Week 10 Eph 4:7-16
Notes
Transcript
intro:
intro:
Hey, everybody, could to be with you tonight if we haven’t met my name is Zach Honnen I am the student and young and adult Director here at the River Grand Blanc, Young Adult
As you’re grabbing your seats, I have a couple announcements for you tonight:
Easter Egg Hunt volunteering:
We as a church are looking for volunteers to help out with our Easter egg hunt. There’s a variety of different roles from parking to guest services. If you’re interested, please let me know and we will work together and get you signed up for that.
Connection:
And if any of you are interested in joining the young adult GroupMe, this is where we put all the information for the events alive weekly updates about what’s happening at grand Blanc Young adults so feel free to grab me afterwards and we can get you connected there
But with all of that said if you have your Bibles, go ahead and open up to Ephesians chapter 4
We will be starting at verse seven so if you have your Bible, please open up there and if you don’t have a Bible, download a Bible app we believe God’s word is the most important thing that you could see today
Last week we spoke about unity and the bond of peace that we have in Christ
But this week we’re gonna look at how this unity flows into us working together to build up at the church to build up the body of Christ
We will look at the gifting that we have in Christ and how we can use those for each other
But before we jump into it, let’s pray…
7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.
What Paul is communicating is at each of us were given grace not just talking about salvation, but beyond that He is talking about the gift things that we have been given
In the next few verses, Paul will talk about the apostles, prophets, evangelist, and Shepherd’s specifically
But each, and every one of us in this room have been given spiritual gifts
And what that means is the Lord gives us a gift in order to build up one another and this is a grace from God
For some of us, we may have been given the gift of knowledge, wisdom, or discernment… Maybe the gift of mercy or cheerfulness Or zeal…
And each of these gifts can be used in different ways within the body of Christ
Leaning into this idea of unity, each of us have something to bring to the table, no matter who we are no matter our socioeconomic status, race or background we have something to bring to the table because of the gift that Christ has given us through the Holy Spirit
And you may be sitting here thinking you don’t have a gift and I’m gonna tell you that’s definitely not true
and if we sat down and looked at scripture together and had a short conversation, I’m sure we could figure out where your gifted and find a place for you to connect in the body of Christ
According to the Scriptures, each and every one of our gifting and our lives have value to add to the Collective body.
For those of you who are gifted with mercy, you help balance out people like me who struggled to have it
Or for those of you with the gifting of encouragement and care, you can help balance out people who are very harsh and uncaring naturally
So when it says the Grace was given to us, this is not just our salvation, but our giftings that were won through Jesus, by his death, burial, and resurrection,
which we look at a little bit starting in verse eight
8 Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.”
9 (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth?
10 He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.)
What’s being described here is that Jesus was once in heaven with God from eternity past, and then he descended to To the form of man
He trusted his omnipotence his ability to know everything into the hands of his father, to be exercised when he saw it fit, trusting in his will taking on Flesh in the form of a baby
And then living a lonely life as a servant, and then dying the death of a criminal and descending even farther into the regions of the Earth.
In 2 Corinthians 5:21 it says
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Having died, he also rose again, carrying victory, the keys to death, and Hades, taking with him the captives those who had believed, but had not yet been saved with him to heaven
And he sent the Holy Spirit to us to give us these gifting that we’ve talked about
And we look at verse 11 he talks about a few specific areas of these giftings
11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,
12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
13 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,
14 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 Lord established his apostles, profits, evangelist, shepherds, and teachers, with their own unique gifting in order to build up his church not this building not The River not a denomination or non-denomination, but to build up his people into his church
The apostles were John Peter, Paul, and the other disciples chosen as that people to lay the foundation. Paul often opens up with his title Paul and apostle of Christ.
This was written during the apostolic age, a time where the apostles were laying the foundations for what today is called the church they would go in, share the gospel build up a people to lead and then go to the next town
This is not an office that has passed down through generations. This was to begin the church.
This is like the match that likes the fire or the flywheel that starts the engine
When you turn the key or press the button to start your car, it goes REV REV REV and then it goes…
It doesn’t continually need that first motion that the starter with a flywheel, it runs on its own
And as long as it is fueled and maintained, it runs well the apostles where the flywheel that starter the thing to get this going and the Holy Spirit and the power of God and the people of the church are what keeps it going
So the apostles were for a time, but they were not meant to go for the rest of the time it’s not an office it’s been passed out
Similarly, we can look at the office of prophet
We see canonical Prophecy finished in the book of Revelation… There is no more prophesying that is meant to be in scripture that is meant to be Cannon
And we see this at the end of the book of Revelation saying that those who add to it will suffer the plagues within the book…
But in today’s world, and in today’s church, we have those who preach God’s word And the Holy Spirit uses them uses scripture in order to profess what God says to his people…
And today we also see shepherds, pastors, evangelist, and teachers
These roles are important and seem to be dying… I see very few people desiring to be evangelist, even less desiring to be shepherds…
There are plenty of people who want to be preachers… They want to stand on the stage and declare a message and receive the applause, but they don’t want to care for the needs or desires of people
They don’t want to take the time to study and teach doctrine, but they accept the praise in the Spotlight willingly
But these rolls were put in place by God to build up his church to grow his church… And again, each, and every one of us have different gifting, and those gifting put us into different roles within the church
But I wonder how many of us could evangelize share the gospel with people in our lives, but we’re too timid or afraid to…
We look at evangelism as something that you do in a different country or something that you pay someone else to go do instead of something you do in your own backyard
How many of us could step into these conversations talking about who Jesus is but we don’t because we just wanna stay comfortable…
And how many of us could step into teaching and mentorship roles within the church even within this group but we’re afraid to even mention it or ask for next steps Because we think we would fail…
Tonight, if these things are true, if you are afraid to step in to a God has for you if you aren’t uncomfortable with these things, I want to encourage you God hasn’t called you to be comfortable
Courage isn’t the lack of fear but action in despite of fear… Stepping into what God has for you in Faith knowing that he is able to do more than you could ever imagine
And this isn’t me saying, quit your job and become a pastor or leave for the mission field. This is saying share the Gospel and join in what the church is doing.
We are gifted in different ways, and those gifting must be brought together in order to identify and grow the church.
If we want to see The Church Road what did that be The River grand blank or other churches we must get involved and step into our calling Relying on the Holy Spirit.
If you want to see this growth community grow, we need to step into these roles that are to identify and build up the body
We must step in to teaching we must step in to serving we must step into evangelism and pastoral care…
Last week the church had one of our oldest members speak before all of the staff and doing a little Q&A
And one of the things that she said was at the beginning years and years and years ago before The River was even The River people would get saved, and then they would get to work
That’s how the church was built and grown, and we see the same thing here in our passage
but order for something to stand the test of time it must be built on a firm foundation
Looking back at versus 13 and 14…
Eph 4:13-14
13 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,
14 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.
As we are saved, we must grow, and as we grow, we must serve, but in order to serve, we must be built upon the foundation of Christ
Our life must be wrapped around the knowledge of who he is spent in scripture and in study and in community
These things help us grow and protect us from every Instagram post Facebook post and comment from a coworker that says the Bible is false… Or the twist scripture in order to prove their poin
Stable doctrine, which is provided by good teachers, mentorship provided by good pastors, and all of this made possible by someone who shared the gospel with that teacher with that pastor and with you
These things are required in order for any church, any ministry to be stable and to stand the test of time, but it requires us to take action
Us to recognize our gifting and grow in them
These things have been established within the church to protect us from their attacks and lies of those around us and of the enemy…
And when we’re built on the truth, we had a stable foundation in order to share the truth with others with the love of Christ
Looking at verse 15
15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,
16 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.
We are joining together in one body, unified by the love of Christ and equipped with the gifts that he has given
If we want to see growth in our lives, we must pour into others and have other others pour in to us
If you want to seek growth in the church, we must pour out the gospel to others and be poured into you by those around us
And if you want to see this grow community grow, if you want to see grand blank young adults, grow it requires us to share the gospel with others and a pour in to one another
Stepping into our gifting, stepping into responsibility, though it is uncomfortable that we do not enjoy it in the moment it produces fruit in the end
Tonight, are you stepping into your gifting? or are you sitting on the sidelines?
And before we close, if you’re here and you don’t know who Jesus is, if you don’t know what the gospel is, I want to invite you. He is the savior of the world. He lived the life we could not live. He died the death that we deserved.
And according to Romans 10:9
9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
If you would like To be made right with God tonight, I’d love to talk with you in prayer with you and celebrate with you and that
but with all of that side, let’s pray
