We are in Ephesians chapter 4, again continuing, trying to get to the end of this section right here. We spent a lot of time talking about the apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher. All are declaring gifts, proclaiming gifts, and it's again interesting that that's what the church is fed. That is what God has given gifts to the church. Everyone's got a gift to put into the church, to help the church grow, to help the church build. But these five gifts were the ones that were to help build the saints up. And we're going to see, it's to prepare the saints so the saints can perform the work, so the church may be built up. That's where this is going. Again, so we cannot get away, I've said it several times, multiple times, we cannot get away from the fact that the information, the truth, is what's crucial. Jesus says the truth will set you free. Jesus identified himself as the truth. He's identified himself as the word. God has been in the business from the very beginning of creation of creating and sustaining things by his word. Creation occurred because he spoke The book of Hebrews says He sustains all things by His Word. So we can't get away from the fact that reality is based on God's truth, God's Word, God's will. And that will, that Word, that truth coming into our lives will then transform us into the image of Jesus Christ. If you separate yourself from the revealed Word, you separate yourself from that truth, and you go off and begin following philosophies, the ways of the world, you know, some kind of group, some kind of social effort to try and rebuild and recreate, you're going to lose the understanding of what's going on in history. There is no hope in this world except for Jesus Christ. We cannot hear that enough because people are looking for answers, people are looking for cures, people are looking for some, what was it, someone's Facebook post today. I'm not sure, maybe one of you shared it. I almost sent it to Tony. But I saw a Facebook post that I was scrolling through, and it's like, exactly. And this is kind of a rough explanation. But someone was at this, one of those things where someone asked the question, God, why do you allow evil in the world? Or why don't you do something about the evil in the world? God says, flood. And then the next thing is, everybody's underwater. So it's like, in other words, why is there so much evil in the world? Why doesn't God do something about it? If He did, it would look something like the flood of Noah. It would look something like the burning of Jerusalem. It would look something like, you know, just the burning of the earth there. I took care of the problem. Oh, I didn't mean me, I mean all the other people. No, we are part of the world system. We are part of the evil and God is in the process of not delivering the world, not fixing the world, but saving us out of that system because the system is judged. Jesus made this clear. The prince of this age is already judged. The world is already judged. If you believe in Jesus Christ, you are saved. If you don't, You're already condemned. I mean, it's already written down. It's not going to be saved. We are in a program. We are in a system. the church that has the word, has the truth, and we are to minister it to the world so that they might be saved out of the system. If we abandon the word of God, if we abandon this truth, and we go to the world to find an answer, you're just working with broken systems, diseased systems, things that are in rebellion towards God, trying to accomplish God's plan. And it's not going to work. And so we've got to have the church, has to have not just be saved, but they've got to have an understanding of the systems, the cosmos and the kingdom of God. The system that is in rebellion and the system that is trying to bring us out of the rebellion, it is God's mercy. Again, if God had done things just like the pagans described God or Zeus or Allah or somebody, he would just have smoked the earth. It's all over. It's gone. But because God loved the world, it's like I'm going to show them mercy. I'm going to give them a way out. That way out is Jesus Christ. But it's not just a matter of Jesus Christ saving you so you can have your best life now in the world. It's Jesus Christ is the door. to get you out of that system into the kingdom of God. And now that you're in the kingdom of God, you can't bring all of your ideas and all of your thoughts and all of your religious tendencies and bring them over into the kingdom of God and say, OK, now I'm going to bring and fix the kingdom of God. No, you're leaving the fallen world, coming into the kingdom. And you now, as Paul says, we see it throughout the Old Testament, you need to have your mind renewed. You need to see things from this position, from the divine viewpoint. And the world is not going to show it. The world doesn't know that. So getting saved through Jesus Christ is one thing. Growing and maturing in the church is the next step. And that is what Paul is writing about right here. So as we read this, let's go back to Ephesians chapter 4. As we know so well, chapter 4 verses 1 through 7, Paul is talking there about the unity of the church. There's only one faith, one Lord, one baptism. There's a unity. You don't have the freedom to come in and describe Christianity or Jesus Christ or the Kingdom of God like you want. There's only one system. The world system or the system of Jesus Christ. That is the true system. Now verse 7 says, but to each one of us grace has been given. Now within that system, you're saved by grace, but now within this system, you've been given some particular grace. It's a gift. It's something that you can now produce and you can use to help this. You're part of this system. You're not just a bystander in the system. You're not just on the boat. You're now part of the boat. You're part of the building. You're part of the field. You're part of this system. This is a living organism, a spiritual organism, and you're not just riding it. You are now part of it, plugged into it, contributing to it. And so that now becomes unique because not everything can be the same part of a living organism or of a building. Everything's got its place. And so it begins But to each one of us, grace has been given as Christ apportioned. Christ brought you in, put you in the building somewhere, put you on the boat, some part of it. You're in the system. This is why it says, and it refers to a theophany of His victory on the cross, where He conquered the foes and then gave gifts out to the members of the church. It's an Old Testament verse talking about the theophany of God marching through Canaan or whatever kind of a battle He'd go into. The ultimate battle was the cross. It says, he quotes, Paul quotes out of Psalms, when he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men. That is a typical response of divinity, of God himself coming into the world, fixing a problem, conquering, and then returning to his throne. He's going to come in, he's going to win the victory, and then distribute the plunder. And that's exactly what the cross was. And then he makes the connection, verse 9, what does he ascend mean, except he also descended to the lower earthly regions. In other words, God came out of heaven. came to earth, even to the place that he went to the lower earthly regions to continue his conquest, won the victory, rose from the dead, and not just came back to life, but then ascended back to heaven. It was a complete theology from the throne, to the earth, to the uttermost parts of hell, the underworld, back up to the earth, back to the throne with total victory. Just like it came off Mount Sinai, marched through Canaan, and came back to Jerusalem. Came out of heaven, went to the lower earthly parts, went back to heaven, and now? we've won the battle he's going to now distribute the gifts it says he who descended is the very one who ascended on high that the heavens and or that higher than the heavens in order to fill the whole universe it was he who gave some to be and this is the plunder to help this church to help prepare the saints he's now going to give them something and these gifts are The apostles and prophets, they're the ones that are going to receive the revelation. Something they cannot find in natures, they cannot find in science, they're not going to find in philosophy. He's going to give them truth from heaven and the apostles and prophets are going to present it to the church. And then there's going to be evangelists who are going to then have a special gift of going off and proclaiming this truth to others outside. We'd call them, you know, evangelists, we'd call them missionaries. They're going back to the world. We're all to be part of this. Some are gifted particularly in it. And then once they come in through the evangelist, now they're part of a community called the church. It's a universal church going from the beginning of the church age to the time of the rapture. That is the church. It's a replacement for Israel during a time But once the church is finished its work, God is going to return to Israel. Again, we've talked about that eschatologically. We're not replacing Israel totally, but while Israel's blinded and set aside, the church steps in and God works through the Gentiles. Once he's done, he's going to return to his client nation, Israel, and save them and finish his work. When you're brought into this church, you're not just here because you're saved and not going to hell, you're now in this body, you're in the kingdom, and you're gonna have to have people, gifted people, helping you establish, right here, helping you be prepared, preparing the saints, the holy ones, the ones that have come out of the world. And there you have, after the apostles and prophets receiving the revelation, the evangelists proclaiming it to the world, and some to be pastors and teachers. The ministry of the church is primary to the Saints. I mean, get that figured out. You empower the saints in church. The saints don't come to church to do the work. The saints come to the church to be empowered so they can go off after they're prepared to perform and the church is built. Church does not take place in the church. The church takes place wherever the people of the church, wherever the saints are at, that's where the church is happening. That's where your ministry is taking place. You come to church to be empowered, to be equipped, to be prepared, to be set in the right place, to have your minds renewed. If the church is about bringing the world into the church, it's completely flipped. It's opposite. The church, if you remember in Acts, when they began to meet right after the resurrection, the early days of the church, the believers began to meet, and an amazing verse, no one else dared join them. It's like, you're not welcome here. It wasn't so much they weren't welcome, it was this was such a powerful group, empowered by God, doing this work, doing this teaching, doing this growth, that someone couldn't just come in and be part of the group. No one else dared join them. Then the church would go out into the streets, go out in their lives, and multitudes were brought in daily. They grew daily by the thousands as people joined the church, but they came in by faith in Jesus and then joined the church. The church wasn't just some kind of a show. the church wasn't some every sunday some kind of evangelical outreach the church was a closed door session of empowering the saints because when you leave here you're going to go out with the power of the holy spirit with your own gifts and affect the world you didn't bring the world into the church to try and impact them You brought the church together, empowered them, and then went out and impact the world. It's flipped. It's completely the saints come together. And when they're released, the world is turned upside down. You can't bring the church in or the world into the church and try and entertain them like it's the world. It's not the world. We're leaving the system of the world. The world is condemned. It's in chaos. It's under the control of Satan. We're coming here to be renewed, to be empowered and going back out into the chaotic system. We're not bringing the chaotic system in here. Well, think about that, see if that matches the rest of Scripture. It says, for the works of... Okay, to prepare God's people... for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God." And there you can see right here, these five gifts are to prepare God's people. Now if we look very quickly at your notes, we've been mentioning this word for weeks as I've danced around it. Now on page five of your notes, you can see right there, the word in the middle of the page, to prepare, is catartismos. prepare is a good translation, mature is a good translation, but here's what it means. It means this right here, number one, the three purposes listed that are the result of the five gifts from verse 11 is number one, prepare the saints, to cross-prepare the God's people. Other translations, to equip the saints, for perfecting the saints, to fit his people in order to fully equip, in order to get his holy people ready that Christians might be properly equipped. In other words, The reason these five gifts, apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher, are there is to get the people ready, to equip them. And then the second point right there, we're going to go down and talk about catartismos next, but the second thing that takes place is those saints that are prepared in the church, uh... they're going to go off and do works of service they're the ones that are going to go do the works of service the apostle prophet and his pastor teacher are not doing the works of service for the church they're doing the preparing of the saints who are going to do the work it's similar if you would uh... to a coach who doesn't play the game but he's the one who practice structures the practice schedule he's got assistant coaches he's got defensive coaches they're never gonna step on the floor again this is not an excuse for the apostle prophet evangelist pastor teacher not getting involved in the world and and going off doing their own share of living the Christian life, but in basketball, football, some kind of a sport, the coaches prepare the team, and then the team goes off and engages with the competition. And that is what church is for. The people come together, they're equipped, they're prepared, And then they go back to the game and they meet the competition. The competition is not in the huddle. The competition is not in the practice session. The competition is not in the church. The competition, the opposition, is in the world. The church comes together, unifies, gets prepared by the apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher. The timeout's over. Break. They go back to the game. They engage the opposition. And so the same thing here. The saints who were involved in being prepared are going to now go off and perform the work of the ministry. If anything, if we're going to see any kind of laity and clergy in here, the clergy is basically a teaching ministry. any kind of clergy here, it's prepare the saints. You've got pastors and teachers doing their job. They're prepared. Whatever the pastor and teachers do, if you want to see, are they doing the right thing? Well, here's, are they preparing the people or are they simply babysitting? Are they simply pampering? Are they just entertaining? If the pastor teacher is entertaining, they're not fulfilling this. If they're pampering, they're just putting them in nurseries. So they're just babying them, making sure they don't go away, make sure they're comfortable. You're not doing the work. You are to prepare the saints because the saints are going to go off and perform. The apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher. They are not performing the work of the ministry. They're preparing the saints to do the work of the ministry. Now, for example, if you are a teacher and you're teaching, you're also going to be a saint that's got to go off and live. You're going to also go do your part of the ministry also. You don't just hide in your little office and have to go off and engage the world and do your part of living the Christian life. so I mean that's not that's not a good clergy still has come down here and be part of this but the the the idea that the clergy does the ministry is is is wrong everyone from Corinthians all the way through to this verse to Peter anywhere you see it everyone has a ministry the difference is we all have a different part because again we're a body we're a building we're a field there's different things coming together then finally because the saints were prepared the saints did their work their ministry they perform the work of the ministry the church is built up the church itself is built up and that involves bringing people in from the outside bringing people in the world in and then running them through the system faith in jesus christ being trained being taught renewing their mind uh... living the christian example and then the church begins to grow and is spreading now this is all headed up by Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is doing. Now this, this is important. We have to understand, even as a teacher, I want to get this all numbered out and get it all organized. But the thing is, we do not see Jesus. Jesus is doing things and has been doing things way before We even came into existence way before we all of a sudden started doing this during our generation. Jesus Christ says, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. In other words, Jesus Christ, the ascended Lord is now building his church. He's not struggling. Now you may see the church struggling in the cosmos. You may see the church being infiltrated by the cosmos, but Jesus Christ is not like, oh my goodness, it's not as easy as I thought it would be. Jesus knows exactly what he's doing. So even though in this process, If I look at this process and I wonder if it's happening, I wonder how it's working, I wonder if I'm part of it, if you're part of it, if the church is going to fail. No, the church is not going to fail. The church is going to be, it is the victorious church because it's being built by the victorious Savior. He's already left heaven, come to earth, died, descended to the lower earthly regions, been resurrected, came back to life, conquered death in Hades, and then went and sat down at the right hand of God and is now building his church. It's like, Do you think he's having trouble? He is not having trouble. He is not struggling. He was so confident before it even began. He says, I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. Oh, there's going to be a battle. The gates of Hades are going to try and stop this. But by the time we start building this thing and this thing gets rolling, Jesus Christ says, I'm already going to be dead and resurrected and back on the throne controlling everything. So it's going to work. So our job is to stay as close to the text as we can and realize even in moments of discouragement, it's going to get done. It is being done. If any time, well, I mean, there's many reasons, but if there's ever a falling away, if there's ever a seems like we're going backwards, we're taking one step forward and 13 steps backwards, what could be taking place, and this is not an answer for everything, It's assisting. It's a purifying system. God is shaking out the truth. He's shaking out his saints and getting rid of the unbelievers. Persecution does that every time. I mean, if you've got a big mega church, everybody's coming in for the basketball leagues and the donuts, then they start killing people on the way out of the church building, your attendance is going to go down. And it's like, so what happened right there? Well, the earth, the world is winning. It's like, no, we just, the only ones that are going to stay true are going to be the true saints, the ones that understand. Those who are coming for basketball, for donuts, for fellowship, for business partnerships, for networking. Yeah, they're going to find somewhere else to do business. They're going to find someone else to do networking. They're going to get donuts somewhere else. They're going to have some other social club. If they're coming for Jesus, if they're coming for the truth, if they're coming for this whole, if they understand this, they will find somewhere to meet. They will find somewhere to stay strengthened. It may be hard, it may be difficult, but their growth Will continue in fact in days of persecution throughout history that is when the church Flourished that is when true believers when you got rid of all of the extra weight of all the donut eaters and basketball players You cut them out of the church all of a sudden the church starts to grow quickly. That's why tertullian said As an apologist in the early church writing to the Roman emperors who were persecuting the church, he writes the famous quote. He says, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. And he says, the more you kill us, the more we grow. And Satan figured that out, apparently, because the next phase was here. I'll make the emperor a Christian, and the government will fund Christian buildings, and the government will sponsor the bishops. that's we got into trouble but also there was no persecution and then again as a whole church history scenario then the church had a great idea will burn down all the pagan buildings until the pagans Okay No, it's nothing in other words nothing happened They just took off the pagan headdress and put on the church headdress in fact what they did they just changed the name of the building from you know pagan temple to Church Basilica the the pastors the bishops just picked up all the dresses the garments of the pagan world and put them on themselves. That's where you all of a sudden had an altar up front. You had all these rituals and things. The early church was meeting in homes, was going over the sacraments, as far as the Last Supper, and teaching. That is what they were doing. They were empowering and doing good works. Once the government came in, he says, you can have all these. We're no longer going to be pagan. We're going to be a Christian empire now. So you can have all these pagan buildings. There's a whole wardrobe of high priestly dress over there. You guys wear those too. Oh, great. And now they've got control. They've got money. And now where the money is, where the power's at, guess where the people go? Boom, right into the church. And now it's completely corrupt by 400, 500 AD that you're heading towards the Middle Ages. Okay. So, here we go. The third thing is the church will be built, and that is so that, or ice, the body of Christ may be built up. Other translations for building up the body of Christ, or for edifying the body of Christ. Again, it says, note, the organization of the prepositions has recently been challenged. There has been an attempt to read five gifts. We've already gone over that. Now, that word catartismos, to prepare. Here's what I wanted to get to right here. Catartismus is only used here in the Greek New Testament. It means, in translation, it means perfecting. It means equipping. It means qualification. You're qualifying, making them qualified for what God's called them to do. The word is a medical, a technical term, a technical medical term used in medical writings. And it refers to the setting of a bone. Like if the bone is broken, it's out of place, you catartismus, you put it back where it belongs so the body now can function. And so, This word right here, the apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher, again I say, all of them are about receiving and proclaiming the revelation or the word of God. The apostle, prophet, receive it. The evangelist goes off and proclaims it to the world. The pastor, teachers oversee it and teach it to the people. They are now catartismosing the saints. They're taking the saints and setting them in the right place in their body. Not because this is where the pastor or the teacher or the evangelist wants them. They're proclaiming the word of God. And who's building the church? Not the pastor, not the evangelist, not the teacher. Who's building the church? Jesus says, I will build my church. And the ascended Lord has given five gifts to catartismose his saints, to equip the saints, to set them in the right place. He is doing that through those five gifts. Apostle, prophet are probably come and gone in that sense as far as receiving revelation. The evangelist or the missionary, those that are going out And that can be people that have, you know, a full-time ministry in that, or it can be all of us going off and evangelizing. And then the pastors and teachers, and there are people that are pastors and teachers, but at the same time, we all are going to be shepherds of somebody, like if it's your family, if it's your friends, if it's new believers you've come alongside of. And teachers, all of us should be able to explain something, the plan of God, the vision of what God is doing in history, our place in time. we should be able to teach these things. And so all these things are being done and setting the saints in the right place. Catartismus denotes a fitting or preparing fooling. In 4.12, the verb form of this word is used in three ways. Matthew 4, oh here, this is fun. It's used different forms in the New Testament. In Matthew 4.21, There it is right there. You see it's underlined. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee preparing their nets. And what they were doing there, they were sewing the holes shut. They were folding them correctly so they could throw them out and they'd go off in the water correctly. They were making sure the nets were folded and prepared for the activity of casting their nets. So they were preparing or catartismosing, again, their nets. Hebrews 11.3, by faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command. That's the same word form. At God's command, he formed, he organized, he prepared the universe. Galatians 6.1, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. If you remember in Galatians, we went through that many years ago. But in Galatians, it's talking towards the end now about mature believers who are mature and they're giving them some responsibilities. And one of those is if you see someone that is caught in a sin, you should go and you should help restore them. Not judge them, not kick them out, but help restore. Now, there is a place to isolate yourself from these people. But if someone's caught in a sin, come back and restore them. Bring them back and help them find their place, like mending a net, and get them prepared to go back and do their work. Prepare. restore them gently first Thessalonians 3 10 night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith the phrase supply what is lacking is from cat art is most Paul wants to go back to the Thessalonians so he can help cat art is he wants to get back for one reason or one main reason to cat art is most them to help prepare them and we can continue on, I've got on page six a whole study of the word catartismos, you got it out of the Weiss, the Kittles, the Browns Dictionary, and you can see, you can read all that if you want to. So that is the word catartismos, it means to prepare the saints, and that's exactly, and that is what the Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor, Teacher are supposed to be doing, is preparing. They're like coaches in a locker room. They're like coaches on the practice field. They're like coaches in a timeout. They're preparing the saints, because the coach isn't going to go out and fight the battle. The coach isn't going to go out and play the game. He's not going to go out and run quarterback. He's going to prepare the team to go out and do that work. So these guys right here are preparing the saints, and the saints are then going to go out and do the work of the ministry. Now, the word work is ergon. Works of ministry, the work is an ongoing activity. The saints being prepared is not the purpose, but the means to the end." In other words, church service is never the means. It's like, well, we went to church, we had church, we got together and we worshiped the Lord. Now, there's nothing wrong with getting together and worshiping the Lord. The early church did it. There's nothing wrong with getting together and singing songs. Unless it becomes some kind of a concert entertainment, you're just trying to imitate the world so the world feels comfortable. But the purpose of the church getting together is to prepare the saints to go off and do the work of the ministry. We can read in Psalms that teaching and declaring the Word of God is a form of worship. So the church, its very fact that it's assembling is a form of worship. They're gathering together. It doesn't have to be an emotional experience. It doesn't have to be something that you know you're swaying and you go into this mystical state. You have to be prepared. The work is going to take place not here, that's the preparing. The saints are going to then go off and in their lives do the work of the ministry. Now, of course, some people that are involved in the church, your work is within the body of the church. If it be, you know, the organization, administration is one of the gifts, and we can go through all that. Paul had said in chapter 4 verse 7 to each one of us grace has been given and this is why he also says is Was he who gave the gifts mentioned for 11 because each one has a work of service? and so one of the important things up here is preparing the Saints is that the Saints would know that what their purpose, what their work is. There are some general things you can talk about. You can talk about maturing, the fruit of the spirit. There's just some general Christian growth, some standards of living. But there's also, besides just Christian character and maturing, there's going to have to be some place where you are engaging in an activity that no one else can do. If I can say it like that, for example, if you are a bone in a body, There's parts of the body that can't be a bone. They're not designed. They're not equipped. They're never going to be a bone. If you're a bone, you need to identify that. If you're some kind of flesh, material, an organ in a body, these examples go on and on. Paul uses it when he talks about the eye and the ear and the hand. He talks about it in 1 Corinthians. And he also warns, and this is something we need to be careful of, I need to be careful of, is you cannot say to the eye if you are in ear." He says, is the whole body in ear? No, is the whole body in eye? No, Paul says. But then, meaning we've all got different parts and that's part of the preparing, is what are you? And again, it's a rainbow. It's not always clear cut, like it's like, well, this is your function. Sometimes they overlap, like even pastor-teacher overlaps. All the gifts can overlap. And so it's more like a rainbow than clear blue or clear yellow. It's like, what is that? It's kind of a purplish, you know, violet or whatever. And that's the beauty of it. It is movable, not movable, but you have overlaps. You get different variations of the color. But these saints are going to be then equipped to go off and do the things that God created them to do and one of the things that can happen and Paul warns us, is all the eyes can gather together, or for example, all the Bible teachers can gather together and pool up, and all the people that have the gift of mercy, or they can pool up over here, and all the people that are in the helps ministry, and that's why you sometimes see different local churches with some emphasis, this is now a teaching center, so the only people that are really interested are those who teach. So you get a bunch of scholarly academics and they're all throwing around Greek and it's like, they're knocking the ball out of the park because this group over here, all they do is they go off and they just keep evangelizing and just telling people about, geez, they don't help anybody grow. Well, you pulled up a bunch of evangelists that are interested in going off and reaching the world. Then over here, you've got a bunch of people, well, we're just here to help people. We're just here to help the community. Well, that's your gift of mercy. And it's like, so you got the teachers over here looking over here, we don't need that. You know, as Paul says, the eye should not say to the ear, we have no need for the ear or the ear look at the eye, we have no need for the eye. We need the teaching ministry. We need the evangelical. We need the outreach. We need the helps, the mercy. We need those that are involved. All of this comes together. And I have to be careful not to start judging back and forth. Now indeed, there is a corruption going through the church today. But not everything that deviates slightly from Bible teaching is a corruption Sometimes it's just a different part of the body Manifesting and it doesn't this is part of this is part of right here So that the church is built up part of this preparing and understanding is that the church can look at each other and realize We all have a unity of the faith But we all have a different part of the body. And so what does the toe have to do with the brain, which has to do with the heart? Now, we might be talking about Jesus might be the brain or the heart. But it's like we need all of them. And so part of this maturing is to recognize this and keep everything functioning together without isolating. And that's part of the challenge. I'm on the bottom of page. Where am I at? Oh, I'm at the bottom of page six. Ergon. 1 Corinthians, the third point down right there. 1 Corinthians 15, 58. Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourself fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. And so he's telling the Corinthians as he's closing down the book, telling not the leaders, not just the pastors or the teachers or the apostles or whatever, talking to the whole group giving them advice. Stand firm. You're going to have a tendency to want to back up because the world is putting pressure on you. You want to just kind of conform. I feel kind of odd standing out here because the world's going a different way. Stand firm. Hold your ground. In other words, you're going to have to have some knowledge. Stand firm. Let nothing move you. And that can be pressure from the world. That can be circumstances. Remember Jesus telling the parable, the seed was sown, But certain things came. The birds came and ate it off the ground. The rocks and the sun, you know, it couldn't take root and the sun dried it up. Different things happened. It had a quick root and then it got scorched. There's no water. And Jesus referred to that. He says, these are the distractions of life, the worries of life, the troubles of life. the things of life that come by and they choke the word making it unproductive and so what we have to do is stand firm and let nothing move us knowing that this truth the ministry that we've been called to the church that we've been called to is true it is important and God is doing his work and then let nothing move you always give yourself fully to the work of the Lord so in other words stand firm Don't get moved, and know what your part is, and give yourself fully to it, because you know that, here's a promise, your labor in the Lord is not in vain. So right here, whatever the church is performing, it is not in vain. There will be, this is throughout the Bible, there will be rewards for you doing what you've been called to do. And understand this, and I think I know this from personal experience, is you don't get to decide what you are in the body. You don't get to choose. I've already made several choices that didn't prove to be fruitful. In fact, they proved to be discouraging, destructive. They had me getting confused. And I feel like I've found my place as far as being a teacher. But there was times where I chose, you know, you look at the whole picture, you look at the rainbow, which one do you want to be? That one looks cool. It's like Paul even says, there are different parts of the body. Some of them we cover up because they're not for public to be seen. Others, we put them on display, like the face. You put makeup on. You cover up the toe. You put rings on your finger. Some are for public display. Some are like, no one wants to see that. In other words, but I want to be like somebody. I want to be one. Wouldn't it be cool to be the one that steps up and sings and gets the whole crowd swaying back and forth. You know, you go off and sign your album afterwards. Oh, they take pictures, selfies. Oh, yeah, I found my place. That's kind of where I wanted to be. It's like that would be so cool to be. I could make a big impact. I would give my life totally to you, Jesus, if I could have this huge impact on society. Well, what if I don't? Well, you're going to. Well, We're making a deal right here. We're in negotiations. I've decided what I want. It's kind of like, listen, Jesus is about as interested in negotiating as a bar of iron. It's like... Stay there. We'll go on without you. This is where you fit. And I remember having, if you want to say, a conversation with the Lord. I shudder to even say that. But it's kind of like, you need to learn the Word. You need to read the Bible. I've got some great ideas. Read this. And then I remember, and I'm thinking, if I will read the Bible, if I'll study the Bible, will you then let me sing and play my guitar? And this overwhelming impression that I got is, is that all you want? And it just stunned me. I remember I was in my shop in Riceville in 1984. It's like, yeah, there's more? So I can't imagine anything bigger than the Beatles. You know, it's like, ah. And then it's like, all of a sudden, I realize. I don't want to say it too weird. It's like, okay, I'm in territory. I thought I had this figured out. It's almost like you're on a holy ground. Don't open your mouth. It's like, oh my goodness, because it's like there's something out there that I don't even understand that's bigger than the biggest thing I can imagine, which lines up with the verses. He'll do immeasurably more than all we can ask or think. You think of your greatest dream, your greatest vision, this is what I want to do. But you see, you may not be designed for that. That might not be what you're called for. And it will never work. It will never be great. You'll always be frustrated. You'll always be a dead end. You're going to get discouraged. But if you find... And that's part of this right here, preparing the saints to perform not just anything they want to perform, but perform. What are you? An eye, an ear, a toe? Are you a bone? Are you a blood vessel? You're only going to find fulfillment. You're only going to find that area of complete fullness when you do what God's called you to do. If that makes sense as far as you're getting. There's a lot of choices in life. Do not let me give you the impression that you're on this narrow, narrow track and it's like, oh, I think I parked in the wrong parking spot. Pick a parking spot. Pick a grocery store. Pick a town. Pick a career. There's certain things God is guiding you. You can go crazy. I've met them. I don't know who I should marry. Well, who do you want to marry? Ask him. I mean, it's like I married Tony, but I believe we've talked about this. I believe fully there could be other women in the world that I could have fell in love with and I could have married and life would have been fine. Again, there is a God that knows everything, is watching everything, but I'm talking about a God who's given you a place in the body. Don't let that roll over into, everything is predetermined, and if you make the wrong choice, I'm watching TV, oh, I watched the wrong channel, I watched the wrong NCAA game. It's like my life is, no, it's like, watch a game, relax. You know, where are you gonna eat lunch? I don't know, I gotta pray about it. It's like, Okay, I mean, God created you in his image. You have freedom, you have free will. What do you want? I mean, what do you want? He asked Solomon, what do you want? Whatever you want. You're the king of Israel, what do you want? And Solomon gave a wise answer. He said, I want wisdom to rule the people, because these are a great people. I want the wisdom. And God said, good, I'll give you that. I'll give you everything else you didn't ask for. But even right there, he gave him a choice. So be careful when I talk about this. My point here. is when you find the place that God wants you to be, and it may not be something that you have, you know, stable across your forehead. I am a, you know, like, you can Google Bible teacher, and my picture pops up, okay? I mean, that's because I kind of set it up that way. Okay, but it's like, I can say I'm a Bible teacher, but it's not always that clear. It's not always that simple. And I may be a very narrow portion of a Bible teacher. You understand? A Bible teacher, that can be very broad. I mean, what are you teaching? Well, I'm trying to teach verse by verse. I'm trying to help do this part. But there can be a Bible teacher standing right here that's different than I am. I see people that are teaching the Bible online in different places in my life, and they're a Bible teacher, but they do it different. They do it in different ways. You think they can teach with slide presentations, they can teach one-on-one, they can teach large auditoriums, they can teach by touring, they can teach writing books, they can teach in a seminary going through Greek. So I'd like to teach in a seminary and teach Greek. I miss that. I think I've missed that window of opportunity in my life. Also, I think I may be limited in my academic skill set in going through Greek. I think if I would have gone that route, I would have got frustrated, and I would have hit a ceiling. Some people are gifted at language, and they can combine that with the text of scripture and linguistics, and they're brilliant. And I read their books. I learn from them. I want to be them, for example, but I know good and well, I think, that's not me. So understand, my point for saying this is you've got a place, whatever it is, but don't think you've got to start a ministry and have a meeting place and have a title on your head and Google something and your picture pops up. That's not, no, it's more discreet than that. It's a living organism. We're all part of it and you're doing something. The point about this, I want to say, is when you perform your work, there will be rewards. Paul says, we do not labor in vain. You will be rewarded. You may feel like you're laboring in vain. And I can tell you, various times I have, when I was pursuing my own vision of what I had chosen, it's like, there's no rewards for that. There's just a life of misery and discouragement and dead ends. Then when I get to heaven, oh, look what I tried to do. Why did nothing work out? It's like, because I didn't even want you doing that. You made your own ministry. You created your own problem. But if you will find this place and you labor, Lord, you will have trouble. You will get up someday, or at the end of someday, and all your videos are wiped off the internet. It's like, oh, what do you do now? Well, you find out if you're called or not. Because if you're called, you will rebuild it. How? It's impossible. You'll figure it out. Because it's not you. God is doing the work. If you're not called, this may be the warning. Wrong ministry. I wrote 300 songs. Do you know any of them? No. Dead end. Wrong ministry. Do you understand what I'm saying? And so part of this is right here, you can tell because you're going to have the gifts come along with it. They come along with the character of God. There's going to be ability to sustain. There's going to have the ability to continue to do certain things that God is going to provide you. You may have moments, just because you find your place, and you're going to be rewarded. Remember, he just got done saying, stand firm, let nothing move you, your labor in the Lord is not in vain. There's going to be something trying to move you. You may get weary, you may get tired, but if you hold your ground and you keep laboring in what seems, why does he say it's not in vain? Why would someone say this is not in vain? Why would you tell that to somebody? Why do you say, this is not in vain? You'd say that because it looks like it's in vain. It looks like it's empty. It looks like it's going nowhere. No, this is not going. Did I say that right? This is not going nowhere. Okay. Okay. This is going somewhere, but it may feel like it's going nowhere. And the idea there is, is the reason he says it's not in vain is because sometimes, look at Paul's life. all the, just look at the things that he did. He gave his life to, he empowered people. He taught the word and then when he leaves, someone else would come in and take over. It's like, it was in vain. It's like, no, it's not in vain. God's truth will prevail. The word of God is being sent out. And what's nice, I just tell you this for myself. I don't want to talk about too much about this, but what was encouraging when I lost all those videos, is I instantly began to get emails. Where are these videos? Where are these videos? And I replied back. And sometimes I couldn't reply. For some reason, the emails would not go through. They'd just ping back. And so I had to try to figure that out. So sometimes there was a phone number. So then I would call. and say, you know, I'm working on just because some of them were Bible studies that we're using, some were in churches that we're using them. And it's like, we got class tomorrow. Where's the video? What do you need? I'll get it uploaded for you. So in one sense, it was very discouraging. But in the other sense, it's like, even right here, it's like, your labor is not in vain. It's like, we can't find Bible teaching like this. This is what we use. And so it's like, oh, Nelson, it's not as well. Do you want to continue? It's like, oh, my gosh. I've got to continue. No, I mean, I don't mean I got to, but it's like, it was very encouraging. I did have someone I called, and I'll share this with you, I shouldn't, but this is like, you know, this is like as close to Beatlemania as I'm going to get. But you know, I'm just like, I'm just, I'm just desperate. I'm just, oh my gosh, you know, I'm not thinking anything except, oh, I've got a mess. So I finally call, I said, well, here, you know, which, I said, my phone, I called, and, and they, they picked the phone, they answered, right? Oh my gosh, I can't believe it's you. And it's like, I have, I just, hello, this is Galen. Yeah, I know, your name popped up on my phone. It's like, there's somewhere in the, I've never, there's some, but for some reason that my number was in their phone with my name on it. And so I call and it's like, so we had a great conversation and everything. And it's kind of like, huh, Beatlemania, huh? It's like, and that was that, that was the end of that. But it was, but they were encouraging saying, you know, People aren't teaching anything, and they say, we need more teaching. And that's come from somewhere in the states, I can't remember what state it was. But anyway, that was kind of nice. So that was kind of encouraging. But on my point, very quickly, that was nice because there's some temporary rewards or encouragement. When I was doing stuff that I want to do that God didn't want me doing, there was people, they would like walk out while I was singing. They wouldn't like, you know, say sing another song, they'd walk out. Are you done yet? You know, I know some of you feel that way when I'm talking. But anyway, that is the idea. And the same thing with you. When you find that place, there's going to be times of discouragement, there's going to be hardships, but there's going to be the ability to pursue or persevere. If you want an example of persevering, you've got Paul. Paul was beaten they left him for no one's ever beat me before and left me for dead What would I do would I get back up and go back in and start Bible class again? I don't know. Paul did. He got up and he goes, the believers gathered around him. He got back up. It's like, where's the first train out of here? He gets back up. It's like, man, I look like I'm dead. They thought he was dead. He's been stoned. I mean, they threw stones. Not one. Tony had stones thrown around in the Kidron Valley. But they stoned Paul, hit him with so many stones. Not like pebbles, but stones. that they thought he was dead and left him in a hole in the ground for the animals to eat. And they went back in the city. And Paul's like, gets up, he's like, whoa, got a headache. OK, I got to go back in. And he goes back into the city. Why? Because he's called, he's gifted, he's empowered, he's got perseverance because he's got the ministry. He also had a previous ministry. That was one of killing Christians. That got put on hold. That got stopped. You understand? He couldn't maintain that. He switched to a different ministry, if you want to call it a ministry. Okay. Where are we at? Let's go back to this. Building, bottom of page six. Building so that the church is built. There's going to be the catatismos, the preparing of the saints. The saints will then perform. They're going to do the work and continuing work. The saints will continue to do it. The teachers, the pastors, the evangelists, they're not doing this work. They're not doing the work. The saints are doing the work. They're out doing it. The evangelist, pastor, teacher, they've got their work that they're doing. They've got the things that they've got to take care of in their life. But these people are out doing the work of the ministry. And it's not happening in the church service. It's happening after the church service. They're being empowered. They're being instructed. They're being encouraged so that they can go off and they are going to build the church. A church building program. We're going to have a meeting about the church building program. What? There's no church building program. This is the church building program. You prepare the saints to perform the work so the church is built up. Your building program is to build the saints. You get the saints prepared and they will build the church. Well, we don't know where they're going to go. We want them parking in our parking lot. What? No, no, now you're in the competition. Now we want to have everybody in our, like you've got the only church. You've got the only ministry. The saints are prepared to go do the work, and the church is built up. Guess where it's not built up at? Guess where it's not built? It's not built in the church service. It's built out there. Well, make sure you give them our business card. Make sure you show them how they can tithe into our ministry. It's like, no, you may, like I drew on a diagram, this is in the Hope for America's Last Generation. That's my markers drying up. This is a bad church. Well, this is a model of This is the model of the contemporary Western church. These are all people out here in the world and the ideal is to funnel everybody into the church because up here is the pastor's vision. The pastor has a vision for his church. We're going to be a name it type church. This is our name of our church. There's our banner. And this is, we need more people. Go out there. You get another person, get them into here. The work of the church is to get the people into the pastor's church because he's got a vision. We will need money for this vision. So we're going to have a fundraiser. So now all of these X's, they become what? dollar signs. And the pastor is building his church and all the little people work for the pastor and his vision. That's the Western Church right there. Maybe you recognize it. The biblical model is something more like this. Here's the pastor. Here's all the people. The people are brought to the pastor or the teacher. They're brought into the church by the evangelist who's teaching and proclaiming the apostolic revelation received by the apostles and the prophets. They bring them to the pastor. And the pastor now is going to prepare the saints to do the work, to perform the work, the ergon of the ministry. This is not the ministry. This is the foundation stone. This is the one who's taken all these little babes and instructing them, telling them, empowering them. And then this is what the church looks like right here. And they come through this information. They find their place. They find their part of the body. They now have, they're empowered. They're going to go off and they're going to build the church. This is what the church, look at the church of Antioch. Paul and Barnabas were there. Where'd they end up? They're sent out. The church is going this way. This is the job of the pastor to empower the people and the people just filter back in here. The pastor's building his church. This is Jesus using his gift of pastor-teacher to build his church. He says, I will build my church. But if you're going to take a model and put yourself up here and your vision for your church, and you're going to do this, you're not building. The Lord is not building your church. You're building your church. You're taking some of these sheep and bring them over here, your own little flock right over here. Now, some people will stay because of location. Not everybody's going to be moving, but they may stay in a location. They come and they realize where they're supposed to go. They realize where they're supposed to be. They're going to grow. This could be moving locally, like territory, like on a map. This might be moving in growth. This might be moving in ministry, where they're going to be involved in. But the pastor is not doing anything. He's not collecting people. False teachers collect people. The true pastor is going to be the one who empowers the people so that the church is built. Notice where the church is built. The church is built by the saints who are going to perform the work as they've been prepared. The pastor, teacher are preparing, the saints are going to perform, and then the church is going to be built out here. Once again, it's that living organism. Who's building it? Jesus. I can't control that. Right, because you've got one that's like the toenail saying, I can't control anything. Right, you're a toenail. Be a toenail. You're a Bible teacher. Well, I can't. Sometimes people come, sometimes they don't. Sometimes they stop coming, they go somewhere else. I can't control. And I've had people give me advice. You've got to get some kind of a program, get some roster. Now you're manipulating. We've got to keep these people right here. So we say, look, we used to have 20. Now we've got 30. Now we've got 50. Now we've got 5,000. And look what I built. I built this. It's like, Okay, now you're over here. That's the wrong model. We're preparing the people, and if they stay, nice. I hope they're still growing. If they're growing, they go somewhere else, that's another thing. But that is, again, the ideal of building. It says, number one at the bottom of page six, the image of building a temple is used already by Paul in chapter 2, verse 21. We're talking about building a temple. This verb for building is used in Greek for building houses and temples. It is also used in a figurative sense, as Paul does here, for establishment of nations or individuals. Jeremiah 24 6, I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down. Jeremiah 31 4, I will build you up again and you will be rebuilt. He goes on to give you some examples of that. Matthew 16, Jesus, I will, guess what, I will build my church. Do you see where he's doing it? Jesus is building his church. Here is where the church is being built. The church is not being built. The text says so. The teachers, the pastors prepare the saints. The saints perform the work, Ergon, they do the work, and the church is built. If the pastor was building the church, he'd say, the apostle, prophet, pastor, teacher, are building my church for me. Just find a place to sit. We'll ask for money later. That would be what it says. But there's not. It's the pastor, teacher, evangelist prepare the saints. The saints perform the work. The church is built because of the saints. The pastor is merely, the teacher is merely the foundation of preparing the saints who are up here, finding their place, maturing and growing. They're empowered. They're doing the work. It's like the NCAA champ. Every time you watch a game this next week or two weeks, whatever, you see those guys on the floor performing. That is not the pastor. That is the saints that have been empowered by the pastor who's sitting on the bench or standing, throwing his clipboard, shouting at referees. That's the guy right here. He's not even in the game. He's just trying to get the players organized, run the offense, watch the defense, protect them from the false sheep, protect them from the wolves, keep them nourished, keep them organized, and send them out. Good luck. We got a game today. And that's where the church is heading. And this is where games are won, when the players can execute on the floor what they've been taught. And it's not because it's the pastor's vision. It's not because it's the pastor's words. It's because the apostle and prophet brought the revelation to the earth from God. The evangelist proclaims it to the lost world. The pastor and teacher, when these people are brought in the church, they teach them and explain them, empower them, and they go off and perform it. This is where, really, I get excited about teaching, but I think in heaven, I think in the spiritual realm, the dangerous place, where the action is, is up here. It's not here. This is important, obviously, because we're talking. And if a saint can somehow change this to whatever, you know, motivational speeches and worship services where you just felt the presence of God. And it's like, then you go off and it's like, you end up not with, you end up with big old like, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. I don't feel God anymore. It's like, you don't feel God. You know God. It's truth. It's not an emotion. I will make my children emotional and they'll know, they'll be free. It's like, no, you'll know the truth. you'll be set free. You'll be empowered by the Word of God. God did not create the world on emotions. He created it by His Word. He did not send emotion into the world. He sent His Word into the world in the form of His Son. Again, it expressed His love. It expressed His attitude. But it's going to come through the truth. Okay, verse 13. I'll quit here. Chapter, page 7. And this will continue. Preparing and working, building, edifying the church until we all reach unity in the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood to the measure of stature of the fullness of Christ." In other words, this is going to continue until the church reaches maturity, which is not going to be one location it's going to be a process apparently it can be like locational but we're talking about church age and do notice what it's going to be unified about it's going to be unified about the knowledge of the truth if you say if you say This just causes division. People aren't interested in this. I can say clearly, you have no clue about what God is doing when he says, I will build my church. It's got to be through the revelation received by the apostles and prophets, proclaimed by the evangelists, and taught and empowered to the saints by the pastor teacher. And then the church starts to grow. And if you're going to do something besides teach that, Oh boy, that's where we get into all the coming up next, the waves and the wind, the false philosophies, the deceptive scheming by men. That's what this is going to avoid because this is going to make you solid and make you productive. The alternative is deception. It's going to be used to manipulate people. Fads and trends, and we'll get into that next week. I appreciate you being here. Thank you for taking time. I'll pray. and you're free to go. Father, we do thank You for Your truth. We ask again that we would find our place in the body of Christ, that we would fully embrace the empowerment that You've given to us, the gifts, the callings, the stamina, the perseverance that You've provided for each one of us through Your Spirit, that we again may be part of the growth of the church that Jesus Himself is building. We do thank You for this opportunity. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you for your time.