As we open, would you mind opening us in prayer?
Okay.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for bringing us all your safety gay today, and we ask that you open up our hearts and minds to the word that you have for us today.
Amen.
Well, yeah, so we've just gotten out of the first three chapters, and we are now going out of the indicatives of who we are and who we once were and who we're not any longer.
To now, uh, alright, well, what do we do with that?
And Paul starts chapter four, you know, with a completely, with, you know, kind of just a new shit, a new lens.
Uh maybe not a new lens, but um just a new portion of the of the letter here.
Um I'll read it for us.
We'll go through chapter 4 all the way to verse 16.
Uh, one to sixteen.
I, therefore, prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace.
There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father over all, who is over all and through all and in all.
But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.
Therefore it says, When he ascended on high, he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.
In saying he ascended, what does it mean that he had also descended into the lower regions of the earth?
He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that we might fill all things, that he might fill all things.
And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and 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 or deceitful 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.
So we start off and he Paul seems to is this the third or fourth time that he repeats that he is a reiterates that he is a prisoner of this right?
The second two times.
Because the first one's in uh chapter 3, verse 1.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
But before he before he declares again that he's a prisoner, he says, I therefore.
And we remember what we're supposed to ask about therefore, don't we?
What's it there for?
So this therefore goes back, and he's pointing back to all three verses, all three chapters of the uh, the first three chapters of the book.
You know, looking at who we are, what we've what we've received in Christ.
The um covenant of redemption in chapter one, where he talks about the um the work of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit in our salvation.
And then in him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him, who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.
In him, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel.
And then in chapter two, we find out that we're it was by you know, God made us alive in Christ, together with Christ, and uh of his immeasurable riches of grace and kindness toward us, and then we're all united in Christ.
And then in chapter three, he talks about the condition that we were in before before we were brought near, and um reminds them of the fact that they've they have been brought near, the Gentiles have been brought near to Christ, and he keeps repeating over and over what who we were before and who we are in Christ, because if we don't remember who we are in Christ, we we lose our way, we'll drift.
But it's that memory of who we were before and that and that motivation to gratitude that leads to what I think he's talking about here, is that he urges them to walk in a manner.
Right.
Let me see.
We are very forgetful people, but uh part of me wants to wonder why.
So yeah, I would I guess I just asked why why do you guys think we're such a forgetful people?
Because I I'm just generally am forgetful.
Oh crap, forgot my keys.
Where's my phone?
You know, if I'm I'm forgetful in that way, but it's easy to forget things you rather not remember.
But wouldn't I want to remember this?
Yeah, you know what I mean?
Yeah, well, in reading the Mosaic Law, God more than one occasion he tells the Israelites you are a stiff-necked people.
And I think that me means us as well.
And Jesus, like when it comes to communion, do this in remembrance of me.
It's something that should consistently, constantly be done, because we are forgetful.
We are stiff-necked, we constantly need to be held accountable in the faith.
Yeah.
So it's does it have anything to do with the noetic effect of sin?
The fact that we're fallen beings and uh we're bent toward doing things our own way.
Well, yeah, that's what I meant.
Yeah, and I think we're he's gonna get to that as we as we walk on through chapter verse one there.
Yeah.
I think it can be hard to focus on all of those things when you're focused on something that's right here.
You know, it's it's easy to forget those things when you're just dealing with something right now.
Yeah, kind of just you get in the minutiae and and you start to lean back on your laurels.
Yeah.
It's that old saying, out of sight, out of mind.
Yeah.
We've got to keep it, we have it's important, he's saying, to keep this top of mind so that we can be reminded who we are and that we can that we will act in a way that is fitting to that call.
Yeah, well, and he doesn't just you know invite us to walk or encourage us.
Hey, when you get around to it, yeah, he urges us to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.
You know, this calling of our of our salvation, um of what we've been what we've been called into, um, which is you know perfect union one day with the Lord.
You know, back when the Israelites were in the wilderness and they saw, um, even in Egypt, they saw all these miracles and all these miracles, and then uh uh Moses gets them out and and I'm thinking how quickly they forgot.
Yeah.
And I could not understand how they could witness all these fabulous miracles and how they could forget.
And I'm thinking, we do the same thing, you know, and we have more distractions.
Well, I don't know.
I'm saying, it's my opinion, we have more distractions of the internet and and you know, social medias and all that all that.
We have so many distractions that it is easy for us to forget.
Isn't that interesting though?
They had less distractions, but they drifted away just like we can drift away if we forget.
And there was a connection between forgetting and apostasy, you know, believing God, there was a connection between that and the Old Testament.
Yeah.
And there are miracles today.
You know, I've seen miracles.
And I forget.
So that's why we have to be rooted in the Word every day.
Every day is going on.
I don't know if anybody's doing the year, the Bible in a year thing.
I've been doing it.
And you know, you it it focuses on Old Testament and then New Testament.
And the Old Testament, it looks like a heartbeat if you think about Israel and God and away from God.
To God, away from God.
It just looks like this.
Like an EKG or something.
That's what it looks like to me.
Yeah.
That's what we're talking about.
Right.
Well, that's try-off times the story of our lives.
We're up, we're down, we're up, we're down.
Travis?
I gotta say the difference is Jesus.
Yeah.
Back in the Old Testament, actually, he came and went.
It wasn't until he was born.
Yeah.
They looked forward to the coming of the Messiah, though.
Yeah.
Right.
That uh made the difference, really.
That the difference they they really didn't, all they were told is what not to do.
Yeah.
Really.
Of the law.
This this the law.
And the law has only one purpose, and that's to show you you're guilty.
You know, and Jesus came to say, You're not guilty, you're mine.
Well, we are guilty, but we can't be forgiven.
But but we're forgiven because, like I said, you you are mine.
Yeah.
Well, then that's that's the difference.
That's been paid.
Is we have something to look forward to where all they had was condemnation.
Well, they had something to look forward to as well.
Yeah, it just wasn't, it wasn't as we have a fuller understanding with all of scripture where they had you know a shadow of what was to come.
Yeah, they they looked forward to the coming of Christ.
We can we have the luxury of looking back at what he has done.
There, there's yeah, no, a Abraham was saved.
He's saved.
He had faith and was credited to credited to him as righteousness, not unlike us.
Yeah, they looked forward to the coming of Christ.
I think the sincere ones, their salvation was on credit.
Christ came, the debts paid, and we have the luxury of looking back.
And looking forward, looking forward to what he was coming back.
So, and we're one body of Christ, contrary to what dispensationalists believe.
There's well, we just read it here.
There's one faith and one body.
Well, and that's yeah, that's the great, you and that's um, I mean, we get that as early as Genesis 3 of a hope for a savior that you know that that He will um Crush the Serpent's head.
Crush the serpent's head, and the serpent, you know, will bruise his heel.
Um it's uh we they they had the and I would I'll say the benefit of anticipating Christ, looking forward to him.
Um most probably live to not see that day, uh, but instead they got to meet him in heaven.
So uh I take that trade off, I think.
But um we are urged here in Ephesians to walk in a manner worthy of our calling.
And the five um key traits that Paul uses here are humility and gentleness.
Patience uh bearing with one another in love and peace.
You think humility and gentleness are one unit or one thought with all humility and gentleness?
It seems to be.
And then with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the spirit in the bond of peace.
Which makes you makes you conclude that humility uh produces gentleness.
Yeah.
You know.
I think especially as a young guy, uh the idea of being gentle.
What does that mean?
Because I think I think I think I'm pr uh I think I know what humility is.
Uh not because I'm good at it, but uh because I think I, you know, I know what humility is, I know I know the idea of patience, I know the idea of bearing with one another in love, you know, seeking to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace, but gentleness, meekness, meekness.
Um I kind of attribute that as to interacting with others, how you treat others.
No.
It's a it's a disposition.
The uh humility and gentleness is a disposition.
And the scripture tells us to think more highly of others than we think of ourselves.
And then it also, in doing that, is how we it says with patience, you know.
We're supposed to be have humility and gentleness with patience.
We run into some folks that and well some folks may run into us too, and we've we're not easy to deal with, or they're not easy to deal with, a follow believer, but the Lord is saying to maintain the unity we need to be humble and we need to be meek.
So, what does that look like?
That means putting other people first and not being so selfish.
I think all these other things they come from humility, the gentleness, and well, does anybody what is the definition of gentleness or meekness?
Jason Jason, you got it?
Well, I mean, so I mean I think gentleness is the opposite of harshness.
So it it it's I also think it's not by itself just kindness, which you know Jesus lists is a different fruit of the spirit.
I I I I think more I can only do it like with an example.
Like I think I had to get married, I think, to begin to really understand gentleness and realize that my ways of humor and sometimes saying things did not always work on other people.
You know, um that also made me realize, I think also in the classroom as I teach, you know, I'm a I'm a sarcastic guy who sometimes likes good practical joke here and there.
That doesn't work with all of my students, and a lot of them I realized looking back were just kind of putting up with me sometimes.
But for some of the kids, it worked really well.
They liked that a lot and they interacted with me, and it made me, I think, start paying attention more to kids who really were not open to having a teacher really joke with them or even in it, even a slightly openly needed something, and so to deal with them sometimes in a much more what I considered a gentle manner, sometimes even watching the things I said even a lot more carefully.
And and they also I think sometimes would think they were being perhaps gentle with me, um sometimes just with putting up with me, and and so in that way I think gentleness is sometimes I think not tolerating sin, but also it's it's accompanied with kindness, also dealing with people on their terms, uh in a way that makes I think bearing with one another in a love in love possible.
Uh it's not and that's but that part of humility, not always my preferences uh of for doing with things.
Um I don't know, that's still not a definition.
No, it it's it's hard to give one.
Yeah.
I like what this says.
Uh well it also mentioned everything you said, but it says calm.
There's a calmness too.
But he said it says it's often misunderstood as a sign of weakness.
It's actually strength under control.
Exactly.
Strength control.
Strength under control, that's good.
That's good.
Yes.
I think of uh when I was a youth pastor, I had a student who's who's sixth grade, um, highly autistic.
And through some of the studies and characteristics of his own unique form of autism, he was 12, but he was he acted half his age.
He would show up to youth group, and he'd come into a room like this and play with those kid toys over there.
You know, he wasn't he wasn't a 12-year-old boy outside, you know, playing, shooting hoops and running around and you know, poking girls, and you know, you know, at least that's what I did.
But the he he was he liked to play with little little kid toys.
And he um really liked sometimes a little too much, but something really liked physical touch and being like, hi Brennan, how are you?
Good man, how how are you?
But you know, and at first I I didn't know how I was gonna do it.
I never worked with someone who had something like that.
And it it uh at first I was like, you need to follow the rules.
You know, I'm the first one, I'm the firstborn too, so I'm the firstborn son.
You you gotta follow the rules now.
Large?
Yeah.
Um but and and as I learned, I'm like, that one, it doesn't get to him, and two, like, it makes him scared.
It made him scared, and it made him like a shell of himself.
I'm like, let's try something else.
And so the kids were like, Where's Avan?
How he's playing over there.
Why isn't he here?
He's gonna do his own thing, guys.
And it was like just kind of you know, let him go to the most I can.
And uh that really taught me, God really taught me in that season, gentleness and me in that sense of.
I don't know if I was strong and I don't think I was under control, but uh uh that it was still uh a way to be gentle.
My God mates us where we are, and you met him where he was.
Well, and and other people meet, you know, me where I'm at.
And then my, you know, I I Lord willing, I'm gonna look back, you know, when I'm you know 35 and look back when I'm 27 now, like look at look at this idiot, you know, and like but yet someone or someone met with me then and saw me then, and um we're there just as Christ has done for for all of us.
But uh but yeah, that that the definition of strength under control.
Because strength without or not under control is is the harshness and the tearing down and and destroying relationships.
Well, and it's it's also the pride.
Yeah, pride leads into that, right?
Right, which is why I think Paul ties in humility and gentleness together.
Right.
And you say pride.
I mean, that's the thing about this too, is that we learn that grace leaves no room for pride.
Yeah.
That's one other thing that we have to remember is that it's by God's grace.
So that no one may boast.
Um so we're we're this this calling, we're called to walk in a manner that is that is um worthy of this calling that God has so graciously brought us into.
And then verses four through six, we get a little bit more uh fleshed out from Ephesians 1, some more of the Trinitarian type language here.
Um there is one body and one spirit.
The word one is used seven times just in these just in these three verses.
Three, uh, in reference to uh God the Father, Son, and Spirit.
Um, and four, and other things of basically the the measures of grace on which God has given us.
One body, one baptism, this unity.
That we have through the Spirit, just as we were called to the hope that belongs, to your call.
One Lord, one faith, one baptism.
Right, and I think of, when I think of our faith in Christ and our baptism into Christ, I think of Romans 6.
Paul starts out Romans 6, what shall we say then?
Shall we go on sinning that grace may abound?
By no means.
He talks about how we were, you know, been in the death and a resurrection like his, and also a baptism.
We have been baptized into Christ.
And then one God and Father of all, who is over all, through all, in all.
And I think that encompasses everything.
Everything.
I think that encompasses everything.
You have any thoughts on those?
One body, that's Christ, the uniting, being united with Christ through the one spirit, through.
Well, and I think that's why he gives later on speaks into verse 15 of chapter 4.
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 makes the body grow.
So a great picture of the Trinity, I think, here as well.
But therefore it is when it there it says in verse 7, but grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.
What does that mean?
Any any any insights on that?
Well, think of the parable of the talents.
One's given, I think, five, one's given two, one's given one.
And just because someone may have less less talents, like the one who's given two, well, that person still had to be a good steward of what he was supposed to do with it.
And he was a good steward.
Yeah.
Um, even the if you want to call it interest that he had may not have been as great as the one that had five, but he still did what he did ultimately for the glory of God.
Yeah.
I've taught spiritual gifts for years.
And each one of us has been given a major gift.
Given a whole bunch of gifts, most of us, but there's always those prime ones, which is it's totally different between me and somebody else.
But I am to use those gifts.
I remember I was teaching in someplace, way too many churches, uh, that the guy was trying to do everything.
And I got to talking with him about his spiritual gifts, and he realized that I'm not very good at those things, like I am.
There's certain things I will not touch because those are not my gifts.
And you know, I purposely stay away from them because I'm not good at them, and so I don't want to interfere, but I know my strength, and I'm gonna operate in my strength.
Yeah, you guys know uh Ron Shagnan sits in the back.
Um when I think of you know the spiritual gifts and things, he is someone who um just I think gives a lot of insight into my life.
I mean he he and I meet every week and we we we grab we grab lunch and uh well kind of a kind of a linner, and it's like four o'clock.
But um he has it is clear to me the the the the the spiritual gift and the desire to disciple young men.
Um he knows that and I have the inclination more to go and evangelize and share the gospel with the lost.
And I'm I don't think I have the wisdom or the insight to speak with a guy or a person one-on-one and be able to be like, you know, be able to disciple them like Ron does.
But exactly right.
We in and Ron's like, I'm not, I'm not uh I'm not a guy who's gonna go and you know preach on the corner of the street type deal.
Uh he's just not, he's like, I want to build a relationship with this person and and uh and disciple them one-on-one, and that's just his passion.
And um it's clear that the Lord is at work with him because that is a spiritual gift that he's been that he's been given in each to our gifts, uh, yet we are called to exercise them in fa in faith and trust that the Lord's gonna work through them.
And he kind of elaborates on that, but yeah, go ahead.
Um but yeah, therefore, so verse 7, but was but grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.
Therefore it says, when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.
Um that's quoted, I think, Psalm 68, I believe.
I don't know if anyone can can I think I think that's what it was.
68.
I think it's Psalm 6818.
What does that say?
It's it says it a little bit different than it says you ascended on high, leading a host of captives in your train, and receiving gift among uh gifts among men, even among the rebellious, that the Lord God may dwell there.
Can you say that again?
You ascended on high, leading a host of captives in your train, and receiving gifts among men, and even among the rebellious, that the Lord God may dwell there.
That the Lord God may dwell there.
Even among the rebellious.
I guess that's us.
Common drop of grace.
Well, the common the idea of common grace is there.
The thing about spiritual gifts though, they're not for you.
They're for that's why everybody has them, because we need one another to the gifts that you've given, they've been given, is your ability to reach someone else.
Well, we'll Travis, you're getting ahead of me, man.
Come on, you're getting ahead.
You're rushing, you're getting ahead in the lesson.
Verse 11, right?
Yeah, and he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and the teachers.
Why?
To equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.
So he did his homework.
Travis did do his homework.
Yes.
I was gonna say he's a teacher, Travis is a teacher's pet.
Um sometimes it's hard to know what your gifts are.
Yeah.
And sometimes other people see it when you don't.
Yeah.
And sometimes we think we have a gift and we really don't.
Yeah.
That's what I was talking about with this one.
What do you what do you think that is?
When you when we think we have a gift but we don't, is that just I guess it's a pride thing?
I don't know.
It could be pride, but it could be desire.
It's a desire to help and I wish I had that gift.
I'm gonna pretend that I do, but I don't know.
I wish I had the gift.
Fake it till you make it type of gift for being.
Yeah, I wish I had the gift of evangelism.
Yeah, yeah.
You know, because I would love to reach my daughter, you know.
Julie says a lot, oh I don't, I'm not good at that.
And she is.
And I have to tell her, you can't encourage her.
Yeah, yeah.
Is that just you getting your brownie points as well?
I guess it can't.
Well, actually, the gifts are not are not permanent, they they do change.
I agree.
But I'm I'm teaching them, but you know, my three top gifts never have never changed, but the others have.
And uh I sometimes I'm very effective at these things.
If I try doing it again, I probably won't be uh noticed that's different gifts at different times as he needs me to use them.
I I think Travis, I don't know if you have thoughts teaching us, like I've been in churches many times, I like to give people those shapes, those gift tests, you know, those top three.
But but I think and this is more just personal experience, like when I take, I look at those things, like like my top and it's never like you know, like mercy, it's never like generosity when I do this.
However, I find God also teaches you just like when you work in the church.
I I find like when the more I practice being being merciful, God develops mercy in you.
The more I practice being generous, like like we grow in these things.
And I think um, you know, when he tells us, because I I think often it it's been missing, at least someone in my church background, like like, yes, we're given these things to equip the body, but he tells everybody here walk with humility, gentleness, and patience and bearing one another in love.
That's not for everybody who's just been equipped to serve or have mercy or to be generous, like that's you know, that's everybody.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's not just for the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and the teachers.
It's for us, it's for the laity, it's for the layers.
We're all to love.
But notice too how the focus of this, the focus isn't, Paul's focus isn't necessarily outwardly, but it's inwardly.
To equip the saints for the work of ministry.
Right.
For building up the body of Christ.
And and of course we know, which is, you know, and then we go out for the, you know, as it says the work of ministry.
But but first for this is for us.
This is a gift to us.
Uh uh just one of the many graces that God gives us is the you know, the the the pastors and the and the and the elders and the deacons and teachers, and and the and the volunteers, and you know, the the the Sunday school leaders, you know, the freak for kiddos and things.
And it's like they were gifted these things by God for the building up of the body in Christ.
Um and it's and it's when it and I think when a church does it well, when you when you start seeing people's gifts being brought to light and being put into motion in the church, that's when um uh I guess you could say the church can become can become dangerous uh in the world uh or to the world.
And it's uh uh it's a it's a very strong, healthy body.
And I think this church is good at it.
I think so.
Yeah, I'd like I'd like to think so.
Any church that is healthy is full of people with their using their gifts.
Yeah, and we're not all the same, unfortunately, because you're reaching different people.
There's certain people I can relate to that you can't relate to, but I can't.
I've started uh I've been doing a lot of reading on Islam recently for a handful of reasons.
Part of it is that I think there's more folks in our areas uh in Davidson and Wilson County that believe in Islam than we think.
And I've been um reading a book about like the history of the wars, um, but then also um picked up a book thanks to Alan and Longos, that bookstore, which again, oh my gosh.
Um come check it out.
Yeah, please, please, yeah, bring your checkbook and let me know what you find.
Um the but I found a book there on just like learning how to connect with with Muslims and those within that community.
And hopes that there'll be times when I get to engage with those folks and I know and I'm prepared and I'm ready.
Um but even even then and just trying to, you know, like I know I I know there's like an Islamic center right there in the city, I think on that uh far south.
Right next to another PCA church just down the street, Midtown.
It's like, why don't I go say hey?
Why don't I go say hello?
Um but all of this, whether it's stuff, you know, it it's all for the building up of Christ's church, and then in verse 13, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God.
In other words, to mature manhood.
Manhood, humanhood, uh to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
What do you think that last phrase means?
Uh that's that's the one that sticks out to me.
Mature manhood?
No, to the to no to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
Well, I think helping uh understanding what mature manhood is, and one reference is Hebrews 5.14 when it comes to mature manhood, but solid food is for the mature.
For those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
So to be a full-grown man is a man who has grown, or woman has grown in their ability to discern good from evil.
That's one aspect and right doctrine.
And it says in 14, yeah, good and bad doctrine.
Well, and that's what that's what chapter 6 I think starts.
Right started with you know you know the teaching of of sound doctrine is that we are no longer children, tossed and tossed to and fro by the waves.
Um I think this is a measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ is that's our sanctification.
We're yeah, we're becoming more like Christ as we grow.
Yeah.
And then you know, glorification, and that is at full consummation.
We just got done wrapping up teaching that in uh in uh youth group.
So now we're going to the fruits of the Spirit.
So should start that this week should be good.
Um yeah, all of this is for the equipping of the saints, for the building up of the body of Christ, um, that we would continue on this pilgrimage, this pilgrims process, if you will, um, of uh mature manhood into the measure and stature of the fullness of Christ.
And then I read verse 14, and then verse 14, so that we're not no longer to be children tossed to and fro by the waves, carried into every wind of doctrine, human cunning, craftiness, and deceitful schemes.
I I have a um I have a friend who I know through work, and he goes to a church in Brentwood that is known as a cult.
It's not really a church.
Yes, he goes to Remnant Fellowship.
He grew up there.
Um his dad is like a I guess I don't know if they would call it deacon or a board member or something.
And he's one as well.
He's been going there for 20-something years.
He's in his 30s, he's got a wife, three kids.
And we were chatting, and I didn't know I don't know much about Remnant.
I've I've heard stories, I know that there's a thing, I think there's like a documentary on them.
Um so it's Win Shamlin Jordan.
Yeah, yes.
That's more of an expose, I think.
Is it?
That's I never saw it, but I heard about it.
Yeah.
And we were having lunch and we were talking, and it was just like, yeah, you know.
Because I met I he said remnant, and I was like, Oh, I think I've heard about that church.
It's like, yeah, some people don't like us because we have that, or or I think something, uh what did he say?
Because we we have a woman pastor, and you know, yeah, some people don't like us that we because we don't believe in the Trinity.
And I was like, oh.
That is a big deal.
And I told him, I and I said, I remember sitting there, I was like, yeah, it's a big deal.
It's kind of a big deal.
Uh and and he was like, he just kind of went like this, and and that was the first time we talked about it.
So what do they believe in if they don't believe in the Trinity?
I think I think it's a more of a of a Mormon type view, where where the father's Arian Yeah, very version, different version of Arian, isn't it?
Yeah, where the father, son, and spirit are are three, not not one essence, but three distinct essences.
And um, as a Mormon told me on a on a plane, uh, that they are only one in purpose, that they have the same goals.
Sort of deal.
Polytheistic, in a way.
Kind of.
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean they I mean they're claiming to, you know, in reality to believe in three different gods, in their in their view, right?
That church started out as the way down workshop.
It did, yeah.
I've worked with Gwen for about at a place that I worked.
She came as a client and we edited the series, the Way Down Workshop series.
I worked with her directly on that series, but this is kind of before the church had really gotten started.
She's a nice person.
Um, and it was an effective program.
A lot of people lost weight because of that, because it was God-centered, you know.
Um, but then all that stuff happened.
I'm like, whoa.
But she's she's a little, or she's dead now.
So she she passed in the plane crash.
Yeah, there were like five people from five leaders in the church were in a plane crash, and they all got killed.
Wasn't that in Percy Priest?
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, so five, yeah, five years ago.
But he goes to the factory in Benton, Iowa, and uh where I was the plant manager and my chief engineer was a Mormon.
Yeah.
And we continue to try to convert each other.
Well, I'm glad I'm glad he didn't convert successful, but I was born and raised in Iowa.
Benton is the popcorn capital of the world.
How does that relate to Mormonism?
Well, pop Mormonism is heresy, but eating popcorn is good.
Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.
It is I don't know if you know it, but Angel Studios is owned by three three Mormonists.
Yeah, right.
Yeah, Mormons.
Which was my my daughter's boss for three years.
Yeah.
Well, and I and I but this this idea of just whether it's Mormonism or just like I see it, or you know, in or just any type of distortion of the gospel.
Um and because we are all created to be worshiped, or not hold on.
Let me let me back.
Let me all create.
We are all created to worship.
Um it was uh Louis Burkhoff in his Manual of Christian Doctrine.
It's a great, it's a great little book.
And the first this first sentence is that man is incurably religious.
Which I I love that word.
I love that adjective.
We are incurably religious.
We can't help but worship.
And so we can't something.
Yes, we can't help but worship.
Even secular humanists, they're not.
Yes, they worship something.
They're not all their secular.
Whatever it is.
We all have a whole thing.
We all worship something.
We are incurably worship beings.
Idol factory.
And so the and I like I have a friend who, you know, goes to one of these, you know, a friend and his wife, and you know, their their baby number two is coming soon, and they go to you know to one of these churches where it's it's all you know, pomp and circumstance.
It's the dog and pony show, and you know, um we don't forget the fog.
Yes, no, it's it's the fog, it's the loud music, it's the sermon, is a is a TED talk from a guy who has no seminary experience or no training.
Um he's just kind of a charismatic leader.
And you know, that's church to them.
And it we I think even within and I think if we were honest, we you know, there's probably people even within our midst that maybe go to and fro, I and go to and fro from From doctrine to things, or or are we and we ourselves may even be too easily led into the craftiness of deceitful schemes from from other people, from heck, even our own hearts, from the devil.
And we have to protect ourselves, as we'll get to later on in Ephesians 6.
But especially in verse 11, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.
Yeah.
As he mentions there.
Yeah, but this, all of this, you know, again, specifically with Ephesians, these few verses, all of the gifts that God has given each of us, you know, the gift of, you know, whether it's prophecy or the, you know, for what he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangels, the shepherds and teachers to equip us, in order that when these crafty, deceitful things come our way, that we aren't blown to and fro.
But that uh, as verse 15 says, that we are rooted, or going back actually to Ephesians 3, right, being rooted and grounded in love, and here rather speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head.
And we need that humility and meekness with patience to be able to speak the truth in love.
And we first do it to ourselves.
And then we have the uh we have the ability to and the call to do it to others.
The um so verses 15 and 16, built 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.
And when each part is working properly, um, that kind of puts a responsibility on us, doesn't it?
In some sort of way?
Or um or a call then to you know so that uh this body is working properly, right?
The call to you know uh to walk in this manner to maintain the unity.
I think of um I think it was I think it was uh I think I heard it first from Louis Giglio.
I think he's like a popular pastor in Atlanta somewhere.
Um there's a there's like a protein, I think it's called a glycoprotein in the body.
It's called laminin.
And laminin basically holds other molecules, binds other proteins together.
And um, well, what is it?
What does it say?
I want to get the term correctly.
But it's it's it's quite interesting uh because of how it kind of how it kind of looks.
It's a glycoprotein found in extracellular uh matrix of almost all of almost all tissues.
It acts as a viral as a it as a vital molecule or sorry, molecular glue that structurally bridges the inside of cells to other out to the outside world, playing an essential role in tissue development, cell adhesion, and cell processing.
Kind of shaped like a cross.
And that's the picture of the molecule.
How do you know that?
I've heard I thought and you know, uh to those who say that God does not have a sense of humor or he's leaving evidence for what can be known about him as playing.
And what's that called?
Laminan.
And um we are being bound, binded together, knit together as one body in Christ, for Christ, um, and through him.
And so um this unity that we have uh to each other in Christ, then I think I think the only response again is to seek to walk in this manner of humility and gentleness, of patience, of bearing with one another in love, of seeking peace as much as we can.
Umes on these, I mean we're we're about at time.
Um any other final notes or thoughts on these on these 16 verses that or anything else that kind of sticks out to anybody else before we before we close?
I can tell you funny which amount story.
Tell us after we close.
Because I w I want to hear it.
Oh yeah, my my ears want to be here.
Yeah.
Oh praying.
Yeah, let's let's pray.
Um, would you would you mind praying praying us out?
You you you can say no, it's okay.
If you if you want.
It's not one of my gifts, but I'll do it.
Thank you.
I appreciate it.
For this day, for our time together, for good teaching and good discussion, and and just pray that you'll be with each of us this week and um keep us safe and bless us all in Jesus' name.
Amen.