A Functioning Body

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Transcript:

I’m going to ask you to turn in your Bibles with me this morning to Ephesians chapter 5. I’m sorry, Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4.

As we continue on with this series that we’ve been in for the last several weeks on pictures of the church, we’re looking at various metaphors, various word pictures that God used in the New Testament to describe the church because each of them tell us something about how God views the church, about how God intends his relationship with the church, about what God expects from the church. It tells us something about this. And so we’ve been looking at each of these to see what it is that God’s intending to tell us so that we can learn it and apply it.

And when we get to Ephesians chapter 4, throughout the chapter, the Apostle Paul was writing to the church at Ephesus trying to get them to understand the importance of unity and cooperation in the church. And he does that by describing the church as a body. It’s not the only place in Scripture where the church is described as a body, but it’s probably the one of the passages that I’ve talked about the least describing the church as a body.

So we went with Ephesians chapter 4 this week. And even though I’ve had my notes, my outline ready since the beginning of the week, I actually started on it early last week because I knew I’d be at the convention and wouldn’t have as much time to work on it. This has been in the works for a while, but even this morning I was sitting here thinking, how do I introduce, I need a better way to introduce this subject to get people to understand the need for us to cooperate and work together as the church for the mission to get accomplished.

And I was thinking, how do I do that? How do I explain that? Because I know our tendency is to think sometimes somebody else will do it.

It doesn’t matter if I do this or don’t do this. It’s just a little thing. Somebody else will do it.

It’ll get done. and we kind of give ourselves an out. And I thought, how do I explain this?

And then I remembered that God gave us Charlie. Told you I’d explain why I came flying in here about three minutes before church started. I did not just show up at 1027 this morning.

Our mission as a family is to get two adults and four children here at the appropriate time with no bloodshed, no broken bones, make sure everybody’s had breakfast, that sort of thing. And some weeks it works better than others, all right? Today, as I typically do, I brought the older kids with me for prayer meeting.

We came early, and Mama stayed behind with the little ones, getting them ready so they’re not running around and screaming all during Sunday school, and trying to get them ready for church. And I thought everything was going according to plan. Everybody’s been fairly cooperative today.

The big kids actually ate their breakfast without threats. And so we were doing well. Everybody was cooperating, doing their jobs, and the mission was getting accomplished.

Charlie’s mission, while Mama was packing her vehicle, so Charlie could bring Charlie and Carly Joe, Charlie’s job was just to sit there glued to the television like he’ll typically do if it’s on. Just sit there and focus. That was his job.

So Charlie started loading the vehicle. I should have asked if you were okay with me telling this story. It was nothing irresponsible on Charla’s part.

It happens to all of us, all right? Charla is starting to load the vehicle with baby stuff because part of parenting, a big part of parenting is just being a pack mule, right? You’re just carrying bags of stuff around for these little people.

So she’s taking stuff out to the vehicle. I get a call at 10. 07 saying, I need you to come home because Charlie has locked me out of the house.

Yeah. Yeah. He had one job, and it was probably the easiest job any of us had this morning other than Carly Jo, which her job is just to sit there and be a baby.

It’s fairly easy. His job was to sit there and watch TV, which he loves to do. But no, Charlie walks out the door.

Charlie runs behind her to the garage and locks up. I guess he didn’t want anybody to come back in. So I had to fly up there in my car.

I drove faster than I normally do and got there. And I hear screaming as soon as I step out of the truck. And I’m trying to unlock the door.

I don’t know where Charlie is. But I hear screaming inside the house. Turns out she’s around at the back door trying to tell Charlie to unlock the door.

And he’s upset because Mama is separated from him by glass, and he’s addicted to Mama, and that just was not working. And Carly Jo is a sympathetic screamer. Anybody in the house screams, and she’ll scream with them.

So finally we got the house unlocked, and I made it back. Oh, and then Charlie didn’t want to leave, so he threw a fit. Another one.

So I made it back here with three minutes to spare for church. And I’m going, for our mission to work, it took everybody doing their job. For our mission of getting everybody here at the right time with no bloodshed, and for that to work, we just needed everybody to do their job.

And you might think Charlie had such a simple little job, sit there and watch TV. But him not doing that one simple little job threw the whole mission off kilter, right? And that’s kind of the same thing we see in the church.

He describes it as a body for a reason because we’re supposed to function together. Because it takes every part of the body to accomplish the mission. And it doesn’t matter if it’s a big job or a small job.

If everybody’s not doing their job, then the mission is thrown into jeopardy. I was talking with somebody this week, and I can’t remember who it was. They were talking about having to go see a dentist because of a tooth that was really hurting them.

and somebody else said, you know, it’s amazing how one little piece of something in your mouth can cause so much trouble. But I think a lot of us have been there. We don’t really think about our teeth until they give us trouble.

And suddenly that one little tooth throws a wrench in the workings of everything else. Because if you get enough pain, you just don’t want to do anything. So the tooth is a small part and it has a fairly small, I mean, the tooth is not as important as the heart, right?

Well, it feels pretty important when it doesn’t do its job. So for the Apostle Paul to describe, as he was inspired by the Holy Spirit to do, for him to describe the church as a body tells us something about the way the church is supposed to function, and it carries on with what he started, Ephesians chapter 4, explaining that there needed to be unity and there needed to be cooperation in the church. And I would love this morning to go with you all the way through chapter 4.

But time won’t permit me, and probably your ability to sit there won’t permit me. So we’re going to pick up in verse 11 of Ephesians chapter 4 this morning. Ephesians chapter 4, starting in verse 11.

And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, equipping the saints for the work of the ministry to build up the body of Christ. Until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness, then we will no longer be children tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness and the techniques of deceit. But speaking the truth in love, Let us grow in every way into him who is the head, Christ. From him the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for working up itself in love by the proper working of each individual part. So that passage tells us that the church is a body.

Now, it’s not speaking literally here that we become a body, but it’s speaking in this metaphorical sense that we together, The church is not, I’ve heard it described, the church is not an organization, the church is an organism. You know, we come together as one in a sense, and we represent Christ, and we do the works that he’s given us to do. We follow the mission that the head has given us here in this community, and we become in that sense his body, and we’re called on to cooperate together.

And we see that in verse 16, that everybody has a part to play in the body. And sometimes we think to ourselves, my part is not all that important. But it is.

If any of us let ourselves be deceived and convinced to the point that we think, well, my ministry doesn’t count, somebody else will take care of it. It throws the whole body off kilter. And we all have different, we probably all have different perspectives on what ministries are the most important.

You know, cleaning the toilets at the church is ministry. Is it glamorous? No.

We might think at times that that’s not an important ministry. You know what? We realize how important it is when it doesn’t get done, right?

Every ministry in the church is important. And not just what takes place in these four walls, but the ministry the church does in the community is important. You know, I know we’re not a huge church, and so we’re kind of limited in our resources, but we do what we can and do what God leads us to with what He provides.

We might think, you know, for example, we’re working on our Thanksgiving baskets right now. We might think, oh, that’s just a simple thing. That’s just providing a meal. That’s not that important of a ministry.

If our church doesn’t do it, or if I don’t contribute to it, somebody else will do it. You know, we already have people. All of ours are spoken for at this point already and have been for a couple weeks, and we still have people contacting us asking if they can get a basket.

It’s a ministry that is needed. And if we think, oh, that’s not important, we’d notice how important it was if we stopped doing it. There are some in our church that might think because of age or physical ailments or whatever, that they don’t have a ministry.

And for some of these people, their ministry is prayer. They may not be able to get out and work like they used to, but they pray for what we do together. And they pray for us.

And they might think to themselves, well, that’s not that important a ministry. I just pray for things. Really, we’ll realize how important it is when we’re not praying.

Every ministry that we do is important. Brother Tim, a few years ago after I first came here, asked me, what does success to you look like in a church? I don’t know if being the new pastor in the association, maybe he was trying to fill me out and see where my perspective was.

And I don’t remember exactly what I told him, but it wasn’t the answer that you would probably expect from pastors, you know, increased attendance, increased giving. I said, I’d like for everybody in the church to know what their ministry is and be involved in it. I’d like for every person in the church to be involved in a small group where they’re growing together, and I’d like everybody in the church to be being discipled by someone and be discipling somebody who’s coming up behind them.

I can’t remember everything else I told him, but that was pretty much the core of what I said success as a church looks like from my perspective. And you’ll notice key in that is the idea that we all understand that we have a ministry. We’ve all dealt with God about what that might be, what He’s calling each of us to do, and we’re all being faithful to that calling.

Because there are ministries that you can do that I can’t do. And there are ministries that I can do that you can’t do. I say can’t.

I mean, God can equip anybody He calls to. But some of you would rather die than get up and talk in front of people. I remember reading that the number one most common fear in America is public speaking even more than death or dental work it’s public speaking some of you would just rather okay that’s that’s fine I’ll take the bullet I’m not getting up there and talking I’m okay with with talking I’m okay with preaching I don’t want to be in the nursery with other people’s kids God has given me just enough patience for my own children and I can spank them.

All right. So nursery is not my, nursery is not my spiritual gift. Miss Kay teaches Benjamin in Sunday school and he loves it.

Now I know how difficult that can probably be at times because I do Bible class with him every weekday, him and Madeline, and sometimes I just want to pull their little heads off. And sometimes I let them know that.

I’ve never seen that out of Miss Kay God has gifted her for her ministry in a way that I’m just not sure I’m cut out for Julie gets together and does a quilting group with ladies and y’all minister to each other yes I have no desire to take up quilting I don’t have the patience for that either a lot of this revolves around patience we all are called to a ministry and if you’re sitting there this morning saying well I’m not involved in ministry anywhere then we need to find where you belong in ministry maybe it’s somewhere inside these four walls maybe it’s somewhere outside but if you’re wondering how do I find out what it is come talk to me not that I have all the answers but we can pray together. That’s part of my job as described here in Ephesians chapter 4. The job of the pastor is not to do all the ministry.

The job of those in church leadership is to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. It’s my job on top of the ministry that I do as a believer to have the added ministry of leading and shepherding and equipping you, being sort of your coach and cheerleader, equipping you to do the ministry that God’s called you to do. Because he said he’s given the apostles and prophets and pastors and teachers, he’s given these for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry.

So if you’re thinking, I don’t know where I fit in ministry. I don’t know what God’s calling me to do. Come talk to me.

And maybe we can figure it out together. Maybe we can see which direction God’s leading you. Or maybe you’ve got an idea for a ministry.

Maybe God’s placed something on your heart and you don’t know where to get started. Come talk to me. We’ll see where we can get you plugged in.

and see what we need to do to help you follow in the direction that God’s leading. None of this is in my notes. I could easily just talk about y’all being called to ministry for the rest of the day.

But the point is that each person in the church has been called by God into a ministry, and this idea of the church functioning as a body, the church being a body, is used by God, speaking through the Apostle Paul here, to describe the way we’re supposed to function together in a cooperative work. And my ministry builds off of your ministry and vice versa, and yours tie into each other, and we’re all here to support one another, and we can’t, each of us, do all the work of the ministry, but if we’re all being faithful to just take care of our part of the wall, then it all gets built. To throw back to an example from Nehemiah, if we’re all taking care of our little corner of ministry, If we’re all being obedient to the thing or the few things that God’s called us to do, then it all gets done in a way that a few people trying to do it all can never accomplish.

And the church works best when the parts, when the members work together, because together we can do things that we could never do alone. It’s like the body. It works best when all the parts are cooperating, right?

And individual parts of the body could not do their function alone. If I had just a pair of legs, could they walk? Only in a cartoon.

They couldn’t walk or run because realistically, if you have just a pair of legs, they’re going to just lay there because there’s no brain and no spinal cord sending them messages about what to do. There’s no little bones in the ear, and I can’t remember what they’re called, but there’s no little bones in the ear to keep them balanced.

there’s no heart pumping blood and lungs putting oxygen into that blood to keep the cells in the legs from dying so that they can move even the legs the legs are simple they just walk no they need all the other parts to function with all the parts together we can run we can jump we can dance not in church because we’re not that kind of church but we can do all of those things where just the legs on their own couldn’t do that and so he put us together to build one another up he says in verse 12 we’re here for the equipping the saints for the work of the ministry to build up the body of christ now the problem with this is that it’s popular today to try to do christianity alone there’s this idea of the lone ranger christian and we may know some people like this who knows we might have been people like this at some time but well I can stay home and I can worship God all by myself I don’t need the church well you can worship God all by yourself some of my best times of worship are when I’m alone in the truck you can worship God on your own oh I can I can worship God out in a deer blind yeah you can especially when you hit something you’re gonna be praising God all right if you’re into that sort of thing I know they’re no I don’t want to kill them I do they’re delicious all right yes you can praise god out in nature you can feel close to god out in nature and that’s all a wonderful thing but god designed us to do this together all right you leave your foot just your foot out in nature and tell it to go be a foot it’s not going to be a functioning foot for very long see this idea of this lone ranger christianity when we try to do it by ourself it weakens the body because the body that should have its hand or its big toe or its ear or whatever piece is missing the body that should have that part is going without that part because that part says I want to go do it alone but it also lessens the effectiveness of the individual believer because again the ear trying to hear on its own?

It’s got to be connected to the brain through these nerves for the brain to make sense of what it’s hearing. The body and the individual member are both diminished when we try to do it alone. God didn’t set us up to do it alone.

God didn’t wire us to be alone. I know some of us are introverts and we need time on our own to breathe and recoup, but that’s not an excuse to stay out of the body. That’s not an excuse to stay away from him.

There’s danger too when we try to do this by ourselves. Not only is our effectiveness in ministry diminished, but there’s danger to us individually. Look at verse 13.

He’s talking about by being part of the body, he says, then we will no longer be children tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning, with cleverness in the techniques of deceit.

he says if you’re part of the body you’ll be resistant to these things so we can turn that around and realize that when we’re separated from the body we’re more vulnerable to these things to being little children in the faith there’s nothing wrong with being a child but at some point you’re supposed to grow beyond that right when little children act like little children it’s endearing when 40 year old men act like little children it’s infuriating right we’re supposed to grow beyond that and if we try to be lone ranger christians we run the risk of of never growing beyond those initial steps of christianity because we’re not part of this body where god has equipped people to invest in us and teach us and equip us can you study the scriptures on your own absolutely.

But I tell you what, I’ve, apart from some people who have taught me better skills for understanding the Bible, just reading it on my own, I developed some pretty goofy ideas early on. I think I’ve told you that story. I was in eighth grade, and I was reading my Bible one day during free time in school, and I came across something, I think it was in the book of Ezekiel, about God destroying the islands, the isles, and the people that dwell in the isles.

And I started telling my friends, I think God’s going to destroy England in the last days. That has nothing to do with England. Like England’s the only island there is.

Heard somebody make the case because of the whole statement about Jesus saying, Peter, you’re now, he gave Peter the name Peter, which means little rock. And he said, on this rock, I will build my church. And by the way, I believe he was referring either to himself or his confession, not to Peter.

But I heard somebody make the case one time that the kingdom, when it returns to earth, would be based in Little Rock, Arkansas. You need to get involved in a church somewhere because that doesn’t sound right. I’ve been to Little Rock.

And I’ve lived in Arkansas, and as much as I enjoyed it, I don’t think that’s going to be the kingdom. You can be like a child and never grow past the childlike understanding, childish. Remember, I talked about coming to Christ as a child a few months ago, and there’s a difference between being childlike and childish.

We never grow past that point of childish faith and childish understanding. Being tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching. I don’t know that this is the technical term, but I call it Facebook theology.

Facebook can be great for a lot of things, but I see some people, the things they share, that it just, whatever new wind of doctrine is blowing, that’s what’s carrying their ship on, and they share some of the weirdest things, and they buy into some of the weirdest things they see on Facebook. Not everything that comes along and somebody says, oh, this is a new word from God. Not everything that says it’s a new word from God is a new word from God.

As a matter of fact, I’ll tell you, you stack it up against this, And if this new word is inconsistent with the old word, then this new word needs to go because it’s not from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will never contradict what He’s already revealed. And yet when we get off on our own, it’s so much easier.

It’s so much easier to be tossed about by every new idea and every new teaching because we need each other to bring us back to where we’re supposed to be. It’s one of the reasons I’m thankful for my wife, not that she keeps me from aberrant theology, but I’ll get ideas about stuff to do around the house or stuff to build. And I’m thankful that I’m not just on my own.

I have a wife who can breathe some reality into my harebrained ideas sometimes. We need each other. Because when we’re by ourselves, it’s easy to get tossed around with all these ideas by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques to deceive.

Because there are people out there who are very skilled at presenting a little bit of truth mixed with a little bit of lies and making it sound palatable. And if we’re not watching each other, that sounds almost Soviet-like, not watching each other, but if we’re not watching out for each other, there’s a better way to say it. If we don’t have each other’s backs, it’s a lot easier to fall for that kind of stuff.

So again, it’s popular nowadays to just try to be a Christian on your own. Can you be saved and not be involved in the church? Absolutely.

Can you be obedient and live the Christian life that God intended you to live as He intended you to live it while routinely and purposely keeping the church at arm’s length? I don’t believe you can. Something’s always going to be missing.

And so He calls on us here to commit to the body. That’s what he was telling the church at Ephesus. He was looking for unity.

He was looking for cooperation. He was calling them to come be part of the body, to stick together, to work together. And we commit to this body as the church, and we let God use it.

Let God use it to strengthen us, and let God use us to strengthen others. We should be strengthened and challenged and encouraged when we come here together. Not just by the preaching, although hopefully that is of some benefit to you, but also by the fellowship.

By praying for one another, by talking to each other and being real about the things that we struggle with, the things we don’t understand, the problems that we’re having. To be able to be part of the same body and cooperate together as we’re trying to serve Him. It’s so much better than trying to do it on our own.

And it’s not just about what we get out of it. it’s about how we minister to others as well yes the church is here the church is here to invest in you the church is here to equip you to do the ministry God’s called you to do but you’re also part of the church equipping the person next to you in the pew and strengthening them to do the work that God’s called them to do I’ve heard so many people over the years say one reason or another why they were leaving a church and many times I’ve heard well I’m just not getting anything out of it and I probably shouldn’t have answered this way and I didn’t this was before I was a pastor but I used to answer who said church was about you now if I say that now as a pastor makes people even angrier. But you know, it’s true.

Church is not all about me. Church is all about Him and how He’s called us to work together for His glory. Because this church is His plan to, as we see in verse 12, to equip us for ministry.

Equipping the saints for the work of the ministry to build up the body of Christ. It’s His plan to build us up, to strengthen us, so that we do move past being children and being weak in the faith. It’s His plan to foster unity. You know how Christians have a reputation, sometimes undeserved, sometimes deserved, for sniping at each other over minor differences?

It should be a little harder when God’s put us in a room and said, here, you have to like each other. it’s like when my sister and I were kids we used to fight all the time until my mother put us in a room and said you have to stay in here until you like each other because one day we’re going to be gone and it’s just going to be you two I think it was about 16 seconds before we came out of there bawling because it was true I made sure to have a lot of kids so that none of mine would ever have to say oh, it’s just me and you. There’s always somebody else to go to.

But it’s true. When God’s put us together and said, you know, I’ve got to find a way to work together, we should be unified. And you know, I’ve seen one of the ways that we build church unity is when we do ministry together.

One of the ways we grow closer together is when we do ministry together. Some of the people in this whole world that I’m closest to are the people that I’ve done ministry with. So He calls us to work together.

It’s His plan to foster unity and grow us closer together. It’s His plan to increase knowledge, to increase our knowledge and our understanding. He says in verse 13, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son.

It’s His will for us to be together so that we can learn from each other and grow to know Jesus in a better way.

and there are some of you in this room who’ve taught me as much if not more about jesus than I’ve taught you just in our conversations and our time together it’s his plan in verse 13 for us to grow to maturity in christ he says growing into maturity with a stature measured by christ’s fullness that the goal we’re shooting for is to be more like jesus christ that’s the ultimate goal and in this life we’ll never be all the way to that goal of being like him but we should be growing together when measured against that yardstick that’s a lot harder to do on our own it’s his plan to bring us stability we talked in verse 14 about being tossed to and fro and blown around by all the wind his plan to bring us some stability it’s harder to convince 40 people of a crazy idea than it is to convince one. And sometimes the other 39 can talk sense into the one.

And it’s his plan, it’s his design in verse 15 for us to glorify Christ together. But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the head, Christ. That our goal is to, again, to grow to be more like him, to grow closer to him. And when we do that, it glorifies Jesus Christ. we can’t ever forget that the church is just the church is about Jesus Christ it’s about serving him it’s about ministering in his name it’s about bringing him glory and if we do those things it doesn’t matter whether we have 40 people here or 400 or 4000 what matters is that we’ve been faithful to do the thing that he put us together to do which is to glorify him because ultimately our calling is together to make him and his salvation known.

See, God could have easily saved each of us and raptured us to heaven right then, but God left us here with his great commission to go into all the world, teaching people to obey all the things that Jesus commanded, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. It’s our job to go to the ends of the earth and preach the gospel. Now, can we physically as a group, is it possible for this group by itself to reach the seven and a half billion people on this planet?

No. But we can make a pretty good dent in this part of the planet. we can make Jesus famous in Seminole and Bowlegs we can carry to people the good news the good news don’t ever forget that it’s good news the good news that Jesus Christ died to save sinners which we all are that he died to pay for our sins in full and he rose again so that we could be forgiven and so that we could be reconciled to God so that we could have peace with him.

That’s our job. Now can I do all the ministry by myself to reach Seminole? No.

And if that’s the idea that a church has that the pastor, That’s what we pay him for is to reach everybody. There’s a lot of ministry that’s not going to get done. It’s just one person can’t reach everybody.

But God’s put us together to carry that message to people who need to hear it. And if you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior before this morning, I just want to explain that to you a little bit more. If that’s our message, it’d be a mistake to let you out of here without cluing you in on it a little more.

see each of us have sinned against a holy god god is absolutely holy he’s absolutely sinless he’s absolutely perfect and sin is anything that falls short of that that high standard of god’s holiness every uh every thought every word every action every attitude that’s my big problem that that is disobedient to God is sin. And God’s standard is kind of like a sign at an amusement park saying, you must be this tall to ride this ride. Only it’s infinitely high, and it says you must be thi