Kelly Kinder: Hello and welcome to session nine of our foundation's class.
Kelly Kinder: Glad you could join us.
Kelly Kinder: This session we're going to be looking at relationships with believers.
Kelly Kinder: Relationships with believers.
Kelly Kinder: So if you grab your notes there, we're going to begin.
Kelly Kinder: And uh one of the great truths that we have to come to in our Christian walk is that I cannot live the Christian life without fellowship with other be believers.
Kelly Kinder: It's just an impossibility.
Kelly Kinder: You know, in the past few weeks, we've been looking at how God deals with us in a personal way, but it because every one of us has sinned and every one of us is guilty before God, and so we have to individually repent and believe.
Kelly Kinder: Nobody can do this for us.
Kelly Kinder: We have to make a personal decision ourselves and take action on that.
Kelly Kinder: God's work in our lives then is a personal thing and very individualistic.
Kelly Kinder: However, uh that faith that connects us to Christ is also a faith that connects us to other believers.
Kelly Kinder: And so in the language of the New Testament, the word that has been translated church, what we know is church, actually means assembly, the gathered assembly of the body of Christ.
Kelly Kinder: The building, even that we meet in is not the church.
Kelly Kinder: The church is a community of believers.
Kelly Kinder: So the church is truly invisible.
Kelly Kinder: And much like water baptism in the Lord's Supper, the church is an outward expression of what God has done as an inner transformation in our own hearts, in the hearts of God's people who were assembled.
Kelly Kinder: So we look at Ephesians chapter four as our first scripture here, Ephesians 4, verses eleven through twelve, and it says, And he gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying or building up is what that word means of the body of Christ.
Kelly Kinder: So in the New Testament, the church is described via several metaphors.
Kelly Kinder: As we look to that scripture, we're seeing that the purpose of this is to equip or build up the body.
Kelly Kinder: That means to sort of mend the broken places and uh help us become fully functional and healthy as the body of Christ.
Kelly Kinder: So let's look at these metaphors that are found through the scriptures in the New Testament.
Kelly Kinder: And the first one is from 1 Corinthians 3, verse 9.
Kelly Kinder: Paul is saying that the church is like a field.
Kelly Kinder: This is an agricultural metaphor, and it signifies the ground or the soil, uh, which is really the hearts of God's people, where spiritual growth can happen, and and things are planted, truth is planted and cultivated and is grown.
Kelly Kinder: So that's a field.
Kelly Kinder: And then he calls us uh a building in 1 Corinthians 3 to verse 9 as well, uh, which is a metaphor about constructing uh you know building, uh which suggests that people in the church are being built up into Christ.
Kelly Kinder: And so there is that metaphor of a building.
Kelly Kinder: And then there's the metaphor of a body, the body.
Kelly Kinder: So this is in Ephesians 5, 23 and 30.
Kelly Kinder: This is uh metaphor that uh that compares the church to really a human body with many members.
Kelly Kinder: We have many members in our body, and they're all connected and uh connected to the head, which is Christ in this case, is a spiritual metaphor.
Kelly Kinder: The spiritual body of Christ is connected to the head, which is Jesus Christ.
Kelly Kinder: So we look at that as the body, and then the church is also seen as a bride.
Kelly Kinder: This is a beautiful metaphor.
Kelly Kinder: It uh the church is compared to Christ's beautiful meta uh bride, whom he loves and he cherishes.
Kelly Kinder: Then there's the metaphor of a family in Ephesians two, verse 19, which reflects uh the idea of affinity and affection for one another and love that we're to have for one another in Christ, where there are close connections because we belong together.
Kelly Kinder: That's a family.
Kelly Kinder: And then a house in 1 Peter 2, verse 5.
Kelly Kinder: The church is compared to a house, which uh the people in the church are compared to living stones that are being put into to build the house, to to uh pe be in the right place, in the proper place to form a spiritual household.
Kelly Kinder: And then the last one that I want to mention here is uh found in the church in first in the scriptures in 1 Corinthians 3, 16 and 17, and that's a temple.
Kelly Kinder: And Paul compares and uses this metaphor being for the church that uh we're as the assembly, the church, the assembly of people belonging to Christ, it is the real place where God dwells.
Kelly Kinder: It's where God's presence dwells, and uh we hope more and more.
Kelly Kinder: So all of these metaphors are really important to understand, and the nature the the nature and the function of the church is dependent on us seeing these in the way that uh that the scriptures talk about them.
Kelly Kinder: So let's look now specifically at at uh a couple of metaphors that Paul uses in Ephesians 4 that we've looked at here, which include both a building and a body.
Kelly Kinder: So every stone or block, if you think of modern building techniques, every block in a building is important, right, for stability and every member in the body, then in a spiritual way, in the spirit in the spiritual sense, where the church is essential for health and its growth and growth.
Kelly Kinder: Uh this is the same as as our human body, right?
Kelly Kinder: So this is a biblical blueprint, and it describes how the church has to, must function in this way to fulfill its purpose uh according to God's design.
Kelly Kinder: So when we're thinking about these uh roles that are in the church, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, these men are actually gifts to the church, gifted men for f as gifts to the church, to be given to them to equip or or enable the saints or believers to do the work of the ministry.
Kelly Kinder: And this is uh the task of these uh gifted men.
Kelly Kinder: So they're gifts to the church and the d design by God is to build the body up, to uh to restore what's been broken, and the role of pastors is is not to do the work of the ministry, their role is to equip you to do it.
Kelly Kinder: And so it doesn't mean that we as pastors don't do anything.
Kelly Kinder: We we often are found doing a lot of the things that you do, but our primary task is to equip the church to build it up.
Kelly Kinder: The New Testament describes this critical personal ministry among Christians uh more than fifty times in the New Testament.
Kelly Kinder: We're talking about our our personal ministry to one another, and that's the that's actually the phrase.
Kelly Kinder: Uh one another occurs more than fifty times in the New Testament, signifying this idea.
Kelly Kinder: And let me just kind of give you a few examples uh in just brief.
Kelly Kinder: I won't give you many, but uh in Hebrews 3, verse 12 and 13 it says, encourage one another, encourage or exhort.
Kelly Kinder: Exhort is kind of the strong encouragement for uh for the church to do what God has called it to do.
Kelly Kinder: Uh stir up one another to love and good works, Hebrews 10, verse 24.
Kelly Kinder: Assemble with other believers, with one another, Hebrews 10, 25, bear one another's burdens, Galatians 6, verse 2.
Kelly Kinder: Confess your sins to one another, James 5, verse 16.
Kelly Kinder: And so all these one another are found throughout the New Testament, and they're intended to show us how deeply we're connected to one another.
Kelly Kinder: Obviously, if these things are going to happen, we have to be in a setting or environment to t for them to take place.
Kelly Kinder: So uh we we just say it's your responsibility and my responsibility personally to take advantage of small intimate groups that we have in the church where you can begin to experience these kinds of relationships.
Kelly Kinder: Uh in fact, you really have a hard time doing that on a Sunday.
Kelly Kinder: You can't you can't do that very well to do the one another ministries until you're in a smaller group setting.
Kelly Kinder: So the scriptures use a lot of these metaphors and or images to tell us how this ministry comes about.
Kelly Kinder: Romans 12, for example, verses four and five says this.
Kelly Kinder: It says, For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function.
Kelly Kinder: He's talking about the human body at this point.
Kelly Kinder: Uh so we being many, now we're comparing it in the the human body to the church, so we being many as one body in Christ and individually members of one another.
Kelly Kinder: So we are connected in that way.
Kelly Kinder: We're looking at this scripture at which compares the church, the body of Christ, to the human body.
Kelly Kinder: And in the human body there is what?
Kelly Kinder: There's both unity as well as uniqueness.
Kelly Kinder: Every uh my thumb doesn't do what my foot does, or my toe does, or my eye does, and vice versa.
Kelly Kinder: But they're all connected.
Kelly Kinder: So the the words individually members of one another in these verses simply means we're connected to one another, just like parts of our human body are connected.
Kelly Kinder: Do you ever cut your finger or stub your toe or feel sick at your stomach or or uh maybe have a wreck and and you slam on the brakes and your your whole body is just uh affected by it.
Kelly Kinder: What happens?
Kelly Kinder: What just happened?
Kelly Kinder: Well, because your whole body is connected, when one member is affected or suffers, your whole body responds to what's happening.
Kelly Kinder: And it's the same in way that it's tended intended to happen in the church, and it does happen.
Kelly Kinder: Romans twelve six through eight says then having gifts then differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them.
Kelly Kinder: If it's prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith or ministry, let us use it in our ministering.
Kelly Kinder: He who teaches in teaching, he who exhorts in exhortation, he who gives with liberality, he who leads with diligence, he who shows mercy with cheerfulness.
Kelly Kinder: This is one of the passages that gives a list of uh the gifts, the spiritual gifts that are given to Christ's people, uh one of the four actual lists that are found in the New Testament.
Kelly Kinder: But the point here is that when God's grace comes into our life, it produces effects, different effects, and God's grace will produce uh you know serving in someone's life, in someone's life, while it will motivate someone else, for example, to give uh generously.
Kelly Kinder: Seven gifts are listed here.
Kelly Kinder: And let's just kind of go through these, and it's uh an interesting uh list here.
Kelly Kinder: And I'll just say that every list, every spiritual gift list in the New Testament is not exhaustive.
Kelly Kinder: They're just representative of the kinds of gifts God gives to his church.
Kelly Kinder: The first one mentioned here is prophecy, or or someone who sees, a perceiver, someone who sees, one who sees things and speaks for God.
Kelly Kinder: And a lot of times someone who's prophetic will speak words of correction.
Kelly Kinder: And uh so that's the gift of prophecy.
Kelly Kinder: Serving, and I'm just gonna these are really brief definitions, but I kind of give you an idea, serving, practical acts of service.
Kelly Kinder: And you know, some people are really especially gifted to uh serve meals, for example, or repair a building, or to clean a floor, or or meet some other kind of need.
Kelly Kinder: This is the gift of serving, and people that have serving gifts actually love to do those kinds of things and they're good at it.
Kelly Kinder: Uh teaching, uh, which is a gift meant to uh be used to instruct or explain a gifted person who is able to clearly and practically explain the truth of God and apply it to life.
Kelly Kinder: That's teaching.
Kelly Kinder: And then exhortation, which we don't use that word often a lot much, much uh anymore, in in a sense, which uh what we find is the word that kind of goes along with the idea, which is strong encouragement.
Kelly Kinder: Uh strongly, this is a gift that people have that who strongly encourage others to follow through on what God is telling them, and uh they will encourage them in a in a very positive way to uh to follow through.
Kelly Kinder: So uh that's the gift of exhortation.
Kelly Kinder: Then there's the gift of giving.
Kelly Kinder: This is uh this is one of the other gifts in that list, and this is a person who is able to share material things, it could be uh financially, it could be um other things, other ways of giving.
Kelly Kinder: They know how to be uh generous at the right time and in the right way.
Kelly Kinder: So in order to meet a practical need, this is a person who has a special gift of giving.
Kelly Kinder: Then the last one here mentioned in that list is leader or the gift of administration, as some call it.
Kelly Kinder: This is a leadership gift and special it's a special ability to uh to facilitate, to oversee and uh direct ministries or groups of people to get them to the next level spiritually or to get a task done.
Kelly Kinder: Um there is one more I've got to mention.
Kelly Kinder: This last one is actually mercy.
Kelly Kinder: And uh this is uh a gift of compassion.
Kelly Kinder: People who see other people and they immediately have a heart for the condition of that person, and uh that person is usually in trouble or they're struggling in some way, and uh the the person who has a gift of mercy, their heart goes out to them, and they're usually the first people to say something or respond to them.
Kelly Kinder: So one or more of these seven gifts, and many, many more operate in all of our lives when we come to Christ.
Kelly Kinder: When all these gifts work together in unison, the ministry of God, guess what?
Kelly Kinder: It comes forth within the assembly in powerful ways.
Kelly Kinder: And so the key to true ministry is let us use them.
Kelly Kinder: Let us use them.
Kelly Kinder: This is the gift that God has put within you.
Kelly Kinder: So every one of us have at least one gift, and that gift is faith, but we likely have many more, and we can receive more uh and we should ask for more.
Kelly Kinder: God wants us to ask for gifts, and so this is a good thing, and all of us need to be using them to minister to the body.
Kelly Kinder: Romans twelve, twelve through twenty-one says this, and it gives us another insight about this uh being um members of one another, for as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ, for by one spirit we were baptized, all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and have all been have all been made to drink into one spirit.
Kelly Kinder: For in fact, the body is not one member but many, if the foot should say, Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the body?
Kelly Kinder: And if the ear should say, Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the body?
Kelly Kinder: And what he's getting at is sometimes with the gifts that we have, we think we're less than in some way, that we don't have that other gift that so uh is you know in our eyes greater than the gift that we have been given, and so we think of ourselves as kind of inadequate.
Kelly Kinder: But he's he's kind of coming against this idea that every gift is strategically important in the body.
Kelly Kinder: He says, uh, is it therefore not of the body?
Kelly Kinder: If if the whole body were an eye, well that would be a strange thing, wouldn't it?
Kelly Kinder: Where would where would be the hearing?
Kelly Kinder: That would be a really he kinda is bringing us a funny picture uh of the whole body being a single, just a big eye.
Kelly Kinder: And uh but then it wouldn't have the other functions.
Kelly Kinder: And so where would the smelling be?
Kelly Kinder: In other words, that would we would be m missing a really critical part of what's going on in the church.
Kelly Kinder: But now he says, God has set he's set the members, each one of them, in the body just as he pleased.
Kelly Kinder: And if they were all one member, where would the body be?
Kelly Kinder: But now indeed, there are many members, yet one body, and yet the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.
Kelly Kinder: And now he's saying you could have a gift that makes you think that your gift is more important than other people.
Kelly Kinder: It's not that you feel inadequate, it's that you feel so prideful about your gift that you don't need anyone else.
Kelly Kinder: This is kind of what he's getting at.
Kelly Kinder: So what uh what we see here is every member of the body is necessary, every member is necessary and important, and we all need each other.
Kelly Kinder: Every member is different and has a unique function.
Kelly Kinder: And if we all have in the assembly uh is if all we had was was givers and perceivers or prophetic people, arms and eyes, then we would be incomplete and we will not experience true ministry the way God intended it.
Kelly Kinder: So what does God do?
Kelly Kinder: God uses the gifts in our lives to do what?
Kelly Kinder: It's very important to see this, to nurture and build each other up.
Kelly Kinder: We do that with one another by expressing that gift of grace toward though the other person, constantly uh comparing ourselves, on the other hand, to others and desiring to be like them or trying to make them like us is uh is the same as my feet trying to function like my hands.
Kelly Kinder: Just not just doesn't work.
Kelly Kinder: Uh and so would you just circle this word the the words in these verses just as he pleased, says that God put the gifts, the members in the body just as he pleased.
Kelly Kinder: So that's really an important idea.
Kelly Kinder: Let's move on to Romans 15, verses 5 through 7.
Kelly Kinder: It says there, now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another according to Christ Jesus, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Kelly Kinder: Therefore, receive one another just as Christ also received us to the glory of God.
Kelly Kinder: So if you don't know this already, uh you'll soon find out it would be a whole lot easier to serve God without having to deal with other believers.
Kelly Kinder: Uh that's just sometimes we end up being spiritual sandpaper for each other.
Kelly Kinder: But uh believers typically that are that are different than than you are than or than I am, in my perspective, the way I see things, those are the people that are uh harder to get along with because they don't we don't see eye to eye.
Kelly Kinder: So you might say, well, why don't why can't we just be connected to God and relate only to Him?
Kelly Kinder: Or why do we have to relate and depend on other people?
Kelly Kinder: Uh why is body ministry necessary?
Kelly Kinder: And that's a those are great questions to think through because a group of believers learning how to love each other in the power of the gospel brings more glory to God than just one believer by himself relating to God alone.
Kelly Kinder: This is the way God has designed it, and he says it brings glory to him when he says all of his people ministering to one another and bringing that body to maturity.
Kelly Kinder: So we say we say every member needs to fulfill their ministry.
Kelly Kinder: They have gifts and they should use them.
Kelly Kinder: So the key phrase as it relates in the community of believers here is to receive one another, to receive one another.
Kelly Kinder: The word receive there means to take to oneself.
Kelly Kinder: In other words, accept them as fellow believers in Christ, even though they may be different than you.
Kelly Kinder: Uh the Bible says while we were still sinners, Christ took hold of us, and his acceptance of us released grace into our lives.
Kelly Kinder: Grace that led to what?
Kelly Kinder: To repentance and the new birth.
Kelly Kinder: And so, as believers in community with one another, our act of receiving one another actually, I believe, releases grace through those gifts that will transform life.
Kelly Kinder: So how critical this is.
Kelly Kinder: And so we see that relationships then they're just critical in the body of Christ.
Kelly Kinder: They're vital to our own spiritual health and growth as well as the health and life of the church.
Kelly Kinder: So let me just encourage you to say it like this: don't be a loner or disconnected from the rest of the church body.
Kelly Kinder: Instead, seek out these relationships, be consistent in the habit of meeting together, both on Sundays and in small groups during the week.
Kelly Kinder: And then when you're with people, go out of your way to build strong and loving ties with all of your brothers and sisters in Christ, even with those who are different from you.
Kelly Kinder: And as we do that, God will begin to do some amazing things in our church, and we will grow up into the head, which is Christ, into deeper levels of maturity.
Kelly Kinder: So let me pray for us as we end this session today, ask God to apply these things.
Kelly Kinder: So, Father, we're thankful that uh there are relationships, that we're not alone in the body of Christ.
Kelly Kinder: There are many who are uh in the same way that we were, lost and in sin and without hope in God in the world, and you saved us, you accepted us.
Kelly Kinder: And so we pray, Lord, that we would uh you'd build in us that this habit, this pattern of reaching out and building these relationships, not thinking less of ourselves, not thinking more of ourselves than we should, but using the gifts that you've given us to minister and and give away grace to those that we come in contact with.
Kelly Kinder: And Lord, we just pray that you would build us up and make us stronger because of these things.
Kelly Kinder: And we ask for it in the mighty name of Jesus, we pray.
Kelly Kinder: Amen.