Set Sail

Part 3 of our vision series: we’re on Equip

EQUIP - we are growing in the marks of a disciple of Jesus: learner, prayer, worshiper, relater, server, giver, multiplier

Read Ephesians 4:11-16

Okay so this is Minnesota. The land of 10,000 lakes.

Who here has a cabin on one of those 10,000 lakes?

Who here has a jet ski?

Anders’ Jet ski, The Bat Ski

Raise your hand if your family has at least one boat.

Who has been allowed to drive the boat before?

Driving a speed boat or a pontoon definitely has a learning curve to it.

But in general one person is equipped enough to operate the boat all by themselves.

But the bigger the boat gets, the more people you need to make it sail. Back before 1900 (which really wasn’t that long ago) large sailing ships had actual sails, no outboard motors, and were made entirely from wood.

And it took a whole crew to make them go.

Captain - in charge (Me)

1st Mate - second in command (Elyse)

Quartermaster - keep up morale (Someone funny)

Navigator - steer the ship (someone responsible)

Boatswain - supplies and upkeep (someone detailed)

Carpenter - construction and fixes (someone good with their hands)

Master Gunner - cannons and gunpowder (someone fearless)

Surgeon - health and wellness (Madisen)

Cook - food (someone who can cook)

If we were going to crew a ship… pick people for roles.

There are tons of roles a sailing vessel needs to function properly

Roles

We all have roles to play in the church.

Here in Ephesians 4, Paul lists five roles specifically:

Apostle - saw the risen Jesus. Served the church by being it’s first leaders [the disciples, James, Paul]

Prophet - spoke on behalf of God. Served the church by speaking to them the Words of God. [Jeremiah, Isaiah, etc.]

Evangelist - shares the Gospel. Serves the church by encouraging people to follow Jesus. [Zane Black, Dave Gibson]

Shepherd - takes care of the sheep. Serves the church by tending the flock. [Me, Elyse, your small group leaders]

Teacher - teaches. Serves the church by teaching the Word.

This isn’t meant to be an exhaustive list.

You’ve probably heard of spiritual gifts before, there are a couple different lists of spiritual gifts - Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12

If you are a follower of Jesus, then the Holy Spirit empowers you and gives you gifts. Every follower of Jesus has spiritual gifts.

And your spiritual gifts are not for you, they’re for the church!

There’s a LOT I could say about spiritual gifts, but I don’t have time to get into it here tonight. We’ll save it for later. So suffice it to say that you need to identify what your spiritual giftings are and you need to use them to serve the church.

Responsibility

Paul says that my responsibility as the shepherd over NXT Junior High is to be a professional Christian, do all of the work that God wants done… see this is why you need your Bible open in front of you. Because that’s not at all what Paul says here.

Somewhere along the way, the thought started to creep in that if your gift put you into a position of leadership within the church, that made you some type of professional Christian, and you were supposed to do all the work of ministry. But Paul makes a point to say that my job is to EQUIP God’s people to do the work. So here’s where we need to spend our time. What does it mean to be equipped?

Backpack.

Fill it up with everything you need so that you are equipped.

Laptop, notebook, pens, pencils, books, etc. I’ve got all of this in my backpack.

So what is supposed to be in our backpack as a Christian. Doing the work of ministry pre-supposes that we have a backpack that has at least a few things in there. I want to look at 7 of them:

Learner - growing in God’s Word

Worshiper - Not just singing. It’s our lifestyle.

Prayer - Being connected to the source.

Relater - Being in community.

Server - Serving others.

Giver - Time, talents, treasures.

Multiplier - Living on mission.

Being a disciple of Jesus means following Jesus. It means growing in these 7 areas. In your small groups on Sundays, you have to be holding each other accountable to growing in these areas.

You’re not going to knock them all out of the park all of the time. Growth means taking the next step.

Maybe you feel like worship is a growth area for you. Maybe the only time you worship is here on a Wednesday night. What would the next step look like for you to make worship your lifestyle and not just something you do once a week?

Maybe prayer is a growth area for you. You just don’t get why you should do it, or you don’t think God is listening. What would it look like to take the next step and view prayer as being connected to God?

And if you realize that something isn’t in your backpack yet, maybe you have no idea what it looks like to be Giver as a 6th, 7th, or 8th grader - how do you begin to add that to your backpack?

Let me give you an idea of how that might happen. How being equipped might happen:

The word “EQUIP” used here is a Greek word. The whole of the New Testament was written in Greek. The word is one of my favorites: katartismos the only time the word shows up in the Bible is right here in verse 12. But it’s used elsewhere in other Greek literature.

Katartismos has two major uses. The first use is in a medical context. It means to mend something that is broken. Image setting a broken bone, or wrapping up a wound. That’s the first meaning of katartismos.

The second use is in a nautical context. Like boats. it means to deploy. To send a boat away from the harbor out into open water.

So what does that have to do with Equipping? If NXT is going to be a place of equipping, this is a place to come to be mended and deployed.

I want you here when you feel broken.

I want you here when you feel hurt.

I want you here when you are struggling.

This is the place to come to hear again what is true about Jesus - to have hurts and brokenness mended.

The church is not a museum for perfect people. The church is a hospital for broken people. We need each other. Part of being equipped is coming and letting the truth of who Jesus is and the power of the Holy Spirit heal you.

And this is a place from which you are going to be deployed out into your schools, out into your sports teams, out into your neighborhoods. You come here to be mended and from here you are sent out to be a blessing and a light.

Results

So now that we’re clear on what it means to be equipped and how to be equipped, we gotta look at what Paul says about WHY we need to be equipped.

You can sum it up in one word: maturity.

Maturity is the goal of the Christian life. We become more mature in our our faith the more we grow in the seven marks of being a disciple of Jesus. That’s why we need to be equipped! So we can become mature.

Verse 13 says “growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness.

Jesus is literally the measuring stick for maturity. We become spiritually mature when we look like Jesus.

Paul gives us three marks of maturity here in Ephesians 4:

Not tossed around by every new teaching

This is key you guys. If you want to stay on track in your faith and keep growing, you can’t let every new teaching knock you around like the wind and the waves. Ideas are great. I love ideas. I love to talk about ideas, I love reading books because they expose me to new ideas, I like to debate new ideas, I try to think up ideas for how to change things, new ideas are necessary. But not every new idea or every new thing society and our culture wants to teach us is a good or even a true idea.

The mark of maturity is this: check all your new ideas against what God has said in his Word. If a new idea fits with what we know is true about God then great! That helps us follow Jesus better. But when the idea goes against what God has already told us, we need to stand firm in what we know to be the truth.

Not influenced by lies that sound like the truth

This is hard. This is what Satan does. The Bible calls Satan the father of lies. He takes a little bit of truth, a half-truth, and distorts it with lies in order to trick us and trip us up. It’s exactly what he did in Genesis when he said “did God really say you can’t eat from any tree in the garden?” So don’t let lies that sound clever influence you!

It’s especially important that you don’t believe lies about yourself.

I want to read you this post from an artist that I follow on instagram:

“If truth sets you free, then lies can keep you bound. Friends, your mental and spiritual health are on the line. Remember, the enemy can only speak who you are NOT- so don’t give those thoughts the time of day. And the beautiful thing is that truth is contingent on the nature of God; and He never changes which means truth never changes. The truth He speaks over you is the final word! The good news is that truth isn’t contingent on who you are or your short comings. Your mind was designed to be a sanctuary not a prison. Ask the Holy Spirit to illuminate and uproot the lies that have been keeping you bound. And start setting your mind on things above.”

You know you’re growing in maturity when you can spot the lie coming from a mile away and instead of internalizing it or believing it - you speak back what you know is true.

Speak truth in love

This one is huge. Speak truth in love. It doesn’t matter if you’re right if you don’t love. You could have the best argument for why Jesus is who he said he is, you could spot on theology, you could be growing in all 7 of the marks of a disciple but if you don’t communicate with love…none of it matters.

This is what I see missing most in our culture, and often in our church. We speak not with love but with hostility, with accusation, with intent to wound...

Friends, lets grow into maturity, measuring ourselves not against other people’s maturity, but the full stature of Jesus.