Logan Ordination Service

Protect the unity of the church.

1. You should expect your pastor to protect the fruit of the Gospel.

· Ephesians – basics of Christian faith followed by instructions on how to live it out.

· Ephesians – basics of Christian faith followed by instructions on how to live it out.

· We are the household of God – if we are a family we keep unity by being humble, gentle, etc. Put the needs of others above your own, bear each other’s burdens.

· Unity emphasized repeatedly in this passage – one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, etc.

· Oneness is the fruit of the Gospel. One with Christ and one with each other. The work of Christ unites us not divides us.

· Pastors are people who are laser focused on helping people know God and make God known - to accomplish, we must keep people unified. Division is anti-gospel. Division always slows us down.

· How does your pastor church protect unity?

o By focusing you on Christ. When the focus is on anything but Christ there will be disharmony and dysfunction. However, Christ transforms. Christ unifies. Christ empowers..

By focusing you on Christ. When the focus is on anything but Christ there will be disharmony and dysfunction. However, Christ transforms. Christ unifies. Christ empowers..

o By challenging you to embrace the uncomfortable. Our natural bent is towards comfort. We want to be settled. Comfort feeds self-centeredness, selfishness, and ultimately division. Oneness is not comfortable because it calls you to die to selfishness! Embrace the uncomfortable! My challenge to you: Get over you!

By challenging you to embrace the uncomfortable. Our natural bent is towards comfort. We want to be settled. Comfort feeds self-centeredness, selfishness, and ultimately division. Oneness is not comfortable because it calls you to die to selfishness! Embrace the uncomfortable! My challenge to you: Get over you!

Prepare people for the ministry of the Gospel.

· God unifies the church by using our diversity to accomplish His singular purpose of making disciples of all nations.

· Vs 8 – paraphrase of – a victorious God who like a king defeats and takes the enemy captive. The king parades through the streets with the spoils of victory. – the people bestow gifts on the King.

· Paul says our King gives gifts – both ideas true – we give our lives to God because He has given Himself to us.

· Gospel – Christ is the King who has come to defeat our enemy – sin and death – so we might have victory. Christ defeated our enemy by dying in our place absorbing the wrath of God. Apart from Him, you are dead, but through His death and resurrection, you can be brought into a right relationship with Him if you repent of your sins and give your life to the King who has given His life for you.

· Christ’s victory is your victory. You deserve nothing but are given everything because of Him. He gifts us with supernatural abilities to serve Him. You’re gifted to serve!

· Paul does not focus on all gifts in this passage but leadership gifts. Spiritual leaders are a gift from God because they equip the saints for ministry. Pastors do not do ministry for the saints but equip saints to live out their calling.

· Flies in face of a consumer culture. A consumer Christian sees church leaders as a providers of goods and services. Come see me when I’m sick and put together some good programs for my family to participate or we’re out.

· A Spirit-led Christian doesn’t desire to be served but to serve by seeking the help of pastors to train them for the work of ministry.

· Two types of pastors – pastors as equippers who train, challenge, and hold accountable or pastors as providers of goods and services who entertain, cater to needs, and try to make you happy.

· What kind of pastor will you strive to be?

Church: Let your pastors do their jobs. Don’t expect us to cater to consumer driven desires. Instead, expect us to focus on what matters - equipping, etc. Will you put yourself in a position to be trained, challenged, and held accountable?

Promote maturity in the Gospel.

3. You should expect your pastor to promote maturity in the Gospel.

· We want to see believers grow up to be surrendered followers of Jesus who help other know Christ and grow in Christ – –fishers of men.

· We want to see believers grow up to be surrendered followers of Jesus who help other know Christ and grow in Christ – –fishers of men.

· Our ultimate goal cannot be to build a crowd by offering the best goods and services in town. Our ultimate goal must be to make fully surrendered disciples of Christ.

· Bill Hybels – Willowcreek led the way in innovative ministry – programs designed for consumers – seeker sensitive – attracted 24,000. Extensive study of their church demonstrated that although they were seeing people come to faith and join the church very little spiritual growth taking place. They had been a failure. Hybels said:

Some of the stuff that we have put millions of dollars into thinking it would really help our people grow and develop spiritually, when the data actually came back it wasn’t helping people that much. Other things that we didn’t put that much money into and didn’t put much staff against is the stuff our people are crying out for.

· It doesn’t cost much money to help people reach maturity. It does cost an investment of time and sacrifice. We need leaders who are committed to equipping followers of Jesus, followers of Jesus who long to grow, the Word of God and the Spirit of God.

· The pastor’s ultimate goal is to help people to grow in maturity.

What would the church look like if we embraced ? What would the church look like if pastors were more eager to make disciples than build crowds, massive organizations, buildings, etc.?

What could BSC be if our focus was not on trying to attract people here but on making disciples who in turn pour their lives into others for the sake of the Gospel? What if we completely rejected consumerism and got serious about growing in maturity?

· Spiritual growth wheel – Where are you? Dead? Trust Christ.

· How many spiritual parents do we have? If we do not raise up spiritual parents who reproduce, then we’ve failed at the mission. We can have thousands in attendance, but if we have not raised up surrendered followers of Christ who desire nothing more than to raise up other surrendered followers of Jesus, we’ve missed the point of why we exist.

· This morning trust Christ if you are an unbeliever. If believer, expect your church not to cater to a consumer-driven culture but to be counter-cultural by challenging people to deny themselves, take up their crosses, and follow Jesus.

· Reject consumer-driven Christianity. Position yourself for growth. Put yourself under the Word, in purposeful relationships. We offer so many opportunities for you to grow in Christ – take advantage of them! No excuse for you to be at this church and not grow to maturity in Christ. Ask God to make you sick and tired of seeing no growth or being stuck in childhood. Desire growth!