Good morning. Thank you for coming today. Kind of an emotional week for me as I think back about God's mercy and his faithfulness. First moved up here. And yeah, I just, I go through bouts of tears and joy. So if I start blabbering up here, I'm going to blame it on allergies. If you have your Bible, I don't have a handout for you this morning, but we're going to work out Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4. Now, if you've ever been driving down the road and been behind one of these semi-trucks or maybe a service van of some kind, and a lot of times they have advertisements on them or whatever, but they also at times have a question designed to get some feedback from you, and 1-800-HOWSMYDRIVING or something like that. My wife, when she's riding with me, actually says that quite a bit, because I don't know if other males do this. I look at a lot of things down the road, and oftentimes the road isn't one of them. And so I remember even occasionally when you stop at a restaurant, they give you a doggie bag, and it's got an 800 number to give their feedback. And every time I go to the doctor, I get three or four emails wanting my feedback. And so we're gonna do a little feedback session here this morning. Now when it comes to giving feedback, obviously depending on what it is, you can get a wide range of opinions. The problem with most feedback is when it comes to food, for example, there's not a standard by which you can measure accurate feedback by, and so I don't know how you gauge the validity of some of that feedback. There's opinions and there's no standard. And yet when it comes to the Church of Jesus Christ, and our local church in particular, we do have a standard. It's called the scriptures. And in particular, we're presented with information through the epistles of God's blueprint for his church in this dispensation. And so we can answer the question after 25 years, or we'll start to answer it, or we'll give it a shot anyway, how are we doing? How are we doing? is how we function and how we think in alignment with what the Savior set forth in his word relative to his church. Are we growing in the grace and knowledge of the Savior? Are we fading into the sunset? Are we dying away? It's never easy to self-evaluate because we all have biases and we all have blind spots, but we're gonna try and evaluate a little bit today. You know, one thing that becomes clear as you read your New Testament, as there's things either directly or indirectly stated, especially in the epistles, that give us a purpose for breathing air as a child of God. And one of them is Peter. And a lot of times, there's either indirect or direct appeals to do the will of God. And you and I have been left here to do the will of God. And Peter, in his epistle, made that clear. Here's just one example. He says, therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves for the same thinking. For he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. That, purpose clause, that he should no longer live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but notice, for the will of God. For we've spent enough of our past lifetime, and I don't care when your marker is right there, doing the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lewdness and lust and drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and bonwill adulteries, and on we go. You know, we're to forget those things which are behind us, and we're to press on toward the mark, the prize of the upward call in Christ Jesus. But the scriptures also bear, when it comes to the will of God, For you as an individual, there's a wider context than merely what's in it for me. I mean, the goal in doing the will of God is not confined to what you've got going in your own private little universe. It's a wider context. Fulfilling the will of God is intimately connected to functioning and being part of a local church. And that's so important to know. Perspective you are to have in life and the principles and precepts that are to direct your steps as we read in God's word have been permanently communicated to you and me through letters written to local churches that existed in the first century. The majority of the biblical truth that's to be indelibly implanted in our brains so as to do the will of God is found in the epistles. They were written to teach and admonish, correct and instruct those who have been saved by God's grace. But again, all of this is designed to be viewed through the grid of a local church. And so we think of Itasca Bible Church, been here 25 years. And so how are we doing? Are we doing what God would have us to do? Are we fulfilling the objectives by grace in the way that he wants it seen accomplished through humble acts of service for his honor and glory? How do we know that corporately we're doing what the head of the church, the Lord Jesus Christ, desires? And so let's evaluate. You know, we spent some time doing this on Wednesday nights recently as we've gone through a series of studying the seven churches in Asia Minor, which the Lord Jesus Christ evaluated. We know through reading those, part of those letters is that he's walking amongst us today. Our Savior's with us today and he's sitting and that's his desire. And so let's evaluate. We know that he desires that each one of his local churches that have been established be all that they can be by God's grace, because in several of those evaluations he gave, he gave some criticism and some strong admonishments, because he wants our lives and our church, even corporately, to count. And so have you ever asked the question, what does your local church mean to you? God wants you to understand his program for the local church. that we're all in this together, we're part of our body, and that that's to impact our thinking and even how we look at the rest of our existence on earth. I've often wondered how the average individual thinks, average individual that's saved thinks about his local church, what it means to them. Does it matter to them on a personal level? Can they take it or they leave it? What is the church? What does it mean to God the Father? What does it mean to the Lord Jesus Christ? What's the objective? Can you personally know and understand what the scriptures say about the church? And again, how does it impact your outlook and life in general, and then if you're part of this church, specifically here at Itasca Bible Church. You know, throughout Christendom, even in our country today, there's all kinds of people that have shown up for a church service, and they've got all kinds of reasons for doing it. You know, sometimes if the weather's lousy, They go to church because their plans were spoiled in some way. Sometimes they come out of obligation. The reason we're to come is because we're having a love affair with our Savior. And because of that, what's important to Him has become important to us. And that the things that value, Christ values, we're gonna see here is ministry and edification and equipping. And one another in one another is important to Him. And if I'm having a love affair with him, what's important to him is going to become important to me. And so we know that we have something to look at by which we can evaluate. There's those, because of various reasons, that have a perception of the church that is either limited or inaccurate biblically. And because of that, sometimes the regard for the local church isn't very high. So what's our criteria? Let's look at it. I like what one veteran pastor over 50 years said this. He said, the local assembly should take precedence over all other units because it's formed according to the purpose of God to possess and radiate his glory. It is not merely incidental to the divine plan for this dispensation. It is very important and has the potential for the most gratifying service. Another minister said, despite all the emphasis on the local church in the Bible, it appears to be the least understood, the most underrated, and the most abused of all that pertains to the Lord's work. Strong statement. And the local church is facing challenges, it always has. You have the potential for false doctrine, the potential for carnality, the potential for wrong emphasis. as the church has shifted over the years, and the emphasis in many evangelical churches today is on something other than the teaching of the word of God. Oftentimes it's music, which makes up the main course of the service, and so forth. The church may be struggling due to domineering or passive leadership, due to unbiblical ecumenism, due to the parachurch, due to apathy. Remember years ago, and having a discussion, someone encouraged you to be part of the local church. You said, well, you're the one who told me I don't need to go to church to be saved. I said, well, yeah, I did, and that's true, but... In the end, to mix the details of life, we all got things to do, people to see, logs to mow, dogs to feed, whatever it might be. And then there's a myriad of distractions that are vying for your attention, like mine. And so, are we willing to allow the scriptures to give us a divine viewpoint relative to our local church? That's the question. You know, God only has one worldwide construction project going on in this dispensation, it's his church. And we're to allow that to grip our thinking and to have a life-changing impact on how we even look at life. So let's back up a little bit, let's ask the question, what's the church? Church is the Greek word ekklesia. It's derived from the Greek preposition ek, which means out of or from out of. And the verb kaleo, which means to call, and so literally the word ekklesia means the called out from ones. And everyone that's part of the Church of Jesus Christ has been called out of the world system and then placed into Jesus Christ. Now there's the universal church. And the universal church is comprised of everyone since the day of Pentecost that has trusted Christ as their savior to the day that the Lord appears in the sky and receives all believers to himself. That's the universal church. And so the moment you as a lost sinner, whoops, I'm using white, believes in Christ, he's placed into the body of Christ. We're the body, Christ is the head. We're joined to Christ and we're joined to one another. And one day we're all gonna meet in the sky and so shall we ever be with the Lord. And so the church and its millions and millions and millions of members are gonna gather together for all eternity to be with him. But the word is also used to the local church. And a local church is a summoned autonomous group of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ that reside in a particular locality. And for most of us, that's Itasca County. And that's why when you read in the scriptures and even the epistles, they're written to a local church. Corinthians, for example, to the church of God, which is at where? Corinth, at Corinth, or you read In Acts 13.1, now the church that was at Antioch, this is a local church. There were certain prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon, who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manon, who had been brought up with Herod the Tartaric, and then of course there was Saul, who became the apostle Paul. And so the local church is a visible expression, or maybe a microcosm of the universal church that gathers together to worship, to study the word of God, and to minister to one another. And the Lord predicted this is exactly what he was gonna do in this dispensation. He told his disciples when they were gathered outside the nation of Israel. He says, and I say to you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. This is the Lord Jesus Christ talking. And Peter's not the rock, Christ is the rock. And he said, I, so Christ, is the builder of the church. He's also the owner of the church, because whose church is he building? This is my church. He's the foundation of the church, because it's going to be built upon the rock of the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, he's the head of the church, as the epistles make very, very clear. And so as we think of the church, it all belongs to Christ. He's the owner. He's the builder. He's the foundation. So if Christ builds the church, it's got to be built on what He is stated through the epistles in the New Testament here. It's not built on man's wisdom or man's message or man's programming. It's built on him, his message, and the means by which he's outlined in his word. Everything goes haywire when man comes up with his own ideas to try to build something that only God can build. In fact, even Christ said in 1 Corinthians 3, Paul said we're all built on the foundation of the Lord Jesus Christ. So he's building the universal church today when the roof is done, if you will, then the rapture will take place. We'll all meet with him and then we'll skedaddle out of here and maybe that'll even be today. Be nice right after our program, wouldn't it? But this is God's program for the day, this day and age. And so what's his plan to build his church? Well, the last thing he said to his disciples before he ascended into heaven, where he resides today, he said, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all the things I've commanded you, and lo, I'm with you always, even at the end of the age. This is oftentimes referred to theologically as the Great Commission, and the one command here is to make disciples of all nations. We're going. And the means of doing that was by going. by teaching and by baptizing, that's in there somewhere. Those are the three things. And teaching is qualified based on what he said in the upper room discourse before he was crucified and then ascended as the truths communicated as we saw in our study of the life of Christ are allowed in seed form, the very things that were expanded upon when the apostles and writers of the New Testament recorded their epistles. And so Christ has, all authority has been given to him. And I remember years ago when someone says, when I was preaching the gospel, and they said, by what authority do you preach this message? And I said, well, the highest authority in the universe. the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the highest authority and this is what he commanded and therefore I don't have to be ashamed of preaching the gospel because this is what he wants me to do and to store it. And he's with us always even to the end of the age and so this is to go on until Christ comes back because this is again the program that he's doing. And we know from the word of God a practical disciple is continuing the word of God. That's what John 8, verses 30 through 32 tell us, that you abide in his word, and as you abide in his word, you're a practical disciple. But in order to be a disciple, you need to be a child of God first. And actually, every believer is a disciple by position. If you read the book of Acts, all Christians were called disciples. initially in the Book of Acts. And there's a difference between being a disciple by position and a practical disciple as well. A practical disciple continues to abide in the vine and studies the Word of God and walks by faith and grows in the grace and knowledge of the Savior because it's possible to stagnate and actually retrogress, as the Hebrew believers were doing, and that was part of the epistle written to them. And so how is this a start? It starts, and this is another aspect of the Great Commission that Mark recorded. It says, later he appeared to the eleven as he sat at the table and rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart because they did not believe those who had seen him after his risen. It's always encouraging to me the disciples weren't the sharpest knives in the drawer, they had to be brought along. But again, he said to them, go into the world and notice, preach the gospel to every creature. The gospel to every creature. And so this is the proclamation that God or Christ would use to build his church. And if we're gonna preach the gospel in a way that honors the Lord, we need to know what the gospel is and what the gospel isn't, and this has been an emphasis at Itasca Bible Church since its inception. Over the last 25 years, we've been careful to preach the gospel in a way that shows what it is and what it isn't, and we know what the gospel is. Paul explained to us here in 1 Corinthians 15, one through four, he says, I deliver to you, first of all, that which I also received, and this is the gospel message, Christ died for our sins according to the scripture. He was buried and he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. This is the first message, first in importance, the first thing everybody needs to hear. It's something Paul needed to believe before he could share it with others. And so as we think of the gospel, it's centered in the personal work of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, occasionally when I'm witnessing, especially to someone in a booth in Alaska, wherever it might be, I say, imagine for yourself that you're perfectly righteous, even though you're not, and so that takes a wild imagination. But you're all-knowing, you're all-powerful, you have the power to create life, and you created beings with the ability to choose. They had a volition. And you wanted them to respond to you based on everything you provided for them, and you gave them everything they needed to have a fulfilling and purposeful existence in which they enjoyed intimacy with you. And you're the creator. And yet, the people that you created rebelled against you totally. They told you where to go, in essence. They broke all the rules that you designed for their benefit. You warned them about the consequences that would happen if you did that. would be separation, eternal separation for you in a place referred to in scriptures as the lake of fire, a place that reflects really the extent of your perfectness and your holiness. And since you are just God, The only way they could escape what they deserve from you was for you to become like what you created and then go and pay the penalty they deserve for you. And I use that illustration to get people to realize, because like I mentioned here a couple weeks ago, one guy was really upset that God would send someone to hell for rejecting his son, failing to see that they're drowning and someone is offering to save them. Well, I don't like that. I don't think it's fair that you have to save me from drowning. Does that make any sense? No. But this is what the gospel is all about. The gospel of salvation centers in a person and that person is none other than Jesus Christ the Lord. That's why it says, how did Christ? And this is against an image because who Jesus Christ is, he's God and became a man. We're told in 1 Timothy 2.5 there's no God. There's one God, there's one mediator between God and the man Christ Jesus, that's his humanity. But he's also God manifested in the flesh. And because he's God manifested in the flesh and he's the only mediator, he could say unequivocally in John 14.6 that I'm the way, the truth, and the life and no one comes to the Father but through me. And so it's God who became a man. He entered his creation to love and save them. Secondly, it's what he worked, the work he did. He died and he arose. And what's tied to that, and this is so important, is the accomplishment of the gospel. Christ died for our sins, and that word for occurs in the place of, or on behalf of. He became a sin offering, though he knew no sin, so we could become the righteousness we need in God to enter eternal life. through him. And so, the gospel's called good news, but it becomes good news when you understand the bad news, and the bad news is that you're a sinner, like I am. Your hearts are full of sin. This is where all the lovely things in the world that we deal with every day originate from. Pride, thefts, deceit, lustful lives, murders, the list goes on and on. It's ugly, and because God is just, there's something we earn from our rebellion and sin against God, it's called death. And there's no way that you can escape this death penalty. Try as you may. There's nothing you can do to remove your sins through your own efforts. You're a dead man spiritually, and a dead person can't give themselves life. But Christ can because he is eternal life. And because God is just, he asked to pour out his wrath upon sin. But because he loved us, he punished his own son in our place. That is amazing love, indeed. And so to understand the gospel, you understand that God took your sins, though Christ had none, and laid them on Christ. And he was on that cross, the second last thing he said is, it is finished, it means paid in full. And so when you communicate the good news of the gospel, you're communicating the fact that Christ on the cross personally had you in mind, knew every filthy thing about you, called up your sins in advance and paid them in full because of love and that was the only means by which they could be removed. And to prove that God accepted his payment, he rose from the grave. And so understand the cross and to understand that that satisfies once and for all the holy wrath of God, And so the issue is, will you accept it? Will you believe? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Put your faith and trust in Him and Him alone. And you will have eternal life. And it's faith in him alone because the confusion out there relative to the response to the gospel is myriad. Some people think, well, wait a minute, I go to church regularly, that's gotta help, or I give money to charity, or I get water, I've been water baptized, I got my certificate right here, I've made a commitment to Christ, I've asked Jesus into my heart, I've invited God into my life, I've partaken the sacraments, I've prayed a prayer, I've stayed faithful and true to Jesus, I've turned away from all my sins. No, you haven't. though you might think that you have. And if these things could save you, you wouldn't need a Savior. There's only one Savior. He does the saving. And so we can cross all these out. There's nothing you can do. No good works are required. It's not predicated on your faithfulness whatsoever. It's predicated, it's been mentioned a few times today, His faithfulness. He got the job done. That's what it's all about. And the stakes are high. John 3.36 tells us, He who believes in the Son has right now and forevermore will have everlasting life. But notice, he who does not believe won't even see life. will remain in the sphere of eternal death for all eternity, because the wrath of God abides on him, and that'll manifest itself in the most horrible place imaginable for all eternity, the lake of fire. The stakes couldn't be any higher. And so one thing that's characterized us as a church from its inception is the gospel, saying what it isn't, saying what it isn't. In fact, Paul told Timothy it was functioning As a teacher of the Church of Ephesus, when he wrote the letter, he says, you be watchful in all things, you endure afflictions, and you do the work of evangelists. So if I'm gonna be faithful to what the Lord would have me to do as an elder, I'm gonna be preaching the gospel, because what does an evangelist do? He preaches that. And so I hope you've never gotten tired of hearing that message that saved your soul. In fact, look at how Paul said it earlier in the epistle. According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed in my trust. Glorious, blessed, pretty good adjectives. Paul said this in writing to the Thessalonians, for our exhortation and reference to the gospel did not come from error or uncleanness, or it wasn't a deceit, it wasn't a bait and switch operation. But as we've been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, what do we do? We speak it. And we do it in a way that pleases God, who tests our hearts, not men. Because if you're gonna please men, since the message is offensive from the standpoint that it tells you you can't do anything about your sin problem, People tend to water it down to not make it as offensive. The gospel of our salvation. And so this is the proclamation that God has said we are to preach. This is what he uses to build his church. And yet when you believe the gospel, that's only a beginning. It's a beginning. God then places you into his son. You're actually placed in the universal church. His goal and desire for you is to be part of a local church where he can continue his building program. And so let's look at verse seven here of chapter four. Paul here says, but to each one of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore, he says, when he ascended on high, he led those who were captive free and gave gifts to men. Now this, he ascended, what does it mean that he also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is also the one who ascended far above all heavens, and he might fill all things. And what are those gifts, verse 11? He gave some to the apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, which is another name for the church. So we all come to the unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect manner, a mature manner of the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. That we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men in cunning craftiness or deceitful plotting, but speaking the truth in love may grow up and all things into him who is the head Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies according to the effect of working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. And when he's talking growth here, he's not talking numbers. He's talking about growth in Christ's likeness. I was talking to a pastor friend of mine last week, and as we talked, we both agreed that the successfulness of a church isn't really measured by the amount of people that attend there. Numbers really isn't the issue. The issue Christ made, even in the book of Revelation, is faithfulness to what he has said. We're trusting God to give the increase. And the church was never designed to be some dog and pony show in an effort to go out and get the unsaved to be impressed with the entertainment they might receive there so that they would come. Now that doesn't mean it's wrong to invite someone to church. I highly recommend it because they're gonna hear the message they need to hear about salvation. But he starts out by saying each believer in Christ receives grace to function in the church according to the measure of Christ's gift. That's what verse seven is all about. Every believer's been spiritually gifted the moment of salvation to be an effective part of the local church. God gifts these individuals to facilitate growth in his church. This is not a robotic Bible church. There's dynamics going on, just like in your own physical body, there's dynamics going on. No two members of the body of Christ are identical. No two parts of your body, there's nothing really identical. Even your eyeballs are different, they've done that. They've shown that. But you're uniquely graced with Christ's gift. You're not an accident in the body of Christ. When you receive grace, it's because Christ gave it in the measure suited to his good purposes. for both you and the local church altogether. So we're all gifted. And because we're all gifted, every member is to minister in the body of Christ. You know, each one of us, it says there in verse seven, is given grace not according to the measure of our worth or merit, but according to the measure that Christ decides. And I thought I had a verse up here, I did. Romans 12, six, having then gifts differing according to the grace that's given to us, Let's put them on the shelf. Let's use them. And he goes on to list a number of gifts here in Romans chapter 12. But God gave gifts according to, notice, his grace given to us. It's his call. But the building of the church also involves Jesus Christ having given gifted communicators of his word to the church. That's what verse 11 tells us. And he himself, notice, it's emphatic, it's Jesus Christ himself gave some, to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. That's one office, I believe. The apostles were used as foundation layers according to Ephesians 2.20. They were used to write the epistles. The prophets are no longer needed today because we have the completion of the word of God in our hands, and so that gift that was needed before the completion of the word of God is passed off the scene. Evangelists are those who go and preach the gospel and are involved in church planning. wherever they're sent. But verse 11 and 12 is a little bit different than verse seven, because verse seven, again, there's a point where every believer is gifted by Christ with varied grace. But here he gave teaching gifts in particular that have a role to fulfill for the rest of the body of Christ. These people are charged with equipping the saints. That's believers. Equipping the saints. And so why to give these communicating gifts to the church, we're told in verse 12, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. And so gifted memory given to the church for the equipping of the saints. Equipping of the saints. It's a key phrase, equipping. So the primary responsibility of the shepherd or the pastor is to equip the saints. Now equipping is a Greek word, katerizo, and it means to equip fully, making something fit. Generally means to prepare something or repair something. It was used of setting a broken bone in place. It was used by, in Matthew 4, to describe the disciples who needed to repair their nets. It was used in the context of a soldier, of being equipped for battle. It was used in the context of outfitting a ship for voyage. And so the idea of repairing and preparing here. In fact, in 1 Thessalonians 3.10 it says, we desire to supply or equip what is lacking in your faith. That's the teaching of the word of God. And so Christ gives you a gift. There's other gifts in the body of Christ. He gives leaders, and their job is to repair what's broken or supply what's lacking in believers. And God designed the systematic, grace-oriented, Christ-centered, and Christ-focused teaching of his word to do just that. A faithful preacher will acknowledge that without Christ, you can do nothing, and Christ has supplied what you need. In fact, Paul said, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. But notice, it's for the maturing of the saints, for the equipping of the saints, and that's why we teach sound doctrine here. And that's to have another effect. The building of the church necessitates that the equipped saints do the work of ministry. That's what it says in verse 12. Four, the purpose of being equipped is to do the work of ministry. See, equipping a voyage is not an end in itself. The voyage needs to take place. Repairing something is not just to repair it. It's so that it can be used. And so the saints are to do the work of ministry. And ministry is a byproduct of being equipped via the word of God. You know, Romans 12, 1 and 2. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable to God, And notice the word service here. This is your reasonable service. This is an act of worship from God's standpoint. And so the things that are supplied to you and me in Christ are designed to be manifested within the body of Christ. And so don't be conformed to this world which gets you to center into life all about you, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you might prove Put to the test what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God in the context of a local church. And we know from Ephesians 2.8.9, you're saved by the grace of God through faith. It has nothing to do with you, it's a gift from God. It's not a work such as any man should boast. But now, once you are in Christ, you're his workmanship, he places you in Christ, there's a different purpose for breathing air. It's for good works which God prepared beforehand that you should walk in them. Again, in the context of what? a local church. In fact, Paul, in speaking to Timothy, in the last epistle he wrote, he said, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and it's profitable. This is why we need the scriptures. This is why we study the word of God, so we can be taught, so we can have a challenge, we can be corrected, and we can be instruction in righteousness. Well, there's a purpose clause. The word that here is a purpose clause, so that, The man of God or the woman of God may be complete, brought to maturity, thoroughly equipped for every good work God left you to do. And so the perspective, unlike the average American, when it comes to local church, we're designed to have a mindset and a way of looking at life, a grid that says it's not about me anymore, it's about Christ and therefore it's about others. And so, as you get equipped through the sound doctrine, sound teaching, and as you understand who you are in Christ, understand why God has left you on this planet as he saved you by his grace, and you respond to him by faith, and you abide in his love and you walk with him, that should manifest itself horizontally toward others in fulfilling the good works God left you here to do. This is how the Holy Spirit wants us to think as a church. And the word minister there, Care's idea in some context is being a table waiter, serving food. A table waiter, what does they do? They serve food. That's their great objective. And so we became members one of another, connected to one another, and the Spirit of God wants to duplicate a mindset with what's written here on us so that I realize, you know what, my life really isn't about me. It's about how God wants to work in me and through me in the context of a local church for the benefit of all. You know, one thing that was apparent when we went through the churches of Revelation here is Jesus said, perfect tense, I know your works. It was a part of all the evaluation. And Laodicea had none. They were too busy, what did I say? They were having cocktails on the porch. And they were doing nothing relative to how God wanted them to function in the word of God. And we stand before Christ as the judgment seat of Christ is described for us in 1 Corinthians 3, verses 10 through 15. What's Christ gonna evaluate? Our works. This is his perspective, this is part of his value system. And so we're gonna be evaluated, did we do in a way that honored the Lord the good works that Christ left us here to do? A healthy, sound church thinks in those terms. And that's why you come here, Lord, willing to be equipped to see that realized. And so by the grace of God, we put a premium on sound teaching here, teaching to point you to Christ so you can walk by faith in him, biblically and principally, so that the spirit of God transforms you through the renewing of your mind so that what's important to Christ becomes important to you. That's been my objective here for 25 years. I want you to know and do the will of God as he revealed it to us in his word. But you know, knowledge is never an end in itself. That was part of the Corinthian problem. We know that we all have knowledge. And they knew a lot. But that's all they did, had knowledge and what it ended up being. I know a lot, man. I'm pretty special. And you're an idiot. That's how it manifests itself. If you didn't know what he knew, he thought, no. If anyone thinks he knows something, he doesn't know anything and he ought to know it. If I'm walking with the Lord and I'm knowing something, it reflects itself in an attitude of humility, not pride. It's like, wow, Lord, why do you bother with me? That's how it should be, right? It's very possible for all of us here to know and understand the biblical principle, know what is good, know what the thing to do is, and yet not allow that to transform my thinking. And I end up being puffed up instead of doing the work of ministry. By God's grace, that's what we don't want to do here. Right? Yeah, I was thinking of the body concept this week. It's not uncommon for us in everyday conversation to talk about things that are related to the care of our body. It's not uncommon to hear about or engage in conversation about putting what's into your body. That's kind of a big deal, right? and exercise, and this all has value. In fact, we know on a physical level it does because the Bible, whoops, I forgot a verse. We're told to lay aside all filthiness and overflow weakness and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save our souls. So we're, to value the word of God, we're to welcome it with open arms, it's able to, the knowledge is able to deliver us, but don't be deceived here, we need to apply it. If I just take it in, but I never allow it to transform me, The Bible says I'm self-deceived. In fact, notice what Timothy, the purpose of the commandment, in other words, the purpose of learning the word of God is to result in love, Christ-like love from a pure heart, from a good conscience and from sincere faith. Because guess what? Some have blown that all off. They've strayed and they've turned aside to idle talk, stuff that don't matter. Can it happen in a church? Can the whole focus of a church shift so that what goes on in the church, though it's nice, it misses the point? We want to avoid that, right? We want to avoid that. Now, I'm all about exercise because body exercise helps a little. I mean, I'm still looking uglier than I did the day before. I don't care what I do with that. I cannot stop that process. But godliness, on the other hand, is profitable in all things. You might not do your push-ups, but if you're taking to the Word of God and allowing it to minister to you, that's profitable. It has the promise of the life which now is and that which is to come. Sooner or later, I'm losing this battle. That's just how it is. But you know, we all think about At least, maybe not all of us, but some of us from time to time think about our bodies and what have you. It's under the curse, it's running down. But you know, we're referred to here in the New Testament as a body of Christ. And so, wouldn't evaluating how we're doing as a body, if we can see the principle when it comes to our physical bodies, isn't it equally valid when it comes to our spiritual body? I mean, it says we're to do the work of ministry, and who's that ministry to? One another. We're to one another, one another. Pray for one another. Love one another, as Christ has loved us. And on and on we can go. And so an indicator that a church is doing well is that they're motivated by the love of Christ. You know, I thought about Isaiah 6 this week. I will squeeze her in here. Put your marker here. Let's go to Isaiah six. Verse one. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, so Isaiah gets a vision here, sees the Lord sitting on a throne, high lifted up, and the train of a rope filled his temple. And above it stood seraphim, each one having six wings, two he covered his face, two he covered his feet, and two he flew. And one cried out to another and said, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is filled with his glory. And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. So what kind of impact did seeing God in the throne room have on Isaiah, verse 5? So I said, woe is me. Are you kidding me? Wow. I am undone. You know why? When I see God's holiness, then I see who I am in myself, and it ain't pretty. I'm a man of unclean lips, and not only that, I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. Why? My eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts, and I am overwhelmed. And so he humbles himself and he admits his sin to the Lord, because light exposes darkness, and this is the brightest light in the universe. Verse six says, one of the seraphim flew, having in his hand a live coal, which he had taken from tongues from the altar. He touched my mouth and said, behold, this has touched your lips, your nickel is taken away, your sin is purged. So verse eight, I heard the voice of the Lord say, well, who can I send? Who's gonna go for us? And he said, oh, are you kidding me? Send me. You know, when you get a glimpse of the grace of God and the awesomeness of God and how much he loves you in spite of you and what he's given you, freely by his grace, it's designed to have the same impact. Here I am, Lord, use me in the body of Christ. I want you to clean the toilet over there. I don't even care. It's a privilege. I want you to love that donkey over there, and I'm not talking about the physical kind. Okay, Lord, because you love me and I'm a donkey. That's how it's supposed to work. But then he warns in verse seven, or excuse me, verse nine. Well, good, go and tell the people this, keep on hearing but don't understand, keep on seeing but don't perceive, make the heart of the people dull, their ears heavy, their eyes shut, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and return and be healed. And I said, well, Lord, how long? He said, until everything goes down the drain. So I want you to faithfully serve me even though no one else is gonna. And when you're having a love affair with Christ and you realize that he's equipped you and given you all these things in love, and he loves you supremely, and you have everything you need in Christ, why wouldn't you say, here I am, Lord, send me? And a church that is gonna be impacted and make an impact for Christ recognizes the same mindset. Let's go back to chapter four, Ephesians. And it's funny, if I lose that perspective, and this is easy to do in all of us, is I can become critical. Yeah, well, this pastor's gonna come up with some new jokes. I mean, God help us, right? Or whatever it might be, you know? Instead of saying, you know what? By the grace of God, I can put up with his shortcomings. And so God gifts you to function in the body. He's given gifted men of the church so that you can become equipped so that you can minister. And what's the end, verse 12? For the edifying or the building up of the body of Christ. That's God's goal. That's his definition of church goal, that we'd be built up and edified in him. That's it. All of us in this together. as a body, just like you do all things, if you're thinking maybe the body's a big deal, you're gonna do things with your own body so it's everything it could be, and that's the same mindset we're to have toward the body of Christ. And again, this includes evangelism. It's one thing God wants to work in all of us. He's appointed us his ambassadors. And so if you're walking with the Lord, again, what's important to him becomes important to you, and you're gonna have a vision for the neighbor lady. or the neighbor guy, or the co-worker, or the people that God puts in your life, in your sphere of influence. And see what happens to some churches, they become so inverted, they don't think about the lost at all. I talked to a guy once, I've known him for many years, we were talking about our churches, and I said, yeah, and I gave this guy the gospel. He said, you know, I'm just not into the gospel. He said to me, he volunteered it. And I said, well, I am. I am. I mean, some churches don't encourage you witnessing Christ. In fact, some churches, because of that, a saved person will look down his long nose at someone else and say, what a loser. Failing to see it apart from someone giving them the gospel of the grace of God, they'd be no different, no better off. And so we emphasize witnessing here. and I'm trusting the spirit of God to take the word of God to give you the same vision that the Lord himself has toward the lost. That's part of an effective church. In fact, this is God's design here. As you come to church, you get taught so you can personally grow and be equipped so that you're part of the edification process which leads to evangelism so someone else can get saved and the whole cycle repeats itself over and over and over again. That's God's desire. Notice verse 13. So we all come to the unity of faith and the knowledge of the Son of God. There's two objectives here. Unity of the faith, knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. And so corporately, we're to come to the unity of faith. God wants us to be on the same page. to be of one mind and one accord, striving together for the faith of the gospel, to bring us all along. So that again, what's important to Christ is important to us. Because again, there's no shortage of local churches that have shifted away from this objective. Here's an excerpt from an article that was written over 30 years ago in Christianity Today. 50 years ago, evangelicals were fully engaged in battling monarchist attempts to detach Christianity from historic orthodoxy. This kept evangelical concerns centered on the content of Christian belief. Notice, the content of Christian belief. on the propositional truths of scripture. Today, evangelicals seem far more interested in questions of worship. This has led to two different directions, a movement toward liturgical by the intellectually inclined, and a movement toward charismatic by the average churchgoer. Both represent a shift in emphasis away from knowledge about God toward the experience of God. And we've never been in a culture that is so geared and oriented toward experience. The content things aren't important, it's the perception of things, it's how it makes me feel. So in many churches today experience Trump's depth of teaching. And Christ said you should know the truth, and the truth, not your feelings, set you free. And so this is God's goal for the building of the body, to be a mature man. And again, it's not individual in this context, though we're all to mature, but the mature man here is the stature, the fullness that belongs to Christ. He wants us corporately to be complete in him corporately. And he says in verse 14, what's key to this is not being to being stable and not unwavering and vulnerable to false teaching. That we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men and the tricksters are everywhere. And the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. Well how is this done, verse 15? Speaking the truth in love. That's how this thing works. To speak the truth in love. The objective of our ministry, in Christ corporately, is to speak the truth of love, because the truth sets you free. The truth is what causes you to grow up and be matured into the Lord Jesus Christ. And he wants us to be true, not only to be true of you individually, but of a church as well, corporately. He wants us to be unified in the faith, unified in knowledge of the Son of God. And we're to be always growing in that. as a church. That's God's goal. Christ is the head of the church. He's fully mature and complete. The church is his body. We're not yet fully mature and complete, but that's the aim of the ministry here. That's why God has gifted you. We know from 1 Corinthians chapter 12 that he's placed you in this local body. He's gifted you to function in this body. Are you responding to him by faith so that you are allowing him to work in you and through you so that we're all in this together? ministering to one another so that not only is Christ exalted, but we're growing in maturity corporately as a body. That's what it is. And see, in verse 16, it tells us that it's about all of us. Verse 15 ends with the word Christ as the head. Verse 16 continues that thought, from whom, that's Christ as the head, the whole body. Notice we're joined and knit together by what every joint supplies. According to the effect of working by which every part does its share causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself as love. You know, he expands on this in 1 Corinthians 12, when one part of the body suffers, we all suffer. And yet we're all in this to help one another out. All have a part in this. I need my elbow, I need my pinky. I need my ears. I need my big toe to function at the highest possible level. And this is how God designed us to be. So how long does this first growth process continue? Until we come to the unity of faith, to have a full knowledge of Christ, to become fully mature, to become spiritually stable, those things, and it takes all of us to do it. All of us to do it. You know, again, we just finished this series on God's Christ evaluation of the seven churches. And there was two out of the seven he had no criticisms. Church at Smyrna, which was suffering for the Savior, and the Church of Philadelphia, where God opened a door and they took full advantage of it. We also looked at the church at Sardis, And Christ said that church was dead and dying. Now, are we dead and dying or are we growing? You know, I mentioned during that evaluation of the church at Sardis that churches need to be dying when they live in the past instead of the present. I'd like to think our best years are not behind us, but they're ahead of us. But this church was resting on its laurels. Yeah, 30 years ago, 15 people got saved. When they replace spirituality with mere morality. When they focus on curing social ills rather than preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. When they're more concerned with material than the spiritual, church of Laodicea. When they desire confining Christianity instead of suffering for Christ. Again, Smyrna was a suffering church. Christ said, as an incentive, the crown of life was waiting for them, for that suffering. And they're more concerned about what men think than what God says, and the pressure from men is never going to get easier. It's only going to get harder. You call a spade a shovel, and you're going to be not very popular. But Paul himself said, if I didn't preach the gospel, I'd be a pleaser of men instead of a pleaser of God. When they're more enamored with learning doctrine than applying it in their lives. We can be a church that's very doctrinally sharp, and yet we just saw in this passage the purpose of learning doctrine is so that we can be equipped to minister to one another. Learning doctrine is so important, but it's not an end in itself. When they lose their conviction that every word of the Bible is the word of God himself, and man's ideas enter in, and it's watered down, and it's sugarcoated, or there's a shift doctrinally in some way. Because they lose their vision for the lost and become inverted. That's the last thing we want to do here. And this is the church at Ephesus which was very doctrinally sound and they could spot false teaching. And yet they were going through the motions because they left their first love. So how are we doing? How are we doing? I don't want to even, I don't want to begin to answer that in the sense that I'm really thankful for our church. I love our church. I've been in tears several times this week as I thought about our church in these 25 years and how very special it is to me and I know to a lot of you. We've got so much to be thankful for here. God has been so merciful with all of us. And I sure want it to keep going. Obviously there's spots and wrinkles because there's not a church without spots and wrinkles. But are we heading in the right direction? Do we recognize what our Savior wants as the head of the church? Is this what we want? Are we striving together with one mind and one accord for the faith of the gospel? Are we allowing Christ to work in us and through us so that he can make us into a mature corporate church that has an impact not only on one another but on the town we live in? This is our goal. Let's not lose sight of it. God has mercifully given us 25 years. Let's go for another 25 until he comes back. Amen? Let's pray. Father, thank you for the Word of God. We thank you especially for our Savior. We thank you that he loves us, he gave himself for us, that he's placed us into this body. He's equipped us through the teaching of the Word of God. We have the freedom to meet. We have the Spirit of God within us to illumine our thinking and to teach us these truths. May we have humble hearts before you. May we allow you corporately to work us and through us so that the will of God for this church is realized. That we can be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. We can grow in the grace and knowledge of you and be brought to a mature man in you. Help us to love one another with a pure heart, fervently, by your grace, to see that we are what we are by the grace of God, and then encourage one another in the things of you, so that time can be redeemed for your glory. So we thank you for our dear Savior, and to his name we pray. Amen.