Every Member Ministry

Transcript

So some of you might know this, but for those that don’t know, I was raised in a family completely obsessed with sports. Everything my family did was in some way connected to sports. So they played sports, they watched sports, they talked about sports, even buying and trading sports cards. My younger brother, he was four years younger than me. He played soccer, basketball, and baseball. My older brother, who was four years older than me, he played football, basketball, and baseball. I, however, have never been a sports guy. That’s just not the way I’m wired. I can appreciate the gifts and talents necessary to be an athlete, but I just never possessed those gifts. Instead, I was always more inclined towards the arts and creativity. I just had gifts in other categories. And side note, this, I can’t help but see the divine humor of God because he’s given me one son who is completely obsessed with sports.

Well, in the fifth grade, I, in an attempt to better connect with my brothers and my stepfather, decided I was going to sign up for baseball. Baseball seemed to me at least to be the most non-violent sport. So, I signed up for Little League. Now, as I understand it, in almost every other context, if you want to play on a team, you have to try out. And if you possess the necessary skills to play, then you make the team. But with Little League, they don’t discriminate based on whether you’re gifted or not. If you’re willing to pay, then you get to play. So, my family paid the money, and I made the team. My team was the Padres. So, I got this little uniform, and I got a baseball glove, and my brother showed me how to kind of oil it, and then I’d put it under my bed and all that stuff. That’s what you do.

But I was ready to go. So, shortly after my first practice, everything that I kind of expected about baseball, everything that I understood about baseball, was true. Everything that I understood about baseball, was true. It was horrible. I hated it. Because I was terrible at it. I learned pretty quickly, Little League does discriminate. I mean, they do let you play, but they definitely discriminate. And the way they discriminate is, at least in Little League, this is how they do it. They take all the not-so-gifted players, and they relegate them to the right field. Right field is where they seem to place all the non-gifted, pay-to-play kids. Kids like me. And that’s because nothing ever happens in right field. At least in Little League. So, I would literally sit down in the middle of the game, in the grass, like pulling up grass, or pulling weeds,

and just watch all the other kids on the team, the gifted ones, play the game. And when I look back at my experience with the Padres, I think to myself, why did I ever sign up for it? And furthermore, why didn’t the coaches train me, or equip me to play the game? If they would have taught me how to play, I wouldn’t have spent the whole season sitting in the grass, in the right field, as a spectator, watching all the other naturally gifted players use their gifts to play the game. You see, even though I was on the baseball team, I had the uniform to prove it, I didn’t feel like I was part of the team. And that’s because I wasn’t coached properly, or trained to use my gifts in that particular context. And this particular dilemma, family, doesn’t only exist with sports. It also happens in the church.

The Church’s Team

This dilemma is what the Apostle Paul actually seeks to address in our passage this morning. Paul, throughout his letters, emphasizes that the church is all part of one body. You might say that we’re all on one team, and that the team has a variety of gifts. And each one of those gifts are meant to be used in the church, because each one is important. And this text helps us to understand why God gives a variety of gifts to the church, but it also helps us understand what those gifts are ultimately intended to produce. You see, in God’s church, there are no right fields, where non-gifted people get relegated to, where you could just sit down and be a spectator. If you’re on the team, you have a gift. If you’re on the team, you have a gift. You have a very important part to play.

And in order to play well, you need to be coached or equipped. In fact, each one of us has been given a meticulous and unique gift by Christ himself to contribute to the unity, the maturity and service of Christ’s church. This includes those who are gifted in training and equipping the members of the church to use their gifts well. And this is what we’re going to explore this morning in our text. And so if you’d be so kind as to turn with me in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 4. We’ll begin at verse 7 and move all the way to verse 16. So Ephesians 4, verses 7 through 16. And while you’re making your way there, please stand with me for the reading of God’s Word.

Amen. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore, it says when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men. In saying he ascended, what does it mean? But that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth. He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens that he might fill all things. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up, for building up the body of Christ 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 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.

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 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

— Ephesians 4

(ESV)

. Family, this is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let’s pray. Our Father and our God, we do thank you for your word. We pray now that you would gift us the Holy Spirit so that as we read your word and as your word is declared and as we hear your word, we might be changed and challenged and conformed into the image of our Savior Jesus

who is the great gift giver. We pray, O Lord and God, that your word would serve as a mechanism by which the church is more unified so that as your word is declared, we might grow into one mature man. And we pray these things in the name of our risen King, Jesus. Amen. You may be seated.

The Giver

Family, this is a wonderful passage that we’re looking at this morning. A passage that in many ways perfectly displays God’s design for discipleship and what we might call every member ministry. And to help us understand this text this morning, I’ve broken our text into four sections. I figured it’s been a while since I gave you an alliteration. With points. So I gave you one today. So we’re gonna look at the giver, the gifts, the goal, and the growth. So there’s a lot to unpack in our text. A lot of good stuff. So let’s dive right in to verse 7 with the giver. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Now whenever you come to a portion in Scripture that begins with the words therefore or if or but it’s always good to look back a little bit

just to kind of get some context of what was just said so it’ll help us move forward. And what immediately precedes this section is Paul’s beautiful motif on the unity within the body of Christ. In fact, let me just read from the beginning of chapter 4 to help kind of set some context. Paul writes,

I therefore a prisoner of the Lord urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called with all humility and gentleness with patience bearing with one another in love eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call one Lord one faith one baptism one God and Father

— Ephesians 4

(ESV)

of all who was over all and through all and in all.

So Paul here is calling for all Christians in the church to work towards preserving or maintaining the unity that God has brought us into. He tells us the way we are to work is with humility and gentleness patience bearing with one another in love and being eager to maintain the unity of the spirit. Then he reiterates the depths of the unity that we are called into. Just look at this one body one spirit one hope one Lord one faith one baptism one God and Father. That’s deep unity. So there is this kind of singular unity that Paul has told us that we are called into when we are saved and that we are to be eager to maintain that unity. So we have it we’ve been brought into it we’ve got to maintain it. Now think about this for a second. We are very different people in this church

from all over the place ethnically generationally economically we’re all over the place. But despite all these differences we have been made one by Christ. This is what makes the church so unique from the rest of the world. I mean in what other place does this kind of unity exist where we love one another where we sing to one another. That doesn’t happen in very many places in this world.

The instrument that God gives the church to maintain this unity are gifts. Now just because there’s unity doesn’t mean that there’s uniformity. We’re not all the same especially when it comes to our gifts. And because of this reason Paul in verse 7 begins to expound on the beautiful diversity of our gifts within our unity. So Paul moves our attention from all of us who are one to each one of us who are one. So when it comes to verse 7 the but in the beginning could better be understood as because. In other words because we are to work or maintain our unity verse 7 grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. So according to God’s grace he gave a diverse people a diversity of gifts. Romans 12 6 says we have different gifts according to the grace

given us. Now before we dive into the gifts I want you to first notice the word grace here. The Lord Jesus who is the divine gift giver of the church first and foremost lavishes on each of us grace. And just to make one point of distinction this grace that he lavishes on us in this text is not the same as saving grace. If you are a Christian you have experienced saving grace meaning you didn’t do anything to earn salvation it is a free gift or grace from God. But this grace that Paul is referring to the grace of giving gifts is not for saving but for serving. And the service has a specific purpose our unity. So saving grace brings you into the body service grace helps you maintain the unity of the body that you were brought into. And the point Paul makes here

is that each one of us has received this serving grace to the exact proportion Christ has intended. And praise be to God. God gives gifts to each one in perfect measure for his perfect plan of preserving the unity. And when we begin to understand this, we begin to see how important each person in the body is and how exceedingly important the unity of the church is to Christ. So it’s not just that God wants us all to get along but that God as a divine architect is meticulously and perfectly distributing gifts to each member of the body as he sees fit as essential instruments to keep us one. That’s incredible. In 1 Corinthians 12 Paul gives us a picture of the body and its diverse parts and how they work together. Chapter 12 verses 12 through 20 says this, For just as the body is one

and has many members and the members of the body though many are one body so it is with Christ. For in one spirit we were all baptized into one body. Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, And all were made to drink of one spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say because I am not a hand I do not belong to the body that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the ear should say because I’m not an eye I do not belong to the body that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear where would be the sense of smell? But as it is God arranged the members

in the body each one of them as he chose. If all were a single member where would the body be? As it is there are many parts yet one body. So by design we are diverse. Again unity is not uniformity and therefore our unity it actually requires a diversity of gifts that are measured out and distributed by sovereign design from Jesus Christ who is the head of the church. And this is necessary for the body to function properly. This means that since our gifts are sovereignly and meticulously given to us by God number one we should value the gifts we have. Both our own gifts and each other’s gifts. Number two we should use our gifts. Family this is not just an encouragement or a request this is actually a biblical mandate. First Peter 4

says each of you should use whatever gifts you have received

to serve others as faithful stewards of God’s grace there’s that word again in various forms. Three we should be content with our gifts not seeking after other people’s gifts because they’re different from yours or they maybe are perceived as more valuable. They’re not. Number four we should not elevate our gifts above anyone else’s gifts. That would actually go against God’s intention for giving us the gifts in the first place. Because God gives them with an important purpose in mind everyone’s gift within the church is equally important and necessary. Paul goes on to say that not only do each one of us have these functional and unique gifts but these gifts were given to us at a great cost. They were earned for us. Verse eight therefore it says when he ascended on high he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men.

Now when we read that at first glance it seems a bit odd kind of out of pocket from the rest of the verse but this is actually a very important part. So we’re going to take just a little bit of time to unpack this here. In this verse Paul sort of quotes from Psalm 68, 18 to show how Christ has earned the rights to give gifts. So just to kind of help frame this for you in the ancient world when kings would conquer a kingdom there would be a triumphant victory march through the king’s city and the king would parade this train of captives. People in the city would pay tribute to the king because of his great victory and they would also celebrate by giving gifts or trophies to the king who conquered their enemies. In fact that’s what we see in Psalm 68, 18.

It says, You ascended on high leading a host of captives in your train and receiving gifts among men. This is a victory hymn written by David celebrating God as this victorious and conquering king. And I want you to notice that David in Psalm 68 he writes, You ascended on high you led a host of captives and you received gifts from men. But Paul takes this verse and makes a slight modification of it. He says that when he that is Christ ascended on high he led a host of captives and he instead of receiving gifts he gave gifts to men. So it’s slightly different in that Jesus our conquering king ascends to the right hand of the Father and with his victorious rights and with the riches of his kingdom instead of receiving gifts he graciously gives gifts to his people. This is the kind of

king we serve. I mean we’re just saying it. You’re a good and gracious king. Nothing in my hands do I need to bring to him. He gives gifts to his people. He leads a train of captives which are the principalities and the evil powers of Satan meaning he has defeated and disarmed our enemies. And how did he defeat these enemies? That he leads in a train of captives? Well Paul gives us a fuller picture in verses 9 and 10. In saying he ascended what does it mean but that he also descended into the lower regions the earth. He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens that he might fill all things. So Paul interprets Psalm 68 by saying that before Christ’s exaltation this ascension to the right hand of the Father there was Christ’s humiliation. The humiliation was the cross.

Though he condescended and took on human flesh he died the humiliating death that we deserve for our sins. He didn’t just die for our sins he rose from the grave and in so doing defeated sin, Satan and death the enemies of his people. And because of this he reigns victoriously and we his people are given gifts to reign with him. By his victory he gained universal sovereignty to rule all things including his church. And this authority he gives to the church to rule and reign with him. And you see this delegated authority to rule in Ephesians 1. Just a few chapters before this in verses 22 and 23. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church which is the body the fullness of him who fills all in all. See that phrase again that he might fill all in all

The Gifts

or fill all things that means to control it to reign over it or if we’re using the garden language have dominion and subdue it. So God sovereignly distributes gifts like puzzle pieces to the people of God that he won for us at such a great cost for the purpose of keeping us one. So think about your specific gifts in relation to all of that. That’s significant. Christ died and rose from the grave to give those gifts to each one of us in the church as a serving grace to the church. This is glorious. And Paul in our passage this morning what he does is he hones in on four particular gifts that he graces the church with and we see that in verses 11 with the gifts. And he gave the apostles the prophets, the evangelists the shepherds and teachers. Now, before we unpack these four

it’s important to understand that Paul throughout his letters gives us a few lists of spiritual gifts. So between 1 Corinthians and Romans and 1 Peter we have for example the gift of faith healing, miracles, discernment administration, exhortation, giving, mercy and these are just a few spiritual gifts that Paul mentions in his letters. So again, God gives all kinds of spiritual gifts to the church. So just because Paul hones in on these four particular gifts doesn’t denigrate all the other gifts that he gives. And listen, spiritual gifts is often a complicated subject to address in church. Some of us because of our backgrounds or because of our baggage we don’t like talking about spiritual gifts. Or we don’t quite understand it so we just kind of dismiss them. But it’s an important subject. So what I’m going to try to do is briefly simplify spiritual gifts for us.

God gives spiritual gifts to the church. But our spiritual gifts are just gifts. They could be any gift: design, plumbing, project management, programming, writing, singing, driving, framing, organizing, baking bread. Whatever your natural gift is, whatever you’re naturally good at, it is your spiritual gift if it’s used purposely for serving God’s people. The gifts are only called spiritual gifts because they’re given to us by God for the purpose of the church. In fact, that’s what makes them spiritual. So just for example everybody knows Joe Bailey is really good at baking bread. Along with all kinds of other unique gifts that maybe you don’t know about. Now baking bread is a very natural gift for Joe. But when Joe bakes bread and brings them on a Sunday morning and by his sort of divine election

he and his family distribute the bread to the people that he so chooses to bestow upon them with Joe’s natural gift of baking bread in real time becomes a spiritual gift of baking bread. That’s how spiritual gifts work. So your spiritual gifts are simply your natural gifts. But when they’re used for the church they in real time supernaturally become wonderful spiritual gifts. Amen. So this means that our spiritual gifts are so much more than what Paul references in his letters. And we know this because Paul’s list throughout his letters they’re not identical. This implies that these lists are not exhaustive but illustrative. But in verse 11 Paul focuses on four very specific gifts that Christ not only gives to individual people in the church but by extension of those gifts they actually serve as a gift to the whole body. And these gifts that Paul emphasizes

are the gifts of church leadership. He gives the apostles the prophets the evangelists and the shepherds and teachers. So let’s look briefly at these four specific gifts to the church. First he gives the apostles. He gave the apostles. The apostles are the ones who laid the foundation for the church. They were the eyewitnesses of the Lord Jesus. Those who declared the revelation of God’s inspired words and authenticated the word with signs and wonders. Second he gave the prophets. These would be the specialists in mediating God’s divine revelation to the people. Those were the ones who pointed people forward to Jesus. And these two gifts are foundational to the church. This is why Ephesians 2.20 says that the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone. Third, he gave the evangelists. Those who proclaimed the good news

of Jesus Christ both inside and outside the church. Those uniquely gifted at drawing men and women into the body of Christ. So you might see these people as missionaries or church planters for example. And fourth, and this is where I want to camp out a bit, he gave shepherds and teachers. Now, in the original language these two words are together one gift or one office. So you might interpret it as shepherd teachers or pastor teachers. And you can even see that in most modern translations because each gift or office has the definite article in front of each one. So just look at your text. It says the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the shepherds and teachers. So, God gifts the church with pastors or shepherds, and we use that interchangeably because they mean the same thing. God gives those gifts to the church to lovingly

lead that local body of believers. And notice what’s the common thread among these four unique gifts. It’s the ministry of teaching and declaring God’s Word. Of explaining God’s Word and making it plain for people. It is to reveal or expose Christ to people. This is one of the reasons why, family, we preach expositionally, which is line by line, explaining or exposing. Exposition. Exposing what is there to help you see it. God gives these gifts of pastor teachers to the church as a grace to the church so that the church can grow in their understanding and application of God’s Word. Pastors take the teaching that was taught by the apostles and the prophets and then begins to teach them to the local church. And I want you to see how this all works out spiritually. Christ, the triumphant gift giver, through His life, death, and resurrection, secures

salvation for His people, making us one. And when He ascended, He gave the gift of the Holy Spirit to His people and He gave the gift of pastors so that as the Word is preached, the Holy Spirit takes it and illuminates it and causes it to make sense to His people. So don’t get it twisted. There is something supernatural that takes place whenever God’s Word is preached. This is no lecture, family. This is no TED Talk. This is not a conversation. Family, you ever wonder why whenever one of your pastors steps into this pulpit, they specifically ask God to give the help of the Holy Spirit? It’s for this reason. Pastors on their own can’t preach and teach and yield the desired supernatural results on their own. They need the Holy Spirit to do that, to make it make sense. The church needs both the gift of pastor

The Goal

teachers and the gift of the Holy Spirit to empower the preaching and teaching and to empower the listening so that God’s purposes might be produced in the local church. And what is that purpose? Well, we see that in verse 12 with the goal to equip the saints for the work of ministry. When the Spirit empowers the preaching and teaching and the Spirit empowers the saints, they are equipped for the work of ministry. Notice that the pastors equip the members to do the work of ministry. Family, this is something that is so confused in our contemporary Christian culture. You ask the average Christian or church attender, what does a pastor do? Most people would say, well, the pastors do the work of ministry. But not according to Ephesians 4. Pastors are to equip the members for the work of ministry. Now, don’t get it twisted, pastors are members of the church.

And so, in one sense, we do the work of ministry, just like every other member. But our role in ministry is different. And we alone don’t do all the work. You do. Pastors train, coach, equip, and teach you how to do it. And then, you go and do what God has called you to do, what God has authorized you to do. And what is the work that Paul is referring to? Well, just look at the second half of verse 12. He gives pastors and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ. So, really, what you see here are two purposes, or two goals. There’s one immediate goal, and one ultimate goal. The immediate goal of the pastor-teacher is to equip or train the saints, that’s the members, don’t let Catholicism confuse you. If you’re a Christian,

you’re a saint, okay? So, it’s the job to train the saints through the proclamation ministry of the Word so that the Word informs the various ministries that the members are called to do. So that’s the immediate goal. But the ultimate goal is to build up the church, to grow the garden. Now, that might include growing it numerically because of our evangelistic efforts, but in this specific context, it’s to grow it in maturity. To grow it in godliness. And I want you to notice this. The emphasis is not on building up individuals, but the whole body. There is a corporate reality to that building up, and that’s because we are one. As Christians in this church, we are not only concerned about how we are doing spiritually, personally, or how’s my personal Christian walk, but we are also equally concerned with the whole. How are we

all growing as one body? And you see, a concern for the whole body will cause us to think about each individual member. Our maturity as a whole is dependent upon the maturity of the whole. Family, this means that we are responsible for one another. We’re responsible. This is why we have a membership covenant declaring our responsibility for the congregation. And we exercise our responsibility to build up the whole body by being equipped individually so that we can use our God-given gifts for the whole. A couple of weeks ago we looked at the keys of the kingdom in Matthew 16, and Jesus said, I will build my church. I will build my church. How does Jesus build his church? By every member being equipped to build up his church. It’s actually the same language. Jesus gives the church the keys of the kingdom, the authority and the blessed responsibility

to build up his church. And what an amazing reality that we participate and cooperate in God’s building of his church in which the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Family, this should rock your paradigm for what we do on Sunday mornings. This should reframe your role as a member of this church. I mean, can I ask you this morning? Do you come to this building on Sunday morning as simply a consumer? Ready to be served by a few people? Or are you showing up as a construction worker? Hard hat, hammer, ready to go. Ready to build up the body. I mean, I don’t mean that literally. Although, you know, whatever. But Ephesians 2, 20-21 says, the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy

temple in the Lord. Family, when you participate in building up the church, you are helping to grow us into one holy temple in the Lord. When you come with that perspective, that changes your level of engagement. Your priority. That means you might show up early, ready to encourage one another. Ready to build up one another. Imagine if we had to delay the service a little bit, not because people are coming in late, but because everyone is super busy encouraging one another in the sanctuary. Crazy. That would be amazing. We would delay the service for that. Verse 13 and 14 Paul shows us that when we build up the body, it accomplishes the growth. We build up until we attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the statue of the fullness of Christ

so that we may no longer be children. We’re growing in maturity, not tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes. Paul says we are to build up and when we do this, we grow in spiritual maturity. And growing in spiritual maturity, notice is in every way connected to the Word. Look, how do you grow in the unity of our faith? How do you grow in our understanding and knowledge of the Son of God? How do we grow into one mature man, meaning how does the church grow into the fullness of Christ? How do we avoid false doctrine? How do we fight against the influence and wisdom of the culture, or lack thereof? How do we cut through the borders of the world, the flesh, and the devil? By growing in the Word.

By hearing the Word. By talking about the Word. By meditating on the Word. By opening yourself up to the correction of the Word. By sitting under the consistent preaching of the Word. By every member of the church pushing the Word of God into the hearts of every single member in the church. That’s how it works. The pastors equip the members with the Word, so that every member can do the Word work of ministry. This is why Paul says in verse 15 and 16, rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the Head, into Christ, 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. In other words, every member is to do the work of

speaking the truth in love. That’s Word work. Speaking the truth in love is better translated, truthing in love. This means that Christians aren’t just to speak the truth, we are to live the truth, mirror the truth to one another, promote the truth, encourage one another with the truth, invite the truth into our lives, confess the truths together, and teach one another the truth in love. Family, hear me, this is very important. When we speak the truth to each other, we need to do it in love. And we need to receive it as love. Despite how it makes you feel. Despite if it makes you uncomfortable. Sarah Jean just wonderfully illustrated this for us. I know it was uncomfortable for you guys to look at each other. But you just sat there and then you do the same thing back. That’s truthing in love.

This is Word work. And this is the means by which we all grow up in Christ who is the head of the church. And the pastors serve as the joints who teach the Word because the Word keeps everything glued together. And when it works properly, when pastors equip the members with the Word, and when every member speaks the Word in love to one another, we all grow spiritually mature. We all grow as one mature body. Family, this is the blueprint for effective discipleship. We don’t need other programs. This is the blueprint. It comes from the Word and it centers around the Word. You want to make disciples in the church? Or you want to be discipled in the church? Get together with other members in the church and start speaking the Word to one another.

Word Work

Take what is preached on a Sunday morning that we carefully try to craft to equip you. Take that and then start pushing it in Monday through Saturday. Pick it apart. Find unique ways to apply it to your own life. Find unique ways to apply it to other people’s lives in the church. It’s going to apply differently because we’re all different people. You know, a mom with three kids, she needs the application of the Word differently than a single dude. Right? That’s the beauty of God’s Word. It’s living and breathing. If you’re in a small group, talk about the Word. Ask questions about it. Pray the Word into each other’s lives. Explain to one another how the Word is challenging you, how it’s stretching you. Ask others to help you better live out the Word. You know, I’m really struggling with that. I don’t know how to do that.

Can you please help me to figure out how I can apply that truth to my life? I’m desperate. Don’t say, you know, what you should do is send an email to the pastors. They’ll help you. No, walk them through it. You have what you need. You’re being equipped every single Sunday. Invite others to bring the Word of God to bear on your life. This is so important. If you invite others to bring the Word to bear on your life, it’s not going to be hard to receive it. Hold each other accountable with the Word. Okay? We’ve talked a lot about church discipline, and that’s a hard thing. That’s a small, small, small, small part of what we do. Holding each other accountable with the Word, inviting the Word into our lives, that actually keeps us from that craziness. Listen, you don’t need permission to get together with other saints

in the church to encourage one another with the Word. If you feel like you need permission, granted. You don’t need permission to get together and do a Bible study. In fact, I would encourage that. You don’t need permission to get together and go through a spiritual formation book, or go through a systematic theology book. Just do it. Speak the truth and love to one another, and one of two things will happen. Either you will be discipled, or you will make disciples. But either way, the church will grow in spiritual maturity. Praise be to God. Church, you can do this. You can do this. I know it seems like crazy. You want me to tell people the Word? You can do it. You’ve been equipped to do it, and furthermore, you have the Holy Spirit that will help you to do it. If we enculturate this Word work

into our church, into our life together, it becomes natural. It becomes second-hand. We just kind of do it, right? We all grow more and more confidently to speak these spiritual realities to one another. And family, listen. This is elder-led congregationalism. The elders lead you from the Word, and you exercise your responsibility to do the Word work to build up the congregation. And you see, this isn’t anything new. Maybe the title, right? I know when I say the title, everybody’s like, what is that? Half of you can’t even really pronounce it. You’re still trying to figure out how that rolls off the tongue. Right? I get it. But Ephesians 4 didn’t just pop up here over the last 200 years. It’s always been right here. It’s always been there. This has always been God’s design for discipleship. That the members of a local church wouldn’t only grow from

their pastors in that local church, but from all the members in the church. Every member ministry. Congregations where members only grow from the ministry of the pastors, those are anemic churches. Furthermore, they rob their members of the joy and privilege of using their gifts in the ministry to help build up the church. You want to know what’s the most satisfying thing about this life? Helping other brothers and sisters grow in godliness. It is the only thing that happens in this life that has an eternal reality to it. You can stack up money in your 401ks, you can do all kinds of other things, but this is the only thing that yields eternal significant fruit. And you get called into that. This is an amazing reality. And God does that to gift the church. That’s amazing. This is why your pastors wanted to show you from the word how this whole thing works.

So that you don’t see it as a simple like church formula, or some kind of new practice for practical ministry, but as word-centered transcendent paradigm for every member of ministry. So don’t get caught up on what we call this thing. Don’t get caught up on that. Instead, be preoccupied with the word. Because if our focus is the word, we as a whole church will grow in spiritual maturity. Family, we need one another. The work of ministry is far too great for the pastors alone. And listen, it was never intended to be that way in the first place. It was never intended to be that way. Every one of us needs every single one of us. To be a faithful church, a church that glorifies God, a church that grows in spiritual maturity, we need every member in the church to be spirit-filled church builders. Amen?

This encouragement, family, brings us to the end of our sermon series. So, amen? I know a lot of you are waiting for the end of this. But what I wanted you to see is the elders have tried really hard to equip you with the word. And now that you’ve been equipped with the word, we’ve got a lot of work to do. A lot of word work to do. If we intend to be faithful to what God has called us as a church to do, we’ve got to be preoccupied with the word work of ministry. Amen? Let’s pray and let’s ask God to help us be a church that serves one another, uses our gifts to serve one another, with the word being central.