Know Your Role

Welcome/Introduction

This past Tuesday, the Milwaukee Bucks won their 2nd ever National Championship and broke a 50 year long losing streak. Back in 1971, they won their first championship and last Tuesday, they finally won another one.

One of the big stories that has developed out of the Bucks victory is a player by the name of Giannis Antetokounmpo and his relationship with Kris Middleton.

"Khris, we did it, man," he said. "I'm happy, I'm happy, man. This guy doesn't really know how hard he pushed me. He pushed me every day to be great. He pushes me every day to be great man. I'm happy I can step on the floor with this guy and play every single minute with this guy, and the rest of the guys, but Khris especially."

Story of their legendary one-on-one sessions with each other after practices.

They both pushed each other to grow in their abilities, to develop their natural gifts, and be the best athletes that they could be. Because of that unique relationship, they were able to celebrate winning the National Championship together and to celebrate Antetokounmpo winning the Finals MVP trophy to become the 12th youngest player to do so.

Just like Middleton and Antetokounmpo pushed each other grow and develop, the Apostle Paul, writing to the Ephesian believers under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, is pushing us to live worthy of what God has called, equipped, and designed us to be.

Scripture Statement: Because of who God is and what He alone has done and made possible, Paul wants the believers in Ephesus to know their role in the body of Christ and to live out that role in tangible loving ways.

Sermon Statement: God wants you to know your role and to live that out in tangible loving ways, so that you can experience the good things that he alone has made possible.

Transition: We all have various roles to play within the body of Christ and in this local expression of His body, called Community Christian Church.

Paul shows us that because of who God is and what He has done, we all have one collective role coupled with specific and unique roles that he has given to us as gifts.

One role that you and I both share collectively, as followers of Jesus, is that we have to FIGHT FOR UNITY.

Point #1: FIGHT FOR UNITY (Eph. 4:1-6)

READ Ephesians 4:1-6 NIV

Ephesians 4:1–6 (NIV)

1 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

Explanation of Verses 1 - 6

Overview:

The beginning of chapter 4 marks a pivot point in this letter to the Ephesians. Instead of camping out in theology, Paul starts to focus on the practicality of life and starts to apply what he has said about who God is and what God has done, to how they should live out their lives. This is because right thinking should always produce right living.

Paul has spend three chapters talking about who God is and what he has done. He’s spend three chapters talking about who Jesus is and how torn down the dividing wall of hostility that kept us from him and one another. Paul even talks about who we used to be and now who we are in Christ. But, now, Paul starts to focus on how we actually live out what we believe and how we can tangibly live in unity with one another, even though we are different from each other. We even see this by how Paul starts to change up how he writes. In chapters 1-3, we see Paul using praise language, but now we see him starting to use persuasive language until his rousing conclusion in Eph. 6:10-20.

The NIV translates the Greek word Parakalo (παρακαλέω) as “urge,” which isn’t wrong at all because this word actually has a range of meanings. But the NLT translates it differently and better conveys the persuasive language Paul is using here in Ephesians 4. They translate this word as beg. … I beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, ....”

Paul is begging us to live worthy because Jesus make us worthy. Because of who God and what He has done in us and through us, our lives should look differently because our unity with Him. Paul begs us to walk

VERSE 1:

Paul is using a Greek word to describe the type of living he wants these believers to do. This word can also be translated as ‘walk,’ and it appears throughout this second half of the letter to the Ephesians.

Eph. 4:1 - “live” or “walk” worthy of the calling

Eph. 4:17 - “live” or “walk” no longer as the Gentiles “live” or “walk”

Eph. 5:2 - “live” or “walk” in love

Eph. 5:8 - “live” or “walk” as children of light

Eph. 5:15 - Therefore be careful how you “live” or “walk,” not as unwise, but as wise …

“How can one live worthy of the calling? The Greek word for ‘worthy’ refers to a balance, as on scales. Thus, believers are to live “in balance” with their calling. How they act should match what they believe. Remembering Christ’s sacrifice should cause believers to live for his glory in every area of their lives. The following verses describe how to do this.” (Bruce Barton et al., Life Application New Testament Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale, 2001), 818.)

VERSE 2:

How do we live worthy of God’s call on our lives? How do we fight for unity?

This verse lists four characteristics of a person who is “worthy of the calling. We live lives that are marked by:

Humility

Warren Wiersbe says that “Humility means putting Christ first, others second, and [yourself] last. … [While also] knowing [yourself], accepting [yourself], and being [yourself] to the glory of God. … [God] does not want us to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to - or less highly than we ought to.”

I love what C. J. Scott writes in his devotional about humility when he says that “The proper attitude of human beings towards their Creator. Humility is a grateful and spontaneous awareness that life is a gift It is manifested as an ungrudging and unhypocritical acknowledgment of absolute dependence upon God.”

Gentleness

The ability to control the power within you.

Jesus was describes as being “meek and lowly in heart” (Matt. 11:29), yet he never pulled punches with religious hypocrites, he fashioned a whip together, flipped tables, and drove out profiteers from the Temple, and remained silent in the face of false accusations. That’s what being a gentle or meek person looks like.

Just imagine that if we actually lived out this level of gentleness in our lives. We would be rock solid disciples of Jesus, yet welcoming and approachable. Just like Jesus was.

Patience

Bruce Barton, in his very helpful commentary, describes patience as the quality of being able to handle one another’s faults and failures and refusing to avenge wrongs. No one is ever going to be perfect here on earth, so believers must be patient with each other despite their faults.

Bearing with one another

Is the action side of humility, gentleness, and patience. Because you are actively living out these things, you will be able to literally put up with each other, even when you disagree, even when you think differently, even if we vote differently, even if we see things differently because we have different backgrounds and lived experienced.

If you can’t put up with someone, then that should reveal to you that you have a problem with patience, gentleness, or humility.

And this isn’t a one and done type of thing. Well, I put up with you today, but if you mess up again it’s over! That’s because the verb Paul uses here is a present participle, which means we must constantly be endeavoring to put up with each other. maintain this unity.

LOVE - AGAPE

All of this is because of LOVE. The way that Paul structures this sentence is that every thing we do, every moment of humility, every act of patience, and every time we put up with one another, we are living out the love that God has for us, has shown us, has filled us with, and empowers us to show to others.

The famous Early Church Father, John Chrysostom, also known as Golden Tongue because of his preaching abilities, described the type of love that Paul is begging us to show to others as “… no common love, but that which cements us together and makes us cleave inseparably to one another, and effects as great and as perfect a union as though it were between limb and limb” (Chrysostom, 11th homily on Ephesians).

It kind of looks like this: [CUT]

ILLUSTRATION: Balancing Blocks

LABELED BLOCKS THAT I TRY TO BALANCE WHILE BEING ON ONE FOOT OR A BOARD

We FIGHT FOR UNITY because we are motivated by the same love that motivates God.

We FIGHT FOR UNITY by actively being humble.

We FIGHT FOR UNITY by intentionally practicing patience.

We FIGHT FOR UNITY by continually putting up with each other, even when it’s difficult and we’d rather be with our own or sink into our echo chambers.

We FIGHT FOR UNITY because God has called us to actively maintained the unity that He established when he created this new humanity, the Church.

We FIGHT FOR UNITY because our unity reflects the same unity that we find in our Creator.

Paul dramatically shows us, in verse 4, that just as: [CUT]

4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

PICTURE

One Body = the Church

One Spirit = the Holy Spirit

One Hope = the second coming of Christ and our eternal life with Him with all it’s blessings

One Lord = Jesus, who alone bought us with his blood

One Faith = our singular commitment to Him

One Baptism = that signals our entrance into the family of God

One God and Father = who encompasses everything because he created everything

“We cannot expect the world to believe that the Father sent the Son, that Jesus’ claims are true and that Christianity is true, unless the world sees some reality of the oneness of true Christians.” - Francis Schaeffer

Paul is begging us to live lives that are worthy of the unifying work that God planned from the beginning, that Jesus made possible through his death and resurrection, and that the Holy Spirit enables us the to maintain. FIGHT FOR UNITY.

Transition: We all have various roles to play within the body of Christ and in this local expression of His body, called Community Christian Church. One of those roles that we all share is to FIGHT FOR UNITY. But Paul goes on to show us that we all have individual, unique, and specific roles that Jesus gives us, not only for our growth, development and maturity; but also for the growth, development, and maturity of those who we are united with. Therefore, we not only need to FIGHT FOR UNITY, but we also need to FIND OUR FIT within the body of Christ.

Point #2: FIND YOUR FIT (Eph. 4:7-13)

Ephesians 4:7–13 (NIV)

7 But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.

8 This is why it says:

“When he ascended on high,

he took many captives

and gave gifts to his people.”

9 (What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? 10 He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.)

11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Paul is quoting Psalm 68:18 and using it to show that just as God conquered his enemies and received gifts from those whom He has captured, Jesus conquered our enemies: Satan, sin, death, and Hell and then gives us gifts to help develop and grow us into being mature followers of his. But, so that we can use those gifts the way he designed them to be used: building others up, developing them, helping them grow until they too are mature followers of Jesus who live out and exercise their gifts to help others and the process repeats itself again and again.

Again Bruce Barton helps us understand that, “Although the church is one unified body, each of its members has a special gift to be used for the good and growth of all. No one is overlooked; everyone is important to building up the community. God in his wisdom did not make believers photocopies of one another. Instead, each believer has at least one special ability, given according to the generosity of Christ, to be used to accomplish the work of the Kingdom.”

Jesus gives us spiritual gifts so that we can help equip others to actively live out their faith and do the good things that God has planned for us to do. When we actively lean into and live out our spiritual gifting, that Jesus gives us, then we build the rest of His body up so that we can be united in our faith and knowledge of Him and become more and more like him. When we lean into and live out our unique roles within the Church, then not only do we learn from Jesus so that we can live like Jesus and join him in his mission of seeking and saving the lost; but we help others do the same!

ILLUSTRATION: BASKETBALL BALL-HOG

Point Guard only handling the rock, scoring the points, defending against the other team, while the rest of the team sits on the bench.

Do you ever get bored of Church?

Be honest! I’m sure, you get bored of hearing me or Jeff talk at you. I’m sure you get bored of just sitting there, listening and hopefully learning. Well, if you are bored today or if you just long for more out of your relationship with Jesus and experience here at the church … then you need to start living out your spiritual gifting. God has given you a gift that only you can live out because there is no one else like you.

Later today, we are going to take some time to take a spiritual gifts inventory. The reason for this is to help you try and understand the gift or gifts that Jesus has given you so that you can start actively leaning into and living out what God has uniquely gifted you to do for his body, here at Community Christian Church.

Transition: So not only do we need to FIGHT FOR UNITY. We also need to FIND OUR FIT within the body of Christ. Lastly though, we need to be FILLED WITH GOD’S LOVE.

Point #3: BE FILLED WITH LOVE (Eph. 4:14-16)

Ephesians 4:14–16 (NIV)

14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

Paul is saying that when we actively fight for unity by being humble, gentle, patient, and by putting up with others and actively lean into and living out our unique gifting that God has given us to grow and mature his body, THEN we will stop being like babies who can be tricked into believing the wrong things and living the wrong way.

If you aren’t actively trying to maintain unity with others or actively living out your spiritual gifting, then you are still a baby who is susceptible to being tricked into believing the wrong thing and living the wrong way.

But, if you actively FIGHT FOR UNITY and FIND YOUR FIT within his body, then you will be able to grow and become mature being filled with God’s love which builds up the rest of the body.

ILLUSTRATION: Cellular Modifications during Weight Lifting

When you lift a weight, scientists are finding out that not only does it impact the muscle groups that are activated to move that weight, but weight lifting can also shrink fat on the cellular level?

“We all know that lifting weights can build up our muscles. But by changing the inner workings of cells, weight training may also shrink fat, according to an enlightening new study of the molecular underpinnings of resistance exercise. The study, which involved mice and people, found that after weight training, muscles create and release little bubbles of genetic material that can flow to fat cells, jump-starting processes there related to fat burning.”

The research goes on to show that these little bubbles act almost like little messages in a bottle that flow to our fat cells which open them up, read the message, and start doing what it tells it to do: SHRINK! (Thank God! Huh?)

You and I are those little messages in the bottle that are activated and sent out throughout the body of Christ to help others grow, to help others change, to help others realize that they too are gifted and called by God to FIGHT FOR UNITY, FIND THEIR FIT, and be FILLED WITH GOD’S LOVE so that they can then be send out to help others experience the same life, the same love, the same acceptance, the same unity, and the purpose that God has planned for all of us to experience.

Transition: Paul is begging us to live lives worthy of the new thing God has done: uniting everyone to him in his family. Because of God’s great unifying work, we need to FIGHT FOR UNITY by FINDING OUR FIT within the body of Christ so that we can mature one other because we are FILLED WITH LOVE for God and each other.

Conclusion/Call to Action: SPIRITUAL GIFTS INVENTORY

ONLINE: Take some time today and go to those LINK.

You can type that into your browser or scan the QR code on the screen by opening up your camera and pointing it at the QR code below.

Fill out this simple Spiritual Gifts inventory, then EMAIL me your results at [e-mail]

I want to help you find your fit here at Community Christian Church. Not so we can inflate our volunteer rosters, but so that you can stop being a baby and start maturing in your relationship with Jesus and being used by God to uniquely build and mature those around you.

IN-PERSON: So, with the remainder of our time, fill out this simple Spiritual Gifts inventory, then EMAIL me or TALK TO ME about your results because I want to help you find your fit here at Community Christian Church. Not so we can inflate our volunteer rosters, but so that you can stop being a baby and start maturing in your relationship with Jesus and being used by God to uniquely build and mature those around you.

PRAY