Please turn again in the Bible, this time to the book of Ephesians, chapter 4. You can find Ephesians 4 on page 977. This time I will do all the reading. It will help your understanding if your eyes see it as well. Please open to page 977 and follow along. Ephesians chapter 4, verses 1 through 13. And then we're going to be especially focusing on 7 through 11. In Ephesians chapter 4, the I here is the Apostle Paul. This is a letter that he wrote to a church in what is today Turkey. Please give your attention to the word of God. I, therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore, it says, When he ascended on high, he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men. In saying he ascended, what does it mean that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God. Christianity is all about God's gift to us. God has given us everything. You say, yes, yes, I know, God gave me life. No, no, Christianity is about more than that. It's about, in Jesus Christ, God has given us eternal life. God has given us a gift and He calls us to receive the gift. The gift of being forgiven. The gift of belonging to God and His Church. The gift of being changed and transformed so we don't continue to afflict ourselves with the same stupid things that we've done before that have made us miserable. The gift of Himself. It says in chapter 3, may you be filled with all the fullness of God. And so you see in chapter 4, the first three chapters have been devoted to this, explaining what the gift of God is in Jesus Christ. And so we have a bridge in chapter 4. And he says, walk worthy of this calling. That means live. Live worthy of this gift that you've received. Which means, first of all, live humbly. Because what do you have that God hasn't given you? It means, secondly, live together. Because it says there is one. There's one God. There's one Lord. There's one Spirit. And so there's one body, there's one faith, and one baptism. But you say, but we're all different. What do you mean there's one? We're all different. And it bugs me. Why can't people be more intelligent? Why can't they be more like me? Don't we often feel that way? Well, it goes on there in verse 7 to say there's another thing that God gives in the Gospel. We know we have various talents and abilities. But God gives us gifts and the reason and the place to use them. So the first point to see as we are looking at verse 7 is that we are one and yet distinct. One of our problems as simple humans is that we have an instinctive preference for people like us. I read a book called Nurture Shock. This author went and looked at a bunch of different kinds of research and he brings it to middle-class Americans and he says, surprise, kids aren't the way you think they are. And one of the things in that book was, if you show a small child a bunch of faces and say, is this a nice person? And all they have is the face. If it's the same race as the child's face, the child will probably say, yes, that's a nice person. If it's a different race, the child may very well say, I don't know. It's an instinctive preference for a same-race face in small children. And again, the author has a pains to say, and the kinds of children being tested here are the kinds of children raised the right way. These are the children that the parents are trying to do all the right things for. Don't blame the parents of these kids for this. It seems to be instinctive. It's a form of self-love. I like you when you are like me. And I don't like you if you're not like me. It's a form of self-love. And it extends all over the place. If you're punctual, and I'm punctual, we get along. If I'm punctual and you're late, you drive me nuts. And I drive you nuts, because you say, well, why can't you be relaxed, like me? Now, you can read in verse 5 and verse 6, there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one body. And we can say, aha, I knew it. Everyone should be the same, like me. That's what we could say. So in verse 7, we come to the word, but. And you're like, sure, there's a but coming. But sin has made us different. That's what you're expecting. That's not what it is. It doesn't say, but sin has messed it up. Sin has brought diversity. No. This but says, but Jesus, who's made us all one, also makes us all different by giving us different gifts. The one who makes us one makes us different. That's because people being different from each other has always been part of God's plan. God began by making us male and female and ain't that different from the get-go. God made Adam and Eve not the same. To be different was part of the good created order. He saw everything that he made and it was all very good. And so the fall didn't change that. We continue to be different. Good that we're different. We're all sinners, but we're all different sinners. And so when God saves us, he doesn't stomp out the diversity. And I don't just mean he doesn't stomp out male and female. We still are two sexes. I don't just mean he doesn't stomp out the races, that we're all different races. I also mean that Jesus extends the diversity by giving us different gifts and different strengths. Yes, God saves us, and he begins to stomp out sin in our lives, the sin that makes us self-loving and other-hating. But he doesn't do that by doing the easy thing of making the others just like me. Instead, He calls me to go beyond that instinctive preference for myself when I see myself in other people. And instead, love those who God has made in His image. Yes, Jesus makes us one, but the unity created maintains the diversity because God Himself is three persons in one Godhead and we're made in His image. So you've got to resist that desire that everyone should be like you. Yeah, you can want everybody to stop sinning, as long as what you most want is for yourself to stop sinning. But don't mix up the godly desire that people stop sinning with the selfish desire that they be like you. Don't start to say, everyone should speak like me. Why doesn't everybody talk about the topics I think are interesting? Don't say everybody should think like me. Yes, we should all have Christ as our goal. But if I dislike Beethoven, that doesn't mean you have to dislike Beethoven. If I dislike C.S. Lewis, that doesn't mean you have to dislike C.S. Lewis. If I hate sushi, it doesn't mean that you have to hate sushi. The Bible gives us a couple different pictures of the church. One is a temple. And Christians are the stones in the spiritual temple. And you can say, yeah, stones are pretty similar. Yeah? But another picture is the body, the human body. And in the human body, the different parts are different. And it's a good thing. Because if we were all eyeballs, where would the hearing be? We were all heads, how would we walk anywhere? We're going to accept others as Christ has given. Accept each other for the gifts that Christ has given them. It says there's one God and Father over all, through all, in all. One great gift is given to every believer. Jesus Christ. Forgiveness and belonging with God. There's one great gift. There's one great giver. And then the Lord knits us together into one body. Therefore, into one diverse body. So it says, Grace was given to each one of us according to Christ's gift. Jesus gives each one gifts as he decides. So the first point, we're one and yet distinct. The second point is that Christ has given all of us something to contribute to the good of the body. Grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. I remember Pretty vividly at age 11, an incredibly sad moment. I don't think I was a particularly sensitive 11-year-old, but this struck me. I was riding home from baseball practice and I was riding alongside the next to the worst baseball player on the team. Now I can call him that because I was the worst baseball player on the team. And don't argue with me, I know what I'm talking about. Little League rules say that every player had to get at least two winnings and at least one at-bat. and that meant that I got precisely two innings and precisely one at-bat. And he got the same thing, only the coach put him in center field and he put me in right field, which meant that what the coach was most concerned to make sure the ball was not hit to Edgar, all right? And next most concerned that the ball not get hit to this kid. All right, so he was second worst and I was the worst. We got our two innings, we didn't start, we didn't deserve to start, and we're riding our bikes home. And as we're riding along, I noticed that he was kind of going over, riding up the street, and he would ride over to the curb when there was a driveway, and then he would jump his bike off the curb. And he actually did it quite well. I said to him, you're good at that. He said, yeah, it's the only thing I'm good at. And even as an 11-year-old, I was like, oh. I mean, I was a terrible baseball player, but at least I knew that God had made me good at some other things. So, you know, I could deal with being a terrible baseball player, but he was saying, yeah, the only thing I'm good at is jumping my bike off a curb. Now, some of you feel that way. Some of you feel like you have nothing to contribute, at least not anything worthwhile. Yeah, I can jump my bike off too, but who cares? But you need to read the verse again. Grace was given, it already happened, to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. What kind of thing would that be? Well, it means all kinds of things. Just last week, I heard about yet another person who was never interested in reading until he became a Christian. And then once he was a Christian, he just kept reading and reading, and this particular man has gone a long way following his education, even though he didn't get into it until older. Now that's not what God does for some of us. Some of us always wanted to read, Christian or not. Some of us never want to read, Christian or not. But I have met multiple people for whom that's something that God gave to them. They became a believer and they wanted to start reading. Reading is how you learn things. Grace was given. There's all kinds of different gifts. You'll notice in this next verse, it says, He gave gifts to men. Gifts are given to each one of us. Christ has given one or more spiritual gifts to each and every believer. Now, you've got to use this knowledge the right way. God didn't tell you that so that you would get obsessed with yourself. That's the whole problem that we're trying to get out of here. He didn't say this so you would gaze into your belly button trying to figure out what your gift is. Some churches go a little overboard with this. You have to figure out your gift. Don't do anything until you take this 150 question questionnaire to discern your spiritual gift. That's not needed. Furthermore, the danger of that is after the person gazes into their navel and decides that their gift is trombone playing. I play trombone, I'm not picking on anybody. Then sometimes people come to the church and say, my gift is trombone playing and it's the church's job to give me an outlet for my gift. We learn many things as children and then we grow up and a lot of them don't get used. I'm actually a pretty good piano player. I don't use it. I play the trombone. I don't use that either. I mean, no. Here's a better way of proceeding. on the inside. God has given us gifts, he's given us something to contribute, so what should I think about this? Well, don't gaze into your navel and don't start trying to say, God gave me a gift so I can push you around to make you acknowledge me. No, here's how to use this knowledge. See a need, try to fill it. I was up at White Lake Church last week. They've gone a very long way as a church pushing this principle. See a need, fill it. If a need really speaks to your soul, do more. If someone says to you, you did that well, maybe you should pursue it. If somebody says to you, well, I know your heart was in the right place, maybe you should let someone else do that. I've had, I've actually had this experience twice, but early on when we were first doing men's mating, Before we had to standardize that it was weekly and James cooked, early on there was a Saturday morning when I was cooking. I said, I live the close guys, I'll cook. So I was in there cooking. And Emil came in. And Emil sized up the situation. And he elbowed me out of the way. And I was upset for about two seconds. I'm like, what do you think? And then I noticed that the eggs were getting flipped over far more expertly. The food was not burning. And I said, all right. I remember that I had been through this exact same scenario once before in an entirely different setting. I said, all right, all right. You can take care of the griddle. I'll put on something else. Someone here once asked me, I feel really called to do this certain kind of outreach, this ministry outside the church. What permission do I need to do this? I said, you're a mature believer. If you feel called to do it, go do it. And if you need help, you can ask, and if we're able to give it to you, we'll give it to you. You don't actually need our permission. Just be responsive. If somebody feels the need to say to you, well, I know your heart's in the right place, well, then you need to be responsive to that. Other than that, go ahead. Go ahead. Christ has given gifts to us to use for the good of the body, so go on. You don't really need permission. Just be responsive. If the shepherd teaches, see that it's necessary to tell you that your heart's in the right place, but the follow-through is lacking. But some of you are still saying, I have nothing to contribute. And that is an excuse. And that is to disbelieve the clear words here of the Lord. Look at verse 7. Grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. That's why it says, when he ascended on high, he gave gifts to men. Don't disbelieve Christ. Because there's many things that need to be done. Any able-bodied person here over the age of 7, can help out by washing the dishes, moving the chairs, helping a pregnant lady with her bag, and helping an elderly person walk. You say that's trivial. I say that's not trivial. It has to happen. It has to happen. And can the deacons do it all? Do the elders have to do it all? No. These things have to happen. They're necessary. In Romans 12, there's a list of gifts. On that list are lists of gifts such as service, acts of mercy, contributing. And we can all do these things, and we should. But perhaps in some way, some of us are especially gifted in it. Perhaps some have the gift of making their recipient feel especially comfortable, especially loved by Christ. Perhaps part of the gift is less talent than just opportunity. When your kids are small, it's tough to be the last ones at church cleaning up and locking up. But once your kids are older, you don't have to get them to bed as early. Maybe the gift is opportunity. We need to believe Christ has given each one of us a gift. So don't insist that you're good at nothing and have nothing to contribute. See a need and fill it. Don't get fixated and put everything on hold until you discern your gifts. See a need and fill it. And notice where your help seems especially helpful, especially needed, especially appreciated. We don't need to pursue gifts, they come from Christ. Don't bury them, they're given to be used. Don't be puffed up. What do we all have that we have not received? Now, verse 7 is straightforward. Grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. Got it. Verses 8 to 10 are a little bit more difficult. But here's the basic point. The basic point is to explain why it's Christ who gives the gifts. Now, elsewhere it says that God the Father gave us gifts. 1 Corinthians 12. Also, 1 Corinthians 12, we're told we're given each gift through the Spirit. So whenever one person of the Trinity acts, the other two are there as well. These three are one God. But here we're talking about Christ. We're focusing on Christ because Jesus is the one who came in the flesh. Jesus is the one who triumphed over sin and death. And so we have a quote here from Psalm 68. When it's indented like that, that means it's a quote from the Old Testament. You can look it up. You can look down the bottom in the really small print and see where it is. You can look it up and you can find it. And if you do go back and look up Psalm 68, verse 18, you'll notice a few things. You'll notice in verse, back in the Psalms, we're talking about God. And here we're talking about Christ. And that's routine. The New Testament does that all the time. It says, when the Old Testament was talking about God, it was talking about Jesus, because Jesus is the God-man. But what might bother you more is a little word change. If you look it up, you can do that. Psalm 68 verse 18. You'll notice it says, He received gifts from men. And here it says, He gave gifts to men. And that might bug you. Like, are you allowed to do that with a quotation? Isn't giving and receiving the opposite? Didn't Jesus say it is more blessed to give than to receive? Aren't they opposite? So how can you just change the word in the middle of a quotation? He gave gifts to men, when it actually says He received gifts. Here's what's going on. Psalm 68 is describing God as a triumphant king, going up to sit on his throne. Jerusalem was at the top of the hill. And what happened back then is, after the battle was won, the troops were supposed to bring all the loot to the king. He's supposed to receive gifts. Not only that, but any of his defeated enemies, who were going to try to move really quick and get on the king's good side, might also bring gifts. So he receives everything. But then what's he supposed to do with it? Well, he turns around and he gives it back out to his soldiers who have, in fact, won him the battle. So, to the commanding general we give this gift, and to the secondary general we give this gift, and to all the soldiers we give so much money, and so on. The giving and the receiving, in the context of the battle back then, they go together. That's why you can legitimately change the king receiving to the king giving. There's actually some ancient Jewish sources that make the same change. One of the Targums, ancient translation. Again, makes that as give instead of receive. The Jewish interpretation of that verse is actually, this is about Moses going up Sinai to receive the Torah, which he then gave to Israel, receiving and giving going together. And here it says, no, no, no, this is about Jesus going up to heaven to receive the Holy Spirit, which he then gives to believers. If you go back and look at the psalm, it sounds like God going up the mountain, not a mere man such as Moses. And we read in Numbers about this receiving and giving. That's what God did with the Levites. If you read carefully, God said, the Levites are mine. He received them. Then at the end it says, and he gave them to the priests. So God received these people and he gave these people. And then that's where this is going here. Verse 11, There's a host of captives being led, and then he gives gifts to men. Verse 11, people are given. Now, what about this next phrase? He led a host of captives. What captives would a king display? Well, a victorious king back then might display two kinds of captives. One, the hated enemies who are now captured. You remember that king you were afraid of? There he is in a box. You don't have to be afraid of him anymore. That's one thing Kings would do back then. The other thing they would do is he would bring back his own freed prisoners, his own POWs, those captured by the enemy that he's now set free. He'd bring them back and they'd be part of a triumphant parade into the city. Look, we have rescued this one and this one and this one. They would be the captives that he is leading, leading out of slavery into freedom. And you notice what this says here. In verse 8 it says, He led a host of captives and gave gifts to men. In verse 11 it says, He gave the apostles, etc., to equip the saints. In other words, the apostles and the prophets are the gifts. They themselves don't have gifts. They are the gifts given to the church. They may also be Christ's captives. You say, what kind of captive? A conquered enemy or a released friend? Well, if you believe in Jesus, you're Jesus' friend now. Because Jesus is the one who said, greater love is no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends, and that was about what he was going to do, lay down his life for his friends. So we're all his friends, but you know, the Apostle Paul is the one who wrote this. The Apostle Paul had been Christ's enemy. He tried to stomp out the church, and he's been captured. So here he is, the captive, now being given to the church as an apostle. We speak in this church of the priesthood of all believers. That means we have equal access to God in prayer. You don't need to go to the Catholic priest to have him pray for you. You can go directly to Jesus. Jesus is the mediator. You don't need a mediator to get to the mediator. The language here is suggestive. Jesus gave the apostles to the church as a parallel to God giving the Levites to the priests. Church is the priest. Church, you see here, the priesthood of all believers. Now, if you look back at verses 9 and 10, you say, all right, I'm getting there with verse 8. But verse 9 and 10, well, what's going on there with verses 9 and 10? Well, this is what you might call a rift on ascending and descending. And the technical term is a midrash. He says, who ascended? Well, it's the one who descended. You say, OK, what are you getting at here? We've got to know that the New Testament quotes the Old Testament in a number of ways. Sometimes the Old Testament gave a simple prediction and the New Testament says, and Jesus fulfills it. So, one will be born in Bethlehem and this one will be our peace. Alright? That's quoted in the New Testament. There's Jesus. He's our peace. He's born in Bethlehem. Isaiah chapter 9. Alright? Those who sat in darkness in the land of Galilee They saw a great light. So Jesus goes and he begins his ministry in Galilee so that they would see a great light. There's a bunch of those. So sometimes the Old Testament is quoted to say that was a prediction and here's where it's fulfilled. Other times the Old Testament is quoted and it wasn't a prediction. It was just something that happens. And the point is that what happened with Israel is what happens with Jesus. Or what God did is what Jesus is doing. And so it's not a prophecy fulfilled proof kind of thing, instead it's telling us how to read the Bible. Because Jesus is the Messiah, because he succeeded where Israel failed, notice the similarities, notice the parallels. And that's the point of this midrash, is to teach us how to read the Old Testament. Since Jesus is risen, we see him in the Bible. Psalm 68 praises God for his triumph and for receiving men's gifts. Because Jesus has ascended and given the Holy Spirit, we know that means that's talking about him. He's the one who ascended and to ascend, he indeed first had the descent. Or how would the one in heaven already have gone up? Why, Augustine says, the New Testament is in the old concealed. The old is in the new revealed. So, the last thing on verses 9 and 10, one of the commentators says, this kind of Midrash seems strange to the modern reader, but in its context, this is what people did back then, and it's a skilled use of the form. Here's the basic point. Jesus is the triumphant King who ascended and received and gave gifts. What Israel praised God for in Psalm 68, this is what we praise Jesus for. He's ascended and triumphed to heaven, He's received the Holy Spirit, and He's poured it out on all of us. together with all the individual gifts that he gives to each one of us. And so it says in verse 11, Christ gives people to build and equip the church. Verse 11, Christ gives people to build and equip the church. Someone might say to me, Pastor, if we all have spiritual gifts, then why don't we take turns up in that pulpit? Why is it you every week? Good question. And the answer is that Christ gives a variety of gifts. You'll notice here there is a list of different gifts. The gifts are different. And even if one wants to speak of a teaching gift, teaching gifts are different. One is best in the pulpit. One is best in the classroom. One is best one-on-one. One is best with the children. And the gifts we see, there's one gift of teaching, another of service, another of administration. So we have here this word apostles. What does that mean, apostles? You drive by a church that says Holy Anointed Apostolic Church or something. What does this word apostle mean? Well, an apostle is someone sent to do a job with the authority to do it. That's the basic meaning. An apostle is somebody sent to do a job with the authority to do it. And in the New Testament, it means somebody who witnessed what Jesus did, that Jesus then sent to bear witness as widely as possible. It's used first of the twelve apostles, and then of a few others, such as Paul and Barnabas. Now, is this church an apostolic church? It better be. Every true church is an apostolic church. Take a look at chapter 2, verse 20. It says that the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Jesus himself being the cornerstone. Every church had better be apostolic. That is, we better teach what the apostles taught, because they saw Jesus, and they heard Jesus. And they wrote the Bible for us. Therefore, every church needs to be apostolic. It needs to be built on that foundation. And that's why the Bible is so important. It's their witness given to us. That's how we know what they said. But you might say, well, some churches call the pastor apostle. And that really is basically wrong. All the eyewitnesses of Jesus died 1,900 years ago. That's the first point. Secondly, foundations are only laid once, if the builder knows what he's doing. It says that the apostles and prophets are the foundation of the church. Thirdly, the New Testament gives us instructions for what an elder should be like and what a deacon should be like. It never tells us what an apostle should be like. So there is no apostolic succession. Again, it's a point of difference between us and the Roman Catholic Church. There is no apostolic succession, and don't call the pastors apostles, as some Protestants do. Let's talk about apostles. Christ gave apostles. Alright, we covered that. He gave prophets. That would be both the Old Testament and the New Testament. He just quoted Psalm 68, written by David. That's part of our foundation, the Hebrew Scriptures. And then there were some New Testament prophets as well. Now, are there prophets today? Well, again, the foundation is the apostles and prophets. And foundations are only laid once, if the builder knows what he's doing. Secondly, we have instructions on what an elder should be and what a deacon should be. We don't have instructions on what a prophet should be going forward. Jesus also told a parable about the wicked tenants. He says the owner of this vineyard sent one servant and another servant and then he had one more to send, his beloved son. That beloved son, of course, is Jesus and the servants were the prophets. This is why Hebrews 1 says, In the former days God spoke by the prophets, in the last days by his Son. So the New Testament prophets were part of Jesus' ministry, and there's no room today for more prophets in the sense of someone who gives us a new book. I can do amazing things, but there's no prophet that comes and gives us more scripture that we all need. And that is why we don't describe Mormons as Christians. We have new prophets, we have a new book, we have a new foundation, They're not part of the Christian church. Christ gave us apostles and prophets, the foundation of the church. Their teachings in the Bible, so the Bible's foundational. Then it says the evangelist. Now what's that? An evangelist would be somebody who speaks about Jesus and urges people to believe in him. Now, my parents were short-term missionaries in Cyprus. And Niki's parents were short-term missionaries in Cyprus. And they had this experience with a bunch of young missionaries. And so they were talking about Jesus and teaching Bible in the school there. And they had a lot of interested young people. And then they found that the thing to do when a young person was really interested in the gospel is they'd say, let's take him to Missionary A and get him saved. Because Missionary A seemed to have the gift of making what was interesting seem compelling. When Missionary A spoke, people believed and they made their commitment and they repented and believed in Jesus Christ. So they would just take on the Missionary A. The Missionary A wasn't the wisest or best person. He just had this gift. He was the evangelist among them. Now we all should be ready to give a reason for the hope that's in us. We all should seek to love people and express who Jesus is and explain and invite. Some people don't have a gift for it. If you have the gift for it, you should use it. This gift continues. Lastly, it says, pastors and teachers, or some translations, shepherds and teachers. And here the grammar changes, so these two go really closely together. Maybe it's that all shepherds are teachers, but not the opposite. Now, what do we mean by the pastors and teachers? Well, I'm going to say that pastors and teachers are the same as elders and overseers. And you might say, why so many terms for the same thing? I'm going to say, well, look at Acts chapter 20. where the elders are told to pay attention to the flock of God, in which the Spirit of God has made them overseers. So the elders are told to oversee the flock. We've got the shepherd language, the elder language, the overseer language. And 1 Peter 5 exhorts the elders to shepherd the flock of God, exercising oversight. We've got lots of terms, and they all come back to the same office. Elders are who they are. Shepherd and oversee is what they do. It's all these language terms because Jews would have understood elders all through the Old Testament. You have the elders in the gate making decisions. But the Gentiles didn't have the Old Testament. Instead, they knew that the Roman emperor would appoint an overseer over a city when he conquered it. So he'd appoint the overseer to rule them and to show them how to do it the Roman way. And so an overseer is somebody who would introduce you to something and rule as well. And shepherd, of course, is the warmest term because Jesus Christ is the good shepherd. This is a Presbyterian church, that's Greek for elder. The church is ruled by elders who oversee, who are the shepherds, who are the pastors and teachers. Now what do shepherds do? Let's go back to shepherds, the guys out in the field with sheep. Shepherds have to feed the sheep, protect the sheep, and guide the sheep. We're going over there, guys. And so that's what elders need to do. They need to teach, need to discipline, and need to rule. And it's not a glorious job. And just as a shepherd can't say, well, wolf, you can take sheep off until 7 a.m. and I'm getting up at 7. No, the job of shepherd isn't done at your convenience. Neither is the job of an elder. The elders are the gift of Jesus to the church. The chief shepherd works through his under-shepherds. And all shepherds and elders answer to Christ for the work that we do. And so do believers. As it says in Hebrews 13, 17, it says, Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls. Let them do this with joy and not groaning. But that's no advantage to you. Hebrews 13, 17. I want to urge you, as you think about different gifts given, not to envy someone else for the gift given to them. Don't envy the one who has the gift of frying the eggs. Don't envy the one who has the gift of making somebody just feel really comfortable. Don't envy the one who seems to have the gift of evangelism. Don't envy the pastor and think that's the only important job. Every part of the body is needed. In The Great Divorce, a book by C.S. Lewis. A book with some problems, but a book with some insights. He has a vision, he's dreaming, he's in heaven. And suddenly the angels are all coming together to welcome a great one into heaven. And so he looks to see who is this great one who is being welcomed into heaven. And the great one being welcomed into heaven is a wife who put up with a difficult man with grace for years. Yes, a wife who put up with a difficult marriage. Isn't that the good insight? Jesus promised that many who are first will be last. And many who are last will be first. So let us remember that we're all members of one another. And if one part of your body is pained, the whole body suffers. If one part rejoices, all rejoice. And indeed, those parts that we think are less presentable, we treat with greater care with our bodies. Let it be so with us, because every gift is necessary. So this is the psalm. Jesus has ascended to heaven. He's led a host of captives. He gives gifts to believers. And so every believer has received both the great gift of salvation, and then also whatever talents, whatever passions, whatever gifts, whatever opportunities, whatever desires to serve Christ has given. So don't withhold help from one another, as you were able to give. Don't envy others for the gifts that Christ has decided to give. Don't try to buy what is Christ's gift. Don't wish everyone was like you, as Jesus has made us different. Don't exhaust yourself. What do we have that we have not received? This is the triune God who created the diverse world, so he is redeeming a diverse people. Let us have unity in our diversity and serve one another willingly with whatever Christ has given to you. Let's join together in prayer. Heavenly Father, we confess how easily and quickly We love those who are like us and dislike those who are different. And we pray, Lord, that you would help us to distinguish between what is right and wrong in your sight and what is merely our own personal preference. And we pray, Lord, that you would help us to work together and to serve one another willingly, even as you have made us all one. Indeed, all focused on one hope, all blessed with one baptism, all serving one Lord. Help us, Lord, to keep our eyes on Jesus Christ. We pray, Lord, and we thank you that in this congregation you have knit us together as one body. We pray that you would help us, each one of us, to do the things that you have called on us to do. Give us open eyes to see, Lord, where service is needed and how we can help. And help us, Lord, to love and appreciate how you have blessed each one of us in a slightly different way. Lord, we pray that you would continue to build us up Continue to build us up in strength and in maturity, that we would reflect Your love and Your goodness. Indeed, reflect You, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, more and more. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Let's turn in this author to Psalm 68, Selection C. Psalm 68, Selection C. These verses contain the verse that was quoted, verse 18. You can see that it is the end of the second stanza.