A Healthy Church

Aren’t you thankful for the worship team busting out “Shout to the Lord”? Yo, some of y’all were like ascending to the third realm during that song. My daughter was like, “What is this?” She’s like, “All the old people are singing it so loud.” It’s a classic man. Darlene Cschech. It’s a classic.

Go ahead and grab your Bibles and open your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 4 this morning, Ephesians chapter 4. And we will be in verses 7-16. So last week we started a new series called One–United in Christ. And we talked about how the first three chapters of Ephesians we’re dealing with our identity and our wealth and the glorious doctrine that has put you the believer in Christ.

And then in chapter 4 and in this series he shifts, Paul shifts, to focus on our walk in Christ or our walk with Christ as believers. I told you that in chapters 4, 5 and going into 6 now we’ll see forty commands that God’s Word is giving to us the believer. That’s because our conduct and our morality and how we live on the earth matters deeply to a holy God. And Paul exhorted us. I urge you if you are in Christ, if you’ve been chosen by God, if you’re holy and blameless, if you’ve been redeemed by the blood of Christ and sealed with the Holy Spirit, then I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of that calling on the earth.

So before we get into all of the full on commands, which we’ll slow down on in this series over the last several weeks and just kind of look at our lives together. But before Paul goes there, the new life in Christ and putting off sin and putting on righteousness, he deals with the mechanism for how such people are created and growing on the earth. And so today we’re going to talk about the church.

Today we’re going to talk about the ecclesia. Ephesians 4:7-16 it’s really like Ecclesiology 101, talking about what the church is. And now I just want to encourage you. I don’t want to take for granted that there’s people from all different walks of life in this room and you may have been walking with the Lord for a long time or maybe you’re new to this whole thing. When we talk about the church, we’re not talking about the building, right? We’re talking about the people of God.

So in America, often when we say church, we’re thinking about this box and the seats and the stage and the lights. And maybe you’re thinking about pews because you grew up singing “Shout to the Lord” in those red pews. But you know, from the earliest of age right we’ve said, “Here is the church. This is the steeple. You open the doors and you see all the people.” But the people are the church! And the building and the steeple and the location loses its relevance if there are no people who have been called out of darkness into His marvelous light.

And so you are the church that the Word of God is talking about. Now I’m going to give you the big idea today. I know it’s a long sentence so for you notetakers. I’m going to leave it up there for a moment and I want you to grab this sentence, ok? A healthy church is every member mutually ministering to each other through a diversity of gifts as we collectively grow in maturity toward Christ who is our Head. So I’ll leave it up there for a moment.

Let me unpack it for you. A healthy church. We want to be a healthy Body of believers because healthy things grow. Healthy things grow in maturity. A healthy church is every member mutually ministering to each other. So a member is someone who’s made themselves known in this Body, someone who has strapped on weight in this Body, someone who is saying, “This is my home and so I’m going to serve this Body.” And we’re serving each other through a diversity of gifts. We’ll talk about that today as we collectively grow in maturity toward Christ, who is our Head.

Christ is the Head of His Church. I am not the head of Gospel City Church. Your pastors, your leaders, are just a part of this puzzle that God is building through Jesus Christ who is the leader. And so we keep our eyes fixed on Him and we follow Him at all costs. Ok, so I’m going to jump to Ephesians chapter 4 and we’re going to unpack verses 7-16. I’m going to read it. You can get your eyes on a copy of God’s Word and then we’ll pull it apart together. Let’s hear the Word of the Lord this morning.

Verse 7 says, But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.” (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.)

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 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.

Rather, 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, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. (Ephesians 4:7-16)

So healthy things grow and we want to be a healthy church, a healthy people called out of this world to follow Christ, doing it together. So point number one this morning, and we’re going to focus a lot on verse 7 as we get into this so I’m going to hang there for a minute. But point number one is this: Christ gives gifts to His church so that we will serve one another. Christ gives gifts to His church so that we will serve one another.

And verse 7 says, But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. How many of you love getting gifts, receiving gifts? Is that your thing? Anyone? You may have just gotten a lot of gifts at Christmas time. How many of you love giving gifts? Is that your thing? Yep, ok, so no one can outgive the Giver. And Jesus Christ is the greatest Giver of all time. And not only has He given you grace that has placed you in Christ because you were once walking dead in your sins, but once you are in Christ you will come to find out that from now until eternity it is grace upon grace upon grace for the believer who is in Jesus.

And in verse 7 Paul moves from showing us the singularity of our faith and the unity of our position in Christ. You remember in verse 6 last week we saw that there is one Body and there’s one baptism and there’s one Spirit and one Lord and one God and Father. That’s our unity. But then He shows us that there is diversity among the Body of Christ. Not only are we joined together, but we have each been given diverse gifts that have been gifted to everyone joined to the Body of Christ.

So verse 7 is not referring to the grace that has saved the believer. But there is more grace. More grace is shown to the believer through the diverse spiritual gifts. So before I talk about what these gifts are, I want you to catch what Paul is communicating in verse 7. There are two important things in verse 7. But grace was given to each one of us.

So the first thing is everyone has a gift. Every believer who is in Christ Jesus has been given a gift. So there are no second class citizens in the kingdom of God. I like to say it this way: we all stand shoulder to shoulder. God doesn’t play favoritism. God loves you and God has given you a gift so that you could be joined to His Body and so that you would be able to serve the Body of Christ.

So the question is not, “Am I gifted for ministry?” That’s a lot of times where I think we get stuck. The question is, “How have I been uniquely gifted for ministry?” I went to the membership class this past Sunday and there were like 45 newcomers at Gospel City Church who were going through the membership class and learning about what we believe and how to get plugged in here and how to kind of become known in the Body of Christ and serve. And they met for about three hours, so I got to share. And Pastor Tyler Downing does a great job unpacking what we believe. And those 45 were in the class.

And at one point they got up and they went out and they got a salad and they got some pizza and they came back in. And then this picture came across our text thread. This is a picture of Demi and Dwight Unruh and Bill and Judy Thomas, faithful members in our church. I know they don’t want their picture up right now because they’re like an engine and they’re like a heartbeat in this church. But Dwight and Demi, they were the first small group leaders that I ever went to. Before I even got offered a job here, I went to their house. And so their hospitality may have left an impact on me and my wife. And we’re here all these years later and Bill and Judy serve in many different capacities in our church.

But why would these faithful members who have been a part of this church for a long time, why would they give up their Sunday night to come and cut up tomatoes and put a salad together and lay out all this pizza for a bunch of people who are just joining the church? Aren’t they above that? No. They’ve come to realize that This is something I can do for the furthering of the kingdom of God. This is something I can use my gifts for.

Nobody wants me making them a salad. I could try, but it would not be a great salad. And these guys come and they make it happen and they have smiles on their faces and they’re serving the Body with joy and they’re being hospitable and loving and people are impacted because all of it is working together to advance the mission of glorifying God. So everyone has been given some kind of gift.

I’m thankful for those members and the many like them in our church. But every believer’s gift is unique. That’s the second thing you can see from verse 7. “But grace was given to each one of us.” And then it says, “According to the measure of Christ’s gift.” We are unified by a common call and express diversity in ways that we serve one another. We are an uncommon community. That’s language that we used to say all the time at Gospel City. But we have commonality, but not uniformity. So we all stand shoulder to shoulder in the Body of Christ and have something unique to contribute to it.

And don’t miss the fact that Ephesians 4 is describing the church to be like a human body. And so if everybody was the same member, if everyone was the same function, it would be kind of a useless organism, wouldn’t it? If we were all an eyeball, an eyeball without a brain and a head is just like this gross clump of goo. And a kneecap without a leg is like this weird saucer thing that no one knows what to do with. Or a liver without a body is just something some people eat I guess.

And so don’t miss that it’s all human body. All of these pieces are being intricately put together. And you think a body is elaborate. You’ve got cells and you’ve got tendons and you’ve got ligaments. And all of them are joining us together so that we would serve. And healthy things grow. Your body doesn’t have to be told to grow when it’s all working properly. It’s just healthy and therefore it does what it’s supposed to do. A child matures into an adult when everything is working properly.

Psalm 139:14 says, I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works. My soul knows it very well.

God has made you and He has saved you and then He has gifted you in a way that He hasn’t everybody else. And so you can’t play the comparison game in the Body of Christ. Comparison is from the devil. You don’t look at other people and say, “I wish I was like them. I wish I had their gift.” God was very intricate in the way that He has gifted you in the Body of Christ. It’s like millions of snowflakes each having their own unique attributes. So it is with your gift in the Body. God was purposeful in how He made you and He was purposeful in what He gave you.

Now I want you to turn if you will or just listen. But you’re welcome to turn to Romans chapter 12. Keep a finger in Ephesians chapter 4 if you do that because we’ll go back to it in just a moment. But I told you last week that Romans is kind of like a longer version of Ephesians. And just as he urged us to walk worthy in Ephesians 4:1 and Romans 12:1 like we looked at last week, after he urges us he goes into spiritual gifts in both Ephesians and Romans.

Here’s what he says in Romans 12:3-8. He kind of gives us a list of what some of these gifts might be. But first he says, For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment. So before he gets into what like your gift is, he tells us, “Don’t think more highly of yourself than you ought to, because that’s what we’re prone to do. We’re prone to get our eyes on our gifts. And remember, your gift is just meant for the glory of God, not for the glory of you. And so he reminds us of that. Each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

Verse 4, Romans 12: For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function. Praise God.

Verse 5. So we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness. (Romans 12:3-8)

And so he gives us kind of a list of what some of these gifts might be: teaching, serving, generosity, exhortation. He does the same thing in 1 Corinthians.
1 Corinthians 12:5-7 says this: There are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. (1 Corinthians 12:5-7)

And so what I’m showing you and what Scripture is showing us is that God didn’t skimp when He called you to be a part of the Body. God created you and called you and gifted you specifically so that you would be a contributor to this thing that is called the Body of Christ. And it probably leads you to say, Well, what is my unique gift? I want to know. Like what is my unique gift so I can operate in it?

I just want to caution you for a moment because I asked the exact same question this week. And on Wednesday morning the first thing I did was I rolled over in bed and I grabbed my phone and I went to the Google machine and I typed in “spiritual gift test.” And then I laid in bed and I took a spiritual gift test. And it pumped out some results for me. I didn’t love the results. I didn’t even know if the results were biblical results. I wasn’t even sure if the things that they gave me were things that the Bible calls spiritual gifts.

And you know how you like take those tests, right, and you can sort of anticipate the questions. It’s like, “Do you like talking about the Bible?”

Yes.

“Do people ask you about the Bible?”

Yes.

“Do you know some of the Bible?”

Sure.

“Do you like giving money away?”

No.

“Does God appear to you in dreams and give you new revelation? Only after I eat Jet’s Pizza late at night. So no.”

Right? We can kind of anticipate those. But this week I had a pastor, or I heard a pastor say something like it’s not about finding your one unique spiritual gift. It’s about serving the church in as many ways as you can, and some of those ways will bring you great joy. So keep doing that thing. And others around you when they’re doing that thing, they will start to affirm, Man, you’re really good at that. Can we plug you in and can we allow you to use that gift to serve us? That helps fill a void and a hole that is necessary in this thing that God is joining together.

So some of you are doing that. I see that happening all over our church. Some of you don’t know what your spiritual gift might be because you are not serving your local church. You’re not serving the Body in any way. Some of you are only here to consume.

And let me just say, you’ll always have a seat at Gospel City Church. I love the fact that we can have space for you and you can come in the door and you can hear the message of gospel. But know that it’s not an acceptable use of Christ’s gift to you. If Christ has truly called you, then He has gifted you so that you could be a contributor to the Body of Christ. You want to be on this train. You want to be a passenger on the Body of Christ, not a parasite on the Body of Christ. You want to throw in. You want to shoulder some weight. This is not a spectator sport, but this is a participation opportunity.

I was thinking about the difference between a consumer and a contributing member. Here are a few things that you could consider. Are you a consumer or a contributing member in the Body of Christ? You’ve got to think bigger than Gospel City Church, sure, because there’s a Church universal. But the local church is an expression of the Body of Christ on the earth. So you need to be a member of a local church.

Are you truly known in the Body of Christ? Your discipleship wasn’t meant to grow in isolation. Are you known in the Body of Christ or do you sneak in the back door and sneak out the back door? That’s fine, but you will not grow the way that Christ’s Word tells us you will grow if you’re not joined to others.

Are you shouldering weight in the Body of Christ? Somebody set up your chair this morning. And somebody prepared the parking lot this morning. And somebody prepared the lobby this morning. Do you come and say, “Man, I’m so thankful that I get served the way I do at my local church”? Or do you think to yourself, “Man, they’ve got it together? I would love to contribute to that. I would love to fill a need here. Man, I would love to be a part of setting up the house of the Lord. I’d rather be a doorkeeper in God’s house than dwell in the tents of wickedness out there.”

Is that your mindset? Are you growing with the Body of Christ? I hope that you’re growing when you come here on Sundays and open your Bibles. I would assume that’s why you come; you’re being challenged. But I can’t encourage you enough to get in smaller settings. That’s where real growth happens, where accountability happens, where you can be challenged in deeper ways. You will not grow to the degree that Christ wants you to grow through one forty-minute message one time per week. You’ve got to study your Bible. You’ve got to know your Bible. You’ve got to lean into your Bible. You’ve got to be trained in righteousness.

The last question, are you sowing into the Body of Christ? Can you look at your time and your talent and your treasures and truly say, “Man, I’m spending myself on the kingdom of God”? Are you a consumer or are you a contributing member to the Body of Christ? Christ has gifted you very uniquely and specifically so that you can be a contributor, so that you can be in ministry.

And you might say, Well how did He give me these gifts? What’s the big deal about these gifts? I want you to look at verse 8. We made it through the first verse this morning. Going to verse 8. It says, Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts….Check, check. My mic is cutting out. He gave gifts to men. (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) So you’ve got to ask, “What does that mean?”

And what Paul is doing here, it’s a little obscure. But Paul is pulling from Psalm 68. So you see the quotations in verse 8 when he ascended on high he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men. In Psalm 68 David writes a psalm of victory. And after the Israelites would go to war and they would win a war, they would take for themselves the spoils of war, the prisoners of war. They would take them home and they would distribute the spoils of war among their people. And they would celebrate and they would rejoice at the victory that they have.

And Paul is saying there is no greater war victory than Jesus Himself descending from His high and holy throne to come to our sinful and broken and messed up world. And when He did, He was born, He lived a perfect life, He died on a cross in our place for our sins. He rose from the dead and He defeated death and hell and the grave. And then He ascended back to heaven. Why did He have to descend? Because you could never ascend to His level and so He came to yours and did what you can’t do and died a death He didn’t deserve so that you could one day ascend and rise and sit beside Him in glory.

And as He took home with Him the spoils of victory, as He took home with Him a captive of people called the Church, He distributes gifts to men. He distributes the things that Satan tries to keep for himself and God, Jesus, gives them to you so that you could build up the Body on the earth. Isn’t that awesome? That is the power of the gospel. I love how Paul exalts Christ when it comes to the spiritual gifts in the book of Ephesians.

But not only did He give each of us a unique and diverse gift, but He gave us gifted leaders to help us organize those gifts. Ok? So that leads us to point number two this morning and it’s this. Christ gives leaders to His church to equip us to serve one another. He gave you a gift so that you would serve one another, but He gives leaders to the church to help us serve one another.

Verse 11 and 12 says, And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.

So as you look at verse 11 (I’m going to go quickly with this) but it says he gave us the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists and the shepherds and teachers. Shepherds and teachers are kind of one thing. I believe that this is chronological. Paul is painting for us how the Church was born, how the Church grew and is continuing to grow. It started on the foundation of the apostles.

So an Apostle in the New Testament was someone who had an eyewitness account of Jesus Christ. They saw Jesus, they were commissioned by Jesus, and as they served Jesus and started churches in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth, their works were authenticated by the Spirit of God. That’s an Apostle. There were thirteen Apostles. Paul was an Apostle.

You could maybe say lowercase “a” apostle is a starter, an entrepreneur, a planter. But if someone comes up to you today and is like, “I’m an Apostle,” the first thing I’m saying is, “So you’ve seen Jesus face to face? You’ve been commissioned by Jesus?” I’m a little skeptical of the word Apostle in our day and age.

And then before we had the Bible and the canon put together, God sent prophets into the church. And the prophets would come and they would foretell of what God was doing. And they would speak and they would help the church and they would call out sin in the culture and all of that.

And then God has given us the evangelists. Those are people who help us understand that we need to turn from our sin and follow Christ. We still have evangelists going on all the time in our day and age today. Evangelists make me want to follow Jesus. Evangelists make the gospel clear to me.

And then God gives us shepherds and teachers. That’s where we get the word “pastor”. There are other words in Scripture like “bishop” and “overseer.” They’re all kind of the same thing, characteristics of men who lead the church, men who open their Bibles, men who equip the saints to do the work of the ministry. That’s the foundation of this thing called the Church on the earth.

But the job of an evangelist is not to do all the evangelism. And the job of your shepherds and teachers is not to do all of the ministry. The job of leaders in the church is to equip the saints to use their diverse gifts to do the work of the ministry and to build up the Body. That’s because you’ve been gifted that way.

And so, you know, I should be asking, “How are you contributing to the Body of Christ?” And you should be asking me, “How is Gospel City and its leaders equipping the saints to do the work of the ministry?” I was thinking about it this week and praising God for what He’s doing in and among our church. And here’s what I think God is doing among the saints as we aim to equip you to do the work of the ministry.

It all starts and ends with opening your Bibles. We say it this way at Gospel City Church that we will preach the Word of God without apology. We’ll open our Bibles in every setting and we’re not afraid to expose what God is trying to say to sinful mankind made alive in Christ. And so every setting where the Word of God is being accurately and prayerfully exposed, it is God speaking to the hearts of His people for their growth, development and the equipping of disciples.

But here are some other things, more avenues than what you’re doing right now as we’ve gathered. We created Core classes and Hope classes to help saints be equipped from God’s Word for suffering and for maturity and for discernment and for growth in their own identity. Pastor Mitch, he works really hard on those Core classes, but he doesn’t do all of the work. He’s working to equip others to teach some of you.

And so we have elders teaching. We have volunteers teaching. There are volunteers leading every Core table the same as in Hope groups. Pastor Nathan held a training last Saturday for twenty-nine people who are growing in intensive counseling in our church. This is Word-centered counseling. How do you equip Word-centered intensive counselors? You unpack what God’s Word tells us about handling sin and pain and heartache and trauma.

Pastor Tyler Downing told me this week that there are thirty-six home groups in our church. That’s thirty-six homes. There are multiple leaders. Some there are apprentices. But if you look at the small groups in all of our church, including men’s and women’s and young adults and students, there are seventy-two groups with multiple leaders. Those people are serving the Body, doing the ministry, opening their Bibles. Michelle Helmkamp and the whole Gospel City Kids Crew, they don’t do all of the ministry. They’ve created an environment where some of you weekly live sent into Gospel City Kids and administer your gifts so that our youth will be built up in the likeness of Christ.

I could go on and on about what the Lord is doing through so many of you in this church. There’s a mission trip to Puerto Rico, student leaders preaching in our students every week, young adults meeting in people’s homes, teaching one another in peer led small groups, men discussing God’s Word around a table, women creating Bible studies around the Sermon on the Mount. These are the saints doing the work of the ministry and building up the Body.

I’m so thankful that we have a church that’s dedicated toward discipleship. And hear this. Church leaders get it wrong when they aim to provide programs for consumers with no outlet to contribute, programs for consumers with no outlet to contribute. As you’re built up through the teaching of the Word of God in the Body, you have a responsibility to go and do the Word among the Body of Christ that Christ has put you in.

So you go through Core class? That’s not so that you can puff yourself up with knowledge. After you’ve gone through Core class, you’re going to be a better-equipped small group leader. And we need small group leaders. So say, man, I’m going to get all the knowledge that I can, but then I’m going to go and serve the Body, open my home, be on task and on ministry as I contribute to others’ discipleship and others’ faith. It’s disciples making disciples.

I was thinking about the Word of God. You know the words “expositional preaching.” We’re exposing what God’s Word says. Here’s a helpful thing that I was thinking on this week. We are aiming to be expository leaders who equip expository learners who live sent as expository disciples for the glory of Christ. We want to be expository leaders. We want the Word of God.

How much authority do I have in this church? Kind of zero. Only what God’s Word says is what I could say to anyone in this room. And so as I’m digging into God’s Word, it’s wrecking me and I’m just sharing with you what God’s doing in my life. But hopefully you’re a learner through the Word of God that then sends you to go and open your Bible with someone else across the table. That’s how disciples are made and all of it is for the glory of Christ.

So I don’t say all of that to pat Gospel City Church on the back. We have so much to grow in. we could do so many things better. The settings that I’m often in are not talking about what we are doing. It’s talking about how we could do these things better. But man, I’m grateful for so many of you being a contributor to the Body of Christ. That is why Christ has gifted you and that is why Christ has given leaders to His church to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry. This is a healthy church.

Now number three this morning, Christ gave Himself as the Head so we will grow to be like Him with one another. Christ gave Himself as the Head so that we will grow to be like Him with one another. You notice that Christ is the Head of His church. He’s building it. The gates of hell won’t stand against it. And Christ is more glorified in a unified Body than in an individual. And so you’re not in this alone. You’ve been joined to other people.

Look at verses 13-16. We’re equipping the saints to build up the Body until we all 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 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.

Rather, 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, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

What are the results of not being equipped to do the work of the ministry? We will be immature in our faith. We will be immature in our togetherness. We’ll be sitting at the kiddie table when we could be having a five course meal with one another around the kingdom of God. We’ll stay immature in our Christlikeness, in our bad doctrine. We won’t be able to speak the truth in love. We won’t be a contributor to the mutual ministry that should be happening.

So let’s unpack just real quickly four ways that we see maturity in the Body of Christ. Maturity in the Body of Christ is marked by four things. Number one, Christ likeness. We’re after maturity.

Verse 13 says, Until we all attain to the unity of our faith in the knowledge of the son of God to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Jesus has to be our aim as disciples. Jesus is our greatest example. Jesus was the greatest teacher, the greatest exhorter, the greatest giver, the greatest server. And He has made you in His likeness. He has called you to His likeness. And so we need one another so that we grow in our Christ likeness.

I said last week, you know, we looked at those attributes that we’re called to, right? Humility and gentleness and patience, bearing with one another, being eager for peace and unity. And we were all praying that the Spirit would revive us and do some things in us in this season.

Don’t be surprised if you pray that the Lord is going to test you to pull things out of you. I failed a couple times. I had to apologize to some of my kids and my family before I came up here and preached even this weekend because I don’t want to be not gentle. I don’t want to be not patient. I don’t want to bring my pride into a place where we open God’s Word. And you should be doing the same. We should be quick to repent of our sin and recognize when we have failed.

But the second thing. Maturity in the Body of Christ is marked by doctrinal soundness. Doctrinal soundness. It’s our desire that every member is becoming a theologically robust, doctrinally sound disciple. The word “sound” could be defined like this: the quality of being based on valid reason or good judgment; the state of being in good condition; robust understanding of the core beliefs of our faith.

A lot of us are just weak in understanding what the Bible says and calls us to. And the Bible says that you’re like a boat in the middle of the ocean being tossed to and fro if you don’t have a firm foundation to stand on and understanding of the core beliefs that Christ has called us to. You should be able to discern and make wise judgments concerning all of the cunning and crafty truth claims that the world says are truth. And the discerning Christian is able to discern these things.

Just think about the day and age that we live in, all of the resources that are available to you. They’re consumer resources. Amazon, Netflix, Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok. We live in the most self-consumed, acceptance-driven, identity deficient and biblically illiterate or biblically opposing culture ever. Yet more than ever in our culture can we be considered an expert and peddle nonsense and content that consumers endlessly intake in fifteen second clips over and over and over and over again.

How will you be able to discern what is filling your brain and filling your heart and coming out of your life if you do not have deep doctrine, if you have not rooted your life in the Word of God? Your discernment reflects your doctrine. Funny enough, we’re starting Core doctrine tonight. It’s a smaller class, going to meet in the lobby. But if you haven’t signed up and you haven’t taken it, I can’t encourage you enough to get in Core doctrine. It will deepen you. It will help you to grow in understanding so that you can withstand all of the garbage that the world wants to throw at you.

Number three, maturity is marked by truth paired with love. Believers who are doctrinally sound should be able to speak the truth, but immature believers fail to speak the truth in love. And as the characteristics that we looked at last week begin to take root and shape in our lives, we will walk together. We’ll be able to speak the truth to one another because God cares about holiness.

Proverbs 27:6 says, Faithful are the wounds of a friend. Do you have someone in your life that can say, “Hey brother, it seems like you’re getting off course a little bit”? That’s why we’ve got to do life together. How it should look in the Body of Christ, you should be eager for encouragement and feedback. People around you that say, “Hey, am I doing what I should be doing? Do you see sin in my life?” That should be the demeanor of a believer.

But sometimes we get off course, and the people that truly love us will come and they’ll say, “Hey, God’s Word says this and it seems like your life is going this way. Can I just encourage you? Can I walk with you? Can I help you to see that the way of the world leads to destruction but the way of Christ leads to life? Come back. Repent. Believe. Follow Christ. I’ll walk with you.” That’s what truth and love looks like among one another.

And finally, maturity is marked by mutual contribution. It’s kind of right back to where we started. Returning to the metaphor of the church being like a human body. You can see how our contribution and cooperation is necessary. When the Body is working properly, it makes the Body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

You think about your human body if you’re trying to gain strength and you get in the gym. And say you’re trying to squat heavy weight and move weight. And yet, you know, your hip flexor and your quad isn’t firing right so you use other muscles to try to move the weight. And then it starts to throw things off. It can throw everything off in your spine.

It’s hard to grow properly when things aren’t working together the way that they’re made to work together. And so that’s how it is in the Body of Christ. We have to cooperate with one another. We’ve got to use our unique gifts and fit into the Body so that it grows and matures in love.

It takes us right back to the start. A healthy church is every member mutually ministering to each other throughout a diversity of gifts as we collectively grow in maturity toward Christ who is our Head.

And listen, I know that’s a lot. It feels kind of cultural and DNA and what we want to be about as a church, a big church. I hope you’re encouraged this morning. That’s my prayer is that you’d be encouraged to be a part of such a great Body that God has joined together. And we have so much work to do in becoming like Christ. But we’ve got to do it together.

This isn’t you. This isn’t me. This is us. And so let’s do it together. Let’s be contributors. And everybody should be convicted to some level at where they could serve more, where they could give, where they could use their gifts to glorify God. and maybe you’re knocking it out of the park, and I would just say praise the Lord. That’s what you’re supposed to be doing. That’s why Christ has called you. But let’s do it together and see the Lord do great things, continue to do great things.

The Bible says that they outside of the church, the world, will know that we are Christians by our love. And so if this is working properly and we’re maturing and growing in a healthy way, the world is going to be like, I don’t get all of that, but man, I want what they have. They seem to have something so unique.

And so many things in the world are trying to replicate what the church is. But the church’s light will not burn out because Christ is building it. And the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And so get on the train and be a contributor to it. It’s the greatest thing this side of heaven. We’re just rehearsing for heaven. When heaven comes, man, we’ll all be together. It’s going to work perfectly. It’s going to be glorious. But let’s have heaven on earth. Your kingdom come. Your will be done. Let’s do it together. Amen?

C’mon stand to your feet. I’m going to pray and we’ll go out responding in worship. Lord, we love You. And Lord, I thank You for the brothers and sisters that are before me this morning. Lord, I’m honored to unpack Your Holy Word. And God, I pray that Your Spirit would have said today what You wanted to say. And yet Lord, I’m thankful to be joined to this many people who are claiming to follow Christ and who have been put in Christ and who have been changed by the power of the gospel.

Lord, I pray that You would unite us together as we continue to grow in our faith, as we continue to walk in a manner that is worthy of our calling. And so Lord, I pray that You would root out sin in this season. I pray that You would reform us and show us things in Your Word that we need to apply again or that we need to get back to. I pray that You would revive us by the power of Your Spirit to seek You and not our own gain and glory.

And Lord, as that binds us together, as we serve one another and as we use our gifts, Lord, would You strengthen this Body? Would You make us mature in the faith? Would You help us to be a church that has Jeus as our first love? Would You make us strong in the Lord? Because we are Your people. We are Your temple Lord. You’re building us up to be holy dwelling place with people from every tribe, tongue, language and nation.

And so Lord, we’ll do our part here and now as we wait for You to come. Lord, we love you. We give you glory. Thanks for meeting us today. In Jesus’ mighty name we pray. Amen.