- Good evening, everyone. Let's take a moment to pray and go before the Lord as we start our weekday Bible study. All right, God, we thank you, God, for your truth. Lord, we recognize truly how powerful your word is because God, you're a powerful God. We thank you so much that this word, which you describe as so precious, more to be desired than money and gold, and sweeter, Father God, than any sweet thing in this world.

I do pray that we would all the more experience it, trust, and continue to build our lives upon it. And we again want to thank you. Week in and week out, we have opportunity to study and learn. And we do recognize, God, we feel how it continues to feed our soul and causes us to be strong in faith towards you, Lord.

We want to thank you again and pray for a fruitful time of study this evening. It's in Christ's name we pray, amen. OK. This evening, we are looking at Ephesians chapter 4, verses 11 through 16. So let's take a moment to start reading. I will start reading in verse 7 because, again, those were connected thoughts.

And in verse 7, it says, "But to each one of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore, it says, when he ascended on high, he led captive, a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men." Now, this expression, "he ascended," what does it mean except that he also had descended into the lower parts of the earth?

"He who descended is himself also he who ascended far above all the heavens so that he might fill all things." Our passage for today. "And he gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.

As a result, we are no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects. And to him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love." OK.

This passage has a lot to say. But I do want to make mention of the fact that this is a very pivotal and important passage to the doctrine of the church, namely how the church has been blessed, but also the vision of what the church should be like. We're going to start with verse 11 that describes the gift, the gift that Christ has given.

Remember that in the last passage, we rehearse and review that Christ gave gifts. And what he talked about was to each one, God has given gifts. Christ as the victor, Christ as the conquering king, has been generous with us, has been generous with the church. And so he gives gifts to men.

And he has authority to do so. And what he says here is that he gave some to be apostles, and some as prophets, and so forth. And so we have to ask the question, OK, so clearly Christ has been generous. What has he given? And what we already said was that the concept of gift in the New Testament has various different references, everything from your enablement, the skills that you have, your disposition, your character traits, the things that you can use for the church.

We also talked about the Holy Spirit as a gift. We talked about obviously having even the collective whole as a gift. But more specifically, specific individuals, the individuals that are given to the church, and here, namely apostles, prophets, and evangelists, pastors, teachers. So we essentially want to say that.

But what I like to do is whenever I make observations about a passage, and there happens to be a listing, I actually try to list it. And I recommend you do the same. Why? Because every time you see a list, you do want to observe and ask the questions of, is there a theme there?

Is there a sequence? Is there an order? And the observation that I see is that, yes, there does seem to be a sequence. Why? Because this order appears in other passages of the New Testament as well. For example, 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 28 through 31. In this passage, Apostle Paul says, "And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers.

Then miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, administration, various gifts of tongues." All are not apostles, are they? All are not prophets, are they? All are not teachers, are they? And so there are specific designated gifts. But what's more, there seems to be an order of the gifts, where it says first, second, and third.

What's more, when we take a look at Ephesians chapter 2, verses 19 through 20, it talks about the building of the house, and there's always a sequence to a build. Verse 19 says, "So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household.

Having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone." So within the blueprint, within your build order, Christ is going to be the cornerstone that sets the lines. He's going to be the one that sets the trajectory of how things should be laid out.

And there is the foundation, the doctrinal foundation of the teachings that have been given to the apostles as ones sent from Christ. That being the case, there is significance to these things, that there is this order by which Christ has given, as a very then valuable and significant gift, that the church should have these apostles, prophets, shepherds, evangelists, pastors, and teachers.

Now in thinking about that, though, we take a look at the list and we're kind of wondering, hmm, OK, so there seems to be an order, there seems to be a significance, but how do they differ? Who are these people? Is there any similarity? Those kind of questions are all questions maybe we should ask.

But one other interesting thing that we notice is that some of the terms in the Bible that we see, we actually don't see in this list. So this is something, you don't have to jot down everything because it's going to take you a while, but I just wanted you to notice that within the Bible, there are lots of different titles for people.

There are different types of leadership. So some of the ones that we're more accustomed to and hear often are elders. How come they're not on the list? They're like leaders of the church. Deacons and servants who are ministers, like why aren't they on the list? What's going on? And so an important observation that we make is this, OK?

An important observation is that there is a unifying form, sorry, a unifying function of the individuals that have been listed. And what is that unifying function? That unifying function is that all of them have to do with the teaching of the foundational doctrines of Christ, essentially the proclamation of the truth.

Pretty much all the commentators that I read kind of uniformly agreed that the highlight of this is as he comes down this list, apostles and prophets, these are not offices for the church. The highlight is not the offices of the church. Why? Because we have not been given instructions, go therefore and establish apostles at your church.

Those are uniquely God-given specific roles and privileges in the sense that Christ has given them authority to teach with his authority. And upon that teaching that has been handed down to us once and for all, we are continuing to minister the truth. OK? So that being the case, clearly this is not a delineation of, these are all the offices you should have at your church.

'Cause some of them are already passed. They don't exist anymore, right? But rather it is highlighting this idea. A gift to us is the word. The word is light. The word is better than sweet honeycomb, better than money. The word is better than the wisdom of the world. The word is actually better than you trying to go and pursue happiness in life.

Why? Because the word is God's reality. And living in God's reality is the greatest blessing. What am I trying to say here? We should meditate on the fact that the invaluable, the precious gift that God has given, yes, are these individuals. But these individuals have a primary function of teaching.

They are to be the ground laying workers in the church who have laid a foundation of doctrines for us to believe. And therefore hitting this idea again for our church. Let's take a moment to meditate on that. If, if we jettison the preaching of God's word faithfully to you, we are completely jettisoning Christ's gift, right?

If the foundational truths that we have been receiving and our role then as pastors and teachers are to give to you as a blessing to the church, as an edifying force in the church, as a sanctifying force in the church, we're completely misusing God's gift. It would be like having this, like a Apple product, which is a laptop computer that I bought five years ago, serving me well.

It's useful for preparing sermons, studying, typing up my notes. It's powerful equipment, right? But instead I'm like, nice, thank you. And I started saying, let me turn up the screen brightness and use it as a lamp. So I could use my number two pencil and write down my notes on a piece of paper, right?

Like that would be ridiculous. What a waste. Yeah, as a matter of fact, if we continue to jettison God's word within the church, absolute waste, but more than that, in Old Testament, if God has given us the blessing of the truth, meaning if God has given the nation of Israel, his proclamation, and they instead turn to the wisdom of the world, it's like, but they have kings over there.

If they turn to the wisdom of Egypt and say, but that nation is powerful. That is not seen as a waste. That is seen as betrayal. This loyalty and a front against God's gift, right? Now, why am I saying this? Is because even in our day, there are things that people turn to aside from the word of God.

And the point that I'm making is not so much like, whoa, right? It's just simply that not everything is neutral. Things compete for our loyalties. Things compete for our mind and our heart. And what's more, we always want to think and consider our Lord Jesus Christ in his victorious nature has given the church various gifts.

And then for us to not fully commit, not fully accept it would be a big, big offense to him. Okay, number two. In number two, the scripture says, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ. So Christ has a very specific intent of why he gave those gifts to the church.

That's what we're talking about. The intent. And so what we want to say is purpose, objective. What does God purpose in the teaching of the word, in the various titles and positions that are there? And also more specifically, these gifts in history that God has given in terms of specifically the apostles, prophets, evangelists and so forth, okay?

So when we take a look at this passage, again, I just want to highlight that in good Bible study, we pay attention to prepositions. Why? These prepositions I highlight for you. For, for, to. Prepositions just gives you relationships between words and nouns, right? And phrases. So what you should be thinking is, what is the relationship of thought here?

And you totally see a progression. This is for the purpose of this and for the purpose of that. And you just naturally see a build. Okay, I just want to highlight that. And what's more, he says that this is for the equipping, working and building. So there are some unique terms that we should pay attention to.

I just want to comment on these just briefly here. First, I actually want to start with the idea of building up the body of Christ. Let's take a moment to think about this. An objective and purpose that I know God is doing right now. He desires in this day, in our generation, but also in this day, to continue to build up his church.

That is something I know for sure. People ask me sometimes for advice. Is it God's will for me now to do this? Is it for now God's will for me to do that? To be single, to be in this job? And there's a lot of questions. Now, a lot of times we recognize that there's a general will of God.

He always wants to draw you near to him. He wants to build you up in your character that's more closer to his own image. He wants to make sure that he's sanctifying you. He's all that stuff, right? But one of the short things we can say is, this is a purpose, an objective of God.

And what's really interesting is that he uses a term that has a very kind of literal and specific nuance, which is, he's not just generally building, it literally means to be building a home. It's there in the Greek, oikodome, okay? Oikodome. And so when we think about that, we recognize that what he is building, we rehearse what he said before, it is his dwelling.

When you think about his church, what we have here at Berean, again, by our eyes, we just see a gathering of a mass of people. But what we should be also seeing is God is building his loving home. God is building his dwelling place. He said his temple, right?

And so here's this question then for us, for us, we have to ask this question. Have I also then bought into that objective and purpose? Is that to me, something of a conviction? I know what God is doing, and therefore I've completely aligned myself to that goal and purpose.

If that's his intention, so is mine. What's more, he says to that end, there should be equipping of the saints for the work of service, okay? Equipping of the saints for the work of service. Let's ask this question. What does it mean to equip, okay? We recognize that clearly for the building up of the church, the building up of the church does not happen just because we have crazy professionals.

The building up of the church does not happen just because we have crazy finances and a crazy building, right? The building up of the church happens through the equipping of the saints for the work of service. But what does this equipping mean? I highlight it because the definition of this term when we do a word study specifically of equipping, it is the word, "Ketartismus," and it means perfection or completion.

The word dictionary of the New Testament says this differs from another term, "Ketartisis," which is talking about the act of fitting something in or making perfect. But he says the term used here is actually talking about, it denotes the process as completed. So what am I saying? I recognize from that, that when we think of equipping, we're probably thinking of something far too narrow.

What do I mean? I think in error, sometimes when we think of equipping, we think of educational study. We think of, let's run a class. Let's have this training where you sit and a pastor teaches you, right? And then, or what's more, we say, you know what? You should tag me.

You should tag along with what I do, and we should kind of do it like maybe the medical field. You're gonna be a resident, and you're just gonna walk alongside me, right? But when we think about equipping, here, it's a pretty broad term, general perfection and completion. Now, here's another passage in Hebrews 13, it says this, "Now the God of peace who brought up from the dead "the great shepherd of the sheep "through the blood of the eternal covenant, "even Jesus our Lord, "equip you in every good thing to do his will, "a working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, "through Jesus Christ to whom be the glory "forever and ever, amen." So what we see there is the equipping should be in every good thing.

Why do I bring this up? Because the tendency that I see sometimes is a lot of times people have a narrow view of what equipping means. Typically, they think equipping to lead a small group, equipping to lead and teach, equipping to be essentially somebody who is higher up on the hierarchy.

But that's not necessarily the case. Because plus, not only is the term broader than that, we recognize that generally, as the scripture speaks about equipping, it is not just education. To do a specific task, such as leading. Do equipping comes to us through the scriptures? Primarily, yes. I mean, 2 Timothy 3.16, the word of God is sufficient for everything.

To make us wise unto salvation, but to make sure that we're all equipped, thoroughly equipped that we can be, you know, to do every work. However, the scriptures talk about the fact that our prayers continue to equip us. What's more, the exhortation that we hear from our brothers and sisters, the accountability, the admonishment to flee sin and to obey in greater measure, that's all equipping too.

The testing and suffering, whoa. Testing and suffering is actually a huge disciplinary, equipping and training. I mean, you think about the passage in James, you think about the passage in 1 Peter 1. We essentially need to go through these various trials because those trials is going to have its necessary effect in us.

What I'm saying is, more broadly speaking, the scripture is talking about equipping, maybe more than what perhaps we presume equipping might mean. The observation and engagement of our community, the people around us who are mature, the practice of our faith in discernment. Scripture essentially says, our maturity is going to come, our discernment is going to come by those who actually practice it and in greater measure, a fuller application of what we already know.

And so Apostle Peter says, you know what? I don't mind repeating stuff over and over again. And as a matter of fact, I think about my own ministry, just the teaching that I've done over the years. And in that teaching, there's so many things I repeated over and over again.

And thank goodness the word of God never ceases to amaze, it's so deep. But a lot of that actually is repetition of the same concepts, just in fuller measure and fuller application. And so all that to say is, I want you to take a moment to think about this.

If I'm not thinking like, yeah, I need to be equipped to lead, but I'm thinking like, I need to be equipped to go love my brother, to bear his burdens. Like what is it that you're not equipped with that you can't go to a brother and be like, how are you doing this week?

Especially during this time of the shelter at home, are you doing okay? Brother says, yeah, I'm struggling with this and this and this. He says, I'll pray for you. Call him again and say, you know, I was just curious, like how are your parents doing? 'Cause man, they are at risk and stuff like that.

And I know their health is not good. Are they doing okay? And you continue to check up on him. And then you start saying, oh, you share, can I share with you my encouragements and how I'm struggling? And you go and interact. And then you eventually say to like, more specifically with your love for Christ and your private faith in the Lord, like how's that doing?

What equipping do you lack? I'm saying this not to say that you don't need training and that equipping is all bad. I'm saying this to say that perhaps sometimes what we think about as equipping is not necessarily done specifically in a formalized classroom setting, which a lot of people sometimes expect.

And so I just wanted to highlight that by saying the equipping is probably broader than what we normally may think of. Next, as we think about this though, Apostle Paul has shown to us Christ's intent as he gives gifts, that he desires this purpose that the saints be equipped, that we be trained and that we are grown and that we're maturing by doing the works of service, the works of service that includes far more than just leading stuff.

Works of service that means serving the brother next to us, serving the needs that we see and applying everything that we can. And then what he says is, all of that is going to build to until we all attain and have this result. So the way I label this is when I see again, these prepositional phrases, until we all attain to and as a result, I should be thinking, man, this is like a broader goal.

Like God has a very order and structure where he's thinking there are purposes and objectives that are leading to a grand vision of the church. And that's why this passage is great and amazing and we should take time to appreciate it because it gives to us kind of the idea that God has when he's thinking about the picture of the church.

And what does he say? He says, until we all attain to the unity of faith and of the knowledge of the son of God, to a mature man and to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful scheming.

But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects and to him who is the head, even Christ. Brothers and sisters, this is a tall, tall order. This is a big vision. This is perhaps in some people's mind, like impossible. Right? This is huge. So let's take a moment to appreciate all this stuff.

First, he talks about the unity of faith. Unity of faith. He is talking about the fact that we have this one baptism, one faith, one spirit, one father, one truth. And so we are bound together in such a way where we have the same dedication to the same doctrine, the same truth.

And so we're supposed to have in other parts of scripture a same intent. Intent on the same thing, set on the same purposes. And the passage actually commands us to have similarity of mind. Now, somebody perhaps might look at that and say, "What? "What a herd mentality." Right? We're being brainwashed to think the exact same stuff.

But the thing about it is, yes, if we have a unity, where for the sake of pragmatism or practicality, you all should just believe what I say, then that would be wrong. Or if in the sense of, "Hey, this is not gonna work "if we have different types of people.

"So we're just gonna all move in the same pattern." That would be wrong. But the fact of the matter is we are one herd. We're sheep. But the great truth is we are sheep of the great shepherd. And just like that video we saw a couple of weeks ago, we all perk up when we hear the voice of our master, and we all come running when we hear the voice of our master.

That is no faulty thing. That is no foolish thing. When in fact you have the foundation of God's own voice being what unites us. It would be a foolish thing to just be thinking outside the box for the sake of thinking outside the box. You can't be different just to be different.

That in and of itself is also foolishness as well. But the point that I'm kind of getting at here is this. The kind of unity that God desires to see in us, the degree and level of like-mindedness that God wants to see in all of us. I want us to understand that that unity is so high 'cause he wants us to have that element where we are of absolute one faith.

So moving forward to next, the knowledge of the Son of God. I would like to highlight and draw your attention to an observation of a word study here on the term knowledge. In the Greek there are several terms for the word to know. There's oida, there's gnosko. This passage particularly uses the word epignosko.

It is absolutely intensified. Again, from the word dictionary of the New Testament, it says, "This knowledge is intensified because it expresses a more thorough participation in acquiring of the knowledge on the part of the learner. It often refers to knowledge which very powerfully influences every form of religious life, a knowledge laying claim to personal involvement." Take a moment to think about that, that your experiences, it's both personal, there is personal investment and engagement.

And all of that happens to surround your experience with the person of Christ, right? If you've had experience with another individual and you've had shared life patterns and moments when you can, you know, reminisce together, those are such unique ties. Right now, a lot of people are sharing their reflections but also their testimony and moments of hardship that drawn them closer to God on the Facebook and over the internet.

And some people comments like, "Oh, I remember your before Christ days and you're crazy and all that kind of stuff." And then they're like, "But remembering Christ, how He's good to you, how He changed you, like, thank you so much for sharing." And when we do that, there is immediately a connection.

Because we're talking about the picture of the church, think about this, every single one of us has some of the most moving and deepest experiences with Christ. And we all can share it because we've been walking with the Lord. What an amazing thing that would be. What's more, he says, that there should be maturity, maturity, that we would all, again, this is not satisfied with a bunch of people with a bunch of people over here and a bunch of people over there being mature, but until we all attain to the maturity, that of Christ.

And I want you to think about this. I mean, to the church, its unity would be so developed and heightened if people were growing in their personal maturity. If we were selfish, we would be thinking, "You know what? I want what I want, I want it now." Like, that would be absolute childishness, right?

That's immaturity. A lack of self-control, it's like, "I'm just gonna do it, I don't care. Not thinking about consequences. I don't care if it hurts you, who cares?" Like, that's all childishness. But if you're able to think about having self-control, being able to die to self, having that kind of maturity to think above and beyond your own wants, that would be such a thing where our Father in heaven would look down.

And again, because we're talking about the grand vision, think about the vision of the Father. Why would He not want us to mature in that fashion? Us as His sons and daughters. And you know, I do believe that there is this interaction where God is looking at His sons and daughters and desiring to be proud as we grow in maturity towards the image of Christ.

There's a thought that I think about. One time I went on a mission trip and even with a great team, sometimes within mission trips, as you're trying to do hard stuff, moving from here to here, the discomforts, there was some strife. And there was this time, there was an intense moment where it started getting all kind of crazy.

Some words were said, words weren't careful, and then things started to escalate. And within that kind of escalation, things got really heated and emotional and stuff like that. But one of the team members, as they kind of noticed and saw, they could have easily just been like, "What's going on?" And been like, "I'm out of here.

"No thank you." But instead, they stepped in. Now, they didn't step in a manner where it was like, "You know what? "What are you talking about? "What are you talking about? "Say your piece." It wasn't like that. They stepped in with a sense of just like, "You know what?

"I wanna take responsibility. "We could have done a lot better." Apologized, they heard the personnel, and they completely deescalated by their humility, their willingness to absorb. Maybe their expectation was wrong. Maybe their expectation was unfair. But nevertheless, they submitted to one another in that fashion. Man, on the bus ride home, I was just so proud of them.

I leaned over and I was like, "I'm so proud of you." Because I was. But again, thinking about the larger church picture, when we are exercising greater maturity because of our ability to express and do what Christ has done, our Father would be proud. Now, moving forward, here in this passage it says, "To the measure," or sorry, yeah, "To the measure of the stature "which belongs to the fullness of Christ." If you actually take a moment to think about that, that's crazy.

To the stature of Jesus Christ? This must be talking about the end times. This must be talking about when we're glorified in heaven. No, our God desires us to move in that direction now. And even if we think in our own minds, like, "That's like asking us to clean the ocean.

"Can't do that. "I'm a land animal." Right, like, what are we supposed to say to that when God asks us to do something far above, beyond what we think is capable? God's gonna look at us and say, "How many things that I call you to do "that's impossible for man, "but that he is going to empower?" And so be encouraged that this desire of God to strengthen and cause us to mature to the measure of Christ is something he is working in us.

And he desires to see in the grand picture all of us attain to that. And the question to you is, have you said, "Yes, Lord, thank you." Or have you said, "No, Lord, that's impossible." That is for us to submit to, not only submit to, but buy into. And then he says, "As a result, "we are no longer children, "tossed here and there by waves "and carried about by every wind of doctrine, "by the trickery of men, "by craftiness and deceitful scheming.

"But speaking the truth in love, "we are to grow up in all aspects, "and to him who is the head, even Christ." Let's take a moment to think about that again, continuing this vision, the goals. He wants the resulting effect to be that we are like adults. We're maturing in a way where we're no longer like children, tossed here and tossed there, and he described what children are like.

What are children like? Well, we can think about everything wrong with children, but here he's talking specifically about the fact that there is no stability. You're just tossed here and there. Car goes by, you're chasing that. Ball rolls by, you're chasing that. Harsh just come and you're way over there.

And rather than being able to resist the tides that are coming, you're locked up and you're miles away from home, right? What's more, being unable to discern. This is false, right? Adulthood means you've experienced life enough, you've exercised your brain, you've learned something to the degree that you can say, "That's not true.

"We should grow in our ability to do that." What's more, being able to tell what is the crafty scheming of our enemy, that we're able to exercise our discernment, and that we're able to see these are not in pattern in keeping with God's truth. We're supposed to be able to do those things.

And the question is, are you growing in them? Are you learning to be able to discern? And rather than just going here and there, rather than following words here and word there, we are to be able to have the word of God in us that we are able to speak the truth in love.

And that's the kind of maturity and adulthood that God wants to see. And the thing about it is simple, speak the truth in love. It's not that easy, is it? I mean, as a father, I want so dearly to speak to my children always with both strong instruction, but to make sure they know I love them.

You know, I'm sure you guys can relate. It's difficult to not speak truth with a tone of annoyance, right? Like, "What are you doing?" Right, it's just so hard not to be so annoyed. But the thing about it is maturity will teach you, and through the practice of speaking truth, you have to do it in love, you realize.

Why? Because scripture straight up tells you you're going to be noisy. If we think, "You know what? "I don't wanna speak truth. "I'm just gonna say whatever comes, and you take it." That's like machine gunning everybody. It's like, "Buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz." And I hope that it hits you, right?

No, it's not gonna. You're just gonna spray. You're not gonna be poignantly hitting what's needed, and you're gonna be useless. Scripture says that you need to speak with love. On the flip side, if you speak just with care and sympathy, but you have no truth, then how useful are you?

You might make someone momentarily feel better, but you might actually hurt them. You might hurt them more than they are now. You might give them your pity, but you're not giving them the pity of Christ. You're gonna be completely missing the mark. And so the maturity and the adulthood that God wants to see is us being able to grow in truth, all in love.

And he says, "We are to grow up in all aspects, "and to him who is the head, even Christ." Take a moment to think about the kind of thoroughness of maturity, the picture that God has in terms of how he wants us to be sanctified. He says, "In all aspects," right?

Grow up in it all. And I want you to think about that. Have you truly bought into that mentality? Do you have the attitude that there is going to be a comprehensive growth, where yes, there is no element of your life where you're like, "You know what? "I've always been like this.

"I'm not gonna change. "Come on now, don't say that." If you think, "You know what? "This is too hard for me." Don't say that. Because yes, that is just a universal fact. So many things are way too hard for us. But we have the Lord, and he's saying that his grand desire is that this whole church, all of us, until we all attain to the measure of Christ.

And in thinking about this, I want to use an example of a difference of attitude. Imagine if you signed up for softball. You're like, "All right, everybody's all about sports "at this church. "I'll play softball." And so you go out to the field and you're swinging around. You've hit before, you've played before, but you're no pro.

You're just swinging that bat, and some guy comes around and he thinks he's your coach. And he's like, "Hey, choke up on that bat. "Clearly you haven't practiced enough. "You don't have used to the weight of the bat." And you're like, "Whoa," right? And he says, "Hey, your head's all bobbing around.

"What are you, a bobblehead? "You gotta keep your head straight. "Look at that ball and not look away, right? "Eye on the ball the whole way through "until it makes contact." And you're kind of like, "Huh." Pat it up to here. And he starts telling you, "Move your feet.

"How come you don't twist your hips? "You have no power," right? And all of a sudden, he is looking at every aspect of your swing. And now you're just annoyed as can be. Like, "Hey, man, who told you you were a coach? "Pastor Mark, who is this guy?" Right?

You would be so annoyed. But instead, if you were this professional athlete playing for the Giants, I don't know who he is, but he wants to know every single aspect of his swing that's not right. As a matter of fact, he would hire a batting coach to look at him.

And if he had a batting coach who wasn't skilled, he'd be like, "Hey, man, that's your job. "You need to look at me. "Am I moving my head? "Are my feet balanced? "Do I have strength in my head? "You need to tell me 'cause that's your job, man, "'cause he would wanna know." Why?

Because he would wanna perfect every single aspect of his swing, because a little bit off means he's not making contact. He's not on cue. And so for us, likewise, God has a vision for us to be like his son in every single way. But if your attitude is just this adversity to people talking about like, "Hey, you need to grow in this." And like, "You know, I'm already doing a good job." And you have this wall up where people can't correct you.

Know that God's intent is to make sure you're growing in every aspect, in every way, to the full measure of Christ. And we have to be bought into that because that's what he wants for all of us collectively. Understand that God desires to create this incredible vision for the church.

And what he says is in verse 16. He says, "From whom the whole body, everybody, "being fitted together and held together "by what every joint supplies, "according to the proper working of each individual part, "causes the growth of the body "for the building up of itself in love." So I'm not sure if I could even draw a diagram for that, but every single one of us is drawing from the source that is Christ himself.

We have one spirit, one baptism, one Lord, one faith in our savior that is producing an incredible power for every single one of us and binding us together. And we're so one because of that truth of Jesus Christ. And yet individually, Christ has given us gifts and blessed us in such ways that we are participants of this build that he's doing to create this, what?

His incredible home, his loving home. We're all tied together, interdependent, loving one another, and it would bring such joy to the father to see his home. So actively working, so selflessly working, so intentional as he is. That's the idea. And so I pray, like I pray every single one of us should first get this same vision, like, whoa, like I don't know about everything that needs to happen in this generation and time now, but clearly what I can say that he desires his church to be built.

And he has a magnificent, beautiful picture where every single piece is doing its part. And every single person is growing into the picture of Christ. And then collectively, this is a beautiful home reflecting the glories of Christ together. And therefore, what a privilege it is for me to help in that build in any way possible.

We have to have this attitude, like in every single way, I wanna grow, in every single way, I wanted to do the work of service. I don't have to do everything, but I wanna do anything for the church. Does that make sense? And to me, that is my joy.

I like doing errands for the church. I wanna go out there and pick up something and bring it over here and be like, yes, you know. I wanna go out there and fix something and be like, I helped fix this part of the church. I wanna go out there and meet that guy who's struggling.

I wanna go out there and meet that guy who's on the outskirt, why? Because number one, I know it pleases my heavenly father, we're all part of this family. But number two, I know we're part of this grand picture that Christ has set. He's blessed this church for a reason.

He's given us the truth and he's building something that reflects essentially his own nature. And for me to be able to be a part of that and to say I'm contributing, that's so worthwhile. And so I pray that you would also have that mentality. Not only are we gonna be doing this together, but thankfully so, because it's then it's to our privilege that we can join in this work of building up the church.

Let's pray. Heavenly father, thank you so much God again. What a grace you've given, what mercies you've granted us in Christ. And we recognize Lord, the truth and ramification of the fact that you save us is that God you bring us into your home. And what's crazy is, as you are bringing more and more people into salvation, what glories are given to you.

But father God, you are building, Lord, your household, your people. And so God, we thank you for that. I do pray that Lord, our church people, that we ourselves, father God, we'd be so inclined to want the same things you want. Lord, for us to continue to mimic, to follow and imitate your character, to be more like Christ in every way.

But what's more father God, to have your intent, Lord, to be the evangelist and to actively desire to build this church, the sharing of the gospel. And what's more, that in every way that we can encourage each other and spur each other on, God, that we would be able to then build each other up in love.

And God, joyfully, thankfully, fulfill your design and your intent in this church, Lord. We wanna thank you again. It's in Christ's name we pray, amen. Have a great week, everyone. Bye.