back to indexEphesians Bible Study Lesson 13
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Glad we could tune in for another session of our Ephesians Bible study. 00:00:18.640 |
And God, we thank you that, Lord, your heart is kind and generous. 00:00:23.440 |
Lord, we recognize that throughout the book study, that, Lord, you have been overflowing 00:00:34.000 |
And what's more, God, that you have been absolutely generous with us. 00:00:38.040 |
And this not because of anything that we merit, but truly because this is the character of 00:00:44.660 |
And so we thank you, God, for not only allowing us to see it, but God, to experientially receive 00:00:52.040 |
We pray for another session of Bible study that as we study your word, God, that we would 00:00:59.280 |
We thank you, it's in Christ's name we pray, amen. 00:01:02.720 |
Okay, we're taking a look at Ephesians chapter four, verses seven through 10 today. 00:01:08.160 |
But as you take a look at the passage, you could easily tell that verses seven all the 00:01:15.880 |
So let's take a moment to read that portion of scripture and we'll study the passage. 00:01:21.800 |
Ephesians four, verse seven, it says, "But to each one of us, grace was given according 00:01:30.720 |
Therefore it says, when he ascended on high, he led captive a host of captives and he gave 00:01:37.120 |
Now this expression, he ascended, what does it mean except that he also had descended 00:01:45.600 |
He who descends is himself also he who ascends far above all the heavens so that he might 00:01:53.000 |
Let's take a moment to read the rest of the paragraph. 00:01:54.960 |
"And he gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some 00:01:59.120 |
as pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to 00:02:04.120 |
the building up of the body of Christ, until we all attained to the unity of the faith 00:02:09.080 |
and the knowledge of the son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature 00:02:17.200 |
As a result, we are no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves and carried 00:02:22.280 |
about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful scheming. 00:02:28.740 |
But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects and to him who is the 00:02:33.160 |
head, even Christ, from whom the whole body being fitted and held together by what every 00:02:39.000 |
joint supplies according to the proper working of each individual part, cause the growth 00:02:44.260 |
of the body for the building up of itself in love." 00:02:47.440 |
Okay, let's begin by taking a look at the very first verse of our passage, verse seven. 00:02:55.680 |
And this is a topic sentence for the paragraph. 00:02:58.960 |
It begins by saying, "But to each one of us, grace was given according to the measure of 00:03:04.760 |
Now, because it's a topic sentence, it's good to identify each element of this sentence. 00:03:12.600 |
So the very first thing we're going to identify is the contraction there, or conjunction there, 00:03:21.400 |
We ask this question, what is being contrasted? 00:03:24.200 |
We ask the question, hmm, what is the summary of verse seven that is being juxtaposed against 00:03:32.480 |
And what we noticed from before was that there was such unity. 00:03:36.280 |
If you recall, in verses one through six of chapter four, there was this repetition of 00:03:49.320 |
And so when we think about it, clearly there was an emphasis on the theme of unity. 00:03:55.560 |
And then here, in this sentence, in verse seven, it's stating, "But to each one of us," it 00:04:03.520 |
is highlighting this idea of individuality within the body. 00:04:09.880 |
And so, one of the ways that a commentator, James Montgomery Boyce, states it, is that 00:04:16.840 |
Apostle Paul takes great lengths to stress the unity of the church within this same thought, 00:04:26.360 |
It is a kind of unity that sustains great diversity. 00:04:30.680 |
So we have to keep in mind that there is a commonality, there is a unity by which there 00:04:40.320 |
There is a same baptism, same experience, I said, same identity. 00:04:46.000 |
And so much so, it supersedes a lot of the differences that we may have. 00:04:50.320 |
But at the same time, God intentionally designed to preserve the individuality that he has 00:04:57.600 |
And a good example of that, essentially, like the thumb. 00:05:01.920 |
If we were to think of ourselves each as individual thumbs, but the thing about it is, each of 00:05:10.240 |
That is so unique that not a single person has the exact same fingerprint as another. 00:05:15.520 |
So another passage, a cross-reference to highlight this, is from a passage that should be familiar 00:05:21.600 |
to every single one of you, because we go over it for every member's induction. 00:05:28.280 |
So please turn your Bibles over to 1 Corinthians 12 as we do a walkthrough. 00:05:33.120 |
Because this cross-reference highlights this idea in such extensive fashion. 00:05:37.640 |
This chapter is stressing the idea of incredible unity and diversity in the context of thinking 00:05:44.480 |
about spiritual gifts, the practice and use of spiritual gifts within the church. 00:05:49.440 |
I want to start off with 1 Corinthians 12, verse 4-7, and the passage says this, "Now, 00:05:56.820 |
there are varieties of gifts, but the same spirit. 00:06:00.780 |
There are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. 00:06:04.000 |
There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. 00:06:09.480 |
But to each one is given the manifestation of the spirit for the common good." 00:06:18.160 |
The idea is that there is such a variety of not only the work and function that we do, 00:06:29.320 |
And what's more, by the spirit, okay, by the spirit, there is going to be a manifestation 00:06:40.440 |
Verse 11, verse 11 going forward says this, "But one and the same spirit works all these 00:06:45.760 |
things distributing to each one individually as he wills." 00:06:52.320 |
So that being the case, one might say, "Wow, that's really interesting. 00:06:55.860 |
This variety is not just because it's hard to get everybody to walk the same walk, get 00:07:05.760 |
The spirit gifts each person distributing as he desires." 00:07:13.580 |
One of the thoughts that I had was there was a time when after doing, let's say, a project 00:07:17.400 |
together with different people at the church, there are times when I think like, "Man, it'd 00:07:24.880 |
And that's a compliment, meaning, "I wish I could clone you because if I had a bunch 00:07:28.200 |
of you, man, think about how much work we could have. 00:07:31.800 |
Think about how many things we can do, right?" 00:07:34.760 |
And I'm sure if you've ever tried serving at church and you were trying to run a project, 00:07:40.440 |
sometimes you might've felt the frustration like, "How come everybody doesn't do this?" 00:07:44.360 |
Well, I want you to think about that because although yes, it would be nice to have a hundred 00:07:50.280 |
of certain individuals, God is saying, "No, according to his own wisdom, he made it varied." 00:07:57.840 |
Although it might seem a lot better to just have every single person synchronized, EVing 00:08:04.080 |
together, working together, and then we could say proudly, "We are like a unit." 00:08:09.240 |
Clearly, scripture says, "No, that's actually not the model." 00:08:12.640 |
Moving forward in verse 12, it says, "For even as the body is one, yet has many members, 00:08:18.440 |
and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body. 00:08:25.280 |
When I said earlier that that wasn't the design, think about what is the model. 00:08:30.880 |
There is this very interesting and profound word here where he talks about how although 00:08:37.080 |
there's one and there's many members, he says, "So is Christ." 00:08:41.840 |
This is the way the design of the body of Christ is made. 00:08:44.840 |
Verse 13, "For by one spirit, we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, 00:08:49.160 |
whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one spirit. 00:08:56.560 |
Also skipping down to verse 18, "But now God has placed the members, each one of them, 00:09:05.520 |
If they were all one member, where would the body be? 00:09:08.580 |
But now there are many members, but one body, and therefore we have to hold these two, five, 00:09:25.160 |
I think one of the very profound things about Christ is scripture says he is priest, he 00:09:30.360 |
is king, he is prophet, he is the physician, he is... 00:09:39.600 |
And what's more, when we think about even the way that he presented his personalities, 00:09:44.160 |
I mean, what a dynamic individual, where he is perhaps the most incredibly gentle, that 00:09:52.280 |
the greatest of sinners, though shamed as they may be, would walk towards him. 00:09:58.800 |
Those individuals who are outcasts would find such comfort in Christ. 00:10:02.600 |
And yet at the same time, Christ is somebody who we can't even compare how scary he is, 00:10:12.800 |
To put it in another way, Christ is not a one-trick pony. 00:10:17.240 |
He doesn't do one thing over and over again, and then therefore he does that thing miraculously, 00:10:22.200 |
Like majestic, but everything else, it's like, "He left it to other people to take care of." 00:10:28.200 |
Christ is one, and we're going to talk about this, who fulfills all in all, and there's 00:10:31.400 |
this incredible dynamic nature to our Savior. 00:10:35.800 |
And God had designed that his church, the body of Christ, be the same way. 00:10:40.800 |
So those individuals who see church specifically as, "We should be a military boot camp and 00:10:47.480 |
get people into shape," there may be aspects of discipline, exhortation, but that's not 00:11:02.780 |
There may be a need for that, but that's not all that the church is. 00:11:09.120 |
Moving forward, 1 Corinthians 12, verse 25, he says, "So that there may be no division 00:11:14.680 |
in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another, and if one 00:11:19.560 |
member suffers, all the members suffer with it. 00:11:21.920 |
If one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it." 00:11:25.360 |
Now you are Christ's body and individually members of it, and God has appointed in the 00:11:30.240 |
church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, the miracles and gifts of healing, 00:11:35.320 |
helps administration, various kinds of tongues. 00:11:40.120 |
I just want to make mention of this fact then. 00:11:51.960 |
Make mention of this fact then that God has designed us varied. 00:11:58.720 |
God has designed us in a dynamic way to create even greater unity. 00:12:04.360 |
Now he asked this important question in verse 29, "All are not apostles, are they?" 00:12:12.960 |
Let's continue to read these questions that Apostle Paul poses. 00:12:36.640 |
And that leads into chapter 13, which talks about love as an incredible virtue, as a greater, 00:12:43.360 |
higher superseding ethic than perhaps our intellect. 00:12:47.960 |
Now in summary then, earlier I mentioned to you that God has made things beautiful in 00:12:58.520 |
So much so that our unity supersedes all the categories of division that we see on earth. 00:13:11.160 |
All these categories does not matter in the face of God because He has built such a unity, 00:13:19.720 |
At the same time, this unity contains a diversity that produces even greater unity and interdependence 00:13:30.720 |
And if we were the same, where would be the sense of smell? 00:13:34.880 |
Those are the things that we remember from chapter 12. 00:13:36.640 |
And He said, "This kind of dynamic nature of the church actually creates a greater kind 00:13:44.400 |
We give even greater honor to elements of our body that we think are just behind the 00:13:54.160 |
And we're not able to say, "I don't need you." 00:13:56.400 |
So in God's great wisdom, He has created all that. 00:14:01.240 |
And someone listening might say, "Yeah, last time, the last Bible study that I gave last 00:14:08.680 |
I was just like, 'We have everything in common.'" 00:14:12.280 |
And I pretty much said, "Who cares about your personality? 00:14:14.840 |
I don't really care if you're an INTJ or whatever letters you may be." 00:14:20.240 |
So in balance, just as a caveat, what I'm saying actually is your Myers-Briggs personality 00:14:29.880 |
But it's not as though your personality is done away with. 00:14:32.400 |
It's not as though you have to go and kill your personality and fake like you're something 00:14:38.560 |
All of that is preserved and used as unique gifts that we're going to continue to think 00:14:44.640 |
So, significantly speaking, every single member, we are many. 00:14:50.960 |
And we are all significant parts that God has composed together into this beautiful 00:14:55.120 |
thing that God is desiring to make, which is His church, the body of Christ. 00:15:00.080 |
I hope that just makes you feel like, "Man, the church is awesome." 00:15:04.840 |
Not because we've made the church awesome because God has clearly designed it and gifted 00:15:15.320 |
It says, "According to the measure of Christ's gift." 00:15:24.800 |
And when he says, "According to the measure," how is it measured out? 00:15:30.560 |
Now, there are elements that we won't take extra time on. 00:15:35.320 |
But when you even think about "of Christ's gift," when we say "Christ's gift," I think 00:15:42.560 |
This is a gift that maybe Christ is measuring out in His generosity and giving out. 00:15:52.040 |
Or another commentator just kind of gave us some options and said, "What if this is more 00:15:57.920 |
like the gifts that Christ received as the Savior, as the Son of God, as the King, to 00:16:09.040 |
Now, I'm just going to skip that part and leave that to you to dwell on. 00:16:13.040 |
Either way you think about it, the measure is incredible. 00:16:15.480 |
The measure by which Christ is giving the gifts to the church is not the kind of way 00:16:23.040 |
I mean, again, because we are in this scenario of people needing personal protection equipment 00:16:30.040 |
like masks, and like, "How do I divvy this out?" 00:16:32.480 |
Well, I guess you need it, so sometimes you think like generosity should happen just when 00:16:41.280 |
Is that the way Christ is going to give gifts? 00:16:45.920 |
Now, in thinking about this though, A, there is clearly some indication of what kind of 00:16:52.000 |
gifts Paul's talking about because he uses a specific term for gift, which is in the 00:17:03.000 |
And the dictionaries, when you do the word study, highlight that this term emphasizes 00:17:10.640 |
the gracious nature of the character given it. 00:17:16.600 |
This is a free thing, completely free of cost. 00:17:19.960 |
Now, when we think about this gift, it has a couple different references that can be, 00:17:25.080 |
but when you do Bible study, I want you to make sure that you're always first thinking 00:17:29.320 |
about it in the immediate context, meaning you should be thinking about it within the 00:17:35.200 |
You should be thinking about it within the paragraph that it belongs to. 00:17:38.880 |
What's very interesting is that in the immediate context, the gifts, one of the definitions 00:17:45.160 |
that we can assign to this idea of gift is people. 00:17:51.520 |
Christ gives the church people, individuals, apostles, prophets. 00:17:58.960 |
Now I'm going to be just really frank with you guys. 00:18:02.920 |
The people that I consider to be incredibly huge facets of God's grace to me are individuals 00:18:12.520 |
I mean, I've always said to you guys that although I am a part of the leadership and 00:18:16.120 |
have been now for a decade, I see all of our elders like they're my elders, right? 00:18:24.840 |
They've taught me, they've been patient with me, instructing me, guiding my steps. 00:18:32.240 |
I mean, think about again, the gifts that you receive when you think about the people, 00:18:37.760 |
but what's more in broader context, as we think about later on in the paragraph, how 00:18:42.840 |
we are supposed to be the saints who labor and do the work of ministry and how we're 00:18:49.800 |
Clearly both verse seven and then other portions of scripture, when we looked at 1 Corinthians 00:18:54.720 |
chapter 12, think about gifts in terms of skills, functions, and enablements, usable 00:19:00.160 |
traits that you can employ for the edification of the church. 00:19:05.720 |
So each of these gifts we're supposed to use, each of these gifts we're supposed to have 00:19:11.000 |
the sense of like, oh yeah, we're not necessarily maybe visibly like a vital portion, right? 00:19:17.920 |
Vital portion of the church, but nevertheless still so significant in the God has placed 00:19:24.800 |
The church is strong when each person fully ministers according to their gifting. 00:19:30.640 |
What's more in Acts chapter two, verse four, verse 33, I referenced that passage for you 00:19:38.200 |
And we point to John chapter 14 when Christ talks about what he's going to give his disciples. 00:19:45.720 |
What he's going to send, who he's going to send. 00:19:48.920 |
And what's very clear is that we have the Holy Spirit. 00:19:51.880 |
So in various parts of scripture, when he talks about the gift that is given to men 00:19:56.560 |
in Acts chapter two, verse four, when it talks about the gift that is coming down, he's talking 00:20:05.200 |
You know, one of the terms that I really don't have come to not like within just our common 00:20:16.560 |
You see this idea of specialized clergy, okay. 00:20:21.280 |
People of the cloth, so to speak, and laity has been a concept around us from a long time. 00:20:32.320 |
But just the way that even sounds, I don't like it. 00:20:41.520 |
So what I'm trying to say is that kind of differentiate, like the difference that you 00:20:46.920 |
categorically make between clergy and layman, it shouldn't be so strict within like church 00:20:57.360 |
There has been Pope bishops, like Cardinals and whatnot. 00:21:00.280 |
And then at the bottom of the totem pole is laity. 00:21:03.160 |
But that actually made some kind of difference in terms of function. 00:21:06.200 |
They said that the laity, how could they understand scripture? 00:21:12.560 |
So I want you to think about the way that the passage is even talking about though the 00:21:18.400 |
commoner, I guess you could say, you should be thinking of yourselves not as layman, but 00:21:29.140 |
There is a variety of gifts and a variety of effects that Christ is going to produce 00:21:33.760 |
in you and the effects you don't even know yet. 00:21:38.400 |
You are every single person within the church gifted people, not lay. 00:21:45.720 |
Although yes, we can, we can talk about that. 00:21:52.880 |
But obviously in terms of the mentality, we have to be thinking we have, and I want you 00:21:58.080 |
to say you have, you have the Holy Spirit, you have special gifting, the uniqueness of 00:22:03.520 |
your, your, your, your, uh, abilities, your capacities, your experiences, your personalities, 00:22:09.680 |
your thought, and most importantly, just your faith. 00:22:13.920 |
And then what's more, you have people, you have people in the church around you, not 00:22:17.040 |
just pastors and elders, but people around you who are teaching you and investing you 00:22:25.640 |
And you know that, you know, there are people I like to mention, you know, sometimes we 00:22:31.160 |
don't even know, like they don't have visible character traits that are like apparently 00:22:36.520 |
right immediately noticed, but we have people in this church who you may not even know what 00:22:41.480 |
their voices sound like, but it have contributed so much to build up this church and that we're 00:22:50.040 |
So that portion of it, we definitely want to really appreciate. 00:22:54.600 |
And then moving on to section three, verses eight through 10, we can clump together as 00:23:03.600 |
Verse seven, I spent a lot of time because that's the topic sentence. 00:23:06.840 |
Listen, we're all one, but each one of you have been gifted by Christ and that is a grace 00:23:14.460 |
That's not a, you know, a task master, a task masters, you know, whip given to you. 00:23:19.880 |
That is, that is grace given to you to exercise such gifts. 00:23:24.720 |
And then it's a support of that concept is verse eight through 10, which reads, therefore, 00:23:29.160 |
okay, it says when he ascended on high, he led captive a host of captives and he gave 00:23:37.860 |
Except that he also descended into the lower parts of the earth. 00:23:42.080 |
He who descended is himself also he who ascended far above all the heavens so that he might 00:23:55.440 |
And most importantly, why is it being quoted? 00:23:57.440 |
And I made mentioned earlier, it's being quoted to support this idea that Christ gave gifts. 00:24:03.080 |
Now this verse in terms of the old Testament quote, what comes from Psalm chapter 68 verses 00:24:09.120 |
17 through 18 and it reads the chariots of God's are myriads thousands upon thousands 00:24:14.320 |
and the Lord is among them as at Mount Sinai in holiness. 00:24:22.640 |
You have received gifts among men, even among the rebellious also that the Lord God may 00:24:30.120 |
Now when you think about the general thought and flow, if you read all of Psalm 68, it's 00:24:35.600 |
going to read this kind of majestic, you ascended, you threw down, you conquered, you're victorious, 00:24:45.040 |
And so, uh, Spurgeon in his treasury of David says, this Psalm is of might. 00:24:50.840 |
It's a victory of God, a hymn of war and victory celebrating God's conquest and triumphant 00:24:57.640 |
And then if you tie to the, if you think about what is tied King David and what is tied to 00:25:02.440 |
the historical events, this is most likely the idea of the representation of the arc 00:25:08.000 |
When God leads with the arc of the covenant, the nation was victorious. 00:25:13.320 |
So with that said, the concept and the thought is when a King is victorious, he receives 00:25:21.820 |
When a King is victorious, he comes back into the kingdom and with him comes what gifts. 00:25:29.800 |
Because he's just conquered and taken in all of the spoil. 00:25:33.240 |
And so when you think about that, the way that we should be thinking about the measure, 00:25:37.920 |
the way that we should be thinking about the kind of concept is a generosity of a King, 00:25:46.520 |
So I wanted to go down and break down a couple of things that you guys might have questions 00:25:50.520 |
on and I'm going to go through this briefly, which is this. 00:25:54.280 |
Apostle Paul highlights though, he doesn't specifically say the King is giving you gifts, 00:25:58.800 |
but he highlights though, and you have to take note of this, the degree of descent and 00:26:03.040 |
ascent, okay, the degree of the descent and then the ascent. 00:26:07.960 |
And then, so what he said is, when you think about this idea of he went up, what does it 00:26:15.000 |
Now people are going to have this idea or the question, what does it mean that he came 00:26:19.400 |
down and where, what are these lower parts of the earth? 00:26:23.040 |
Now a lot of people have different thoughts, whether it be first the incarnation, just 00:26:28.320 |
simply coming down as a man, we know the distance between where Christ was, where in the beginning 00:26:34.320 |
was the word and the word was with God, the word was God. 00:26:37.440 |
And then for him to come down to us as incarnate man, that would be an incredible descent. 00:26:44.480 |
What's more, some people will say, he's just talking about earth. 00:26:46.440 |
He came to earth and then he went to the grave into the lower parts. 00:26:50.420 |
And then some people think that perhaps he's talking about Sheol, which is referenced a 00:26:55.280 |
lot in the Old Testament, which is a place, a jail of the Old Testament for those who 00:27:03.720 |
And first Peter chapter three mentions that when Christ is victorious through his death, 00:27:12.160 |
And the idea is that Christ preached his triumph and said, look, you shameful beings, look 00:27:20.880 |
And then other people think he just literally spent time in hell. 00:27:25.200 |
This passage alone, it cannot give us enough to say, oh my gosh, it's all of these. 00:27:30.760 |
It's best to think just the significance is the descent of this King to come. 00:27:37.760 |
And this idea is in his coming was yes, his death and his suffering, but realize that 00:27:43.920 |
it was through that, that Christ is going to also achieve his victory. 00:27:49.880 |
And so the question is, so then he went down and it's he who went up and to where? 00:27:58.480 |
But the point that is the driving force and the conclusion is verse 10, so that he fulfills 00:28:05.760 |
When you think about the idea of fulfills all things, we should be thinking about like 00:28:12.480 |
Remember like, you know, when back in revelation or sorry, the near revelation, when it talks 00:28:18.680 |
about the savior, he'll say to him, be all things, glory, honor, power, right? 00:28:39.000 |
And the proof of all that is his grand victory of resurrection. 00:28:43.160 |
And so when we think about that, we are essentially able to answer the question of, and it's 00:28:48.640 |
this king, we're able to actually paint the picture, so to speak, not necessarily answer 00:28:53.640 |
the question, but paint the picture of it's this king who has grand victory, who has universal 00:29:02.280 |
authority, who is giving gifts to the church, who is leading the church in its enablement 00:29:12.280 |
So we want to wrap up with some meditations then. 00:29:18.000 |
If that is the picture that is being painted in verses seven through 10, let me ask you 00:29:24.600 |
If a king is giving us gifts, then will we sit and just envy other people's gifts? 00:29:31.240 |
I think if you guys have heard me preach, you've heard me probably confess this a lot, 00:29:36.200 |
That some days I'm all down, I feel very stressed, I feel kind of incapable. 00:29:42.120 |
And then, oh, I should have done a better job. 00:29:44.600 |
And oh, I should have said this and woulda, shoulda, couldas. 00:29:54.160 |
And then you look over and the guy next to you, he's just like, you know, like getting 00:30:01.560 |
And when I look to my left, I see this guy who's so disciplined. 00:30:06.200 |
I'm sitting there like, man, I wish I could do that. 00:30:07.920 |
I wish I had the skills to get everything done and all that kind of stuff. 00:30:13.280 |
I do realize, I mean, if my perspective is limited to just me and my natural tendencies, 00:30:20.300 |
I'm just going to think that for the rest of my life. 00:30:23.020 |
But thanks be to God, he gives us the scriptures and he says, no, the king has given you gifts 00:30:30.120 |
When the king gives you gifts, you don't sit there and be like, but that guy has more. 00:30:39.980 |
And you would do according to what you think is going to be really honoring and blessing 00:30:44.560 |
a blessing as a reciprocated thanksgiving to God. 00:30:49.400 |
And yes, it's okay to be challenged by the gifts of others, but to sit and wallow like 00:30:59.760 |
If a victorious, mighty, sovereign, universally sovereign king gives you gifts, why would 00:31:05.600 |
you sit and worse off act like you didn't get anything? 00:31:16.120 |
You know, like, nah, you know, I'm just not like all of them. 00:31:20.560 |
You know, that guy has both the voice and the technical skills and the charisma. 00:31:27.760 |
Why would we act like that when the scripture says God has given us the grace? 00:31:38.240 |
He didn't accidentally send stimulus checks to dead people and then miss you, right? 00:31:45.120 |
God has given, he says, each one of us already in Christ. 00:31:49.160 |
And yes, it might not look like the measure you would desire or the measure that we would 00:31:53.080 |
do it if I was gifting people at the church, but he's done it. 00:32:01.000 |
Or if a king gives you a gift, why would you fake like, oh, thank you, and then just stash 00:32:13.240 |
And I kind of, if you notice, I'm kind of making it incrementally worse. 00:32:16.360 |
And you might be surprised to think, is it worse to just be like complaining like, I 00:32:21.520 |
Or is it worse to fake like you got it, say thank you, and then never use it and shove 00:32:27.800 |
Because of the biblical example of the lazy slave and servant, remember the parable of 00:32:35.480 |
The owner calls that slave a wicked person who feigns like, OK, I'll take it, but then 00:32:43.440 |
believes in his heart that the person who gave it to him was a wicked man himself, that 00:32:52.360 |
I just want to use this as a moment to quote a famous or popular pastor, Dr. Steve Lawson. 00:33:04.200 |
And when you want to hurt good, you kind of listen to him. 00:33:07.920 |
But he says about this passage, and I was listening to a sermon, and then he says, "Not 00:33:13.960 |
to use our gifts is an affront to Christ's wisdom, a rebuff of his love, a dismissal 00:33:19.440 |
of his grace, a loss to his church, and an arrogant self-determination that weakens the 00:33:24.440 |
work of your neighbor and grieves the Spirit of God." 00:33:34.480 |
The effect of sitting there and thinking that I'm going to be passive because I actually 00:33:38.480 |
don't have anything, it is an affront to Christ's wisdom, who is king, who, again, in God's 00:33:47.640 |
wisdom and design has already orchestrated the church as he wills. 00:33:52.280 |
So I want to conclude by saying, remember that our church believes every single one 00:34:03.040 |
And if you're not motivated, if I sound like a motivational speaker, I want to. 00:34:09.040 |
And I want to motivate you because it's true. 00:34:11.720 |
You should be thinking of yourself as a gifted person, expected to use your gifts for this 00:34:18.080 |
And remember that at this church, that's why we practice membership and it's a part of 00:34:26.440 |
He has made the church beautiful in his own sight, in his own wisdom to make it one, and 00:34:31.720 |
then to gift it and bless it in a variety of ways that it would retain our individuality 00:34:37.880 |
and so that each one of us have this responsibility to lovingly, to carefully use it for the glory 00:34:48.360 |
Our God, we thank you so much for your grace. 00:34:52.640 |
We thank you God for this grace that is particular in that you have gifted each person with their 00:35:02.640 |
And I pray Father God that that would help us to really just soak in this thought Lord, 00:35:07.800 |
that when we even think about our service in the church, God, first and foremost, we 00:35:11.600 |
do have to think about our relationship to you. 00:35:21.960 |
Father God, for me to just compare all the time with other people would be to lose sight 00:35:28.280 |
Rather, God, I want to make sure and I pray that every single person in the church make 00:35:32.520 |
sure that when they hear this truth, you as King has given us gifts. 00:35:45.240 |
Would you continue to build in us perseverance that we would then continue to be about the 00:35:50.280 |
building of your kingdom and the building of your church.