Growing Up Together

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

We're gonna be in Ephesians chapter 4 again today. We're gonna continue our series there and to really to really kind of get What we're gonna be talking about today. I want you to picture a bicycle chain Okay, a bike chain by chain. It's a very simple mechanism. It's just a it's just a series of metal links Okay, those metal links fit into a gear tooth Okay, and and as you as you push on that it makes the bike go forward So so bike chain gets into the gear tooth pedals engage bike going forward. Okay, everybody with me this morning Run. Okay, that was very unconvincing. Are you with me on how a bike works this morning? Okay. Okay, we're with okay That's really helpful now if If one of those links is bent in the bike chain What happens is by chain slips pedal spin bike didn't go anywhere Okay, you need the bike chain to engage but when that by chain bike chain does engage

Everything else works Right everything else works the wheels work like they're supposed to handlebars the brakes everything is working like it's supposed to we We are continuing our series on one body We're continuing to look at this one body life to which we are called And we talked about how God has plans for us Personally, we understand that God has plans for people generally we see that too But what we're talking about this morning is that God has plans for us corporately as a local body So it's not just what God has for you, but it's what God has for us in particular and We talked about last week how this how this This one body we move forward in God's big redemptive plan that that Christ fills all things through us through his church and In particular we looked at last week We looked at these interlocking gifts that that Jesus gives the church to make it go. Okay, so

Those are listed in Ephesians 4 11 and 12. We looked at this last week. I'll say it again It says and he gave the prophets excuse me He gave the Apostles the prophets the evangelists the shepherds and teachers Specifically to equip the saints for the work of ministry for building up the body of Christ You can almost think of these gifts as different parts of that bike that we were talking about Okay, and look I don't know what goes where okay, maybe the evangelists or the wheels. Okay, and the prophets of the brakes Okay, I'm not I don't need to go too far into it that the metaphor breaks down pretty fast but When everything is working when all these parts are working together When all these parts are working together the the fullness of Christ goes out, right? We have we have a one body growing and working together and

When all that's happening it that's really good. And again, like that's fine for a metaphor Okay, and I know some of you thinking like we've been talking about a bike a whole lot this morning. I understand that's weird But if we're gonna get past the metaphor a little bit if we're gonna kind of sink our teeth into what this is Get one level lower a couple of questions emerge a couple of details kind of need to be flushed out In other words, if we're gonna be one body if we're gonna engage these interlocking gifts and we described them last week That was great. We described how they could interlock last week. That was great, but but really what We got two questions that come up number one How do these gifts actually interlock? What's the what's the mechanism by which they come together? Okay, in other words, if they're the different parts of the bike, what's the chain?

If all of these gifts are gifted to all of us in a church body, then what's the chain? What makes us go and the second question? Is how do we know if we are growing and working as one body? We can say that we're going to work in as one body But you know as humans we have the propensity of shooting arrows and painting targets where they land. Okay? We're not we need to aim and we need to know that we're hitting the target. But how do we know that? How do we determine if we're actually doing what we're supposed to be doing? Okay So we're gonna we're gonna find these answers and more as we continue reading in Ephesians 4 So let's pick it back up again in verse 12 and go into 13 Ephesians 4 12 and 13 We have these gifts to equip the saints for the work of ministry for building up the body of Christ and here we go 13 until we attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to

Mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ So verse 13 tackles that question. How do we know everything is working and it answers with a picture of genetics a picture of Genetics it says that the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God It likens that to to mature manhood to the full stature of Christ Some of you may know Sean Coffman and Roscoe Coffman We got a we got a picture of Sean and Roscoe together. Okay Roscoe passed what a year plus ago almost two almost two years ago So this is this is Sean Coffman one of our deacons and his late father Roscoe Okay, and although they may not look exactly alike in this picture If you rewind about 30 years, this is what you get so on the left is Roscoe at the same age that Sean is in this picture and It is weird how much they look alike it is very strange and It's it's kind of spooky

In fact a lot of people that hadn't seen I remember at the funeral a lot of people that hadn't seen your hadn't seen you In a while just kind of looked at you were like, oh man, you're the picture of Roscoe Okay, and what a name to live up to can we hear from Roscoe this morning? Okay What a good name if we're gonna ask the question is everything working properly then We answer with another question is are we maturing to have the same DNA as Jesus? Does our church look like Jesus?

And it's more than simply more than simply imitating Jesus from afar It's it's more than simply we read scripture and we do kind of what we see Jesus doing in there It's more than that. It's more than a checklist of believing the correct things Sometimes maybe when we want to when we want to say like hey, I want to grow in my faith I want to I want to understand what it is to to you know to to be a Christian Well, sometimes like we just run down this list of correct things to believe and and correct things to do Okay, and not that that's out of place. There's just way more than that. There's just something that goes way beyond that

For the bike chain to catch the gears It needs to be more than than simple imitation from afar. It needs to be more than learning Bible truths It really need it means that we need to commune with Jesus personally We need to commune with him personally. Let's let's put some skin on this. What does this mean to commune with Jesus? Personally, okay It means specifically as a church so together as as people It means that we are using our calendars and our bank accounts to build what Jesus is building and Look, I realized I just used the word building and bank account in the same sentence. Okay. I'm not talking about building a building right now Okay, I'm not talking about a capital campaign. I'm not talking about anything like that What I'm talking about is is Building what Jesus is but what's Jesus building? What's he building if we're following him then we should be able to answer that question. What's Jesus building? He's building his kingdom

He's building redemption in people. He's healing marriages. He's he's healing people from addiction. He's He's bringing people into new life That's what Jesus is building Forget the capital campaign man What's Jesus building and it still requires our time and our money it still requires our calendars and our bank account Those two things calendars of bank accounts, they will tell you all you need to know about yourself They will tell you who your master is they will tell you what your treasure is They will tell you about your priorities They will tell you about your fears and they were they will even tell you what you're ashamed of Okay, those that calendar and that bank account even if you don't keep an actual calendar The calendar that's still there that of things you've done They're gonna tell you What's happening and those two things your calendar bank account are either building us into the stature of

Our own legacy or they're building us into the stature of Jesus Christ and there's really not a lot of in-between Genetically DNA level are we looking like Jesus and and this also means Communing with Jesus personally, so this is kind of what we're talking about Your calendar and your bank account setting aside time To speak your heart to Jesus setting aside time to listen to Jesus I was talking with a friend of mine earlier this week and we were kind of brainstorming ideas on on how to listen to Jesus more how to listen to the word and And she didn't know this so I thought I would I would give you this this tip and trick If you have the Bible app on your phone You can you can plug your phone into your car if you need help doing that Sean's your guy. Okay Sean Deacon Sean. He knows how to do that

You can hit play on any translation in any capacity You can just hit play and you can listen to the Bible in your car on your 30-minute commute to work or whatever Wherever you're going. It's just really really really helpful And so for some of you, you know, like you're like, I don't even know where to start man. Start there Starting the book of Mark Luke, you can start the book of Luke. You can start anywhere, right? Don't start on Leviticus. Look Leviticus is a great book. But don't please don't start there. That's not a good Plan it's still the word of God. It's just not a good plan to start there. Okay Well, I'm just gonna I'm gonna encourage you toward marker Luke. Okay, you can but feel free to pick a Bible I'm When Jesus calls us out we have to understand that It's a it's a call to trust him not just to do What he's telling us to do It's a call to trust him

It's a call to say like Lord, I'm gonna I'm gonna take a step out of faith I'm gonna I'm gonna do what you're asking me to do and but I'm gonna do not not just because it's some religious thing that I get points for or whatever But that it's it's something that you are calling me to do. It's something that you're growing me through So are we working and growing together as one body? If it's a DNA match The answer is yes The next verse gives us a negative example of what it is to be growing and working together as one body verse 14 of Ephesians chapter 4 it says so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine by human cunning by craftiness in deceitful schemes There is probably not a bleager picture I can think of then little children adrift in the middle of the Pacific Ocean Right like that's pretty helpless

Okay, and in the Pacific I chose the Pacific specifically Because the Pacific is very it's no it's the Atlantic anyway, it doesn't matter one of those one of those oceans is very rough Okay, we'll call it the Atlantic because now I don't know But if you can imagine these children We'll go with Atlantic in the Atlantic in the open water just huge waves I mean 50 foot waves just like coming crashing down on that man. They don't they don't have a chance They're they're lost in the deep end of things that they don't understand It says it says don't be like like children that are adrift in the open water Of all of these these big things that you just you don't get You have these these really complicated you have you have really winsome preachers that are telling you one thing and maybe you believe that you have Oh, this really this thing that your friend recommended over here

No, this thing, you know, oh and all these things kind of contradict each other and you're just kind of lost man. You're drowning and It is the curse of immaturity Because not only are you drowning, but you see other people drowning and you want to help them, but you can't you can't even help yourself You're just kind of lost in all of it and The picture of maturity that we have or the picture of immaturity that we have here Children adrift in the open water. How do we put that in a way that describes maturity? So like kind of what's the if it's not that then what is it? Well, it's talking about how growing and working as one body it leads to Resiliency and it leads to grit It leads to resiliency And it leads to grit In other words when those when those waves come you're not you're not just kind of getting thrown around by all of it You've seen it before you understand how to respond

What's that look like in in reality? Right. Do you want to do you want to become strong resilient savvy? You want to be spiritually mature? Then look here's what to do you begin today to ask the Lord for enduring obedience Enduring obedience. It's not just knowledge. It's not just knowing more stuff, but it is endurance in Obeying when things are tough and The reason I say to pray for these things is because we can't build these situations on our own These aren't things that we can go around and be like man. I'm gonna I'm really gonna grow in patience today Let me find a really annoying person. Okay, like that's

You know That's not really that's not really the way to do it, right? We've got to pray because we can't build these situations on our own There are situations that are going to pull on your desire to indulge yourself over other people there are gonna be Stressors that are going to be that are gonna tempt you to stop or to quit or to walk away Right, you're gonna you're gonna go through that there's gonna be these pressures to keep quiet whenever you should speak up There are gonna be these these pressures to not go when you know you should There's gonna be this fellowship that's offered with people that are going to require some sacrifice of you and all of these things aren't aren't things that you can just kind of Make up, but this is exactly like working out

What do you do to work out right you push against something that's heavy and it hurts Right and the actual physics of working out is when you do that it makes sure it makes your muscles it tears them down More, but then when they build back, they're bigger Okay, this is exactly what working out is when it's talking about resiliency and grit when you pray for Enduring obedience you will then find yourself in situations where you will be pushing it against something that is difficult You will begin having difficult conversations that you don't want to have You'll begin raising your hand and saying something that you know, everybody's gonna be mad at you for saying but you must say it

You're gonna be in those situations where somebody's gonna require something of you and you're gonna say how's it going and three hours later Okay, you're gonna know how they're doing. Okay, because you asked Look that that's not all that's not bad situations to be in but those are situations where as You go through them you become more mature on the other end

Everybody wants to mature in Jesus, but if you think it's just memorizing the books of the Bible like man I mean life has so much more to teach us than that, right? The Lord has so much to bring us through other than that It's isn't it's isn't just like how to know spiritual things This is this is really like how to bench-press a toxic relationship Okay, this is this is how to how to do how to run through Something that you made you want to quit and if you could think about it like a race You know the Bible uses the race a lot, you know, what does it feel like the last leg of the race? You feel excited? No You feel like you did at the beginning? No No at the beginning you were pumped Like it's gonna be great. I got my number on my bib. I mean, I'm like ready to rock You know, there's all these other people and they're like super excited to go. I'm like, what is it like at the end?

You're just I mean you're just panting and you're just hoping that the finish line is coming look We have those as as illustrations for the spiritual life running the race with endurance We have that because the things that actually mature us hurt They're hard They're like 50-foot waves So if you want to be strong if you want to be resilient if you want to be gritty if you want to be savvy

Pray for enduring obedience Pray for the Lord to put you in situations where you're gonna have to bear other people Shameless plug we were about to we're about to start home groups here in two weeks if Or a week and a half we're gonna have home group Expo right after this. You're gonna hear more about it But if you're looking for a way to have fellowship with people that you are going to need to sacrifice for Home groups are a great way to do that it's eight weeks, but it's a great way to get to know people to Immediately sacrifice for them like it so it's a potluck every week. It's a pain right? It's a pain to prepare It's a pain to get together It's a pain to say no to other things to jump in but it's totally worth it and the Lord will grow you through that

Right, so so now that I've talked about this metaphorical workout routine Where you we become more resistant to sin we stay locked in longer We learn to discern when to speak when did not we we see our whole life as a gift to other people from Jesus We become more generous with our life with our time with our money with our bank account calendar What is this workout routine look at the next verse if he's in 415 just look at the very beginning It says rather Speaking the truth in love and it look it's so parenthetical that you almost miss it Speaking the truth in love It's so small, but it stands as the focal point for really all of Ephesians 4

Speaking the truth in love is how We grow and work together as a body speaking the truth in love is how the chain links fit into the gears Speaking the truth and love speaking honestly guided by sacrificial love when you look at the the kind of the Greek of that verse The word speaking is not in there. It's actually just truthing in love if they turn truth into a verb, which is hilarious

Truthing in love what it so so we're talking about loving honesty, okay If we were talking about speaking the truth in love we are bringing loving honesty into any situation That's no small feat and the good news for us the very good news for us is That Jesus is already bringing loving honesty into every situation That the Holy Spirit is speaking loving honesty to people All over all the time not everybody's listen

But Speaking the truth in love is what Jesus does to us He does that through us Speaking the truth in love is the stuff of what it is to be a Christian Speaking the truth in love is actually what got us to Follow Jesus in the first place is in other words if we just carried on Deluded that that we were doing fine that that everything if we just kind of lived in this lie Then then we would never we never know that we need a Savior. We never come to receive a Savior, but what happens? The Lord in his kindness says hey, you can't keep doing this Hey, this is gonna kill you and everybody else you love Hey This is going to this is the most toxic way to live your life Everybody's suffering around you It takes a lot of courage to speak loving honesty to people and look don't you dare? Don't you dare get on a Holy Spirit kick and start telling people you know all these things you think the Holy Spirit should say to

Them okay listen you're not the Holy Spirit There's a good reason for that neither am I the Holy Spirit does a great job on its own However, there are times whenever we should speak the truth in love And you can see it's what it's what Jesus is doing if we look at the whole verse of Ephesians 4 15 all of it it says rather speaking the truth in love we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head into Christ the deepest deepest I don't about deepest but the deep desire of Jesus in this moment right now is to bring you to

Loving honesty about your situation. That's what Jesus wants to do Jesus doesn't want you to be blinded by things that are pretty or flashy or or Temporary Jesus wants you to see through that and to grab onto something. That's real more real than approval more real then than a job promotion More real than all those things. What is Jesus bringing you to he wants to bring you to some honesty about that He wants to bring you to that in to that honesty in a loving way And it's what Jesus already does with prostitutes and Pharisees You see him do it all over Scripture It's how Jesus trains his own disciples. And so why isn't it for us? When a one-body church commits to loving honesty it flourishes When a church that is seeking to grow together and work together as one body

When we commit to speaking the truth in love to bringing loving honesty to one another to giving it and receiving it it flourishes Part of the reason it does that is because it carries on a chain reaction that we've already gotten Like I said, the reason that we're here is because Jesus gave us loving honesty Jesus spoke the truth and love to us and he wants us to do that to others and it's not like we quit needing to hear it We're continuing to receive the truth and love and we continue to speak the truth in love And when you do that when you do that I will tell you you will be ruined for small talk ruined Okay, now I'm not saying you never do it you do small talk because people need small talk Okay, just people need to bless them. They need small talk. Just give it to them. It's fine, but but you will be ruined for small talk because you will want to to peer through because you

because you care so deeply about the person that you are speaking to because you want to bring loving honesty to That situation to that person you want that person to to Not be dazzled by whatever's in front of them That's so distracting you want to cut through that part and you want to say here's the truth in that situation That's what we want to do fake fake smiles You know when you commit to when you commit to speaking the truth and love fake smiles are way more frustrating Okay, they just are they will make much less sense The more we become like Jesus and this is kind of why we talked about with communion the more that we become like Jesus the more Loving honesty we are going to engage in and the more loving and honest we will become

He's ultimately loving and he's ultimately truthful But let me just issue a small warning loving honesty is not for the faint of heart This is not all sunshine and rainbows and unicorns. It's not always fun Because you can suffer sleepless nights when you have received unwanted feedback When you have been told Something that maybe was a surprise to you Something that you did not love hearing Even when it was done in complete love and complete grace and mercy You Will suffer sleepless nights when you receive that you will also suffer a sleepless night over how to give Unwanted feedback not just receiving but also giving When other people have sinned against God and maybe they've sinned against you

Speaking the truth and love is difficult. It's costly. It's sacrificial But it's the only way we move forward It's the only way church makes sense I've listened to a lot of people talk about church hurt before We've referenced it several times something I keep saying is you know There's lots of reasons that people will give and I and I believe they're honest reasons I'm not accusing anybody lying, but I think what the core of it is is that when you have people that expected to see a spiritual family Interacting and all they saw was religious people smiling at each other Right, I think that's It's the biggest disappointment It's the biggest disappointment when you expect something way better and all you get is that All you get is a sunny morning smile

But you never get a texture in the week. All you get is glad-handed, but you're looking for something deeper. You're looking for a family Constantine Campbell in his commentary on the Book of Ephesians great name by the way Constantine Campbell He says truth alone will not keep the unity of the spirit since bad character has as much power to divide and destroy as false teaching does Bad character has as much power to divide and destroy as false teaching does

When it comes to being a family and speaking the truth and love There is a way for Churches in particular to be theologically correct and have really terrible character because we don't speak the truth and love and So we don't have the unity of the spirit if we're not doing both if we're not speaking the truth and love Sorry, yeah, yeah speaking the truth and doing it lovingly if we're not doing those things when we are When we are working and growing together as one body when we are maturing together Genetically, we're becoming more like Jesus the bike chain of loving honesty is moving us forward There's one last picture that really drives that point home Look in Ephesians 4 15 and 16 So we just read 15 rather speaking the truth and love we're to grow up in every way who into him Who is the head into Christ and look at the rest from whom from Christ 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 itself up in love Look, I think that's kind of I think 16 is very confusingly worded. I don't know why they worded it that way. It's fine They don't have to answer to me But I've kind of cleaned it up just a little bit There we go. So from whom the whole body The whole body makes the body grow So that it builds itself up in love It's interesting right from Christ The body grows, but how does the body grow the body? The body makes the body grow That's what it says actually when you look at the original wording when you look at the Greek and all that jazz It's just that the joined and held together and all that all those like kind of you know Phrases that are adding to it It really kind of takes away from just the the the central thrust the whole body makes the body grow so that it builds itself

up in love this is very similar to To John John chapter 15 whenever he says abided me and you will bear much fruit Apart from me you could do nothing What you see what you see is you see in 15? Let's go back to the previous verse. Sorry in 15 you have you have the whole body So speaking the truth in love we are growing up into Christ as we are abiding in Christ as we are communing with Jesus as we are speaking our heart and listening to Jesus as We are doing that we are binding in Christ that fruit that's going to come out is Going to be our ability to speak the truth in love to one another when that happens The bike chain is engaged and we are moving forward Without that happening the bike chain is slipping and the pedals are spinning to be a part of a church

to be spiritually mature and look I I Need to be really clear. I'm not talking about whenever I talk about a life of blessing, which is what I almost said to Have a life of blessing. I'm not talking about you know a Life of ease and and a ton of money in your bank account and you know, no problems and you know, whatever like What I'm talking about here whenever I'm saying that like a life of blessing I mean for others I mean that the Lord God in heaven wants to bless you to be a blessing to other people When you look at the whole of biblical history, that's all God has ever done

He has pulled people together as a unit right either as a nation kingdom family, whatever he's pulled people together and He has blessed them specifically so that they will be a blessing to other people Real one-body life starts kicking in when you realize that your bank account and your calendar Bank account and your calendar aren't for you They're not for you man mine aren't for me They're for others They're for our church body they're for the people that you see at work and at school and When you're working out and at the coffee shop and all these people that you're around That may or may not know the Lord your bank account and your calendar and It's for them. If you look around here, you don't have to it's weird, but if you did Drew quit looking around. Okay, I told you not to look around

If you look around here that's that's who you're making count and your calendars are for So the people here We say it all the time We say all the time that that you know, God doesn't need your money, right? That that a time of offering, you know, like we have a we we have ways to give it's fine We have ways to give but it's never about us getting money It's about you giving your heart to the Lord in a practical expression

The same the exact same thing goes for your time It's not just your bank account. It's also your calendar It's a practical expression If you show me your calendar, I'll tell you it'll tell you what you prioritize. It's right there in black and white You'll see it our encouragement today isn't isn't to to you know Jump through religious hoops and kind of make our our encouragement today is to take what has been done in us Which is loving honesty given to us, which is blessing given to us and figure out Kind of bring that before the Lord and say Lord. I want to do that to other people I'm gonna do that with other people. I want to be involved in that And just kind of living with this this palms-up life of saying like I just want to do what you want me to do Lord That's our encouragement Let's pray Lord, thank you for

Yeah, not just your word but but your body Thank you for Being our head Thank you for being our protector our shield Thank you for helping us See things when we don't want to with when you give us loving honesty Or that that loving honesty is so hard sometimes, but you are faithful To deliver it in a way that that will receive it Lord help us to be obedient to that

and just on this core level being obedient to that just receiving it just listening Or help us to take a step Forward, it's your name that we pray