk around. And so the manner of our life means to conduct ourself, to order our behavior, Kenneth, we said that, or to live your life everywhere you go. It's not compartmentalizing how we live here, how we live here. A walk means it's everywhere we go, we live this way. We speak of it as integrity and consistency. It's being different than the world, reflects who we are in Christ, and it's consistent and the same and not different. We don't have a church face and a home face. I was talking with a pastor friend of mine who one of their deacons and wife recently divorced. He was instrumental in him coming to the church years ago, and there were troubles, but over, I said, what happened? He said, well, there's conflict and divisiveness, but he said, you know, the husband had a church face and he had a home face, and I caught up with him. That's a struggle, isn't it, to be consistent? I battled with that last night. I needed to make it right with my wife this morning. Responding inappropriately, responding with abruptness and curtness. A walk is how we live everywhere we go. And it's amazing, our kids notice when we don't. And the unsaved notice when we don't. They say, oh, you professed to be this, and this is how you live here. And so it's imperative that we, this is the manner of our life. It is essential, it is an imperative, You know, God has provided all that we need to do that, so God expects it from us. And that's the focus of chapters four to six, is our walk, is the manner of our life. Letter B, our walk is motivated, motivated by all that we have, we are in Christ. The motivation is who we are in Him, and the blessings that we have in Him. And chapter, the therefore here, I therefore, of course, always looking back to chapters one to three. Those chapters have no commands in them. except to remember the life before they came to Christ and not be weary in looking at Paul's imprisonment, but no command, just a constant flow of all that we have and are in Christ. And so Paul means in light of these things, and he prays in chapter three, verse 17, that they would have strength to comprehend, to fully grasp the depth and the breadth of all that we have in him. There are no limits to that. He talks about depth and the breadth and the length and the height to know the Christ. We can't begin to fathom the what we have in him. We try to comprehend it. That'll affect how we walk. We're motivated by that. He speaks of our identity in Christ back in chapter one. He says we are in him. Today I'm in Waterloo. We live in agony, but I am in Christ. My identity is wrapped up in Him. We have blessings in Him. Look at chapter one. Chapter, verse three, we have blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places. Look at verse six. He's blessed us in the beloved. Christ is, we're blessed in our identity, our blessings, and motivated by the purpose of God in saving me. Why did he do that? Many reasons enter in, but look at Ephesians 2, verse 10. They happen to follow Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. And those are good verses to talk about salvation and all of that. But there's a for here. He saved us for this purpose. The word for in verse 10 is because he saved us by his grace because we're his workmanship. We're his poema, like masterpiece, like Handel's Messiah written on human hearts. You and I are his masterpiece, whose workmanship, the work of God, created in Christ for good works. Would God prepare that we should walk in us? He mentions walking and working as the purpose of God in saving us. So motivated by the identity and blessings, the purpose of God that we have in Christ. Let us see, our walk must measure up to our calling. So it's not just walking anyway, but a walk must measure up. So he says, walk in a manner worthy of your calling. Now Paul uses walk frequently as a metaphor in the book of Ephesians. Chapter two, verse one, how we once walked. I remember how I once walked. We're saved at the age of 28, 26. I remember well, 28 years of not walking with him. How I once walked. Chapter two, verse 10, walking in good works. Chapter four, verse 17, we no longer walk. as Gentiles walk, chapter five, verse one, we walk in love, then we walk as children of light, we walk carefully or wisely, and we're filled with the Spirit, we walk in the Spirit, so we are to walk and measure up to that. Here in chapter four, he talks about walking in a manner worthy of our calling. It's the first time Paul's just getting started about walking. He begins with the all and can walk in a manner worthy of calling here a vocation, not your occupation, but your summons. When you came to Christ, he summoned you. He went after you. He apprehended you, Paul said, that I might apprehend Paul. He says he chased you down and tackled you. Unlike the Vikings, they haven't learned how to tackle in 50 years of playing football. I had to say that. They just learned to tackle. He summoned us. We responded by his grace and faith and so we walk in a manner worthy of our summons to be his. Kenneth Weiss said the Christian life should measure up to our standing in grace. Those summoned to be saints should see to it that they live saintly lives. It should measure up to our calling. Letter D, our walk is manifested for all to see. And he goes on here about walking and he says, oh, verse two, then he has to begin meddling in verse two. Now Paul lays out theological principles like walking, we go, amen, I get it, and he says, I'm just getting started, this is the principle, let's talk about what it looks like in practice. We tend to fail there from getting the principle and failing in practice, so he gives that, what does that look like in everyday life? What's a worthy walk look? That's a good question. They want to leave us with the principle, but gives us the practical, later again in chapter four, about putting off and putting on. And we go, yes, get rid of this, get rid of that, take off these clothes, put these clothes on spiritually, I got it. He said, by the way, quit your lying and tell the truth. Quit stealing and get a job. Quit tearing people down and lift them up. And so Paul shows how this is manifested by four qualities. They're not all encompassing, but they're pretty similar. One is humility or lowliness, is the first manifestation of this. Lowliness or humility, and he says by all humility, with all possible humility, every kind of humility. It's having a true estimate of ourselves which is small instead of big. Paul spoke later in Romans chapter 12 about not thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, but to think rightly. That was an insult in Paul's day, a sign of weakness to think of yourself not as a great person, but lowliness or humility is a manifestation. Gentleness or meekness Kenneth Weiss said, a temper of spirit, which we accept God's dealing with us as good, and therefore without disputing or arguing with him. Dean Taylor said, exercising conscious restraint, or strength under control. We could, but we don't. We could, but we don't. Every church has strong personalities, people that are movers and shakers, people that are getter done people, confident, competent people, and we sometimes have to exercise some restraint with that. Don't dominate every Bible study. Maybe let someone else have a say in a deacon's meeting. We could, but we don't. We exercise restraint. Long-suffering here, or patience, means to bear up long under something. Some say, Lord, when is this ever going to end? And fill in the blank. My financial difficulty, my relationship with my boss, it's been so long, but we bear up long under that by the grace of God. He says, a temper of spirit This expresses patience with people, not circumstances. It just isn't the stuff, it's the people that irritate us, get under our skin. And it seems that that never ends. When will they stop? Maybe never. I can't be sure of that. This is long-suffering patience with people, experiencing personal injury or hurt by others, you will be offended, you will be disappointed and be hurt, sometimes badly, by people that you love and people that lead you. You'll be hurt by them. Dean Taylor said, disagreements will strain the closest of ties, especially when we're under pressure already. One commentator said, this is not easily provoked or being short-tempered, or we blaze up in anger, but under great siege of trials, we bear up and do not lose courage. We bear long under this. Another manifestation is bearing with one another in love. In the end means within the sphere of love, we lovingly accept those that are different than me. Produced in the heart by the yielded believer, the kind of love of Calvary, they were patient with each other as misunderstandings arise, that cutting words are said, as unkind actions are done. The love of Calvary was a forgiving one, and ours should be too, is what Kenneth Weiss said. The loving acceptance of people that really get under our skin. Of course, you never do that, right? It's just the other guy. And what's going on in the culture can just explode that. And they all have a lot in common. There's a lot of overlap here. It's how we treat each other. It's not really what we say, it's how we treat each other. And I've worked with so many churches that have not learned how to treat each other well. Through the life and ebb and flow of a church, they don't treat each other well, and missing lowliness and gentleness and longsuffering, and that's what a worthy walk looks like, it's manifested. Letter E, this walk matures in Christ, it matures in him. Paul says things like in chapter four, verse 18, until we all attain mature manhood. They would grow up into him, even to Christ, he says in verse 15. So this isn't a perfect maturity, it's a growing process, making progress in our life. John Newton, who wrote Amazing Grace, he was the drunken sailor who prayed for by his grandmother, who got stuck with a harpoon and came to Christ and wrote amazing hymns like Amazing Grace. He said, I am not what I ought to be, but I'm not what I used to be. There's progress, so don't be frustrated that there's not about perfection. It's about making progress in my Christian life and I'm more mature than I was a year ago. I'm more humble, more gentle, more accepting than I was six months ago. This is a walk that matures in Christ. And it's about a person that we grow up into him. He becomes the measure of my maturity, not my friend. He becomes the focus. I grow up into him, not other people. He always becomes the measure and the focus of my journey. I want to be like him and have all the qualities he possesses that are humanly possible. I want to resemble him. People say, I see Christ in you. He becomes the measure of that, the fullness, the fullness of Christ is my goal. And this maturity has several aspects here. One is the unity of the faith, he says. We learn how to get along. Immaturity doesn't get along. Little siblings learn how to fight pretty young in their age. Immature churches are always fighting. But church should learn how to have unity in their faith. A knowledge of the Son of God, he says here in verse 13. And this is an experiential knowledge of walking with Christ, not just facts about him, but experiential, full, the word epigenosco, full knowledge, full, precise, correct, experiential knowledge of Christ like you have after 40-some years of marriage. I thank God for 43-plus years of marriage. I thank God for that. God has blessed us abundantly. He saved us, put us in ministry, given us kids and grandkids. God has been so good to us. I'd hope that we know each other better than we did when we were married. We know each other enough to be married, but we have experienced so much together. It's experiential type of knowledge. We've walked through the ebb and flow of life. We're to know Christ in that way. Doctrinal discernment is another area of maturity that we'd be no longer children, tossed to and fro. It's a nautical term for being mentally agitated. Carried about means be driven around in circles like chasing your tail. By every wind of doctrine, what we have discernment is maturity. And then we speak the truth in love. I think there's an evidence of maturity of not only what we say, but how we speak with one another. Mature people know how to speak with one another. When to say it, what to say it, when not to say it, how to say it. Not just what you say, it's when, how, and why. And so we learn how to speak the truth within the realm conditioned by love. This walk matures in Christ. So we need to walk in a manner worthy of our calling. God expects that of us. Number two, God wants us to work together. He wants to work and work together as a body of believers that God has called. You know, God puts you here by his divine appointment. You're not here by accident. Do you believe that? Everything in life is by his sovereign appointment. He puts you here, put you in this local church at this time in history, and we are to work and work together. It's the body of Christ and individual members of us who are here to work together. And four kinds of working I mentioned here, let's look at them. Letter A, we have to work at maintaining, work at maintaining the unity of the Spirit. You see, where's the word work? It's the word eager in verse four, three. Eager to maintain, the word eager means to really work hard at. Let me back up a second. Do you know that you are one already? A unity exists here, whether you get along or not. Did you know that? Jesus said you're part of the same body. You go back to chapter two. We're members of the same body. He made himself one new man out of two Gentiles and Jews. He reconciled us both to God in one body. You are one body in Him. God created that unity in the Spirit that binds us together. He created it. We're to work hard at maintaining it. The word eager means to endeavor or do your best. It speaks of exertion, a determined effort to work really hard at something. and work hard to maintain. The word maintain means to guard by exercising watchful care. Like a guy does with his favorite firearm. I started hunting with my dad at the age of 12. He gave me my A-70 Remington. I still have this. They shot a lot of birds with that gun. If you don't clean it, The barrel, he showed me corroded barrels on the inside. Ever seen a pitted barrel? Now modern powder doesn't do that as much, but he showed me what happens if you don't clean your gun. So I cleaned my gun every time I shot it, I cleaned it, and the barrel is shiny to this day. It'll blind you if you look through it into a light. I never forgot the image of a pitted barrel, unusable. I oiled it, it still has the original bluing on it. Even the original stock clear lacquer on it is still the same because I maintain it. I came to be in perfect condition. And it's as clean as a whistle after being thrown on the ground, fallen in the water, been rained on, snowed on. I shot thousands of shells through that thing. Because we know how to do this is to work really hard at guarding carefully having watchful care or maintaining our unity. It can be lost like that. So how hard are you working at maintaining unity? Are you guarding carefully, watching over so nothing separates what God has joined together? Sounds like a marriage, doesn't it? But aren't we like a marriage? I speak of Christ and the church that God brought us together. Let nothing separate what God joined together. Don't let anything separate One day you might want pew chairs. They're really comfortable. These aren't bad. Could you navigate that? Most churches have. Some haven't. Heard about the carpet stories that you've heard of and they split the church over things like that. Do you work really hard at maintaining unity. Letter B, doing the work of the ministry, the second type of work, and this is pretty clear, it's kind of the focus of the passage, is doing the work of the ministry. You find that down later in verse 12, to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. You know, we should not be surprised that God called us to walk and God called us to work because we already read that that's his purpose for us, to walk in our good works. A believer works for him. We worship Christ, we walk with him, and we work for him. He calls the laborers and workers to work for him, doing the work of the ministry. Now, God has made every provision for us. You see, didn't you notice? God has made every provision for us to work for him. He called us and he equips us. Two things, he has given gifts to us. Look in the text here. After we talk about what we have in common, one faith, one Lord, one spirit, the unity that he's made that we're to maintain, he said in verse seven, but grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gifts and he gave gifts to men. Christ has given gifts to us to divinely enable us to serve him. You can't do that without his power and divine enablement. You'll find out quick that you will fail. And you'll be surprised when you see that it happens. We were out on pulpit supply when I was, before I was a pastor, I went out for this college at Faith, and we drove to a little town called Whatcher, Iowa. In the snow, we got there, and they were glad to have their preacher there for the morning. I had one sermon. I'd written for Dr. D'Amico's class. And I preached it, and so it was an evangelistic sermon on John chapter 15, John chapter 10, I'm the good shepherd, gave his life for the sheep, and I preached it, and you're so nervous because you've not done much of this. And so I preached, and mentally I survived the message. No glaring messes, and no missing points, and got to the end. Had a conversation with myself, what comes next? Oh, the invitation, I didn't say that publicly. He said, oh, if anyone wants to come to Christ, just walk forward, I'd love to talk with you. I thought, phew, almost done. Right over here, mom and her teenage daughter got up and started walking to the front, and I thought, I wonder what they want. And she said, I wonder what they want. They stood over here, I said, what would you like? And they said, I want to get saved. I said, you do? and the mom led her to Christ that day. That was of the Lord. It was divine enablement to empower us to serve him and that will surprise you and be an amazing thing when you see. This is his divine enablement. Gifts given to each one of us. Every one of us is gifted to serve him. Just begin serving and find out what it is. Paul said, no one can say I have no need of you, no one can say that you have no need of me. We need each other, everyone using his gift. According to the measure of Christ's gift, sovereignly bestowed by our risen Savior and head of the church, unmerited, they differ in kind and amount with no envy or pride. We just get to work and serve because God has gifted us to serve him. Secondly, he's given shepherds to us. He gave some. He set apart some to be apostles, evangelists, and shepherd teachers, is one person, is a hyphenated word. He gave shepherds to the church to help us with ministry. He gave some and made some to be overseers. He set them apart for gospel ministry. You have two wonderful pastors and wives that God gave to the church and gave to this church for such a time as this, and you recognize that and called them. That's what you did. You saw God's hand in them, that he gave them to the church and gave them to this church, and they're God's gift to you. The men here are the gifts. God has gifted you with gifts and with shepherds. And they're here by divine appointment, and they know that. They rest in God's call to the ministry and to this church. They know that God put them here sovereignly by his divine appointment. It's humbling. and encouraging at the same time, isn't it? Gives us confidence that God put them here. So he gave them to the church, to preach, to be an example, to do the work of an evangelist, to oversee the ministries, here to shepherd and to teach. We know what teaching is, means to instruct, but the shepherding is the word pastor, means all that goes into caring for the sheep. to feed them, to care for them, to protect them, to nurture them, to comfort them, to console them, to lead them all in the shepherd, they understand shepherding is how he gave them to the church. You ought to thank God for your pastors. And love them. And take care of them. And encourage them. And follow them. and let them lead you, because God gave them to be your shepherd. So listen to them when they teach, follow them when they lead. They understand congregational church government, we understand the dynamics of that, but let them lead and follow them. But for what purpose did he give them? To be our caretakers, merely? He said four, oh the four means this is a four for the purpose of what? Equipping you to do the work of the ministry. That's why he gave shepherds to you to care for the flock so you could produce the wool and make more sheep. Sandy has learned, she's a great teacher, and learned how to give illustrations. She said it's just like a shepherd and sheep. The shepherd doesn't produce wool. Think about it. He doesn't make more sheep. He cares for them so that they do that. He's a sheep himself, he has his own duty there, but as a shepherd, he cares for the flock and feeds them and waters them and nurtures them, protects them, breaks their legs, they don't travel outside the protection of the sheepfold so that they will produce wool and produce more sheep. He is providing for them so they can do the work of being a sheep. That make sense? Now he's one of the sheep too, so he has to produce some wool and produce some more sheep, but as a shepherd, he gives them for the purpose of equipping you to do the work, and I love when people get that. You didn't call him to fill these pews with people. You called him to equip you to fill the pews with people by the grace of God as you bring the gospel to people that God put in your world. And I love when people get that. It's a transforming moment to say, I'm supposed to do the work, he's supposed to equip me to do it. Exemplify and equip me so I can go do the work and I have work to do. Thank you for equipping me. We can't be spectators or consumers and show up and watch the show and go home. And some churches are overrun with that idea. Come and watch the show and go home. Or say, what's in it for me? I've had enough of that in 28 years of ministry. What's in it for me? Lots of work. And so he gave you gifts and shepherds to help you do the work of the ministry. And we're gonna move along here. See, we need to do the first works. We need to maintain our unity and the work of the ministry and we need to do the first works. Now it's not mentioned here. But this church was founded in about A.D. 52, planted on Paul's second missionary journey. This letter was written in A.D. 62, so 10 years later they got this letter from Paul, and by now they're a functioning, striving, faithful, growing, nurtured church. Probably the most instructed church of all of Paul's churches. They were healthy, mature, reproducing, strong, and vibrant. He says, let's keep going in that direction. And 10 years after it was founded. Then he sent Timothy there to nurture it. He got the best of the best. Timothy shepherded this flock. Aquila and Priscilla spent years there shepherding it. They had every advantage, and they took advantage, and they grew, and they were probably the healthiest church in the New Testament. Everything going for it. Then in AD 96, 32 years later they got another letter from Jesus. And things hadn't gone so well. Because many churches over time are not what they used to be. They drift doctrinally, they decline, there is divisiveness, dysfunctionality, and sometimes they die. Four of our churches have died in six years that we've been doing this. So Revelation are seven letters to seven such churches that were in decline that needed another letter. One of them was Sardis, a notable church that was living off of its name. It's in your notes. Revelation 3, he says, you have a name, a reputation, you're alive, but you're actually dead, living off a former glory, former name. We're such and such Baptist, we're living off of our name, he said, but you're actually about to die. We're members of a church that used to be that way. We're members of Anchor Baptist Church, which used to be Grandview Park Baptist Church. That was a pillar church in our national fellowship. Paul Tassel used to be our pastor. And we grew from 850 down to about 90. And we saw that from the outside while I was pastoring. Many things went into that, and some of them are explained here. And by God's grace, we're turning the corner. We're a happy, healthy, united church, shepherding people, and God's not done with our church yet. But we kind of got that letter. And Ephesus, this church, was a working church that had abandoned its first love and its first works. Abandoned the great commandment to love. and abandoned the Great Commission as a mission. Some along the line, they had left their first love and left their first work. Though they were working, and he commended them for their work, but he rebuked them for abandoning the love that they had at the first in Revelation chapter two. Jesus assures them that he loves them. He says, I walk in the midst of my lampstands. He's here. I hold the stars of passion in my hand with authority, protect them, they're mine, and I hold them. But then he gives them an assessment. It says, you know, you're doing this well, but you've abandoned love that you had at first. And so we need an assessment by the Savior. Some things are well, some things not so well. So he gives assurances, give an assessment. Then he calls them to action. You need to remember from where you fell. See, how did we get here? I help churches walk through that, and they can usually tell me how they did. And then you need to repent. We need a change of heart about maybe many things, about sin, about other stuff, clinging to traditions, losing our focus, becoming content, falling into routine, maybe getting more than giving. We somehow need to have a really hard change of heart and repent, and maybe do some things differently Can Baptists do that? I'm a Baptist, I can change. If I have to, I guess. Talk to someone who'll laugh to know what I'm talking about. They had to repent. Have a change of heart and think about things differently. And he wanted to reclaim them. He said, now remember, repent, and go back in what you did at the first. You've left it there. And the first works are the Great Commission and witnessing outside the walls of our church that God called us to. That's how churches grow, people coming to Christ and growing. And Joe Hayes, my predecessor, said every church that died, people stopped getting saved, which means people stopped witnessing and sharing the hymn. So we need to do the first works and we end up getting this letter. And if we get the letter, there's hope. Because he loves his church. I'm the Alpha and the Omega, I'm alive from the dead. I can breathe new life into you. These things are well, but you have to remember and repent and go back into the first works and I will bless you. He longs to have churches reclaimed. There's hope in him. has the power to breathe new life into churches that have declined, and many of our churches have done that over the last 50-some years. He calls them to pay attention. He said, let them hear what the Spirit says to the church, and you need to listen to him, listen to his assessment, be aware of our decline, and cry out to him to breathe new life into our churches, and go back and do the first works. Letter D, according to the effective working of every part. So go back to our text in Ephesians 4. According to the effective working of each, or each and every part, is doing the work. Work at maintaining unity, do the work of the ministry, we do the first works and we also do the working of every single, each and every part. At the latter part of chapter four, that in our text today, interesting little phrases here, prepositions, held together by, verse 16. That means by means of, God is gonna grow his church by means of each one of us working. We become the means through which he builds his church. And then it says when or according to each part working properly. And Kenneth Weiss said we grow to the degree to which we work for him, each one of us. How much you want your church to grow, how much you're willing to work. It's not really a mystery. I mean, God is a source of life. Jesus is the head of the church, is from whom he pours life into his church, but he works through people that are yielded to him. We are the means by which he works and to the capacity that we will work with him. We can't plug up the filter. Everyone wondered why you didn't get hot air and looked at your furnace filter, you change every month, right? You pull it out and go, huh, that thing is clogged. Now, life, there's nothing wrong with the furnace, but the filter was plugged. is impeding the flow. Every part matters. We haul a camper all around everywhere in the summer and this fall. One little hitch bolt would put the whole monkey wrench in the whole thing. We got a little hitch thing on the back and all the stabilizer bars, that little bolt that goes in. Without that bolt, the whole operation falls apart. That little bolt The key to the camper, if we left that at the house going up the camper, we couldn't get in, we would be stuck. I'm not saying that one of you can shut the church down, but it doesn't take much for it to become not what it should be. Are you doing your part to invest and work hard in this church? That will determine the degree to which the church will grow. The effective working of every single part. Maintaining unity. work of the ministry, doing the first works. Even in a pandemic, people are getting saved. Use a John study. It's just a simple tool. Heard about it today. It's just a tool to get people, and you can do that. and guided me to the scriptures and watched God work. Our daughter, Angela, brought some tomatoes to the neighbors across the street, developed a friendship throughout the summer and brought them tomatoes and it just broke her down and a couple hours later, after a couple of questions, she and her husband both came to Christ a couple of weeks ago. And it didn't happen in church. Neighbors. And you could say, by the grace of God, I could do that. It's up to every one of us. And third, I'll just finish up here. God wants you to wait upon him. Though it matters that we do our part, that each one of us has been gifted, the degree to which God will grow, it depends on us. We wait upon him to do his work through us. We put our trust and our hope and our confidence in him. We pray, we abide, we praise him, because Christ is building his church. He's the one who saved and enabled us. He's the one who's given some to be shepherds. He's the one who's head of the church. He's the one, he's the life source that makes the body grow. So we look to him to work in and through us to give him the praise and the glory that he's willing to do. And I want to finish up with chapter three, verse 20, because after the end of Paul, talking about all the blessings of Christ, he just erupts into this uncontainable praise. In verse 20 of chapter three, we'll finish with, now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we could ask or think according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever, ever, amen. And all God's people said, amen. Let's walk worthy, work together, wait upon him, and watch God amazes at building his church until he comes again. Let's pray. Father, we are humbled today by the power of the word of God. These were written centuries, millennium ago. But because they're your word, they're ever true, ever relevant, and ever powerful. Father, thank you for this good church and these dear people. As they rethink what ministry looks like, as you lead them to repurpose and maybe reclaim something that may have been lost along the way, that takes great humility and great transparency. to see that assessment, have an action plan, and then trust you to pour a new life. Thank you that you're writing a new chapter in the life of this church. There's more yet to come. Pray that you would build it through these dear people, yield it to you, doing their part, walking together, working together, waiting upon you, that you'd amaze them for your glory. In Jesus' name, amen.