SPEAKER_01: I, therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.
SPEAKER_01: All humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.
SPEAKER_01: There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call.
SPEAKER_01: One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
SPEAKER_01: But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore it says, When he ascended on high, he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to the men.
SPEAKER_01: In saying he ascended, what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth?
SPEAKER_01: He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.
SPEAKER_01: And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, the teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried out by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes.
SPEAKER_01: 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_02: We are in our penultimate week uh in a sermon series through the book of Ephesians, thinking about what is uh the church, what is this thing that you have gathered together in as uh this morning, and uh what is it, what is it for?
SPEAKER_02: And I want to begin uh with uh framing a picture in your mind's eye.
SPEAKER_02: Think uh for a moment, not of a cinema screen, but as a uh uh but of a theater with an orchestra tuning up.
SPEAKER_02: So you see uh a great uh symphony orchestra or concert orchestra there laid out on the stage with all of its members, all of those sections.
SPEAKER_02: You've got the the strings here towards the front, you've got the woodwind and brass and a curving round percussion at the back, and suddenly they strike up.
SPEAKER_02: But as they strike up, every member of the orchestra has decided that at the same time what they're going to do is they're going to play their own composition.
SPEAKER_02: Every member there, from the guy with the triangle to first violin, has decided that they're going to play their own tune.
SPEAKER_02: How would it sound?
SPEAKER_02: Well, it'll sound chaotic.
SPEAKER_02: It will not be a pleasant thing to listen to.
SPEAKER_02: Imagine somebody came up to the to the window outside and they looked in and they they thought, oh look, there's a there's a beautifully diverse orchestra playing.
SPEAKER_02: And technically they're right.
SPEAKER_02: But you open the door so that you can actually hear the sign and you realize that there's there's nothing unified about that orchestra.
SPEAKER_02: There's nothing harmonious or beautiful about the sound that they're creating.
SPEAKER_02: Our world, our workplaces talk much about both unity and diversity.
SPEAKER_02: On the one hand, people say we all need a place to belong, to be united.
SPEAKER_02: And so they say, well, we're all just we're all just the same.
SPEAKER_02: Everything's just the same.
SPEAKER_02: Flatten out all of the the difference.
SPEAKER_02: Then the diversity people come in and they say, no, no, every voice, every identity, every person needs to be heard equally, and they are different, but without a shared reference point.
SPEAKER_02: And so it is hard to bring harmony together.
SPEAKER_02: And our world feels a little bit like that orchestra right now.
SPEAKER_02: Our workplaces can feel a little bit like that orchestra.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, the the notes played in our communities, in our society feel like they're competing for airtime.
SPEAKER_02: How can we as people hold in the balance this idea of unity and diversity?
SPEAKER_02: How can they come together in a way that is beautiful?
SPEAKER_02: Imagine again with the orchestra that the conductor walks in and he raises his baton, and in an instant all of the individual compositions fall silent, and all of these scattered signs find their place in the symphony that the conductor is conducting.
SPEAKER_02: The brass section don't stop being brasses, the strings don't stop being strings, the guy with the triangle doesn't stop being the guy with the triangle.
SPEAKER_02: But what happens is diverse sections come together to create something harmonious, they produce something beautiful.
SPEAKER_02: This is the picture that the Paul paints for us by what the church is like, how the church ought to operate.
SPEAKER_02: Not with discrete individuals pursuing their own agenda, but people with diverse gifts working together to create something harmonious.
SPEAKER_02: The world struggles to find harmony because it keeps on trying to compose its own tune for the church as a conductor, Christ Himself.
SPEAKER_02: And there is a great grand symphony being played out in history, in eternity, that God is unfolding.
SPEAKER_02: The Spirit Himself has written that score and has invited people to play their part in it.
SPEAKER_02: Paul says that our unity isn't something that we have to invent or muster up in ourselves.
SPEAKER_02: It's something that God has already given us in Jesus as a gift that he encourages us to maintain and to grow.
SPEAKER_02: And so our first point this morning is exactly that.
SPEAKER_02: It is, as a church, we are to guard the gift, the gift of the unity that has been given us.
SPEAKER_02: Guard the gift.
SPEAKER_02: Can I encourage you, if you don't, to have that passage that Grace read for us open in front of you?
SPEAKER_02: You can either uh have a physical Bible, you can look it up on your phone.
SPEAKER_02: It's Ephesians 4 from verses 1 to 1 to 16, because Paul begins this section with the word therefore.
SPEAKER_02: I therefore.
SPEAKER_02: And any good uh Bible teacher will tell you that when you read a therefore, the first thing that you've got to ask is, what is it there for?
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: That's top Bible reading tip.
SPEAKER_02: You read a therefore, you think, okay, hold on.
SPEAKER_02: There's something before that is playing into what is happening now.
SPEAKER_02: And here's what you need to know about that therefore.
SPEAKER_02: And it's very and it's true of the whole book of Ephesians.
SPEAKER_02: The book of Ephesians breaks down into uh two major sections.
SPEAKER_02: On the one hand, you have chapters one to three over here, and on the other hand, you've got chapters four to six, right?
SPEAKER_02: You with me so far?
SPEAKER_02: We're dividing six by two, right?
SPEAKER_02: So don't know if you're like a math head, but six by two, one to three, right?
SPEAKER_02: What's happening in one to three?
SPEAKER_02: In chapters one to three, Paul is telling us what God has done in eternity.
SPEAKER_02: His choosing of a people for himself, his sending of his son into the world to redeem them from their sin, to break down that dividing wall of hostility, to bring dead people back to life and to unite them together into one family.
SPEAKER_02: And Paul's saying that is what God has done in the life of the believer.
SPEAKER_02: And so if you're a follower of Jesus, that's what he's done in your life.
SPEAKER_02: You were dead, he's brought you back to life, and he's made you part of a family that is the church.
SPEAKER_02: That's chapters one to three, right?
SPEAKER_02: Then in chapters four to six, Paul shifts and he says, Since God has done all of this, and since God has now made you alive, here is how you ought to live.
SPEAKER_02: What does it mean then, having been made alive by God, to live that new life?
SPEAKER_02: How does that reframe and reshape our relationships, whether it's parent to child or husband to wife or employer to employee, as he talks about in chapter five?
SPEAKER_02: How does it change how we how we speak, how we view one another?
SPEAKER_02: So, what God has done feeds into how we ought to live.
SPEAKER_02: Now let me tell you, and and in the middle, how does he start chapter four?
SPEAKER_02: Therefore, right?
SPEAKER_02: In light of all God has done, let me now tell you about how you ought to live.
SPEAKER_02: This is super important.
SPEAKER_02: Let me tell you why it's super important.
SPEAKER_02: Because if you get Ephesians the wrong way round, you're gonna miss the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: Because the good news of Jesus is you don't need to do anything to earn God's love.
SPEAKER_02: But if you think, well, I've got to do the chapters four to six stuff in order for God to love me, then you think, well, I've got to transform how I speak, and I've got to transform how I act, I've got to transform my relationships, and then maybe God will love me.
SPEAKER_02: But what Ephesians is saying, and indeed what the whole New Testament is saying, is that God has loved you, He has saved you, He has made you alive, and now as a result, as a consequence of that, we live differently.
SPEAKER_02: And one of the ways in which we live differently, is we don't go around playing our own tune.
SPEAKER_02: We harmonize with the symphony of eternity.
SPEAKER_02: We think I'm actually part of something bigger than myself, with my brothers and sisters, who I'm now part of this new family with.
SPEAKER_02: And so he says, therefore, now that you have done all of these things, or sorry, now that God has done all of these things for you, he says, verse three, be eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.
SPEAKER_02: That is, prioritize, work hard on growing and guarding and maintaining the unity that God has given you by his spirit.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know if uh during lockdown, if you remember that, it's a thing that happened a few years ago.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, if any of you like me uh got a little bit obsessed with um with sardo, anybody part of the the uh the sardo fad, right?
SPEAKER_02: Or or maybe somebody give you a a little a little plant, a little succulent uh to to maintain, right?
SPEAKER_02: So somebody will say, Oh, here's some sardo starter.
SPEAKER_02: You think, oh great, it's gonna be dead in a week.
SPEAKER_02: Um, right.
SPEAKER_02: Those things, sardo, little plant, given to us as a gift, and there's something that we need to maintain.
SPEAKER_02: We feed it with a little bit of flour every every day.
SPEAKER_02: We portion off uh uh an amount in order to make our sardo bread or our pancakes or whatever it is.
SPEAKER_02: It's a gift that's been given to us that we also work to maintain.
SPEAKER_02: It's a gift, it's an expression of kindness, of love, but it's also something to be nurtured.
SPEAKER_02: And so it is with all of us, with all of us believers in Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: God has given you a gift, a gift that we, again, in our world struggle to achieve in our own strength, and that is true, lasting deep unity.
SPEAKER_02: Say, here you go.
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna break down those dividing walls, I'm gonna make you one new people.
SPEAKER_02: And then he says, maintain it.
SPEAKER_02: Don't take it for granted.
SPEAKER_02: Unity is a living gift, born of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: It's beautiful to behold, but it's fragile if ignored.
SPEAKER_02: Do you experience that in the context of the church?
SPEAKER_02: You might be sitting there thinking, all of this is really idealistic.
SPEAKER_02: Have you never marked being part of a church where people have fallen out and left?
SPEAKER_02: And it's been extraordinarily painful.
SPEAKER_02: Sadly, that's part of the reason why Paul says you gotta invest in it, you gotta pursue it.
SPEAKER_02: You can't take it for granted.
SPEAKER_02: God has given you this precious gift, He's given us at City Church this precious gift to steward to maintain.
SPEAKER_02: Indeed, if you cast your eye down to verse 13, Paul there says that the unity is something that we are striving to attain.
SPEAKER_02: Do you see that balance?
SPEAKER_02: You have this gift, so maintain it.
SPEAKER_02: And then he's saying, strive, make every effort to possess it.
SPEAKER_02: What's going on there?
SPEAKER_02: Is he just immediately contradicting himself within 10 verses?
SPEAKER_02: I don't think so.
SPEAKER_02: I want to give Paul slightly more credit than that.
SPEAKER_02: What he's saying is we have it by God's Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: There is this objective spiritual reality that we are eternally united to one another because as believers, we are eternally united by faith to Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: But in the day-to-day, the week by week and how we live and speak in this waiting room between Christ's first coming and his second coming, where sin still creeps in, where sin still exerts some power and influence over us and over our communities, Paul says, don't be naive.
SPEAKER_02: Pursue unity, invest in it, don't take it for granted, guard it.
SPEAKER_02: The question then becomes, how do you actually do that?
SPEAKER_02: What does it mean to maintain the unity that we have been given?
SPEAKER_02: Well, Paul in verse 2 doesn't begin with programs or strategies, he begins with our posture.
SPEAKER_02: He begins with our hearts.
SPEAKER_02: Do you see that?
SPEAKER_02: Verse 2 Walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you've been called.
SPEAKER_02: And again, that's like gift language, God has already acted.
SPEAKER_02: And he says, how?
SPEAKER_02: With all humility and gentleness, gentleness with patience.
SPEAKER_02: Humility, gentleness, patience.
SPEAKER_02: Those are hard attitudes, aren't they?
SPEAKER_02: How is it that we maintain our unity together?
SPEAKER_02: It's the posture of our hearts.
SPEAKER_02: Humility.
SPEAKER_02: Remembering that Christ has united us to himself and to one another by his grace.
SPEAKER_02: It's not something that we can boast in.
SPEAKER_02: It's not something that we have deserved.
SPEAKER_02: And that humbles us.
SPEAKER_02: Gentleness.
SPEAKER_02: An idea of not being weak, but having our strength under control, choosing kindness over hostility, patience, long obedience, of loving when others frustrate and fail you.
SPEAKER_02: I uh I came across a book uh this week and was having a little look at it.
SPEAKER_02: Um maybe we should uh get it and give away copies.
SPEAKER_02: It's uh a book called Um Loving Those Who Drive You Crazy.
SPEAKER_02: And it's about our life together as a church.
SPEAKER_02: There's gonna be some people in whatever church you call home, and maybe you call city church home, who will drive you crazy.
SPEAKER_02: How do we love them?
SPEAKER_02: With humility, gentleness and patience.
SPEAKER_02: So what should we do?
SPEAKER_02: Guard the gift.
SPEAKER_02: How do we do it with those hard attitudes of humility, gentleness, and patience?
SPEAKER_02: But why?
SPEAKER_02: Why do we pursue unity like this?
SPEAKER_02: Well, because a unity like this reflects to the world what God is like.
SPEAKER_02: Paul goes on in verses four to six to talk about uh the oneness of God.
SPEAKER_02: He has seven times he says the word one.
SPEAKER_02: There is therefore one body, one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord.
SPEAKER_02: That's the Lord Jesus, the Son, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
SPEAKER_02: One Spirit, one Son, one Father, and that's the God in whose image we're made.
SPEAKER_02: God is the source of our unity, but he is also the substance of our unity.
SPEAKER_02: We are united around these truths about him.
SPEAKER_02: That there is one spirit, one son, one father, one hope for all mankind.
SPEAKER_02: That Christ Himself loves one body.
SPEAKER_02: He loves no other bride but the church.
SPEAKER_02: So the unity that we make every effort to maintain is not just kind of warm fuzzies every time we see one another, though they're lovely to have, aren't they?
SPEAKER_02: But it's a united confession.
SPEAKER_02: It's yes, we affirm that we are following this God in this way together.
SPEAKER_02: That's the unity that we are forging and deepening.
SPEAKER_02: The unity of faith and knowledge.
SPEAKER_02: Indeed, that's what he says.
SPEAKER_02: Let me remember in verse 13 on down.
SPEAKER_02: He says, until we all attain the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God.
SPEAKER_02: This means that the basis of our unity as a church is not just how we feel towards one another, because our feelings can be pretty fickle, can't they?
SPEAKER_02: And we can kind of fall out with one another, and our feelings towards one another change.
SPEAKER_02: So it's not just feeling-based warm fuzzies.
SPEAKER_02: No, no, it's a shared commitment to a common confession, that we believe the same things.
SPEAKER_02: This is part of the problem with our world's kind of striving about unity, is that uh is that there isn't a shared common thing around which people unite.
SPEAKER_02: But for us here, we believe, as we affirm in our doctrinal basis, as you can read on our website, or anytime that we say something like the creed, we believe in the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: We believe in the uniqueness of Christ as the only way for salvation.
SPEAKER_02: We believe in the authority.
SPEAKER_02: Of the Bible, and I could go on and on and on.
SPEAKER_02: But these, brothers and sisters, are the sheet music of the symphony that we play.
SPEAKER_02: So there's a shared stewardship for each of us.
SPEAKER_02: That if you enjoy the blessing of the unity of city church, you also shoulder the responsibility of maintaining it with us in humility, gentleness, patience.
SPEAKER_02: But there is something else that enriches our unity.
SPEAKER_02: And this is where Paul goes on to talk about the thing that enriches our unity is our diversity.
SPEAKER_02: Is our difference.
SPEAKER_02: And so this is point two this morning, point two of three, which is celebrate the difference.
SPEAKER_02: Think of the orchestra again.
SPEAKER_02: What makes the orchestra beautiful?
SPEAKER_02: It's not that every instrument is the same.
SPEAKER_02: An orchestra would be less beautiful if everything else was just if everything was just a trumpet.
SPEAKER_02: Or if everything was just a triangle.
SPEAKER_02: Can you imagine?
SPEAKER_02: It'd be strange, wouldn't it?
SPEAKER_02: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_02: The beauty of the orchestra lies in its diverse harmony, its diverse unity.
SPEAKER_02: Together, different instruments joining to make one harmonious, stirring sound.
SPEAKER_02: And so it is with us.
SPEAKER_02: Christian unity, hear me.
SPEAKER_02: Christian unity is not uniformity.
SPEAKER_02: Uniformity is the flattening out of all difference.
SPEAKER_02: Whereas we've just seen that we worship a God who is triune, father, son, and spirit.
SPEAKER_02: They are different.
SPEAKER_02: The Father is not the Son.
SPEAKER_02: The Spirit is not the Father.
SPEAKER_02: The Son is not the Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: Standard Christian Trinitarian theology for you there, first thing on a Sunday morning.
SPEAKER_02: You're welcome.
SPEAKER_02: And yet they are one.
SPEAKER_02: We worship a God who is Trinity in unity, diverse and unified.
SPEAKER_02: That's the God in whose image we're made.
SPEAKER_02: And so it makes sense, therefore, for Paul, when he's heaped up all of these ones, and then with the ones come a bunch of alls.
SPEAKER_02: So verse six, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
SPEAKER_02: Verse seven, but grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.
SPEAKER_02: Do you see how Christianity holds together intention the value and worth of the individual and the goodness of the corporate, the gathered, the tribe?
SPEAKER_02: What our world does is a pendulum swings between the two.
SPEAKER_02: That it's all just about uh corporate and you know, my tribe against your tribe.
SPEAKER_02: And people react to that and say, no, we're all individuals.
SPEAKER_02: What's Christianity's answer?
SPEAKER_02: Christianity's answer is yes.
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
SPEAKER_02: There is goodness and dignity in the individual, and the individual is brought together like in an orchestra to participate in something greater.
SPEAKER_02: And so he says that each individual has been regarded, and each individual has been given a gift.
SPEAKER_02: He's been given a grace gift.
SPEAKER_02: And who is the giver?
SPEAKER_02: Well, the giver is the risen and victorious Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: That's what he goes on to say when he quotes Psalm 68.
SPEAKER_02: When he ascended on high, he led a host of captives and gave gifts to men.
SPEAKER_02: Then he goes on to kind of say, Well, by the way, what I mean by that is Jesus came down from heaven, he descended to the earth, he lived as a man, he lived a perfect life, he died a death in our place, and then was resurrected physically, bodily in history three days later.
SPEAKER_02: And as a consequence of that victorious resurrection and ascension, he has given to the church, to individuals, gifts in order that they might invest in, maintain, grow that unity that he has called us all to.
SPEAKER_02: He is the giver.
SPEAKER_02: And what does he give?
SPEAKER_02: Well, he gives gifts to the church, spiritual capacities, insights, abilities.
SPEAKER_02: Each of us has a measure of grace, something entrusted to us by Christ to build up his body.
SPEAKER_02: No gift is insignificant.
SPEAKER_02: If you are the triangle player in the body of Christ, you are regarded and loved, and your gift is not insignificant or incidental.
SPEAKER_02: Because Christ Himself is the giver.
SPEAKER_02: But after the Ephesians series in November, we're moving on to doing a series on the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: And one of the things that we'll do is we'll think more about the gifts of the Holy Spirit then.
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
SPEAKER_02: So I'm going to park some of the questions that you might have, but you gotta keep on coming back, right?
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna look at this in just a few weeks' time.
SPEAKER_02: Because where Paul goes here is not simply that Christ gives people gifts.
SPEAKER_02: No, what he goes on to say in verse 11 is that he gives people as gifts to the church.
SPEAKER_02: Do you see that?
SPEAKER_02: Verse 11.
SPEAKER_02: And he, that's Jesus, and he give the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the shepherd teachers, it's one office, to equip the saints for the work of ministry.
SPEAKER_02: But not only does Jesus give you, a believer, grace gifts by his Holy Spirit, no, no, he gives to his church people.
SPEAKER_02: And those people are gifts, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastor teachers, the risen Lord Jesus gives people to his church.
SPEAKER_02: Now, there could be a long discussion that I'm not going to go into about whether or not that those first two designations, the apostles and prophets, here refer to those uh functional figures that give us the the New Testament, or whether Paul has in mind some ongoing uh pioneering or preaching giftedness that God still gives today.
SPEAKER_02: Again, we can talk about that in the next series.
SPEAKER_02: Either way, Paul's point is the same.
SPEAKER_02: He's not drawing up a leadership charm, rather, he's showing that Christ Himself gives diverse people as gifts to his church.
SPEAKER_02: That means for us, brothers and sisters, that our differences, our diversity, our different temperaments, our different strengths and weaknesses are not a bug.
SPEAKER_02: They're a feature.
SPEAKER_02: They are part of how our life is to be done.
SPEAKER_02: Our God is one and three, united and diverse, and we are his image-bearers.
SPEAKER_02: So in Christ, the differences that we have should not lead us to comparison or to envy.
SPEAKER_02: There's nothing that will steal your joy or delight in who God has made you to be like envy.
SPEAKER_02: Envy is a rot in your bones.
SPEAKER_02: Or hostility, fear, how beautiful somebody else's gifts are.
SPEAKER_02: Each person, each people group, each nation gathered here this morning gives different and unique ways of glorifying God, and that is to be celebrated.
SPEAKER_02: Christ's gift of people means that things like structure, leadership in the church is therefore not to be feared or rejected, that it is something for the flourishing of the body.
SPEAKER_02: Now, of course, there can be bad shepherds.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible, read the book of Ezekiel.
SPEAKER_02: God takes major issue with bad shepherds who do not tend the flock well.
SPEAKER_02: And there can be bad shepherds in Christ's church yet today.
SPEAKER_02: But we need to be careful that we don't throw out the theological baby with the bathwater.
SPEAKER_02: The shepherds and teachers and evangelists, those structures, those people that have been given to the church are for the church's upbuilding.
SPEAKER_02: They are gifts by the risen Christ to his church.
SPEAKER_02: And why does Jesus give leaders to his church?
SPEAKER_02: Well, Paul says in verse 12.
SPEAKER_02: He gave apostles and prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers.
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: To equip the saints for the work of ministry and for the building up of the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Here's a question for you.
SPEAKER_02: Who does the work of Christian ministry in City Church?
SPEAKER_02: Is it me?
SPEAKER_02: Because that's what you pay me for?
SPEAKER_02: Or do we have like a professional class?
SPEAKER_02: Should I get my dog collar on and come in here like you're like you're a priest?
SPEAKER_02: I have it at home.
SPEAKER_02: Some of you get weirded out when I wear it.
SPEAKER_02: No, it's you, the saints, who do the work of ministry.
SPEAKER_02: Here's an analogy that I've that I've used before.
SPEAKER_02: Imagine imagine a stadium.
SPEAKER_02: Imagine the Aviva or Krog Park, right?
SPEAKER_02: In a stadium like that, like the Aviva, there can be this sort of mindset that the professional class pastor, me and Peter and Ben, that we're the ones who are on the pitch playing whatever sports we're sporting, right?
SPEAKER_02: And that it's you guys who are in the stands cheering us on.
SPEAKER_02: Give me an M, give me an A, right?
SPEAKER_02: But Paul's analogy is different.
SPEAKER_02: Paul's analogy is not that it's the professional class that are on the pitch, but that it's you guys.
SPEAKER_02: You're on the pitch.
SPEAKER_02: And we're like, we're like player coaches.
SPEAKER_02: We're kind of we're in the dugout, we're on the sidelines.
SPEAKER_02: We're there at training.
SPEAKER_02: That's what that's what's happening right now.
SPEAKER_02: You're there at training.
SPEAKER_02: And then as you go out into the world, you're on the pitch.
SPEAKER_02: You're playing, you're living your life for Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And who's in the stands in this analogy?
SPEAKER_02: The watching world.
SPEAKER_02: Every non-Christian family member, friend, and classmate, they're all watching on.
SPEAKER_02: They're saying, How are you living?
SPEAKER_02: How are you walking in a manner worthy of Christ Jesus, right?
SPEAKER_02: And we're your coaches.
SPEAKER_02: We're the ones designed to equip and train and encourage and nurture you as you pursue Him.
SPEAKER_02: What does that mean for my role?
SPEAKER_02: What does that mean for the role of the pastors here at City Church?
SPEAKER_02: What that means is that when we teach in a way that forms and encourages you around those shared convictions that deepen our unity towards one another, this is how we care for you.
SPEAKER_02: This is how we equip you.
SPEAKER_02: When we model and encourage godly character, this is how we care for you.
SPEAKER_02: This is how we are equipping you.
SPEAKER_02: When we seek to invest in, develop, train others for leadership, this is how we care for you.
SPEAKER_02: This is how we are equipping you, especially as the church grows.
SPEAKER_02: And so we celebrate our diversity together, and that Christ has given godly leadership to his church that we together might show the watching world the beauty of the diverse unity that he has called us to.
SPEAKER_02: Finally, having been encouraged to guard the unity and having hopefully this desire to celebrate the diverse gifts amongst us, we must ask, what is the end goal of all of it?
SPEAKER_02: And so our third point is pursue the growth.
SPEAKER_02: Paul's objective with all of this as we finish, and this is a shorter point than the other ones, that as we finish, is that we might become more and more mature in Christ.
SPEAKER_02: The reason why Paul wants us to strive for unity is not as an end in itself.
SPEAKER_02: No, the goal for exercising our diverse gifts together is maturity.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 13, until we attain the unity of the faith and of knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we are no longer like children, tossed to and fro by the waves, carried about by every wind of doctrine and by human cunning and craftiness and deceitful schemes.
SPEAKER_02: What's City's mission?
SPEAKER_02: City's mission is to connect people to Jesus, to grow them to spiritual maturity, that they might serve the community and go to the nation.
SPEAKER_02: This is why we have grow as the second of our four mission verbs.
SPEAKER_02: Connect grow, serve, go.
SPEAKER_02: That having been brought into relationship with Jesus, Paul's encouragement to you is to grow to maturity, to move deeper into our shared convictions, our shared confidence in who Jesus is and who he calls us to be, in order that we might be more mature as followers of him.
SPEAKER_02: And Paul shows us what this maturity looks like with these three images.
SPEAKER_02: Firstly, that he doesn't want us to be like children tossed to and fro.
SPEAKER_02: It's the idea of increased stability.
SPEAKER_02: Imagine a rickety little raft full of small children.
SPEAKER_02: A storm whips up.
SPEAKER_02: And they're doomed.
SPEAKER_02: Paul's saying, I don't want you to be like that.
SPEAKER_02: I want you not to be like little rickety rafts, but of great container ships that are way down in the water so that whatever comes your way, whatever trial breaks over your bow, that you will stay planted in that water.
SPEAKER_02: That nothing will capsize or wreck your soul, your confidence in who Jesus is.
SPEAKER_02: We pursue unity together so that each of us individually and as a church would be rooted with that degree of ballast in our boats.
SPEAKER_02: That we might be able to persevere through every trial, that we might be able to discern when somebody's trying to deceive us, pull the wool over our eyes, that we might have wisdom to know how best to live.
SPEAKER_02: And then secondly, he says that we are to be that maturity looks like a people speaking the truth in love.
SPEAKER_02: When I was in my early 20s, which, given that I'm 40 next year, feels a very long time ago.
SPEAKER_02: When I was in my early 20s, I loved to speak the truth, and I couldn't give a crap about speaking the truth in love.
SPEAKER_02: I was far more interested in winning arguments than winning people.
SPEAKER_02: And so these verses are a rebuke to me.
SPEAKER_02: Why was I like that?
SPEAKER_02: Because I was immature.
SPEAKER_02: I thought that I was mature because I knew a lot, but actually I had lots of room to grow and still do.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe sitting there going, I haven't perceived much of a change, but thanks very much.
SPEAKER_02: Other Christians go the other way, and they prefer only to speak love.
SPEAKER_02: And actually their struggle is to stand out for truth, is to speak those truthing words, because they they don't like to kind of go on the offensive or be perceived to be going on the offensive, and so they soften things down, and so it's worth thinking where does your heart naturally go?
SPEAKER_02: Are you like me?
SPEAKER_02: You're naturally a truther, right?
SPEAKER_02: Sol the love, let's just go for the truth, right?
SPEAKER_02: Or your person over here is like, no, no, it's gotta be the it's gotta be the love, right?
SPEAKER_02: We don't want to offend people, just be nice, affirming.
SPEAKER_02: What's Paul say?
SPEAKER_02: Speak the truth in love.
SPEAKER_02: That's Christian maturity.
SPEAKER_02: That we have the courage to speak even though it might not be received the way that we would hope.
SPEAKER_02: That we have the courage to speak because of our rootedness in Jesus, and that we have love for others as we speak, because we are rooted in the gentle Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And the final image that Paul gives is that together as we pursue this unity, we as a body, we build ourselves up, that this building becomes an organism held together by every sinew of relationship and every ligament of love.
SPEAKER_02: That is we seek the good for each other, each person serving, each person giving, each person seeking the well-being and advancement of the other, we grow up together.
SPEAKER_02: When a church builds itself up in love, it is seen in all of the quiet places.
SPEAKER_02: When members take a meal for a new mother, when someone prays for a struggling friend after the service when a mature believer sees somebody younger in the faith and says, Hey, why don't we meet regularly?
SPEAKER_02: Let's read the Bible together.
SPEAKER_02: Let's jump on a WhatsApp call.
SPEAKER_02: Every Wednesday lunchtime, just for half an hour, we're gonna pray together.
SPEAKER_02: Let's do that.
SPEAKER_02: It's when we forgive And when forgiveness replaces the resentment of a strained relationship.
SPEAKER_02: It's seen in teams serving joyfully.
SPEAKER_02: Even when what they do goes largely unseen.
SPEAKER_02: Our church does not grow by accident.
SPEAKER_02: It grows as each one of us decides to love, to forgive, to serve, to give, to pray, to encourage.
SPEAKER_02: Every conversation that we have after the service in just a few moments, every act of generosity, every word filled with truth spoken kindly.
SPEAKER_02: That's the brickwork of the house of God.
SPEAKER_02: That is what it is to build ourselves up in love.
SPEAKER_02: And it is the goal of our unity.
SPEAKER_02: As we follow Him, the Lord Jesus, the great conductor of that eternal symphony to which all in City Church Dublin are called.
SPEAKER_02: And our unity is the harmony that He leads us into.
SPEAKER_02: So may God bless the reading and the preaching of His Word, and may He by His Spirit bring about that deeper unity that He calls us to.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: If you found this helpful or want to know more about City Church Dublin, visit our website found in the links below.