The Day to Day of Church Life: Part 2

Scripture Reading

Opening Prayer

Introduction

RECAP

What is the church?

A Definition: A local church is a group of Christians who regularly gather in Christ’s name to officially affirm and oversee one another’s membership in Jesus Christ and his kingdom through gospel preaching and gospel ordinances.

What does the church do?

Be and Make Disciples

Through worshiping and gathering more to worship

By loving one another as well as others

The Day to Day of Church Life: Part 1

Big Idea: Walking worthy of your calling means using your gifts in the church for unity and purity.

Christ Like Character

Unity in our one faith

Empowered by the gifts given to believers

TODAY

We are continuing to visit this idea of what the Day to Day of Church Life looks like in Ephesians 4:11-16

We talk a lot about living the christian life but, once again we are talking today about church life.

Exposition 1 (11)

Remember from last week, we ended on the previous thought of how God gifted the church.

In verse 11, Paul talks about how God has specifically gifted some for a special purpose.

Ephesians 4:11 ESV

11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,

Verse 12 will talk about what that special purpose is, but for now, know that God has given us our leaders. He has specifically, to use the language of verse 8, gifted them to us.

For the sake of this time we will simply think of this as Pastors but know that there is more to it.

I. Christian leaders are a gift to the church (11)

Be careful as you choose your Pastors

Be careful not to neglect your pastors

Exposition 2 (12)

Ephesians 4:12 ESV

12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,

Verse 12 has that purpose statement

to equip the saints

Equip - To give the needed knowledge and skills for a specific task

Who? The saints. Who are the saints? You, if you are a follower fo Christ

Why?

What are the saints equipped for?

The work of the ministry

What does this accomplish

It builds up the church

People ask, “how do you grow a church?”

I am no “church growth expert”

God is the only church growth expert

Scripture tells us, this is how it is done

All this points us to...

II. Christian leaders lead, not by being ministers but by enabling the members to be ministers (12)

Exposition 3 (13-16)

Ephesians 4:13–16 ESV

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. 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.

III. When to stop? When we are all perfectly like Jesus (13-16)

Conclusion