Are You ready to Make a Difference!

Ephesians 4:17-19

Happy Birthday Pastor Josh!

Are You ready to Make a Difference!  I want you to believe that we can make a difference for Christ as a church. We are a team and as a team we are here to have fun and let the world know we love Jesus.

In April 1969, the Beatles released a song Get back JoJo, I don’t know if you are familiar with these lyrics:
Jojo was a man who thought he was a loner
But he knew it wouldn’t last.
Jojo left his home in Tucson, Arizona
For some California grass.
Get back, get back.
Get back to where you once belonged.

JoJo’s was a bar that Linda McCarthy liked to go to in Phoenix Arizona. It simply was about getting the bars atmosphere back to what it was. Linda had Paul write the song because she wanted her hangout spot like she had once envisioned it. I’m not advocating going backwards as the song suggests because that spiritual stupidity, but I'm actually advocating going forward as Paul is. If we are going to make a difference for Christ then #1 no one can be a loaner anymore…#2 we can never go back to what we once were. We can never go back to the life of sin we were once saved from. That’s what Paul is telling us in the next few verses…

“So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.” Ephesians 4:17-19 (NIV)

Paul had just finished describing the need for the body of Christ to mature so that they could grow up into the Head, Jesus Christ. I shared with you the importance of developing both our vertical relationship with Jesus and our horizontal relationships with others. (Love God-Love People…mature believers learn to do both excellently) But now Paul is going to change course a bit. He is warning his readers not to return to what they were like before God reached down into their lives and made them part of his family. You’ll remember that Paul had previously described that way of life at the beginning of chapter 2:
“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.” Ephesians 2:1-3 (NIV)

That certainly doesn’t sound like the kind of life anyone would want to return to, but obviously Paul had some concerns that some of his readers were in danger of doing exactly that. When Paul writes “you must no longer live as the Gentiles do”, he is exhorting his readers to never go back to the kind of life they experienced before they committed their lives to Jesus Christ. It wasn’t easy then and it’s not easy now to live a life totally devoted to Christ. Although Paul’s writing is not exactly a “how-to” manual on how to avoid getting “back to where we once belonged”, he certainly gives us enough insight about how that can occur that we can develop some principles that we can apply to avoid doing that. Although I’m sure there is much more here, over the next few days we will look at some principles that will either make us or break us...you are loved!

You Can Make a Difference! (4)

Ephesians 4:11-14

 

God has designed His church to function like a loving family that you can invite people into. Church is not a place to issue edicts; church is a place to nurture growth. Church is a place that exists for the purpose of helping people grow and mature from being spiritual babies to being spiritual adults. How does that happen...

First, in our community, God wants us to always link truth with love. Verse 15 should be translated, "Being truthful in love". It’s not just referring to our speaking, but to all forms of our communication: our body language, the ideas we imply, the things we don’t say. If we are to grow spiritually, we must be truthful in love. Truth and love must be merged, fused, woven together. It sounds easy, but it’s not.  It means, never let your truth be unloving when you’re confronting someone in conflict. And never let your love be untruthful. Keeping that balance is difficult, but choosing to always be truthful in love is our first step to growing up toward Christ like maturity.

In Matthew 18:15, Jesus urges us to be truthful in love. He says -- "If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over." The goal is love and reconciliation in the relationship, but the path toward that goal is to be truthful and up front and honest about how you feel.]

Our second step toward maturity is to always stay closely connected in fellowship with other members of the Body. When Paul speaks in verse 16 of -- "the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament", he’s talking about enjoining reconciled relationships within the church. It’s the joints and ligaments that connect us with other parts of the Body as we rub up against each other and lean on each other and cooperate with each other.  Do you know why we are always pushing our Fuel Groups at you? You cannot grow spiritually without the body of Christ around you.

These supporting ligaments refer to the times we study God’s Word together and when we serve together side by side. (Serve days, Fuel Groups, ministry teams, prayers teams) It is these joints in the body that keep all the parts of the Body interdependent on each other. I can’t imagine a body without any joints, can you? Without the joints, we’d be a sorry dislocated mess! We need those connection points of fellowship in order to grow. Coming to church on Sunday is good, but if that’s the only connection point you have, then you need to step-up and really get connected. (Fuel Groups)

Our last step toward maturity is to always be willing to do our part of the ministry. At the end of verse 16 Paul describes how the Body -- "grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work." As each part of the local Body of Christ uses his or her spiritual gift to serve in a ministry, the result is that the church grows bigger (in quantity) and it grows stronger (in quality) -- but only as each part does its work.

Some of us need to make that decision to be willing to do our part of the ministry. Most of you are familiar with Paul comparing the church to parts of a body in 1 Corinthians 12. Have you ever really thought about what part in the Body you play? What is your role? What is your ministry? What is your area of service in the body of Christ? Whatever it is, you have a distinct and important function within the Body. You are needed within the Body to do what you were designed by God to do. Christ expects you to do your work of ministry or service in a way that will strengthen His church.

There are no unnecessary parts in the Body of Christ! There are no little people in the family of God. Even if you think of yourself as just a big toenail, just imagine how it would hurt the whole Body if you became ingrown!

If you are a true Christian, Christ declares you to be a valuable and needed part of your local church. You are an unrepeatable miracle! You are a specialized part. No one else can do what you do as well as you can can do it. You cannot be replaced with a substitute part; any more than a surgeon can replace a defective stomach with a pair of lungs. Christ wants you to do in His Body exactly what He’s made you to do because you, as an individual, really do count.

[Unfortunately, many Christians seem to have lost their sense of identity as to what role they play in the Body of Christ.

Like someone suffering from amnesia, they are asking themselves, "Who am I as a Christian, and why am I here? Just how do I fit into the family of God? In the midst of all the people and programs, do I, as an individual, really count?" You count!

Some people have the funny idea that when they place their tithes in the offering plate, that they are paying the staff to do the work of the ministry for them. No, that’s not so. Our job as staff is to equip you to do your work in the ministry well.] One of the reasons why God has you here in this local church is that He wants you to grow to become more mature through the process of serving others. God is using this local church to grow baby Christians into mature Christians. That’s why we’re here. We are growing baby Christians into mature Christians.

It’s God’s healthy plan for a healthy church.
So, which practical step of growth will you choose to take today? Maybe you will decide to always link truth with love in communication. Maybe you will decide to get more closely connected to others in the Body through fellowship. Maybe you will decide to do your part to serve in a ministry. Whatever God is leading you to do, take that step toward your own spiritual growth today.

You Can Make a Difference! (3)

Ephesians 4:11-14

God has designed His church to function like a loving family that you can invite people into. Church is not a place to issue edicts; church is a place to nurture growth. Church is a place that exists for the purpose of helping people grow and mature from being spiritual babies to being spiritual adults.

Let me ask you a question? If you are on the path to spiritual maturity then a legitimate question for me to ask you is, "How’s your ministry going?" Do you see it? God’s plan is -- "to prepare God’s people for works of service". The word for "service" or "ministry" in the Greek is diakonias, which is where our word "deacon" comes from.]

And the goal of your service for God is, stated in verses 12-13, --It is "so that the body of Christ may be built up 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."

God wants to grow Believers that are strong spiritually, and that process requires time. It takes time to practice what we’ve learned before we can really claim to know it. Simply accumulating more knowledge in your head is not enough; only when you are able to apply your knowledge in your experience can you say that your knowledge is mature. That’s the journey of faith each of us are on.

Example: when you receive the gift of a prophet you don’t get it all at once. You must listen to God and practice listening so you can hear from him and speak for him.

Think about that. Look at your kids as an example: If you had a young daughter, would you teach her to swim by having her take a correspondence course in swimming? Ok go on the internet and practice. Would you teach your son to drive by tossing him a driver’s manual and saying this is how you are going to learn to drive? That’s a good start. To really learn, she’s got to get down into the water; he’s got to get behind the steering wheel and practice so you can scream yell stuff like God save me, I’m going to die.

In a similar way, the only way that you and I can ever grow spiritually mature is by putting our biblical knowledge into practice in the daily experiences of our lives. [As Hebrews 5:14 says -- "solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil."] It’s getting increasingly harder to distinguish that these days. What was evil is good and what is good is now evil.

So, what does maturity look like? It looks like Christ. If we are growing in maturity, our character is becoming shaped to be more and more like Jesus Christ. God’s goal is that through our mutual ministry to each other, we will each grow up to become like His Son, Jesus Christ. By serving each other in the church; we become strong through both unity in our convictions and though maturity in our character. We learn to love one another.

This is critical for your spiritual growth. When Todd asked last week what has changed over time, my immediate thought was the church. The American church has gone from a place of serving each other to grow spiritually in the local church, to how I can best be entertained. Church growth statistics show us that in the Tri-Cities that we have a 1% salvation rate but a 54% transfer rate. What does that mean? It means that over half of the Christians in this area are moving from church to church instead of staying put in one church so to grow spiritually. So spiritual growth isn’t as important as much as what can you do for me. What has happened is we have a group of Christians that are in a perpetual place of immaturity.

We can’t we just stay immature forever because in verse 14 Paul contrasts maturity with immaturity by drawing a stark contrast between baby Christians and mature Christians.

Look at verse 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 men in their deceitful scheming."

In vs. 14, this word "infant" refers to a small child who is not yet old enough to speak, perhaps someone of toddler age. Paul points out the fact that there are some evil people out there who desire to lead young Christians away from the truth. These people are cunning, crafty and deceitful.

Paul warns us to watch out for them so we can avoid falling into their traps. Every new believer begins the Christian life as a born-again baby, and often, it is in that first year or so after salvation that a person is an easy mark to be fooled by false teachers. False teachers come in many forms; on Christian TV, radio, thru cults.

Paul describes baby Christians as those who are wavering and vacillating, "tossed back and forth by the waves." On the other hand, mature Christians are resolute and determined in what they believe. Baby Christians are gullible, "blown here and there by every wind of teaching", whereas mature Christians are more grounded and steady and rooted in the truth. Baby Christians are easily deceivable, led astray "by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming", whereas mature Christians are discerning and cautious to study the Scriptures for themselves. Do you see that contrast?

How can we keep growing up in God’s ongoing plan for our spiritual growth? In verses 15-16, Paul lists out three ways that God grows up strong Christians, and every one of these three ways takes place in the context of our being involved in a local church.

He says, "In speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 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." How does all this work? More tomorrow...you are loved!

 

 

You Can Make a Difference! (2)

You Can Make a Difference!

Ephesians 4:11-14


God has designed His church to function like a loving family that you can invite people into. Church is not a place to issue edicts; church is a place to nurture growth. Church is a place that exists for the purpose of helping people grow and mature from being spiritual babies to being spiritual adults.

 

In Ephesians 4:11-16 this portion of Scripture explains this concept of growth perhaps more clearly than any passage. This is a central, core passage that is going to help us all to understand why our involvement in a local church is so vitally important to our spiritual life.

In verse 11 Paul begins-- "It was [Christ] who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers..." Verse 11 spells out four specific gifts of church leadership, each one of which involves teaching God’s Word.

When God gave birth to the church He used apostles and prophets to establish healthy believers by means of writing down the New Testament Scriptures. Today, God continues to build up the size and strength of Body of Christ through the work of apostles, prophets, evangelists, many of whom serve as missionaries around the world, and pastor-teachers, both of who teach the Scriptures to people.

What’s God’s goal or purpose behind a pastor in the local church, me for example? The purpose is to teach the Bible to you? God’s answer to that question in verse 12 is, "to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up..."

In our culture a pastor is expected to preach, lead, administrate, visit, marry, bury, care, and counsel. In many people’s minds, he’s supposed to be the generalist who "does" the entire ministry for the flock, putting out all the fires, oiling the squeaky wheels, and solving all the problems.

But that’s all backwards. Ephesians 4:12 makes it very clear that a pastor’s main role is to equip and prepare God’s people to do the work of the ministry. How do I do that? By training the members, that’s you, to meet each other’s needs. My primary job is to help you to grow spiritually so you will become willing and able to do the ministry of the church.

In Verse 12 the word "prepare" comes from a Greek word [katartizo] which speaks of repairing and preparing a person’s life in order to equip him and get him ready for service.

For example in Matthew 4:21, this same word is used to describe James and John as they repaired and prepared their nets for fishing. It says (Read v.21) “Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets.” You don’t get the whole meaning but this involved cleaning the nets of seaweed and sticks, then mending parts of their nets that had been torn or damaged, and then untangling and folding their nets so that they would be quickly useable at a moment’s notice. All of this preparation was so that their nets would be ready to catch more fish. [These nets were not being prepared for storage, but for service.] It’s important you understand this.

[In ancient literature, this same word is also used to describe a physician who realigns a dislocated limb in its socket or who sets a broken bone, bringing healing from the pain of injury and putting it back into proper relationship with the rest of the body. Paul uses this word to describe bringing people to wholeness by completing what’s missing for their full spiritual development (2 Corinthians 13:9, 11). That’s the result of being repaired and prepared. It gets you ready to be effective fishers of men.

The way it works is that through the process of being equipped, trained, prepared and completed, Christians are restored to their proper dignity as ministers. According to 1 Peter 2:4, 9, if you are a believer, you are a priest. Maybe you see yourself as just a regular, every day Christian, but God sees you as part of a holy and royal priesthood.

What it means is that God gives you authority to do ministry. You are not a second-class Christian. You are a minister. More tomorrow...You are loved!

You Can Make a Difference!

Ephesians 4:11-14

God has designed His church to function like a loving family that you can invite people into. Church is not a place to issue edicts; church is a place to nurture growth. Church is a place that exists for the purpose of helping people grow and mature from being spiritual babies to being spiritual adults.

When God calls us to be His children, we all start out as spiritual babies. Jesus told Nicodemus that before we can ever be a part of God’s family and enter heaven, we must be born again (John 3:3). The apostle Peter tells us that we all start out our Christian lives as "newborn babies" who need the pure milk of the Word. (1 Peter 2:2). That is our spiritual starting point for all of us. Just like every other father does, our Father in Heaven wants His children to grow! Specifically, God wants us all to grow up and to mature by continually becoming more like His first and favorite Son, Jesus Christ.

Moses when he first said yes to God had to go through 40 years of spiritual growth in the wilderness before God sent him back to Egypt.

Gideon when he stood in the threshing floor and the angel spoke to him had to go through a time before he said yes I believe my God is greater. Remember how he had to have a sign and in his unbelief God showed him who he was and gave him the sign that he God was about to do great things.

How about Paul?  He was met on the road to Damascus where Jesus took him from a murder of Christians to the man that took the church to the world.

Did Paul think he could change the world in the beginning? He couldn’t even see at the time. But he obeyed God and you today are under the influence of what Paul started way back when. All of us have to start somewhere to get someplace else…that’s what we are about here at CFW. Helping you grow spiritually so you can make a difference! You are loved...

Do You Need a Breakthrough?

'...They called the name of that place Baal Perazim.' 1 Chronicles 14:11 NKJV

The Bible says: 'The Philistines...made a raid on the Valley of Rephaim. And David inquired of God saying, "Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will You deliver them into my hand?" The Lord said to him, "Go up, for I will deliver them into your hand." So they went up to Baal Perazim, and David defeated them there. Then David said, "God has broken through my enemies by my hand like a breakthrough of water." Therefore they called the name of that place Baal Perazim [which means breaking through].' (1 Chronicles 14:9-11 NKJV)

To get a breakthrough in your life you must do what David did: (1) He reminded himself that 'the Lord had made him king' (1 Chronicles 14:2). You must remember Who called you, and Whose spirit lives within you. God called David, and He's called you too. When you know that, you won't let the enemy put you down or push you around. (2) He enquired of the Lord, 'Shall I go up against the Philistines?' (1 Chronicles 14:10 NKJV) Have you talked it over with the Lord? God doesn't respond to your need, He responds to your obedience. When you've obeyed Him, you'll win. (3) He gave God the credit: 'God has broken through my enemies.' (1 Chronicles 14:11 NKJV) Sometimes God will do it for you, other times He will do it through you. That's why you must hear from Him before you make a move. You can't do God's part, and He won't do yours. It's not just a matter of 'doing something', it's a matter of doing what God tells you! When you do, you'll get a breakthrough. You are loved!

Get God's Opinion! (2)

'Don't let anyone look down on you because...' 1 Timothy 4:12 NIV
Yesterday I ended with the thought, "Try as you may, you will never fulfil a dream that is not your own."
 
Why is that important to you and God? Stop and think about your personal history. How have your plans, goals and desires been influenced by others?
 
Is it possible your dreams are the result of who your parents think you are? Who you think you are? Who you wish you were? Or are they the result of who you really are and what God meant you to be?
 
You will live the life for which God created you, only after you figure this out. When a dream is right for you and you are right for a dream, the two cannot be separated from each other. I love what TS Eliot said, 'Whatever you think, be sure it is what you think; whatever you want, be sure it is what you want.' Paul told Timothy, 'Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young.' Evidently certain people in the early church thought Timothy was too young and inexperienced to be in leadership. Paul thought differently; and so did God. Maturity always trumps age as Timothy was Gods man for the job. Cecil G. Osborne writes, 'The young child has no clear picture of himself. He sees himself only in the mirror of his parents' evaluation of himself... A child who's told repeatedly that he is a bad boy, or is lazy, or no good, or stupid, or shy, or clumsy will tend to act out this picture which the parent or some other authority figure has given him.' Let God, and God alone, tell you who you are and what you should do. Get His opinion, for in the end it's the only one that counts! You are loved...