Equipped to Grow

In this message from Ephesians 4:7–16, Pastor Jim explains how Jesus, the victorious and ascended King, gives gifts to his people so that the church can grow into maturity. After defeating the powers of sin and death through his life, death, and resurrection, Jim shows how Christ now distributes grace to the church through leaders who proclaim and clarify the gospel, equipping believers for works of service. The goal is not spectatorship but participation as every follower of Jesus grows beyond spiritual infancy and begins to serve as part of the body of Christ. Jim challenges listeners to move beyond gathering information about faith and instead allow the gospel to shape identity, produce transformation, and lead to active ministry in everyday life. As the church builds one another up in truth and love, believers grow toward unity, deeper knowledge of Jesus, and the fullness of maturity that reflects Christ to the world.

Transcript

Lydia | 00:00
Verses 4, 7 through 16. But to each one of us, grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says, "When he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave gifts to his people." What does "he ascended" mean except that he descended to the lower earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens in order to fill the whole universe. 
So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, The evangelist? The pastors and teachers to equip his people for works of service. 
So that the body of Christ may be built up. Until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching, and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of Him who is the Head. That is Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love. As each part does its work. This is the word of God.

Jim | 01:23
Amen. This weekend, I went up to Buffalo, New York. Katie Easy. Went up to Buffalo, New York, and ended up over in Rochester to see my friend Shane. It was my friend Shane's 50th birthday. And it tells you the birthday that I am nearing, getting old. But I went up to see my buddy Shane, and Shane had decided that for his birthday, you know, you get to 50, you're like, whatever, I'm old, I buy whatever I want. 
Like, what do you need for birthday presents anymore? You know, he decided that what he wanted to do was to throw himself a party with some friends where he got to play in a band. He had wanted to play in a band his whole life, and so over the last several years, he's taught himself multiple instruments. Took lessons at a nearby school called the Submarine School of Music up there in Rochester. And he decided that he wanted to play in a band and he wanted to play the entire Beatles, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album start to finish. And he had people, kids from the Submarine School of Music come and play. He had a friend play an acoustic set and then they played that album start to finish straight through. And he played guitar, he played bass, he played drums on one song. And but it was awesome. And it was so good to see him, you know, just enjoying himself and raising money for, you know, the Submarine School of Music, which was awesome. And It was great. But the thing that occurred to me as I was driving home from Rochester yesterday and thinking about this sermon was that There's a couple realities in that story that pertain to what I'm talking about today in Ephesians 4. Shane grew up. Meaning at some point, he was born, he was a baby, he was an infant, and he couldn't care for himself, right? Wearing diapers, making a mess of himself. Using a bottle because he can't sell feed. But eventually, he did what was expected, right? He grew. And he grew, and now he's 50, right? And he's doing this thing. He's out on his own. He's living his life, right? No more messes, no more bottles, right? Self-feeding, taking care of himself like an adult. This is what would be expected, right? The maturation process has taken place. The other thing that hit me was that he Was... Just thought of the Grateful Dead lyric, playing in the band. He's playing in the band. He learned... He learned from his lessons. He didn't just learn and then sit there with that knowledge. He learned and he applied it. He got into the game. He got involved. He put it to work, right? And got to see the joy of that, taking part in that thing. And I don't know about you, what your journey with Jesus is like, what your church experience is like, but I'm here to remind us this morning, it's my, what I want to put before you for consideration from Ephesians 4, is that You, as a Jesus follower, are called to mature. You are called to get older in the faith. You are called to grow up and no longer be infants. You are called to be able to self-feed. You are called to get into the game. You are called to play in the band, as it were, to be part of the family on mission. And that's what Paul is after in this passage. And so this week and next are sort of parts one and two of a very similar sermon. And so Maybe you're at this place in your journey where you're like, this faith thing is kind of boring. Been doing this for a while, maybe your faith, maybe it's not really been producing growth in you. A lot of knowledge, but it's not really producing transformation. And so can I call you? To something that what Paul is calling the Ephesian church to here is that there's more to faith than just head knowledge. There's more to faith than just being here and listening to a sermon or listening to lots of Christian podcasts and reading Christian books. You can do that till the cows come home, but it doesn't mean you're growing. It doesn't mean you're actually living out the obedient life that Jesus calls us to actually be the church. To get in the game, to play in the band, as it were, to be part of the family on mission, which is what Paul is going for in this section. And so I want us to see sort of three things. And, you know, you're getting used to me doing this three things. It helps me remember it. Today, it's sort of one sentence. That the gift-giving king. 
Like we have a gift giving king, our gift giving king. Equips the church to grow. Our gift-giving King equips the church to grow. All right, so I want to talk about that this morning. I want to put that before you for consideration. 
So I want to ask the Holy Spirit to sort of lead us in that. So would you pray with me? Holy Spirit, we are looking into the words that you... Put into Paul's heart and mind. And put I don't know. Quilt of parchment that you pushed him to write. And so as much as this was written to the church at Ephesus some 2,000 years ago, it's for us today. And so Spirit, would you open our hearts and our minds. To grasp what Paul was saying. To realize that you have gifted us to be in the game. And not just be spectators, but to be playing, to be involved and to grow. To not just be infants anymore, but to grow, to self-feed, to build one another up. 
So that Christ would be known to the ends of the earth and into the cosmos. So Spirit, would you do a work here this morning? Pray this in Jesus' name, amen. All right, so let's talk about our gift-giving king. Our gift-giving king equips the church to grow. Jesus, we've talked about this before in trying to define the gospel, that Jesus is the victorious, eternal, rightful king. And in this passage, Paul is talking about him as such. He's saying he is the ascendant, victorious king. He is the head of the church, the body. 
Right? If you go back to Ephesians 1, just remind you of this. He says, Jesus is grand and growing grander. Through the work of his kingdom, expanding through the church. And in this passage, what you see him doing is Paul is saying, God is doling out. He's giving out a grace to the church. If you look at that word there, when it says he gave us grace, it's a singular thing. He's saying it's one thing that he gave to the church then and I would... Put before you to say now as well, that he gifts the church now, the same things. What he's saying is, This gift is a multifaceted reality of Christ. Paul is retelling Psalm 68. If you go back and you look at Psalm 68, you would say, "The words are different here in Psalm 68 than they are in Ephesians 4," because he repurposes it. He switches some of the words around to say that, to say this, we'll put it on a statement here. When he ascended on high, he took captivity captive and he gave gifts to his people. This is an Old Testament... Word from the Lord in Psalm 68, talking about the king. "...when he ascended on high, he took captivity captive, and he gave gifts to his people." What's he saying? He's saying that Jesus is like a conquering king. Who has ascended up to the throne, and rather than people giving him gifts, He's saying that king now gives gifts to other people, to the people in his kingdom. He has taken captive captivity. Again, if you look into the words in the Greek, that's what's happening there. He's taken captivity captive. What is going on here? 
Well, Think about a conquering king back in the ancient days. What would a king do? They would go in, they would, you know, like sack a city, right? And what would they do? They would take anything that was life-giving there for themselves. They would take the spoils of war. They would take the animals, the cattle, the sheep. They would take any grain that was being stored there. They would take women to try to procreate and move along their line, right? They would take the things that were giving life. They would take wealth, and they would put it into their treasury to make their kingdom bigger and stronger. To enrich the king's power and to make his fame go even farther about. And so... He would lead. A train of people back into the city to be killed, bringing all the captives back in with him saying, here's all the soldiers that were fighting against me, embarrassing them, shaming them in chains, and then they would be killed or imprisoned. He's embarrassing these forces that had been coming against him. And Paul is painting all of this picture into just this verse about Jesus. Saying Jesus has gone into foreign enemy territory. He has defeated the dark forces that were at work there. He has conquered captured and taken captive captivity itself. And he's now leading it and taking things from it. He's taking life from it and distributing it to his people. This is the grace that King Jesus has given to his people. He's parading these losers before us, saying, I have defeated them through his death and resurrection. Jesus has defeated the dark forces that we've been talking about that are behind sin and death and the things that keep us enslaved. Again, look at Ephesians 2. He reminds us, as for you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. He's saying you were stuck under this thing, this dark force of evil that kept you enslaved to sin and death. And Jesus defeated it. He is the victorious ascendant king over on the throne. He has defeated the dark forces and he knows that they've been taking life from us. He knows that these sinful things that are at work, these evil things that are in us and working upon us when we don't know Jesus are leading us into captivity. And he says, instead, he took them captive. And he now rules over them. He's taking life from them and giving it to us, saying they're not going to take it from you anymore. I'm going to give you life. They're not going to be allowed to take this from you anymore. And they're not going to be able to cause you to keep doing those bad works that lead to death. Those bad works that look like disobedience, he has conquered them so that we can be freed to do good works. And so there's a salvation story that's happening here, he's telling. That he has saved us from these, from sin, from death, from being enslaved to it. That's part of the gift. That he has given the church. But the multifaceted reality that he starts to bring into the picture here is that he's given the means to being mature. That's part of the gift that he's given the church, not just salvation, but a new way of life in growing mature and serving in the church. Jesus gives away the spoils of war. People that used to be captive, he's now giving them life and he's saying. Go live this life. Go, I'm going to give you the means to grow it out, to grow the means that would produce life, that would produce glory for Jesus. He's saying, I'm now giving that to you. In the form of these apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, teachers. He's saying, I'm gifting you them so that you can be equipped to ministry. You're no longer kept under these dark forces anymore. You now can do good works. You used to only be able to do bad works. Now you can do good works. This is a grace. This is a gift that Jesus has given the church. And so part of what I want you to grasp here right from the very beginning is that the enemy of your souls wants to kill and destroy. Wants to take life away Wants to have you going about a life that dabbles in disobedience and bad works because it brings you further and further away from God. He knows that it causes death and destruction and the lack of shalom in the world. This is what the enemy wants. The foreign king wants to take these things and make you miserable and to cause you to lead a nasty life. To do these bad things that take life away. He wants to conquer and take, but instead what he shows you is that Jesus wants to conquer and give. Do you see it? He wants to conquer the enemy and to give you life, which is what has happened in his life and death and resurrection on our behalf. 
So Jesus is this ascendant, victorious, gift-giving king who gives salvation, but gives the means to mature, the means to grow and not just stay infants. He equips the church. Our gift-giving King equips the Church to grow. No. A lot of people. Come to this I don't know how else to remember it and say it quickly other than to say apest. Apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers, or pastors and teachers, depending on how you want to say it. They want to come to this section. And they want to see, okay, who's got the gifts? Who's got the gifts of Apostlehood? Who's got the gift of being a prophet? Who's got the gifts of being a shepherd or a teacher or evangelist? And I think it starts to ask the exactly wrong question. 
Like, who's got this gift? Who doesn't? And I think what Paul's saying is, I have given you the grace of these people so that you can grow. It's like this. I love chicken pot pie. Okay, one of my favorites. You could substitute pumpkin pie into this story I'm about to tell you. All right, but I'm going to use chicken pot pie because it's heartier. I love chicken pot pie. It's one of the best things that Jess makes. I would eat it like seven times a week. Love it. Now, when that gift shows up on the table... It's one thing, right? A grace has appeared on the table. Right. But then what do? We apportion it out, right? We cut it up and everybody gets their piece of this thing for the edification of the body, right? And my soul, as it were. I love it. It's good. It's one thing. One thing, one gift. One gift to give to people, but divide it up into these ways that everybody gets some. And so what Paul's saying is the ascendant victorious gift-giving king has given you the gift of grace. It looks like apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, teachers, for the building up of the church. The point is not, well, who's got the gift? He's saying, no. The point is Jesus has given this gift so that you can grow. And so that's like these functions are taken on in the early church. To grow the church. Now, I do believe that we could say that there are people today who are still apostolic, shepherds, teachers, I would put myself into that camp. Elder, shepherd, teacher, right? People still have these things, but again, the point is not, see, the gifts are for the church, not just to the person. That's important to know. The gifts are for the church, not just to that person. It's for the building up of the church. And so. I want to just blaze through these terms real quick, so you can just understand a little bit of what's happening here, because I think, again, sometimes we miss what's going on here. 
So he says the church has been given a grace by God. They've been given apostles, right? Apostles were the people who had seen Jesus. The 12 disciples or the 11 then replaced by Matthias, the 12 disciples who had seen Jesus. The apostle Paul sees Jesus on the road to Damascus, right? And so he's therefore put into that camp. And these are the people who had seen Jesus, were commissioned by him, commissioned by the church to go and tell other people about him, to go and spread the gospel around the world. Prophets. Now, the prophetic is a person who encourages, comforts, edifies, and strengthens the church. Not just future, like forecasting. We often think of prophetic as like only telling the future. Prophets are the people that speak the truth. They bring truth into the situation. Isaiah, you know, like Elijah, like think about the words that they would speak. It wasn't just future telling. It was bringing God into the current so that people would wake up and realize, God's involved here. And so prophets were people who were edifying, encouraging, speaking the truth, speaking gospel truth, God's words into the current circumstances. Evangelists, again, you know this word, proclaiming the gospel message, serving as missionaries and preaching the word everywhere that they went. Pastor or shepherd, kind of use the word interchangeably in the New Testament, pastor or shepherds, these are under-shepherds of the chief shepherd Jesus. These are typically like the elders of the church who are caring and leading for the flock, but they're protecting the doctrine. Of the gospel. They're seeing what's not gospel truth and pointing it out. It's similar to the prophet. But they're protecting the flock, they're keeping the--like looking out for wolves, right? Looking out for false doctrine, false gospel that might come into the reality of the church. And if you notice there, Paul says, you know, prophets, I mean, pastors or shepherds and teachers, So there's a chance that these two things are actually linked together that I'm about to say. Teachers, again, possibly linked to the pastor-shepherd role. They teach doctrine, they point out false doctrine, they present the message of the gospel. And so I do believe that people are still gifted in this way. People are still called in these ways. But again, that's not the point. What I want us to see about these roles is that they are proclaiming roles. They're gospel speaking roles, gospel clarifying roles. Functions of the church. They advance the gospel in the church and the world through proclaiming it, defending it, teaching it, shepherding it. Protecting it. Why is this important? Because gospel proclamation builds gospel identity. Gospel proclamation builds gospel identity, and that fuels maturity. That fuels maturity. 
So these apest roles are proclaiming the gospel. Which helps people believe different things at their core. And when you believe different things at your core, it forms a new identity. And when you have a new identity, behavior flows out of that. And so he's saying it was so important that Jesus would gift this to the early church. That he would gift it to the church today, that people would hear the gospel, that it would change their core identity and that behaviors would flow out of it. And this is why, friends, you don't hear me preach on behavior. I don't preach on behavior and say, stop cursing. That's bad. Preach on. Belief, preach on identity. And when you preach on identity, behavior starts to flow out of that. 
You see? And so he's saying it was so important that Jesus would gift the church with this apest gift, this singular gift for the sake of the church, so that their identity would be solidified and formed and grown so that they would not just be infants anymore, so that we would not just be infants anymore, so that we would stop making messes like babies do. 
So that we would learn how to stop just drinking milk, but learn to eat solid food and self-feed. Gospel identity causes that to happen. Gospel identity causes us to get into the game. To realize that, it's not just the pastor's job. This is not just professional vocational Christians who are the ones who are called to grow the church. Paul's saying we all have been equipped for service. Because of this gospel proclamation that's happening. And so, When we come together on a Sunday, I'm preaching like high level identity gospel stuff. 
So that You would leave from here so that you would come out of your community groups or huddles, so you'd come out of the Bible when you're reading it, so you'd come out of it saying, okay, my identity is being formed here, and behavior starts to flow out of that. See, church is so much more than just like gathering on a Sunday morning. It's so much bigger than just hearing a gospel message a long time ago in your life and saying, I'm glad that's true. I get to go to heaven someday. True. But so much more. 
So much more than that. There's an entire life there. Paul's saying Jesus has defeated the dark forces so that you can have full life now and into eternity. He's given you a new identity and there's work to be done. There are works of service to be done, and he has equipped the church with these giftings, this apest set of functions, so that you can learn your gospel identity, so that it's protected, fostered, and so that you can be mature and be part of the ministry of the church. The church is saved and equipped to do good works of service. We talked about this, right? Go back to 2.10, the sort of cornerstone of this entire message series. For we are God's handiwork. God has done something, a masterpiece that he's created, a poem that he's writing, a piece of art that he's painting. For we are God's handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works. He wasn't just talking about pastors there. He wasn't just talking about evangelists and prophets and shepherds. He's saying, we, the church, unified, are called to do good works. And he's freed you from the dark works, the dark forces, so that you can do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. And this all happens via hearing, incorporating the gospel into our lives, growing in identity as the gospel grows in our hearts onto mature identities so that we can see, I'm supposed to play in the band. I'm supposed to be involved. I'm supposed to serve. And when I talk about this, friends, I'm not just saying like you're supposed to serve like make coffee. 
Though that would be great if you wanted to. When I say called to serve, I don't just mean serving on like the tech team, though that would be awesome if you wanted to. What we're going to talk about next week is looking, what does it actually look like when we serve one another? 
You know what that means? Building up gospel identity in one another. 
That's why we do this Sunday morning thing. Is to root our identity in him. This is what I'm calling you to is not just to be part of like a function on a Sunday morning, as awesome as that is, as needed as that is, but to live a life of being a minister of the gospel. To live a life of being part of the royal priesthood, who go out and minister to one another, speaking the gospel to one another, growing one another up in the Lord, which again, we'll talk about that next week. Ultimately to be built up as the temple of God. To be the place where he dwells, built on the apostles with Jesus as the chief cornerstone, Paul has said. Each part doing its good works in obedience to God as the masterpiece. Friends. If your walk with Jesus is boring, this could be what's missing. 
Honestly. If your walk with Jesus is stagnant, and not maturing, This could be part of what's missing is that your identity is immature. That it's connected in worshiping other things, that it's trying to find life elsewhere. And Paul's saying, no, life is found in identity in the gospel of Jesus. Which then leads to maturity, which leads to serving and being a minister of the gospel to one another and to our community. And ultimately, it brings glory to God. Look at me in verse 19 of chapter 2. "Disconsequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of His household." Again, this is not just about pastors. This is not just about Hope Alliance getting its name out there and being a famous big church someday. This is about us. Being filled with the spirit, having such gospel rooted identities that we are making Jesus known to the ends of the earth. That's the point. Jesus will always be known. Hope will go away. Hope Alliance will go away someday. But Jesus will be made known. This is what we're called to, friends. This is the full life that he is offering you. And so, You've been equipped. And I pray, I hope, that part of what I do in my vocation is equip you with gospel identities. Giving you the fuel that you need to fuel yourself. To self-feed, to grow in maturity. And we do that for one another, as I equip you, as you are equipped by other prophetic people, by apostolic people, by shepherding people, you know, by our elders, by our teachers, by people that are speaking into you. Could be podcasts, could be books, whatever. You're getting this gospel identity fostered that it produces in you this sense that says, I'm going to get in the game now. I'm not just going to sit back and have head knowledge, I'm going to actually go out and apply this and be a minister of the gospel in my community, in my church. In my sphere of influence. And when we do that, what we see is that we are inviting the Spirit of God, the presence, the very presence of God to come and dwell in our midst. And it makes him known to the ends of the earth. This has always been the point that God would dwell among his people and be known to the ends of the earth. This is why Jesus descended in the first place to make him known so that we could make him known to the ends of the earth. And so our gift-giving king equips us, equips the church to grow. To stop making messes, to eat solid food, to self-feed. To join in the band, to play in the game. Is the maturing church grows as the masterpiece of God. The poem of God, the artwork of God, as he says in 210. Maturing Church grows in walking worthy of that call towards unity, towards mission. 
And then we-- God ultimately is using... The glory-giving people of the Church to flaunt His glory to His enemies. Which we talked about a few weeks ago. That when we serve together, when we minister to one another, when we build up gospel identity in one another, We are displaying God's manifold wisdom. Is multifaceted, multicolored, multiethnic wisdom to the ends of the earth. We grow. And so, If you look at the last couple of verses there, versus 12, 13. He says, and in the knowledge of the Son of God, and become mature. Attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. 
So there's kind of three things there. Just real briefly here. What are we growing into? What have we been equipped to do? 
Well, first is to grow into, to reach unity in the faith, in belief in Jesus. So. Key to all of this, foundational to all of this, if you heard me say this, is identity. Faith in Jesus, faith in the gospel, he's saying we have been equipped to build that up in one another, till we reach unity in the faith, holding true to it against... All odds. Against every wave of teaching that will come in, holding steadfast to the faith of Jesus Christ, to being true to the gospel. He says, you will grow in unity in belief or faith in Jesus. As we continue to serve one another and minister the gospel to one another, we will reach unity in the knowledge of Jesus. This is big to Paul. He's been talking about knowledge that goes beyond knowledge. This has been his prayer over and over again, that they would know the depth. Of the love of God, the height, the width, the length of Jesus, like his love for them, that would be so rooted in their core that it would just blow them away, that their identity would never be shaken because they just, they know it. Beyond all knowing, they know it. He's saying, as we minister to one another, that's what grows. Is this knowledge of the love of God, this relational knowledge of Jesus. This is part of what we do for one another. Is minister this to one another. Again, I'm not with you. Six and three quarter days of the week, right? But I pray that your friends in church are. That they can speak gospel identity into your life. That they can remind you of the knowledge of the love of God. In your life. That their identity, when it's feeling strong, when their identity is feeling, it has vitality to it and yours is waning, they can say, remember who God is. Remember what Jesus has done for you. Friends, we need one another. To be built up, to grow in unity in our knowledge of Jesus. 
So we have an identity. That can't be shaken. And as we'll talk about next week, to grow in maturity in the fullness of Jesus. I'm growing maturity in the fullness of Jesus that we would look more and more like him. And we would look more and more like Him. And it would start to fill out the church, fill out to the ends of the earth. 
So that all would know. And so. We'll get into that. We'll talk about not being blown around by every wind, every teaching that is very prevalent in our day and age. What it looks like to speak the truth and love to one another. That I'm not the only one speaking to you, that we speak to one another in love. We repent and believe because of other people and the healthy ways that we interact with one another. This is what we're going to talk about next week, just what it means to grow in maturity, representing Jesus to one another and growing in the fullness of Him. And so what I would tell you is that Belief in Jesus, unity and belief in Jesus, unity in knowledge of his love and unity in maturity and becoming more and more like him. That's life. That is where life is found, friends. Not in all the other things that sometimes we think being with Jesus is about, the rules, the regulations. Life is found in the gospel. Life is found in belief in him. Life is found in the knowledge of his love. Life is found in growing mature. Friends. Life is found in growing mature in Jesus, and it takes all of us being the church to do that. It takes all of us being the church, not just professional vocational Christians. Okay. It takes all of us being that for one another, representing Jesus to one another, because there are, there's no such thing as professional Christians. I'm in this with you. I need it from you. You need it from me. We need it from one another. Equipping, we've been equipped to do so. We all play a part in the masterpiece. And so, I'm going to close with this. Just to remind you. We don't have to do this. But we get to. We don't have to do this. And Jesus made it pretty clear. It's a narrow road. Most people aren't going to pick it. I don't know if you will. I pray you do. We'll have to do it, but we get to. We get to live this out. We get to live in life with one another and speak the truth and love to one another and build up each other in the gospel identity that Jesus has earned for us. Why? Because he's incredible. Because Jesus is amazing. Because Jesus is the ascendant king. Because Jesus is the victorious, eternal, rightful king. Jesus Again, think about this. Paul's saying Jesus took captivity captive. But what happened to Jesus? On your behalf. He was taken captive. 
Right? He was led captive. He was led captive. By the dark forces. All compiling on him on the cross. On your behalf. We deserve to have that happen to us, but Jesus took that on our behalf. Jesus had his life stolen. 
So that we could find ours. So that we could find it in him. He descended into death so that we don't have to. He ascended to the right hand of the Father and says, come with me. You can be seated with me at the right hand of the Father. He ascended to life and he bestows it upon us. And the spoils of his life? And his identity have been given to you, friends. And so again, You don't have to do this. But can you believe me that you get to? That you've been equipped with this gospel identity so you can go out and you can make him known to one another, so that your identity can be grown and fostered by being in the church, and you can do that for other people as well. It's not just up to vocational Christians. The spoils of his life and identity have been given to you so that we can grow so that we can mature, so we can stop making messes so we can get in the game and we can give glory to God. Our Jesus does not say, come up to me. He came down to us. He's different than every other God that we hear about. He didn't say, get right and come up to me. He came down to us and he says, I have freed you now. I have given you life. I have gifted you. This gospel identity. Now go. Go and enjoy it. Go and grow in it. Go and serve in it to one another and to the ends of the earth. Let's pray together, friends.