Well, good morning. If you're visiting with us this morning, very glad to have you. We've got, wow, a lot of families out of town, I guess, this week. But we're glad to have you here with us this morning. So what I'm doing this morning is, for many of you, most of you know that our brother Tyler, our newest pastor, our ministry coordinator, his wife Shanti just had a baby. And we've given him a couple of weeks of paternity leave so that he could tend to her. They're actually away at Daryl and Amanda's wedding this weekend in Western Kentucky, I believe. And so, he's normally doing the Sunday school hours. So, what I've been tasked to do is to give an overview of our core value series that we taught at the beginning of, what was that, 2017, I think, a couple of years ago. To give an overview, rather than six months, just to give three weeks on our three big ones, our big three core values, which you'll see there on the screen, you'll see on our signage around the building here. And that is to love God, build the church, and reach the world. Now last week we looked at the first one, just in summary, love God, and we've broken that up into two subheadings, which each of them have two points. And that is by pursuing God in the word and prayer. And that is that we want to be a people of the Bible. We want to be a people of relationship with God through prayer. We want to be those who are constantly pursuing him, not only in focused times of prayer, but also to pray without ceasing and to be people who sing the word, read the word, hear the word, memorize the word, and are saturated with the special revelation of God's word. And then the second point here was worshiping God corporately and personally, that we are to offer our lives as a living sacrifice to the Lord by the renewal of our mind, Romans 12.2, and that all of our life is an act of worship, that there is no secular, sacred divide, that everything we do is either an act of worship, whether we eat or drink or whatever we do, to do all to the glory of God, 1 Corinthians 10.31. Either we are worshiping or we are in some way blaspheming the Lord in not giving him the honor that he is due. And so that's what we covered last week. This week we come to point number two, which is build the church. And the two sub points that we'll look at this morning are by making and maturing disciples of Christ and by equipping and serving the body of Christ. And of course, as with any summary, this is going to be very summarized. It's very boiled down. I can't cover everything. If you think, oh, I really wish he would have mentioned that or I wish he would have gone this way, probably me too. That's why it took six months previously instead of three weeks. But this is our second task, which was really encouraged. We went to the Cumberland Valley or the Cumberland Crisis Pregnancy Center banquet dinner on Thursday night at Long Hollow. And they have really nice signage, they have their core values, they have their discipleship pathway. It was really encouraged how much overlap there was, that we're not the only one thinking these things. But this core value here in building the church by making and maturing disciples of Christ. So let's jump right in to this point. So first of all, the first part of that point is we want to be those who are building the church by making disciples. What we looked at when we spent more time in this series, and a lot of these I'm not going to turn to and spend a lot of time in, but you can turn there if you like. In Matthew chapter 16, there's one of the greatest promises in the Gospels, one of the greatest promises that Jesus himself makes. One of the promises that is made early in Matthew is that you will call his name Jesus and he will save his people from their sins. That's maybe the greatest promise. Here's a promise from Jesus himself after asking Peter and the disciples, who do men say that I am? And they said, well, some say a prophet, some say this, some say maybe Elijah or Isaiah or somebody else. Who do you say that I am? And Peter confesses, you are the Christ, you are the Messiah, the son of the living God. And to which Jesus responds, blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father who is in heaven. And you are Peter, Petras, and upon this rock, Petra, I will build my church. This is, again, a great promise, and the gates of hell will not overcome it. And some of you will remember, perhaps, the sermon that I preached that the gates of hell there have to do particularly with the gates of death, and that even death will not overcome Jesus building up his church. And so when it comes into discussing building the church and what that means, we want to begin with the most foundational issue, which is Jesus has promised to build his church. It is his church. He is the high priest. He is the king. He is the prophet. He is the one upon whom he is the cornerstone. He is the foundation. If anybody builds on any other foundation but that which is in Christ, then it's just wood, hay and stubble. And so we could talk a lot about God's promises and Jesus's promises and how he does that, how he builds his church. But it's one of the two uses usages of the word church ecclesia in the Gospels here and in Matthew 18 or Jesus's two uses of them. And one of them is the promise that he will build his church. So that's where we want to begin, that anything that we have to do We need to get on Jesus's agenda, that we need to do things the way that he says, that this is his church, that he has promised to build his church. So any plans that we would make, any schemes, any proposals, any activities, any programs, anything, we need to constantly try to be staying in touch with Jesus and his spirit and his word, because we can build something that is not his church, and in the end, it's going to be wood, hay, and stubble. So that's what's most foundational and important. The second is just the general question, what is the church? And the church, it seems to me, and many others who have thought about this even more deeply than myself, what is the church? The church is presented in scripture in two primary ways. The first is perspective one, perhaps, if you want to look at it this way, the entirety of his redeemed people called out from the world and put into union with Christ. And that includes those who've already gone to heaven. They're a part of the church. Sometimes we call it the universal church. It's sometimes been called the invisible church. The terminology, I don't care for invisible because I think we're part of the church here, but we're not invisible. We're visible. So I like universal church. I like the church who is in union with Christ. And you can look at the book of Ephesians for this. And this is Paul's primary perspective from which he was writing the book of Ephesians is this big picture of church. of the ecclesia. He's not speaking specifically like he does in other letters. We'll see in a minute. But this is Paul talking about the church as universal and particularly those who are in union with Christ, whether they're living, whether they're dead, summing up all things in him. So you can look, please, at Ephesians one, beginning with verse twenty two, breaking into Paul's thought here in this glorious chapter of Ephesians one. It says, and he put all things, speaking of God the Father, put all things under his, that is Jesus, the son's feet and gave him as head over all things to the church. And then he then defines or describes what church is, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. Let's just park it there for a minute because there's really some remarkable stuff here. One is that that Paul is writing here that Jesus, God, God is doing this with Jesus, appointing him as head over all things to the church. That's a telec clause is for the purpose of the church. So Jesus being the head of all things is in some way for our benefit and for. our purpose and for our end and for ultimately the glorifying of ourselves and being made like the Lord Jesus. And so that it is for God's glory. It is to God's glory, but it is also to the church. And notice here he uses the singular word. He doesn't say to the churches, speaking of local congregations, but here to the church, which then he says is his body. And here's some really interesting incarnational language. And I spoke to this at Ejeka Chapel on Friday. When we think about God as being timeless and spaceless and immaterial, we're just talking about an entity, a being that is beyond our comprehension, because we are by nature time-oriented, we are by nature materially, dimensionally oriented, and we are physical beings, at least that's what we've experienced so far in this world, that when we talk about God who's infinite and eternal and unchangeable in his being. We're just talking in time, prepositions, orientation of language, trying to understand how God, this infinite God has revealed himself. And so now we have like a parallel here, I think, to John chapter one. In the beginning was the word, the word was with God, the Word was God, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. So that in Jesus is the Son of God made manifest, that is his body, that which we have seen, we have heard with our own ears, which we have touched, which we have handled with our, so that's incarnational language. Here Paul talks in a parallel incarnational language. The church which is his body. In some way, as the Church of Christ, we are the embodiment of the presence of Christ who has now gone into heaven. That's incarnational language, and it's not exactly equivalent to the Incarnation. I mean, that is very unique, that the Son of God, the Logos, became flesh, dwelt among us as a man, maintaining both the hold on his nature as God and man, But you'll notice the incarnational language here is that he is head to the church, which is his body. It is his present embodiment in his kingdom, in the world. And here is his body, the fullness, the body is the church, the church is the fullness of him who fills all in all. And he again zooms up into the clouds and to the transcendent. And here's the God who fills all in all, who has his body on the earth, which is the church. And the gospel is for and to the headship of Christ in the church, in the world. And so This is one perspective. And again, this is scratching the surface of a topic that's well worth talking about for much, much longer. And the Bible has as much to say about. But it's the amazing thing of what we're doing here is not we're not just an organization that happens to be getting together a part of something that is just like a religion or philosophy of life that by which we want to develop human flourishing and we want to just do good. We are part of something supernatural. We are part of God who fills all in all, who has incarnated himself uniquely in the person of Jesus and at his resurrection and ascension sent his spirit so that 1 Corinthians 12, 13, that in him you have all been baptized into one body by his spirit. So there's something clearly more than just a change of philosophy or interest of life or you know, 12 rules for living a good hearty life. We are a part of the incarnational representation in a unique way, but different from Jesus. But still, we are the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all and all. That's just remarkable. So when we talk about building the church, we're talking about something grandiose. And had some men over yesterday morning, and we talked about the pursuit of excellence And how much that's tied in with the pursuit of grandiosity. We talked about how on the Lord of the Rings movies, there were those, if you've seen the behind the scene DVD features, you had a couple of people who did nothing for I think two, two and a half years, but make chain mail. Like that's all they did. To the point that they wore the fingerprints off of their fingers. And the chain mail, they could have easily manufactured, they could have made out of plastic, but they wanted this to have a real-world feel to it, so they did nothing. And when asked about the mundaneness of their task, they said, look what we're a part of. And so their pursuit of excellence in the mundane put them into connection with something that's grandiose, which was these three amazing movies, if you ask my opinion, a fair representation, not perfect, but fair representation of the books and of the stories. That's that's equivalent to what we're doing here. So in pursuing excellence in building the church, we are taking part of something that is is phenomenally, eternally grandiose. And that is Christ building his church. That's perspective. Number one perspective. Number two, is that when we use, in answer to the question, what is the church? Perspective two says, defines it as local, visible expressions of his kingdom. Now Paul does this, for instance, over in Galatians. In Galatians chapter one, there in verse two and 22, in chapter, Galatians one, two, to all the brothers who are with me to the churches, plural, of Galatia. to the churches, plural, of Galatia. Galatia was this region in Asia Minor, and there's some question whether it's Lower Galatia or Upper Galatia and exactly what he's talking about. It was clearly an area, a territory there. And here he doesn't see the church as one singular unit. He's here now identifying the church as the churches that are in the Ecclesia, the gathered ones who are of Galatia. And in verse 22, And I was still unknown in person to the churches, plural, of Judea. So now you've got the churches of Galatia, you have the churches of Judea that are in Christ. And that's the universal, the union with Christ. And so by building the church, we're becoming a part of something great and grand and grandiose. We're doing something far beyond what we can see and what we can even comprehend fully. But in building the church and coming alongside, if you will, or being those who are workers in the kingdom, we are also particularly interested in building local churches and our local church by making disciples. So that's what the church is. So Jesus has promised to build it both in its universal as well as its localized form. And now I want us to look at Ephesians 4, 11 through 16 to look at what our participation is to be in the church, in the building of the church. And when I when I taught this a couple of years ago now, it was it was kind of something I was really wrestling with, working through, because I'd had a dear brother, a really sharp brother, I won't say rebuke, rebuke, we'll just say correct. He's like, because I use the terminology, you know, as we build the church and he took me to task on it. He's like, no, we don't build the church. Christ has promised to build the church. That's what he does. And we just kind of get on board and do what he says kind of thing. But he challenged me on the terminology. He was like, well, fair enough. Let me think about that. And let me look scripturally. I went back to more firmly hold the position I was already holding, that we indeed do participate with Christ in building the church. That's why I expanded this point to the degree, because maybe you've heard that. No, we can't build the church, Jesus has promised to do that. Well, I'm gonna suggest it's not an either or. So we look together at Ephesians 4.11, and after talking about and writing about in Ephesians, there being one body, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is in us all, this unity of the Spirit, talking in verse 11 about the ascended Christ who is ascending from the lower parts up into heaven and giving apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers. And often this passage is used to orient itself to proof texting the importance of pastors and teachers. But I'm going to recommend that that comment about giving the gifts of pastors, teachers, evangelists, apostles, and prophets is a passing comment on the point of the passage. That is a commentary. It's not all about what the pastors and teachers do. It's all about what the church does that the pastors and teachers equip the church to do. So it's about the church. It's not primarily about the gifts of the speaking gifts here. It is about that, but not primarily. So, for instance, verse 11, and he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and the teachers, all of which are word gifts. The revelatory gifts either sharing new revelation, in the case of the Old Testament prophets, New Testament apostles, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers passing on the revelation that God has given in his word. And the purpose of these gifts is, verse 12, to equip the saints for the work of ministry. Now, what this verse to some degree hinges on is what exactly is being said there. Is it task number one of pastors, teachers, elders, and so on? to equip the saints, point number one, bullet point number two, to do the work of ministry. And then point number three, four, or not point number three, but the work of ministry for building up the body of Christ, and I think that's crucial. So is that two tasks that word gifts do, those ones listed at the beginning, or is it a task that they do by equipping the saints so that the saints can do those kinds of things? Well, I'll put my cards on the table. I believe verse 12, and I'll try to demonstrate this to you, verse 12, to equip the saints for the work of ministry is not a comma there. There's no comma in any Greek. There are different English translations that break it up in that way. But notice this, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, so that having equipped the saints for the work of ministry is how I'm paraphrasing here. so that they would build up the body of Christ. OK, so first let me try to prove the point that it is the church that builds up the body of Christ and the church is equipped by the teaching gifts to build up the body of Christ. It is not the teaching gifts primarily in this passage who are building up the body of Christ. And then we'll come back to what that means. Why do I say that it is the word gifts who are equipping the saints who themselves are doing the work of ministry for the building up of the church. Well, if you'll go down to the end of the section, verse 16, this is the primary reason, I think, because grammatically it could be either way. But in verse 16, we read that the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. So Paul takes the terminology he uses earlier in that section and doesn't apply it to what the pastoral ministry does or the speaking ministry does, but they equip the body of Christ to do the work of ministry. Why? So the body can build itself up in love so that when the body is equipped, each part is working. And here the word working and the word equipping and the word growing and all this are the exact parallels of what he says earlier in the passage. So as we go back to what he says then about leaders, apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, teachers, for the purpose of equipping the saints for the work of ministry, why? So the saints can be equipped to build up the body when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. Now, the point I'm making here is Christ has promised to build his church. Now, in the ESV English translation, they keep translating the word, is it oikomeno? I'm not remember what word it is, but it has to do with building up. But the English translation, they keep putting building up, building up, building up. And it's like, well, no, we build up the church. Jesus builds the church. Here's the problem with that is there's no up in the Greek. It's the same word building. Christ builds his church. And what do we do? We build one another. It's the same word. So building up, seen as a kind of a subservient task of Christ builds a church and we build up the church, it's just not born in the grammar itself and in the Greek itself. So who builds the church, Christ or us? The answer is both. Yes, and he builds his church. We build the church as well. Not without him, not without the help of his spirit. not without being equipped by his word, not without the task of as appointed in the word of God. But nevertheless, I humbly push against what my brother said. No, Christ builds this church. We just kind of do something else and, you know, we just preach the gospel. No, we build the church. And the purpose of this And the purpose of what we do as a teaching ministry is to equip you for the work of ministry. So for instance, if it's like, well, this kind of ministry isn't being done in this church, or this kind of ministry isn't being done in church, it's right to ask the leadership, shouldn't this be done? But at the end of the day, it's the church that does the work of the ministry, not just the elders or the pastors. So we participate in the church. Now, John, you said this was 10 minutes slow, and now says 9.14. So this clock is, yes. I got a new clock up here. That's what I'm referring to. I was like, this is it. I'm gonna fix this problem I have. So much for $6 Amazon clocks. You get what you pay for. But thank you, Ryan. Yes, that's up there. I have this here. I'm just noting to John, it says 9-14. And you reset this, didn't you? Yes. It also said 12-25, so it was also Christmas. All right, so what does that mean? Then in the church's commission, making disciples, the church's commission, Matthew 28, 18 through 20. You know it well, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Therefore, going or go make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I've taught you. Behold, I'm with you always to the end of the age. And so our commission then is to build up the church. It is to build the church. It is to expand the kingdom through the preaching of the gospel, through the making of disciples. And essentially what discipleship is, is inviting people in to be a follower of Jesus Christ. To obey him. To submit to his lordship voluntarily. To recognize that his way is right and our ways, when they contradict his ways, are wrong. And so discipleship is more than preaching the gospel so that somebody can believe a message and then have their sins forgiven. Preaching the gospel includes in all of the nations, not only a call of forgiveness of sins, but also discipleship and following of Jesus Christ. And this brings in the modern debate that it's happened for a number of decades now about the lordship of Christ. Can you be saved without him being your lord? And I just don't see that in scripture makes any sense whatsoever. that somehow I can accept him as my lamb and not also accept him as my master. I don't see that two-stage or that two-fold process in scripture. To submit to him, to confess that Jesus is Lord, that he is my lamb, is simply come and follow me, and you will have eternal life. So the division of, well, I can be saved, but I'm just not a disciple, I don't see that dichotomy in scripture. So here, Jesus says, go and make disciples, not go and make converts merely. Don't go and just. Convince people that this philosophy is better than other philosophies and not even just go tell people that Jesus has been raised from the dead, that there's there's not a completion of the commission and ongoing progress in the mission, unless disciples are being made and coming under his discipleship. Now, so here, the starting point is, of course, the telling of the gospel of the kingdom. And we've seen this a lot in the book of Matthew. And depending on how Matthew presents it, there are different ways to describe the gospel. I mean, the big features are the same, but there are ways of talking about the gospel as a metanarrative or the coming of the kingdom or Christ is the lamb, Christ is the king, Christ is the prophet. There are various ways to kind of color the story itself, but it still comes down to the fact that God created the world and he is king of the world because by nature he is our creator. We have rebelled against him through sin and through rebellion and that now we can't be reconciled to God because we have the sin problem. So we have an obedience problem, we have a sin problem, we have all of these difficulties and Christ is the answer to build his kingdom in a microcosmic way by the spread of the church, preparing for the day when he will return again, when Jesus will turn again, and that kingdom will spread and cover the entirety of the earth. Until then, the church is the placeholder for that promise of the full coming of the kingdom. And so that's what we're doing. So the starting point is that God has given a king and a kingdom. And so it's not just behold the lamb, have your sins forgiven. It is also, he's given a king. And he's invited you into citizenship and he's called you to repentance and he's he's called you into discipleship to be a part of the preview of what God will eventually do when the kingdom comes on earth as it now is in heaven. So the preaching of the gospel is the first stage, if you will, of building the church, of seeing the kingdom advance. What's really interesting was listening to an audio journal. I listen to a bi-monthly, every other month, journal that I listen to, audio journal, and one of the authors just pointed out the English word gospel in the Middle English, and going back a little bit further from a Germanic language, the word gospel comes from God spell, and we think of spells like, you know, Maximus, Protrugus, something like that, you Harry Potter, Fans are giggling. God's spell, spell means story. It means something of to enchant someone into a story or a thought about themselves. Spells had the idea of injecting thoughts that somebody suddenly believed the story that they were a toad or that they got the evil eye and they're suddenly believing something by introduction and influence of words. So God's spell is literally God's story. Gospel is how to get in on God's story, because he has one. And as C.S. Lewis says, that we're all a part of God's story, which is either going to be ending as a tragedy or a comedy. Now, the way that in classic usage of the word comedy, a comedy is not what we think of like a modern comedy, ha ha. The comedy is something where you have this flawed, fumbling character that suddenly at the end of the story has a shock and surprise and it turns out for their benefit. And isn't that us? We're the bumbling fools. We're stumbling through life, wondering what in the world we're doing. In the end, we get a eucatastrophe of a surprise and things turn out well. It's like, in the end, we'll be like, yes. That's God's grace. The tragedy is there's a character with a fatal flaw that they don't fully see themselves until they see it at some chapter of the story, some part of the story. They see the flaw in their story. And if you want to see a great example of this, read C.S. Lewis's Till We Have Faces. where Orwell all through the book is like has this charge against the gods for this cruelty that they put her under. And then she has a very significant turn of perspective. And suddenly it starts reading back into the story and she sees everything different. Well, that's the catastrophe of the wicked. That's the catastrophe of those outside of Christ that suddenly when Christ is revealed in his glory, they've had this tragic flaw of unbelief and of sin and of self and self idolatry that will be revealed to them. But the thing in a tragedy is when you realize and you have a point of self-revelation and knowledge, it's too late. It's too late. And Lewis says that God's story is for everyone either a comedy where we're bumbling through. And in the end, it turns out well and we laugh and go, man, that's amazing. Or it's a tragedy where we think we're OK till we get to the end, and then by Jesus presentation of himself, we have greater understanding of ourselves and into what what what Lewis and the classicists called the miserific vision. You've heard of the beatific vision. The beautiful vision when you see Christ and in some ways are taken into his glory and participate in his glory, John chapter 17. And there's an eternal beatific vision of the presence of Christ. And Lewis says there's also the miserific vision of looking upon the face of the one that we will eternally dread. That's the gospel, that's the God story. And so it is about telling the story to others of what God is doing in the world, of the big picture, of the meta-narrative, of however you want to put it, that God has been into this since the very beginning. And we want to tell people that they're invited through Jesus to get into that story and experience him. So that's how we make disciples. And then the proper response to that discipleship is a change of mind for a person to hear the gospel story. And we could sometimes just we just call it repentance, metanoia. It's the changing of the mind. It's I had this entire framework of what life is about and who I am and what I'm living for and what holds true after I die. And now I hear the God spell, the God story, and suddenly I turn from my way of thinking of this false story, this false narrative, and I change my mind that sin is not okay. Rebellion is not okay. Having myself as my own end and purpose is not okay. Of using people, of living for money and living for wealth and living for this world or living for my own reputation. None of those things are the true story. This is the true story. And I turn my mind from these things, which then turns me away from sin. It turns me away from rebellion. It turns me away from unrighteousness and wickedness. And so that's repentance. It's not repentance. It's not just stop doing some sin. Repentance is a total transformation of mind and story to say, I'm turning from this sin because I have a king and he has a law and he has given us this law for our good and for our flourishing. And so the reason I don't want to commit adultery or lust after a woman It's not merely because I'm trying to be a better person is because I live under a king who has a law. And for my wife's good and my good and others goods, I ought not to commit adultery. Now I love righteousness, not just trying to stop sinning. I'm trying to love righteousness and human flourishing and blessing under Christ. So it's what we typically call repentance and living by trust in Jesus Christ, even when things. When life brings about suffering, life brings about difficulty, to say that I live believing in the things not that I can see, but the things that are unseen, because the things that are seen are temporary. The things that I don't see are eternal. And so death is not the end. Suffering and misery is not the end. The wrecked nature of the world and injustice and human wars is not the end that I believe that God in his story is doing something much larger than what we can see. And then the proper response and repentance towards God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is entrance into a relationship as a disciple. So in building the church, we want to make disciples. We want people to enter into the story. We want full buy-in as much as we can get initial understanding. Because how many of us really, when we got married or when we became a follower of Jesus, how many of us really knew what we were getting into? Most of us didn't. But we knew in some sense what we were getting into, what the cost was going to be. So this is the proper response. So I was going to ask at this point here, can I tell you a story? I just did. So that's the story. So by making disciples, we want to be telling the gospel. We want to be telling others about this. And it's not for us to get them to accept it, to get them to believe it, to argue and debate them into it. Stephen Curtis Chapman has a song where he talked about the men, including Jim Elliot and Steve St. or Nate St. and those men. who went to take the gospel in South America to the Alka Indians. And he's got a phrase in one of his songs that he said, what is this story you would lay down your lives to tell? And I love it because it takes the pressure off. We all our job is just to tell a story. That's it. Our job is to tell the gospel, what God has done and is is doing and yet will do in Jesus. So telling that story and then saying, and God is telling you because this story is true, you should change your mind about everything in life and you should turn to him and live for him, because in the end, this is not going to turn out well. So what is the story that you would lay down your life to tell? It takes the pressure off. We're ultimately, as the church, we're telling and propagating the story of Jesus. And by story, I don't mean something as false. I mean, it's a narrative. It is a story that God has been unfolding. So we make disciples, but then here, again, is where we can, another place we can drop the ball, and that is by building the church by maturing disciples. As I've already said, the goal is not just getting converts and getting somebody initial buy in and having them cut off some sins and, you know, stop living with that person and marrying that person. And OK, we're done now. The desire is to mature disciples of Jesus. The goal of making disciples is not merely getting saved, but having been saved from our sins and having our sins and our our iniquities washed away. Paul puts it like this in Colossians and Colossians one. Verse 28 and 29, him we proclaim warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ. So this is a parenting job. So what the church is, and I think I mentioned this a few weeks ago, maybe a couple months ago, is that what we as the church are doing is we're coming in with our family of origin, our moms, dads, grandfathers, you know, they have some degree of of alignment with biblical principles. But really what we're doing is we're coming in to be taught by our father through his word to be reparented in life. And so a lot of hearing our father's word is about, OK, I thought it was OK for me to do this, this and this or to think this way, this way, this way. And now I'm being reparented by my heavenly father, by his word, through his servants, through one another, so that I can grow up and be mature in Christ. So just getting saved, which is kind of a It's a bit caricatured, but just getting saved, you know, once we got him saved and, you know, we built the church. Well, the church ought not to remain in infancy. The church and the goal here, Paul says, is to present everyone mature in Christ, that when you're a new Christian, you're a baby and then you have a child stage. Then you have a young adult stage. Then you have an adult stage. And then for many of us, we have a parenting stage. But the goal is not just merely information, it's maturity. It is to grow in Christ, and Paul says for this to this end, I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me. And so here's how we begin, all the way to the left there. We begin, Ephesians 2, dead in our sins and trespasses in which we once walked, according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of this air. But he, even when you were dead, he made you alive in Christ. So there's a dividing line there. So through the preaching of the gospel, the coming of the word on the wings of the spirit, and bringing new birth and new life by a sovereign act of God, a sovereign and unilateral act of God, someone goes from being the walking dead to a baby. And that which is totally fine. They're new. They're hungry. Everything's new to them. They're trying to feel their way. And then what you have are these stages of maturity from infancy to childhood. And by the way, it's it's not like it's not like physicality. This is not like physical growth. Just give it enough time and you will naturally mature. There's some people who've been Christians for years that may be very immature. There may be Christians who are relatively young because of various factors of what God gave them sovereignly within their life, may be a relatively young new believer, but yet be pretty mature in a number of ways. So it's not an exact equivalent. You know, at 10 years old, you're the equivalent of a 10 year old. There are various factors that take place as to whether there's this maturity. And so here here's some of them, for instance, just spiritual strength. Spiritual strength can be a mark of maturity. Knowledge, of course, information, that we should be wise in what is good. We should be growing in the scriptures, growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so knowledge of God, knowledge of his word, knowledge of how he works in the world. What comes with spiritual maturity is increase in knowledge and understanding, but increase in wisdom. Wisdom is just the wise, practical application of knowledge. And if you don't have knowledge and wisdom growing at approximately the same rate, you can have a very spiritually, and I don't mean this in any way, I don't know what else word to use, but it's not intended to be offensive, but you have a very retarded Christian. They are retarded in their growth. If they have more knowledge than they do application of it through wisdom, there's a retardation there of spiritual growth. But for wisdom, you also need knowledge. So then there's also stability. We saw that in Ephesians four, that that they should be no longer blown to and fro by every wind and wave of doctrine. You know, if you get on the if you get on the YouTube, on the Internet's and see a video pop up in your, you know, the things you may be interested in, you click on it and suddenly your faith is completely undermined or you think, oh, no, I've been completely wrong about this by, you know, a video or two of some Yahoo from who knows where who's, you know, persuasive in their presentation, that's spiritual instability. There ought to be an increasing stability. Like, I've been at this a while, I know what the Bible teaches, and it's going to take a lot to knock me off my feet. That's a spiritual maturity. And then there's just courage. Paul says, be strong in the Lord, and act like men. And he says that, by the way, to the entire Corinthian church, that it's sometimes translated, be courageous. But even women should be, in the gospel, courageous and act like men, Paul says there in 1 Corinthians 16. So a growth in courage, typically, as a man, as a person gets older, they should go from being young and timid And unsure as they grow older, there's a degree of growing of courage. And then here's one of obviously the most important ones, which is love. And what is love? First Corinthians 13, it's a fruit of the Spirit, Galatians 5, a growth in love. You can have somebody who knows how to do the right things, who has the right answers, who have themselves steadfastness and ability, but if they're not growing in love, There is a stunting, maybe that's a better word than retardation, is the stunting of the growth. And then finally, bearing forth maturity in righteousness, equity, and justice. That a person is becoming more holy, a person is becoming more steadfast in their obedience to the word, which doesn't mean that they don't ever fail, it doesn't mean that they don't ever sin. But there's a growing understanding of righteousness and doing things that are right and full of equity and justice. These are all marks of what it means to be growing and maturing as a Christian. And Paul says, we are longing to present you mature in Christ. So what do we want? We want a church where we are growing in spiritual strength, where we are growing in knowledge, where we are growing in wisdom, we are growing in stability. where we are growing in courage and faith in the Lord because of what he's done. I'm getting to the point where we don't even fear death. We don't fear threats. We don't fear persecution, that we are increasing in love for neighbor and love for God and righteous and equity and justice, that we're doing the right things. We don't come to church and then go to our businesses and act like a scoundrel. or manipulate people, or take more money, or check out early and don't clock out, and has to do with using right measures and treating people with dignity and equity. So those are some of the marks of just maturing disciples. And then ultimately what you're doing, and one of the marks of maturity is a person moving from dependence to service and not quite independence, because we're a community, we are a church, we are always united with one another. So I purposely didn't put independence, but from dependence to service. And if we find ourselves complaining about this thing and that thing and the other thing and this thing isn't done right and so on, but we're not serving, there's probably spiritual immaturity. Instead of saying, OK, this maybe this thing's not being done. I wonder how the Lord would use me to do that since I have the burden, since I have the sight and see that there's there's something there's a vacuum here. There's something that needs to be done. I wonder what the Lord may be calling me to serve in that. I wonder if I could go to the leadership and say, hey, I notice this might be an area lacking in our church. I've got a particular burden and desire. Is there a way I can get involved? Would you all would you all assist me and resource me and help me into doing this particular kind of thing. But if you still have someone who is dependent on every jot and tittle of everything that the church does and everything the church teaches, then you probably have a degree of spiritual immaturity. Well, the last point here, the last two points actually, building the church by equipping and serving the body of Christ. These are much, smaller points because I've already covered a lot of this and what I've already said. So it's equipping the body of Christ and equipping and so that the whole body is participating. Every one of you, if you're a Christian, you have some participation in the body of Christ. You have some role, function, or roles and functions that God intends for you to fulfill. And so in building the church, and that's the big picture here, Ephesians 4.13, Paul says this, equipping the saints for the work of ministry until we all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. We just talked about maturity so that no longer we would be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine. Rather, verse 15, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head into Christ from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped when each part is working properly. So the image here is of a body with the various organs and the various systems, the nervous system, the cardiovascular system, the cognitive system. You've got all these systems working together. And you have a good, healthy body. So it's not just individual maturity that we're concerned about. But as you and I grow together in maturity, then our body becomes together a more mature body of Christ. And we do that not by humbly saying, well, I just don't have any gifts. I just don't know what to do around here. I guess I'm a nobody and I'm just I'm just going to not do anything. It doesn't work. We will always be stunted in our maturity if you don't find out and press into what are my gifts, what are my abilities, what does God call me to do here at the church, but also in my community, in my household, in the place of my employment. So equipping and participation of the whole body of Christ. There are no benchers, by the way. There are no people benched in the kingdom. If you are called in Christ, then you're on the field, And it's for you and us together to figure out your position. So you can play your position well, because you're important. There are no extraneous members of the body. There aren't like, well, Johnny, you know, there you are on the bench. We only allow 10 on the field, but come on out and kind of run around with us anyway. At least we'll give Johnny the idea that he's a part of us. No, Johnny has a very important part to play. And that's what Ephesians 4 tells us. So the equipping and participation, the purpose of the gifts, 1 Corinthians 12, I don't have time to go into it, but the purpose of gifts, 1 Corinthians 12, is to minister to the body of Christ in love. Purpose of my gifts is not to get my own spiritual jollies, to have my own spiritual good time, but in delight in the Lord, then serving others and in delighting in others and serving them in love for the good of all. And then the identifying of gifts. And here I'm gonna have to be very, very brief Basically, what you have in 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, 1 Peter 4, some of you are saying, well, what are my gifts? What do I do? I'm not a preacher. What am I? Let me just show you a chart. I did a whole lesson on this of my understanding of spiritual gifts. In 1 Peter 4 10, Peter writes of those who speak the word and those who serve. So what I basically understand is that there are word gifts And by the way, these can be mixed and intermingled and somebody can have both. But there are word gifts, indeed gifts of different sorts on the right hand side. And these are all gifts. James 117 are gifts that come from above for the father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. I think that all the gifts, even in common grace, are from God on the right hand or what I call the extraordinary gifts. They are gifts that God gives that you don't prepare for. You don't take training and you don't you know, get whooped up about, you don't, you know, there's no course to go. This is something that is a sovereign unilateral act of God that he does, that he gives and dispenses as he wills. And we are receptive to them, but we don't actually try and pursue them. And here's, for instance, In regards to New Revelation, the apostles and prophets, the gift of tongues, no New Testament tongues conferences to get your glossolalia going. God sovereignly spoke through people as he pleased and did so instantaneously. Predictive abilities of the prophets, of foreseeing something and knowing something is going to happen. That is something you don't train for. That's something that God gives and perhaps gives in instances today. Discernment, supernatural discernment, not just, not just, hmm, I've been around and I've got, you know, kind of a lot of experience with people. I think there's a natural discernment that's also a gift of God. But this is a discernment of something that you could not otherwise tell. that kind of ability. For instance, Philip being told to go to the Samaritan, go to that chariot over there, knowing that there was going to be a person receptive to the gospel. That was a supernatural discernment. And then visions and dreams, something that you don't have conferences for, is God gives them if he's going to reveal them sovereignly and unilaterally. So those are word gifts, examples of word gifts. Vision and dreams, yeah, I still think it's that. but then deed gifts of an ability to instantaneously heal, of sign gifts, of supernatural, what have I got there? Yeah, supernatural feats, like making axe heads float, and water coming out of rocks, that kind of thing, and then supernatural protection. So these are things that I think, and we can discuss which or if any of them continue today in whatever form. My point here is simply that When they exist, whenever they've exist, God sovereignly does it. And it's they're not things that we pursue. They're not things we discover about ourselves. There's something that God unilaterally, sovereignly gifts. And again, willing to discuss that point. And there might be some minutia you think, I don't think it goes in that category. This one, that's OK. We can disagree or we can talk about it. But over to this other category, the ones that I'm more concerned about, which are ordinary, but nevertheless, don't think about ordinary like something bad. I don't mean ordinary. I'm just things that are still the work of the spirit and. Are supernatural, they're still gifts from heaven, they're still the work of the spirit, and there are these word gifts, and I would include things like teaching, the ability to have faith would be more of a word gift or perhaps bleeding over into the deed gift to act in faith would be a deed gift. to be able to speak words of comfort and consolation, encouragement, the gifts of languages and learning for the purpose of Bible translation or the flourishing of cultures, for counseling, writing, wisdom, studying and understanding, a whole bunch of things that fall under the rubric of word gifts. And then, again, supernatural, gifted of God for the edification and equipping and building of the church, Deed gifts includes skills of various sorts. It could be physical skills Craftsmanship in various areas. I would include Beauty and art within those things clothes designing that are beautiful and and and honoring to the Lord into the body Administration and management. I believe is a spiritual gift and we see that again in first Corinthians 12 and physical care and healing, arts and music, physical strength, service, acts of mercy, giving, generosity, and yes, even the ability to make money. God gives wealth, and he gives it for the stewardship of doing good in a fallen world. that left hand category, looking at the ordinary gifts. So it's like, what are what are my orientations? What are my passions? What am I good at? If it's I've just got a strong physical body and I love serving people for the glory of Christ with my strong physical body. But I'll never be a preacher. Now, you're making a hierarchy that I don't know that the Bible gives. It's what you're gifted to do, what you're able to do, then doing that in building up the church and serving our community. All right, I've got two minutes, awesome. So making and maturing disciples, so build the church by making and maturing disciples of Christ and by equipping and serving the body of Christ. Okay, so that's a lot. Kimberly sometimes says, how do you have so much to say? It's like, you ought to hear all the things I'm not saying that I'm thinking about. So with the two minutes that remain, are there any questions, clarifications, comments on any of that? That's about two months worth of material, originally, that I've tried to cover in one session. Yeah, Ben. About immaturity. Immaturity in itself, I'm assuming you'd say it's not a bad thing. Yes and no. OK. Let's expand on that. Yeah. Because I would assume that you all have, that's all we have. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, so Ben's question is, just expand a little bit on maturity. Immaturity, I mean, is it bad for a two-year-old to be immature? Well, of course not. If somebody has the physical, mental, cognitive ability to work and feed themselves and they're still dependent on their mom, is it a bad thing to be immature? Yeah, it is. They have the capacity and ability to move past that, but they don't. So in some cases, yes, immaturity can be bad. And I'd also say that there's some people maybe will be really mature in some areas and other areas be relatively immature. You could have somebody who has incredible wisdom and insight, but just their nature, There's something about fear that just really grips them. They could be incredibly wise, but they're just a fearful person. So that'd be an opportunity for maturity there. So all of these levels don't go up at the same time. Does that make sense? Yeah. So you might meet somebody and you think, man, in that area, they're incredibly mature and I can really learn and grow from them. But there are other areas that maybe would be lower. Yeah. Does that answer your question? Yes, good, good, good, good. Yes. Amen. Yeah, it's that stuckness in an immaturity. That's the problem. But that's that's a great that's a great point because we're all growing because none of us. Capital and none of us are capital immature yet, that's that's when Christ returns and we become exactly like him. That's that's the full stature. So we are all in process of maturing. So we don't have the luxury to look around and say, well, everybody around here is immature but me or us. Well, in what area? I mean, what are you talking about? Which also ought to breed humility. And maybe that's a maturity issue as well. It's usually the young that are brazen and proud. those who've been kicked around by life and by one another while there's a bit more humility that comes with that. And I think humility is, I should add that to that, humility is one of the marks. Yeah. All right, great question. Well, let's pray. I ask the Lord to be with us. So Father, we ask that you would please help us as a church to focus in and think about how to apply these things in our maturity as a body. as individuals and our families, that our great goal would not be just salvation, but maturity in union with Christ. For this, may we labor and toil with all the energy that you yourself work in us for the good of our church. Bless us as we come to worship, and I should say continue to worship you, and bless our time together, we pray in Christ's name.