Good morning, everyone. So thankful that every one of you is here today to worship together, to grow closer together in Christ. This past Friday, I picked up my three-year-old boy, Rush, from preschool. And part of what they did in class was to make a picture of your family using these little cutout people. little cut out, there was big blue people and big pink people for a mom and a dad and little pink people and little blue people for siblings. And Rush, in my judgment, made a very true to life picture of our family. Here it is. Now, if you were to look carefully, you would see the seven kids scattered about, four boys, three girls. Amy and I are there. There's a lot of upside down and sideways. But over all of this is what? Love. We fall short, there's love. We fall short again, there's love. because he first loved us. It's a very true life to life picture of the Reno family except somehow I'm right side up and Amy's upside down. So if we were to really make it accurate we might invert those two there. But I start with that picture because this morning we're going to be talking a lot about loving in the midst of real life. loving in the midst of real life in our houses, loving in the midst of real life here at church. We're in the second week of a short series where we're looking at some of the essentials for our church, essential ingredients here at Gospel Fellowship. You might call them distinctives or you might call them areas of special emphasis. Last week, Michael talked about the foundation under all of those, which is the Bible itself. When it comes to church decisions around here, what we try to do is to go to the New Testament, go to the Old Testament for principles, and to look for any commands or patterns that God gives his people in the Bible for what the church is supposed to be like. And if we see a command or pattern in the Bible for what the church is supposed to be like, well, here at Gospel Fellowship, we say, hey, let's bumble and stumble toward trying to live that out. So here in the second week, we're gonna focus on how the New Testament church equipped the saints for the work of ministry. It's a huge deal here at Gospel Fellowship, and that's what I'm gonna try to unpack this morning. Open your Bibles to Ephesians chapter four. Open your Bibles to Ephesians chapter four. Paul is writing to the church in the city of Ephesus. Chapter four, a lot of this chapter, God is gonna talk to the church about what the church is supposed to be all about and how each one of us has an important role to play. Ephesians chapter 4, we're going to begin in verse 1. God says through Paul, he says, I therefore a prisoner for the Lord, remember Paul is in prison as he's writing this, I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you've been called. with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, we're going to come back to that, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. So check out that first section. God urges us, all right, this is strong language. God urges us to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you've been called. Well, what's that calling? What do you mean a calling to which I've been called? The Bible says you've been called out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. You've been called to be a child of God. You've been called out of death into life. You've been called to serve him. I remember growing up When I was a little kid, I'd be out playing in the neighborhood every day after school or Saturdays or what it was. And dinner was at five o'clock in our house. And so right around that time, out in the neighborhood, I would hear the call. That would be mom's call. It would sound like this, Robbie. That was her call. I was Robbie back then with an IE, by the way. And I in my mind, you know, you know your parents the tone of your parents voice You know the tone of your parents calling I'd hear the call out there and that was my cue to say guys I gotta go I gotta go home or I Don't know kids if you've ever done this one before You hear the call But you don't heed the call because you don't want to go home. You don't want to stop playing or you don't want to turn the video game off. So you're like, I heard that and I know I'm supposed to go do something now, but I'm going to sit tight right here. And you find that a few times in scripture. One of them is Hebrews chapter three, verse 15. God says, today, if you hear my voice, do not, anybody know it? Do not harden your heart. Like don't pretend you didn't hear me. Don't tune me out. Don't keep sitting there. Time to do something. So God urges us to walk, to live every day in a manner worthy of the calling. Well, what's that mean? In this scripture, God gives us five descriptors of what it means to walk in a manner worthy of the calling. We're going to live. That's what it means to walk, right? Not physically walk. We're going to live with humility. live with gentleness, live with patience, live with bearing with one another, putting up with one another in love. And we're gonna live eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. You'll notice that all five of these things are issues of your heart. This is an action passage, time to live, time to get up and do something. And then God says, it's your heart, it's your heart, it's your heart. He says, I'm not interested in you just going through the motions for me at home or at church. Hey, how you doing today? Oh, good, good, we're doing good. How are you? Oh, good, we're good, that's great. All right, well, see you later then. Okay, bye. Oh, I can't stand that guy. Drives me crazy. Is God pleased with that? Now sometimes we can have quick little interactions. That's fine. I get it. We don't have to pour out our guts every time we talk to somebody. But see, man judges the outward appearance and God judges the heart. So this next chunk of scripture, God's going to emphasize the big picture, the big picture of unity for His family, for His kids. Take a look at this, verse 4. There's one body, 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. So the big picture subject matter here in Ephesians 4 is unity among God's people. But for those of you, I'm not going to put it up on the screen yet, but for those of you that have your Bibles open or on in your lap, what's the next word beginning of verse 7? But, but, in other words, okay, I'm starting with the big picture and the big picture is unity. You're one, you're one, you're one, you're one, you're one. But, so now we're gonna get to Paul's specific point. But, verse seven, it's on the screen, grace was given to each one of you according to the measure of Christ's gift. God shifts the focus now in this passage from we to me. Shifts the focus in this passage from us to you. You are an individual once in a universe creation. God's never created anything like you before. And he's never going to create anything like you again. Once in a universe, that's you. And God has a special purpose for you, just you. A special purpose that he hasn't given to anybody else. And so God says here, there's grace given to each one of us as individuals according to the measure of Christ's gift. There's a parallel here. You might say, it might sound familiar to Romans chapter 12 and first Corinthians chapter 12. Those are the chapters that deal with the body and the many gifts in the body. Romans 12, five. I think I have it up here. Yeah. You are one body in Christ. There it is again. That's the big picture. But you're individually members of one another and you have gifts that differ According to the grace given to us. So let's use them So yeah, we're one big spiritual family, but you and you and you are all different And god calls you and you and you into his service now for some of us We're just not feeling it here you're like, okay I know I'm a part of the body of Christ. And there's different parts of the body. You know, what would be the whole body if everybody was the ear or whatever? I get that. But my part in the body of Christ is the appendix. It really doesn't do anything. Nobody actually even knows what it does or what it's good for. I was talking to Ben Merrill about this yesterday, and he's like, yeah, the only time you ever hear about the appendix is when it gets inflamed and then we kick it out. That's me. That's my job in the church. I'm invisible. I do nothing unless I act up, and then I'm out. I'd like you to do a repeat after me, okay? A little congregational participation. The repeat after me is this. I am not an appendix. Can we say that all together? One, two, three. I am not an appendix. Very good. There's no appendixes in the body of Christ. Although I may be taking the analogy too far. You've got necessary work to do. Now let's go back to Ephesians 4, look at this. Now verses 8 and 9 get into the Christological base for this, which is a separate sermon. Therefore it says, when Jesus ascended on high, he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men. In saying he ascended, what does it mean that he had also descended into the lower regions? In other words, Jesus came to earth. He who descended to the earth is the one who also ascended far above the heavens, that he might fill all things. Translation Jesus is the one who makes all this possible. He really came. He really died. He really rose again from the dead That's the base whole separate sermon for a whole separate day verse 11 and 12 and He gave the Apostles and I'm sorry for the double up there because God wants you to see it twice and he gave the Apostles the prophets the evangelists and the teeth the shepherds and the teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry and for the building up of the body of Christ. This is what we're gonna focus on today. That an essential element of the New Testament church, if you wanna be a New Testament church, you've gotta be a church that equips the saints for the work of ministry. Now, who are the saints? Well, the Bible says that every Christian's called a saint. And again, you may say, Rob, I'm not feeling it. I don't feel very saintly. I feel pretty much the opposite of that. I join you there. God says we're saints, that's the label he gives us, not because we're perfect or sinless, but because we are forgiven. So we could paraphrase this verse to say it this way, that the leaders of the church are to equip everyone in the church, that's the saints, equip everyone in the church for the work of ministry. So, the action plan here, let's apply this passage. It's, you all need to get involved in ministry. That's what the call is. And at this point, I roll out the list of ministries we have here at GFC, along with the open volunteer positions that we have, and I pass the clipboard. And I wax eloquent at how God may be calling you. to fill one of these needed volunteer roles. Now, there isn't anything wrong with that. But a distinctive at GFC is that we approach scriptures like these a little differently. And I think there's been some confusion Over a passage like this in the recent decades in the church because of the word ministry to equip the Saints for the work of ministry ministry The way we use the word today sounds very official sounds very churchy sounds very pastoral sounds like something not everybody is really called to do and As people say, I work at the bank, man, I'm not sure I could ever be in ministry. See, that word for them is somehow, I think the word's sort of been hijacked by the church to mean, what do you do at your church? You understand that? What kind of ministry are you involved in? Well, you've got to fill in that blank with some volunteer role at your church. Well, I serve on the tech team. or I'm a greeter, or I serve on the women's ministry leadership team. Are those examples of ministry? Absolutely, those are examples of ministry. They're so important, they make a big difference, but those things are just the tip of the iceberg of the ministry that God calls his people to do. You know, an iceberg you see only a little bit above the water, and most of it's below the water. We are much more concerned about your ministry for God the 6.5 days of the week you're not here. then we are concerned about your ministry for God the 0.5 days of the week you are here. We spend half a day together here. And there is ministry here. There's necessary ministry. I'm going to talk about that. But our greater concern as leaders is to equip everyone in the church, that would be the saints, everyone in the church, for your work of ministry outside the walls. your work of ministry the other 6.5 days of the week. And if you've been here for any length of time, you know that we have less going on at Gospel Fellowship by way of church programming ministry so that you will have more time and space in your life for your ministry. Let me say that again. We have less going on here at Gospel Fellowship by way of church programming ministry. We do that on purpose so that you have more time in your life for your ministry. I'm going to use a phrase repeatedly here, and I'm going to tell you why, because I'm going to be saying it over and over again. You're like, okay, Rahab, well, if you're not passing a clipboard, then what's my ministry? What is my ministry? I'm going to use this over and over again. You are called to a ministry of love. You are called to a ministry of love. God emphasizes this word over and over and over again here in Ephesians chapter 4. We just saw in verse 2, bear with one another in love. I think I've got these up there. Yeah, you're called to a ministry of love. Bear with one another in love. That's verse 2. If you go down to verse 15, It says, speak the truth in love. That is a very misused passage, by the way. People use that as a verse to talk about how you confront somebody. If you need to confront somebody, be nice about it. That's not, the Bible does teach that. It's just not this verse. This speak the truth means talk about Jesus, talk about the scriptures, talk about your faith. Why? Because you love each other. That's what Christians do. Okay, sermon for another day. All right, and then another, verse 16. It says, when each part's working properly, It makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. At the end of the day, if you're a follower of Jesus Christ, you are called to a ministry of love. Now let me talk to you about what that means. What are you talking about, Rob? A ministry of love, what might that look like? For some of us, it means that we are called to a ministry of love to our parents. Kids, give me your full attention, boys and girls here. The way you honor your parents, the way you obey your parents, when you say, yes, mom, right away, and go do what they ask you to do, or yes, dad, right away, and go do what he asks you to do, that's actually a way you show your love for God. It's actually a way that you minister to your family. And that's not just for kids. I think about Tim Traxinger. I don't know if the Traxingers are here today. My eyes are bad. I don't think that they are. You know, Tim just lost his dad this week. And his father knew the Lord is safely home, but Tim's been out there a lot, caring for his dad, spending time with him, loving him, loving his family, some of whom don't know Jesus. That is ministry. It's ministry for God. Michael was just this week, Pastor Michael was just up in Minnesota this week with his father who's battling cancer and right now in a time that he's really not doing well. So he kinda had to drop everything and go up there to be with them. So I called Michael, he's up in Minneapolis. I didn't even know he left. I said, we got a pastor's meeting, man. Where are you? Get your rear end back here, we got ministry to do. No, actually I didn't. You're like, that's terrible. No, I didn't do that. That's the point. Why didn't I do that? Is Michael neglecting his ministry? No, he's being a minister. You see, that's ministry. It's being a man of love, in this case, for his dad and for his mom. And that ministry, it's more important ministry than any church meeting could ever be. How about your ministry to your, you have a ministry of love to children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews. You're gonna hear this a lot at GFC. But parenting and grandparenting is ministry. Changing diapers, that is ministry for Jesus. Can I get an amen? Amen. Jesus says, whatever you do for the least of these, that would count as a least of these right now. That's ministry, it's service for the kingdom of God. Sleepless nights, praying for a struggling teenager. That'd be ministry. Reading the Bible with your children, doing everything you can to point their hearts to Jesus, dealing with chronic bad behavior and discipleship situations, that's ministry. The way we say it here is that if you're a parent or grandparent, Your great commission, church language now, your great commission, go and make disciples, begins with the souls of the little ones that God's entrusted to your care. And don't make the mistake that I made for the first 10 years of my marriage. Don't make the mistake of putting your ministry to church. before your ministry to your family. First 10 years of marriage, that's exactly what I did. And for those of you that are married, your ministry to your spouse, that's ministry. Your love and service to your husband, your love and service to your wife, that's ministry for God. Like it counts. Part of what I'm trying to do this morning is to break you out of this modern definition of ministry that means volunteering at church. When little babies come into the church, We try as a church to equip those saints for the work of that ministry. So meals start coming to the house. Sometimes we'll send mother's helpers. I don't know why we don't call them father's helpers, because I think in some ways that's really what we need. But mother's helpers to the house. And why do we do that? To strengthen and equip the saints for the work of the ministry. Because that's some tough ministry right there. You got an infant in the house? Got a special needs child in the house? That's front line ministry for Jesus. In your ministry at home, it's a ministry of love. At the end of the day, that's what it is. And it's so easy to love the people at our house, isn't it? Not so much. So we're desperate for God's help. We're desperate for God to change our heart. God, give me a heart of love for these people that I live with, because that's my problem. But it's not just ministry with your family. It's ministry with your church family. You're called to a ministry of love with your church family. And I want to speak to a couple specific ways that we can do that based on the passage from Ephesians. Back in verse two, you remember it said, bear with one another in love. Part of your ministry here is putting up with people. Part of your ministry here is being gracious with people, being accepting, giving the benefit of the doubt, forgiving. God has been trying to get a lesson through my thick head and thick heart for a lot of years. He's been trying to get the lesson through my head and heart, through an experience that happens to me over and over again. I meet another Christian and they don't live up to my expectations. They say things that I don't think they should say. Or they have attitudes that I don't think they should have. Or they have some behavior that frankly shocks me. And then after a little while I find out that that their family's been going through just a terrible time. Whether it's sickness, or loss of a loved one, or a financial struggle, or I find out their dad died when they were a kid, or they were a victim of some abuse, and the list goes on. I'm not making excuses for people's bad behavior. What I'm talking about, what God's convicted me about is my lack of love. in those circumstances. You know, it might be that that person that you have a judgmental attitude toward, it might be that that person has grown more in their Christian life than you have because they started out with 18 strikes against them. You understand that? And if you measure their growth from where they started to where they are now, they've covered more ground than you. And yet how quick we are to judge people. Look at verse two, you remember? Walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you've been called with all humility, gentleness. So not only do we have a ministry to bear with one another in love, but just as it says in verse 15, we've got a ministry to build each other up in love. And here at the church, we get two hours every Sunday with each other around those tables, over there in the gyms, out there on The playground. When you ask someone, how are you doing? And in your heart, you care about the answer. That's ministry. It's a ministry of love. When you ask someone, hey, is there any way I can pray for you this week? And you ask that not because you feel like a Christian's supposed to say that, but because you have a heart of love for the person, and if they do share a prayer request with you, that you will pray for them. That is ministry. There was an article in the news last week that the life expectancy in the United States of America, how long people are expected to live, went down for the first time. It's been going up and up and up because of medical advances. What happened? Well, fewer people are dying of heart attacks, not from heart attacks. Fewer people are dying of cancer, not from cancer. So what happened? Death by despair is on the rise. Death from alcohol, death from drugs, death from people The darkness closing in on them so much that they take their own life. The number of deaths from despair has risen so high now that it has affected the life expectancy number for the country. Just last week, a friend of Amy's and mine, a young lady that we used to have in our youth group, she's in her 30s now, mother of three kids, a wonderful person. Christian young woman if you met her she would be an instant friend and the darkness closed in on her And she spiraled down into that that dark place and she took her life You know guys none of us none of us are immune from dark nights of the soul When those dark thoughts which are lies from the enemy seem to take over and And my dream is that we have the kind of church, and we have the kind of church family, where as soon as you sense yourself taking a step down that spiral, that you'd quickly tell somebody here, you'd quickly tell a friend, you'd quickly tell me. Then the reason that you do that is that you would be so confident that the response you'd get is love. The response you'd get would be mercy and grace and friendship and not judgment. And that people would do something to help. Tell you one of the things I've just seen way, way too often in 25 years of pastoring is that people reach out for help way too late. Hey, I gotta tell you, it's kind of hard to tell you this, but my wife and I are getting divorced. What? You're getting divorced? How long has this been going on? Well, things got bad like three years ago. Three years ago? Why didn't you call me three years ago? This happens over and over again. You're called to a ministry in this church. And your ministry in this church is love. But our ministry for God doesn't stop at our families. It doesn't stop at the door of our church. It overflows. God calls us to have a ministry of love with our neighbors. Something God is really working in my heart right now is reminding me to pray. When I'm about to spend time with a new person, my Lyft driver to the airport, or the lady cutting my hair, or the person sitting next to me on the airplane. God's reminding me to pray, God, give me an opportunity to talk to whoever this person's going to be about Jesus. Open that door. Make it possible. And more often than not, God opens the door. I was talking with my Lyft driver last week on the way to the airport. And God opened the door for spiritual conversation. So he starts sharing his spiritual journey and his family's spiritual journey. He was a non-religious type person. And he said, you know, my family, we really stopped any kind of religious stuff. My mom grew up going to church, but when she was 11, her dad died. And for my mom at that point, she either did not believe God was there or if he was there, he didn't care. And that was it. And that's kind of the last religion we've had in our family. You know, friends, just to encourage you, as you talk to people in your life about Jesus, folks that are far from God, I found, almost always have an experience like that. A wound, a hurt, deep in their life. That something happened in their spirit where they said, if God would allow this to happen to me, or to my brother, or to my friend, then I don't want anything to do with him. In a group this size, maybe there's some of you like that. You're like, man, I'm here at church, but this is all stupid. I can't believe in God because, and you go back to that event that happened in your life. Be a whole conversation for another day, but if that's you, in your pain, don't run from God, run to God. He does love you. He created you specifically and He has a purpose for your life. And friends, this issue of sharing the good news of Jesus with people, it's really a question of love. And I'm preaching to myself here. Do we really care? Like do we really care the guy I work with, the lady cutting my hair, my friend on the basketball team, do I really care that they're separated from God? And they're doomed for eternity. Like, do we really care? Is there love, this is what this sermon's about, in our hearts? And I think if we're honest, a lot of times the answer's what? No, there's not. There are plenty of times, you know, I travel every other weekend, there's plenty of times I'm getting ready to get on the plane, and I just need to get my laptop open and get some stuff done. Or I just need to take a snooze. And then this guy or this gal sitting next to me says, oh, my name's John. What do you do? I'm a pastor. I tell people about Jesus. Now leave me alone. Just this last Tuesday, Pastor Mark led our men's ministry on a time for the men on how do you have spiritual conversations. with people, like an equipping time, equipping the saints for works of ministry. But you know what? Forgive me, I wasn't there, I was doing ministry at my house. Remember the picture before? Okay, that was Tuesday. Our root need in sharing Jesus with people is not better apologetics training. What's our root need? Love. That's my big problem. That's my big need. One last area, I wish I had more time to talk about it, but this ministry of love starts at home, overflows to church, overflows to your community, but it doesn't stop there. God's got a ministry calling for you for the whole world. Just this last year, we sent out missionaries from this church all over the world. Hannah Atkinson was in Ghana. The Bowers were in Tanzania. The Simons were in Peru. The Deals and our family were in France. The Dingesses were in New Mexico. Nathan Atkinson was traveling the country with Life Action Ministries. The Bansters were in Honduras. Ashlyn Pacer was in Haiti. Yes? Forgive my bad memory. Okay, I got it right. And forgive me for forgetting others. Okay, this was just sort of rapid fire. None of those trips came from the top down. Not a single one of those trips came from a pastor's meeting where we then stood up here in front of the church and said, you need to go to Honduras and we're putting a trip together. Here's the clipboard, sign up. Now there's nothing wrong with that. There'd be nothing wrong if that's what we did. But our approach here is a little different. We want the Holy Spirit to fan into flame a calling in your heart, a passion in your heart to go. Go to another part of the country. Go to the other part of the world. And the church's job is to equip you for the ministry. We're ready to send you. We're ready to help you. We've got the finances, but what can't we give you? God's heart for the nations. Who's the only one that can give you God's heart for the nations? God himself. If you don't have God's heart for the nations, you're not going to pray, you're not going to give, you're not going to go. And this is where, again, this is where it gets a little personal and a little invasive. The question I'm trying to press you with today when it comes to your ministry for God, thinking now about missions, is do you really care? Don't raise your hand or anything, but look at your own heart. Do I really care about people around the world who are lost and apart from Christ? If I did care, I'd probably pray some more. If I did care, I'd probably give some more. If I did care, I'd probably go some more. Vision that I've got, what I would love for all of you, is that God would work in your heart so much that you've got a love for the people of the world, that your heart would be stirred with these lists of places. Oh, I'd love to go there. I'd love to go serve Jesus there. I'd love to go tell these people. I don't know how I can ever get there. I don't know when I'll ever be in a season of my life when my ministry here is such that I can take time for ministry there. But as many of us, a lot of us might say that and we say, well, I can't go right now because I'm taking care of my parents. Or I can't go right now because I'm five years old and I don't have the money yet. I'm saving for when I'm six. But what I'm trying to press you with is that you'd be the kind of person you'd say, but I want to go. I want to go. I'm compelled by what? Second Corinthians five. Starts with an L. I'm compelled by love. I want to go. And for some of us, the action item today, if there was an action item today for you, it would just be for you to go to God in prayer. Give me a heart of love. Give me a heart of love for the people you've put in my life, starting in my house, then in my church, then in my neighborhood, and to the end of the earth. All right, let me wrap this up. What I'm trying to do this morning is to help you define ministry properly, to blow the doors off the modern definition that ministry is what you do here as a volunteer. And there are things you can do here. Where's Tracy? Tracy's our volunteer coordinator over there, and she's like, yes, finally. He gets to the good stuff. Don't tell him we don't need him, pastor. I've got the clipboard. Land the plane. I don't have a clipboard, I'm sorry. I'm sticking with my message that I started in the beginning with. We are way more concerned about your ministry the other 6.5 days of the week that you're not here. than we are concerned about the volunteer roles that you sign up for the .5 days of the week you are here. The New Testament Church equipped the saints for the work of ministry. What's your ministry? Let's see if you've been listening. What have you been called to do? God has given you a ministry of love. Starts what God does in your heart. that God would just give you a heart of love, and it would be filled with humility, gentleness, and patience, beginning in your house where it's with the hardest people to love, then at church, then your neighbors, and to the ends of the earth. Most of your ministry for God will have no title. It'll have no job description. It won't be assigned by me. it'll be assigned to you directly by God. And it'll be a ministry of love to the people that he's put in your life. Bow your heads with me, let's pray. God, I wanna thank you for the clarity of your word that speaks to what your church is supposed to look like. And God, I'm reminded of what Jesus says when he was asked what the greatest commandment was, he said, love you with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and then love our neighbor. Jesus said that all of scripture hinges on those two commandments, and God, I just confess I fall so short on both of those. And I just ask that you change my heart, and I think there's probably a lot of people right now may be praying that along with me. God, change my heart. Give me a heart of love for the people I live with, for the people that you put me with in this church, for the people you put me with in my neighborhood. And God, I would just ask you to encourage us that our bumbling, stumbling efforts to love are exactly the moments of ministry that you have called us to as your children. Help us start that even today in our prayer time. Help us start that even today in our fellowship time. I pray that our church, that we would just be a place of no pretense. That it's okay to be hurting. And it's okay to receive love as well as give it. Let that be true here at our church. In the name of Jesus, amen.