Ephesians - Week 7

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Go ahead and say hi to a few people beside you. Let's not be strangers this morning. Sun is shining. It is a beautiful day. Say hi to somebody you don't know. Introduce yourself. Kids Ministry, you are dismissed. Kids Ministry, you are dismissed. Good morning, everybody. It is absolutely wonderful to be with you on this beautiful sunny day. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Logan. I am one of the people on staff out here and I am filling in for our brother Jovan. Don't worry, he will be back. So make sure next week you give him the biggest round of applause. You can tell him you miss him, tell you love him because I talked to him this past week and he misses you and he loves you all. So be sure to welcome him when he comes back next week. Just a couple of things for announcements this morning. Next week the 16th and the following week the 23rd, at 10.30am on Sundays we are going to have classes for baptism. We believe that baptism is an expression of faith in Jesus Christ. And Jesus said, go therefore make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And that's just what we are going to do. So if you are interested in being baptized, if you want to know more about what that's like, find me after service. Find somebody at the neck table. After service. We will get you signed up for one of those classes. And regardless if you like being here for the 9:30 and you want to stay a little bit late or if you want to come a little bit early and stay for the 11, both options are open. Just sign up, let us know that you're coming and we'll be ready for you. The second important thing on our list is at the end of the month is our outdoor service. We love doing services when it's beautiful outside to enjoy summer. And we're going to be right over there in the parking lot. For those of you on live stream, we will have some livestream available for you as well. But for the rest of us, bring a chair if you are able. If you're not able, we will have some extra ones here for you. But we're going to have some fun. It's going to be a great day to celebrate, to enjoy the outdoors, to meet some new people. So we look forward to seeing you there. And for this morning we're gonna be reading from the book of Ephesians and our good brother Lucas is going to come up and read Ephesians chapter 1, chapter 4, verses 1 through 16. [00:02:42] Speaker B: Hi I'm Lucas, and today we'll be reading out of Ephesians 4, verses 1 through 16. After I'm done reading, I'll say, this is the word of the Lord, and you'll respond, thanks be to God. Verse 1. I, therefore a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of calling, to which you have been called with all humility and gentleness, with patience bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gifts. 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 held also descended into the lower regions of 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 the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood to the measure of stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children tossed into fro by the waves and carried out by every wind of doctrine and by human cunning and by craftiness and deceitful sheams. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up and 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. This is the word of the Lord. [00:05:09] Speaker A: Thank you, Lucas. You can just take that down there. Thank you. All right, Let us pray. Our dear Heavenly Father, you have shown us in your word that you called us to yourself from different backgrounds, at different phases in life. You have reached out to us and you call us to be your sons and your daughters. But you did not create us to live in isolation. You created us as people to live alongside one another. Father, we know it is not always easy. Sin breaks relationships now. But I pray that your spirit would teach us to live alongside one another. Well, I pray that as a church we would thrive as a beacon of what you are going to do. I pray that as a church, we could be unified around the things that matter, and that where there is disagreement, we could hold those things with open hands. And I pray that this would be to the glory of your Son, Jesus Christ, both now and forever. We love you, and we lift this up through your Son's name. Amen. If you've been with us since the beginning of our series, first of all, thank you for sticking with us. It has been a long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long trek through the book of Ephesians. When we started this, I did not realize just how dense it was. Even though I've read it through, I can't tell you how many times. And I want to summarize what we've learned so far, because where we are now marks a shift in Paul's writing. Paul was writing to a church called Ephesus, a church in a place called Ephesus. To the Ephesians, they were people who were surrounded by largely pagan culture. There were temples, there were regular sacrifices. There were rituals that became part of their identity over time. And as they became Christians, the Christian faith started challenging those rituals, those lifestyles. And Paul had to encourage them that it was worth sacrifices that they made. Remember, this was a time where your social life, your banking life, your job was all tied in some way to your religion. You had the blacksmith guild, who had their own deity. You had the baker's guild, who had their own deity. And above that all, you had one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the temple of Artemis, right at your front door, literally. So Paul's writing to them saying, here is our common faith in Christ, and here's what he says in chapter one. First of all, he starts with the blessed God who blesses. It takes a being who is immeasurably blessed in and of himself to be able to bless us freely. We often have to work in order to get something out of people. God is able to give without having to get anything in return. And what he does with that blessing is he chooses people like you and I. He adopts us into his family. He seals us with the Holy Spirit so that one day we can enjoy the blessings of our inheritance in Christ. And then Paul prays that we would have understanding of what that looks like, that we would know it well. In chapter two, he goes on to say that our natural state was not in a healthy relationship with God. In fact, he starts out the sentence, now, you being dead in your trespasses and sins, not struggling, not looking for Help, but utterly dead. Our souls were not looking for God at the time when God found us. But what did God do in those moments? From the riches of his mercy and grace, he made us alive together with Him. It is by grace you have been saved through faith, because he has prepared us for good works with Him. Though we were far off, we have been drawn near. And there is a mystery that Paul talks about in chapter three that unlike other religions, it's not about where you started. It's not about a certain ethnicity, a certain class, social status, background, where you are in life, where you are in history. But God reaches out to us regardless of where we start. And then we saw last week that Paul prays. This wouldn't just be an intellectual exercise, but a very real experience for people like you and I. This is absolutely beautiful, but it marks a turning point in Paul's writing. See, 1 to 3 is all about here is what God has done for people like you and I. Here's how God has worked to bring about the greatest act of reconciliation that the world has ever seen. It is all statements of fact. In chapters four to six Paul is going to say, here is how you practically work that out in your day to day life. I think I told you this at the very beginning of the series. In the first three chapters, Paul gives one statement of command about here's what you need to do. In chapters four to six he gives 40 statements of command of here's what you need to do. It is a significant example of what we're supposed to do. Here's what God has done, now here's what you go and do about it. And today in the section that we're looking at, Paul is going to teach us this, that unity thrives where servant minded believers embrace God's call. When people like you and I are willing to put others ahead of ourselves, the priorities, the needs, the desires above our own. There is a unity that that comes. And by the way, that is exactly what God's call is on our lives. So let's take a look at this together. Verses 1 through 6. Paul says, I therefore a prisoner for the Lord. I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling that to which you have been called. Paul has used this language of calling in the first three chapters. He's saying, you did not call out to God first. God called out to you first. And because he's called out to you first, there is a manner we live our lives that is in line or out of line with that calling. And Paul says Here's the manner that you live out that calling in a worthy way. Verse 2. With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, being eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. We're gonna stop right there for a second. God's call directs us towards unity. And this is very interesting. In ancient religions, in a lot of ancient cultures, people elevated the community above individuals. It wasn't uncommon for if for somebody, if they did something wrong, for their entire family to be shamed by what that one person did. And very often that person would bear the blame and either be kicked out or sometimes would die because they had shamed their entire family. People were willing to do horrible things to themselves in order to progress their community because they elevated, in a lot of religions or just communities in general, elevated the community over and above the individual. All right, we live in a modern day where we flipped the script. We elevate the individual over and above the needs and priorities of the community. Very often it goes something like this. Back in the ancient days, people would live with their families in clans that would reach several hundred. All right? Most people today don't have very many family members living around them for one reason or another. Sometimes it's conflict, sometimes it's better. Opportunity was out there, so we went and chased it. All right? But here's another way that we can elevate our needs above the community. When what I do benefits me but harms the community. If you've ever heard of business offers that are sketchy, business deals that are sketchy, usually it's something bad could very well happen, but it doesn't matter because it's going to pay off. Well, for me, when people do unpleasant things towards each other, if you've ever bought something secondhand, it looked great on the outside, but it was not well kept. And the person didn't drop the price, didn't tell you honestly that something was wrong with it, you buy it and it breaks and you're like, well, now I'm out. Whatever it was, that is putting the needs of a person above the community. Now, very interestingly, Christianity will have neither of those. It does not elevate the community above the individual, nor does it elevate above the community. Both are important, both matter immensely. If you think about where Paul has been, where what we've been talking about, much of it has been personal. God has chosen you, God has spoken to you. God has made you alive. A lot of that is individual experiences. But if you look around this room. You're not the only person in this room. If you're online, you and I can see each other. You're not alone. The Christian life was not designed to be one where we live alone. We were designed to. To live in community. And what happens to the community affects the individual as well as what happens to the individual affects the whole community. And so Paul says, as we move the focus from ourselves to the larger picture, we have to move towards a quality known as unity. You can have a bunch of people around and have no sense of commonality with each other. If you walk to a grocery store, you have the commonality that you're gonna get groceries, but that's probably about it. You don't know the person. You don't know their name, you don't know their background, unless you run into an old friend or something, which that happens frequently, which is very funny. Apparently, everybody needs groceries, but outside of that, you're in, you get what you need, and then you're out. When we exist as a church, we're not just a social club where we hang out for a couple hours on a Sunday morning or an hour on a Sunday morning and then head off on our own direction. There are friendships that are forged. There is a brotherhood, a sisterhood that is born from being in relationship with each other. And in order to navigate that well, there are certain character qualities that will produce the environment to help that unity thrive. And Paul mentions several of them. First of all, he says, we have to exist in humility. Humility is not being overly concerned about ourselves. Somebody, I think it was C.S. lewis, once famously said, it's not so much that you think less about yourself, as in you think poorly about yourself. Oh, I'm not that good, or I'm not that great. But it's. You think about yourself less often. Humility says, I have my needs, I have my desires, I have my wants. But I am going to concern myself with the people around me because we all have experienced the opposite of humility, which is pride. Has anyone ever encountered somebody who has a me mentality, where every single conversation turns to something about them? This means yes. This means no. I'm getting a message that I'm the one. Okay, well, if you gotta be honest, you gotta be honest, all right? They can take somebody else's success and point back to their own success. They can take somebody else's sorrow and point to their own sorrow. Hey, man, I got this really cool promotion at work. Blah, blah. Oh, yeah, I got the promotion 20 years ago. Ow. Love you too. Like, what am I supposed to say to that? Okay, Pride has a habit of breaking apart unity because it says, I matter more than you do. Humility builds unity because it says, I care about the other person beside me. I care about you, even if I don't get anything out of it. How about this one? Has anyone ever worked on a team with somebody who had to get the credit for every single thing that happened with that team? The danger of silence is that we might be that person. All right? We know what that's like. You work together as a team, and if somebody doesn't get the credit that they think they deserve, they throw a fit. It has to be about them. Paul says that kind of mentality cannot exist in a place where we are trying to build unity, where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, but the individual still matter. The thing that will tie us together, that will hold us together, is a sense that the other person beside me matters immensely. Paul goes on to say another one. Gentleness. We don't usually have a good word for gentleness or a good understanding of gentleness, because typically to us, it means something like weakness. If you're gentle, you're weak. Let me give you a different definition. Controlled strength. The Greek word that was used here was often used of domesticated animals. I've been down to Amish country before. I've been to state fairs and stuff where they have horses, and I don't know if you've been next to horses. Those are big animals. They're massive. And if they had any sense, they could run over every person in their path if they wanted to. But their strength has been controlled. How many of you are dog people and have dogs at home? Okay, a couple good. Handful of people. Okay, Those are domesticated animals. If they were to run wild, they could tear things to shred very quickly. They are strong, but they have been controlled. All right, now, how many of you are cat people? Handful of people. Handful of people. All right. Cats have been domesticated. If they were left to themselves, they would figure out a way to plot to take over the entire world and destroy us all. Okay, they've been domesticated, at least in theory. Gentleness is not a sign of weakness. Gentleness is an acknowledgement that we have certain strengths, but we don't use that strength to humiliate the people beside us, but we control it to be able to serve people well. We've all been in situations, I'm willing to believe, where people who have been incredibly gifted in a certain area who have been incredibly knowledgeable, who have been incredibly personable, have weaponized their strengths to show that they're the best. To show that maybe you aren't that great. And what ends up happening is people get flustered, we get annoyed, or we get discouraged because, yeah, we're not as good as that person. Paul is saying, if we're going to be a church that thrives in unity, we cannot use our strengths in the kind of way that we put people down. We have to control our strengths. We can't be the kind of people who go overboard with our strengths. We have to control it. We have to learn to use it in the kind of way that it builds people up around us in love. How about this one? Unity requires patience. And there's two aspects that we can do we can understand with this word patience. The old word. If you have the King James was long suffering to be able to suffer long. Patience is the ability to endure tension for a long period of time. We know its opposite very well. A hair trigger temperature snap. Somebody says one thing and the whole thing blows up. Paul says, if you're going to have unity in the church, you have to be able to endure tension for a long period of time. And very commonly that happens with interpersonal relationships. We are a bunch of different people thrown together from different backgrounds, different cultures, different places in life, different phases in life. Some of us are young, some of us are old, some of us are tall, some of us are short. Whatever the case, we have different family dynamics, we have differences in opinions and beliefs. All right? What will enable us to thrive is not becoming cookie cutter people, but being able to endure. When somebody says something that may offend us, there's a good chance they didn't mean it to offend us. But if we have a hair trigger temper, we won't get a chance to find out if we have a hair. Somebody used a really good analogy. Imagine every person's personality is like a giant room that's filled with landmines. People who are quick to anger. You can't go one single square in the carpet without landing on a landmine. People who have learned the art of patience have cleared most of those landmines. You can walk through the room without feeling like you're going to step on something that's going to hurt. There's a place in the proverbs where it says good sense makes one slow to anger. And it is a glory to overlook an offense. Brothers and sisters, as we get more, as we go further along in time, in this Church. As we get to know each other better, as we build friendships and relationships, there will be times where we have to endure tension for a long period of time. If we become people who have a hair trigger temper, the church will quickly fade from its purpose that God has called us to. But if you and I will develop some patience for each other for difficult circumstances, we will be able to endure for a long time yet to come. Paul then says, bear with one another in love. All right, There's a saying that has sometimes go, you gotta love them, you don't always have to like them. To bear with one another literally means to hold somebody up in love. There are times people are going to get things wrong. Paul's response isn't to take them and throw them across the room, it's to hold them up in love. To be able to say to people who get it wrong, I see potential in you. I know God is at work and I want to call out the best of you in the best way that I can. Bearing with one another in love means that sometimes we support people when things aren't going well in their lives. Look, it is a lot easier to not get involved in people's problems because it doesn't cost you emotional energy doesn't cost you, physical energy doesn't cost you time doesn't cost you any resources and it costs you nothing when you get involved in other people's pain. When you hold one another up in love, it costs something. But Paul says, hold one another up in love because by the way, the first three chapters reminded us, God has held you up in love. He's held me love. It would have cost Christ a lot less to not go to the cross, but he did it anyways because he loved people like you and I. And then lastly, Paul says, be eager to maintain the unity and peace. This idea of peace is absolutely beautiful. It is not a mere ceasefire, but it is a wholeness of relationship. I think we've talked about this not too long ago. There is a difference between when you've been in a fight with somebody saying okay, truce, and actually enjoying being in that person's presence. Paul says, you can't fake unity by faking peace. You can't enjoy real peace, real unity by faking peace. It takes a wholeness of relationship to be able to maintain the kind of unity that is going to allow us to step into the calling God has, not only on our own lives, but on our church as a whole. And there are many, many things that will kill peace in an instant. That will kill a relationship instant. The words we use with each other when we're face to face cut deeper than knives and stones can. I don't know who said, sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. They were never in communion with other people. There are few things more deadly to the soul than a word ill fit to the moment, brothers and sisters. The words we use about people when they're not around cuts deeper than we realize as well. There is nothing that will destroy unity quicker than gossip. There is nothing that will destroy unity quicker than stabbing people in the back. If we're going to be a church that moves forward together in unity, we have to be the kind of people who will talk to the person we're frustrated with, who will talk better about people than we think they deserve, who will say, when we hear something being said, have you talked to that person? I think there's something better here than what you're saying. Brothers and sisters, we have to be the kind of people who seek for a restored relationship, not people who complain about the other person who we're frustrated with. And the other way that Paul teaches us that we build unity is by knowing that we exist on the same team. Listen to what Paul says. We exist as one body. There is one body of believers spanning time, cultures and locations realized right here, right now in our church. There is one Spirit who prepares and strengthens our inner souls to encounter the living God. There is one hope in which we expectantly await the the return of our King. There is one Lord to whom all our lives are to be subjected. There is one faith in the life, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is one baptism by which we identify exclusively with God. And there is one God and Father of all who is overall and through all and in all. Listen to what Paul is saying. When we forget that we are on a team aiming towards the same direction, it is very easy to get off track and treat the person inside the church as the enemy. When we lose sight of what God has called us to do, not just as individuals, but as a community of believers, it will be very easy to point to the person sitting across the room, the person on the stage, or wherever that person's the problem. We are on the same team. We have the same trust, the same Lord, the same origin story. If we fail to live together as a team, to work together as a team, we will never achieve what God has called us to do. Many churches have closed their doors because they forgot they were a part of the same Team, Let's make this practical. How do we develop these character, these character qualities? You don't wake up one morning and start saying, oh, you know, I want to do better at being patient. I want to do better at this. I want to do better at that. What happens is what Paul taught us last week, through prayer, by prayer, God works something down into our souls. By prayer, he strengthens our inner selves through his own spirit to become the men and women he created us to be, to do what he called us to do. And how about this? Meditate on Christ. He is the one who is gentle and lowly. He is the one who suffered long on the cross and endured it all. He is the one who bore us up in love by forgiving us. He is the one who obtained peace with God for us to have a whole relationship with Him. Brothers and sisters, we become better individuals and a better community by focusing on the One who leads us, by focusing on how he treated people, how he's treated us. But Paul doesn't stop there. In fact, he goes on. 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. That phrase is actually he led captivity. Captive. The one who is the captor, he led captive. And he gave gifts to men. In saying he ascended, what does it mean? But that he had also descended into the lower regions, that is, the earth. He who descended is also the one who ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things in all. And listen to this. He gave apostles, prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and the teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the whole body of Christ. We move toward unity through mutual service. Right? It's not enough in a community just to have good feelings towards each other. Oh, I like you. I'm gonna be humble towards you. I'm gonna do this. There is an actual service that God created us for, to be able to serve each other well. We move towards unity through mutual service. And listen, Christ, when He died, secured more than just our salvation. That is first and foremost, what happened. Because of Calvary, because of the cross, you and I can enjoy a perfect relationship with God. We can enjoy a relationship with each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. But that's not all he saved us for. We looked at Ephesians 2, 10, 2, 8, 9, and 10. He said, for by grace you have been saved through faith. This is not your own doing. It's a gift of God so that no man may boast, for God has saved you. And I'm paraphrasing for. Oh, actually, I don't have to paraphrase. We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared for us beforehand that we should walk in them. God created you. God saved you. He created me. He saved me. Not to be benchwarmer Christians, but to be Christians who engage on the field of play. Because Christ plays for keeps. You and I should play for keeps as well. God has gifted you with his grace in a unique and beautiful way. There is something that God wants to accomplish through your life, uniquely in this moment and in this time. To be able to serve your family, to be able to serve your community, to be able to serve this church in a way that not even I can, not even the people around you can. And listen, God gives gifts. You can trace these gifts throughout some of Paul's other letters. Here's what he says. There's gifts of prophecy, service, teaching, encouragement, challenge, generosity, leadership, acts of mercy, wisdom, extraordinary faith, knowledge, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment speaking, interpreting, apostles, prophets, teachers, miracles, healing, helping, administrate. Okay, we're not going into all of those because we'll be here for another hour and I'm already running out of time. All right. God has gifted you in a special way by his spirit. Not for you to be able to hold that grace to yourself, but to share that grace with the people around you. And let's make this a little bit practical. There's a very, very good story in the Old Testament where somebody got very discontent with the status quo. If you've ever heard the name Jonathan. 1st Samuel 14. He is a man of exemplary faith. His dad was the king of Israel. And the Israelite army and the Philistine army were on a standoff. And there was a valley between them. Neither one of them wanted to start the battle by going down into the valley and then having to fight uphill. Because if you know Anakin Skywalker, you never give up the high ground because it doesn't turn out well for you. All right. Hey, I actually gotta move reference. People know, Yay. I'm working on it. I'm working on it. Jonathan said, I'm tired of waiting to his armor bearer. Look, God's gonna save us or he's not. I'm going out there and I'm going to pick a fight with the Philistines. God bless the armor bearer. He said, you're not going along. I'm going with you. Heart and Soul. They went up to the Philistines, and the Philistines said, oh, look, some Hebrews are finally coming out. Come up here. We'll teach you a lesson. Jonathan looked and said, you heard the man. God's giving them into our hands. And they started a panic. Two dudes started a panic in the enemy camp that led to a wonderful victory that day. It took the faith of one person doing what nobody else wanted to do to give the victory that everybody wanted in that moment. Brothers and sisters, it is very easy to see a problem in the church today and to complain about it. I've done it. I'm willing to bet that some of you have done it. We've all probably done it. You know what's much harder is seeing a problem in the church and being willing to take responsibility for the solution. But what if God has gifted you to be able to do that? What if he has raised you up for that moment? Look, I don't know if you know, but when you walk into the parking lot, there are people who are using their giftedness to serve, to make sure that we have people welcomed. As you walk in, people at the front door stand there to welcome you. People at the cafe get coffee ready because, you know, it's early and some of us need coffee and some of us just need water. There are people who are watching your kids right now, not just to entertain them so that way you can be entertained, but to raise a champion for Jesus Christ, a generation of champions for Christ. There are people who sit in the back of the tech booth and making sure, by the way, people online. This is really important for you, making sure that the sound works properly, that we can sing along with the worship, the worship team that people online can hear wherever you're sitting right here, right now. There are people who give away their skills with music, their giftedness to be able to lead us in worship. There are people who walk around making sure people have what they need, that if there's anything that gets hurt, they have the things for it. All right? We have teams who lead the food distribution to help mediate God's grace to our Herring community. We have an events team that helps people enjoy the Sunday, get people connected. All right, If I missed your ministry, I'm sorry. You can talk to me after service. There are so many things God wants to accomplish in us and through us. And let's make this personal. There is something God has uniquely designed you you for. It is because people, men and women just like you, who said yes to serving, that this Church exists. Javon can't do this on his own. I can't do this on my own. Haley can't do this on her own. None of us can do this on our own. But together we are stronger and more capable to do all that God has envisioned for us. I believe God has a plan to reach his lost kids into that neighborhood over there, in that neighborhood over there, the neighborhoods down the street, that way, that way, that way, and wherever else. But it's going to happen when people like you and I step up and use our giftedness to serve in the capacities that we have. Some of you are great leaders and can use your leadership to organize ministry teams. Well, some of you are servant hearted and you can do whatever somebody says because you have the skill for it. Some of you, maybe you don't have the skill, but you can mentor people who can do the skill. I'm asking that you would consider figuring out how you can make a difference in this church. By the way, I'm not asking you to do this alone. Our good friend Don. If you want to, just put your hand up. Don, our good buddy Don is going to be teaching a class in September called the Connect class. It's a time where you not only learn what the church is and how to get connected, but how God has designed you to be able to serve. It's a way that you can figure out how God has designed you in a unique way. If you're not certain about how you've been gifted, if you're not certain about what God wants to do, talk to him after service. He'll get you signed up. Or he can talk to me. I'll get you signed up. Go to that class, figure out how God has gifted you to make a difference not only in this moment, but for moments to come. Because I believe what we do in this church, what we are doing right here, is not just a temporal five year plan, it is making an investment in eternity. All right, we're out of time for the last part of this, but I'll say this. Christian maturity moves us towards unity. Paul goes on to say that these people use their giftedness, specifically the leaders, to help keep people on track in a practical way. All right. In terms of theology, in terms of ministry goals, okay? When you start following Christ, that is not the end. We are called to grow up into Christ. We are called to mature in our faith. There are times we start off as infants. There are some times we revert to infant like behavior because sometimes as adults we do that anyways. Okay. Christ has something better for you. Christ has something more beautiful than what you could even imagine. And it happens when we experience some of it, when we mature in our Christian faith. And by the way, mature people have a better way of getting along with each other than immature people. As we mature as Christians, we get better at holding things with an open hand to say, we can disagree about this in a healthy way. All right, brothers and sisters, don't let this be a moment where you walk away and this goes in one ear and out the other. Christ has done so much to work this idea into our head and into our hearts. And I'm asking that we would let it come out of our hearts, into our actions. Our dear Heavenly Father, how wondrous is your grace towards us. Not only have you called us and saved us from something, but you have called us and saved us towards something. And, Father, I pray that your spirit would call out the best in us this morning. I pray that you would enable us to see what it is you want to do, uniquely in our lives, in us and through us. And I pray that would have a compelling act of coming out into our lives first. I pray that you would help us to be a church that is unified by holding others above ourselves, by being gentle with the people around us, by being patient with the people around us, by holding each other up in love, by remembering that we are on the same team and we can move towards peace. And I pray that you would stir us towards action to serve each other in the kind of way that you would be glorified. The church would thrive. And, Lord, we ask this through your son, Jesus Christ. Amen.