Christ Is The Goal
Our Foundation And Mission • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Transcript
Call To Worship
Call To Worship
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah.
Clap your hands, all peoples!
Shout to God with loud songs of joy!
For the Lord, the Most High, is to be feared,
a great king over all the earth.
He subdued peoples under us,
and nations under our feet.
He chose our heritage for us,
the pride of Jacob whom he loves. Selah
God has gone up with a shout,
the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.
Sing praises to God, sing praises!
Sing praises to our King, sing praises!
For God is the King of all the earth;
sing praises with a psalm!
God reigns over the nations;
God sits on his holy throne.
The princes of the peoples gather
as the people of the God of Abraham.
For the shields of the earth belong to God;
he is highly exalted!
Ephesians 4:11-16
Ephesians 4:11-16
Reading:
And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
Prayer
The kids are dismissed to class!
Sermon Title
We’ve been looking at our Foundation and Mission this fall.
Our Foundation: The Gospel
Our Mission: Making Disciples
Our Assembly: A diverse people saved by grace unified by the gospel and eagerly protecting that unity while we grow in faith and knowledge of God in Christ and build each other up to better make disciples.
We have some organization:
All of us who serve.
Some entitled “deacons” to ensure our people are served well.
Elders and Pastors. Same thing. to teach and encourage you to know Jesus, love Jesus, and follow Jesus.
When we all do this here, do our part with what God has given us, in terms of the people here and the gifts and abilities we all have, the results are amazing. That’s what I want to get into today. We’ve touched on it but now I want to explore it with you.
When we are all following Jesus together using the gifts He’s given us by the Holy Spirit, protecting our unity as we go...
We will grow up.
Not physically, that happens as long as we eat and sleep enough.
But mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
See God promised us to give us the people and gifts and keep doing so until… (stop at “children”)
until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.
The word translated “children” can refer to kids in general but also includes babies. Non-speaking infants.Metaphorically it’s used for immature people.
Many Christians don’t grow up.
What does that look like?
Christians who aren’t mature...
Don’t understand God’s Word.
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child.
This refers to the basics of Christian belief.
Think about what a child learns. Jesus is Lord. Love one another. It’s not about you, but God.
Some people never move past those things. They don’t understand what the Bible says or how it applies.
The solution: get into the Word.
Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—
As a baby has milk they eventually need the solid food.
But the milk is needed to grow up to that point.
Get into the Word.
Listen in church expecting to hear.
Come to a class.
READ IT YOURSELF. I can give you a good reading plan.
Another sign of Christians who lack maturity is...
When Christians cause division.
I don’t mean over the essentials of the faith. Yeah we have to divide on those.
But many Christians divide over many things we shouldn’t divide over.
Please turn to First Corinthians 3.
But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?
What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.
Dividing over preference, dividing over disputable matters, these things are immature matters of discernment.
Paul describes this as being childish.
The sad thing is that when people are doing this they call it being discerning, being mature. It’s NOT.
People who “know” the Bible do this a lot. Knowledge does not equal maturity. It’s a part of it, but not all.
We need to grow up. We need to learn and apply the Word and fight for unity within the boundaries of the clear teachings of the Bible.
And… this must stop too. Immature Christians...
Are stuck in worldly ways.
In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world.
Not the IFB “worldly”.
Biblical worldliness: It isn’t about God and his kingdom, it’s about me and mine.
Subtle- how can you tell?
Babies and kids are obsessed with being safe, comfortable, and getting what they think they want or deserve.
When a Christian is easily and often hurt or offended.
When one is hurt or offended and does not seek to resolve the matter, instead holding a grudge.
Cannot be inconvenienced or, when inconvenienced, holds that as a grudge.
Or the opposite: someone who says yes to everything in an attempt to feel like a good person, be liked by others, etc. until they burn out and resent everyone.
The solution is this- get back to the Sovereignty of God. This isn’t about you.
Final example of Christian immaturity: easily duped into false ideas and teaching.
Like a kid lured away by a stranger with candy or a good story.
Back to Ephesians 4… we need to grow up and mature..
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.
What are the waves- everything that shakes you.
Bad circumstances
People who offend or hurt you
Challenges in life.
Maturity makes you take these on.
Immaturity makes you want to give up.
Winds of doctrine and human cunning, deceitful schemes?
We’ve got this in spades.
God just loves you. (Your sin isn’t important).
There’s so many religions out there, who knows which one is right?
None of them need to be. You evolved. Science has answers that make you the master of your own destiny. or maybe society- a collective of “yous”. We get to decide what is good.
And that’s why we have every depravity and problem on the planet.
See how important this is?
If we do all we are supposed to do, God in us creates an environment in his Church that fosters maturity.
Our unity, and our investing and involving ourselves in each other leads to growing up and getting strong.
We will be strong against attack.
As I’ve said and as you know, the attacks are out there.
If we’re not attacking each other, we’ll be stronger to face the attackers out there.
You will know better and better, and we together will know bad doctrine when it comes.
I don’t mean stuff I disagree with but doesn’t take someone to a bad place.
I mean the stuff I talked about before that the world thinks makes so much sense.
And many Christians are being led away.
Sometimes subtly.
You might not believe in evolution, but you look the bible through the lens of science instead of looking at science through the lens of the Bible. God’s not sovereign anymore.
You might love Jesus, but you might love that boy or girl more.
I believe Jesus is king, but He doesn’t want me to lose my job or friends because I won’t use someone’s preferred pronouns, miss Sundays just because, take time to serve others instead of partying, etc.
You believe Jesus is king, but I’ve been at this church longer than anyone and they should listen to me. Isn’t that how it supposed to work?
As we mature, and get stronger- unmoved by the waves and wind of circumstance, persecution, and bad doctrine… because we rely on Him and serve each other with what He’s given...
We will become more and more like Jesus.
Paul says we will fulfill Christlikeness and thereby serve each other.
Because Jesus was all about serving others.
Back to Ephesians 4:15...
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.
The goal is truth and love.
You will never be more like Jesus than when you give and serve.
For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
When it isn’t about you.
it’s basic but we miss it so often.
And it’s critical because if we don’t learn to do this well, we’ll miss our mission.
We’ll fall off our foundation.
We’ll be back at the start needing milk again.
Being like Jesus involves knowledge
But it’s more about the knowledge changing you. It’s not about information.
it’s about transformation.
So let’s get at it.
Let’s be a church that serves each other.
Let’s be a church that reaches out to the community with the gospel, and blessing.
So that people will see the love of God and see Christ lifted up.
We are here to glorify God by following Jesus together and inviting other to join us as we follow Him.
Reflection
Are you in the habit of inviting people to church?
Are you in the habit of sharing your faith?
Are you using what God has given you to bless and equip your church in love?
Prayer