The Holy Spirit - Ephesians 4:1

Hey guys, thanks for listening to our Calvary Chapel Charlotte podcast. I will walk by faith and not by sight.

Good evening. We're going to be in Ephesians chapter 4 tonight. My name is Aaron. I haven't met y'all. No, I've met all y'all.

You're good. So I'm not going to do much introduction here. But as far as what we're going to be talking about tonight, we've been walking through this study on the Holy Spirit, right?

So we are in it. So I get to pick up spot number five. So last week we were talking about the operating system, the Holy Spirit being the operations manager. That was great talking to John.

That's been his role for most of his professional career. So, so much of that stuff fit with the job description that he is. You know, so it, that is how the Holy Spirit loves to work, right?

Getting to be the operations manager. Tonight we're going to be looking now. Now, this is that part where in the epistles, Paul and the others begin to kind of break down the workings.

And we get kind of more in-depth picture and a little bit more detail in that, right? So that's what we're starting. I'm kicking that part off tonight. We're going to be looking at the Ephesians four for it. But yeah, the Holy Spirit, he, he likes to work in the background.

The, one of my favorite pictures of, of the Holy Spirit working in the old Testament is actually Abraham when he is wanting to take a bride for his son, Isaac, right?

And he calls over his servant. And through that whole narrative of that part where he's sending off his servant, the servants never named, we know the name because in other places it actually says it, but it's Eliezer, but he's, he's a picture of the Holy Spirit.

You've got Abraham, the father, Isaac, the son. He's going off to get a bride for the son, Isaac. He's not named. He comes bearing gifts, gives them to the bride. Rebecca brings her back, bring, you know, never gets to see the son until she's on the way back and she sees him face to face, right?

Like it's an amazing picture, but it pictures so much of how the Holy Spirit works and functions. He wants to be in the background, right? And even in that, before we were really getting in, I just wanted to kind of, kind of lay some of the ground, some of the groundwork, at least for what I'm going to be talking about tonight, um, where you have, uh, like the grand plan, you know, Jesus, why was he coming into the world in the first place, coming to the cross, right?

The father set out this plan from, you know, long before so that Jesus would come. He'd come and die on the cross, right? He, he comes, he dies on the cross and he's gaining back what we lost in the garden, what Adam forfeited before that, right?

There was a relationship with the, with the Lord. We were, that got forfeited now because we were separated by sin. He's obviously now on the cross, he's atoning for sin. His blood pays for that.

And then in him, our old nature dies. We don't have to be slaves to sin anymore, right? And that's almost getting, that's basically getting us back to kind of square one in that sense.

But in the cross, that's not where it stopped. He went ahead and took it steps further than that as well. He went ahead. And Jesus was called the, the one and only son, right?

How's John 3, 16 say for God, so loved the world. He gave his only begotten son at that time. That was the only son. Later on, you find it's calling Jesus one of many brethren, right?

And he's, he's the first born among many brethren. Sorry. I'll put that a little bit better. He's not, God wanted to be able to, God, the father wanted to bring more of us into the family.

He wanted sons and daughters, not just one. He wanted, he wanted so many of the rest of us. And then just like in the picture, Abraham, Isaac, he wanted a bride for his son. He, the two shall become one.

There'll be one flesh. He wanted a body there. He wanted a physical body of Jesus Christ in this world to be able to, well, to be able to interact with this material world here.

One of the ones that Jared hit on Sunday, he put up there, it was John 17, 21. And this was, that's part of the high priestly prayer that Jesus is praying.

And he says in that part, he says that they all may be one as you father and I, wait, that they all may be one as you father are in me and I in you, that they may also be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me.

There's this unity. There was this, uh, part of getting to be together for the purpose that the world might believe that Jesus sent, was sent by the father.

Right. And so we're going to get to talk tonight, how the Holy spirit plays and we're going to, or the part that he plays in securing that final part there, being a body, having a body for Christ here in this world.

And how does it, how does he function? What, what parts do we play? What does that look like? As we get into Ephesians chapter four, then, um, this is, uh, as we get in verse one, I, therefore, Paul being the one who wrote this, I, therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation or the calling wherewith you are called.

Now, any good Calvary chapel, uh, spot in the church that you come to, when you hit the word, therefore, you always got to remember what is it there for, right?

That's just a part of it. This is part of keeping the Bible in context here to four within the book of Ephesians. Paul has been writing from this grand standpoint of the heavens.

What has the Lord done? Who is he? All that he has done on your behalf. Who are you now in him? And as he gets to chapter four, he's going, okay, now in light of all of this majesty and grandeur, now I want you to walk worthy of the calling wherewith you were called.

And this becomes Paul's plea and, uh, to, to go ahead, not to do it to please God, but because, well, you are already pleasing to him. You, he already loves you.

He's already done so much here. This should be the right response. And so he says, okay, I beseech you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called.

And then with that calling, what does it look like? Verse two says with all lowliness and meekness, long suffering for bearing one another in love.

And we're going to get to the Holy Spirit part, but these are just such good verses that we're not going to like run over this. There's going to be, I get this chunk here. Uh, we're going to cover down through 16 tonight.

Um, and there are parts that I'm going to be tempted to like run off, but we are going to refrain. Uh, we are going to try to stick to and stay on top of, uh, what the Holy Spirit is doing. Um, but, um, this is one of those walk worthy of the calling.

What's the calling, right? That what you were called, wherewith you were called. What's that calling? Well, the calling is to come to Christ.

The calling is to come be part of the family. Hey, I, I, I made a way for you to be right with the father, to be right with God. Come, right? That's the call.

And, uh, so for those who are called, the ones who have accepted the call who are now walking with the Lord. Okay. What does that actually look like?

Well, it looks like walking with all lowliness. Can I, can I tell y'all I've been studying the Bible for, I don't know, 20 plus years now. Um, I love the word. I had never heard it put lowliness.

I heard this one, uh, this morning actually. Um, but it's, it's meaning being okay. Uh, it had the idea of like being okay when you're not the one in charge, you're not the one running it.

You're the one in shotgun or in the back seat and being okay that I'm not the one driving the car, right? Have y'all ever met folks who are just not okay if they're not the ones running the show and running everything else? Okay.

If I hit somebody, you know, I'm sorry. Uh, but right with all lowliness, with meekness, meekness is just power under control. I've got the ability to take action, but I can, it's under control here, right?

That's the, that's meekness with long suffering. That's one of those, uh, that just kind of spells out itself, right? Suffering long. Nobody likes to suffer long here.

Uh, but that's one of the attributes that God claims as, as for himself going back to the burning bush, right? Uh, this is, this is who he is and then for bearing one another in love, just bearing up one another, right?

It's interesting because all, all of these here would have the idea that there is roughness. There's conflict. Not everything is perfectly smooth sailing, right?

You don't need to be, uh, have lowliness if you're the one driving the car and everybody's okay with it, right? You don't need meekness if, uh, you're not ready to get wound up and ready to do something, but you're going to restrain, you know what I mean?

Uh, for bearing with one another in love, right? Obviously you don't want to bear that, but he's telling you, no, because of love, bear this burden, take it on with them, right?

There's, there's a side of working with others, being in relationship with people. It's not always easy, but this is what the Holy Spirit is there for is to be able to, because this is the picture of what Christ, who he, who he was, what he had done.

And now by his spirit, we can do these as well. This is part of the call then is to walk with all lowliness, meekness, long suffering, forbearing one another in love, that agape love, self-sacrificial, right?

Given over to others for their betterment, not for my own. Yep. It's a humility thing. And he says here, as it goes on, as he's describing this, he says, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.

And so this is, you know, for our study tonight, then Holy Spirit, this is the first mention of it here in this section as we come to and notice what it's talking about. Now, the spirit, there's a unity in there and there's a bond of peace.

The spirit is the one that brings the Holy Spirit. He brings unity because now we are all brought in underneath of, well, of the Lord and of his gospel and of who he is, what he's done.

And now you've got this indwelling of him himself. The Holy Spirit now dwells in you and you are now grafted in as part of the family, part of the body. So there's a unity there. It says in the bond of peace.

Well, Jesus Christ is our peace, it says. And so now we are to endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit.

He's the one who brings that unity in the first place. Have y'all ever noticed y'all been around other Christians? They don't necessarily have to be from Calvary Chapel here. They can be from the Baptist church down the block. They can be from the, you know, Pentecost or wherever else.

But you bump into them. One of my boys' favorite quotes of Pastor Jared is, when you find one in the wild, you know, and you happen to catch one and you look at, you know, you're walking by the desk and there's a Bible sitting over there and you look at them like, hey, what is that?

Do you actually read that thing? You know? Yeah, I do. You know, they're kind of looking at you. He's like, oh, good. I do too. Oh, you know. Do you really love this? You believe that? Oh, it's so great.

Wow. You know, there's a unity. I mean, even just sitting and talking and, you know, just getting to hear what the Lord is doing. There's this knitting that happens in those conversations that don't just happen with everybody else.

Right? Y'all know what I'm saying? What I'm talking about? That's that unity in the spirit. And it goes much bigger than denominations.

That's not, you know, if you are in him, you are in Christ, you are in his spirit, you are part of his body. Well, there's a unity there. And I always breaks my heart to see how it doesn't always feel that way.

Right? But that's his desire. And that's who he calls us to be, is that with that unity across the body. And so he does say, hey, endeavoring to keep the unity. There is a unity.

You didn't produce that. That's not me and you to make up. But he says, hey, work not to break it. How do you work not to break it? Well, you got to walk in those things that we were just talking about.

Lowliness, meekness, long suffering, forbearing. That's part of how you do that. You look, love, love covers a multitude of sins. Right? It overlooks.

That's the glory of it. I'm shooting a lot off the cuff. And if I am misquoting some of those, I'm so sorry. I know what I was aiming for, but I apologize. Been a lot this week.

But anyway, in this one then, that's what he's saying. Hey, endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit. And then he goes on to go ahead, verse 4, 5, 4, 5, and 6 here.

He says, there is one body, one spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all.

And you almost feel like there should be like this crescendo, amen, right there behind it. But if you notice, there's seven ones. You know, of course there's seven.

That would only make sense. But you've got, you've got, there's one body and one spirit. And this would be the theme of what we're going to really be laying into this evening then, is one body, because there's one body of Christ, and it's one spirit.

It's his spirit that's the one that produces this, that knits us together, that has us working all as one, functioning together. And so there's one body, one spirit, even as you were called in one hope of your calling, that hope that one day, soon and very soon, right, we will see him face to face.

It's that hope that purifies, that Paul talks about in the book of Titus. And now, if you are in Christ, you're part of the body, you know, I realize I'm preaching to the choir here.

Like, the folks who are here, y'all are the ones who are here, because you are here. All of us in here, no problem.

All seven of these, you can go, am I part of this one? Yep. Do I take part in this one? Yep, yep, yep, yep. The first three are probably the most exclusive out of the bunch. There are ones who would, you could probably find there are ones who would claim, yes, there's one Lord, one faith, one baptism, but are they actually part of the body?

Are they actually taking part in the spirit? Do they legitimately have that hope as their hope then? There are folks who fill pews who I'm sure are on the wrong side of that one then, right?

We just pray for them, that they would be, that the Lord would grab a hold of them, and that he'd usher them into what all he has for them. There is so much more. And so, and the same with the last one.

Everybody at least is under that one. There is one God and Father of all, who is above all, through all, and in you all. And it's this God, this Lord, who's the one who, as he moves on, he says, okay, but, verse seven, but unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.

And so here we're starting to get into now, okay, when the Holy Spirit came, he gave gifts. This was just part of what he does. He likes to give gifts.

And it's grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. And he's going to go ahead and say, verse eight, nine, and ten, we'll kind of get through this one. He says, And so he's just saying here, this is from Jesus.

The one who died, was buried, who rose again, and then later ascended up on high, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father to the praise of all of us that he is there.

And it's this one who now is the one giving the gifts, right? So it's just demonstrating that he is the exalted one here is what Paul's kind of going for in this.

And he's saying that he's the one who gave gifts. And he gave gifts to all of us here. And then he begins in verse 11. He says, And he, Jesus, this one who died, was buried, rose again, and now is ascended on high.

He is the one who gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.

So he's the one who gave. And if you notice this, it doesn't say he gave some to be. I would almost feel like that's how it should read, right?

He gave some to be these things. But it doesn't say that. It says he gave some apostles for the perfecting of the saints, for the equipping of the saints. He gave some prophets for the perfecting of the saints.

He gave some evangelists. He gave some pastors and teachers. The gift here that's being given are the people. He's kind of now, you know, we back out here.

Sorry, I'm in the text. Let me pull out for a second. You know, he's here. He's talking about leadership roles within the church, right? That's what we're looking at here as we go through talking about apostles, prophets, evangelists.

And then pastor-teachers is really lumped into one. You'll hear folks talking about the five-fold ministry. That's where they get this. But the pastor-teachers is one. So it's really four that are being talked about here.

And this is talking about kind of leadership roles within the church. But it's interesting because as you read that, he's really saying that he gave this pastor-teacher to the body for the perfecting of the saints.

It wasn't just that he gave for this person to be that this person might ascend and be. No, he's going, he's actually laying claim like, nope, Pastor Jared, we moved him.

I gave him right here to bless this part of the body for the equipping and edifying of the saints here for the work of the ministry. That they would be able to do the work of the ministry. And so I always found that one pretty interesting here as he's saying that.

Now, he gave some to be apostles. He gave some to be prophets, some evangelists, some pastor-teachers. Now, the apostles, apostles and prophets, right? If you flip back, you don't have to.

I can read it to you. But in Ephesians 2, verse 20, it says that we are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone.

In whom all the building fitly framed together grows unto a holy temple in the Lord. The apostles and the prophets early on were laying the foundation, right?

And they were the ones who had the authority to write scripture. You know, that was Paul. He was an apostle. You look through, you know, a bunch of these, Peter and Matthew. Those were the ones who were walking with Jesus, watched him do his ministry.

They were there for the crucifixion, the resurrection, the ascension. And then the church was birthed. Those were the ones who were laying out scripture and doing that, right?

So they, do we still have folks today who are apostles the same way? There are folks who I would say are apostles.

Apostles just mean probably a better, ambassador is probably a pretty good synonymous term, right? It means sent one. So you think about folks who are sent.

Do we have those today? Yeah. There's plenty of missionaries that you would say, yes, that is a sent one. They are an ambassador on behalf of Christ. But are they the same as, you know, James, John, and Peter, and Andrew?

No. Not quite the same, right? The same with the prophets, right? There were ones that the foundation was laid and now the house is being built. We're not relaying foundation up here.

We're pretty close to the rooftop now. You know what I mean? Like, we've laid most of this. We're not putting foundation on the tile up top. So those apostles back then, they had their specific work, the prophets too.

There are apostles today, like I said. I mean, we know a guy over in India, Paul. And he's, goodness, he's going into these remote portions, proclaiming the gospel.

Folks are getting saved. He's setting up churches. He's setting up elders, sending young men back to Bible college that he helped set up in another place. And he's probably started, I don't remember, 20 or 30 of these now.

And he's still going. You know, like that guy would, I would deem him in that kind of category, right? There are prophets. There are folks who come and will speak forth the word. Is it, well, the word of God, right?

That's all that it means to be a prophet is just to proclaim the word of God, right? The ones who come and proclaim the word of God, is it ever going to contradict the written word of God?

No. If it does, they're probably not of the same spirit, not of that one spirit that we were just seeing there. I heard another pastor, he was saying, if somebody comes and they go ahead and they say that they are an apostle or a prophet, maybe it's not right.

But I go ahead and discount them as soon as they've said that. It's just, it's weird. They made it weird. Okay. If you are and you're doing it, just do it. It's okay. You don't have to go ahead and proclaim that one. You know, just do what the Lord has given you to do.

That's fine. But then as we move on, then you got the evangelist, right? We've seen plenty of those folks are blessed with those. There's a gifting of that.

If you're in the pastor and teacher, you still do the work of it, even though that might not be quite your blessing. I've seen others where, you know, man, I've given the gospel in preaching and teaching plenty of times, but I still am pretty sure I've only led three to the Lord, you know, and all three of those live under my roof.

That like, that's, you know, it's like, okay, that's fine. That's not my gifting. I will do the work. I'll still proclaim. We'll do that. But okay. That's just not what the Lord has chosen to use.

Right. Instead is the pastor teacher, right? I love getting to teach the word. I love getting to take folks. This is, this is probably my favorite is actually to have the Wednesday night crowd because y'all are the serious ones.

So we get to just, uh, I get to pour into you. You already know what I'm talking about. I don't have to relay, you know, old foundation stuff. I can just kind of work and help grow and move you guys along.

And so that idea of the pastor teacher, that's the shepherd. And a lot of the way that they do that is by teaching. Right. And, uh, I mean, this is the way pastor Jared runs it.

He is a teacher at heart. If you ever get him in a corner and go, Hey, how does I'll have no fear. It will be explained. And there will be plenty of scripture to reference and back it all up. Right.

It's a beautiful thing. That's how it's supposed to be. And these folks are given. Why? Well, verse 12 for the perfecting of the saints, for the equipping of the saints.

This is what the job is by the Holy spirit to go ahead and perfect. You guys. There are a lot of churches that.

The evangelism time is what they believe services for churches for evangelism. So you bring everybody, all your unsaved friends in. Right. And it's not wrong, but this, I think there's a reason that the Calvary chapel, this Calvary chapel, other Calvary chapels that have been a part of why it's so, the Lord is moving and working in such cool ways because what the, the, the way that this church functions, kind of the underlying mode of operation is the folks who are in leadership here are going to go ahead and pour into you.

We're going to teach you the word of God. We're going to help expound on the words of God. And then from that, you will be well equipped to do the rest of that verse, the perfecting of the saints, the equipping of the saints for what purpose?

So then the saints can go and do the work of the ministry. And when you're doing that work of the ministry, that is edifying of the body of Christ. I've read this one before in times past and it almost, if you read it real fast and you have the commas in the old King James, it almost sounds like it's the pastor teacher or, well, the apostle, the prophets, the evangelist, and the pastor teachers, all of them are there for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry and for the edifying of the body of Christ.

It almost sounds like, well, you know, that's what these guys get paid to do. So you're supposed to be the one doing the work, right? That's almost how it sounds. But in practical application, as we've done it at Calvary, and as we see it here in this word, no, the job of the minister here is to feed the sheep.

And as the sheep are fed, well, healthy sheep reproduce healthy sheep. And so then the ministry happens. You go off, you're serving, you're proclaiming, you're filled with what the Lord is doing.

So you can't help but talk about it. And as you do, well, other folks are drawn in as well, right? There's, you know, the work of the ministry, it's serving. You know, I think about, I think about my wife in the back or, you know, we were, we were doing the kids stuff the other week, right?

Serving, serving, taking care of the kids, right? All the elementary school age. And then everybody comes back over to get their kids. They're ready to listen and hear because you took care of their kids.

So they want to know, all right, what do you got to say? It's a perfect opportunity. You've served them, you've blessed them. And now you've got opportunity to get to speak and to speak into them and to speak into their, their kids, their youngins who were there too, right?

There's such opportunities as you, as you get to do that. But that's the whole point, right? Equipping the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.

Edifying just means the building up, building up one another, right? And this is that, that idea then, the body of Christ. We are one. And we're going to be doing this until what?

Verse 13, excuse me, till we all come in the unity of the faith. There's that unity idea again. Till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

So we're going to be, we're going to be perfecting the saints so that you can be doing the work of the ministry, edifying the rest of the body so that we can all come to this unity of the faith, right?

Because you got to think everybody in here is in a different spot and walk in their life, right? There's different circumstances, different things that are going on. How do we bring the newbies, the everybody into where you're getting into this unity of the faith?

You got to keep serving. You got to keep growing. You got to keep teaching. The Lord is going to continue to do that. And it's a unity of the faith and a knowledge of the son of God.

There's the experiential knowledge. There's the, as you walk it out, there's the knowledge of the word and just the revelation that God gives. There's all of this. And as you do it, you come unto a perfect man or mature man unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

And again, it's not unto individual men. It's unto a man, unto one man. Again, one body, right? We're all coming together as a unit up to this maturity, this full stat, this maturity and the full stature of the body of Christ.

The full stature of Christ. That was such an interesting term. And I'm not going to lie. I really wanted to find more on it. If you find more on it later on, please let me know. Because I'm just going, gosh, the stature of the fullness of Christ?

Like, how big is that? How immense is that going to be then? But that's who we're called to come unto, right? In verse 14, he says that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.

You know, you think about backing up to verse 13, he was saying we come unto a perfect man or a mature man. You think about what is maturity then. And maturity is, in a lot of ways, is stability.

You know, versus verse 14, no more children who are tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine. This is part of coming up to be this mature man is you're now that rock, that steady one, you know, who's doesn't get moved.

And there's a part of being not moved in your doctrine, not moved in, well, in life. One of the songs that Kitty was singing there, it was just making me think about that, just the storms of life and being blown off.

And when, you know, when I was younger, you know, the littlest thing would just kind of, oh, my gosh, I can't believe it. God, where are you? What are you doing?

You know, God, this person nicked my car. Oh, you know, my world is falling apart now. You know, over the littlest stuff. Now, you know, I mean, train hits the house. All right. Lord, you got another one for us.

Okay. We'll keep walking it. You know, please, please, Lord, don't ever do that. But, you know, like you watch as the difference between a young man and a more mature man.

Right. And and you watch as the things that used to bother the younger man. Do they still bother the one who's older? You know, unfortunately, there are quite a few who have we've grown up and haven't really actually grown up.

Right. The maturity and the character hadn't necessarily caught up with the age number that's behind it. But. Man, that's that's part of what he's talking about growing us up into.

But, you know, the character, the knowledge, the unity, being measuring up to that that full stature. Right. Not getting tossed to and fro. Not by the slight of these cunning ones.

And then he juxtaposes that verse 15. But speaking the truth in love, you know, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.

You know, he talks about the being blown around every wind of doctrine by the slight of men in cunning craftiness who lie in wait to deceive.

In opposition to that, how are we supposed to act? We're not supposed to be cunning, crafty, lying, deceiving. No, we are supposed to speak the truth in love.

Y'all heard that term before. Truth in love. Truth in grace. Jesus was full of truth and grace. This is who we are supposed to be because you can't.

Growth won't happen otherwise. Right. If you're so loving that you're not truthful, you're just kind of coddling folks. You're not actually giving them what they need. Then they're not getting the truth. They're not going to know.

They're just going to keep wandering off feeling good about themselves as they wander off into the road. You know, there isn't that a pretty good example. Then, you know, toddlers run going out in the road, you know.

Oh, honey, I know that you want to go that way. Oh, it's okay. No, they're going to die. Like, that's not okay. You got to give them the truth. No, come back. Right. But if you do it too harsh, hey, you know, they might turn around and keep running.

You know, it might scare them too hard. You know, if you do it without love. No, hey, hey, I love you. I love you enough to tell you you're running to a cliff. Come on back. You know, I don't want to see you actually get hurt.

Truth in love. This is how we grow. And then he says, all right, that you may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ. And so, again, this is kind of pulling back the body imagery.

But it's interesting, right? Thinking about maturity. In our world, you know, I was just talking to my wife about the boys. My big ones, right? You give your kids, you give them roots, and you give them wings.

Right? And we've done pretty well at giving them roots. And they're getting at that time now where it's starting to be time. Give them wings, you know? I want them to start. Because the last thing I want is for a 40-year-old still living in my home, you know, playing video games.

That's not how this is going to go down. So, you know, you give them when they grow. And part of that sign of maturity is that they are less attached.

They're less needy for me to be doing things for them. Right? That's what it looks like in this world. But in Christ and in spiritual, no, it's actually the exact opposite. Right? We are growing up more into him.

More and more as you mature, now I am more intertwined with him. I am more dependent on him. And then as you notice here, too, this isn't an I thing.

Remember, we're still talking as a body. We're still talking as a collective, as a group. We're not only that I'm more intertwined with him. We all are more intertwined with him. And if you're closer to him and I am, too, then I think we're just all closer together anyway.

Right? That's kind of how that goes. That was always marriage advice. Right? If, you know, you got the triangle, Lord is at the top. You know, you and your spouse, you feel like you're way over here. Well, that's okay. You start seeking the Lord.

And as the spouse starts seeking the Lord, okay, well, at some point there, the three y'all are going to meet and it's going to be grand and glorious. Right? That's always the hard part is humbling yourself and turning and going back. Right? No amens.

No, that's okay. But this is him, right? We are growing up into him. Verse 15. In all things, which is the head, even Christ.

And verse 16. From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted or knitted together by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, making increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

This is that part where as a body, well, this is part of your, you're called to be part of the body. And if you're not being part of the body, well, then you're missing out and we're all missing out.

Right? That's the thing. That's it. I actually called, talked to Jared earlier today. And I'm like, yeah, you know, because what would happen if you're just a toe and you're trying to go live off by yourself?

That doesn't work really good. We all kind of went, oh, it's a little morbid. Maybe shouldn't do that. But here we are. Sorry. So you got to be part of the body.

You need to take part. There's a life giving source to it. There is. This is where the calling is. These gifts that are given. So the Holy Spirit is there. He's working in the background.

He's fueling me and you to walk worthy of that calling. But where is it meant to be done? It's meant to be done in community as part of the body. Right?

I mean, that was why, you know, going all the way back to verse two there. You know, okay, with lowliness, meekness, long suffering, forbearing one another in love. Because this is where the Holy Spirit and the gifts are meant to get used.

It's here. If you're only on your own lonesome and you're just watching online somewhere and not actually interacting with the rest of the body of Christ, you're not getting to be used with those. You're missing out on the blessing of giving, but also the part of receiving and being part of it.

And so that's why it says here, you know, the whole body fitly joined together. He's got, he was the grand architect. He's got the plan. He knows where you fit, what gifts he's given to you by his grace, by his design, by his, well, just everything of what he wants to see done.

And it's compacted together. Knit together is the, what it would say there as well. Knit together. We are knit together by that which every joint supplies.

Right? There's a supply that you have that otherwise we'd be missing out on. That I need to take part in and be part of. And that's why the Lone Ranger Christian thing never worked.

Those are the ones. There was a, one of my old pastors, he used to say, Christians are like bananas. Right? If you get separated from the bunch, what happens? You get peeled and eaten. All right? You got to stay part.

I'll let that take a minute. There you go, Cynthia. You know, you stay, you got to stay part of it. Stay with what the Lord is doing. And, and then as it is, it's by that every joint or according to the effectual working in the measure of every part.

He kind of goes over that every joint, every part, everything. Making increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. And he wraps everything back around to love again.

And it would only make sense. You know, God is love. The head of who we are in this body would be Jesus Christ, the embodiment of it. We're going to walk worthy.

We're going to be his body. We're going to be the outworking of him and his person here in this world. It has to be with agape love. It has to be. And that is how the body is edified is through that agape, that love.

And we're all, and we're built up and brought together by it. Because anything else, what's that going to do? If it's not loving, it just kind of repels everybody else, right?

You come into a church and everybody just kind of sitting smug, don't want to talk to anybody. How long do you stay there? You get one shot in church like that.

You know, we come visit one time and then we're out. No, it has to be in love and it has to be edified in itself. And this is what the Spirit does in the background as he unites us.

That the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. And he fitly, he joins us together fitly as a body. And we get to be that representation to the world here.

That going back to that one from John 17, that the world may believe that you sent me. You know, there's that part of where Jesus says to his disciples, you know, they will know you by your love for one another.

Right? And it's going to be, that's how this plays out. There's no other grouping like this where we can come together from vast backgrounds.

You know, every color, every, you know, rich, poor, whatever. I mean, you know, Paul would say, hey, there's no Jew, no Greek, no barbarian, Scythian, like, you know, the whole game. There's not.

It's just you are one in Christ now. All that other stuff takes a back seat. You know, I'm half Asian. I'm half, you know, whatever. Like, all that takes a back seat. I'm a Christian first.

I am a Christian. I am part of this body. I am part of not just this body, but the body of Christ as a whole. All the rest of that stuff takes a back seat.

I can now love because, well, now this is my brother. That's my sister. These are the ones. This is part of the body. I need what you have. I can't be an ear off there.

I can't be, you know, as it would say in other parts of the word, right? I got to be part and I need to play my part. The Lord gave these gifts and he's going to go through. Pastor Jared will go through more of the as we get into more of the gifts and the specifics there.

But he gives those to be used in community and to be used here in the church. And so, you know, I realize I'm speaking to the ones who probably do 90% of what happens in this church anyway, you know?

And so, first of all, thank you. You know, you guys are the ones. You're here on a Wednesday. This is not for the faint of heart. These are the ones who are.

There's a stableness. There's a maturity. There's a steadfastness to each of you and to each of your walk. And, you know, I get the privilege of being the one sitting here tonight, so I'm going to go ahead and take it.

You know, but just to say thank you guys for what you do and how you do. And, you know, the service that you give to the body here and abroad, I mean, this is, man, you're fulfilling exactly what the Lord is asking.

And I know most of y'all. It's not like you are going, all right, this is how I'm going to get brownie points. I got, yep, one more. Thank you, Lord. I sang one more song tonight, you know. No.

This is just, you just, the Lord, the Lord loves you. He's already done so much. And I know you. You're doing this in response to that. And you're just loving on the body.

And it's a beautiful thing. And it's good. And so this is definitely not a, like, all right, we need more folks to clean. We need more to serve, you know, sign up and serve. Like, no, you can.

I mean, if you want to, you can, of course. But, you know, no, y'all are doing, you're doing a good job. And so this is part of the, hey, attaboy. Y'all are doing well.

Continue, you know, until the Lord comes. This is what we do. And the Lord is going to continue to bless you guys. He's going to continue to bless the ministry. He's going to continue to bless his body, his bride.

And one fine day, soon, very soon, that one hope will get to see him. And the whole bride will get to come together. All as one body. It'll be a wonderful day. Amen, guys.

All right. Let me pray for us here. Well, Father, we just thank you. Lord, thank you that, well, we get to come together. We get to peek into your word.

And the grand majesty that you wrote out from before time began, from so long ago. This was your plan, Lord. This wasn't like Adam messed up and then you went, all right, plan B.

No, this was always plan A. You always wanted to go this route and to draw us in. And you had each of our names written in your book of life. And you had a part for us to play.

And you gave gifts to be able to make it happen. And you gave your Holy Spirit that you would live in us so that we can just follow hard after you. And you would be the one to do it. We just need to yield to you and to your spirit, Lord.

And, Dad, empower us to do so. Because we need help. We need you. We need you.

We need your life, your spirit to be able to walk worthy. We want to. But it will only be by you. So, Dad, thank you that you have made a way. Thank you that you have made it all possible.

We thank you for your Holy Spirit. And you're just good, Dad. We thank you. Bless these folks here, Lord. I pray that you would take them back home safe, Lord.

And bring us all back again. Getting to regather again this weekend, Lord. And so we do love you. We thank you. It's in Jesus' name we do pray. Amen.