City Life Church San Diego
Welcome to the City Life Church Podcast, where faith meets action in the heart of Mt. Hope. We are a diverse family of God, united by Jesus, led by Scripture, and empowered by the Holy Spirit, we are committed to caring for both the spiritual and tangible needs of the lost and hurting. Through inspiring messages and practical lessons, we seek to equip and encourage you to live out God’s calling in everyday life. Join us as we grow in faith, serve our community, and share the hope of the Gospel with the world.
City Life Church San Diego
Ephesians 4:7-16 When the church becomes A PEST
Spiritual gifts aren't decorative accessories – they're functional tools designed to build and strengthen the body of Christ. In this powerful teaching on Ephesians 4:7-16, we explore how God's costly gift of salvation leads to each believer receiving unique abilities that serve a greater purpose than personal fulfillment.
The APEST framework (Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Shepherds, Teachers) isn't about establishing a hierarchy of impressive titles, but about recognizing the diverse ways God equips his people. Apostles pioneer new initiatives, prophets speak challenging truth with love, evangelists share good news with contagious joy, shepherds nurture and protect relationships, and teachers clarify knowledge for deeper understanding. The crucial insight? Each of these gifts exists "to equip the saints for the work of ministry" – not to create spiritual celebrities.
What makes this teaching particularly relevant is its challenge to modern church culture. We've often reduced Christianity to consumption rather than contribution, forgetting that every believer is gifted and called to active service. When each part functions properly, the church grows in maturity and unity, becoming protected against false teaching and division.
Whether you've been following Jesus for decades or just beginning your faith journey, discovering your spiritual gifts isn't optional – it's essential for the health of the entire body. The question isn't if you're gifted, but how you'll use what God has given you to equip others. Because when we operate as a unified body rather than isolated individuals, we truly become the family God designed us to be.
Christian, your unique gifts can strengthen the church and advance the kingdom in ways you might never have imagined.
Welcome to the City Life Church podcast. We hope it encourages you. If you'd like to learn more about City Life or our mission, connect with us online at citylifesandiegoorg. And. While podcasts and Sunday mornings are helpful, they are no substitute for deeper personal relationships in the church.
Speaker 2:I promise you I won't give it to you again after this today. I have no idea how we don't have security stepping up in here Like dudes. It's time that we put together a security team. Today. After the service today, we had someone a young lady in our church working in our food pantry that a guy came security team today. After the service today we had someone a young lady in our church working in our food pantry that a guy came in and groped her. Today I called the police. Um, they know what he looks like. We have his picture, but it's time that we have a security team.
Speaker 2:Can I get an amen starting today, so we will have a security team from now on in this church. That will always be strong individuals and a couple ladies that are probably pretty buff too. But like, from now on, that, never again. Like, my thing is I don't want you tackling dudes and punching them in the face at church, but what I want is I want them to come in and say these men care about these women and I better not mess with anybody. So that wasn't in my sermon. I'm supposed to be like hey, good job dads. Okay, good job Dang man. You know, and we did have some dudes in our church. I just want to say that we're like. We're like ready to to to find out what was going on and make sure that that everyone in here was protected, and so we had several men step up only the men who knew about it that were present.
Speaker 2:I'm going to have to get us back centered on Ephesians 4. Ephesians 4,7 through 16. And today I'm going to be talking about the body of Christ again, and the body of Christ is the church, and I know some of you guys feel a little bit like you're no good at some of the things that we value in the church, but also you can bench press something. You're going to be a perfect addition to the body of Christ in security. Okay, so we're in the book of Ephesians, chapter four.
Speaker 2:Now Ephesus was a church in Asia. How am I going to transition? I don't know. Ephesians, chapter four. Now Ephesus was a church in Asia. How am I going to transition? I don't know. The Asian church had many Romans, jewish people, native Asians, ex-roman military in retirement, and they were led in Ephesus by a young pastor whose name was Timothy and the church basically started in a super cool way.
Speaker 2:It was like people came to know Jesus and then they took all their magic spell books. They took all their books that was expensive, spell books that were being used for basically like Wicca you know what I'm saying and they burned them in the fire. This is not one of those like we're in the deep south, like, hey, let's burn Mark Twain's books, let's burn anything. No, no, no. These were people who said these are all the books on my show. They're worth so much money. And they threw them in the fire and said we want to follow Jesus.
Speaker 2:And that's what the Ephesus church was like, which is crazy, right, because that means that they would have been some crazy people, right. Like this church was made up of, uh, some interesting people like us. They're basically witches, it's like their names were like Dumbledore, right. And then they turn their lives over to God. They have the big bonfire, they burn the spell books, books worth like a ton of money, what would be thousands of dollars today. And then Paul asked them to be in unity Romans, non-romans, rich and poor, unified. It's no small task. It was really something that the world had never seen. People that fervently hated God suddenly were his biggest supporters. And you know what I got to say. People who used to hate God are amazing God supporters when they turn. And they had run hard against God and now they ran hard for God, right. But you've got to know there was always going to be a little bit of crazy left over right, and there is in here with your pastor too. I was the same way. I was crazy. Some of you were wild before Jesus. Now you are wild in the way that you follow Jesus. Right, can I get amen? I'm saying amen today, I don't know, thank you. So Paul encourages this diverse church not just to follow Jesus but to train other people to follow Jesus. Paul's not speaking hypothetically, this wasn't book smarts, this was real life Like this is what we do when we belong to Jesus.
Speaker 2:Paul was in prison. He couldn't come and help, he couldn't come preach to the crowds, he had so little to offer them. But he sent letters saying do your work, train up the church. But I tell you, friends, sometimes God uses the most powerless people to do the greatest things for his kingdom. And I just see a room full of warriors right now. And so that when you remember this is a room full of warriors, let's read through Ephesians 4, 7 through 16.
Speaker 2:Now, grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gifts. For it says, when he ascended on high, he took the captives captive, but he gave gifts to people. But what does he ascended mean, except that he also descended to the lower parts of the earth? The one who descended is also the one who ascended, for far above all the heavens to fill all things, and he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry. Now, I know like at least a half of you have been somehow involved in the Catholic church and when you hear saints you turn off, just know saints means Christians in the Bible. Whenever you see saints, that just means Christians.
Speaker 2:A Christian, anyone who belongs to Jesus, is a saint. The Bible calls us the priesthood of all believers. The Bible calls all Christian saints. Don't get that wrong. You either belong to Jesus or you don't belong to Jesus. You're either a saint or you're an enemy. That's what the Bible would say. So, and if you belong to Jesus, that means you, you, you, you, you. You are a gifted saint. You have the gift of God's Holy Spirit in you. Your gifts are given to you by Jesus, and that's why we call them gifts right. So verse 11,.
Speaker 2:And he himself gave some to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ. Until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God's son, growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ's fullness, then we will no longer be little children tossed by the waves, blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning, with cleverness in the techniques of lying, in the techniques of deceit, but speaking the truth in love. Let us grow in every way into him, who is the head, christ. From him, the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building itself up in love by the proper working of each individual part. That's God's word. Can we pray, father? I'm sure that person was not well that came in here, but, lord, you just know what that evokes in me.
Speaker 2:I pray that you would turn that person into a follower of you, god, I pray that you would help us as the body to act like it together. I pray that you would help us to know what our gifting is. And, god, I'd like to continue to pray, to thank you for the nonviolent protests in our city yesterday, that no one was hurt and that things seem to go well on both sides. But, god, I also do sense a divide in our country right now, this idea that we must hate each other, denigrate each other, oppose each other. Lord, I rarely see a posture of listening. I mostly just see us getting louder and louder on both sides. Father, as we fight for what's right, help us not to neglect the even more difficult task of fighting for unity as well. Help us to see humanity and dignity in those who are on the other side of the political aisle. Lord, I just see how both sides see each other as like Hitler right now, and I just know that that cannot last. God, what I see in this room is I see a united people in you that, no matter how much the world and the devil wants to pull us apart, we have unity in your son. Thank you for pulling us together this morning. Thank you for sending your son, that we might be saved, so we might be true family, so we might be fully unified by truth, so that we might not be pulled aside to bad doctrine and controversies. But would you just fill us up here, lord, and would you send us out? Would you teach us by your word this morning? May the words of my mouth and the thoughts of our hearts be pleasing to you. We pray this all in Jesus' name, and all God's people said amen.
Speaker 2:People love titles, like my wife loved the show on BBC called Downton Abbey, and that show had all the titles. Have you all heard of Downton Abbey? Probably at least half of you haven't. Yeah, I got one, thank you. Thank you, noah. It's a very like English show and basically it's some really super rich people and all the people who serve them. Okay, you have the count and the countess, not like vampires. You have the valet, not valet valet. You have the lord and the lady. You have the footman, you have the Earl, you have the Baron and my favorite is the dowager. Um, not only the actress who played the dowager, but just the name dowager is pretty cool. It's like the lady who controls the land for her deceased husband. Um, do you know who else loves titles Pastors.
Speaker 2:Oh man, we love titles. Um, you, you, you might meet somebody like anywhere, and they'll give you a business card and it says apostle. Some of those dudes have like apostle like on their shirts, like monogrammed, like they got it on their jackets. They got hats that say I'm an apostle. You got websites dedicated to them that they're apostles. Then you got evangelists Same thing. Evangelists go around with their title and it means way too much. And let me just say this Today is not about titles. Today is not about titles. Today is about function Deacons in our church, a lot of our deacons, basically all of them.
Speaker 2:When I approached our deacons I said, hey, how do you feel about being a deacon? They said I don't want that kind of power. And I was like good news, there is none you have the power to serve. And often being a deacon just means that we contact you first saying, hey, you want to serve somebody. But titles matter to people, don't they? Like you can be a janitor or you can be the president of of sanitation and maintenance operations. Um, have you ever seen anyone who was once named Colonel that wasn't like called Colonel the rest of their lives? I mean, we got a dude who opened up a fried chicken place, he was still called Colonel, even when he was selling fried chicken Colonel Sanders, by the way. Yeah, okay. So everyone wants to be the Colonel, everyone wants to be the manager. No one wants to be the assistant to the regional manager. They don't want that kind of title.
Speaker 2:Now, jt Inglis he sums it up well in his book, the Discipleship. He says the church is not meant to put talented people on stage, but gifted into service. And here's the most important part of that. And all are gifted, all Guys. When we are gifted, we are a gift to the community, not to ourselves. So this morning I'm going to give you three points on God-given gifts, and the first point is this the gifts of God are costly and free. The gifts of God are costly and free.
Speaker 2:In verse seven it says now grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. For it says when he ascended on high, he took the captives captive. He gave gifts to people. But what does he ascended mean, Except that he also descended to the lower parts of the earth? What does sent, what does descended into the parts of the earth mean? Anyone have an idea? No, not going to hell. That's close. Any other idea? Death, yeah, buried. Um, there might be someone who agrees with you theologically on that, but, um, uh, it's all right, I'm not, I'm not mad at you, I'm. I'm. I'm excited that somebody would actually speak up. So I appreciate you. Um, it's the grave. He descended into the grave. He went into the earth for us.
Speaker 2:Then, in verse 10, it says the one who descended is also the one who ascended far above all the heavens to fill all things. So Jesus died, came back to earth and eventually was lifted up into the heavens. So God gave gifts to his church and paid for it by descending into death, paying the price for us, his enemies, not because we deserve it, but because some of us, um, but not because some of us are more awesome than others. But it's a gift, a free gift. That's why it's called a gift. Right, it's only by his grace that we are strengthened in these ways that are being said. So one of the things that we have to be careful is not personality. This is not always personality. Some of you have gifts that are not your personality. That's something we have to be aware of. God's costly gift, though, of the cross. It's available to everyone who would accept it and to his family. He gives special abilities to unify, to serve, to train and protect others. Oh my gosh, protect others.
Speaker 2:The main section of our text that I'm going to concentrate today is on verse 11, the gifts given to the church. But we cannot ever let the gifts become our whole focus, can we? We cannot make a God out of the gifts that God gives us. We will always have to look to the giver above all else. The father gave up his son. The son gave up his life. The spirit gives us himself and his gifts.
Speaker 2:Now, as a parent who gives gifts and I am a parent who gives gifts let me just say this Our family is the worst family at gifts. Some of you guys will give me something that you heard me talk about 17 years ago and it's like autographed and like, and like me, I'm like hey, you want some? I got some like corn nuts over here. Like I don't have anything to give you. I'm not good at gifts. No one in our family is good at gifts. Um, that's kind of just like we're the worst at it. So if we don't give you an awesome gift, don't worry, we don't give us awesome gifts either.
Speaker 2:But, um, as a parent who gives gifts, you know sometimes you like to search for the right gift. First you like rack your brain Like what is that perfect gift? Then you run all over town and you go to five million different websites searching for the exact gift that you need for your kid. That's really the most expensive part of it. It might not even be expensive, but you're going to spend some time finding this right gift. Sometimes you even have to go to the mall around Christmas time and you go to Plaza Bonita and you park in national city. Oh, it is national city. You park like far away. You know what I mean. You park in Bonita, um, but the parking lot's always full. You have to hustle into shops and people are like trampling and knocking each other over to get the gift. Some guy like tries to stab you with a Trident, but you get the gift right, like that's what you do. Your car's broken into multiple times, but you get the gift.
Speaker 2:Finally, it's christmas morning, right? Kids open up the gift oh, thanks, and they put it over there. Nah, not in this house. You're gonna play with that toy right now. You're gonna use that gift. You're gonna just start reading that right now. I don't even know how to read it. It's the wrong language. Read it. I don't care if that shirt doesn't fit. Put it on right now. It'll stretch. It's too big for you, it'll shrink. Put it on. I fought to get that. You're going to enjoy it, because you know I got stabbed with a trident for that.
Speaker 2:As Christians, we recognize that we have received the gift of life. We don't open gifts like that, do we the gift of the redemption that we didn't deserve. We don't open it up and go cool. Thanks, what else you got? No, no, first Peter says, for you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life, inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb. See, jesus didn't spend all his money on us, though, did he? Jesus didn't trade in his stock options for our gift. No, it was far more costly than that.
Speaker 2:Blood is the most costly element, because it is our source of life. Without blood, we are empty shells, aren't we? We have nothing to power our hearts or our brains. We have nothing to keep our body pumping. Blood is everything, and we were bought by the blood of Christ, and we are a people who were experts at sin and we were selfish and we were sinners, but the Bible says that while we were enemies of God, he still died on our behalf. Jesus paid our debts with his blood, and that's the beauty, that's the good news that we look forward to, that we're grateful for that we want to share with people around us.
Speaker 2:God transferred us out of darkness into the kingdom of his beloved son, and now we belong to Jesus. And now he gives us gifts, and now he sends us out into the world with those gifts to use them. It's not the end when you get saved. It's not the end when you get baptized. It's the beginning, because he saved us and then gave us his spirit for the next season and, since our God is loving out of his sacrifice, he gave gifts to those who belong to him. And that's our second point.
Speaker 2:God gave special gifts so regular people might bring healing and help. God gave special gifts so regular people might bring healing and help. And if it helps you, even more so. Why don't I just say this for some of you who feel like yeah, yeah, yeah, regular people, not me. Let me say it again. Then God gave special gifts, so terrible people might bring healing and help. So there's no one outside of this. You think that you're awful. God gave you gifts so that you can follow him.
Speaker 2:Verse 11,. He himself gave some to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God's son, growing into maturity with stature measured by Christ's fullness. Guys, if there's any verse that I'm going to preach more often, it's going to be Ephesians 4. I'm going to keep preaching this for a long time because I forget. I forget sometimes to equip you for the work of ministry. I need to preach this to myself Now.
Speaker 2:This particular text, us pastors and others, we call it APEST. It's a pest because that's a shortened version of apostles, prophets, evangelists, teachers, shepherds, shepherds, teachers. Now it says that God made us into these things, gifted us into these things to help the church to do the work of Jesus in unity, so we can become all more like Jesus. Now we're going to look deeper into the meaning behind these gifts, but first I need to say these are not all the gifts. Okay, so this is not an exhaustive group of gifts. Okay, um, this is one way that the apostle Paul organizes the gifts a pest. But he points out God given gifts in many places in the Bible. Okay, these are just specific leadership gifts.
Speaker 2:Now, the first letter in Apest is A, and he himself gave some to be apostles. That word is apostello, apo, meaning separate, separate, so like separate from me, paul and Barnabas for the work is what the Bible would say. But then it says stello is sent. So those who are set aside and sent out, these are people we send out to start new things for the church. Some start new churches, new ministries. There are some who stay and there are some who go.
Speaker 2:Apostles go and start new things for the kingdom. They are often evangelists as well. I've noticed this. This is me saying this. Okay, not everyone is going to agree on this. Now, you may believe that there needs to be a new city group in your neighborhood. An apostle is the type of person who says, well, we don't have enough people for a city group in this neighborhood yet, so I'm going to start one with the idea of bringing new people into this city group. That may be someone who has an apostolic gift. If you start new things, you may be apostolic. Apostles sometimes start new churches, sometimes they stay in a church and they get ministry started.
Speaker 2:But here's what an apostle is, not People who just like to start stuff for the fun of it. They're never only entrepreneurs or like restless people. That's not. See, once again, we talk about human gifts versus spiritual gifts. When it's for you, this is a human, just like God has gifted you with the ability to be an entrepreneur. That's not necessarily an apostle, okay, that's not by the spirit. Um, the thing is they do these things for the power, uh, by the power of the spirit and the glory of God, and it's never for their glory. Um, now I want to talk to the apostles. In the room there's like, probably like three of you. Um, I think this is usually the smallest group.
Speaker 2:If you believe that you might be an apostle, um, you are an apostle to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ. See the word equip. Here is an important book, important word, excuse me. It's like mending together, like grafting together bones. So if we're talking about the body grafting bones together, that's a sign of healing. It's pretty cool. So like these jobs are so that the bones would be grafted together. These jobs are like mending of nets it means put together for completion. If you're an apostle, you do it for the mending and the equipping of the church. Okay, next is the P in APES profit Pro before fete speak bring to light.
Speaker 2:So Tim Katch Kim says the prophetic function is to bring things into our attention that we would rather ignore. Learning happens when the status quo is submitted to questions. We have prophets in our church. People say to me hey, I think our church needs this, but then they don't just like say that they help me figure it out and like I think our church needs this, but then they don't just like say that they help me figure it out and like I have meetings with people in this church that like, have so many great things to add and so many ways that we're going to be better because of them.
Speaker 2:If you're a prophet, you might also be speaking up on justice issues for the oppressed. And let me say this if you're a prophet, you should expect a hard time. If you are a prophet, you should expect a hard time, ain't. Nobody wants to be challenged, not when they're a regular human being. But let me ask you this what does the world do to prophets? Kill them, that's what. That's what happens to profit. It's always funny to me, and I would say my my mentor says this a lot, my mentor Larry. He says all you people out there that are like saying I'm a prophet, and then you get like really upset when people come at you. It's like you don't know what happens to prophets by now. Like we read the Bible, right, prophets get killed. Here's the thing. If you're a prophet, you should expect a hard time.
Speaker 2:Um now, what a prophet is not a jerk? People who only say things wrong with the church are not prophetic. If they are only about bad mouthing the bride of Christ, they aren't prophets. We have a word for that, right, it's jerk. Friends. If 50% of what you say is negative, no one's going to hear you anyway. Even if you say true things in a jerky way, no one's going to hear you anyway. Even if you say true things in a jerky way, no one will hear you. So work on how you say things and it will be hard to believe you are from God if all you have to say is negative.
Speaker 2:Prophets aren't people who say something completely new from God, always People who say they have a word from the Lord. They scare me till I get to know them. If you have a word from the Lord and you turn out to be wrong, we got a word for you as well. It's you're a false prophet. We've had people come around like this and and a lot of times we'll point out that, hey, what you just said contradicts the Bible. Those people always jet when they get challenged and a lot of times they take people with them. Now, if you have a word from the Lord and it contradicts the Bible full stop the Bible, full stop. The Bible says you are the spirit of the Antichrist. Wow, I don't really want to be called that. I don't know about you Guys, I'm so tired of undoing stuff that people say we're done in God's name. Just stop. Stop pretending. Like you got, like this perfect phone to God where he tells you all these new things. Like you can. You can actually just say old things.
Speaker 2:God said in a kind loving way when, when the Spanish inquisition said that God wanted them to convert Muslims to Christianity or else kill them. We know that's not from the Lord. It was gross, it was sin. It was. It was not prophecy, it was a brokenness.
Speaker 2:When you say that God wants you to leave your job, stop. Unless the job was asking you to sin, which maybe it could have been like I'm like, okay, I can get it. You worked at a strip joint and you God wants you to leave it. I got you. But sometimes you're like man, I just don't like this person in accounting. It's like, well, maybe that's not God, maybe that's not God telling you to leave your job. Stop, stop using him as an excuse. You know what you can say. I think I'd like to leave my job. It's okay to say that, like a lot of times, people ask me does God want me to have this job? And I always say to them I don't know, but I know how God wants you to be in that job. That's the difference. Okay, so let's stop.
Speaker 2:Let's stop pretending we're all prophets in a way that we say things that contradict God. So when you say so, when you say, let me see, I got a note here when you say God wants us to beat up and punish LGBTQ people because he hates them, full stop, you don't speak for God. You're a false prophet. We don't beat people up for God. That's not how it works. It's not prophecy that is a sinner looking upon someone else's sin and then sinning in response. It's not prophecy that is a sinner looking upon someone else's sin and then sinning in response. God wants all sinners to repent and he doesn't want us beating up people so they'll repent. Because it doesn't work that way. Friends, we don't throw God's word around.
Speaker 2:Prophets usually speak existing scriptures. The Bible says to encourage each other. That's what the Bible says. Sometimes prophet has to speak hard truth, but it's done with love and compassion. If you think you are a prophet, here are some phrases I want to hear coming out of your mouth. I think God might be. Hmm, okay, I don't know if this is from God, but I feel Okay, or maybe, or hey, does this sound like it could be God to you? Those kind of things I like that. I like that in a prophet, because they understand that while the word that you get from God is pure, it's going through a nasty filter. You me See those kinds of people that are good and safe. It's okay to think you hear something and then for us to test it together. The Bible says for us to do that. It's also okay to use the Bible to encourage people in a prophetic way. Those are words from God. We always know that the word of God is the word of God. Does that make sense? Don't play with God's name, though, okay, it's absolutely not safe. You're playing with fire.
Speaker 2:First Corinthians 14 says the person who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouragement and consolation. So when you're a prophet, are you doing those things? Is the question. Now, a historical example of a prophet would be like a Winston Churchill who was like yo, the Nazis, they are starting to do some bad stuff and everybody's like no, the problem is, while they were saying that he had insider information, he actually knew it was true. So that's a prophet. He knows what's true and he's speaking up. Now here's my my, what I'm going to say to you, prophets in the house. So whoever's a prophet in the house, here's my word for you. Your job is this to equip and mend the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ. That's your job, okay. Moving on to the E evangelist. So it means good messenger, okay.
Speaker 2:Basically, you would have like a king would send off his army and he would go with his army and he would lead them to war. And then there would be a the war. Let's say it was a good war. Somehow the evangelist would run back to the original home, would go back to the people of the king and say, hey, the war is won. That's what an evangelist was. He brought the good news to the people Someone after war, bringing news of a military victory.
Speaker 2:Evangelists are storytellers. They sometimes tell you about an awesome movie, don't they? I like a lot about Apple products sometimes, but I think Steve Jobs was an evangelist. I don't know if his products were any better, but he was an evangelist. Like he could take something that another company, like already created, do a good job with, he could share it with you, and like he could make you feel another company, like already created, do a good job with, he could share it with you, and like he could make you feel how amazing it was right, like, look at, see this computer. It's a computer but it's green. And you'd be like man, steve Jobs, I believe you, I'm buying that green computer. Be like it's a phone but smaller. And then the next year he's like but bigger. Be like it's a phone, but smaller. And then the next year he's like, but bigger. And you're like wow, he was an evangelist, he believed it, or was so good at pretending that he was able to convince us guys, take all my money, but a Christian evangelist, a Christian evangelist empowered by the spirit, is going to tell you about our awesome God.
Speaker 2:They also will understand how the love of Christ specifically fits in a conversation and they absolutely smoke what they sell. An evangelist has their heart filled with the joy of the Lord and it spills into every single conversation. Joy bubbles over with an evangelist. Everyone shares good news, don't they? But an evangelist has a way of making it plain. They have a't they? But an evangelist has a way of making it plain. They have a way of making it relevant. They have a way of making it exciting. Why? Because it's exciting to them and they understand that God doesn't want us to spend all our time with Christians only. The gospel just comes out of an evangelist's pores. The saving grace of Jesus is often on their mind. They are always excited to see someone new come to know Jesus and they love baptisms.
Speaker 2:An evangelist has a sense of urgency for those around them. They see friends, family members, coworkers, and they see that they're going to hell and they are distraught over it and they want to share good news. They want to share the good news that Jesus died for them and is presently pursuing them. That is good news. The king has won. An evangelist is Jesus' gift of light to those who work in the dark, those who live in the dark.
Speaker 2:Now. If you believe you are an evangelist, I just want to talk to you now. Your job is to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ. That's a surprise. Right. Like you, you don't only share the gospel. You take others along to share the gospel. If you are not one, you probably need to hang out with evangelists anyway and learn from them. Michael Day, jose Diaz, elizabeth Mercado. Learn from them. Michael Day, jose Diaz, elizabeth Mercado. Karen Reyes, you are evangelists. I see evangelists in you. You share good news and people are giving their lives to Jesus because of you. I'm proud of you. You're using the spirit of God to share your joy with others.
Speaker 2:Now on to the S in our apest, shepherd poyman, someone who protects and provides Shepherds feed, and they protect the sheep. Jesus tells of a shepherd in Luke 15. What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the 99 in the open country and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? In Psalm 23,. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want he makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his namesake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for you are with me, your rod and your staff. They comfort me. A shepherd has a rod and a staff. The rod is used to protect against skeezy dudes who try to come in this building and hurt people. The staff is one that's trying to just keep the people that we already know and love safe.
Speaker 2:Some of you in the room are shepherds. You call people, you check in, you bring meals to people, you text, you hug. If someone is missing, you chase after them. I see this in Danielle and Ruben and Peter and Irene, and I believe this is one of our church's top giftings. There's a lot of you in the room that are like this. There's a lot of you. Now. Here's my one caution for shepherds. Sometimes this there's a lot of you. Now here's my one caution for shepherds. Sometimes you worry about those people who are suffering so much that you will burn yourself out. Make sure you spend time with lots of people who encourage you and make sure you don't only focus on the sheep. You know there are sheep you don't know yet that God is calling. Another caution if the people are being fed and they are safe, then a shepherd will sometimes not move the sheep forward. That can be dangerous.
Speaker 2:Shepherds need evangelists to help them see people beyond the church. And guess what Evangelists need shepherds? Sometimes an evangelist will look past the people in front of them and they need a shepherd to be like yo look in front of you. It's a team, right? This is what I'm learning about shepherds. Some of you guys shepherd until you burn out, though.
Speaker 2:Now I was this week in Dallas, texas, which I know nobody goes there on purpose. So I was in Dallas and, like their barbecue was not even as good as Kansas, but okay. But I was with this lady named Missy. I heard some people all mad whatever, memphis is even better than that. So I heard I was with this lady named Missy branch, and and and she said something that encouraged me so much, and I want to say this to those of you who see yourself as shepherds in the room Missy branch is a shepherd with my Boulevard.
Speaker 2:She planted a church with her husband, deuce, in Philly. Basically, there was a time in her church when there was like 20 single women who needed to be discipled, encouraged, taught, and she felt overwhelmed and she didn't know how to care for them and bring them into her home because it was just too dang much work. You know what she did. She invited them into her home and she discipled like 20 girls over the next like five years. But you know how she did it. She had them fold laundry whenever they were over. She had them help cook whenever they were over. She had them help clean and do the dishes when they were over, and I just tell you she was shepherding well.
Speaker 2:And so for those of you who find yourself getting burned out at having people in your house, it's time for a new level of intimacy, I believe, for all of us to start saying, if we're going to have people over our house more often, we need to actually like put them to work in our house too, so that we're not cleaning up late into the night after they leave. So for those of you who see yourself as a shepherd and you see yourself burning out, it's time to start requiring more of the people you shepherd when they come over. So I don't want you to burn out, I want you to welcome people in a family, and you know what we do in a family. We pitch in. So and then, for those of you who want to be discipled and mentored by other families, for those of you who want to go be with leaders and have them help you move further along, offer to do those things. Offer to do those things. Not only do you help them, but you may. Then you may be more willing to go to their house because you won't feel guilty anymore. Okay, just a thought.
Speaker 2:Now the T in APES teacher die to separate, to point out daskalos. Teachers point out already existing information. They can look at everything, they can codify it, they can create systems out of it. I think some of our many teachers in the room are Tirza, alexander, mark Santos, jordan, francis, and when I think of codifying something, I think of Isaiah every time he's like I like spreadsheets. Calm down Now, as we continue to help raise up disciples, we will be teaching even more classes.
Speaker 2:We'll be teaching more foundations classes. We'll be teaching all kinds of topics to help our people reach maturity, but not without teachers. Likely we will have to move to two services at some point. Like I'll just let you know, one of our smallest days is Father's Day. It's not that small, there's not like a lot of room in here. We're going to probably have to move to two services one day and you know what's going to happen during some of those services Someone else will be teaching in another place while I'm preaching.
Speaker 2:I cannot do that. You have to rely upon the great many teachers in this room that can bless you. It's a beautiful thing that we have teachers. We will have to rely upon them. But here's the thing A teacher is Jesus' gift to the church and if you believe you are a teacher, you are here to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ. You're tired of me? I know Now Indian theologian, dr Itichery Nenon. He says this about the APES leader. He says their task is not to train a professional class of church leaders. It is equipped everybody to serve and to participate in the holistic mission of the church. The task of a church leader is to proclaim Christ and equip Christ's people for service by providing teaching, encouragement and training.
Speaker 2:When all these gifts are used, guys, as critiques, it's not a blessing, it's a curse. We use these gifts to bless others. When these folks get lazy in the gifts, it's not a blessing, it's a curse. Use the gifts. Don't sit on the sidelines, even if you've only been a believer for five minutes. Use your gifts you can. When we use all these gifts to make a Sunday service only to, that is also a waste. We get to use our gifts all the time, not just on Sundays. It's a joy to use our gifts all the time. When these folks use their gifts to help others do the work of ministry, that's when we have something special. We get to use our gifts all the time, and when the gifts are used for others, it's great.
Speaker 2:Now Dr Tony Evans says this. Dr Tony Evans says this, not me. Dr Tony Evans says this. Dr Tony Evans says this. It's not me, dr Tony Evans. Yeah, gotcha, some people attend church only for their own benefit. But that's not what being a church member looks like. That's called being a leech. But that's not what being a church member looks like. That's called being a leech. There's a hide for the tomatoes. God saved and equipped you for the work of ministry, the work of service. Why? To build up the body. If you have a Lone Ranger personality, you will be a feeble saint and the body will suffer for it. The words of Pastor Tony Evans.
Speaker 2:Now, these impactful gifts are limited, right, everyone is gifted differently and sometimes the church will need your help in areas that will not be even your top gift, and you will have to trust the Holy Spirit to help you. No one has all the gifts consistently. God likes it this way because then we have to depend on each other. The thing is there's only one man in the Bible who perfectly had all these gifts. Yeah, his name is Jesus Christian. You're not Jesus, even though his spirit lives in you. But when we use our gifts in concert with each other, we become united like a body and the Bible tells us, calls us, the body of Christ.
Speaker 2:This is our third point. The spirit unites and protects our gifting in the church. The spirit unites and protects our gifting in the church. I don't throw a lot of information at you. That's why I preach it every year, almost Verse 15. From him, the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building itself up in love by the proper working of each individual part. See when the church is doing our job rightly. We will be unified, our understanding of God will be rooted in the Bible and we'll support each other. It will take all of these gifts to protect us from false teaching. But we also need these gifts for us to grow into unity, and you know there's a lot of false teaching out there. This is why we're trying to train you more and more, so you can't as easily fall for stuff that sounds good on TikTok or Instagram, because there are things that sound good on TikTok and Instagram. But God gives his family special abilities to serve, train and protect others, and he does it so that one day we cannot be so easily fooled and we can become fully unified as the body of Christ.
Speaker 2:Now, kids, it says kids. It's kind of funny, it kind of throws kids under the bus here. It says like little kids, they're still learning. But when a pest happens, the Bible says we will no longer be little children. Now I have kids over at my house all the time and the question often becomes like who do you like this week? Like they just changed, like what boy are you interested in this week? It's just things change really quick at that age. But I'm not dogging on kids.
Speaker 2:Like Jesus says, we have to have faith like kids if we want to belong to the kingdom of God. But we have to find our unity in Christ so that we won't be deceived so easily, tossed by the waves blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning, by cleverness, by techniques, by deceit. The thing is we have to hold tight to each other if we want to overcome these things. I hope one day everything that happens on Sunday has someone else planning it, because we'll be stronger that day. That is not me, that is Apis, but that's the start. Do you know what my prayer is? My prayer is that we train and make each other strong in our faith so we can spend far more energy outside of Sunday mornings to bless our community, to share the gospel and to bless each other, because we've been given a costly gift, the greatest gift in the world, and it should be shared. The God's costly gift of the cross is available to everyone. He gives his family special abilities to serve and protect others. So one day we cannot be easily fooled.
Speaker 2:Church is meant to be family, guys, but it doesn't always work. We failed so many people. I remember watching the NFL commercials right after the Chargers left town and it was talking about how football is family. Does anyone remember that? Remember how you felt Like you were like man. That is the biggest low. Oh, I can't say that, but I was mad because I heard somebody saying something and doing something else. I'm going to say this Church is family, but we're going to screw up a lot and we're going to screw you up and we're just trying our best and I would say continue in, because if you're like I felt about the Char, but I can't fix the NFL and I can't buy an NFL team with my salary, unless you guys want to. You know, figure something out. But I can change the church as one person. You can change the church as one person for the positive. When it comes to church, you can see us as hypocrites or you can be the church that you want us to be. The more people come to Jesus, the more messed up we're going to be, but it's going to be awesome. Okay, I'll close with this.
Speaker 2:I want to end with a couple of things. Number one if you think our church is beautiful, I hope you make a priority of showing up consistently and helping out. I hope you make a priority of using your gifts and equipping others for the work of ministry, not just on Sunday. And I'll say this the last time I preached this text was in the very beginning of 2003, 2023. It was right after I'd gone to my doctor because I had some really bad headaches and the doctor said I had something called stage three hypertension. My blood pressure was 170 over 120 and it was bad. And they said you're this close to being checked into a hospital.
Speaker 2:But since then I've seen so many more of you step up in leadership. You've cared for each other in new ways. We have leaders in many areas of our church that I don't touch. It's amazing. I love it when somebody calls me and says, hey, what are we doing for this thing? And I'm like I have no idea. You should talk to that person. That's a beautiful thing. We're a better church. Today because of you, our church has grown by 30% this year.
Speaker 2:Just Sunday numbers, I don't see a slowing down and as of now, we are baptizing eight people on June 29th and we have several more interested in being baptized. You don't think that's going to change the nature of this church. It's not going to slow down and some of you are going to have to step up in your gifting, even if you've been here for just a minute, because you were never meant to just receive. You were meant to use your gifts for others. God is going to use some of you who've been believers for five minutes in humongous ways. And so I say to you, if you feel like God is calling you to more, then I ask that you would pray about it. If you feel like God is calling you to himself for the first time, I ask you, let us know, let us pray for you, let us baptize you.
Speaker 2:But I think many of you now have stepped up and said I want to, I want to be baptized, I want to follow Jesus and I think now it's good to know where is he gifting you, where is the Holy Spirit uniquely working in you for for the mending of the church, for the grafting, the unity of the church, because getting saved is the front page man. There is so much more God wants to do with you. So I say the City Life Church and guests, god's costly gift of the cross is available to everyone. Today, and when we repent and we give him our lives, we become family, real family, not football family, but not just family to him, but to each other. And God gives his family special abilities to serve, to train, to protect. So one day we cannot be so easily fooled by fake prophets and then we can become fully unified as the body of Jesus.
Speaker 2:Let's pray together, friends.
Speaker 2:Father, we thank you for drawing us together. I thank you for the love that you have for us, the compassion and kindness you have for us when we, um, when we have been dividers and we have been haters, we've oversimplified the mission at times, and at times we've made it more about us than you or anyone else. God, we apologize and in this moment of silence in our hearts we confess our sins to you. Father. Thank you that you are good to forgive us. Thank you that when we truly repent and we belong to you, that as far as the east is from the west, so our sin is from your sight. That when you look upon us. You see the righteousness of your son, jesus. Oh, that's good news, because we've done a lot of bad stuff. Not only have we done bad things, but we've not done the good things. And still you accept us into your home, not as enemies, not as prisoners, not as servants, but as family. We are grateful for you, we love you and we pray this all in Jesus name, amen this all in Jesus' name.
Speaker 3:Amen, amen, thank God. For Pastor, do I thank God that he's given us gifts that we can use for the benefit of the church, and so I pray. I know that I was affected by the sermon, so I pray the same for you. We've now reached the part of our service we call communion. So practically what communion is is where we take a piece of bread and we dip it in the cup. We have gluten-free bread here, and then we have pre-packaged elements here on the left-hand side. And so the reason we take communion is as a remembrance.
Speaker 3:When Jesus was betrayed, he sat with his disciple for a final meal, and he took a piece of bread and he broke it and he said this is my body which is broken for you. And every time we eat up this bread, remember, uh, what, what christ did on the cross for us. And in the same way, he took a cup, a cup filled with wine. He said this is my blood that's shed, uh, for the forgiveness of your sin. And so, um, if you have given your life to to christ, um, if you call yourself a believer, um, we're going to partake in communion today, and the table is open.
Speaker 5:Also, during this next song, we're going to be taking the offering. The offering is something that we do as an act of worship, out of joy and thankfulness for all that the Lord has given to us. Please don't feel any pressure to give, but if you would like to participate in the offering, you can do that by placing it in one of the boxes near the doors or by giving online at citylifesandiegoorg slash give.
Speaker 6:Light of the world, you step down into darkness. Open my eyes, let me see Beauty that made my eyes, let me see beauty that made this heart adore you hope of a life spent with you. Here I am to worship, here I am to bow down, here I am to say that you're my God. You're altogether lovely, Altogether worthy. You're all together, all together, all together, folks. Eterno Rey exaltado en humildad por amor, vengo a adorarte, vengo a postrarme, vengo a decir que eres mi Dios. I'm here, here I am to worship, here I am to bow down, here I am to say that you're my God.
Speaker 2:You're altogether lovely altogether worthy, altogether willingness to be here on this day. It is a special day and I believe that there are going to be some of you who are going to take what the Bible says today and you're going to respond Doesn't matter what I said, what does the Bible say. That's what's important here today, and I think some of you are have been waiting for this moment to say I want, I want to do more. We have the connect cards that you can fill out, that are available kind of like everywhere around. We can get you connected so that you can do more. And I also just want to say to you men, don't forget this moment. Men, like some of you, men and strong women, some of you need to help us with security and I hope that you'll step up. I need a man who's going to lead this and is going to like contact the other dudes, make sure there's always security in this church building. I really hope some of you step up to that, because that was a little bit of an eye opener today, wasn't it? Our women should feel safer here than anywhere else in the world, so I hope that you men will step up in that way. Also, if you are interested in being baptized. Please let us know If you've talked to us but you've not filled out a form. Can you fill out the form for us, just so we have you? We've already got some of you on that form, but we know there's a lot of you wanting to be baptized and we want to tell the world that you belong to Jesus now and you can do that by being baptized. Also, I'll say this what a great day, church, to go and support your new family by going there, bringing a Frisbee, bringing a chair, bringing some food and hanging out while somebody gets baptized. Make a day of it on the 29th. Also, the 26th we'll have a meeting here because Mount Hope needs a rec center and we have a meeting on the 26th here for a new rec center, and so I hope you'll consider going to that.
Speaker 2:If I can give you the benediction, that would be great If I have it somewhere in front of me. There it is. That's not it. Here it is. As we depart this day, may God's Holy Spirit break the bondage of sin which so easily hinders us on our journey. May we forgive one another, confess our sins to each other and make disciples. As the world watches, our holy unity. May the Father's face shine upon us as we shine his light toward friends and foes alike. Let us go without fear, covered by the blood of the Lamb, knowing Jesus conquered sin and death on the cross and rose to great victory for our blessing and his glory. And unless he calls us home friends, may we soon return to each other, filled to the brim with encouragement from his word and his hope. It transcends all understanding. Friends, go in peace, amen. Thank you, oh yeah, oh yeah, what? Oh, really.
Speaker 7:I can play it any way, I just so. The reason I like using it is because it changes the tone of it.
Speaker 4:So like they go more high end, so like when I play.
Speaker 7:I don't know if you can hear when he was like praying. It's on hold like a pad. As it opens sound, the higher it pierces through. More like that, you know. So that's why I like using that.