SPEAKER_00: But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gifts.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore it says when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men.
SPEAKER_00: In saying he ascended, what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions of the earth?
SPEAKER_00: He who descended is the one who has who ascended far above all the heavens that he might fill all things.
SPEAKER_00: 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 attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood, to the measure of stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness, in deceitful schemes.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: This is the reading of God's word.
SPEAKER_01: One of the defining features in our generation is that we are constantly trying to fill our lives, but at the same time we feel empty.
SPEAKER_01: We pride ourselves in, as it were, full calendars.
SPEAKER_01: My calendar is full.
SPEAKER_01: In Jovek, that's a thing.
SPEAKER_01: Like for you to, for me to know how important you are, it's like, oh, let me check my schedule.
SPEAKER_01: My calendar is full.
SPEAKER_01: There's a sense in which being unavailable feels like a sense of importance.
SPEAKER_01: But we've mistaken being full for being filled.
SPEAKER_01: We are full of activity, but at most times we can be empty of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: We try to fill our lives with success, with relationships, even church activities.
SPEAKER_01: But if we are all being honest this morning, much of what we call fullness is actually just comfort.
SPEAKER_01: We want a faith that costs little.
SPEAKER_01: Why does it do that, friends?
SPEAKER_01: Because the church is not something to be as, as it were, observed.
SPEAKER_01: It's a grace to be constructed in.
SPEAKER_01: Paul shows us that the church is not meant to be just like united alone, but to be filled with Christ Himself.
SPEAKER_01: Now the word Butla, as I was driving this morning with Lebu, we were geeking off some old school kohaito.
SPEAKER_01: In Total, when you ask someone out, you'd be like, there's a sense in which there's a sense in which you're saying, man, as I approach you, as I seek to uh get to acquaint myself with you, you feel me.
SPEAKER_01: But but as you know, friends, that's a that's a complete lie.
SPEAKER_01: No human being that has the capacity to clutter you, to fill you.
SPEAKER_01: But true fullness and true uh the reality of being filled is only found, friends, in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And and so Christ is not asking you to be full of yourself.
SPEAKER_01: He's not asking you to to to to to to to to be like to to fill yourself, as it were.
SPEAKER_01: He he's committed, friends, to filling his church with himself.
SPEAKER_01: It's it's what Christ is committing to do.
SPEAKER_01: And and now we're gonna look at it in these couple of verses.
SPEAKER_01: Firstly, we're gonna look at the source of the fullness.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 7 again.
SPEAKER_01: But to each one of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gifts.
SPEAKER_01: Notice what Paul is saying here.
SPEAKER_01: This is not a saving grace, which which is which is given equally to those who believe in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: This is not the grace that has been referred to here.
SPEAKER_01: This is uh uh, as it were, one commentator calls it a serving grace.
SPEAKER_01: The the unique spiritual equipment Christ distributes to every single member of his body.
SPEAKER_01: And and notice to each one there's a grace according to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: No one is excluded, no one is empty-handed.
SPEAKER_01: But also notice, friends, it is according to the measure of Christ's gift.
SPEAKER_01: Not according to your performance, not according to your qualifications or qualities or so on and so forth.
SPEAKER_01: It means, friends, Christ Himself is the one who determines how he gives gifts to his people.
SPEAKER_01: He measures it uh out perfectly, as it were, according to his wisdom, according to his will, which means, friends, there is no room for insecurity.
SPEAKER_01: You you you can't be insecure about the gifts that Jesus Christ has given you.
SPEAKER_01: You you can't feel like this is insignificant, this is all I can offer.
SPEAKER_01: Is this it?
SPEAKER_01: No, this is a gift that has been given according to the measure of who?
SPEAKER_01: Of Christ Jesus Himself.
SPEAKER_01: There's no room, friends, for pride.
SPEAKER_01: There's no room for pride in the sense that, man, you have these special gifts and you're like, yeah, I'm the man.
SPEAKER_01: There's no room for that.
SPEAKER_01: It's gifts that have been given to you by Christ.
SPEAKER_01: There's no room to envy someone else's gift or to despise your own gift.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, the the authority and generosity of these gifts are in line with the king who gave it.
SPEAKER_01: Now, where does this grace come from, friends?
SPEAKER_01: Paul in the text, uh, look at it quickly.
SPEAKER_01: Um, we in verse 7, right?
SPEAKER_01: It says, But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of who?
SPEAKER_01: Of Christ's gifts.
SPEAKER_01: And then verse 80 quotes Psalm 68.
SPEAKER_01: It says, When he descended, when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men.
SPEAKER_01: That's a that's a direct quotation, friends, from Psalm 68.
SPEAKER_01: Silly me wanted to use old English like that.
SPEAKER_01: There's a sense which it's a language of war that the the the old kings would collect uh booty.
SPEAKER_01: Boot is like the spoils of the the warfare.
SPEAKER_01: The language of war here is that the king in victory has has ascended.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see it in the text?
SPEAKER_01: It says he ascended on high.
SPEAKER_01: He led he led a host of who?
SPEAKER_01: Of captives.
SPEAKER_01: He's painting a picture of a conquering divine warrior returning from battle with captives.
SPEAKER_01: His enemies are defeated.
SPEAKER_01: He's leading uh in a triumphant way uh behind them.
SPEAKER_01: And in the ancient world, when the king won a victory, friends, he didn't just celebrate it, he shared it.
SPEAKER_01: He shared the spoils of what?
SPEAKER_01: Of victory, the booty that I'm referring to.
SPEAKER_01: He he distributed the spoils to his people.
SPEAKER_01: Movable resources, movable, um, as it were, like movable properties, movable uh wealth, anything that was um gained from the victory, he shares it, he disperses it to his people.
SPEAKER_01: And in the ancient world, friends, this victory was a sense of, yes, a celebration with people.
SPEAKER_01: But Paul says here, that king, friends, is specifically Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He's the one who secures, friends, the spoils of victory.
SPEAKER_01: And look at it, it says he led a host of what?
SPEAKER_01: Of captives, and he gave gifts to who?
SPEAKER_01: To men.
SPEAKER_01: And then it says, in saying he ascended, what does it mean, but that he had also descended into the lower regions of the earth?
SPEAKER_01: I'll explain that just now.
SPEAKER_01: He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, the the idea here is that this warrior king, this Jesus is the one who ascends, but he he ascends because he descended.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, uh, the language of the gospel is there.
SPEAKER_01: He incarnated.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just a geographic dissension, but it's a picture of humiliation.
SPEAKER_01: The one who is far above all things, the one who is above all authorities and rulers, and he's the king of the universe.
SPEAKER_01: He's the one who descended.
SPEAKER_01: He humbled himself to the point of death.
SPEAKER_01: He came into our brokenness, he took on our flesh in the incarnation.
SPEAKER_01: He went to the depths of the cross.
SPEAKER_01: That's why it says he descended to the lowest of places, the lowest of regions.
SPEAKER_01: And what did he do there?
SPEAKER_01: The premise then says he ascended on high and he let the captives free.
SPEAKER_01: There's a victory that he won by descending, by conquering death, by conquering sin, by defeating the greatest of enemies, which is death and Satan, the accuser.
SPEAKER_01: Everything that once held you captive has been taken captive.
SPEAKER_01: Everything we we need to for Ugnoaba is found in the truth of the gospel that Jesus Christ has has it is finished, he has conquered death, he has conquered the penalty, the power of sin, the the the the sure hope now that there's a time coming, even when the presence of sin will be removed and plotted out forever.
SPEAKER_01: He has conquered.
SPEAKER_01: He came, he lived a sinless, perfect life.
SPEAKER_01: He came, he humbled himself, tempted in every way, and yet without sin, and died a sinner's death.
SPEAKER_01: A death that you and me deserve to die.
SPEAKER_01: And and he ascended.
SPEAKER_01: He rose again, he's resurrected, he's now uh in heaven praying and interceding for us.
SPEAKER_01: And and from that exalting, exalted throne, friends, something astonishing happens.
SPEAKER_01: The victorious king distributes spoils.
SPEAKER_01: Ah man.
SPEAKER_01: I wish I was in a Pentecostal church right now.
SPEAKER_01: The glorious king, yes, Sean.
SPEAKER_01: The glorious king who's ascended, who's who's who's lived that life that you were meant to live, that you can't live, and and and died the death you deserve to die.
SPEAKER_01: He he rose again, meaning he vindicates that, he answers for our sin, he he he captures or holds captive the things that accuse us, the sins, the guilt, the condemnation, the Satan, the devil, and everything that we we were defeated by, he has conquered.
SPEAKER_01: Then he rises again, then he ascends, he's praying for us.
SPEAKER_01: But not only that, the ascended king disperses the spoils of the victory.
SPEAKER_01: Gifts.
SPEAKER_01: And these gifts, friends, are not gold.
SPEAKER_01: I wish they were, are not are not even land, are not power.
SPEAKER_01: The gift, friends, is grace.
SPEAKER_01: Oh man.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 5.
SPEAKER_01: That that he might feel all things.
SPEAKER_01: The gift is grace.
SPEAKER_01: Um, just as Moses' friends received the Lord to give to Israel, the ascended Christ pours out his spirit and gives gifts to his people.
SPEAKER_01: But but don't miss the point in in verse 10.
SPEAKER_01: The gifts are not the point.
SPEAKER_01: He is the point.
SPEAKER_01: He gives gifts that he might fill all things.
SPEAKER_01: The gift is himself.
SPEAKER_01: It's that gospel assurance, it's that realized experience of living with your Savior.
SPEAKER_01: It's that it's that uh assurance that he's with you.
SPEAKER_01: It's it's it's not just random generosity anymore, it's this purposeful fullness that is found in Christ, that your life is anchored on the one who fills you.
SPEAKER_01: So as you become entrepreneurial, as you become a creative, now your life is is anchored in this Jesus Christ, and your gifts serve that purpose.
SPEAKER_01: It's purposeful fillness.
SPEAKER_01: Christ is filling the world with himself through you.
SPEAKER_01: Oh man.
SPEAKER_01: You walk into your office space, there's a sense in which he has filled you, and people have a taste of of Christ through your interactions with them.
SPEAKER_01: That's the grace, that's the gift, friends.
SPEAKER_01: As you go about your your different careers, whether as a creative, as a counselor, as a lawyer, as a statistician, as a consultant who never sleeps, God is using you to fill this world with himself.
SPEAKER_01: As you have much of him, there's a sense in which that character is enjoyed by people.
SPEAKER_01: As you thrive in your businesses, that that is enjoyed by people.
SPEAKER_01: There's a writer, theologian, a preacher, Thomas Watson captures it beautifully.
SPEAKER_01: He says, in Christ there is a fullness of merit to pacify God, and a fullness of the spirit to sanctify man.
SPEAKER_01: He is a comprehending spiritual good.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, if you ever wondered what's your greatest gift, your greatest gift is Christ Himself.
SPEAKER_01: Your greatest gift is the fullness of the Spirit that forms your character.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, friends, it doesn't mean if you were a pianist or whoever before Christ, BC days, that changes.
SPEAKER_01: But now that becomes purposeful.
SPEAKER_01: There's a sense in which your natural talents are providential or providential gifts from God, common grace gifts from God.
SPEAKER_01: But even those now serve a gospel purpose.
SPEAKER_01: As a writer, as an auditor, no matter how dreading that job may be, all of that now serves God's purpose.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, friends, in Christ, then there's there's no there's no lack.
SPEAKER_01: It is not merely about your personality, it is an expression of Christ's own presence in the church.
SPEAKER_01: That's the point.
SPEAKER_01: You you don't just have a gift, you are a gift.
SPEAKER_01: You are the gift.
SPEAKER_01: You are the one showing up.
SPEAKER_01: You are the one with the fullness of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: You are the one who has the spirit of God.
SPEAKER_01: I know, I know.
SPEAKER_01: I I used to do it.
SPEAKER_01: Like we do like tests, your spiritual gift test, the spiritual gifts, um like test, and then the you like you.
SPEAKER_01: What am I?
SPEAKER_01: Am I this?
SPEAKER_01: Am I that?
SPEAKER_01: Friends, what's important is you are you.
SPEAKER_01: You cannot be the person next to you.
SPEAKER_01: You are you, you are the gift.
SPEAKER_01: What defines you now is the one who fills you.
SPEAKER_01: Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Don't feel insignificant.
SPEAKER_01: You you are uniquely created, gifted.
SPEAKER_01: And and now that you you you you are in Christ, your your your natural giftings are serving a purpose, they are not meaningless.
SPEAKER_01: If you are a wordsmith, that doesn't change when you come to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: If you used to be a rapper and go to ciphers, that doesn't change when you come to the the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: But something about you has changed.
SPEAKER_01: You're serving a different master.
SPEAKER_01: You are no longer a captive, you are free.
SPEAKER_01: And Christ has dispersed gifts to you.
SPEAKER_01: The spoils of victory, the spoils that say there's now, therefore, no condemnation for those who are in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: The spoils that say you have the fruit of the spirit.
SPEAKER_01: The spoils, friends, are the character uh that is formed in you by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: I know people are like, yeah, but what about administration and leadership and all of that?
SPEAKER_01: I'm not disputing that those could be very well spiritual gifts, but they are brilliant administrators who are going to hell, unfortunately.
SPEAKER_01: Better administrators than some Christian administrators.
SPEAKER_01: That that's not the point.
SPEAKER_01: I I hope you get that, friends.
SPEAKER_01: The point is what makes you different from that other administrator is Christ in you.
SPEAKER_01: His compassion in you, his truth in another, his generosity in another, his strength in another.
SPEAKER_01: That's that's what makes you different.
SPEAKER_01: You being able to endure a line manage, that spiritual gift of insurance that no one else could take.
SPEAKER_01: The the insults, the blows, the the turning the other cheek.
SPEAKER_01: No one thinks like that, friends.
SPEAKER_01: But those who are in Christ have that gift.
SPEAKER_01: And friends, when those gifts are offered, when they are not buried under insecurity or or distorted by pride, the church doesn't just function, it becomes a living display of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That's the butlalo I'm talking about this morning, friends.
SPEAKER_01: It is fullness that is not actually in the activities, it is fullness that is not actually in the busyness, it is fullness in Christ, living, active, visible through his people.
SPEAKER_01: Number two, the instruments of fullness.
SPEAKER_01: So um I've been told I believe by a point so many times, and like, okay, Toby, we get it, move on now.
SPEAKER_01: Um, but but I promise you now we we we because the second part of Ephesians is very practical, um I really wanted us to capture the idea of saying that look, we can we can talk about this the the the details about the gifts, but and miss the point that what Christ is aiming at here, he's the one forming us, and he wants to form himself in us.
SPEAKER_01: And so as people experience you, they're experiencing Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Because if we are bogged down in the gifts, you can be the most gifted person and the most horrible person.
SPEAKER_01: Gifted, charismatic, uh well changed.
SPEAKER_01: Change in person, but if Christ is not formed in you, that gift will destroy a lot of people.
SPEAKER_01: That's the point, friends.
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, the instruments of fullness.
SPEAKER_01: Let's look at it, verse 11 and 12.
SPEAKER_01: It says, 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.
SPEAKER_01: The instruments of fullness.
SPEAKER_01: If Christ is the source, friends, of the gifts, how do they actually work in the church?
SPEAKER_01: This is like zooming into the church specifically.
SPEAKER_01: Look again in verse 11.
SPEAKER_01: He himself gave who?
SPEAKER_01: The apostles, prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers.
SPEAKER_01: And there's a beautiful variety here.
SPEAKER_01: Notice the variety here is leaders that Christ gives, right?
SPEAKER_01: He gave apostles and prophets to lay the very foundation of the church.
SPEAKER_01: If you read uh Ephesians 2, verse 20, that's the framework there.
SPEAKER_01: That that foundation has not been laid again.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're listening carefully, like, oh, what are you saying now?
SPEAKER_01: Are there no apostles?
SPEAKER_01: Are there no prophets anymore?
SPEAKER_01: There are so many posters of those.
SPEAKER_01: Let's have a conversation.
SPEAKER_01: I'm saying no, there aren't.
SPEAKER_01: And we we can have a conversation.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want us to be bogged down in that.
SPEAKER_01: But here's what I'm saying in terms of this text.
SPEAKER_01: We're saying, looking at Ephesians 2, verse 20, Christ is the chief cornerstone, and the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets.
SPEAKER_01: The apostolic witness, the the ones who who who saw the resurrected Christ, who were commissioned by Christ Himself, the one who wrote the epistles that cannot be written anymore.
SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about the sent ones who established the foundations.
SPEAKER_01: Again, the Greek apostle could mean like sent ones.
SPEAKER_01: And other churches would say, okay, yes, they are capital A apostles and they are small letter A apostles.
SPEAKER_01: The apostles we see today are small letter A apostles.
SPEAKER_01: But in this text, consistent with Paul's argument from the text in how it defines apostles, then we are talking about capital A apostles.
SPEAKER_01: The prophets, the the Moses', the Elijas, the prophets that spoke the word as this is the word of the Lord authoritatively, and now we have this authoritative written word that we can bind people's consciences with.
SPEAKER_01: Not only tell me what's in my fridge, Papa.
SPEAKER_01: That cannot bind a person's conscience.
SPEAKER_01: I cannot live my life based on someone's.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe he woke up in a bad mood and I was wearing a red t-shirt, and it's like, hey, you with the red t-shirt, come here.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says something.
SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you what the Lord said.
SPEAKER_01: I can't bind my conscience on that.
SPEAKER_01: That's not authoritative.
SPEAKER_01: Because if it were, then it has to be in God's word.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone needs to know that.
SPEAKER_01: Apostles and prophets to lay the foundation of the church.
SPEAKER_01: These are gifts.
SPEAKER_01: Delivering and preserving the truth of the scriptures we hold to today.
SPEAKER_01: He gave evangelists to be, I'm not a doctor, but to be the obstetricians, hey, obstetricians.
SPEAKER_01: I'm married to one so I can say I can get away with saying these things.
SPEAKER_01: To be the ones who, as it were, are delivering people to the kingdom of light.
SPEAKER_01: Obstetricians deal with births, are sharing the gospel message.
SPEAKER_01: Those are specially gifted to bring new spiritual birth by taking the good news to the lost evangelists.
SPEAKER_01: And he gave pastors and teachers to be to be shepherds of the church, those called to tenderly care for, protect, and feed the flock of God with the word of truth.
SPEAKER_01: I call them the general practitioners.
SPEAKER_01: Why did Christ give these specific leaders?
SPEAKER_01: For a long time, friends, our Bible translations uh would would would people like look at verse 12?
SPEAKER_01: If you have that Bible translation, I'd encourage you to buy a new Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, not really, but hey, look at verse 12.
SPEAKER_01: It says to equip the saints for the work of ministry for building up of the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That was put, like to equip the saints, comma, right?
SPEAKER_01: For the work of ministry, comma for building up the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: If there's a comma in your Bible there, it shouldn't be there.
SPEAKER_01: Are you checking?
SPEAKER_01: The first comma, the the comma after to equip the saints.
SPEAKER_01: If your Bible has a comma, please uh relook at it.
SPEAKER_01: They call it the fatal uh comma.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, friends, why am I driving this point home here?
SPEAKER_01: Is that um verse 12 is is giving us a historical reality that that man the comma made it look like the pastors are the hired hands to do these three things and only them do it.
SPEAKER_01: The comma doesn't belong there.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, uh and and I don't I don't want to bog down people on that, but Christ gives leaders to equip the saints so that the saints do the work of the ministry.
SPEAKER_01: Leaders equip saints minister, saints is the people of God, every member ministry.
SPEAKER_01: The work is for the people to be what?
SPEAKER_01: To be equipped, to be equipped to do the work.
SPEAKER_01: This this shatters then our consumerism.
SPEAKER_01: Us cheating King City Church like Woolets or Shopright.
SPEAKER_01: It it conquers, friends, our idols of comfort and control to help us see how radically this changes our view of the church.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to how the late theologian John Stott puts it, friends.
SPEAKER_01: He says, uh he wrote that we must abandon the unbiblical model of the church as a pyramid, with the pastor perched preciously on its pinnacle like a little pope in his own church, while the lady, the general members, are arrayed beneath him in seried ranks of inferiority.
SPEAKER_01: That's big English, I'll explain it now.
SPEAKER_01: Start also warned against treating the church like a bus, in which the pastor does all the driving while the congregation of the passengers slumbering in peaceful sleep.
SPEAKER_01: This is not a bus.
SPEAKER_01: It's in fact, I thought about a derby.
SPEAKER_01: Like I've been to the Dummy Swords of Versus Pirates, and and all the people on the crowd are are yelling at the players, are telling the players and yelling instructions as if if they were to have uh five minutes on that page, they wouldn't make it through.
SPEAKER_01: Some of us friends treat the church as if we are spectators, consumers.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I like this.
SPEAKER_01: This is this is my this is me.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, I'm gonna be here.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, satisfy me.
SPEAKER_01: Let me get, I'm in the bus, you are driving.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay, I'm yelling instructions, I'm at the crowd, uh, I'm just yelling instructions, I'm not, I'm not playing, I'm not invested, I'm not giving, I'm not doing, I'm just there to be a spectator.
SPEAKER_01: Someone is laughing like crazy, like me, like yo.
SPEAKER_01: The church, friends, is not a spectator sport where you just watch, it is a living body.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, as another commentator uh writes brilliantly, putting it in in light of consumerism, my church is not just there in order to bless me as though I am a shop, shopper filling my basket in the supermarket.
SPEAKER_01: We are not meant to be consumers, but contributors.
SPEAKER_01: If if you are not, if you are not here serving and contributing, we we we lose something, and this is not a threat, we lose something of that fullness that I'm describing.
SPEAKER_01: If you're saying, man, I want to be plugged into this community.
SPEAKER_01: Again, this is a church plant.
SPEAKER_01: I have to be careful, you know.
SPEAKER_01: Um, we don't want to hoist people and overwhelm people, but if you are here and saying, man, I I just want to be part of this in uh contribute um community, the question should be, how can I be involved?
SPEAKER_01: How can I serve?
SPEAKER_01: How can I join in in small or big ways?
SPEAKER_01: How can I steward my gifts for God's kingdom?
SPEAKER_01: Because friends, this is how then Christ fills his church with himself through you.
SPEAKER_01: Then if you if you choose comfort over your calling, you interrupt this glorious design.
SPEAKER_01: And and the whole body suffers.
SPEAKER_01: The point is that you are uniquely gifted because you are you.
SPEAKER_01: We need you.
SPEAKER_01: Imagine a soccer, a soccer team where a player refuses to step onto the field, everyone else has to compensate for that extra man who's not on the field.
SPEAKER_01: The flow of the team breaks down, the the team suffers in the same way.
SPEAKER_01: When one part of the body of Christ withdraws, the whole body is, as it were, diminished.
SPEAKER_01: But when each part steps in and plays its role, the beauty, the strength, the fullness of the whole team is seen.
SPEAKER_01: That's how Christ makes himself visible among us.
SPEAKER_01: When you we we're all playing our part.
SPEAKER_01: When each member plays what?
SPEAKER_01: His part.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see it, friends?
SPEAKER_01: When each member plays his part, what happens then?
SPEAKER_01: That point, the evidence of fullness.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 13 to 15.
SPEAKER_01: Until we all attain to the unity of the faith and 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 and deceitful schemes.
SPEAKER_01: Let's go.
SPEAKER_01: So, friends, leaders equip and the body serves.
SPEAKER_01: But what's the goal?
SPEAKER_01: The goal is that we attain the unity of the faith of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood.
SPEAKER_01: Are you making us men?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: The picture here is a picture of maturity.
SPEAKER_01: And in fact, he goes on in verse 14, so that we are no longer tossed to and fro, like children.
SPEAKER_01: There's a contrast here.
SPEAKER_01: They are men or manhood and they are children.
SPEAKER_01: I think of like these um Instagram runs where, like, you are not a man, we are a boy.
SPEAKER_01: You're just a boy.
SPEAKER_01: The idea of here maturity is stability.
SPEAKER_01: And and maturity in in the faith until we reach unity in the what?
SPEAKER_01: In the faith, the tenants of the gospel truth, the tenants of the faith, the theological framework of what God intends us for us to know, the faith, friends, and the knowledge of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just head knowledge, it's not just theoretical knowledge, it's it's it's it's faith, the the truths of the gospel, the truths of the word that form us to be more like Christ and to enjoy Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: So that we are mature and like Christ.
SPEAKER_01: This is a corporate maturity.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just you growing alone in isolation.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just me and my own Jesus growing.
SPEAKER_01: It's we are growing together into one mature body.
SPEAKER_01: Paul is saying the goal is not activity, it's what, friends?
SPEAKER_01: Maturity.
SPEAKER_01: The goal is not busyness, but it's Christ-likeness together.
SPEAKER_01: Now, now, how do we we know if we are lacking this maturity?
SPEAKER_01: That's where verse 14 steps in.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna take some time here, forgive me.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see?
SPEAKER_01: It's sort of like a picture of a boat, right?
SPEAKER_01: There's no anchor, there's no stability.
SPEAKER_01: Wherever the wind blows, the boat goes.
SPEAKER_01: That's where it goes.
SPEAKER_01: That's an infant in a boat.
SPEAKER_01: Add more to that problem.
SPEAKER_01: It's not a man on a boat trying to stabilize the boat, it's an infant in a boat tossed to and fro by every wind.
SPEAKER_01: That infant can't do anything.
SPEAKER_01: And if we are honest, friends, that's exactly what we see in our world.
SPEAKER_01: Some of us are being shaped by the waves of cultural trends.
SPEAKER_01: Trends such as be true to yourself above everything else.
SPEAKER_01: There is no absolute truth, just your truth and my truth.
SPEAKER_01: You are what you achieve.
SPEAKER_01: Others are being shaped by success narratives.
SPEAKER_01: Your worth is your career.
SPEAKER_01: Your value is your productivity, your life must always be advancing.
SPEAKER_01: Others, especially in Christian spaces, are being shaped by a distortion of spirituality and even dangerous trends.
SPEAKER_01: We see this in the prosperity gospel.
SPEAKER_01: God exists to make your life double, double long.
SPEAKER_01: That tries to deceive people by offering a life of comfort completely free from suffering and difficulty.
SPEAKER_01: We see it in Bible-like conversations where the obsession is over simplicity, but but there's a failure to equip you to survive the hostility and temptations of this life.
SPEAKER_01: We see it when people try to sound intellectual by questioning the absolute truthfulness of God's word or minimizing even the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes we we get caught up in these fads, chasing after every new spiritual wave, after every new popular movement, or trending speaker.
SPEAKER_01: Instead of saying, friends, we we need to be grounded in the word of God, we are we want to be grounded in the voices of our culture.
SPEAKER_01: Many of us, especially in a city like Joveg, the wave is simply busyness.
SPEAKER_01: We are always on the move, always working, always distracted, never slowing down long enough to actually be formed.
SPEAKER_01: So whether you're a student in this room, whether you are a young professional, a parent, a new believer, or someone who has been in church for years, this is a warning for all of us.
SPEAKER_01: Without maturity in Christ, we are all vulnerable.
SPEAKER_01: We're vulnerable to these things that I just mentioned.
SPEAKER_01: And an immature church, friends, chases voices, and some of these voices are wolves and sheepskin.
SPEAKER_01: And Paul yet describes them as cunning and deceitful schemers.
SPEAKER_01: As soon as you mention voices that are wolves, the people say, ah, you are judgmental.
SPEAKER_01: There we go again.
SPEAKER_01: But friends, the Bible never apologizes for calling out people who are a threat to God's people, to God's sheep.
SPEAKER_01: I remember Jesus calling out the works.
SPEAKER_01: I hate the work of the Nickelodeons.
SPEAKER_01: The Judaism, Paul consistently called them out.
SPEAKER_01: He called out hypocrisy.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus speaks about wolves and sheepskin.
SPEAKER_01: A mature church, friends, anchored in Christ, is a sense, is a church that that is uncomfortable with with truth that is diminished.
SPEAKER_01: Is uncomfortable with people being uh exploited.
SPEAKER_01: You see, friends, comfort actually loves this instability.
SPEAKER_01: If if you want to be comfortable with with the with the with the noise and the the that's a that's a problem, friends.
SPEAKER_01: Because instability means you don't have to commit.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to be corrected, you don't even have to grow deeply.
SPEAKER_01: But if if we call things out and and really pursue truth, genuinely so, and and even call out threats to God's people, to the church, then we we will be challenged.
SPEAKER_01: All of us.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the remedy, friends.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the remedy.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 15.
SPEAKER_01: Says, rather speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head into Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: That's the remedy, friends.
SPEAKER_01: It's growing up into Christ.
SPEAKER_01: In the original language, Paul wrote this in the in a word that that means that man speaking or truthing.
SPEAKER_01: That's the word.
SPEAKER_01: Truthing, literally, truthing in love.
SPEAKER_01: Hello?
SPEAKER_01: You're not just speaking the truth in love, but you are truthing in love.
SPEAKER_01: There's a continuous life lived out of truthing in what?
SPEAKER_01: In love.
SPEAKER_01: It means, friends, living the truth in love.
SPEAKER_01: It's holding on to the truth, it's embodying the truth, it's practicing the truth in love.
SPEAKER_01: Now there's a tension there because historically the church has often abused this.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we use the phrase, I need to tell you this in love.
SPEAKER_01: As a pious excuse to just be mean, to just be harsh, to just be inconsiderate to someone we we find frustrating.
SPEAKER_01: We use truth as a weapon to pull others down.
SPEAKER_01: Truth without love becomes, friends, harsh.
SPEAKER_01: Becomes cold, it becomes clinical, it becomes self-righteous.
SPEAKER_01: But the abuse happens on the other extreme as well.
SPEAKER_01: Many churches refuse to speak against sin.
SPEAKER_01: Sin like pride, materialism, sexual immorality, because they think it sounds unloving to confront it.
SPEAKER_01: But love without truth becomes soft, vague, hollow, and unsafe.
SPEAKER_01: To divorce truth and love is a distortion of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: But in Christ, truth and love meet perfectly.
SPEAKER_01: So what does it look like?
SPEAKER_01: It it means we don't just affirm people, we form them.
SPEAKER_01: We form people.
SPEAKER_01: We don't just confront, we care.
SPEAKER_01: We don't just correct, we walk with.
SPEAKER_01: It means saying the hard things with humility, not pride.
SPEAKER_01: It means encouraging, but not at the expense of truth.
SPEAKER_01: It means staying in relationship long enough for truth to actually shape someone.
SPEAKER_01: As we do this, friends, as we as as we truth and love, we grow up into Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Not into trends, not into personalities, not into platforms, into Him.
SPEAKER_01: That is maturity, that is the stability.
SPEAKER_01: That is, friends, but as I close, friends, here's the fullness envisioned in verse 16.
SPEAKER_01: 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 what?
SPEAKER_01: In love.
SPEAKER_01: This is the vision of fullness.
SPEAKER_01: From him, the whole body joined and held together by every supporting ligament grows and builds itself up in love as each part does its work.
SPEAKER_01: There's work to be done.
SPEAKER_01: But the growth comes from Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Christ is the ultimate source, the supply, the strength of the church.
SPEAKER_01: We are utterly dependent on Him.
SPEAKER_01: My wife last night actually was like, Man, I was reading a devotion this morning by Charles Burgeon, and she she gave me this like let me help you out.
SPEAKER_01: Here's a quote listen.
SPEAKER_01: To what Spursion says, it says the reason why the church of God exists is not her ecclesiastical regulations, but the presence of the Lord in the midst of her.
SPEAKER_01: And while Christ lives and Christ reigns and stands and feeds his church, she is safe.
SPEAKER_01: But if he were once gone, we are weak as other men.
SPEAKER_01: And she would be quite as powerless.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, you do not have to carry the whole church on your shoulders.
SPEAKER_01: Because Christ has not given all the gifts to you.
SPEAKER_01: If you're sitting here thinking you're a super saiyan Christian, I like that phrase.
SPEAKER_01: If you think you're a super saiyan Christian, man, the gifts are not all in you.
SPEAKER_01: They are shared.
SPEAKER_01: They are shared, they are dispersed as he pleases.
SPEAKER_01: This is not a call to pressure, it's actually a call to freedom in participating.
SPEAKER_01: I have something to offer.
SPEAKER_01: I might not know it yet, but I'm here.
SPEAKER_01: God has uniquely created me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm here.
SPEAKER_01: Did you want me to make coffee?
SPEAKER_01: I know I don't have the recipe yet, but you you'll show me and I'll learn, and maybe the first time uh Toby will be like, What what is this?
SPEAKER_01: But I'm here.
SPEAKER_01: Perhaps, perhaps it's it's setting up, it's administration, it's it's it's putting your hand up and saying, God has gifted me.
SPEAKER_01: I may not know what that gift is, uniquely so, but I am the gift.
SPEAKER_01: You're here, friends.
SPEAKER_01: The condition for this growth, the body only builds itself up in love as each part does its work.
SPEAKER_01: Would you show up?
SPEAKER_01: Simply just say, I'm I'm here.
SPEAKER_01: Church planting and and growing a church and community of of faith friends is a sense of a construction site.
SPEAKER_01: We are construction site.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody has a tool, everybody has a shovel, everybody has something.
SPEAKER_01: There's some someone is cooking and preparing the meal for the people working.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody is at the construction site, ready to help.
SPEAKER_01: You can't be in a bus waiting to be served.
SPEAKER_01: It's not gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01: We serve each other.
SPEAKER_01: We we we we are all nuts in the nets that God has thrown over the world to to to to reach more and more people, to draw more and more people to himself.
SPEAKER_01: We are all but nuts that God has has built a net to reach a dying world.
SPEAKER_01: Would you show up?
SPEAKER_01: Would you would you would you say, I I wanna be, I want I wanna be here.
SPEAKER_01: I I'm not I'm not just an observer, I wanna be in the game.
SPEAKER_01: And maybe you are here today and you realize you are trying to fill your own life with yourself.
SPEAKER_01: You you are exhausting yourself, you you're trying to build a life of purpose out of your own strength and hide your emptiness behind walls of comforts and busyness.
SPEAKER_01: But the gospel is this Christ descended into our brokenness.
SPEAKER_01: He took our sin and he rose in victory so that you would not have to carry your life alone.
SPEAKER_01: Fullness is not something you build.
SPEAKER_01: Perhaps you've been successful and be like, man, I've tried everything, I've gone to the heights of my career aspirations, but I feel a sense of emptiness.
SPEAKER_01: Fullness can never be achieved by any of your self-made pursuits.
SPEAKER_01: It is something you receive in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Perhaps you don't enjoy that food anymore, like you you've lost the sweetness of or or an appetite to live a full life because you've pursued it your own way and you are just tired.
SPEAKER_01: Would you come to Christ who will give you true fullness, who will give you purpose?
SPEAKER_01: You see, friends, when you withhold your gift, it is not just that a task goes undone, something of Christ is hidden.
SPEAKER_01: Someone in this room needs to experience that fullness.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm speaking to the one who says, I need fullness.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm saying to you, it's only found in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm speaking to the ones like, yeah, I'm in Christ, but I'm just hiding.
SPEAKER_01: Man, the person who needs to experience the fullness of Christ needs you to stop hiding.
SPEAKER_01: Would you show up?
SPEAKER_01: Would would the vision of Christ not not be about big churches, not be about a full church, but would the fullness of Christ be what we long for?
SPEAKER_01: Would we long for Jesus to be exalted, for Jesus to be known, for Jesus to be enjoyed here in Plaingy City Church?
SPEAKER_01: Let me pray for us.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Lord, that somehow, Lord, you're just saying we just raise our hands and say yes to you, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Yes to your call.
SPEAKER_01: But at the same time, these gifts are freely given.