In Christ - The Purpose of the Gifts

Mark Medley opens with a stamped passport and a proud grandparent moment, then invites us into a living room–sized masterclass on Ephesians 4. Continuing the In Christ series, he traces Paul’s movement from identity to formation: chapters 1–3 anchor us in Christ by grace, and chapters 4–6 call us to grow up into Christ together. Through a tender adoption story, Mark shows how the gavel has already fallen—our status is secure—yet daily life now teaches the habits, hopes, and responsibilities of beloved children. Some of us, he says, need to “bang the gavel” over our past and live from our new family name.

From there, Mark shows the surprising generosity of Jesus who doesn’t just save; he equips the church with people—apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers—so a community can reach the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. He unpacks how each gift expresses a facet of Jesus: apostles build relational authority that fathers communities; prophets keep the horizon clear and recalibrate drift; evangelists push our love outside the room; pastors gather and guard a safe fold; teachers ignite hunger for Scripture and fight error. The endgame is not celebrity leaders but an equipped people.

“Equip,” Mark notes, is katartismos—mend what’s broken, frame what’s rising, and train for the race ahead. The church is a clinic, a construction site, and a gym. Ministry spills into homes, schools, jobs, and neighborhoods. Using the body metaphor, he pictures how every joint supplies: when one part hurts, the whole body rushes to heal; when one part grows, strength spreads. Stability replaces confusion as we speak truth in love and bring timely rhema words that fit the moment. Leaders and parents alike learn to love people from here to there, not force them to arrive overnight.

Names matter, Mark reminds us, pointing to Paul’s greetings in Romans 16 and the call in Romans 12 to use our differing gifts for one another. He shares a local story of how discerning gifts, passions, abilities, and experiences through a FIT class birthed a focused care team for the sick and homebound—ordinary faithfulness that quietly changes the whole.

If you’re longing for steady footing and a clear path to mature love, join Mark Medley as he helps us move from being in Christ to growing up into Christ—together, until every part works properly and the body builds itself up in love.

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Transcript

Travel Report And Gratitude

Mark Medley 0:03

So good to be back with you guys. We were back last week, but didn't get to see everybody. Um just came back from uh from India. Amy and I were in India and Sri Lanka, and thank you so much for your prayers, those of you who prayed for us. I have a very quick uh update by the numbers. Uh we were gone 27 days. We were in three countries, 13 flights, nine hotels, ten and a half time zones, two eight-hour car rides, six wild elephants. Immeasurable gallons of curry. Believe me, curry, curry, curry. I love curry, but man, you can get curried out, I'm telling you. Four sips of the world's worst coffee. I have to say that someday. One wedding, three graduations, 41 graduates who had just gone through two years worth of training uh in theology, which is great. Four conferences, over 400 pastors and leaders trained, and many, many new friends made. So thank you so much for your prayers for us. If you if you want to get more information about this, you can send us your email address. You can you can write it on the back of the an envelope there and put it in the kiosk, or you can contact uh the office here, or you can go to mark at markmedly.org and you can just give us your email address. We'll put you on the newsletter, and you can get more information about that. So um thank you again. We're really grateful. But I'll tell you, being home is beautiful. This is a great church to be a part of. Um, so so last week Neil did a fantastic job of um of what? What? Oh, wait. This is the morning for beautiful, cute baby pics, I think. So this is um my granddaughter, Hazel Hope Rocher. She was born to Emily um on the 11th of January. So just wanted to share that with you. Oh wait, oh wait, wait, there's more, there's more. This is my other granddaughter born on the 1st of January. Just missed that little text thing, didn't you, Zach? Um sorry. First of January. This is Ivy Liel Medley, and she's a doll. So Brooke, you did really good. So you know, just had to let you in on a little bit of the joy of the Medley household here today. So last week, uh Neil did a fantastic job helping us understand the ministry gifts that are you better put that down, take that down because nobody's gonna listen to me if they if that's up there. Can you can you please just come on? Ephesians 4. Put the next put the scripture up or something. Thank you. Okay, wow. Who wants to see me when that's up there? Last week, Neil did a great job of uh helping us understand a little more about the ministry gifts that are mentioned in Ephesians chapter 4, especially speaking to us about the the way or the role of a pastor in equipping the church, equipping pastors. And so if you didn't hear that, it's worth hearing. It's great stuff. Um, but this week, Paul takes us a little bit further in understanding the purpose of those gifts. So we're gonna take that those scriptures and go a little further down uh in the chapter and see where Paul says God is taking us through these gifts as a body of believers. So if you'll just read with me, this is Ephesians 4, starting at verse 11. 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 faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word that is alive and powerful. Thank you for the truth that we are a body and that we are going somewhere. And we pray, Lord, that you would help us to understand what you want us to see from this passage this morning. Open our eyes, Lord, and let the word of God break forth into our lives. Let there be great fruit from what you have said here, Lord, in these passages. In Jesus' name. Amen. So in the first three chapters of Ephesians, which we talked about last year, we had a little series on those first three chapters. We heard this phrase over and over. Do you remember what the phrase was we heard over and over? What was it? You got it. Say it aloud. In Christ. In Christ. Yeah. And it refers to the position where God has put us because of the finished work of his son. We're in Christ. There's a place where we are. But here we see a new phrase, and it's growing up into Christ. So God has saved us and we're secure and we're rooted and we're grounded in the love that he has for us. But that's not the fullness of his plan for us. The big picture of Ephesians is we are, we're in a place, there is a place where we are, chapters one through three, and that's in Christ. But there's a place where we're going or we're growing into, into Christ, by the working of the members of the body of Christ. Some place we are by the work of God through Christ, but someplace we're going by the work of God through the body of Christ. That's what we're seeing this morning. So I was thinking about how, how to, uh what kind of a metaphor can you use, or how can you really get a grasp on this? That we're we are in a place, but we're also going to a place. We're growing into a place. And so the only way I could think of it is by uh thinking about another one of my granddaughters. Sorry. Oh, not sorry at all. This is Emily Jade's Sipel, and this is her story. She was born to a drug-addicted mother, and she was neglected during the first many months of her life. And eventually, because of the instability of her situation, the state took her away from her mother, her birth mom. And when she came into Ali and Noah's house, um, she was barely responsive. And some of you remember that when she was just started coming here, she was just uh really um underdeveloped physically and mentally and emotionally. And so, as many of you know, um, the family grew to love her and made a decision to adopt her. And that ceremony happened last May. She's officially an a disciple now. But what happens? I know, and it's great. And she's blossoming and she's coming, she's just growing, and she's got a little personality. She walks around like she owns the whole place sometimes. And uh, but you know, in an in an adoption ceremony, oftentimes the judge will say words sort of like this, basically, in effect, the the court hereby divests all the powers of the former parents and invests power into the new parents. It's um the mark of a legal transition of the child from the birth family to the adoptive family. And the ties are cut, and something brand new is all the rights and privileges of a daughter as an equal heir, and they'll say these words, as if she had always been a blood member of the family. Man, that's powerful. And sometimes the judge will even let the older, if it's an older child, grab the gavel and bang the gavel. And it's like, that's it. That's it. The old is gone, the new has come. It's a beautiful picture of what we've had, what's happened to us in Christ. We've been taken out of the kingdom of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of his dear son. He's adopted us as sons and daughters, and it's done. It's done. It's done. And maybe some of us this morning need to bang the gavel. Maybe you need to take this truth of the word of God and just bang the gavel and say, hey, you know what? It's done. All this stuff in the past, the power is no longer there of the past. It's divested and it's invested into your new kingdom that you're in, this new father that you have, a new family that you have. Everything is new. If any man is in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are passed away, all things have become new, and behold, all things are of God. That's good news. That's where Emma is. Emma is already legally adopted, declared to be a legal member of the family with all the rights of a child and an heir. But now she's learning day by day what it means to be a disciple. She's learning that she's loved and secure and she's provided for, and she's expected to act a certain way. This is what we're going to see in the following chapters. Here's what God's done for us in Christ, but now we're growing into Christ. There's a certain way we're supposed to act as children. So she's already in a place, a loved member of the family, but there's a place she's going. She's growing up into that family, growing up as a follower of Christ. Does that make sense? And it's in the same way. God has adopted us, He's put us securely in Christ. The gavel has been banged. And here we are in the kingdom of God. But now we're growing into a place. So the question is, how does God get us there? What's God's plan and provision for getting us from where we are to where he wants us to be? And the short answer is, as we read in today's passage, he matures us and brings us to our destiny through one another, through the body, it's through community. And as I read this passage this week, I came to a realization that I think I don't know how generous Jesus is. And we who are born again understand this generosity because of what we've received. And and Paul actually has talked about this generosity in the first three chapters and what God has done for us. Jesus surrendered himself. And God our Father has chosen us, he's adopted us, he's justified us, he's redeemed us, he's forgiven us, he's included us, he's sealed us. That's where we are. He's rooted us and grounded us in the love of Christ, safe, secure, stable. But Jesus is even more generous than that. In this state where we are now, he gives gifts to the church. And the gifts he gives to the church are gifted men and women to be able to equip the church to be able to build itself up to grow into a place of maturity and unity. So we're rooted in Christ. That's God's work. And we're growing into Christ. That's the work of the body of Christ. So Jesus is generous. And these gifted men and women, I saw this little pattern as you've you've you saw it as we read, probably. Jesus gives gifted men and women to the church for a purpose, so that saints are equipped for the work of the ministry. So that the body of Christ is built up so that we grow in unity in Jesus, so that we increase in the knowledge of Jesus so that we come to full maturity in Jesus. Together, along with one another. So Christ is taking us into unity and maturity. So how do these gifts that are mentioned here promote unity and maturity in us? Well, the apostles promote unity and maturity through the authority that they earn through relationships. An apostle is not just a title, it's an actual function, it's an actual relationship. There's authority in the apostles, but they their authority doesn't come by just being called an apostle. Their authority comes through the relationship that they build with the people that they're that they gather, gather together. So in in short, it's it's fathering. This is what Paul was saying. He said, you may have 10,000 instructors, but you don't have many fathers. And he was saying there that I am your father. He was talking to the Corinthians because he started the church there. And so I am your father. There is authority here, but the authority that I have comes from relationship. I started the church. We've been talking back and forth through these letters. There's a relationship where he is causing his spiritual children to grow, but it's through this relationship. It's not through just a hierarchical structure. So, like good parents with their children, through admonition, warning, and encouragement and instruction and where needed correction, we're growing them up into responsible, Jesus-loving adults. That's our goal, right? And so the apostles are doing the same thing with their spiritual children. The prophets promote unity and maturity by casting vision and correcting the course. They see things, they see where we need to go. And they are zealous over God's purpose and over holiness. And so when we get off of it, they kind of recalibrate us. That's part of what prophets do. They keep the vision before the people and recalibrate us. Evangelists provide unity and maturity by imparting a burden for those who are not yet in the fold. Their eye is not just here, their eye is outside the circle. Those people who are not inside yet. And so they help us have a vision for what's outside. And that's important for maturity because if you're not others-oriented, you can't become mature. If you're always focused on yourself, you're immature. And so evangelists help us to focus outward, not merely inward. Pastors promote unity and maturity by bringing the sheep together into a protected fold and by making a safe place. And they encourage the flock to care for the flock. That's what an equipping pastor is supposed to do. And then teachers promote unity and maturity by bringing the truth of Scripture to bear on practical situations. And they so they make us hungry for the Word of God. And they they help fight error in the church. So what's happening is Jesus, who is the consummate apostle and prophet and evangelist and pastor and teacher, is placing a piece of himself inside of each of these gifts in the body. And each of these gifts in the body, representing and expressing Jesus, is helping the body grow so that the body takes care of itself. Every joint supplies, brings maturity, brings unity. So these gifts help bring unity and maturity, but they actually equip the body. If you read what it actually says there, is that they equip the body of Christ. It's all of us are believed, the believers in Jesus for the purpose of bringing unity and maturity. So we are all part of this bringing of unity and maturity. So there's a purpose for the gifts, and there's a particular way God accomplishes his purpose. And the surprising thing that we see in the passage is it's not merely through those gifted people, but it's through the community of believers where this unity and this maturity happens. So this happens in the context of community. The body functioning together. So it says this as the body functions together and we're in community, we're no longer children, but we're mature. We grow into what it says is perfect men. Doesn't mean we never make mistakes. We're solid doctrinally. And also as we function together in community, we're united together. Every joint is supplying every need. And it says when each part is working properly, he makes the body grow so that it builds itself up. Okay, so you see what's happening here is we are building each other up. We're coming together as a body to a place. We're growing into a place together. The body of believers, when it works correctly, it's like a physical physical manifestation of Christ on the earth. That we might grow in Jesus and we might show Jesus to the world. Now, now last week Neil introduced us to this word, equip. The Greek word is katartismos, and it means to fit together or to frame or to mend or to restore. It has a lot of uh pictures, this word, equip. And one is a medical picture, it's like to set a broken bone. So to equip is to fix what is broken, and one is a construction metaphor. So it's like there's something being built. To equip is to build something, and one is athletic, and so it's uh basically the church is is uh gym where you're trained and you're working out, and there's someplace you're going, and so you're being trained to win, you're trained for a purpose. So you and I get healed and built together and trained through each other. This is what Paul is saying. Our generous Jesus gives these gifts to equip or enable and prepare us to minister to each other and to the world. And ministry is everything we do, okay? Ministry is not just what I'm doing up here right now. Ministry is everything that we do. The proper biblical New Testament understanding of ministry is what you do at your home, in your family, in your marriage, in your parenting, on your job, in your school, in your community, and in the church. All of it. Ministry. He's equipping us skills, you know, from each other. We get life skills for parenting, for marriage, for coping with challenges in life, for making a positive impact wherever God puts us. So the body of Christ comes to the aid of the body of Christ. That's really what he's saying here. It's a brilliant metaphor that's all throughout the New Testament, this idea of a body. And we can understand how the body of Jesus. Jesus works by understanding how the body that Jesus created works. Our physical bodies. When your physical body suffers a trauma, every system in your body will alter itself to focus on that trauma. It does whatever is needed to get help to the injured part. Your heart beats differently. Your brain sends different signals, different commands. Your circulatory system changes the flow of blood to the injured area. There's a rush of healing blood cells to fight off infection. And if it becomes necessary, certain organs will begin to shut down. So the body can focus healing on the injured part. Even you may even lose consciousness because the healing process needs to be focused on the area that is injured so that it can rebuild and repair itself. This is what happens in our human body. We have this body, but different parts are ministering to the parts. You know, you can you can stub your toe, and tomorrow morning you wake up and your calves hurt because you've been compensating. Your calves have been compensating for your toe. Your body is an intricate web of parts all working together in ways that you can see and sometimes you can't see. To help itself, to build itself up, to heal itself. This is how God designed our bodies. This is how God designs the body of Christ, too. And you know, I and my family can certainly testify of this because when we lost Melissa over four years ago now, um it was a trauma. And we saw the body of Christ and different members in particular come to our our rescue in so many ways. Uh, as we're connected to the body, we were supplied with what we needed and practically and emotionally and spiritually and pastorally, the body of Christ came to our aid. And it's a beautiful thing. You know, you can everything changes when you know you're cared for. Everything changes. If you know you're loved and you're secure, and when you can't you can't do it in yourself, but you got people around you who are covering you, who are carrying you. It's beautiful. The body of Christ is beautiful. So this is this is what Paul's talking about here. The body is building itself up. So how is the body working together? Well, he's got a few things that he that he says here. Uh, it works together for the work of service or the ministry. That's that word, same word that's used for deacon, the deacon who serves the body of Christ. The body, the members of the body, all of us are deacons to one another. We are serving one another. It works together for building up one another. Okadome is this just literally means to build a house, to build a dwelling place, to build a place for the Holy Spirit to dwell. It works together for agreement in our convictions and for precise and correct knowledge of Jesus, actual knowing who Jesus is in our everyday life, for growth into a perfect man and maturity, and for arrival at the measure and the standard and the stature of the fullness of Jesus Christ. That's that's a that's a goal. That's a really high goal. That's a high bar that we could actually come into the measure and the stature of the fullness of Christ. That's the goal. That's what we're going toward. We can't get there, though, without each other. It only happens through each other. And he uses these two phrases, fitted together and joined together. And they're really similar, but they're different words. And one of them means to speak the same thing, fitted together. The Greek word there means to speak the same thing. So we're speaking the same things in agreement. And the other one means to walk together. So we're stepping together in the same direction. We're speaking together, we're walking together. And by doing this, the body is joined together. So, so joined together, you know, you understand joints, right? This is like an elbow joint. You know, it's a pretty complex joint. You got one bone coming in and two coming out. It's a heavy, it's a heavy piece of engineering right here. But it's things coming together. The joint is the place where it comes together so that function can happen. So together is the whole point. You you but you have to be connected. Joint is a connecting space. So joined together and built up implies we're together with each other. So in order for this to happen, we have to cooperate. I mean, we have to be with each other. We have to put ourselves in proximity of each other. We have to value being together and prioritize our busy lives around being with one another. So I have a question for you this morning. How much do you prioritize your connection to the body? It's really, really important. I mean, if you want to just stay where you are, it's not important. But if you want to grow as a person, as a member of the body of Christ, into what God is destined you to be, you have to be connected. Where are your connecting points? How are you supplying other people? How are you receiving supply from other joints? How do you see, do you see yourself as having something valuable you can supply the needs of others? Can you do you have something to give to other people? So later in this letter, uh we're gonna read where Paul speaks about Christ loving his church. He talks about it this in the context of husbands loving your wives, just as Christ loved the church. And here's how Christ loved the church. He gave himself over for it. And he washes it with the water of his word. And he talks about nourishing it and cherishing, creating an atmosphere for growth and presenting it clean and spotless. So the idea is you're loving it toward perfection, toward maturity. You're loving it from where it is, you're loving it into a place where you know it could be. And he he uses this word Christ gave himself over for the church. And he gave himself up for the church or gave himself over. It's actually the same word that's used when it says Judas betrayed Jesus. Jesus, Judas handed Jesus over to the centurions or the soldiers and the priests. And it's also used where it says that the chief priests handed Jesus over to Pilate. Same word. Handed him over, gave him over, betrayed him to Pilate. And then we see the same word when it says Pilate handed him over to be crucified. He gave him up to be crucified. But then we see it here, and Jesus, it says that Jesus gave himself up for the church. He betrayed himself, he put his own desires or his own personal gain aside, and he betrayed himself for the sake of the church. And we also see it in Romans where it says that God um loved us and he gave up his son for us. He gave up his son, he gave him over. And how will he not also give us all things? So this is the idea is there's a giving over of yourself. And this is what happened. This is what happens with Christ. This is what Christ calls us to do as husbands. And what it what it what it requires is you see what someone or something can be, and you give yourself to make that happen. You give yourself to make that happen. So if you think about that, how do how do you get the people that you love from where they are to where you know they could be? And this is a this is kind of a thing with leaders. And all of us have some sort of influence, and a leader is just somebody with influence. And so if you have influence over someone or you love someone and you're leading someone, it could be your marriage, it could be your children, it could be your employees, it could be people uh under uh your influence as a ministry, whatever. You see where they could be, but you see where they are. And here's the thing about leaders is leaders see the future and they see where we can be, where we ought to be. And so they're thinking in terms of where we can be. And sometimes they're frustrated with where we are. This happens sometimes with pastors. They see their church could be there and they get frustrated because their church is here. And I heard a very wise person speaking to pastors one time saying, don't let the church you want be the enemy of the church you have. Because the only way to get it to where you know it can be is to love it there. You can't force it there, and you can't guilt it there, and you can't law it there. You have to love it there. In order to love it to that place, you have to love it in this place where it is right now. Okay, that so that also applies with with other things too. With husbands loving your wives, for example, or vice versa. Seeing your spouse, you love them so you see what they can be, and sometimes you let what they could be or you want them to be be the enemy of who they are. And you forget to love them here. And the only way to get them from here to there is to love them here. Parents, the only way to get your children to where you know they could be or what you want for them is to love them where they are. You gotta love them there. Jesus loved the church and gave himself over for it, he betrayed himself over for the purpose of the church. So don't let the marriage you want be the enemy of the marriage you have. Don't be the child you want, be the enemy of the child you have. You have to love right now. Don't let the business you want be the enemy of the business that you have or the career. You get it, right? Love it today. Love today. This is what we're called to do. Love today. Love. Give yourself over for it. Wash it with your words. By the way, if I could do just a little side note, wasn't necessarily planned, but um, I was reading this very passage uh this week, just in my normal uh study in Ephesians 5, and it says that Jesus washes the church with the water of his word. And I saw that that that word there is not logos, that word is rhema. And logos is the the the written, established forever word of God. Rhema is from that logos the thing that is necessary right at this moment, the specific, the specific words from the logos that will help the moment right now. And so Jesus washes us with the rhema of his word. Husbands, we're supposed to wash our wives with the rhema of the word. We're supposed to, we're supposed to bless our wives with what they need right now, today, in this context, which means we have to be aware of our wives' needs. We have to actually think about what's going on with our wives. And how could I bless this person with the words of my mouth today? What does this person need from my mouth to bless them? But you have to be aware of that in order to wash them with the Rhema. Okay, so this is what Jesus does for the church. It's what he does through his body, through gifted men and women, and as they equip the body, the whole body of Christ blesses each other, builds each other up, washes each other, nourishes each other, creates an atmosphere for growth for each other, cherishes each other. This is what Paul is saying here. We create an atmosphere where this kind of growth can happen together. So let me just end by asking you a question about the apostle Paul who wrote these words. If I ask you uh what do you think defined the apostle Paul, what would you say? I mean, what was who was he? Maybe you might say um he was a an apostle. You might say he was a church planter, right? He was a person who operated in supernatural gifts. There was healing involved and other things. You might say that he was a theologian, he was a highly educated man, he had an intellectual. Um, but you know what else he was? He was all those things. That's all correct answers. But he was he was more than that. He also was a pastor, a relator, he was a connector, and that's why he was writing these letters back and forth to these people that he loved because he wanted to continue this relationship. When he wrote a letter introducing himself to the church at Rome, he ended his letter in chapter 16 with 35 names of people, plus family members, greeting family members of those people, plus the churches that met in their homes. He was, he had all these names. He had never even been to Rome, but he knew these people, and Rome was a it was an empire city, right? It was a place many people moved to and from, and so he knew that these people, and they had moved to Rome, and so he's greeting 35 people in this book. And behind every name was an individual story of their own faith and an individual story of their connection, how they interacted with Paul. And there were Jewish names and Roman names and noble names and servant names and men and women and slaves and city officials and Africans and Greeks and Europeans, and they're all living in the heart of this of the hostility of the Roman Empire. Many of them were gonna be martyrs, just as Paul was going to be. And we don't know too much about these people, but their names are immortalized in scripture for a purpose because this thing's about people, real people with real stories, and Jesus loves his bride. And in chapter one of Romans, Paul stated that one reason he wants to visit them is that he could impart some spiritual gift to them, but also that they could be mutually encouraged by the faith of one another. In other words, Paul understood all of those people had something to give him. This is the way this brilliant intellectual, theological church planter, miracle worker thought. He thought on the on the bottom level of relationships. All those other things only matter in the context of relationships, anyway. My knowledge doesn't help anything unless I'm with people. My ability, my spiritual gifts, they don't help unless I'm connected with people. If I'm my joint is supplied with other joints, I'm blessing them. They're blessing me. This is the way he thought. So that's why he wrote in Romans live in the gift of grace that God's given you, live with the measure of faith that he's given you, and whatever you are, be that for the sake of other people. In fact, he kind of restated what he wrote to the Ephesians in Romans chapter 12. And let's read that together. For as in one body, there's that metaphor, right? There one body, we have many members, and the members do not have all have the same function. So we, though we're many, are one body in Christ. And individually, members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given us, let us use them. And then he starts listing these gifts and saying how we should bless other people, how we should, for the common good of other people, be who we are for them. So the whole thing he's saying here is God is taking us to a place. He's put us in a place in Christ secure, but he's taking us to a place, growing us up into Christ, and he's doing it together. He's taking us to a place together. So in two weeks, we're having a fit class. And a fit class is a class that helps understand, helps you understand the way that God's made you, specifically with your spiritual gifts and your own heart passions that He puts inside of you and your abilities and your personality and your experiences and your strengths. And you take all of those things and put those things together in the direction of your heart passion. This is part of what we try to do. This is part of our pastor, pastoral equipping of you. And many of you have been through that. I just want to tell you one story. And I didn't know, Debbie, you were going to be here this morning, but I'm going to tell us, I'm going to tell your story. I have permission to tell your story. Yeah, go ahead. You can tell it better, but I'll tell it. So Debbie began attending Trinity after moving to East Tennessee. She'd been here for a while, but she came to Trinity and she had um she had this uh she already had a working history with some leadership capacities in the church that she attended before, but she attended the fit class. She began, uh, we began to get her to further explore how God had made her with specific gifts and abilities. She, and we kind of, with the help of the Holy Spirit, dialed those things in and aimed them toward the burden of her heart. Now, Debbie has a burden for prayer. She's a prayer.

unknown 42:19

Yes.

Rhema Words And Everyday Care

Paul’s Relational Leadership

Mark Medley 42:20

Um, she has a love for the word of God, and she she's serious about it, and she takes it in. And she has administrative and organizing gifts, and she has some training about um medical or at least how to uh caring, caring for people and in uh in uh their needs, their medical needs. And so the question was how can these things be used to love and help the body of Christ? Well, okay, so we're thinking about this, and then and then Debbie comes to us with this proposition to assemble a team to provide consistent, systematic prayer and pastoral care to members who are hospitalized and homebound. And she she helped mobilize people, uh, members of the body to do this kind of care. And it included visits and prayer and sometimes meals and other practical needs being met. And she continued to work in this capacity and and build a team until um she uh felt that God was moving her out of state, and she's not gone yet, but she has passed it on to Peg Parker, and now who she's overseeing this ministry. But I mean, do you see how this works? God, God's given you certain things. And He's given you He's made you a certain way, but He's made you a certain way for a certain segment of the body of Christ, or people who were, or pre Christians, people who are not Christians yet, who may be coming into the body of Christ. And this is just one of so many examples I could give you about the passage that we read this. Morning. Remember, it said we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped. A lot of joints in here. When each part is working properly, it makes the body grow so it builds itself up in love. This is how God takes us to where He wants us to be, to maturity and to unity. So in the coming weeks, we're going to see in the book of Ephesians how this works out practically in some really practical ways in how we work together in the church, relationships with people, relationships in the household, relationships in your job, spiritual warfare, all these things are in that context of we are doing this together as a body. So what I want to do is just pray for us. And I want to pray this prayer. I want to pray the scripture. You know that the scripture gives us substance to pray. If you don't know how to pray, sometimes you should just open your Bible and just start praying what it says. It's a great way to pray. When you're praying God's word back to Him, you know you're praying good prayers. It's not speculation. This is good stuff. So if you will stand with me, I want to pray this over all of us. I just want to go through this scripture and ask the Lord to do what he says in the scripture for us. So could you just focus with me and maybe pray this, pray this with me. Father, we thank you that we don't have to live in the futility of staying the same, but you call us onward to a new place. You call us to growth in Christ. Lord, I pray for the body of believers here at TCC. And I pray that we would be equipped, Lord, healed, built up, and trained for your kingdom. Lord, let all the power over our lives that was once divested in our invested in our enemy be divested from our enemy and invested in the Lord Jesus Christ and our Father, more so let us understand that you've already done this, Lord. This is the place you've put us. God, and I pray if there are people this morning that need to bang the gavel, you would just give them grace, Lord, to make a break with the past and hear your declaration. You're my son, I love you, I'm pleased with you. You're my daughter, I love you, I'm pleased with you. You're in the family. The past does not rule you. Those voices are not the greatest voices in your life. Help us understand that the voice of our Father is the greatest voice in our life, Lord. Lord, I pray that all the saints here would do the work of the ministry in all aspects of our lives, Lord, home and schools and jobs and the church. And I pray for this goal of this scripture, Lord, this unity and maturity, Lord. All the way, Lord, until we attain the fullness of the measure and the stature of Christ, the fullness of the knowledge of Jesus and the character of Jesus, Lord. I pray for mature manhood, Lord. Take us there, Lord. We pray, teach us to walk together, teach us to speak together, Lord, so that we are no longer children, Lord. We're no longer tossed to and fro by the waves carried by every wind of doctrine, by this by human cunningness, by craftiness, deceitful schemes, Lord. Rather, that there would be grace to speak truth to one another. Truth from your eternal word, your logos in love, Lord, your Rhema that's needed in this moment to bless us up, bless us and build us up, Lord. Lord, and because it's your will and your destiny for us, let us grow up in every way into Him who is our head, into Jesus Christ. I pray the whole body, all of us, Lord, every member, be joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped and convict us, Lord, to rearrange our priorities where needed toward this community that you speak of, Lord. And shepherd us into meaningful relationships, Lord, within the body, even through these community groups we're speaking about today, even through the discipleship groups that have been formed, Lord, so that each part of your body, each one of us, is working properly, Lord, and helping the rest of the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. Help us, Lord, to love one another into maturity for the purpose of glorifying your name and seeing your kingdom come in greater measure here on earth, even as it is in heaven, Lord. And we pray this because the kingdom is yours, Lord. And the power is yours, Lord, and the glory is yours, Lord, forever and ever. Amen. Amen.